A new law for Colorado will help with food security from farm to table, according to State Representative Marc Catlin. Catlin, who helped shepherd the new bill known as The Fiscal Rule Advance Payment Charitable Food Grants bill, allows for charities to use state grant money to purchase, in advance, state agricultural products.
Catlin said the Fiscal Rule Law allows for food pantries to create contracts with farmers before the farmer plants crops. This rule change is meant to help communities improve food security and help farmers stabilize their markets. The bill would not require a state expense.
Despite an offer of $500K for affordable housing, the Ouray Planning Commission rejected an application for a subdivision over access and other concerns, reports the Ouray Plaindealer. After nearly a year of continuations, debate and revisions, including a last-minute offer to donate $500,000 to the town for affordable housing, a new subdivision east of Highway 550 was denied. Commissioners cited inadequate access to the proposed Four Winds neighborhood in their denial, which has been a sticking point since the town first received the sketch plan application last April. There is only one entrance and exit for the Vista Terrace neighborhood from the highway, and commissioners opposed adding more homes and residents without a year-round secondary emergency access road.
Some 325,000 Coloradans are expected to be dropped from Medicaid insurance rolls after Congress shuttered a pandemic-era policy that automatically renewed Medicaid eligibility. Nearly half of the 15 million Americans expected to lose coverage are people of color. Comments from Marc Williams, public information officer, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.
Delta County recently received a sizable grant from Charge Ahead Colorado to upgrade its electric vehicle charging stations at three rural locations in the county. The new charging stations in the county are supported by funds awarded to the county by Charge Ahead Colorado, an initiative designed to support the installation of EV charging stations throughout the state, and in connection with the settlement of an enforcement action taken by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for violations of environmental laws and regulations not related to Delta County. KVNF’s Lisa Young has the details.