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Top 5 most-read stories last week: I-70 closures, fire in Keystone and police standoff in Dillon

Vehicles wait in line to turn left onto the westbound Interstate 70 on-ramp Tuesday, Aug. 10, in Silverthorne. The Colorado Department has begun its multi-project revamp of Interstate 70, and the area around Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel will receive significant upgrades.
Nicole Miller/nmiller@summitdaily.com

Stories in this list received the most page views on SummitDaily.com in the past week.

1. Wind ignites burn piles Saturday in Keystone Gulch

Winds kicked up flames in a prescribed burn area on the backside of Keystone May 7.

U.S. Forest Service responded to the scene adjacent to Ruby Lift at Keystone Resort around 3:30 p.m. Fire engines sprayed water to cool down the fire, and U.S. Forest service personnel monitored the scene throughout the evening.



“We don’t consider this a wildfire,” Adam Bianchi of the Dillon Ranger District said.

The fire occurred in a 39-acre area prepped for prescribed burns. Piles of logs and jackstraw timber dotted the area. Smoldering logs and 1- to 2-foot-high flames and covered between 20 and 25 acres Saturday, Bianchi estimated.



— Summit Daily News staff

2. I-70 Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel to see partial, full closures this summer

The Colorado Department has begun its multi-project revamp of Interstate 70, and the area around Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel will receive significant upgrades.

This will include repaving between Silverthorne and the tunnel, a structure replacement just west of the tunnel and infrastructure upgrades to the tunnel itself.

“CDOT is going to be making a lot of much-needed safety and mobility improvements along the I-70 Mountain Corridor this summer, but drivers can be assured our teams have carefully coordinated across the state to minimize traffic impacts,” CDOT executive director Shoshana Lew said in a statement. “Still, summer travel through the high county on I-70 is always busy, so it is always best to plan ahead and be prepared for changing conditions.”

— Eliza Noe

3. Police standoff in Dillon ends with detainment of felon

A report of an armed subject near Dillon Valley West Condominiums resulted in the lockdown of Dillon Valley Elementary School the afternoon of May 10.

Summit County Sheriff Jamie FitzSimons said a wanted felon was taken into custody without further incident around 5:10 p.m. that evening. He was not armed with a weapon upon detainment, Fitzsimons noted, and no weapon was found at the scene despite the 911 caller’s claim.

Police activity in the Dillon Valley subdivision led to restrictions on traffic in the area throughout the standoff.

The incident was far enough from the school that police did not take further measures outside of the precautionary lockdown.

— Summit Daily News staff

4. Runaway semitractor-trailer’s oil spill cleared; typical traffic resumes

A semitractor-trailer carrying oil lost control and overturned driving down the westbound Interstate 70 off-ramp at Exit 205 around 9 a.m. May 10.

The unidentified driver was immediately transported to the hospital with serious injuries, police say.

A video obtained from the crash shows smoke coming from the semi as it jackknifed and flipped on its side once it reached Colorado Highway 9. A northbound car is seen yielding to the tractor as it attempted to merge onto Highway 9.

— Summit Daily News staff

5. Despite restrictions, short-term rentals in Summit County continue to balloon

The Summit Board of County Commissioners recently met with its planning department to hear about the data collected since it passed new short-term rental regulations in December. The move was meant to curb the rate at which individuals were applying for licenses.

But during the May 3 meeting, commissioners learned that the new regulations “are having a limited, if any, impact on short-term rental growth” in its new neighborhood overlay zones, according to the presentation. These neighborhood zones are where, historically, the majority of the county’s workforce lives.

— Jenna deJong


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