1. Winter Park hopes cash can convince short-term rentals to house workforce

Recognizing the need for workforce housing ahead of the upcoming ski season, Winter Park is hammering out a new program that would pay cash to convert short-term rentals into workforce housing.

On Tuesday, Town Manager Keith Riesberg presented the town council with a proposal that would offer cash to short-term rental owners who would change to offering six-month or year-long leases for qualifying workforce. The town would dedicate $325,000 for the program.

Town staff said they believe that with the money, the program could generate workforce housing units in the very near future and would have a larger and faster impact than the town continuing to pursue the acquisition of existing buildings or property development.

2. Summer snow hits Grand County’s mountains

Winter weather has already begun around the highest elevations in Grand County.

In Rocky Mountain National Park, Trail Ridge Road and Old Fall River Road temporarily closed Friday morning due to white out conditions and ice buildup. Snowplow operators were plowing the road as of 8:30 a.m.

Call the Trail Ridge Road recorded status line at 970-586-1222 or follow the park’s twitter site @RockyNPS for updates.

3. Man on dirt bike caught with backpack full of meth, police say

Kremmling police seized more than 24 grams of methamphetamine after reportedly stopping a man on a dirt bike who rolled through a stop sign in town.

According to an arrest affidavit, police responded to a home on Sixth Street in Kremmling around 9:45 p.m. Aug. 7 for a suspicious truck that had been occupied and left idling outside the house for some time.

The affidavit says that while police were checking up on the truck, officers saw a man leave the house next door on a dirt bike and fail to stop at a nearby stop sign. Police then stopped the driver, identified as Donald Pritt, 32, and arrested him for driving with a revoked license and having a warrant out of Gilpin County.

4. Report: Woman threatened, chased man after pulling gun during fight

A woman is facing felony menacing charges after an alleged domestic dispute involving a gun spilled into the forest.

Around midnight July 25, police responded to Meadow Creek Reservoir in the Arapaho National Forest for a report of domestic violence and found Casey Crawford, 28, and her partner.

According to the affidavit for Crawford’s arrest, she and her partner told police they had gotten into a fight earlier in the day and she had grabbed a gun from her car during their argument, which caused her partner to hide in the forest.

5. Grand County real estate transactions, Aug. 8-14

Grand County’s real estate transactions Aug. 8-14 were worth more than $31.1 million combined.