STANDARD BLADE B R I G H T O N
SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1903
75cI
VOLUME 119
Issue 24
WEEK OF JUNE 16, 2022
Bees rescued find a new home
School superintendents condemn order to reorganize Adams 14
Beekeeper claims broken trunk of cottonwood tree to keep hive whole BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
When the wind toppled the old cottonwood over the Fulton Irrigation Ditch near 144th and Sable June 7, ditch company employees Orlando Ruiz and Edgar Briseno were called to chop it into sections and move it. What they found, however, was more than just wood from an aging tree. This was a living community, home to a growing hive of honey bees. “We wanted to find a beekeeper to make sure to take care of the bees, they are important for our farmers and community,” Ruiz said. Their search for a beekeeper led them to Fort Lupton resident Sue Hubert, whose son Mike Kunzman had been a beekeeper, and he is a disabled U.S. Army Veteran. And Kunzman was more than happy to respond. He’d recently lost part of his hive to a Varroa Mite infestation. “I was on my way to work from Henderson, and my mom called me since I was a beekeeper for 10-years until I lost my bees to those mites,” Kunzman said. “I bought some used equipment, and it had mites. I had five separate boxes of bees. I was bummed. I was close to 144th & Sable, so I drove right over.” After consulting with Ruiz and Briseno, Kunzman decided it was SEE BEES, P3
BY JENNY BRUNDIN COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO
Edgar Briseno at the scene where the tree fell over and Mike Kunzman backing in his truck. Photo by Mike Kunzman
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OBITUARIES LOCAL CALENDAR CULTURE LEGALS CLASSIFIEDS
LOCAL
2 •Commissioners select 3 new Adams County 9 administrator 10 14 • Page 4 18
SEE CONDEMN, P7
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Thirteen metro Denver school superintendents are pushing back against a decision by the State Board of Education ordering a district north of Denver to reorganize. The June 7 letter to the board is the first salvo in what could become a heated battle over how much control local school districts have over their destinies. The state school board’s order forcing the Adams 14 school district to begin a process of reorganizing is the first time an improvement order could result in a Colorado school district being dissolved or absorbed by surrounding districts. “Your action demeans every student, parent, and staff member in the school district,” superintendents wrote in the letter. The district chiefs, including superintendents from Denver, Aurora, Cherry Creek, Littleton and 27J in Brighton, are members of the Denver Area School Superintendents Council. They wrote they were surprised and “deeply disappointed” by the state’s board’s May 24 order.
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