Pueblo council member hospitalized after heart attack during meeting
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) Pueblo City Council member Ray Aguilera is currently recovering at Parkview Medical Center after experiencing a heart attack during a city council meeting Monday night.
Family members tell KRDO his condition is improving and they hope he’ll be discharged soon.
Aguilera has been a familiar face for the Bessemer neighborhood of Pueblo for his entire life. The 78-year old first served as a city council member in 2003. He is currently in the middle of his fourth and final term as a council member.
In the middle of a work session Monday night, council members tell KRDO Aguilera left the dais in city hall to go to the bathroom. When he returned, council member Mark Aliff says Aguilera was pale and struggling to get back to the dais.
Pueblo City Councilman Ray Aguilera was taken to the hospital Monday after he suffered a health emergency during a city council work session.
Council President Larry Atencio noted he was not given a full notice of what had occurred Monday night in regards to Aguilera s health, but said he was informed Tuesday the council member was home and resting comfortably. I don t know what actually happened, he said. I wish him all the best. We ve been friends since way back in the 1960s, and I m very concerned about his health, as I m sure he would be about mine.
Aguilera represents the Fourth District of Pueblo and has been on council since May 2003, when he was appointed to an unfinished term. He ran for office following that, and has been on council since. Aguilera is also involved or a member of the Pueblo Area Council of Governments, Bessemer Redevelopment Board and the Caring for Colorado Board of Directors.
The first Pueblo City Council meeting of the year on Monday resulted in new officers within the body.
Dennis Flores, who first took a seat on council in 2014 thanks to an appointment to a vacated seat, was not given a second round as council president. He ran for his first elected term in 2017, and that term expires Dec. 31.
Council member Larry Atencio was unanimously elected council president. He was nominated by council Member Ray Aguilera. Atencio was elected to be District 2 representative with his term beginning Jan. 1.
Member Lori Winner nominated Mark Aliff, but she withdrew the measure when Aliff voted in favor of Atencio s nomination for council president.
The foundation hosted a modified version of its annual Bessemer Christmas Extravaganza.
The annual event, started by city councilman and Pueblo Poverty Foundation founder Ray Aguilera, took place as a drive-thru celebration.
For more than two decades, Aguilera has hosted the event to reward the hardworking young scholars of Carlile, Columbian and Minnequa elementary schools.
“It may seem like we just do this,” Aguilera said. “But there is an alternative motive.”
Aguilera has partnered with the three elementary schools to encourage the children to find joy in learning.
The Vocabulary Challenge tasks students with enhancing their lexicon with as many new words as possible over the course of a school year.