GW BRACING FOR 8TH STREET PROJECT
Glenwood Springs—After Labor Day, some major construction work begins in Glenwood Springs. C-DOT will break ground next Tuesday on the new 8th Street Connection Project. The work involves connecting Midland Avenue to Grand Avenue via 8th Street. C-DOT spokesman Tom Newland says the 6 to 8 week project will move about a thousand cubic yards per day west of the Glenwood Springs City Hall and trucks will use 9th and 10th streets going in and out of town. Newland says during the first phase of the project, the traffic impacts will be minimal. A neighborhood informational meeting is planned for Thursday, September 8th at 5 pm at the Glenwood Springs Library.
ACLU URGES COMMUNITIES TO DROP PANHANDLING LAWS
Rifle—Rifle, Carbondale and dozens of other communities in Colorado are being admonished by the American Civil Liberties Union to drop their bans on panhandling. The ACLU sent out a total of 34 letters to municipal governments asking them to not enforce the panhandling laws and to ultimately scrap them altogether. The ACLU says the laws being challenged now are much more restrictive and make it a crime to ask for hand-outs anywhere at anytime. A year ago, the ACLU managed to block a Grand Junction ordinance that limited when and where people could beg for money. After that ruling, Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs followed along and stopped enforcement of panhandling laws. Some of the other communities that received a letter from the ACLU include Dillon, Minturn, Leadville and Avon.
CARBONDALE HUSBAND AND WIFE JAILED FOR WELFARE FRAUD
Carbondale—A Carbondale couple is now behind bars in connection with a nearly 30 thousand dollar welfare scam. According to reports from the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office, 35 year old Xanadu Sission and her 38 year old husband Lance Helmer were taken into custody last Friday for felony theft. Between 2009 and this year, investigators say they discovered Sission lied about her household income among other things to become eligible for welfare benefits. Authorities say her husband was complicit in the scam because he knew about it and went along. Over the last seven years, investigators say the couple collected over 28 thousand dollars in government assistance they weren’t entitled to.
