Nicole Miller / nmiller@summitdaily.com
1. Second person dies following head-on crash on US Highway 6 in Dillon
DILLON — Two people were killed and several others were hospitalized following a head-on crash early Thursday on U.S. Highway 6 in Dillon.
According to Summit Fire & EMS, two pickup trucks collided at about 6 a.m. near the Big Baldy eagle sculpture overlooking Dillon Reservoir, between Lake Dillon Drive and Tenderfoot Street. One person died at the scene, and six others were transported to St. Anthony Summit Medical Center in Frisco.
Another person later died from their injuries, according to Kerstin Anderson, a spokeswoman for the town of Dillon.
The crash occurred when the eastbound vehicle drifted into oncoming traffic, according to a news release from the town of Dillon.
2. Two people killed in Highway 6 crash identified
DILLON — The two people who were killed in a head-on crash Thursday morning on U.S. Highway 6 have been identified as 58-year-old Larry Kennedy and 59-year-old Ronnie Suenram of Oklahoma, according the Summit County Coroner’s Office.
At about 6 a.m. Oct. 3, two pickup trucks collided near the eagle sculpture overlooking Dillon Reservoir, between Lake Dillon Drive and Tenderfoot Street. Kennedy was pronounced dead on scene. Suenram, who was taken to the hospital along with five others, later died.
Summit County Coroner Regan Wood said the manner of death in both cases was accidental and caused by multiple blunt force trauma injuries.
It’s still unclear how exactly the crash occurred, according to officials. The town of Dillon released a statement Thursday following the crash noting that the eastbound truck drifted into the westbound lane and struck the other vehicle head-on.
Kerstin Anderson, director of communications for Dillon, said there was very little physical evidence on scene to determine the cause of the crash.
3. Summit County man cited for constructing crude roadblock on Quandary Road to stop drunken drivers
FRISCO — A Summit County man was cited after creating his own roadblock on Quandary Road last month, allegedly hoping to keep drunken drivers from “ripping up and down the road.”
At about 10:35 a.m. Sept. 16, a deputy with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office responded to an online tip from two days earlier detailing a number of logs and boulders blocking sections of Quandary Road in unincorporated Summit County south of Blue River, according to a case report from the Sheriff’s Office.
The small road is a summertime-only route that narrows to one lane for a short section adjacent to Lodge by the Blue.
When responding, the deputy tried to access Quandary Road from Lodge by the Blue to the north, according to the report, and quickly reached a roadblock. The deputy noted there were two logs — about 12 inches in diameter — across the width of the roadway. There also were two more logs in the roadway along with six “very large” boulders blocking the way for any vehicle or bicycle traffic.
4. Wellington Neighborhood closes on final home after 20 years
BRECKENRIDGE — After a 20-year buildout, the Wellington Neighborhood has officially closed on the last new home this month. With 282 homes and more than 500 community members making up the neighborhood, one of the first workforce housing developments in the county has created quite the local community from a pile of dirt.
Neighborhood founder David G. O’Neil said that when he came upon the future site for Breckenridge’s Wellington Neighborhood in the 1990s, it was full of 20-foot-tall rock piles leftover from old mining projects.
In 1999, the planning process began when Brynn Grey Partners, the development company, pitched the idea to the Breckenridge Town Council. As with the workforce housing developments that have come after Wellington, the project was meant to be a public-private partnership between Brynn Grey, the building company Traditional Neighborhood Builders, the town of Breckenridge and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Breckenridge Mayor Eric Mamula was on the planning committee during the process and his father, Sam Mamula, was the mayor at the time. Although this was a new idea, Eric Mamula said the concept was embraced by Town Council.
5. Rio Grande closing its doors in Frisco; Outer Range to take over the space
FRISCO — Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant in Frisco will close its doors Sunday, Oct. 13, because the restaurant is financially unsustainable, according to restaurant manager Rob Trenz.
The chain restaurant, which started in Fort Collins and made its way across the Front Range, opened up shop in Frisco five years ago, bringing its Tex-Mex fajitas, margaritas and black beans to the High Country.
Rio also closed a location in Steamboat Springs in 2015 because of difficulty operating far from its headquarters in Fort Collins. After the Frisco location closes, all existing Rio restaurants will be on the Front Range.
Restaurant manager Rob Trenz said the competitive pay needed to keep good cooks and the loss of revenue during shoulder seasons mean the restaurant is no longer viable. He also said the space was too large.
Trenz said the restaurant has been losing money for a while, and the management team was presented with the opportunity to get out of the building lease when Outer Range, the brewery next door, offered to take over the space in order to expand.