News in Brief

The 2008 Burton that Shaun White’s rode to a silver medal in the 2007 X Games 11 in Aspen can be yours for just two grand. The board recently was listed on eBay.com by someone claiming to have won it following this year’s X Games. “As luck would have it, I was at the X Games and I won the board after the medals were presented,” said “pinekirk” on the website, whose hometown is listed as Canon City, Colo. The graphics on the board match the one ridden by White at the Games. So far, no one has bid on the snowboard.

GARFIELD COUNTY “Fire in the hole … fire in the hole … fire in the hole,” yelled Doug Lucas of the Grand Junction Hazardous Device Response Team (GJHDRT) as a band of firefighters, state patrol, and sheriffs’ deputies hunkered down behind a mound of dirt at the West Garfield County Landfill.One man pushed a button, a quick flash raced down a yellow length of “No-el” detonation tube into a pit 60-feet deep.One second of silence, then … boom.The shock wave could be felt more than 200 yards away.”And that was just one,” said Chris Taylor of the Response Team.That single detonation was one of the 20 commercial-grade mortar-style fireworks that an individual discovered while stopping to relieve himself near the West Rifle exit of Interstate 70, just after 11 a.m. Tuesday.Members of the Rifle Fire Protection District were first responders with a water tanker and an ambulance. They then called the State Patrol to assist and then contacted the Grand Junction Bomb Squad to come and dispose of the explosives.RFPD Fire Chief Mike Morgan estimated the amount of explosive in the two boxes would equal about 10 sticks of dynamite. The bomb squad’s Taylor confirmed that estimate, but stated that it was really hard to know exactly because they didn’t know the fireworks’ components. (Glenwood Springs Post Independent)

GLENWOOD SPRINGS Red, green, white, yellow and blue bingo balls bounced around a bingo cage in City Hall on Tuesday afternoon, each one representing the chances of an applicant for Glenwood Springs’ affordable housing units.This time there were four units, ranging from a $178,526 two-bedroom unit to a $245,368 three-bedroom unit. The winners were the Whitehouse family, the Hayward family, the McKibben family and the Gonzales family. There were 13 applicants vying for the units; some applied for more than one.The city’s housing program requires developers of subdivisions and multifamily housing projects to provide 15 percent of their units as housing that will be sold at below-market rates. Alternatively, they can pay a fee into a city fund for affordable housing.The city made its first unit available under the program in 2005, but only one eligible person applied. Last year, it held a lottery after six eligible residents applied for a townhouse in the Overlin Park subdivision. (Glenwood Springs Post Independent)