February 18, 2021
$1.00
An edition of the Littleton Independent A publication of
VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 10
Schools’ nutrition chief: Keep lunch free No-charge school lunches during COVID era demonstrate need, says Jessica Gould BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The new signage at the former Centennial Medical Plaza, which opens as a hospital March 1 and will offer expanded services. PHOTOS BY ELLIS ARNOLD
Medical plaza expands into hospital Campus will no longer need to transfer patients elsewhere for overnight, longer care BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
For about 35 years, Centennial Medical Plaza has served as an emergency room in what eventually became the east-central part of the City of Centennial. It performs some vital procedures: emergency room care, imaging studies that can detect patients’ medical conditions, and surgeries that don’t
require hospitalization. But the building is a “freestanding” emergency department — it’s not attached to a hospital. So if patients need “inpatient” care, the kind that requires staying overnight or longer, they have to be transferred to another Denver-area medical facility. But the majority of the medical plaza’s patients live in the Centennial area, according to Sara Pierce, director of business development for the plaza’s new incarnation, the newly named Centennial Hospital. “Our patients want to stay in Centennial and have another option that’s close to home, and we SEE HOSPITAL, P8
Kyle Dahm, Centennial Hospital’s administrative director of nursing, left, sits with nurse manager Dezi Duckworth Feb. 12 at a desk where computers show patients’ vital signs and nurses document the care they provide.
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 11 | SPORTS: PAGE 16
TAKE A TOUR
Options abound for exploring cool places in the metro area P14
The sun did little to chase away the single-digit cold on Feb. 12 as Sarah Kinney hopped from foot to foot outside Arapahoe High School. Standing beside a tall rack loaded with bags of food, Kinney — who serves as Littleton Public Schools’ nutrition supervisor — waited for parents to drop by. For no charge, families could take home a week’s worth of breakfasts, lunches and produce for students. Many students are spending the year of COVID taking classes from home as part of the district’s online learning program. Others are under quarantine after exposure to positive cases in classrooms. But for parents who want to take food home, there are no questions asked, no forms to fill out. All parents need to do is pull up at a distribution site, load up on food and drive off. “To see the relief on their faces is so rewarding,” Kinney said. “It’s one less thing to worry about when SEE LUNCH, P5