Baca County

Two projects on Colorado's eastern plains will benefit from $700,000 in lottery proceeds.

17th annual festival offers wildlife tours and educational opportunities across southeast Colorado.

Charlotte Lynn

August 2, 1938 - December 27, 2018

Charlotte (Ritchie) Lynn, 80, a resident of Springfield, went to be with her Lord Thursday, December 27, 2018, at Southeast Colorado Hospital Long Term Care Center. Charlotte was born August 2, 1938, to Beatrice and Glen Ritchie in Abilene, Kansas. She was the second oldest of the nine siblings.

As a child, she moved from Kansas to McClave, Colorado. She attended school in McClave, Lamar, and Eads.  

If you live in southeast Colorado, a nonprofit agency can help you with Medicare Open Enrollment questions.

The Vilas High School A-team won top honors and the traveling trophy at the Knowledge Bowl hosted at Lamar Community College Friday, November 2. 

With an overall score of 76 points, the Vilas team toppled Lamar High School, who had won the event for the past three years running. The LHS A team came in second with 72 points, while Plainview A took third with 56.

Local and area students from Colorado are among 616 who completed associate, bachelor's or graduate degrees at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, in the summer 2018 term. 

Graduates are listed with their degrees and majors and, in parentheses, areas of concentration. The university conferred 149 graduate degrees (master's, Education Specialist and Doctor of Nursing Practice), 454 bachelor's degrees and 13 associate degrees. 

Colorado Parks and Wildlife reports steady progress is being made on expensive repairs and upgrades to the Two Buttes Reservoir. The changes are designed to increase the capacity of the century-old earthen dam.

CPW engineers have nearly completed design of the $3.4 million project, which includes replacing two gates on the dam at a cost of $678,00 and installing a bulkhead for the gate repairs, improving the channel below the spillway for $1.37 million, installing a spillway tower for $875,000 and constructing a new gate control building for $467,000.

A two-vehicle crash in Baca County around 9:30 Wednesday night left a Texas man dead and two more people with injuries.

According to the Colorado State Patrol, the crash occurred on Highway 287 13 miles north of Springfield when a 2013 GMC Yukon driven by Justin Wayne Murdock, 35, of Gruver, Texas, drifted into the southbound lane. Murdock was traveling north at the time. His vehicle collided with a 2018 Volvo semi-tractor and trailer driven by Mykola Zhalanavski, 34, of Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.

So, you joined 4-H and you bought yourself your first animal to show at the county fair this year. But now what? What do I feed? How do I clip? What should I do in the show ring? These are all thoughts that have run through every showman's minds at one point in their career.

This year Prowers County 4-H held their first ever mini livestock boot camps. These were held June 11- 13 with each night being a different pairing of species all the way from rabbits to market cattle.  

The Colorado Conservation Tillage Association will sponsor a drought workshop at the Baca County Fairgrounds in Springfield May 17-18, 2018. The event will focus on drought-proofing farms and ranches, adding value to cover crops with the inclusion of animals, improving bottom lines, and getting started with high and ultra-high stock density.