March 20, 2014 Jefferson County, Colorado | Volume 9, Issue 42 A publication of
arvadapress.com
Charging a bit more for pizza
Jessica Montoya takes joy in watching her children being entertained during a magic show at the St. Patrick’s Day festival Saturday in Olde Town Arvada.
Arvada restaurant helps environment with new car-charging stations By Crystal Anderson
canderson@ coloradocommunitymedia.com
grandview grand time On
Hundreds of people dressed for the day and filled Grandview Avenue in Arvada for the St. Patrick’s Day Festival Saturday in Olde Town Arvada. See additional photos on Page 4
When eating out, do you think about being environmentally conscious? Whether you do or not, one Colorado restaurant is one step ahead of you. In late February, Beau Jo’s Colorado Style Pizza announced the installation of four CT4000 ChargePoint electric carcharging stations — the latest venture in their ever-evolving effort to become an environmentally and health-conscious eatery. “We definitely want to be a spot where people can charge,” said Pam Friedentag, vice president of sales and marketing for the business. The charging station, located on the southeast side of the Beau Jo’s parking lot, allows two electric vehicles to charge at a time, either a full or partial charge. To charge, owners must use a key card to activate the station, and select either a full or quick charge. A typical charge gives owners around 40 miles for their vehicle and can take up to eight hours for a slow charge. “We’ve had the stations around a month,” Friedentag said. “It’s been really positive, people like it, they’re curious (about electric cars), but they’re not that
Charge continues on Page 10
PHOTOS by MIkkel kelly
School board transparency bill dies Sponsor cites lack of support in Senate as reason for killing effort By Vic Vela
vvela@coloradocommunitymedia.com Legislation aimed at creating greater transparency for what happens behind closed doors at school board meetings will not happen this year. A bill sponsor on March 12 asked a Senate committee to indefinitely postpone the legislation, meaning the bill is dead this session. The legislation would have required that all conversations that take place during school board executive sessions be recorded, including those involving attorney-client discussions. Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, said she had enough votes for House Bill 1110 to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, getting it past the full Senate was going to be an entirely different story.
Hodge — who sponsored the bill with Rep. Cherylin Peniston, D-Westminster — said the bill was one vote short of the support needed to pass the Senate. That vote belonged to Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver. Steadman said he had concerns that the bill only targeted school boards and no other governing bodies, such as city Report councils. But S t e a d m a n’s “overriding” concerns had to do with attorney-client matters. Current law already requires that school board executive sessions be recorded. The bill would have expanded that requirement to include attorneyclient conversations. All Republicans and a few Democrats voted against the bill in the House, in part over concerns that
Capitol
lawyers wouldn’t be able to have effective conversations with their clients, if there was a possibility that those discussions could be made public. “I think there’re some concerns for me about the precedent it would have set,” said Steadman, who is an attorney. Under the bill, recordings of executive sessions would have been stored and would be made available through a court petition process. A judge would have listened to a recording upon a filer’s request and determine whether that information should be made public. The bill was a response to recent controversies over transparency issues involving school boards in Douglas and Jefferson Counties. The Douglas County School Board has been the subject of criticism over its use of executive sessions. The conservative Bill continues on Page 10
beau Jo’s, a Colorado pizza restaurant, recently installed four CT4000 ChargePoint electric car charging stations across the state, including the Arvada location. Photo by Crystal Anderson
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