MAYOR SELECTS WOMAN TO RUN FIRE DEPT.

PUEBLO» Mayor Nick Gradisar has selected Barbara Huber as the first female fire chief in the city.

The Pueblo Chieftain reports that the City Council must confirm the selection before Huber can take over Aug. 31.

Gradisar says Huber will replace acting Chief Rick Potter, who held the position after former Chief Shawn Shelton’s retirement in April.

Officials said Huber has been a fire captain since 2007 and became the second female firefighter in the history of the Pueblo Fire Department when she arrived in 1998.

Officials say Huber also served 20 years in the military and was an El Paso County deputy sheriff.

Boulder Canyon facing full closure Monday for CDOT blasting.

BOULDER

COUNTY» State transportation officials warned — at the start of blasting work that is central to an extensive project aiming at making Colorado 119 through Boulder Canyon more flood-resilient — that a schedule for blasting would be subject to change.

Further confirmation came Friday with the announcement that the closure for Monday will be extended from 10 a.m. to midnight, rather than the usual 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. that has been in effect since late spring, Mondays through Thursdays. The purpose of Monday’s extended closure from Arapahoe Avenue to Fourmile Canyon Road is to deal adequately with several larger boulders that are expected to fall into the roadway during the work.

If work is completed sooner, the road will be reopened earlier.

“These rocks are anticipated to be so large that they will likely require a second blast on the ground, in order to be removed from the highway,” CDOT said.

During Monday’s closure, motorists will be required to use the alternate routes of Colorado 72 or Lefthand Canyon Drive. However, local resident access will be maintained between Fourmile Canyon Road and Nederland.

Biden to make campaign stop in Colorado in September.

Former Vice President Joe Biden says he’ll make a campaign stop in Colorado in September.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign said Friday in a news release that Biden is set to make 15 campaign stops in September, starting in Iowa and finishing in Nevada, Utah and Colorado.

The campaign says Biden is trying to visit all the states holding primaries on Super Tuesday.

Agencies tell landowner to stop water discharges.

State agencies have sent ceaseand-desist orders to a landowner, telling him to stop discharges of water on his property that have weakened walls of a canyon where Interstate 70 passes through.

The Daily Sentinel reported Friday that state officials have accused Rudolph Fontanari of pouring large amounts of water into a dry basalt rock quarry, threatening businesses and motorists in De Beque Canyon.

The state attorney general’s office told Fontanari’s lawyer in a letter last month that the state Department of Transportation will work with police to pursue legal action if he doesn’t heed the warning.