FRONT RANGE RESOURCES

Firestone approves Thornton water pipeline infrastructure plan

Firestone officials approved a plan for Thornton to construct a piece of its 70-mile water pipeline through the town’s right of way last week.

When it’s complete, the 42-inch-diameter steel pipeline is expected to connect the south side of Thornton to a reservoir northwest of Fort Collins. Thornton officials have worked on the water pipeline project for decades; and the city has had shares of the reservoir since the 1980s.

Eight miles of the pipeline project is complete in Weld County. The project is divided into six segments, with the vast majority running east of I-25. As part of the deal, Firestone will be able to construct an emergency interconnect off the Thornton pipeline at Zinnia Avenue, providing the St. Vrain Water Treatment Plant with a second emergency source of raw water.

— Matthew Bennett, Daily Camera

WELD COUNTY

Roggen woman receives probation for hoarding 174 dogs, animal cruelty

A Roggen woman will complete three years of supervised probation and 10 days of jail time for hoarding 174 dogs on her property.

Marie Alvarado, 56, of Roggen appeared before Judge John Briggs for sentencing Friday in Weld County District Court.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Alvarado in May on suspicion of 174 counts of animal cruelty for allegedly hoarding 174 dogs on her Roggen property. Alvarado, who posted $2,000 bail the day after her arrest, pleaded guilty to the animal cruelty charges on Dec. 8.

Before entering his ruling, Briggs called Alvarado’s case the “most extreme situation of neglect” he has ever seen during his time as a judge.

Animal control officers investigated the property where the dogs were living in uninhabitable conditions. Deputy District Attorney Dustin Funk painted a picture for the court on Friday of these conditions: feces everywhere, no running water and no outside time.

The prosecutor accused Alvarado of continuously lying about how many dogs she had on the property. He argued the dogs were treated with no love, further detailing that two dogs were found with holes in their mouths, and two dogs were put down as a result of the uninhabitable home.

— Morgan McKenzie, Greeley Tribune

PUEBLO

Police investigating shooting as homicide

One man was dead after a shooting Friday night in Pueblo, and officers were investigating the case as a homicide.

Pueblo police responded to reports of shots fired before 10 p.m. Friday in the 2100 block of North Main Street, according to a news release.

When officers arrived, they found an adult man suffering from a gunshot wound. Paramedics transported the man to a hospital, where he later died from his injuries. The man will be identified by the Pueblo County coroner’s office.

Police are investigating the man’s death as a homicide — Pueblo’s eighth homicide this year.

— Lauren Penington, The Denver Post