Local News

If foul weather set the start of this year’s Buffalo Stampede back a couple of days, the more than 600 Bergen kids who ran their little hearts out on May 16 to benefit the Bergen Meadow Field Project finished way ahead of expectations.

“They raised more than $20,000,” says Lisa McLagan, vice president of fund-raising for the Bergen Parent Teacher Association. “It’s amazing. The most the Stampede’s ever raised is $9,000, and they doubled it.”

The Evergreen Fire Protection District board voted unanimously to spend $75,000 combined to spruce up aging fire stations No. 1 and No. 4. The decision came at a regular meeting of the board on May 28.

Fire Chief Garry DeJong recommended spending $35,000 on a cosmetic makeover for Station 4, about halfway between Marshdale station No. 3 and station No. 1 near downtown.

Station 4 serves as sleeping quarters for two paramedics while they are on 24-hour duty.

In her going-away presentation May 28, the finance director of the Evergreen Fire Protection District said she has felt “personally and professionally attacked by the board” since the controversy leading to a recall election surfaced last year.

“Many of you may think it’s about the money. That is not the reason,” said Christina Griggs, who held the part-time position as finance director for four years. Her last day was Friday, May 30.

Signs of activity on property designated for a sheriff’s substation in Marshdale are not what they seem, a spokesperson for Jefferson County said this week.

Heavy equipment and construction trailers at the location near the Bistro Restaurant belong to a contractor building a roundabout at a nearby intersection and to Jefferson County Highways and Transportation engineers who are overseeing that project.

“The contractor is simply using that area to stage his equipment and materials,” said resident engineer Dixie Shear.