GARCO COMMISSIONERS DISCUSS GRAVEL MINE, WATER STORAGE FACILITY PROJECTS
Parachute—The Garfield County Board of Commissioners is on the road today. The board is meeting in Parachute and will consider granting a one year extenstion to the Cerise Gravel Mine at Highway 82 and County Road 103. The board will also hold a public hearing for Chevron’s request for a Land Use Change Permit to build a facility for storing water and drawing water from a pumping station. Chevron is looking to build the facility 7 miles northwest of Parachute.
LAND USE, WETLANDS PROTECTIONS TO BE TACKLED BY GARCO BOARD
Glenwood Springs—Valley water experts are urging Garfield County Commissioners to continue protecting local lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands under the land use code. The board is considering changes to Article 7 of the land use code. Officials with the Roaring Fork Conservancy have written two letters to the commissioners asking that the “Protection of Wetlands and Waterbodies and Water Quality Provisions” remain in the land use code. Members of the conservancy plan to meet with the commissioners for a work session tomorrow morning at 10.
FORMER GARCO EMPLOYEE ADMITS TO STEALING FROM CLERK AND RECORDER’S OFFICE
Glenwood Springs—A former Garfield County employee is facing prison time and a six-figure fine for stealing money from the Clerk and Recorder’s office. In a plea bargain, 52 year old Brenda Caywood admitted to stealing about 16 thousand dollars from the office on 58 separate occasions between May of 2010 and November of 2011. A bookeeper discovered Caywood was deliberately mixing up vehicle tax repayment checks with vehicle registration payments made in cash. Prosecutors say she would pocket the cash overpayments. Caywood is currently out on bond but could be sent to prison for up to three years and fined up to a 100 thousand dollars. She’ll be sentence August 1st.
DESPITE THE GOVERNOR’S REPRIEVE, PROSECUTORS SAY DUNLAP SHOULD PREPARE TO DIE
CENTENNIAL (AP) – Prosecutors want the state to be ready to execute convicted killer Nathan Dunlap, even though the governor gave him a reprieve. Prosecutors asked a judge today to keep the case active in case a future governor lifts the reprieve. Dunlap’s lawyers argue the reprieve took the case out of the judge’s hands. Dunlap was scheduled to be executed in August for the 1993 ambush murders of four employees at a Chuck-E-Cheese restaurant in Aurora. Gov. John Hickenlooper granted Dunlap a temporary reprieve last month, citing doubts about the fairness of Colorado’s death penalty. Prosecutors want the judge to tell defense lawyers to file any motions they have in mind so they can be argued. The defense says that would be speculative and outside the court’s power. The judge says he’ll rule soon.