News from Neighbors
Midway has sellout for grand opening
THE BURLINGTON RECORD, Feb. 2 — Members of the Our Hometown Charitable Foundation were on the red carpet as Debbie Hinkhouse officially opened the renovated Midway Theater. Old film reels were used for the ribbon cutting that was held Saturday, Jan. 28.
It was a sellout crowd for the red carpet grand opening with 793 attending the movie “Sing” over three days.
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Kurt Vogel avoids prison sentence
STERLING JOURNAL-ADVOCATE, Feb. 9 — Kurt Vogel won’t go to prison for defrauding the City of Sterling, the Colorado Health Department and numerous individuals of nearly $200,000 while he was chief of the Sterling Fire Department.
District Judge Michael Singer sentenced Vogel on Wednesday to eight years in community corrections for one count of theft over $20,000, a Class 3 felony, and one year to run concurrently for the count of official misconduct, a misdemeanor.
In November 2016, Vogel pleaded guilty to depositing funds slated for the Sterling Fire Department, including grants from the Colorado Department of Health, into bank accounts owned by him and his wife, Hope.
Hope Vogel has yet to enter a plea in the case.
During a nearly hour-long sentencing hearing Wednesday, Singer heard arguments from Vogel’s attorney, Thor Bauer of Fort Morgan, from District Attorney Brittny Lewton and from Vogel himself, and then offered a detailed explanation of his reasons for the sentence.
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City and potential partner to invest $3 million for broadband
THE WRAY GAZETTE, Feb. 8 — The City of Wray believes that affordable, high speed broadband services are essential to support the needs of residents, businesses and anchor organizations throughout the community.
In November 2014, the citizens of Wray overturned Colorado Senate Bill 05-152 and voted in favor of removing any statutory barriers to pursue any and all legal strategies to provide broadband services, directly or indirectly. This was imperative as it allowed the City, in strong partnership with Yuma County, to be the driving force behind bringing a community-owned broadband infrastructure to the community.
Through a 50/50 matching Energy Impact Assistance Fund grant from the Department of Local Affairs, the City has budgeted $1.4 million in the 2017 budget to design and construct a community-owned, open access middle mile broadband backbone to interconnect key city and county sites, providing high capacity, redundant fiber for internal operations and to support future utility needs.
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