colorado explorer

Craig ― Before Bill Leonard was "Capt. Bill Leonard" of the Craig Police Department, he was a Craig kid approaching future's possibility chasm.

When he started high school, he heard about a youth program with the Police Department, the Moffat County Police Explorers, and signed up.

"Actually, I started my career in that program," Leonard said. "I started as an explorer when I was 14."

At least five of the other kids who signed up with Leonard went into different law enforcement agencies after high school, as well. Now, Moffat County law enforcement is reinstating the program Leonard fondly recalls as his first exposure to cop work.

The Craig Police Department, Moffat County Sheriff's Department and Colorado State Patrol are working with the Boy Scouts of America Western Colorado Council out of Grand Junction to once again offer the Moffat County Police Explorers, local Post 2196.

Police Explorers, a national program through the Boy Scouts, allows youths ages 14 to 20 years old to work with law enforcement and experience what those officers, deputies and troopers do each day for their communities.

The Craig Police Department offered the program in the past, but discontinued it in 1994 because of the time commitment and work necessary to make it useful for the participants, said Leonard, the Police Department's operations division commander.

Members of the Police Department, which in the past ran the program exclusively, approached deputies and troopers in the Sheriff's Office and the State Patrol this time to see if there was an interest in sharing the responsibility.

"Everyone was interested in it," Leonard said.

The plan is for participants to follow members of all three organizations and do a variety of law enforcement activities.

The program will most likely involve an application process and then start by putting the participants through the Civilian Academy; a class for residents to learn various procedures police officers follow in different situations.

After that, participants would be able to ride along with law enforcement on certain calls and help with security during large events. The State Patrol has offered to take some participants in its airplane if the situation allows, Leonard said.

"The idea is to give (participants) the experience of what law enforcement is all about," Leonard said. "That's the idea of the program, to give them the opportunity to see what law enforcement is like and give them the experience to get the job done right."

In the past, the program attracted mainly high school-aged children, usually from 14 to 18 years old, Leonard added. Interested older youths are either in college or the workforce.

The Police Department started advertising the program during a Moffat County High School career day, where some students expressed interest, Leonard said. There should be more advertising soon.

HOUSTON -- BUCCANEER RESOURCES, a Houston-based oil and gas company, announced the addition of Millennium Explorer, LLC (MEX) to its network of preferred vendors.

The addition of MEX's inventory of 15 offshore developmental and exploratory prospects in the Gulf of Mexico "gives Buccaneer a substantial backlog of high-quality opportunities that can enhance our ability to leverage our resource network and deploy capital," said Ken Hooper, COO of Buccaneer Resources.

Commenting on the benefits to his company, Clint Wainwright, CEO of Millennium, said, "This alignment with Buccaneer will provide us with a consistent developmental capital stream and the resources to build significant reserves by exploiting these opportunities."

About Millennium Explorer, LLC: MEX is equally owned by Baron Petroleum (Houston) and Streamline Exploration (Durango, Colorado) and is a generator of high-quality prospects in the Gulf of Mexico.

About Buccaneer Resources: Connecting scarce service-industry resources with capital and quality prospects, Buccaneer Resources has stepped into a resource-constrained world to offer services, equipment and capital to both small and large independents. Buccaneer Resources has negotiated special rates with a group of service, hardware and drilling rig providers and can offer client companies access to their network of equipment and services. The network is designed to offer a wide array of resources needed by nearly any segment of the upstream energy industry to bring a development on line.

NEW YORK - If you'd like to take a trip to see fall foliage but prefer to leave the driving to others, Tauck World Discovery offers tours of New England and Canada, as well as Michigan and Colorado.

Tauck trips range from seven to 14 days and run from $1,990 to $4,040. Details at www.tauck.com or 800-468-2825. The Connecticut-based company has been offering upscale motorcoach tours since 1925.

Or consider seeing the season's colors from the deck of a cruise ship. For example, as of Monday, the Carnival Victory still had staterooms available for well under $1,000 a person for seven-day round-trip sailings from New York to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Canada, with stops in Boston and Portland, Maine. The final departure date for the Victory's fall foliage itinerary is Sept. 29.

Other ships sailing this season to Canada and New England, according to the Cruise Line International Association, include Celebrity's Constellation, Crystal Symphony, Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 and Queen Mary 2, Holland America's Maasdam, Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Spirit, Princess Cruises' Grand Princess and Crown Princess, and Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas. Check with a travel agent or the cruise lines' Web sites for last-minute availability. Most of these cruises are offered through the end of September and a few take place in October.