Bid Posting - Golf Course Irrigation Improvements

The City of Fort Morgan is accepting sealed bids until October 12th at 4:00 pm ...

... for irrigation improvements to the Fort Morgan Municipal Golf Course irrigation system. Follow the link to view the bid submission instructions.

Bid Submission Instructions

Children's Programs Offered at the Recreation Center

Calling all children ages 5 and under - tell your parents about this!

"Pre-Cool" - Mondays from 10:15-11:15 am - $3 (interactive class featuring story time, art, and physical activities).

"Romp-n-Stomp" - Wednesdays from 9:15-10:15 am - $3 (physical fun class featuring games, songs, and sports activities).

"Fantastic Friday" - 2nd and 4th Friday of each month from 10:15-11:30 am - $4 (a themed class featuring social activities, crafts, and play time; followed by tasty treats).

COLORADO COMMUNITY COLLEGES RECEIVE $17.3 MILLION IN GRANT MONEY FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.

Denver – On Monday, September, 26, 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that Colorado’s community colleges will receive a $17.3 million grant to enhance current energy-related programs with the goal of training highly qualified workers for the businesses that are seeking a skilled workforce.

“This is very exciting for us,” said Dr. Nancy McCallin, president of the Colorado Community College System. “These new funds will allow us to invest in curricular redesign and the technology needed to bridge the gap between existing workforce skills and emerging energy industry needs. Community colleges have carefully consulted with energy companies throughout Colorado so that we can design training programs that will equip their future workforces with the skills needed for success in the industry. We look forward to partnering with industry on this program.”

The grant is a part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Initiative, for which the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act included a total of $2 billion over a four-year period.

The grant will facilitate partnerships between energy-related businesses, community colleges, and local workforce centers to train unemployed and under-employed workers with the skills they need for placement in some of Colorado’s highest-paying and most in-demand jobs. In addition, workers who have been out of school for a while and who require remediation to succeed in college-level work will benefit from a redesign of remedial education using nationally recognized best practices to help students enter and succeed in the fast-growing energy industry in Colorado.

The energy certificate and degree programs will be designed with flexibility in mind so that students can access the programs from anywhere in the state, regardless of their location. The programs will be delivered via a combination of online learning, mobile training labs, and compressed weekend site training. A sophisticated career guidance system will be developed to help students move quickly from training into employment.

The colleges in the Colorado Community College System in the consortium are Arapahoe Community College, Colorado Northwestern Community College, Community College of Aurora, Community College of Denver, Front Range Community College, Lamar Community College, Morgan Community College, Northeastern Junior College, Otero Junior College, Pikes Peak Community College, Pueblo Community College, Red Rocks Community College and Trinidad State Junior College. Also participating are the two local district colleges: Aims Community College and Colorado Mountain College. The administration of the grant will be through the Community College of Denver.

The Colorado Community College System comprises the state's largest system of higher education, serving more than 162,000 students annually. CCCS oversees career and academic programs in the 13 state community colleges and career and technical programs in more than 160 school districts and seven other post-secondary institutions.

Special Logan Co Commissioner Meeting Today

Logan county commissioners will meet in special session today at 11 a.m. They'll hold a public hearing on and consider the new county commissioner district boundaries. The meeting will be in the courthouse meeting room.

Fees, 2 Ambulances Approved

Logan County Commissioners have decided that the fees for the Logan County Ambulance will be the same as the fees being paid for Morgan County Ambulance Service, which right now as an intergovernmental agreement to provide emergency ambulance service for Logan County. Commissions have approved two ambulances for the new Logan County Ambulance Service, but held off approving the other three.

Denver One Of Top Ten Cities For Finding Job

Denver is one of the Top 10 cities in America for finding a job. The CareerCast.com/JobSerf Index surveys 30 different areas across the U.S. for per capita job availability, and ranks Denver at number nine. Washington, DC, Boston and San Francisco are the top three.

Nationwide Sweep Includes 102 ICE Arrests In Colorado And Wyoming

(Denver, CO) -- Federal officials are saying 102 criminal aliens were arrested last week in Colorado and Wyoming by ICE authorities. The seven-day "Cross Check" operation was conducted in all 50 states and four U.S. territories. More than 29-hundred aliens were arrested nationwide.

Woman Accused Of Killing Infant Son Too Unstable For Court

(Boulder, CO) -- The woman accused of killing her six-month-old son last year is too unstable to appear in court. Stephanie Rochester was not present in Boulder District Court yesterday because the clinical director at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo refused to release her. Rochester is accused of using blankets and a plastic bag to kill her son because she thought he had autism.

3 lions from Panama make new home in Colorado

KEENESBURG, Colo. (AP) — Three lions from Panama now have a new home at a wildlife sanctuary in northeastern Colorado.

The lions arrived in Denver on Tuesday night by cargo plane. They were held in concrete cages in Panama before the rescue.

The lions will reside at the Wild Animal Sanctuary, one of the largest free-roaming carnivore sanctuaries in the Western Hemisphere. It's home to about 300 animals.

The sanctuary says it costs $8,000 a year to care for just one lion.

It raises funds from visitor entrance fees, private donations and gift shop sales.

Fewer cycling commuters in Boulder, Fort Collins

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Commuting by bicycle declined last year in Fort Collins and Boulder.

The American Community Survey by the U.S. Census said that people commuting on bikes in Fort Collins dropped from nearly 10 percent in 2009 to about 4.4 percent in 2010. Cycling commuters in Fort Collins dropped to 3,216 last year.

Boulder also saw a decline. In 2009, Boulder had the highest bicycle commuting numbers in the nation at 12.3. In 2010, Boulder dropped to 9.9 percent to No. 2 on the list behind Davis, Calif., which had 22.1 percent of its population biking to work.

The Coloradoan reports that the city's bicycle coordinator isn't sure why the survey showed a drop.

Dave "DK" Kemp told the newspaper that he'd anticipated an increase in the latest survey.

Cantaloupe illnesses and deaths expected to rise

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials said Wednesday more illnesses and possibly more deaths may be linked to an outbreak of listeria in Colorado cantaloupe in coming weeks.

So far, the outbreak has caused at least 72 illnesses — including up to 16 deaths — in 18 states, making it the deadliest food outbreak in the United States in more than a decade.

The heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration say consumers who have cantaloupes produced by Jensen Farms in Holly, Colo., should throw them out.

If they are not sure where the fruit is from, they shouldn't eat it.

Officials say illnesses are expected for weeks to come because the incubation period for listeria can be a month or even longer.

Listeria generally only sickens the elderly, pregnant women and others with compromised immune systems.

Cases have been reported in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Colorado boy pleads guilty to killing parents

BURLINGTON, Colo. (AP) — A 13-year-old Colorado boy has pleaded guilty to killing his parents under a plea deal that spared him a long prison term.

The teen entered his plea Wednesday in Burlington, a small farming community about 140 miles east of Denver.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in juvenile court in the killings of his parents, Marilyn and Charles Long. He also pleaded guilty to attacking two of his younger siblings.

He was sentenced to seven years in youth corrections.

That angered some family members, but District Attorney Bob Watson says he settled on the deal in part because tests showed the boy is very immature.

He says the boy was playing with toy trucks and airplanes in the backyard minutes before the killings.