FEATURE: Last month, an era ended in Hotchkiss when a local bookstore changed hands. Marty Durlin reports.
TOP STORIES: Montrose family lawyer, Anna Cooling, will be the next District Attorney for Colorado’s 7th Judicial District. She will become the first woman elected to the position, and she did so without actually appearing on the November ballot. Her predecessor, Seth Ryan, resigned citing challenges in staffing and recruitment. His name remained on the ballot, but a vacancy committee selected Cooling as the Republican nominee, allowing votes for Ryan to count toward her. Jessica Waggoner, appointed interim DA by Governor Jared Polis, will serve until Cooling assumes office in January.
Costco pulls out of Grand Junction for now but may reconsider in the future, reports the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. The discount chain was slated as the anchor tenant on a development at the northeast corner of Interstate 70 and 24 Road. The City of Grand Junction had planned to forego $12.3 million in sales tax generated by the store after opening in order for the developer to build the infrastructure on the site. Goldberg Properties, told the city that changing financial conditions have made the project no longer viable at this time.
The Basin Clinic in Naturita will keep its services going and the lights on thanks to recent grant funding. According to the San Miguel Basin Forum, the small rural health care provider received a $75,000 Colorado Health Foundation grant to work on data, and diversity, equity, inclusion and justice training as well as better operations of Athena, the medical records program. Executive director Christina Pierce says the clinic aims to better serve patients of all backgrounds, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations and genders. The clinic was also awarded an $80,000 USDA grant for equipment including a new defibrillator, a new urinalysis machine, and a faster ultrasound machine.
President elect, Donald Trump has promised mass deportation of immigrants on his first day of office. And he’s set his sights on Aurora, Colorado as the first city to implement his plan. Immigrant communities and advocacy groups across the state are bracing for the potential repercussions. Raquel Lane-Arellano with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, says fear has increased within immigrant communities in the lead-up to the election.
Ahead of the election, Governor Jared Polis said the federal government has limited enforcement capabilities in the states. In a recent statement the Governor said that Colorado: “is dedicated to protecting freedom, choice, and the opportunity for everyone to build the life they want in our great state.”
