by HWJ staff
WALSENBURG — A fiber optic line cut Monday caused most residents of the Spanish Peaks area and some as far away as the San Luis Valley to be without long distance telephone and internet services for much of the day.
CenturyLink issued a statement late Monday that said an inadvertent line cut at about 10:45 am between Pueblo and Colorado Springs caused service outages of long distance telephone, cell phones and Internet south into the Walsenburg and SLV regions.

by Bill Knowles
WALSENBURG—The Huerfano County Commission on Wednesday, Feb 8, heard from the county administrator about the possibility of the county receiving a $50,000 revolving loan fund from the economic development group in Las Animas County.
The Las Animas Economic Development Commission hasnʼt used the funds and has offered to turn them over to Huerfano County along with software that manages the fund. The cost of the software is about $2,000 a year.

Lee Grace Dougherty pleads guilty to 3 counts-
attempted assault in the 1st degree, a class 4 felony, and pled guilty to two counts of felony menacing, one against Officer Craig Lessar and Joseph Albano. Judge Appel then read from a six-page document the definitions of each count and the sentencing recommendations per Colorado Statute. Dougherty will spend nine to 28 years in the DOC. Sentencing will be April 30, at 10am.
Appel also explained the rights Dougherty is giving up. Appel asked Dougherty if she implicitly understood the documents she signed.

LA VETA- The Colorado Water Conservation Board loaned the town of La Veta funds totaling $372,000 to repair the town’s aging reservoir system. The three percent, 30 year loan will cover 90 percent of the $410,000 project.
“Like everywhere, we have an aging infrastructure,” said Rob St. Peter, who operates the town’s water system. “It leaks, and we can’t shut it off.”