Colorado
With Buc-ee’s first Colorado location, “The Gateway to Northern Colorado” is redefined
Colorado’s largest gas station, and one of the largest in North America, is now open. Buc-ee’s in Johnstown is the first of the brand’s several-to-come gas stations and stores in Colorado. The store opened to thousands of guests on Monday morning.
The store, which has more than 100 gas pumps and features more than 74,000 square feet of store floor, is expected to be the anchor of a major business boon in northern Colorado’s small town of Johnstown.
“It’s awesome,” said Johnstown Mayor Troy Mellon.
The store was constructed at an intersection that has historically been farming land. While the northwest corner has long featured a liquor store and smaller gas station, the remaining corners of the I-25 interchange have been farmland. Buc-ee’s arrival changes that, as now the town expects the remaining land at the interchange to be consumed by retail and housing developments.
“Buc-ee’s is that first catalyst that drives what happens at this intersection,” Mellon said.
“Being that anchor store, it is overpowering to know these businesses are going to help each other out,” said Josh Smith, director of operations for Buc-ee’s. “That just gets translated right into Johnstown and the surrounding communities.”
The land across I-25 from the Buc-ee’s location will soon feature a grocery store, Murdoch’s, Starbucks and other shopping and restaurant options. Nearby apartments and other homes are being constructed.
“This was farmland. We put in a development that spurs other development, and that is really good back to the community,” said Arch ‘Beaver’ Aplin, owner of Buc-ee’s.
Aplin said it was important for his team to try and hire as many local people as possible to help staff the property.
“There are probably 250-plus employees, every one of them being paid a really good living wage. And that has a big impact on communities,” Aplin said.
The minimum wage at the Johnstown Buc-ee’s starts at more than $18 an hour.
Elected officials in Johnstown have long said the Buc-ee’s and other stores will help recreate what they call “The Gateway to Northern Colorado.”
Mellon noted that hundreds of thousands of vehicles pass their interchange every week. And, with a location so central to Cheyenne, Wyoming, Northern Colorado and Denver, they expect it to be an economic powerhouse for decades to come.
“(Buc-ee’s employees) work locally. Their salaries go home and they spend locally,” Mellon said. “It’s money that comes off the river of I-25, so to speak, and it sticks here.”
Colorado
Kids escape unscathed after van slips off Colorado mountain road and down Blue River embankment
A van carrying campers from a hike near Blue River rolled down an embankment Thursday afternoon, but everyone inside escaped without major injuries. According to the Keystone Science School, the 15-passenger van was transporting 13 campers and two adults back from Mohawk Lakes when it slid off a wet road and rolled over.
Emergency crews responded to Spruce Creek Road after receiving reports of a single-vehicle rollover.
“We’re fortunate that it was low speed, and there was no intrusion into the passenger cabin,” Matt Benedict, division chief of wildfire and community preparedness for Red, White and Blue Fire said.
Investigators believe muddy conditions created by recent rainfall contributed to the crash. The van rolled down a steep embankment before coming to rest against a tree. Two people suffered minor injuries, but neither required transportation to a hospital, according to fire officials.
Keystone Science School confirmed emergency responders arrived quickly and that no major injuries were reported.
“The safety and well-being of our campers and staff is our highest priority,” Executive Director Eric Rightor said in a statement. “We are grateful that there were no major injuries, and we are committed to fully supporting all those involved and their families.”
Fire officials also credited seatbelt use for helping protect those inside the vehicle. “We always encourage everyone to wear their seatbelts… and they did. And everybody left,” Benedict said.
The Keystone Science School is located in Summit County.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Two weeks have passed since officials closed four blocks of Uintah Street to repair damage under a bridge over Shooks Run Creek, and we’re now learning specifics about the response.
Officials said that the city was the lead entity in the repair response, with Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) providing a supporting role.
The closure began late in the afternoon of June 10 for what officials described as emergency bridge and utility repairs between Prospect and Institute streets, east of the Colorado College campus.
Officials said that on the previous day, a routine bridge inspection by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) discovered a large “void,” or sinkhole, under the bridge that compromised a utility line.
But officials didn’t explain how the void developed or how they repaired it until earlier this week, when Richard Mulledy, the city’s public works director, elaborated on the situation.
“It was about a six-foot by eight-foot void,” he explained. “That void was really caused by an abandoned storm sewer line and then a leaking manhole. It’s something that we see from time to time, but really doesn’t happen often.”
Crews approached the problem from under and above the bridge, with workers excavating into the street to access the utility lines.
“The utility line being compromised was an active storm sewer line,” Mulledy said. “It was sort of hanging out in the open and was unsecured. The old storm sewer line had been abandoned for decades and was starting to fail.”
Crews removed the old stormwater pipe, repaired the manhole, and backfilled the void with a material called “flow.”
“Flow fills almost like a kind of liquid concrete,” Mulledy detailed. “And that’s a really great structural solution. So, we filled that entire thing up, made sure the void is closed, and made sure it’s structurally sound.”
He added that the bridge is around a century old, the same age as most bridges across the creek.
“This was identified and got fixed in 48 hours, rather than let something structural fail, and then we’d be in a big, giant construction project,” Mulledy said. “The structure itself, I don’t think, was ever really threatened.”
The closure ended on Saturday, June 13.
A Colorado man died on Tuesday when a boulder fell on him and crushed him. That’s according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office, who identified the man as 59-year-old Paul Frasch.
Frasch is a resident of Silverthorne. The sheriff’s office says he was walking in an area along the Arkansas River in Buena Vista in the middle of the day with his coworker when rocks fell and hit him.
According to investigators, the boulder that landed on Frasch weighed at least 1,000 pounds.
The coworker received injuries to his arms after trying to help Frasch.
When first responders got to the scene, the boulder was still on top of Frasch. He was declared dead at the scene.
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