1 year ago: Habitat for Humanity receives grant for multifamily housing project

Habitat for Humanity of Grand County received $1.6 million from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority and the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade in January 2024. This forgivable loan will allow the nonprofit to build an estimated 20 affordable housing units on a 2.68-acre property in Granby. The housing project is currently called Project Morris, since it is located on Morris Drive. This is the organization’s first multifamily housing initiative. Habitat has already created 14 single-family homes in Hot Sulphur Springs and also expected to break ground on two more single-family homes in Hot Sulphur Springs in spring and summer 2024.

— From the April 12, 2024, edition of Sky-Hi News

5 years ago: Grand County teachers use 3D printers to produce personal protective equipment

Hearing about health care workers around the world using bandanas for facemasks and trash bags as gowns, teachers CarrieAnn Mathis and Missy Quinn wanted to keep that from happening in Grand County. Mathis, the business and technology teacher at Middle Park High School, found a file for a facemask from the Billings Clinic in Montana, which is developing the masks to help combat the coronavirus pandemic. Printing a mask takes approximately four hours. Then a filter is placed around the centerpiece of the mask, and weatherstripping is added around the edges to seal it to the face. Mathis is also using shoestring and toggles as the headstrap.

— From the April 8, 2020, edition of Sky-Hi News

10 years ago: Young freeskiing phenom Birk Irving, 15, medals in Italy

On March 30, 2015, 15-year-old Winter Park resident Birk Irving won a bronze medal in the 2015 Junior World Freestyle Ski Championships. Earlier in the competition, he placed eighth in the slopestyle competition. He was one of four Americans invited for both disciplines. Irving’s outstanding performance in Valmalenco, Italy, is just the latest in a nascent but promising freestyle skiing career that’s already seen the Winter Park native rub shoulders with some of the best skiers in the world. Irving was ranked 20th in the world by the Association of Freeskiing Professionals in March 2015, and was years younger than every skier in front of him at the time. (Irving has since gone on to win a bronze and silver medal in the superpipe at the 2021 and 2023 Winter X Games, a bronze medal in the halfpipe at the 2021 world championships, and placed 5th overall in men’s halfpipe in the 2022 Winter Olympics.)

— From the April 8, 2015, edition of Sky-Hi News

90 years ago: Denver & Salt Lake Railroad petitions to abandon route over Rollins Pass

The Denver & Salt Lake Railroad has taken action to cease maintaining about 31 miles of rail, covering the route that runs through Corona over Rollins Pass. The railroad files a petition with the Interstate Commerce Commission on March 16, 1935, asking for permission for abandonment of the section of rail running from near Newcomb in Gilpin County by way of Corona to near Vasquez in Grand County. This abandonment has long been anticipated, since this portion of rail has been in disuse for nearly seven years, since the Moffat Tunnel was completed in 1928. It will mean about $6,000 in lost annual tax revenue for the county, with the Fraser school district expecting an annual loss of $2,000 to $3,000. A hearing on the application has not yet been set by the commission.

— From the April 11, 1935, edition of Middle Park Times

110 years ago: Local counties look into hiring a ‘county agriculturalist’

In response to information received from the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad, the county commissioners of Grand and Routt counties met at Steamboat Springs April 6, 1915, and discussed the advisability of engaging a county agricultural agent in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture (Moffat County commissioners did not get notice in time to be present). This “county agriculturalist” would be charged with advising local farmers and ranchmen on proper seeds for various soils, necessary cultivation methods and any other needed information for our area. The salary and expenses of a first-class agent would be $2,800. It has been agreed that Grand, Routt and Moffat counties would contribute $400 each to his salary and the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad Co. would contribute $1,200 — leaving $1,200 to be contributed under the cooperation from the Department of Agriculture. It is also said that the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Association of Yampa offered to make up any shortage of funds in the payment of salary and expenses for the agent.

— From the April 9, 1915, edition of Middle Park Times

Sky-Hi News is working to digitize Grand County newspaper archives and make them available to the public for free. Support the project at SkyHiNews.com/donate.