LOCAL NEWS: State Representative Matt Soper has announced his campaign for the open Delta County Commissioner seat in the November 2026 general election. Soper is term-limited in his current position and cannot run for another consecutive term in the State House of Representatives. Soper will seek the seat of current District 1 County Commissioner Mike Lane, who is also term-limited. Soper announced his bid for the seat at the party’s monthly meeting of the Delta County GOP. More on Soper’s campaign can be found at deltacountyindependent.com
Montrose City Councilors held a work session on Monday to discuss several issues, including a grant application with the Environmental Protection Agency to fund expenses associated with the clean up of hazardous waste materials at the former Bullock Steam Electric Plant. The majority of the environmental hazards are from asbestos and fly-ash, a byproduct of the coal-fired process. Estimated costs for the clean up are projected at around $4 million. If funded, the grant would pay to hire qualified contractors and an environmental professional who, along with city staff, will work with state and federal environmental agencies to finalize a plan and oversee the cleanup. Work could begin as early as this fall.
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS: Colorado ended the year with extremely low snowpack and national headlines about poor conditions at ski areas. As KUNC’s Scott Franz reports, end-of-year readings at a third of the state’s measuring sites were at or near record lows.
FEATURE STORY: Anyone who recreates, lives, or works on public lands may not always realize they’re moving through places shaped by thousands of years of human history.
From ancient hunting grounds to more recent homesteads, many of those stories are written on the landscape. Catie Freels is an archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management, based in Kremmling, Colorado.
Part of her job is helping identify and protect that history across the region’s public lands. For Rocky Mountain Community Radio, K-F-F-R’s Ryan Wilson spoke with Freels about the deep history of these places, and what it means to care for and preserve them today.
