1-Color
March 20, 2014
Free Douglas County, Colorado | Volume 1, Issue 32 A publication of
castlepinesnewspress.net
Council nixes funding for arts group
DougCo expands helicopter service contract
Castle Pines Arts & Cultural Foundation denied $5,000 for lack of fundraising, other issues By Virginia Grantier
vgrantier@coloradocommunitymedia. com The Castle Pines Arts & Cultural Foundation already had signed a contract to bring in the Missoula Children’s Theatre to Castle Pines this year, but the foundation isn’t going to get the money it expected from the city to pay for it. Joan Millspaugh, foundation board member, told the Castle Pines City Council at a past meeting that city manager Don Van Wormer had told them they were getting the funding — $5,000 for Missoula and other 2014 events — so she signed the contract. But the city council expressed concerns about the lack of fundraising the organization was doing — and that length of time it’s taking for the organization to secure its 501(c)(3) status and voted 4-2 to deny the funding. Mayor Jeff Huff made a motion to approve the funding, and voted for it, as did Councilmember Rex Lucas. But councilmembers Roger Addlesperger, James Einolf, Resa Labossiere and Tera Radloff voted against it. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a foundation that doesn’t do fundraising,” said Labossiere. Millspaugh said that wasn’t the foundation’s principal goal.
New agreement part of county’s ‘hard, heavy, fast’ wildfire strategy By Hannah Garcia
hgarcia@coloradocommunitymedia.com In anticipation of yet another dry fire season, the county is expanding the scope of a contract it has with a helicopter service used to fight wildfires. At a March 11 meeting, the county commissioners unanimously approved a request from the Office of Emergency Management to replace the existing agreement with Rampart Helicopter Services. The new contract would expand exclusive use time period for up to six months starting on April 1 through the end of September. Under exclusive use, the service is guaranteed to be available when needed in case a wildfire ignites in Douglas County. The new agreement also expands the scope of services to law enforcement, public safety and searchand-rescue missions. The agreement is an improvement on last year’s agreement, which limited the exclusive use time period to two months, according to commissioner Roger Partridge. The county can also still use the company on a call-when-needed basis. “It’s an insurance policy,” said Tim Johnson, Douglas County director of emergency management. “These guys are very busy. There’s a possibility that they would be gone during a critical time” and would be unavailable without the exclusive-use provision. The expanded agreement is part of the county’s wildfire prevention
strategy, with commissioners and emergency management staff citing a refrain of “hard, heavy and fast” to describe its plan. Annual costs will not exceed $806,500, according to the contract. Last year the county budgeted around $300,000 for the service and used $229,000. The preventative cost is offset by the possibility of greater loss in the event of a catastrophic fire, Partridge said. The new agreement comes after wildfires have struck surrounding counties in the last few years, such as the Black Forest fire in El Paso County that killed two people, destroyed hundreds of homes and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The cost to fight the fire in El Paso County last year was around $9 million. “I don’t think it ever became as obvious to me (how necessary the service is) until tragedy struck surrounding counties,” commissioner Jill Repella said at the meeting. “The aftermath is a negative hit to a county’s budget.” The county commission also awarded payments in lieu of taxes, federal funding for local governments that help offset property tax losses from non-taxable federal lands within their boundaries, to five fire districts that provide coverage for the Pike National Forest Lands in the county. The county has paid $50,000 to these Fire continues on Page 9
Arts continues on Page 9
State’s Supreme Court to hear voucher case District’s program introduced in 2011 remains on hold through judicial process By Jane Reuter Rampart Helicopter Services fights an area fire in 2012. File photo
jreuter@coloradocommunitymedia.com The Colorado Supreme Court will hear the Douglas County School District voucher case. It issued an order March 17 granting that request from several plaintiffs in the original 2011 filing. The case likely won’t be heard until late summer or early fall, an attorney working for one of the plaintiffs said. That distant date — or the 11 months it took the state’s high court to render its Voucher continues on Page 28
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