Dream of Firefighting? Free Forestry Programs Provide First Step

Cortez Recreation Center is adjusting to a staff shortage. Pueblo Community College Southwest is adding new programs to its course catalog with plans to add a new degree in the future. The Cortez Public Library is hosting an aerospace event and learn what Colorado's favorite cart game is according to Google Trends. You're watching the Local News Roundup brought to you by Choice Building Supply and Big O Tires. I'm Connor Shrieve. The Cortez Recreation Center has reduced its hours for the indoor lap pool, leisure pool, and slide due to a lifeguard shortage. The Parks and Recreation director, Creighton Wright states that this shortage goes beyond Montezuma County affecting aquatics programs across the country. Several lifeguard positions are available through Cortez Parks and Recreation. Wright believes the Cortez shortage is partially due to a lack of high school swim team and aquatic opportunities. The physical demands of the job and the inability to offer signing and retention bonuses like in the Metro areas. Pueblo Community College Southwest is offering free programs in forestry and wildlife mitigation. The Forestry and Wildland Fire Certificate is a two semester program beginning in August. The course is designed for students looking to pursue a career in logging, forest thinning or the forest product timber industry. Registration opens on March 11th with classes limited to 20 students. An additional program, the Wildland Fire Academy, will be held in June. After completing that one week course, participants can apply for an incident qualification card or pursue a career as a junior firefighter. Registration details will be announced later. Both programs include hands-on Learning field experience and other essential workforce curriculum. Pueblo Community College Southwest is planning to add forestry and natural resources to its degree offerings in the near future. Tuesday, March 12th, the Cortez Public Library will be hosting a time, space and travel event. Danny Pierce will be sharing his presentation on a new concept of Starships called Continuum Alpha, as well as a Starship he constructed. The presentation is free and will begin at 5:30 PM. CASINOS.com recently reported what the most popular card games in Colorado are based on monthly Google Trends data. Well poker was listed as the overall favorite card game in the US, Coloradans tend to prefer Solitaire, poker, blackjack, hearts, and spades were also listed on the top five for the state. Learn more about these and other stories online at montezumalocal.news. Thanks for watching this edition of the Local News Roundup. I'm Connor Shrieve.