Author: I-70 Scout

DENVER – The Colorado Rockies announced today that they have agreed to terms with first baseman C.J. Cron on a two-year contract that covers the 2022-23 seasons, and have agreed to terms with right-handed pitcher Antonio Senzatela on a five-year contract that covers the 2022-26 seasons with an option for the 2027 season.

 

Cron, 31, batted .281 (132-for-470) with 31 doubles, one triple, 28 home runs, 92 RBI, 60 walks, a .375 on-base percentage and a .530 slugging percentage in 142 games with the Rockies in 2021, after signing as a Minor League free agent on Feb. 15, 2021 … ranked ninth in the National League and led the Rockies in slugging percentage and OPS (.905) … also led the Rockies in home runs, RBI and walks, while setting a franchise record with three grand slams … from June 14 through the end of the season, ranked second in the NL with 74 RBI and tied for fifth with 23 home runs … was named the National League Player of the Month in August after leading the NL in batting average (.387), home runs (11) and RBI (34) … in eight Major League seasons with Los Angeles-AL (2014-17), Tampa Bay (2018), Minnesota (2019), Detroit (2020) and Colorado (2021), the Fullerton, Calif., native has slashed .261/.323/.475 with 741 hits, 154 doubles, seven triples, 146 home runs, 465 RBI, 10 stolen bases and 208 walks in 828 career games.

 

Senzatela, 26, went 4-10 with a 4.42 ERA (156.2 IP, 77 ER), 32 walks and 105 strikeouts in 28 starts in 2021 … set career highs in starts, innings pitched and strikeouts … posted a quality start in eight of his final 10 starts of the season, going 2-2 with a 3.90 ERA (57.2 IP, 25 ER) over that span … among NL pitchers with at least 150 innings pitched, ranked second with 19 ground ball double plays, third with a 1.84 walks-per-nine-innings, and fifth with a 51.8 ground ball percentage … over the past two seasons his 4.11 ERA (230.0 IP, 105 ER) leads all Rockies starters … in his career at Coors Field, has gone 24-12 with a 4.65 ERA, a .667 home winning percentage that ranks as the second-highest by a Rockies starter in franchise history … originally signed by the Rockies as a non-drafted international free agent, the Valencia, Venezuela native has gone 36-35 with a 4.84 ERA (579.2 IP, 312 ER), 184 walks and 393 strikeouts in 124 career games (98 starts).

Event highlights October as Colorado Pedestrian Month

DENVER – Walk to School Day is Wednesday, Oct. 6, a day devoted to promoting and practicing pedestrian and road safety among classmates, families, and caregivers. 

Established in 1997, Colorado Walk to School Day is part of the International Walk to School Day program, when children from more than 40 countries walk to school on the same day. Throughout the state, more than 150 schools participate every year.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need and demand for streets, crosswalks, and public spaces that support walking, biking, and rolling.

Additional resources and ideas are available on the CDOT’s Safe Routes to School website at https://www.codot.gov/programs/bikeped/safe-routes.

Colorado State Patrol Launches a Weekly Social Series this October with Driving Tips

(COLORADO) – Scary driving scenarios happen to everyone at some point. The question comes down to, how will you handle it?

The Colorado State Patrol wants to reduce or remove anxiety behind the wheel in five unique, but not uncommon driving situations. Beginning Saturday evening, October 2 and every Saturday after in October, Trooper Josh Lewis will walk motorists through a “spooky” scenario and some practical ways to approach it.

1. Oct 2: What Do You Do if You Have a Flat Tire/Blowout?
2. Oct 9: What to Do When Someone Has Their High Beams On, Blinding You?
3. Oct 16: What Do You Do When You See a Live Animal in the Road?
4. Oct 23: How Do You Handle an Aggressive Driver?
5. Oct 30: What Should You Do When CSP is Behind You?

Join us on Colorado State Patrol’s social media pages this October to take the spooky out of driving! Join us on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook.

In observance of Arapahoe Day, County administrative buildings will be closed on Monday, Oct. 4.

Colorado no longer celebrates Columbus Day; instead, the Board of County Commissioners chose to recognize Arapahoe Day in the County, the date of which corresponds to the State’s celebration of Mother Cabrini Day

DENVER — Serve Colorado, which administers Colorado’s AmeriCorps State program, announced today that AmeriCorps has awarded $10,026,259 in federal grants to place AmeriCorps members across Colorado. The Colorado AmeriCorps State program is a national service program that employs national service and volunteerism to address critical needs in local communities across the state.. 

“In Colorado, we know that service is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal to address the most urgent challenges facing our state and communities. Whether you are passionate about confronting climate change, educating the next generation of Coloradans, reducing disparities in access to healthcare, and much more, there is an AmeriCorps service opportunity for you,” said Lieutenant Governor Dianne Primavera. “ I encourage individuals of all ages and backgrounds to learn more about giving back to their communities through AmeriCorps.”

Over the next fifteen months,1,511 AmeriCorps members will be recruited to programs operated by 17 organizations in 55 counties. Specific information on each program, including geographic information, can be found here. 

Organizations receiving AmeriCorps Grant Awards to implement AmeriCorps programs in the 2021 Program Year:

• Alpine Achievers Initiative will provide math and literacy tutoring and out-of-school programming to underserved K-12 students. 
• Artist Year will provide student-centered arts education to over 1500 economically disadvantaged students to promote academic success, artistic skill, and civic engagement.
• City Year Denver will provide full-day academic and school engagement services to students in Denver Public Schools. 
• Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education will expand and enhance environmental education programming to meet the goals of the Colorado Environmental Education Plan in locations throughout Colorado. 
• Colorado State University Extension will provide 4-H science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities in out-of-school programming for underserved and at-risk youth ages 8-18. 
• Colorado Youth Corps Association will conduct disaster mitigation and relief; conserve and steward public lands; and conduct energy and water weatherization and retrofitting in low-income households.
• Colorado Youth for a Change, as part of the Colorado Climate Corps, will operate 3 programs, Reading Corps, Math Corps and Corps for a Change, to place 470 AmeriCorps members focused on providing attendance support to off-track, disengaged high school students. 
• Community Resource Center and Conservation Legacy partnered with Colorado Department of Health and Human Services, among other organizations, to provide AmeriCorps members to the Colorado COVID-19 Containment Response Corps to support contact tracing, vaccine outreach support, and resource coordination. 
• La Puente Home, Inc. will focus on meeting critical needs such as providing housing, emergency food assistance, and social, emotional, and academic support services in the San Luis Valley. 
• Mountain Roots Food Project and Trailhead Institute will focus on decreasing food insecurity through health and nutrition education, community gardens, and increased food access. 
• Parent Possible will operate Colorado HIPPYCorps to deliver an evidence-based school readiness program to families, helping them prepare their preschool-aged children for school. 
• United Way of Southwest Colorado will provide school readiness, social-emotional learning, youth and family engagement, and housing services in Southwest Colorado. 
• Vail Valley Foundation Youth Power 365 will provide wrap-around support, extended learning, mentoring, and caregiver engagement to 6 -12th graders in Eagle County.

The funding was also used to award planning grants to the following organizations to plan a future AmeriCorps program. 

• • Lincoln County Economic Development Corporation will develop an AmeriCorps program to address access to healthcare services in rural areas of Lincoln County Colorado. 
  • Literacy Lab will develop an AmeriCorps program to help implement the Leading Men Fellowship program in Colorado which will focus on increasing the diversity and representation of teachers in public schools. 

• Local Government Commission, as part of the Colorado Climate Corps, will develop an AmeriCorps program that will empower local governments to address climate change and community resilience needs in their communities through direct project activities, capacity building, and leadership development. 

• Young Americans Center for Financial Education will develop an AmeriCorps program that will expand youth financial education programs in Colorado’s rural areas.  

AmeriCorps members are eligible to receive a Segal Education Award to help pay education costs at qualified institutions or to repay qualified student loans. While in service, members also may receive a modest living allowance, student loan deferment, professional development, health insurance and childcare.

AmeriCorps is the federal agency connecting individuals through national service and volunteering to tackle the nation’s most pressing challenges. Serve Colorado empowers community-based organizations to meet locally identified needs and statewide challenges through service and volunteerism, building a culture of citizenship, service, and individual responsibility. To learn more about Serve Colorado’s programs and how to serve with AmeriCorps, visit servecolorado.colorado.gov.

It is that time of year, Bennett Wrestling will conduct their registration for youth (K-8^th).  On October 4^th, 5^th and 7^th from 6:00pm-8:00pm in the Bennett elementary gym.  You can also register the week of 10/11/21 on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.  

 Come ready to practice, at signups, so you can start practice the same day.  Going forward practice will be every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 6:00pm-8:00pm.  Registration cost is $70 and you will rent singlets for $40.  The club will except cash and Venmo. 

Members from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Trout Unlimited, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain National Park and the Greenback Cutthroat Trout Recovery Team meet up by Jones Pass before stocking 6,000 greenback cutthroat trout into the West Fork of Clear Creek

EMPIRE, Colo. – The USDA Forest Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Trout Unlimited, and a host of volunteers stocked 6,000 greenback cutthroat trout fry into Upper West Fork Clear Creek near Jones Pass on Wednesday, Sept. 22.

This is the third location in the Clear Creek drainage where the Greenback Cutthroat Trout Recovery Team has stocked greenbacks into, joining Dry Gulch and Herman Gulch.

“Greenback cutthroat trout reintroductions such as the West Fork Clear Creek are really only able to occur due to the coordination and efforts of each cooperating agency and non-profit partners such as Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Trout Unlimited, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the USDA Forest Service and the Greenback Cutthroat Trout Recovery Team to name a few,” said Valerie Thompson, South Zone Fisheries Biologist for the Forest Service. “Each partner contributes in unique ways that enable the success of major conservation projects such as this one on West Fork Clear Creek, where over fourteen years of stream health data was collected, an old mine site was remediated, and stream banks were restored to allow for habitat that is suitable to sensitive aquatic life and now a new home to the Colorado State Fish, the Greenback Cutthroat Trout.”

The fact that this tributary was fishless to begin with made it a good candidate for the greenbacks, among other factors.

“We’ve done temperature monitoring and the temperatures are conducive to support natural reproduction,” said Paul Winkle, Aquatic Biologist for CPW. “It is a goal to get another population of fish on the landscape, so this is definitely an important thing for the recovery of greenbacks.”

This stretch of stream was fishless due to downstream barriers, such as a quarter-mile-long culvert underneath the Henderson Mine Site, among other natural barriers. That saved some heavy lifting, not requiring a reclamation of the stream to remove other non-native species of fish. Removal of all other species is necessary to ensure the successful reestablishment of greenbacks, which are native to the South Platte River basin. 

“We knew that there were no fish in that section of Clear Creek and what a great thing to be able to put fish in without having to do a reclamation,” Winkle said. “The more streams of greenbacks we stock along the Front Range drastically improves the conservation status of the species.”

Today, the greenbacks are listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a threatened species. Greenbacks have previously been stocked into Herman Gulch, Dry Gulch, the East Fork of Roaring Creek and Zimmerman Lake. Those all reside within the South Platte River drainage. The sixth body of water in Colorado where the official state fish currently resides is in Bear Creek outside of Colorado Springs.

These rare fish, twice believed to be extinct, are descendants of the last wild population of native greenback cutthroat trout. Researchers from CU Boulder in partnership with CPW discovered in 2012 that the cutthroat in Bear Creek were the last remaining population of greenback cutthroat trout.

CPW’s Mount Shavano Hatchery in Salida is responsible for rearing and delivering all greenbacks that get stocked. They hatch fertilized eggs in its Isolation Unit. Extra milt collected from male greenbacks in Bear Creek goes to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Leadville National Fish Hatchery to fertilize eggs from the greenbacks in its brood stock. 

The eggs are then taken to Salida to be hatched and eventually stocked onto the landscape at various sizes. Sometimes those fish are of fingerling lengths (one to two inches), sometimes they are fry. Fry is a recently hatched fish that has reached the stage where its yolk-sac has almost disappeared and its swim bladder is operational to the point where the fish can actively feed for itself.

“Trout Unlimited and our West Denver Chapter have a long history of supporting the Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife in stewardship of the Clear Creek drainage,” said David Nickum, executive director of Trout Unlimited. “We are so pleased to see those efforts coming to fruition with our volunteers working side by side with our partners to finally return greenbacks to their home waters in the West Fork headwaters.”

DENVER — Serve Colorado, which administers Colorado’s AmeriCorps State program, is now accepting applications from nonprofit organizations, state and local agencies, and federally recognized Tribes who are interested in placing AmeriCorps members in Colorado. AmeriCorps grants help expand services or reach underserved communities through people power. Concept papers for new AmeriCorps programs are due to Serve Colorado on October 4, 2021 11:59 PM MT. There will be an information session on Friday, September 24 at 9:30 am MT. Register for the information session and view the application instructions and additional resources at servecolorado.colorado.gov.  

“After the challenges of the past year, the service AmeriCorps members provide our families and communities through tutoring support, food security, and preschool readiness is needed now more than ever. Together we can confront challenging issues facing our communities and state,” said Lieutenant Governor Dianne Primavera. 

Serve Colorado believes that AmeriCorps can be part of the solution for a wide range of community challenges and welcomes creative proposals addressing a broad range of community needs. The fall competition will have the following priority areas, but all interested organizations are welcome to apply. 

• Education: Programs that overcome learning loss due to COVID-19 disruptions, especially programs that focus on wellness and whole child approaches.
• Health Care: Programs that increase access to health care, including behavioral and mental health care, especially in underserved communities.
• Advancing Racial Equity: Programs striving to reduce systemic racism and barriers to opportunity and create communities where everyone has the opportunity to fulfill their potential.
• Colorado Climate Corps: Programs that increase capacity and support to local governments; expand existing conservation and youth corps to do hands-on projects, including wildfire and flood mitigation; and/or implement environmental/energy projects.
• COVID-19 Response and Recovery: Programs that support direct response to those affected, and help get people back to work through workforce development.

In addition to the above priorities, Serve Colorado is also particularly interested in programs that aim to support: development in rural and mountainous communities; Tribal governments and American Indian/Alaska Native communities; immigrant and migrant communities; veterans and military families; workforce development and career pathways; youth aging out of the foster care system; and solutions to increase affordability of housing or child care. 

Serve Colorado is also accepting planning grant applications from organizations interested in developing new AmeriCorps programs to address community challenges. 

Serve Colorado empowers community-based organizations to meet locally identified needs and statewide challenges through service and volunteerism. Guided by the Governor’s Commission for Community Service, Serve Colorado administers the AmeriCorps program in Colorado and promotes community service throughout the state to build a culture of citizenship, service, and individual responsibility. To learn more about Serve Colorado’s programs and serving with AmeriCorps, visit servecolorado.colorado.gov.

REMOTE (Sept. 23, 2021): The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will be holding a virtual public meeting on Sept. 28 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. to discuss new fenceline air quality monitoring plans at four covered facilities throughout Colorado, including the Suncor refinery in Commerce City, a Phillips 66 fuel terminal in Commerce City, the Goodrich Carbon aircraft brakes plant in Carbon and a Sinclair Trucking fuel terminal in Henderson. Those interested in attending need to register in advance online. Attendees will be able to participate in English or Spanish. Attendees who are participating outside of their formal job responsibilities will be eligible to receive a participation incentive in the form of a gift card.

“This new monitoring will enhance our understanding of emissions from these facilities,” said Shaun McGrath, director of environmental health and protection at CDPHE. “We want to ensure Coloradans have a clear understanding of this new monitoring and how they can provide input to make sure these monitoring plans serve the communities most affected by air pollution.”

The requirement for the new fenceline monitoring is in legislation (HB21-1189) signed into law by Governor Polis earlier this year. The law is designed to enhance air monitoring and protect the  health of communities near facilities that emit elevated quantities of hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulfide, or benzene. The law requires opportunities for public input on fenceline monitoring plans submitted by each of the four covered facilities. At this public meeting, CDPHE will provide an overview of how and when the public can engage, and listen to public ideas about the fenceline monitoring plans and public engagement process.

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Contacto:

Andrew Bare, 720-425-2736 (celular),

PARA PUBLICACIÓN INMEDIATA:

23 de septiembre de 2021

 

El Departamento de Salud del estado celebrará el 28 de septiembre un reunión pública para hablar sobre los planes de monitoreo en las inmediaciones de la refinería de Suncor y otras instalaciones

Es obligatorio registrarse con anticipación; se dispondrá de intérprete de español

REMOTO (23 de septiembre de 2021): El 28 de septiembre, de 6:00 a 7:30 p.m., el Departamento de Salud Pública y Medio Ambiente de Colorado (CDPHE) celebrará una reunión pública virtual con el fin de hablar sobre los nuevos planes de monitoreo de la calidad del aire en las inmediaciones de cuatro instalaciones cubiertas de todo Colorado, incluida la refinería de Suncor en Commerce City, una terminal de combustible de Phillips 66 en Commerce City, la planta de frenos de aviones Goodrich Carbon en Pueblo, y una terminal de combustible de Sinclair Trucking en Henderson. Las personas interesadas en asistir deben registrarse en línea con anticipación. Los asistentes podrán participar en inglés o en español. Los asistentes que participen fuera de sus responsabilidades de trabajo formales reunirán los requisitos para recibir un incentivo por participación en la forma de una tarjeta de regalo.

 “Este nuevo monitoreo mejorará nuestro entendimiento en cuanto a las emisiones de esas instalaciones”, dijo Shaun McGrath, director de salud y protección del medio ambiente del CDPHE. “Queremos asegurarnos de que los residentes de Colorado comprendan cabalmente en qué consiste este nuevo monitoreo y cómo pueden ofrecer sus comentarios para garantizar que estos planes de monitoreo atiendan a las comunidades más afectadas por la contaminación del aire”.

 El requisito del nuevo monitoreo en las inmediaciones de instalaciones está contemplado en la ley (HB21-1189) sancionada por el Gobernador Polis este año. La ley tiene como fin mejorar el monitoreo del aire y proteger la salud de las comunidades cercanas a instalaciones que emiten cantidades elevadas de cianuro de hidrógeno, sulfuro de hidrógeno o benceno. La ley exige oportunidades para el aporte de opinión pública sobre los planes de monitoreo en las inmediaciones de instalaciones presentados por cada una de las cuatro instalaciones cubiertas. En esta reunión pública, el CDPHE ofrecerá una descripción general de cómo y cuándo el público puede participar y escuchar ideas de los residentes sobre los planes mencionados y sobre el proceso de participación pública.

CONSUMER FRAUD PROTECTION

Updates From the District

September 2021, Issue 9

Information To Educate, Serve, and Protect You

Federal Child Tax Credit Scams