Episode 19 ~ August 27, 2020

This week Herald Times staff visited a relatively new agricultural operation along the white river outside of Meeker, Smoking River Hops. Co-Owner Kevin Borchard provided a tour of the hop field, with it’s long rows and tall hop plants, growing vertically up coconut ropes. More about Smoking River Hops including pictures starts on the front page, you can see video of the trip on our Youtube channel, Also on the front page are photos of students, masked up, and officially back to school around the county as of this week. With the start of school comes the first meeting of the 2020-2021 school year for Meeker School District’s board of directors. They discussed masks and other COVID-19 precautions, a tobacco tax as a potential way to fill budget shortfalls and more. Read all about it on page 8A. In more school news, Members of the Masonic Lodge laid the cornerstone at the new Meeker High School building last week. Photos of the ceremony are on page 2A. The return of students means more people in and around school buildings, which could be why last week a resident of Rangely noticed an oil spill about 700 feet from the entrance of Parkview Elementary School. Cleanup operations are underway, and the property owner expressed that they did not feel the incident was noteworthy. As of Thursday, no spill report has been filed with the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission. More details are on the front page. The Town of Rangely Board of Trustees met Tuesday. Agenda items included tenant re-certifications and upkeep at White River Village, progress on the waterline project along Colorado Highway 139 and updates on White River stream flows, the main street improvement project, and sad news about the beloved “town buck,” which was euthanized this week after the sudden onset of an unknown illness. The five P’s of emergency preparedness are: People and Pets Prescriptions Papers Personal Needs Priceless Items Officials remind residents: Don’t assume you’re already signed up for Rio Blanco County’s emergency alert system. To