Downtown Durango has a full calendar of activities with the return of First Fridays in May and the Earth Day Durango events April 20th. Fort Lewis College will host the inaugural Four Corners Climate Summit to discuss how climate change is impacting the Southwest, and update your GPS as 32nd Street will be closed until fall 2024 as roadway improvements are underway. You’re watching the Local News Roundup, brought to you by The Payroll Department and Happy Pappy’s Pizza and Wings. I’m Sadie Smith. Durango’s First Fridays return this May. Hosted by Local First, the Art Room Collective, and Durango’s Creative District. First Fridays celebrate local artists and encourage community involvement. Local businesses, galleries, and everything in between are eligible to host artists of all kinds for the pop-up events from four to eight p.m. the first Friday of every month. The event is open to all local businesses and artists. Find more information on Local First’s website and sign up for the role that best suits you. The activities are free and open to the public. Find a full list of participating businesses and offered activities online. Durango Transit will also be offering free bus and roll services on the first Friday to help relieve congestion downtown. This year’s first Friday will start May 3rd. Construction has begun on the County Road 250 and 251 Redesign Project. County Road 251, also known as 32nd Street, will be closed to through traffic from Holly Avenue to the intersection of County Road 250 and Metz Lane through late 2024. Local driveway access will remain open and all trash and recycling and delivery services will continue as usual during construction. The route has been identified as a key arterial road, and as such, experienced some of the highest volumes of multimodal traffic in Durango. The improvements will add designated bike lanes, a shared use path, a center landscaped median, streetlight installments, and overall landscaping improvements. To increase pedestrian safety, there will be enhanced pedestrian crossings and a dedicated left turn lanes. Upon completion, the roadway will look like reconstructed sections of Florida Road. The project is anticipated to be completed in late 2024 or early 2025. Work will pause during the winter months. Fort Lewis College will host the inaugural Four Corners Climate Summit on April 27th. The daylong event will include presentations from authors of the Fifth National Climate Assessment that documented the vulnerabilities, impacts, and risks associated with climate change in the Southwest. Keynote speaker will be renowned environmentalist and writer Terry Tempest Williams and other speakers include national policy makers, artists, local scientists, and social justice advocates. The event is free to attend, but RSVPs are encouraged due to limited space. Find more information about the event, speaker lineup, and more at the Climate Summit website. Earth Day Durango has a varied lineup of activities for this year’s celebration. Earth Day this year is April 20th, and activities will begin with a procession down Main Avenue at 10:30 a.m. Beginning at 11 a.m. Buckley Park is the place to be with poetry readings from Durango High School, a sustainable fashion show, bike maintenance, and helmet fit workshops and more. Live music from the Yoties will accompany the day’s festivities. This year’s Earth Day theme is planet versus plastics. Learn more and find a full list of all activities online at Earth Day Durango’s website. Learn more about these and other stories online at Durango Local News. Thank you for watching this edition of the Local News Roundup. I’m Sadie Smith.
