...FIRE WEATHER WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY MORNING THROUGH
SUNDAY EVENING FOR GUSTY WINDS, LOW HUMIDITY AND ISOLATED
LIGHTNING FOR PARTS OF WESTERN NEVADA AND THE EASTERN SIERRA...

The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a Fire Weather
Watch for gusty winds and low humidity and isolated dry lightning,
which is in effect from Saturday morning through Sunday evening.

* Affected Area...Fire Weather Zone 274 Southern Mono County,
Fire Weather Zone 420 Northern Sierra Front including Carson
City, Douglas, Storey, Southern Washoe, Western Lyon, and Far
Southern Lassen Counties, Fire Weather Zone 421 Southern
Sierra Front including Alpine, Northern Mono, Southern Lyon,
and Western Mineral Counties and Fire Weather Zone 429
Lahontan Basin including Churchill and Eastern Mineral
Counties.

* Winds...Southwest wind gusts 30 to 40 mph. Gusts to 50 mph in
wind prone areas.

* Humidity...10-15% during the day with poor overnight recoveries
around 20-35%.

* Thunderstorms...10-15% chance of isolated dry thunderstorms
with gusty, erratic outflow winds primarily in the Sierra.

* Duration...8 to 12 hours.

* Impacts...The combination of gusty winds and low humidity can
cause fire to rapidly grow in size and intensity before first
responders can contain them.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Avoid outdoor activities that can cause a spark near dry
vegetation, such as yard work, target shooting, or campfires.
Follow local fire restrictions. Check weather.gov/reno for
updates and livingwithfire.info for preparedness tips.

&&

Bruce was born in Athol, Massachusetts, to Katherine P. and Percy “Bill” Colon on Aug. 17, 1940, the youngest of three children.

After graduating from Athol High School in 1958, Bruce attended Paul Smith’s College, where he was a vital member of the ski team. He graduated with an associate’s degree in forestry in 1960. He served in the U.S. Army from 1962 to 1964 and then earned his bachelor of science degree from the University of New Hampshire in 1967.

Bruce returned to the Adirondacks in 1967 to teach and coach football, golf and Alpine skiing at Saranac Lake High School. From 1968 to 1977, he held the position of assistant headmaster at Northwood School in Lake Placid, where he led the history department and coached baseball, golf, football and Alpine skiing. By his second year at Northwood, he had led the football team to an undefeated season, and two members of his ski team were selected for the U.S. National Junior Team. He also played a key role in transitioning Northwood School to a coeducational institution and establishing its women’s sports programs. Bruce was an influential volunteer in championing Lake Placid community youth sports as a Little League baseball coach, area golf instructor, and Lake Placid Sports Council member. In 1977, he was appointed Women’s Alpine Director for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.

One of Bruce’s lasting legacies is as a founder of the New York Ski Educational Foundation. Since its inception in 1973, the Whiteface Alpine Training Center, later re-named NYSEF, has become a nationally recognized program that has trained thousands of youth in Alpine, Nordic, freestyle and snowboard programs over the past 50-plus years. In 2018, Bruce was an inaugural inductee into the NYSEF Hall of Fame. Following his tenure at Northwood School, he established and served as the first headmaster of Carrabassett Valley Academy in Maine and later headed Alpine ski programs at Mount Bachelor in Oregon, Mount Alyeska in Alaska, and Aspen, Snowmass and Crested Butte in Colorado. Dozens of Coach Colon’s athletes went on to compete and/or coach at national, international and Olympic levels. In 2003, Bruce was honored with U.S. Ski and Snowboard Chairman’s Special Recognition “Tom Reynolds Award for Lifetime Achievement in Coaching.”

Upon retirement, Bruce returned to Lake Placid, where he pursued his passion for golf, perfected his craft of custom bamboo fly rod building and relished spending time with his children and grandchildren.

Bruce is survived by his four children, Laurie (Johnny) Woods of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Clarke (Elizabeth) Colon of Waterbury, Vermont, Lisa (Shawn) Holes of Boise, Idaho, and Eric Colon of Silt, Colorado; eight grandchildren, Eliza (Kent) True, William Holes, Logan Holes, Mazie Holes, Heath Colon, Davis Colon, Levi Colon and Claire Colon; four great-grandchildren; his friend and former wife, Nancy Colon of Lake Placid; and his girlfriend of 20 years, Carol Nevulis of Lake Placid. He also leaves behind numerous nieces and nephews and countless former students and athletes whose lives he positively impacted.

He was preceded in death by both his parents; brother Frazier P. Colon; and sister Joan E. Duncan.

A celebration of life will take place later this summer. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to NYSEF, PO Box 300, Wilmington, NY 12997 or nysef.org.

The M. B. Clark, Inc., Funeral Home in Lake Placid is overseeing arrangements. Visit www.mbclarkfuneralhome.com to share a memory or leave condolences.

CORALVILLE — The City of Coralville is pausing a project that would have added two new baseball diamonds to the Coralville Youth Sports Park after construction bids came in higher than expected.

Initially, the fields were planned to be available for limited use in the fall of 2026. Now city staff estimate the project will be delayed a year, though that is subject to change depending on when the city awards a construction contract.

The project at the park, 2480 Dempster Dr., would add a 375-foot-long diamond, with the option for 70-, 80- and 90-foot basepaths, and a smaller 250-foot diamond with basepath options of 50, 60 and 70 feet. Both fully fenced-in diamonds are planned to include a dugout, a batting cage/pitching warmup area and bleachers. Grass parking areas and a player drop-off area also would be added.

Estimated construction costs higher than expected

The city said the engineer’s estimate for the project was around $1.58 million. However, the three bids the city received ranged in price from $1.88 million to $2 million.

“We are recommending that we would reject these bids and go back to our consultants and talk about how we can change up either the structure of this bid and/or the timing of this bid so we can get some better pricing …,” Sherri Proud, director of Coralville Parks and Recreation, said at a city council meeting Tuesday.

Proud said the city will consider splitting the project into two in an effort to decrease the costs and increase the number of contractors that are able to complete each part of the project.

The city council approved a request to spend up to $1.8 million for the project in January.

Existing diamond moved to make space

Coralville is moving toward construction of a new recreation center after the council adopted a master plan in late 2024. The project’s cost is estimated to be between $50 and $55.4 million.

City staff have said the existing layout in S.T. Morrison Park, 1513 Seventh St., may not have enough space for both its existing baseball field and a new recreation center, and they are anticipating closing the diamond once construction on the center begins.

The two new diamonds at the Youth Sports Park would serve as a replacement for the closed diamond, should the city move forward with closing the field at S.T. Morrison Park.

The proposed new recreation center, to the east of the existing facility in S.T. Morrison Park, would be 109,700 square-feet and include three gymnasiums, an elevated track, a spa and three pools: a competition pool with spectator seating, a leisure pool and a recreation and community lap pool. Community meeting rooms and strength, cardio and fitness rooms also would be available.

Coralville and the Iowa City Community School District have indicated they would like to continue to partner on the facility to provide pool space for the district’s swimming program. The two came together to pay for construction of the current rec center pool, which was built 37 years ago.

The school board indicated earlier this month that it would support the city’s ask of $14 million to be allocated for the project.

Coralville also is considering going to voters this November or in March 2026 to seek approval of a local-option sales tax or general obligation bond, said Kelly Hayworth, Coralville’s city administrator.

The city is planning to keep the existing rec center open throughout construction of the new building. It would then be demolished once construction is complete.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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Major League Baseball is investing in a new women’s professional softball league, Commissioner Robert Manfred announced Thursday on “CBS Mornings.”

The partnership with the Athletes Unlimited Softball League marks MLB’s first major investment in women’s professional sports.

Manfred said the timing felt right for the investment. 

“We’ve been very engaged in the softball space as part of our youth participation programs. And the growing popularity in women’s sports motivated us to look around,” Manfred said. “We looked at startups, we looked at making an investment, and we thought AUSL was a great fit for us.”

When asked why MLB chose softball over women’s baseball, Manfred cited infrastructure advantages. 

“There’s such a great softball infrastructure that exists. A pipeline of athletes,” he said. “We thought that we could get to the point of having a sustainable league much quicker with softball.”

Kim Ng will serve as commissioner of the new Athletes Unlimited Softball League. Ng, who worked at MLB for 10 years before becoming AUSL commissioner, said the partnership is a big step for both sports. Ng noted that women’s college softball “routinely outdraws the men” during their respective College World Series.

“Having worked at major league baseball for ten years and having led that softball division, we were always trying to connect with the women’s side, you know, with women’s college softball,” she said.

Manfred said, “Kim showed great leadership skills while she was with us, great managerial skills. I had no doubt that she had the skill set to be successful in a job like this.”

MLB will broadcast select games on its network and streaming service, help with marketing and provide financial support for the league’s operations.

The AUSL launches Saturday, June 7, with Opening Day games in Rosemont, Illinois, and Wichita, Kansas. The Wichita game airs exclusively on MLB Network and MLB.TV at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The league’s four teams, the Bandits, Blaze, Talons and Volts, will play a 24-game season through July 23, culminating in a championship series July 26-28 at the University of Alabama’s Rhoads Stadium.

The AUSL will become city-based in 2026. This inaugural season features games in 12 cities.

Single game tickets are now available, with more information at theAUSL.com.

The bishops of Washington filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging a new state law that requires priests to violate the seal of confession if they suspect the abuse of minors.

The May 29 lawsuit argues that the new law violates First Amendment religious freedom protections, as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the 14^th Amendment and the Washington constitution.

“Confession offers the faithful a confidential space to seek God’s mercy and guidance. This trust is sacred, and any law that jeopardizes it risks discouraging those who recognize the harm they have caused from seeking moral guidance,” said Jean Hill, executive director of the Washington Catholic Conference, in a statement.

The suit argues that the law constitutes religious discrimination, because it demands that priests violate the norms of the Catholic Church to adhere to the reporting requirements, while at the same time explicitly exempting multiple other groups from those requirements.

It accuses the new legislation of “[p]utting clergy to the choice between temporal criminal punishment and eternal damnation, interfering with the internal governance and discipline of the Catholic Church, and targeting religion for the abrogation of all privileges.”

According to the lawsuit, the three Catholic dioceses in Washington have abuse reporting policies which “go beyond what Washington law requires,” with the sole exemption of information learned in the sacrament of confession.”

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Washington Gov. Robert Ferguson signed a law May 2 making clergy members mandated reporters, who are required to report suspected child abuse. The law does not allow for an exemption if knowledge of the suspected abuse arises through the sacrament of confession.

The legislation was approved by a vote of 64-31 in the House and 28-20 in the Senate. It goes into effect in July.

Several earlier attempts to pass similar legislation had failed in the state of Washington, because of concerns over religious freedom regarding the failure to exempt information learned in the confessional.

In the Catholic Church, priests may not divulge anything revealed in the sacrament of confession, for any reason — and if they do so, they suffer the canonical penalty of excommunication, a serious sanction in the Church.

Canon law states that: “The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore, it is a crime for a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or in any other manner or for any reason … A confessor who directly violates the seal of confession incurs an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.”

Bishops from Washington’s three dioceses have been united in their opposition to the legislation, emphasizing that priests cannot and will not follow its demands.

Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle said in a statement earlier this month that the bishops of Washington had requested a meeting with Ferguson to discuss their concerns, but that the governor did not respond to their request.

Thursday’s lawsuit was filed on behalf of the bishops of Washington’s three dioceses, as well as several priests in the state, by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the non-profit First Liberty Institute, and the WilmerHale law firm.

The Archdiocese of Seattle and the Dioceses of Yakima and Spokane have all adopted “policies that go further in the protection of children than the current requirements of Washington law on reporting child abuse and neglect,” the lawsuit says.

Those policies include reporting requirements for both clergy and lay employees who have reasonable cause to suspect child abuse or neglect.

“The sole exception to this self-imposed reporting requirement—based on more than 2,000 years of Church doctrine—is information learned by a priest only in the confessional and thus protected by the sacramental confessional seal,” the suit argues.

At the same time, the state has maintained and even expanded exemptions from mandatory reporting requirements for certain non-clergy members, the lawsuit says, including lawyers and spouses.

It points to language in the law which specifies, “Except for members of the clergy, no one shall be required to report under this section when he or she obtains the information solely as a result of a privileged communication.”

“Non-clergy supervisors continue to be afforded exemptions when child abuse and neglect is learned about through attorney-client, spousal, domestic partner, or other privileged communications. That includes non-clergy supervisors within youth sports organizations, youth scouting organizations, and any number of other organizations who regularly come into contact with children,” the lawsuit adds.

Those exemptions make it clear that the new law is targeting religion in an unconstitutional manner, the lawsuit argues.

Many U.S. states include clergy members among mandatory reporters, but nearly all other states exempt information revealed in confession.

In 2016, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that priests could not be forced by law to violate the seal of confession in order to report alleged abuse.

On May 5, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it was launching an investigation into “the apparent conflict between Washington State’s new law with the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment, a cornerstone of the United States Constitution.”