First Data donates concert tickets to Lowry evacuees
Mayor John Hickenlooper and concert promoter Chuck Morris announced Friday that Greenwood Village-based First Data purchased all remaining premium tickets for the Dave Matthews Band-Neville Brothers benefit concert Monday.
First Data will donate the tickets to the 400-plus evacuees staying at the former Lowry Air Force Base in Aurora.
Concert ticket sales benefiting the victims of Hurricane Katrina have surpassed the $1 million goal.
A man was killed when he lost control of his truck Friday morning in Sterling. The truck went airborne off Interstate 76, crashed onto another highway and struck a pickup.
The man who was killed in the 6:45 a.m. accident has not been identified, Colorado State Patrol Master Trooper Ron Watkins said.
The man’s Toyota pickup landed on the westbound lane of U.S. 6, struck a cement median barrier and slid across the eastbound lane of the highway. There, it collided with a 1992 Dodge Dakota pickup, Watkins said.
Gary Hutchings, 60, the driver of the Dodge pickup, was airlifted to Denver Health Medical Center in serious condition.
The driver of the Toyota was not wearing a seat belt. His pickup burst into flames and was engulfed.
COLORADO SPRINGS
County, city officials weigh floodwater fix
El Paso County and the city of Colorado Springs are both working on plans to control floodwaters that periodically inflict damage downstream, especially in Pueblo County.
By next year, Colorado Springs could form a stormwater utility.
El Paso County is probably two years or more from joining the effort, officials said Friday at a meeting of the Fountain Creek Watershed Plan technical advisory meeting.
The group hopes to finalize by 2007 a $3 million plan that looks at water quality, environmental and erosion problems on Fountain Creek.
Officials blame stormwater for the breakage of two Colorado Springs Utilities sewage lines in June that sent more than 300,000 gallons of raw sewage down Fountain Creek.
Ken Sampley, Colorado Springs stormwater manager, says the city has been looking at a stormwater utility for more than 20 years. The latest attempt to form one began in 2003.
BOULDER
Suspect pleads not guilty in racial attack
A Lafayette man accused of attacking a black man after yelling racial slurs pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of assault and ethnic intimidation.
A judge scheduled a Jan. 23 trial date for Phillip Martinez, 38, who also faces a Feb. 13 trial on unrelated drug charges.
If convicted of the assault and ethnic-intimidation charges, Martinez faces up to nine years in prison. The drug charges against him each could bring up to 12 years in prison.
Martinez was arrested in July after a June 3 attack that left University of Colorado senior Andrew Sterling with a broken jaw.
Four people, two of whom are black, testified for Martinez during a hearing in August, saying they did not believe he is racist. But prosecutors argued that Martinez is a violent man and shouted racial epithets at Sterling before the attack.
Martinez was being held on $70,000 bail.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS
Hospital declines to resume air ambulance
Eight months after a deadly crash in Wyoming, the Yampa Valley Medical Center has decided against re-establishing an air- ambulance service because it doesn’t make economic sense.
The Yampa Valley Air Ambulance has not been used since the Jan. 11 crash near Rawlins that killed three people. Board members with the Steamboat Springs hospital made their decision last month and announced it Thursday.
Hospital chief executive Karl Gills said the hospital could not set up an economically feasible air-ambulance service independently, in a joint venture or through a contract with another operator.
Since the crash, the northwestern Colorado hospital has primarily used Flight for Life and Air Life, airplane and helicopter services based in the eastern half of the state. The hospital plans to continue to use those services.
The Yampa Valley Air Ambulance was en route to Rawlins to pick up and transport a patient to Casper when the accident occurred. Pilot Tim Benway, 35, air-ambulance director and flight nurse Dave Linner, 36, and flight nurse Jennifer Wells, 30, were killed. The sole survivor was Tim Baldwin, a 35-year-old emergency medical technician.
COLORADO
Roadless-area panel gets $115,000 in aid
A state roadless-area task force set to begin meeting this month received $115,000 Thursday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for expenses.
The money, requested by Gov. Bill Owens, will support the 13-member panel that will advise his office on which portions of national forests should be protected as roadless areas under a controversial new rule handed down by the Bush administration.
The task force will be chaired by Russell George, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and composed of members selected by Owens and other state Democratic and Republican leaders.
It has 16 months to hold public meetings and make recommendations on which of the 4.4 million acres of roadless lands in Colorado should be preserved; Owens and the U.S. Forest Service then will have veto authority in making the final decision.
COLORADO
New center to aid Katrina evacuees
Hurricane Katrina evacuees will receive counseling and one- on-one assistance with long- term job opportunities, housing and child care from American Red Cross caseworkers this weekend at the newly opened Family Assistance Center.
The Regional Transportation District is providing free shuttle service between Lowry and the center at 10450 E. First Ave. in Aurora.
Internet access will be provided for evacuees to link to Red Cross Family Links, register with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and connect to e-mail.
The center will be open every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Shuttles will begin Saturday at 8 a.m. and run every two hours until 4 p.m.
ARVADA
Developer reports retail-center progress
Developer Shea Properties on Friday said it is completing commitments with retailers to occupy its 270,000-square-foot Arvada Ridge development.
The SuperTarget-anchored center at 50th Avenue and Kip ling Street also will include Payless ShoeSource, Hallmark, Sally Beauty Supply, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Cingular Wireless, Qdoba, Verizon Wireless, Quiznos and Great Clips, the company said.
Housing and office development also are planned for the site.
COLORADO
Teamsters grocery deadline looms
Warehouse and transportation workers for King Soopers and Safeway face a contract negotiation deadline this week.
Contracts covering an estimated 1,200 workers represented by Teamsters Local 537 and 435 expire the night of Sept. 17.
Rudolph “Ted” Textor, secretary-treasurer for Local 537, said negotiations are ongoing, but he declined to provide additional information on the status of the talks.
