February 27, 2014 Jefferson County, Colorado | Volume 9, Issue 39 A publication of
arvadapress.com
Community stations launch Arvada PD launches two community stations By Crystal Anderson canderson@ coloradocommunitymedia.com The Arvada Police Department will unveil two community substations to the public the first week of March as part of a new, sector based policing style. In the early 2000s, Arvada Police Chief Don Wick decided there was a better way to police the city of Arvada and he began thinking of a way to make an impact at the neighborhood and community levels. “Looking at the micro-level, it (policing) took on a completely different picture,” Wick said. “We’re going to do it by geog-
IF YOU GO WHAT: Substation Grand Opening Celebrations WHEN: Lake Arbor Community Station, 5-7 p.m., Tuesday, March 4, 8110 Vance Drive; West Woods Community Station, 5-7 p.m., March 5, 6644 Kendrick Drive COST: Free
raphy, at a more microscopic level, have a different kind of relationship.” The idea for the community stations came about as a part of the police department’s larger plan to be more involved in the three “natural neighborhoods” or sectors of Arvada: Adams, Charlie and Baker. “We’re doing this because we want to be out in our neighborhood, engage with the public, the community kids, and under-
stand the community we serve as a whole,” said Commander Michelle Moriarty, commander of the Lake Arbor Community Station. With the launch of these new stations, there will be three separate police stations in the city; one in the Lake Arbor neighborhood, 8100 Vance Drive; one in the West Woods neighborhood, 6644 Kendrick Drive; and the police headquarters, 8101 Ralston Road. Police headquarters will continue to house the dispatch for the police department, while the substations will provide a more relational, community specific services. Each of the two substations, in West Woods and Lake Arbor, give the police department the opportunity to serve those communities at a deeper level while fighting crime in those areas of the city. The
presence of police at the substations will allow them to engage with the community, identify crime patterns and the area’s specific needs while alleviating crime and the fear of crime. “My desire is that we have a much different relationship with the community and that they feel comfortable with us and want us to work with them,” Wick said. Construction for both substations began in June, 2013 and cost around $4 million each. The buildings were funded through the police department’s savings and tax increment funds. The grand opening of the community stations will be held March 4-5 after the officers have officially taken up residence there. For more information, contact the police department’s nonemergency line, 720898-6900.
National bicentennial educates students Star Spangled Scholars celebrates nation’s anthem and history By Crystal Anderson
canderson@ coloradocommunitymedia.com
Jerry Harden, left, and Jeff Schultz, right, stand quietly during a town hall meeting in Denver on Wednesday, Feb. 20. Representatives and directors from the Department of Energy, Department of Labor and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) held a two-day informative town hall meeting for Rocky Flats workers on how to qualify and apply for medical compensations. Photo by Amy Woodward
Expedited medical claims for Rocky Flats By Amy Woodward
awoodward@ coloradocommunitymedia.com Former workers at Rocky Flats may be able to bypass the complex federal claims process and move to the head of the line to receive medical compensations for illnesses stemming from radiation exposure at the plutonium trigger manufacturing plant. Rocky Flats workers were made part of a Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) in early January which allows for this alternative route. In order to qualify for the SEC class, employees must have worked at least 250 days at the plant between April 1, 1952 and Dec. 31, 1983 and they must have been diagnosed with one of 22 specified cancers including bone and renal cancers. Other cancers including breast, colon and brain, among others, must have an onset at least five years after first exposure. “It’s a lot shorter path to getting paid,” said Jeff Schultz, founder of Rocky Flats
Nuclear Workers, a nonprofit advocacy group for former Rocky Flats workers. Schultz and his wife worked at Rocky Flats for 16 years from 1983. Around nine years ago, his wife was diagnosed with kidney cancer and was told her claim would be processed but Schultz and his wife are still trying to prove she got cancer from working at the plant. “It’s good news for a lot of people, there are a lot of claims out there that were denied that are now going to be revisited,” he said. “It didn’t help my wife any but we have high hopes of pushing those years out.” During the town hall meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 19, in Denver, Stuart Hinnefeld, director for the division of compensation analysis and support for NIOSH answered questions as to why the SEC class did not include later years at the plant. “After 1983 it’s not so clear to us that we don’t have sufficient records, it may be reasonable to do it but we haven’t reached a final decision on that yet,” Hinnefeld said. “There’s still work
that needs to be done to reconstruct the later years.” Still, for workers and their surviving families that fit in the 15 year window, their claims may finally be validated. “This is about justice. For years, Rocky Flats workers risked their lives to protect this nation and helped end the Cold War, and they are entitled to receive the proper health care and benefits for this unselfish sacrifice to our country,” Rep. Ed Perlmutter said to Colorado Community Media. “After years of delay and roadblocks, I’m pleased the Obama Administration is making sure these workers’ claims are processed in a fast and fair way to receive the health care and compensation they earned during their service working in dangerous conditions on behalf of our nation.” By Feb. 17, 2014, Rocky Flats claimants have received $304 million, the Department of Labor reports. There has been 8,424 applications filed for claims, of those, 2,351 have received compensation. The plant closed in 1992.
To celebrate the colonial era in the country’s history, Star-spangled Scholars is educating Jefferson County students a deep, tangible, hands-on knowledge of the founding of the United States. ”This (Star-spangled Scholars program) offers experiential, hands-on learning for kiddos, they can touch it, feel it, smell it, wear it,” organizer and founder, Linda Olson Ferguson said. The program, founded in the fall of 2013, began incidentally after Ferguson heard about the bicentennial of the national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner. Ferguson immediately began to research this fact, and decided to put together a program that would help educate students across the Denver-Metro area about the fundamentals the nation was founded upon. ”The purpose is to teach lessons from real-life experiences from the founding of our nation to the settling of the West, with the hook being the bicentennial of the Star-spangled Banner,” Ferguson said. Throughout 2014, Ferguson, along with two Hands on History Colorado historians, Irish Lace and Smoketalker, and representative Steve DeBoer from the Sons of the American Revolution, will speak at area schools and youth programs educating students about the early history of the U.S. “We want to make that period of time, our history, our ancestry, make this time period feel real and fun for kids,” DeBoer Students continues on Page 5
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