Durango Keeps Moving and Expanding

Durango School District 9-R invites you to celebrate the grand opening of the Impact Career Innovation Center at Durango High School. The 2023 multimodal plan was adopted at the end of last year, showing a way forward for Durango's multimodal future. El Pomar has opened applications for its summer internship program, and La Plata Electric Association approved a pass-through rate increase effective this January. So make sure you're aware of peak usage fees to keep your electric use down. You're watching the Local News Roundup, brought to you by Serious Texas Bar-B-Q and The Payroll Department. I'm Gillian Arnwine. Come and celebrate the grand opening of the Impact Career Innovation Center at Durango High School, Wednesday, January 24th, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The event will be led entirely by students, including food prepared by Durango High School culinary students, student-led tours and demonstrations, and student music performances. The new building, a focused career and technical education building, was funded by the 4A Bond as part of a statewide effort to focus on career and technical education. The City of Durango adopted the 2023 multimodal plan in early December, 2023, updating the 2016 multimodal plan with community input and response. Community outreach began in 2020 and included virtual and in-person meetings, meetings with specific population groups, event booths, online surveys, and an online comment map. Common themes included expanded transit services, more bike lanes, improve ADA accessibility, safer pedestrian crossings, better bike and pedestrian crossings, and slower traffic speeds. The plan meant to guide the implementation of projects that will move Durango toward an integrated multimodal transportation network. The plan focuses on moving people, not just moving vehicles. View the plan and comments from the outreach online at the City of Durango's website. Applications are now open for El Pomar Foundation's 2024 internship program. El Pomar, based in Colorado Springs, is seeking current undergraduate students for its 10-week summer paid internship, which introduces students to the philanthropic sector, which are focus on program administration and leadership development. Internship applications are open through February 9th. Founded in 1937 with the goal of promoting the wellbeing of the people of Colorado, the El Pomar Foundation contributes millions of dollars annually through grants to nonprofit organizations in Colorado. The organization recently closed applications for their fellowship, a two-year program for early career professionals. For more information on El Pomar and their programs, visit its website. In December, 2023, La Plata Electric Association approved a pass-through rate increase effective January 1st, which will cause an average 4% increase for general use members. The pass-through rate is a result of a 6.2% rate increase from LPEA's power supplier, Tri-State Electric. So what does this rate increase mean? For general service, the base charge of $21.50 will increase to $23 a month. And peak usage fees will increase from $1.50 a month to $3.50 a month. To avoid peak usage fees, LPEA recommends running dishwashers, washing machines, and dryers on off-peak hours and using a timer for big power users, setting them to run at off-peak times. For more tips and information about the pass-through rate increase online, learn more about this and other stories online at durangolocal.news. Thank you for watching this edition of the Local News Roundup. I'm Gillian Arnwine.