School activities resume Tuesday

After a day off Monday due to concerns about smoke in the air from the High Park Fire, the Poudre School District has announced all summer activities will resume Tuesday. This includes summer school, enrichment, athletics, Base Camp and other specialized school programs, according to district spokeswoman Danielle Clark.

In another positive development, public radio station KUNC has returned to the air in parts of Weld and Larimer counties as well as Boulder. The station’s transmitter on Buckhorn Mountain lost power on Saturday afternoon when a transformer was damaged by the fire. The transmitter itself was not damaged, according to KUNC’s website, and technicians established a microwave link to a remote transmitter Monday afternoon.

Buckhorn Mountain is also the site of Larimer County’s emergency communications array, which also lost power and has been working on battery backup. Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association spokesman Ric Soulen said that crews are on scene with the emergency management command and are working to restore power as soon as possible.

An additional 892 meters in the fire zone are without power, Soulen added. Some of these are due to damage to power lines and others have been disconnected at the request of authorities. Many are in areas that have been evacuated: all of Rist Canyon, the lower Poudre Canyon and the upper Buckhorn Canyon including Stove Prairie.

“At this time we have no estimates for when and where power will be restored,” Soulen said, adding that the PVREA website at www.pvrea.com will be updated with the latest news.

The general evacuation area runs west of Horsetooth Reservoir, north of Masonville, east of Pennock Pass and south of Colorado Highway 14, according to incident command. Additional evacuation area includes north of Highway 14 from Hewlett Gulch to U.S. Highway 287 and north to Eagle’s Nest Open Space.

Roads that remain closed Tuesday morning because of the High Park Fire include:

• County Road 23 from Lodgepole to Dixon Dam
• Highway 14 from Walden to Ted’s Place

• County Road 23 & Lodgepole/Lory State Park

• County Road 25E & County Road 54E
• 
County Road 27 (Stove Prairie Road) south from Highway 14 

• County Road 27 one mile south of County Road 44H (Buckhorn Road)

• County Road 27 & County Road 38E

• County Road 27 north of County Road 44H

• County Road 38E and County Road 25E

• County Road 44H west of CR27

• County Road 52E (Rist Canyon Road)
• County Road 25E Bellvue

The Ride the Rockies bicycle race was scheduled to end Friday in Fort Collins. The original route from Estes Park included the roads along Horsetooth Dam and through Masonville and LaPorte, all now closed. Director Chandler Smith told the Denver Post he has been in contact with officials from Fort Collins and Larimer County to develop contingency plans, and hopes to announce changes to the course by Wednesday afternoon.

A briefing for evacuees and members of the community is scheduled for 9 a.m. at The Ranch in Loveland. A press briefing will follow at 9:30 a.m.