Southwest Health System hires new physician
Southwest Health System, Inc. has announced that Leslie Stanwix, DO, has been added to its staff in Cortez.
Stanwix provides general family medicine, newborn, and pediatric care. She’s accepting new patients and takes most insurance including Medicare and Medicaid.
Stanwix attended Kansas State University and completed medical school at University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathy in Kansas City, Mo. She has practiced family medicine for 35 years in Colorado.
With the addition of Stanwix, the office of three physicians provides a full spectrum of medical services including general family medicine, obstetrical care, newborn and child care, skin care and treatments, gynecologic services including annual physicals and preventive care, and screening colonoscopies. Southwest Memorial Physicians is at 20 South Market St., Suite 1 and can be reached at 970-565-4291.
Gas prices rising back above $2 in Cortez area
After plunging below $2 a gallon last month, gas prices in Cortez and around the rest of the U.S. are creeping upward.
As of Mar. 2, the lowest price in Cortez was $2.18 per gallon. The average price in Colorado is $2.18 per gallon, which is still lower than the U.S. average of $2.43 per gallon.
The rise in prices can be attributed to stabilizing crude oil prices, which have been in a free fall since summer. While U.S. crude oil futures are still trading around $49 per barrel, a nearly 50 percent drop in prices compared with last year, Brent or European crude futures, saw a rebound this week and are trading at $62 per barrel.
The drop in prices has largely been attributed to a glut in supply.
USDA offers extension for ARC/PLC Program
A one-time extension will be provided to producers for the new safety-net programs established by the 2014 Farm Bill, known as Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC), the USDA announced last week. Farmers now have until March 31 to update yields history and/or base acreage. The final day for farm owners and producers to choose between ARC or PLC coverage is also March 31.
If no changes are made, the current yield and base will be used. A program choice of ARC or PLC coverage also must be made by Mar. 31, or there will be no 2014 payments for the farm, and the farm will default to PLC coverage through the 2018 crop year.
Online tools, available at www.fsa.usda.gov/arc-plc, allow producers to explore projections on how ARC or PLC coverage will affect their operation under possible future scenarios.
Four Corners Community Bank turns 15
Four Corners Community Bank is celebrating its 15-year anniversary at its six locations.
The bank opened in 2000. Founding board members Frank Macaluso, Greg Anesi, Ed Armstrong, and Felix Briones, along with President and CEO, Sheila Mathews started FCCB after seeing a strong need for a local community bank. Their work quickly spurred two additional branches in the bank’s first five years. Another branch was built in Aztec, N.M. in 2006. Four Corners Community Bank expanded into Cortez, Colorado in 2007 and acquired Citizens State Bank of Cortez in 2013. Today, FCCB has $320 million in total assets with six locations in two states.
Journal Staff