Luis “Louie” Ibarra, a longtime Pueblo disc jockey who used his warm and inviting voice to share his love for Tejano music with Southern Colorado, died Jan. 2 from COVID-19 complications. He was 74 years old.
Ibarra grew up in San Antonio, Texas, where he developed a love for music that he carried with him the rest of his life.
“My grandfather was a musician, so my dad pretty much grew up around musicians,” said one of Louie s sons, Danny Ibarra.
“He played with some pretty prominent musicians at the time, so that’s how my dad got involved. And then being from San Antonio right when Tejano music pretty much started and got its big boom, my dad was there as a young man and just fell in love with it.”
A new learning center for nursing and health care students at Pueblo Community College is another step closer to reality.
The new PCC Nursing and Allied Health Teaching & Learning Center a partnership between the college and St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center that will grow PCC’s capacity by moving many of its classes into vacated space at the hospital recently received substantial funding.
The Pueblo Urban Renewal Authority announced in December that it would dedicate $500,000 in Tax Increment Financing dollars to the project.
St. Mary-Corwin is within the Lake Minnequa Urban Renewal Area. Andrea DelaGarza, spokesperson for PURA, said the PCC project is expected to provide a substantial economic boost to the community.
The Pueblo Police Department is seeking the public’s help to identify a suspect in a recent nonfatal shooting.
Officers were dispatched to the 2100 block of East 14th Street on Tuesday and located a victim who’d been shot multiple times, according to a Wednesday statement by Pueblo police.
The victim told police that at the time of the shooting, he was attempting to buy a vehicle. The suspect reportedly knocked on the door of the victim’s residence and said he was there to sell a car, but when the victim opened the door, the suspect entered the residence armed with a handgun, police say.
Other similar units were used in New York City early on during the pandemic.
The unit, with capacity for 40 bodies, is near St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center.
Randy Evetts, public health director of the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment, said Wednesday that COVID-19-related deaths have increased drastically in Pueblo County.
He said from April through October there was an average of one COVID-19 death every five days in Pueblo.
In November, the average shot up to 3-4 deaths per day.
In December it has climbed to 7-8 deaths per day.
“This virus is still something very serious in our community and something that people need to take seriously, Evetts said.
Vaccinations underway at Pueblo hospitals
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) Starting Thursday, Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo will begin vaccinating their staff with the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine.
Registered Nurses, Certified Nurses Assistants, Respiratory Therapists, and any staff in direct contact with COVID-19 patients will have priority to receive the vaccine first.
Around 8 a.m. on Wednesday, the first shipment of 3,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines arrived at the Pueblo County Distribution Hub. 1,000 of those doses were transferred to Parkview Medical Center.
A total of 190 doses of the vaccine were delivered to Pueblo s St. Mary Corwin Medical Center, and six members of their staff were vaccinated Wednesday evening.