July 22 Newscast ~ Rio Blanco County News #62

Highlights from the July 22, 2021 print edition of the Rio Blanco Herald times. The beautiful music track in this piece was offered graciously in the public domain by Gertraut Hecher. Find more of their work at https://freesound.org/people/gertraut_hecher/ and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY05B2fWF0fQGmQ75i_o3VA ----- A crisp morning start turned into a beautiful, bright day on Saturday, July 17, perfect for the Seaplane Splash-in at the Kenney Reservoir, hosted by the Colorado Seaplane Initiative. Activities included the creation of a floating bingo card by aviators and education for spectators, who learned among other facts that the Taylor Draw Dam, created in 1983, was entirely funded by Rio Blanco taxpayers to protect residents against flooding. In pandemic news, well, the pandemic isn't over. there were 15 new cases of COVID-19 and one new hospital admission reported between July 12-19, bringing the total reported cases in the county to 700. According to the Rio Blanco County Public Health Department, the Delta variant of COVID-19 is spreading, primarily among the unvaccinated. More on this story including information about vaccinations and testing is on the front page. For county news, check out page 2, which has info on the latest board of commissioner meeting. Among other items, the IT department is working on securing grants to expand broadband access to residents who were not reached in the first build out. Commissioners also heard concerns about the integrity of dominion voting machines in the 2020 presidential election. The board also rescinded RBC resolutions 2020-18 and 2020-19, reinstating a previous county policy regarding hiring of staff by elected officials and department heads. County Attorney Don Steerman said the resolutions created issues with “timeliness” of hiring people. As per county policy, new positions or increases to the budget caused by hiring would still require approval by the board.. Page 3 has news notes, announcing the WREA member dinner as part of this Friday’s