YOUR AD HERE »

In Brief: Couple reaches 70th anniversary, Glenwood dresses for Christmas

Staff Report

Glenwood dresses for Christmas

When the days end so early in a sleepy mountain town, celebration, dazzling light displays, and any excuse for a good cup of hot cocoa or cider help to warm the soul. 

Winter Wonderland aims to make that all happen throughout the city of Glenwood Springs. 

The wonderland itself will take place throughout Glenwood until New Year’s Day, including homes and businesses featuring holiday displays. Winter Wonderland began with the Hotel Colorado’s Christmas lighting and will finish with the city of Glenwood Springs’ New Year’s Eve Celebration under the Grand Avenue Bridge. 



Among the festivities is the Self-Guided Augmented Reality Tour happening until Dec. 23. The Glenwood Springs Downtown Development Authority added multiple stops for people to scan QR codes to get selfies with characters like gingerbread people and penguins. 

Participants can take picture with the hashtag #thegreatglenwoodholidayhunt to be entered to win $50 in Glenwood Gold. Installations can be found at Centennial Park (Ninth Street & Grand Avenue), near the Amtrak Station at Seventh and Cooper streets, in Bethel Plaza under the bridge and at North Landing (Sixth and Pine streets). More information is found on the DDA website.




For additional information, visit the Glenwood Springs Chamber website.

New 5th District judge from Eagle

Gov. Jared Polis appointed the newest judge of the 5th Judicial District: Presiding over Clear Creek, Summit, Lake, and Eagle counties, Rachel Olguin-Fresquez has filled Judge Russell Granger’s seat on the bench following his Nov. 1 retirement. 

Olguin-Fresquez worked within the 5th District as deputy district attorney from 1999 to 2006 and as a judge on the Clear Creek County Court from 2006 to 2018. She made her way to the Eagle County Court in 2018, where she worked until beginning her current tenure at the district court. 

According to the Colorado Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation, Olguin-Fresquez met all standards based on 5th Judicial District Commission criteria while she a Eagle County judge. Her satisfactory performance review prompted her Eagle County Court retention in 2020. 

She previously was a teacher. While studying at the University of Colorado in Boulder, she said, her primary professional interest was in child welfare. She received her degree in sociology and a certificate in Colorado Elementary Teaching. After three years of teaching, she returned to school to study law at the Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans. 

Avon officers lasso suspect

On June 30, two Avon Police officers responded to a report of a potentially dangerous subject wielding a knife. The suspect, who refused to comply with officer demands and advanced on one of them, was restrained by an unlikely tool. One of the officers deployed his BolaWrap, a remote-restraint lasso tool that is quickly becoming a go-to device for law enforcement across the country.

Bodycam footage of the June 30 arrest shows one officer announcing the tool: “I’m going to Bola you,” he warns. “Bola, Bola, Bola!” 

With the push of trigger and a loud pop of gunpowder, two Kevlar ropes with tiny fishhooks at their ends jet out of the device and wrap around the suspect, providing time to detain and arrest the individual.

“We were able to safely get that suspect into custody without any harm to the suspect or without any harm to the officers,” Avon Chief of Police Greg Daly said.

The bodycam footage, which captured the Avon Police Department’s first use of the BolaWrap, became somewhat of an example video used for training and marketing purposes on the BolaWrap website, Daly said.

Daly said the BolaWrap is a useful tool for restraining a suspect without needing to use a higher level of force, be it physically or with a tool considered “less lethal,” like pepper spray or Taser. 

Couple reaches 70th anniversary, 0.1% odds

Leo and Alice Snowden were surrounded by friends and family at Sunset Meadows on Wednesday, Nov. 23, as the couple celebrated a rare milestone — their 70th wedding anniversary. 

According to the U.S Census Bureau, only 6% of married couples make it to their 50th wedding anniversary and just 0.1% make it to their 70th wedding anniversary. 

Leo and Alice, who lived in Routt County at the time, were married in Steamboat Springs near Strawberry Park on Nov. 23, 1952. Leo said he remembers the snow was several feet deep on the couple’s wedding day.

The family later migrated to Moffat County and made their home in Craig. Leo and Alice have four children — one daughter and three sons — five grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

Most of the family lives locally, except for one son who winters in Mesquite, Texas, and a granddaughter who lives in Sterling with her family. All of the local family members gathered in the community room at Sunset Meadows, where the couple shares an apartment, on Wednesday to celebrate the occasion. 

The celebration was decorated with a display of photos of Leo and Alice over the years, starting from before they wed until more recently. Leo recalled they met before high school after Alice came to Colorado from Nebraska.