Centennial Citizen 1224

December 24, 2020

$1.00

An edition of the Littleton Independent A publication of

VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 2

Vaccine’s arrival: ‘It’s been a long haul’ Local nurse, among first to get vaccine, urges public to ‘hang in there’

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

When emergency-room nurse Michelle Schroder walked up to her chair, Tracy Lauzon was giddy.

Lauzon, 52, a director of trauma and stroke care at the Medical Center of Aurora, raised her arms in the air as she greeted Schroder, one of the health care workers for whom Lauzon stood prepared to give a COVID-19 vaccine shot.

“It’s been a long haul,” said Lau-

zon, adding that it feels good to be able to offer the vaccine to people after months of the pandemic stretching on.

Colorado received its first shipments of a vaccine for COVID-19 on Dec. 14, and health care centers in different parts of the state doled out shots to health care workers during that week.

Schroder, 48, a clinical nurse coordinator for Centennial Medical Plaza, smiled under her mask after Lauzon placed the bandage on her arm the afternoon of Dec. 16 at the Medical Center of Aurora, a hospital along Interstate 225. Schroder wasn’t expecting an mRNA vaccine so quickly — at first, she wasn’t SEE VACCINE, P12

Michelle Schroder, 48, an emergency-room nurse for Centennial Medical Plaza, receives her first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 16 at the Medical Center of Aurora. Administering the shot is Tracy Lauzon, 52, a director of trauma and stroke PHOTO BY ELLIS ARNOLD care at the Medical Center of Aurora.

Diners ‘want to support independent businesses’ Tap and Grill along Arapahoe Road adjusts for winter, indoor dining closure

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Shannon Sullivan, 54, right, talks over a drink at a fire-pit table on Dec. 11 with Julie Wismann, 44, at 2 Penguins Tap and Grill in central Centennial. The two friends from Aurora said they’re trying to support local businesses who are struggling under Colorado’s PHOTO BY ELLIS ARNOLD public health restrictions aimed at combating the coronavirus.

Business owners have to try anything in this environment, said Steven Langer, owner of 2 Penguins Tap and Grill in central Centennial.

That’s why Langer created a drivethru lane to serve his restaurant’s Colorado-based beer to patrons who want to show support during the indoor dining shutdown that took effect in November in the Denver metro area and other regions of the state.

It wasn’t successful, but Langer isn’t fazed.

SEE DINERS, P12

INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 10 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 16 | SPORTS: PAGE 17

KNEAD TO KNOW

Learn what it takes to bake perfect bread at high altitude P14

2 Centennial Citizen

December 24, 2020D

‘What will happen to these people?’

For those sheltering with motel vouchers amid pandemic, the future is murky

BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

James and Desiree Jackson felt like they had life pretty well under control.

The couple, together for nearly a decade, lived in a comfortable home in Aurora. Desiree stayed home to care for their two young daughters while James worked at his longtime job at King Soopers.

But late last year, when James came down with an autoimmune disorder that began consuming his internal organs, their situation degraded quickly.

Unable to work, they couldn’t pay rent and lost the house. Desiree’s family was mired in substance abuse issues and was no help. Now pregnant with a third daughter, the family moved in with James’ mom — who soon passed away.

The family struck out on the streets with little more than backpacks and a stroller, lugging a heavy weighted blanket to keep the girls warm at night. They slept where they could.

The situation grew far more dire as the COVID-19 pandemic swept

Mary McDonald, left, and Peter Shaw, holding his Chihuahua Slabbo, sit outside McDonald’s room at the Holiday Motel in Englewood. McDonald’s Christmas tree came from the home of a former caregiving client who died of cirrhosis.

Kayla Waters kisses her son Christopher, 3. The family lost their apartment in October.

PHOTOS BY DAVID GILBERT Waters called the Holiday Motel “the best hotel on earth.”

over the land: Hoarders wiped out baby supplies at grocery stores, and libraries and rec centers where the family sought refuge closed their doors. James, his organs still being consumed, feared that contracting COVID-19 could kill him.

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The couple had long dreaded confessing their situation to social workers, for fear of losing their children to foster care. Out of options, they presented themselves to Arapahoe County caseworkers.

Instead of taking the children, a caseworker connected them to Bonnie DeHart of HAAT Force, a nonprofit that provides motel vouchers to families and people with disabilities living on the streets.

DeHart booked the family a twoweek stay at Englewood’s Holiday Motel, and for the first time in months, the weary couple and their little girls had a bed and shower of their own.

As the two-week voucher ran out, Holiday Motel co-owner Dwight Kim offered James a job helping maintain the place. The couple’s third daughter was born in August, and today the family of five shares a room beside the motel office.

“You can think you have everything together,” Desiree said outside the room as her girls napped. “And you can get down so low you think there’s no coming up. But things happen for a reason. I have such gratitude. My eyes are open.”

Now, James and Kim help each other take care of the motel. Nearly three-quarters of the motel’s 32 rooms are occupied by people who are elderly, disabled, ill, or caring for young children, none with anywhere else but the streets to go, all depending on vouchers to ride out a pandemic raging like never before.

James has taken on a mentor role for some of the other voucher recipients, trying to steer them toward outreach agencies, and even helping convert a room of the motel to use for meetings and classes.

“Before my mom passed, she always told me I would find a way to help people,” he said. “I know she’s looking down and smiling.”

‘A bandage on the situation’

In the past, HAAT Force and sister

organizations provided overnight shelter to people living on the streets on nights when temperatures plummeted or blizzards blew.

As the pandemic reshaped society last spring, the groups shifted their focus, seeking longer-term shelter for families and those whose age or health meant they were under serious threat from living without access to hygiene or the ability to get distance from others.

As unemployment surged and churches closed their doors, donations dried up, but were replaced with funding from the federal CARES Act. But federal funds came with a catch: they had to be spent by the end of the year.

Now, as New Year’s approaches, local governments are scrambling to line up more funding to keep paying for vouchers.

Meanwhile, shelter groups face a convergence of other factors: eviction and foreclosure moratoriums are due to expire just as a new round of public health restrictions is putting more people out of work, potentially pushing many more people in tenuous situations into life on the streets.

“My biggest worry is, what will happen to these people?” asked Betsy Keyack, a board member at HAAT Force, who is running much of the group’s operations as longtime board chair DeHart struggles to recover from a severe case of COVID-19.

HAAT Force is currently providing long-term shelter to 59 people in 25 groups, Keyack said, but the future is tenuous.

“They’re supposed to figure out what to do when they have to leave the hotels,” Keyack said. “But that’s really, really difficult.”

Many of the services they are instructed to work with require computer access, but many of those in the motels don’t have computers, or are elderly and struggle to use them. Access to computers at libraries or places like Englewood’s Giving Heart outreach agency is limited or cut off. Volunteers who would normally help people navigate complicated systems — many of them elderly themselves and therefore at greater risk from the virus — are unavailable. Meanwhile, affordable housing is extremely limited, and wait lists stretch years long.

SEE VOUCHERS, P11

Centennial Citizen 3

0December 24, 2020

Stan Scheer, former Littleton superintendent, dies at 77 Scheer, who led district from 1999-2006, passed just days after wife

BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Former Littleton Public Schools Superintendent Stan Scheer passed away on Dec. 13, leaving behind a legacy as a generous leader who steered the district through tumultuous times with a steady hand.

Scheer, 77, died of COVID-19, just days Scheer after his beloved wife Marian, 82, also died from the virus that has now taken more than 300,000 American lives.

The couple lived in Windsor, in northern Colorado.

Scheer led the district from 1999 to 2006, an era when Littleton Public Schools was finding a path forward after a decade of political turmoil, recalled Scott Murphy, who succeeded Scheer as superintendent.

“Stan brought us back together,” said Murphy, who as the district’s director of operations sat on the committee that hired Scheer. “He was a great communicator. His eyes didn’t wander as you spoke.

He was focused on you and only you.”

Though Scheer was a gregarious man who loved golf and travel, Murphy said Scheer approached the job of superintendent more as a lifestyle than a career.

“He’d go home for dinner, then he would head back out to school plays, sports games, whatever events were going on. He was there.”

Many moments stand out in Murphy’s memories of Scheer, like the time a maintenance crew member was hospitalized with a heart problem.

“Stan didn’t know this guy from Adam, but as soon as he heard, we were on our way to the hospital to visit him,” Murphy said. “It wasn’t to get a pat on the back. He didn’t tell anyone. He just wanted to be there for someone in his organization.”

Other moments stood out: on snowy mornings, Scheer would show up at the district’s bus barn before dawn with a box of doughnuts for drivers about to head out.

Scheer would sometimes fill in as a substitute teacher, making sure he stayed grounded in what teacher’s daily lives were like.

Devoted couple

Scheer and Marian were a true love story, Murphy remembered.

“She was his strength when times got tough,” he said. “It can be lonely at the top. You have to understand you’re the captain of the ship, and people are looking to you for answers, for guidance.

In those times, she was there for him.”

Husband and wife were both military veterans, Murphy recalled, adding that Marian would often visit schools on Veterans Day in uniform, and would lead educational programs for students.

Murphy said Scheer told him he came from a rough and troubled childhood in Wyoming, and said teachers were the first ones to see his potential, giving him direction lacking in his home life.

Even long after he left the district, Scheer stayed connected to his former colleagues.

Murphy was serving as the district’s superintendent in December 2013, when a student gunman killed classmate Claire Davis at Arapahoe High School before taking his own life.

“Stan was the first one who called me,” Murphy remembered.

“He was the first one to check on me, to make sure I was OK. He gave me space, but I always felt like he was with me.”

Born in Flint, Michigan, Scheer grew up in Wyoming, according to a report in the Loveland ReporterHerald. He and his wife were both Army veterans. Before coming to Littleton, Scheer worked in school finance in Wyoming and led school districts in Missouri.

Former school board member Mary McGlone remembered Scheer as a blessing to a district seeking direction.

“Stan was the rare combination of brains and heart,” McGlone said. “He sought out the district’s critics and found ways to bring them into the fold. When he first got here, he spent months just meeting with people: teachers, district staff, everyone. He made parents feel like they had something to contribute.”

Legacy continues

Scheer led the charge for district programs that continue today: the Voyager program, which gives high school students access to courses at Arapahoe Community College, and the Phoenix program, which provides counseling and educational assistance to students otherwise headed toward expulsion.

Scheer also pioneered the district’s restorative justice program, which gives students the chance to repair interpersonal relationships strained by bad behavior.

“Those were big deals,” McGlone said. “We kept kids in school we might otherwise have lost.”

Scheer also substantially boosted how the district marked Veterans Day, McGlone recalled.

“It’s a big deal at LPS, and it wasn’t before him,” she said.

“Every Veterans Day, he found a way for every school get educated about veterans and remember their sacrifice, everything from SEE SCHEER, P4

ARAPAHOE COUNTY Happy Holidays All County offices will be closed on Thursday, December 24 and Friday, December 25 in observance of the Christmas holiday. arapahoegov.com/calendar

Telephone Town Hall – Vaccination Update Join us on Thursday, January 7 @ 6:30 p.m. for a discussion on the COVID-19 vaccination and the County’s distribution plans.

Get details at arapahoegov.com/townhall

Keep it up, Arapahoe!

DON’T FORGET YOUR WINTER ESSENTIALS.

KEEP IT UP A R A PA H O E C O U N T Y

Virtual Swearing In You are invited to attend the virtual swearing-in ceremony for newly elected County officials on January 11 @ 6:30 p.m.

Access the live event: arapahoegov.com/BOCC

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4 Centennial Citizen

December 24, 2020D

Metro-area school districts hope for January return Looser quarantine rules to allow for less interruption to in-person learning

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Testing for quarantined students, some preemptive testing in schools and modified quarantine requirements are expected to be the ticket to more consistent inperson classes for several school districts across the Denver metro area, the districts’ leaders said in a Dec. 15 news conference.

But even with the expanded leeway to hold traditional classes, superintendents emphasized that if levels of COVID-19 spread remain at their currently high levels, schools may find it impossible to keep enough teachers out of quarantine to consistently keep classes in schools.

Chris Gdowski, head of Adams 12 Five Star Schools, expressed hope about the expanded testing capabilities that Gov. Jared Polis discussed at an earlier news conference the same day, along with nodding to new, less stringent quarantine guidance.

But “the most important part is to bring down this community transmission,” Gdowski said on the Dec. 15 online news conference. He added: “Without that,

if we remain at 1,100 cases per 100,000 (per two weeks) in Adams County,” plans for in-person learning fall apart.

When COVID-19 becomes widespread enough — at the levels seen in the metro area in the past few months — staffing and numbers of substitute teachers begin to become the weak link in keeping schools running in-person, the superintendents said.

Although schools generally haven’t been shown to be “superspreader environments,” keeping students in school becomes difficult at or above roughly 500-700 new cases per 100,000 people in a county in a two-week time frame, said Littleton Public Schools Superintendent Brian Ewert, referencing data from the Metro Denver Partnership for Health.

That’s an organization led by the six public health agencies serving the seven-county metro area.

Like a “house of cards,” inperson school planning “literally begins to collapse” at that point due to widespread quarantines, Ewert said.

Virtually all students in Denver and surrounding suburbs moved to remote, or online, classes this fall as coronavirus spread mounted.

Superintendents frustrated with the torrent of quarantines in the fall semester heard encouraging news with the recent guidance from the federal Centers for

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Stringent protocols are in place throughout Lone Tree to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, including face coverings, social distancing and ample curbside/delivery options.

Disease Control and Prevention: It provides options for reducing time in quarantine to seven days with a negative test at day five or later, or reducing quarantine to 10 days with no test for those who remain asymptomatic and “are aware of the need for daily symptom monitoring through the full 14 days of the standard quarantine approach,” a report by the Metro Denver Partnership for Health says.

That’s expected to allow students and staff to come back to school much quicker if they get tested.

The shortened quarantines may come with slightly higher risk of spreading COVID-19, though.

See the introduction and the first chart on the CDC’s website at tinyurl.com/NewQuarantineGuidance for more details.

In early October amid backlash from some metro school superintendents, the state public-health department released relaxed guidelines outlining that in some cases, entire classes or larger groups of students no longer need to quarantine in response to a positive COVID-19 case. But in schools in counties operating with higher levels of coronavirus spread, classes or cohorts of students still were urged to be quarantined.

Under a recent update to the guidance in November, as long as districts adhere to strict protocols, broad quarantines are no longer necessary regardless of the level of virus spread in a county.

School districts can now generally use “targeted contact identification,” which entails quarantining those within 6 feet of a person with COVID-19 or symptoms of the disease for 15 minutes or more when both parties are masked. It also requires quarantines when someone was within 12 feet of the individual for 15 minutes or greater when either party was unmasked and indoors.

Those time criteria are cumula-

SCHEER FROM PAGE 3

choir concerts at the elementary level to meaningful conversations at the high school level. It was about more than just parents and grandparents. He would bring in community members who served.”

Like Murphy, McGlone holds many fond memories of Scheer.

She recalled his habit of taping a $100 bill beneath a random chair at every graduation ceremony, and his practice of holding private graduation ceremonies for students whose disabilities prevented them from attending regular graduations.

After leaving LPS, Scheer went on to lead a southern California school district, and finished his

tive, meaning two 10-minute exposures in a day is equivalent to one 20-minute exposure, according to the guidance.

Mike Johnston, a leader with an initiative called COVIDCheck Colorado that provides access to COVID-19 testing, said COVIDCheck will be partnering with all the districts on the news conference call for testing people in quarantine. Districts also might have access, to some extent, for preemptive testing for students who aren’t in quarantine.

The districts partnering with COVIDCheck include Cherry Creek School District, Denver Public Schools, Jefferson County Public Schools, Aurora Public Schools, Adams 12 Five Star Schools, Littleton Public Schools and Douglas County School District, although it was unclear if other districts not on the call would also be part of the partnership.

Polis at his Dec. 15 news conference said data continues to suggest that schools generally aren’t a driver of COVID-19 spread in surrounding communities.

“There’s really not been a lot of difference in transmission between communities that have been fully back at school and those that haven’t, which gives us further confidence that schools are not a factor in significant community transmission,” Polis said. “Many districts in Colorado have been fully back, others partially back, others not back — really no real difference in transmission levels in those communities.”

Even with the reassuring news, Cherry Creek Superintendent Scott Siegfried emphasized that the broader community’s efforts to reduce coronavirus spread are key to ensuring in-person class comes back consistently.

“We have three weeks to collectively ensure that students can return to classrooms,” Siegfried said.

career in 2018 at the Thompson Valley School District in northern Colorado.

He and Marian leave behind five children and 13 grandchildren.

McGlone said Scheer’s death from COVID-19 is a sobering and tragic moment.

“This is happening to thousands of families every day,” she said.

Murphy echoed McGlone.

“To understand this moment, this era we’re living through, we have to understand the loss to our world,” Murphy said. “We have to get through this, get past this. We have to take this seriously.”

As for Stan and Marian Scheer, though, Murphy said they have gone to their reward.

“I’m sure they’re standing at the pearly gates,” Murphy said. “And the angel is saying ‘I hope you brought your golf clubs.’”

Centennial Citizen 5

0December 24, 2020

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6 Centennial Citizen

December 24, 2020D

MY NAME IS

SARA OVERBY

in Taiwan for a year. No place ever really felt like home until I settled on East Colfax in Denver, where I lived for 10 years.

Mom who came to love Littleton helps bridge gaps between poverty and health

Delightfully uncontrolled

Poverty and health

I’m a program officer for the Colorado Health Foundation, which provides grant funding for health programs with a focus on low-income communities and communities of color.

I’m assigned to southwestern Colorado, and my job is to know as much as possible about the region — we want to know the locals, the officials, everyone.

Historically, the foundation funded grants strictly in terms of health, but now we’re working on social factors. How do we increase access to housing? All of that affects health. If you don’t have a house to live in, you’re probably not able to worry about whether you’re eating enough fruits and vegetables.

We blame people for their poverty, or we expect their families to help, but so many families don’t have that safety net. It’s easy to look at someone in poverty and not understand the systemic

Sara Overby, with her son Samuel, said she used to be the biggest fan of life on Colfax Avenue in Denver, COURTESY PHOTO but now she’s the biggest fan of downtown Littleton.

influences that put them where they are today.

‘The personality of a jet engine’

My daughter is 3, and she has personality of jet engine. I’ve never been a patient person, but she has

forced me to learn patience.

My son is 1 year old, and from him I learned it doesn’t matter what your genetics are, everyone is their own person.

I’d like to apologize right now to every parent I ever

judged in a restaurant. Until you have your own, you just have no idea what it’s like.

Having kids has humbled me.

I grew up in Oklahoma, moved to Washington, D.C. after college, and even lived

East Colfax is uncontrolled in a way that’s delightful. My husband and I had so much fun. There were so many cool places to check out and so many great people to meet.

As much as I loved it, there’s crime. I grew up in Oklahoma, riding my bike around. I couldn’t send my daughter to play among the needles and condoms in the alleys.

Having kids means life is no longer about what you want, but what’s best for them. I became the classic American case of moving to the suburbs when you have kids.

I said I would never do it, but we drove through Littleton, and I said I think I like this place. Next thing I knew we were buying a house here.

I was the number one fan of East Colfax, but now I’m the number one fan of downtown Littleton.

If you have suggestions for My Name Is, please contact David Gilbert at dgilbert@ coloradocommunitymedia. com.

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Centennial Citizen 7

0December 24, 2020

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Centennial Citizen 9

0December 24, 2020

Enrollment decline may devastate schools Pandemic has cut student numbers sharply, could hit budgets hard

BY ERICA BREUNLIN AND JOHN FRANK THE COLORADO SUN

Enrollment in Colorado public schools dropped by close to 30,000 students this school year — the first year-to-year decrease the state’s public school system has reported in more than 30 years.

Impacts of the pandemic drove enrollment numbers down, according to the Colorado Department of Education, which released preliminary enrollment figures on Dec. 15 after counting students in October.

The overall drop in enrollment equates to a 3.3% decrease, with some of Colorado’s 178 school districts suffering dips of nearly 10% from enrollment during the 2019-20 school year. That could have serious consequences for the state’s public education system and districts’ budgets, which are largely determined by pupil counts, said Tracie Rainey, executive director of the Colorado School Finance Project.

Depending on how the legislature decides to fund education during the next lawmaking session, districts could suffer significantly.

“It could be devastating if they make a reduction,” Rainey said.

“There is no way that school districts could absorb that kind of cut.”

There are 883,281 students enrolled in preschool through 12th grade this school year. About 140 districts reported a drop in enrollment, while the rest of the state’s 178 districts experienced an enrollment surge.

Many of the districts that reported the steepest enrollment declines are those with the largest student populations in the state.

Douglas County School District’s census dropped 4,326 to 62,979 students. Colorado’s largest school district, Denver Public Schools, counted 89,061 students this fall, down 3,051 from last year’s October count.

Colorado Springs School District 11’s enrollment fell by the largest percentage — 8.2%. The district has 23,885 students enrolled this fall, down 2,155 from last year.

And while white students represented the highest enrollment change in raw numbers — public schools educated 19,721 fewer white students this fall compared to last year — Native American students accounted for the highest percentage drop in enrollment at 5.8%.

Enrollment among Colorado’s earliest learners took the biggest hit this school year, with a decline of more than 8,000 students in pre-

school — a 23.3% drop — and close to 5,800 fewer kindergartners, representing a 9.1% decrease. Additionally, some 13,800 fewer students in grades 1-5 were reported this fall, equal to a dip of 4.2%.

Jennifer Okes, chief operating officer for the Colorado Department of Education, attributes the changes in preschool and kindergarten enrollments to the decision by many Colorado parents to delay enrolling their kids by a year, taking a wait-and-see approach to how the pandemic might continue to disrupt schooling.

The decrease in public school enrollment doesn’t come as a surprise to CDE’s Okes.

“I think this is consistent with what we were hearing anecdotally throughout the beginning of the school year from districts, that they were seeing a decrease in enrollment, especially in those younger grades,” Okes said.

Homeschooling has effect

Part of the enrollment decline is influenced by a rising number of families choosing to homeschool their children because of the pandemic. The number of students who are being homeschooled this year doubled to 15,773 this year from 7,880 in 2019, CDE reported.

Another major change involved the shift of students to online schooling. More than 32,300 students enrolled in online educational programs this year, up 44% from last year. Okes noted that those programs are facilitated through public schools.

The counts released Dec. 15 are preliminary as districts continue to refine their enrollment numbers, CDE officials said. The department typically releases numbers from its annual October count each January, but made preliminary figures public this year during so many disruptions caused by the pandemic.

Okes said that some districts have already contacted CDE with corrections. But she doesn’t expect any changes to dramatically alter the overall trend of a decrease to enrollment.

It’s not yet clear if the drop in enrollment is a short-term blip or a long-term trend, but CDE anticipates that the public school system’s student count will increase again within the next few years. Data from communities that have experienced catastrophes like fires, floods and other natural disasters and experienced an enrollment dip as a result have rebounded with student counts in subsequent years, Okes said.

CDE expects a large number of students to return in the future.

“Whether that’s 100% of those students or not, that remains to be seen,” Okes said.

She added that the department projects enrollment will increase

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The following are the school districts that saw the largest declines in enrollment: • Douglas County: -4,326 students (-6.4%) • Jefferson County: -3,960 students (-4.7%) • Denver Public Schools: -3,051 students (-3.3%) • Aurora Public Schools: -2,181 students (-5.5%) • Colorado Springs D-11: -2,155 students (-8.2%) • Adams 12 5 Star: -2,053 students (-5.2%) • Cherry Creek: -2,005 students (-3.6%) Source: Colorado Department of Education next year once vaccinations are more widely available. But schools may not see their numbers fully rebound until fall of 2022.

Van Schoales, president of A+ Colorado, predicts the drop in enrollment won’t amount to more than a short-term loss for public schools. But he pointed to an underlying long-term trend that influenced this year’s enrollment dip: parents’ pursuit of different options that better meet the needs of their students. The pandemic is accelerating that trend for those families who can afford to consider other schooling options.

“That isn’t a blip,” Schoales said.

He wonders what enrollment projections for next fall look like and believes that how Colorado schools approach classes in January will help shape future enrollment trends. If schools return to in-person learning, he said, that probably “would stop the bleeding.” If schools don’t open back up their classroom doors, he anticipates enrollment will continue to suffer.

All of the enrollment declines could translate to financial struggles for districts, particularly if lawmakers reduce education funding from current levels, said Rainey, of the Colorado School Finance Project.

Cuts to education funding would weigh heavily on districts’ operations. Rainey noted that districts wouldn’t be able to trim their budgets without potentially breaking staff contracts and pulling funds from their reserves — all while trying to manage increasing costs brought on by the pandemic.

Worst-case scenario

One possible outcome for some districts: a failure to meet payroll.

The bulk of districts’ budgets cover salaries and benefits.

“And so trying to then make reductions without breaking contracts is almost impossible unless you have additional dollars that are in reserve and then you’re going to be trying to address it through additional cash resources,” Rainey said.

Depending on what the impact is for each district, she added, “it could be a major problem.”

A Republican-led effort to prevent school districts from losing more state funding could help if it can gain broader support among lawmakers during the next legislative session.

Republicans put forward a bill in the special session earlier this month that proposed holding school districts harmless from the loss in state funding caused by the lower counts.

Traditionally, as part of the midyear supplemental budget bills, lawmakers adjust the money that districts receive based on the per pupil numbers. A bill in the special session from Rep. Jim Wilson, R-Salida, would have declared the intent of the General Assembly not to do so.

“Let’s not let school districts suffer more than they have already,” said Rep. Mark Baisley, a Roxborough Park Republican who supported the measure.

The Democratic-majority in the state House rejected the bill, but some lawmakers expressed interest in renewing the idea when the legislature returns in January.

This story is from The Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. Used by permission. For more, and to support The Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com.

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10 Centennial Citizen

LOCAL

December 24, 2020D

VOICES Looking near and near for the best things in life

A

nnually I submit a list of things that make (my) life worth living and it’s usually a snap to write. After all, why wouldn’t life be worth living?

Then 2020 showed QUIET up. It walked in DESPERATION the door wearing muddy boots and talked with its mouth full. Just about everything we did without thinking twice was inverted, reversed, changed, canceled, restricted, even Craig Marshall haircuts.

If you are reading Smith this, you’ve made it this far. Close to 300,000 did not. The number of pandemic-related cases is in the millions.

In the past, I tried to go beyond obvious examples: my dog, films, music, friendship.

When I began scribbling down nominees for this year’s list, I thought about digging deeper.

But why?

Nothing in 2020 was more important or meaningful to me than Harry, whose complete obliviousness to current events was the finest antidote on the market.

Harry doesn’t know that 2020 has been any different than 2019, 2018, or 2017, the year he was born.

He doesn’t know and he doesn’t care.

If you have a 3-year-old son or daughter it’s likely they’re out of the loop too. But one of these days, you will have some explaining to do.

I will never have to explain anything to Harry. But if I did, what would I tell him?

It’s been inexplicable.

This year has brought out the very best in people — and the worst. For every affirmative story about man and womankind, there’s an equal and opposite.

I’m one of the lucky ones. A friend said, “You’ve been social distancing your whole life,” and she’s right.

A pandemic doesn’t impact a retired recluse the same way it does an employed extrovert.

But I haven’t taken any chances.

No restaurants, no gatherings, games, concerts, parties, picnics.

Harry and I have two or three walks a day. And two or three films.

I keep a long cue: mostly ones that were made before movies became soused with special effects and gore.

A friend half my age sends me a “Song of the Day,” and it’s generally a song by someone I’ve never heard of.

Invariably she introduces me to a performer or a band I can appreciate without wincing. Have you heard of Phoebe Bridges?

We both like Nina Simone. Django Reinhardt. And Bob Dylan, who just sold his entire songwriting catalog to Universal Music. For an estimated $300 million.

As for friendship this year? It’s been emails, by the hundreds, and daily from some of my best friends.

Artist Mark Friday and I exchange complete drivel: wordplay, puns and jokes.

We created lists of our favorite humorists: on film, television, record, in print.

Bob and Ray, Groucho Marx, W.

C. Fields, Steve Martin, Steven Wright, Dorothy Parker, Nichols and May, Dick Van Dyke, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Oscar Levant, Soupy Sales, Fran Lebowitz, Leslie Nielsen, Bill Murray, Rudy Giuliani.

He’s a Three Stooges man. I’m not.

Some days, one of us will initiate a random topic, like a vegetable.

What evolves is drivel, sophomoric, anecdotal, epigrammatic, ironic, satirical, hyperbolic, irreverent or droll.

Our correspondences have been tonic. Restoratives.

When I see I have an email from him, I know what I’m in for: a smile.

However, we’re both conscientious enough to know that a lot of what is going on in the world and United States can’t be compromised with a quip.

What makes life worth living?

Life.

Craig Marshall Smith is an artist, educator and Highlands Ranch resident. He can be reached at craigmarshallsmith@comcast.net.

Waking up each day knowing we are making a difference

T

he inspiration for this week’s column comes from a movie I had watched over the weekend, “The Man Who Invented Christmas.” It is the story of Charles Dickens and how he came to write his book, “A Christmas WINNING Carol.” If you are WORDS looking for a great movie to watch, I highly recommend it.

The book was written in 1843.

And since its initial publishing, there have been more than 2 million Michael Norton copies sold here in the United States alone. The book has never been out of publication. More than 170 years later there have been hundreds of cartoons, movies, plays, and musicals that retell the story. As I finished watching the movie, I had the realization that Charles Dickens could have never known the lasting impact that his book would have on the world.

How do we view the work we are

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doing today? How are we thinking about every conversation and interaction we are having with our family, our friends, through social media, and with strangers that we encounter? Our actions and behavior, what we say and how we say it, could very well have a long and lasting impact on the lives of those we live with, work with, or who we are connected to in some way. And they in turn could have a positive influence on the people in their own circles for years and generations to come.

In a virtual meeting that I was a part of this morning, I found myself being truly inspired by a young man who was a part of the call. As we greeted one another and introduced ourselves, the young man, his name is Jimmy, also included his own personal “why” behind what he does for a living. He shared that he wants to wake up each day knowing that he is making a difference in the world. The sincerity of his words was underscored when he shared with me a diagram that illustrated his priorities, values, and virtues that he aspired to be, do, and have. I firmly believe that

Jimmy’s impact on his own business, co-workers, family, friends, and customers will be felt for many years.

Being a difference-maker rarely happens accidentally. In most cases making a difference is a direct result of someone who was intentional about their actions and the words they chose to provide others with hope, encouragement, a hand up, or guidance. When we are intentional about the words we choose, we recognize that we can build others up by what we say. And we also understand that if we are not careful, our words can also cause great harm, tearing others down.

Unfortunately, the lasting impact of our thoughtlessness can last for years and generations as well.

At this time of year, many of us show our gratitude by doing our best to make a difference through acts of generosity. We search out opportunities where charitable contributions of our time, talents, and resources can make a difference for a family, an individual, or an organization. It doesn’t matter what we call it, at the end of the day it is about changing lives and doing our

best to change or impact people and situations in a positive way.

We are all Charles Dickens in a way, aren’t we? Each one of us can leave a lasting impression upon the earth, bring happiness and joy to another person, provide a muchneeded smile, or give a hug, even if it is a virtual hug, to someone who could really use a hug right now.

And as we do, let us never minimize our ability or our capacity to make a difference, a difference that will be felt for 170 years or more.

How about you? Are you intentional about the impact that you have on others? Have you thought about how grateful others will be generations from now all because one day you changed someone’s life for the better? I would love to hear your story at mnorton@tramazing. com and when we start waking up each morning to be a differencemaker, it really will be a better than good life.

Michael Norton is the grateful CEO of Tramazing.com, a personal and professional coach, and a consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator to businesses of all sizes.

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Centennial Citizen 11

0December 24, 2020

VOUCHERS FROM PAGE 2

“We’re putting a bandage on the situation,” Keyack said. “These are people who desperately need stability. Places where they can improve their situations, find steady employ-ment, or for kids somewhere they can get a steady education. Right now, people are making it by the skin of their teeth.”

‘Value in human life’

Other shelter groups are facing similar challenges. The Severe Weather Shelter Network, a sprawling consortium of churches primarily in Arapahoe and Jefferson counties that open their basements to unhoused single adults on cold winter nights, is unable to operate as normal this year.

Many of its member churches remain closed to the public, said director Lynn Ann Huizingh, and public health guidelines disallow so many people in such tight quarters.

Many of the group’s volunteers are elderly, and are staying away from group gatherings anyway.

The group has shifted to a motel voucher system, lining up dozens of rooms at nine different motels.

The shift hasn’t come cheap. In a normal year, the group might register 500 people for shelter between October and April. This year, Huizingh said, they registered 500 people by early December, with more added to the ranks every week.

“We’re seeing a huge increase in people living on the street,” she said. “Maybe a fifth of our guests this year are new to the street, and most have lost their jobs and their housing since March.”

Providing motel accommodations is much more complex than providing cots in church basements, and the shift has not come cheap.

Faced with increasing duties and a lack of volunteers, the network ehas had to hire several employees to handle administrative tasks and check in on guests. Paying for motel rooms for a three-day stretch of bad weather can cost $20,000, Huizingh said.

A silver lining, she said, is that the group’s registry is exposing the true scope of homelessness in the suburbs.

“We’ve known for years the number of people on the streets is majorly undercounted,” she said.

“We’re starting to get a real count.

It could mean more funding from governments and foundations to help people.”

The work is difficult, but Huizingh called it a calling.

“For me personally, it’s an extension of my faith,” she said. “Jesus said, ‘What you have done for the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done for me.’ There’s value in human life. These are people who are marginalized, shunned, turned away. They’re isolated and invisible.

It’s a burden on our hearts, and we have to do something.”

‘We don’t want people freezing’

Local government officials say they see the need and are doing everything they can to maintain the voucher programs after the federal money must be sent back to the national treasury.

Michael Curtis moved into the Holiday Motel after months living in his Jeep while nursing a broken shoulder. PHOTOS BY DAVID GILBERT

Arapahoe County has already allocated nearly $900,000 of its CARES Act allotment toward emergency housing, said Nancy Sharpe, chair of the board of county commissioners. After the first of the year, Sharpe said the plan is to use community development block grant funding, and there is even some hope that limited CARES funds can be held over.

“We don’t want to see these families back on the street,” Sharpe said. “We should be able to get them through at least until spring.”

Meanwhile, the county is beefing up its outreach programs, and working to provide “navigators” who can help walk people in need through the struggle of building personal stability.

In Jefferson County, officials have allotted $250,000 of CARES Act funds toward the Severe Weather Shelter Network’s efforts, said Kat Douglas, the county’s regional homelessness and housing development coordinator.

She said she feels confident the county will be able to provide additional funds, some drawn from grants from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, to cover the network’s need until spring.

The network is doing vital work, Douglas said.

“We don’t have a great shelter network in Jefferson County,” Douglas said. “Motels have proven to be a critical resource. Having families, veterans and people with disabilities on the street isn’t good for anyone. With hospitals already taxed, it’s no good to have people in there being treated for frostbite. We don’t want people freezing to death.”

‘A helping hand’

At the Holiday Motel, Dwight Kim, the co-owner, makes the rounds checking on guests riding out the pandemic.

There’s Mary McDonald, a 1980 graduate of Arapahoe High School, who lost all her cleaning service’s clients early in the pandemic. She salutes every fire truck, ambulance and police car that drives past.

There’s Peter Shaw, a once successful contractor who lost his home after he got too sick to work. Recovering from a brutal car crash, he is hoping to access the final $5,000 of his late wife’s life insurance to buy a van to live in.

There’s Michael Curtis, who found his way to the motel after months spent nursing a broken shoulder while living in his Jeep behind the convenience store where he worked

Holiday Motel owner Dwight Kim, right, hired James Jackson, a father of three, to work around the motel after Jackson spent the early months of the pandemic on the street with his wife and kids.

until being forced out when he was fired.

There’s Kayla Waters, raising two sons, ages 8 and 3, whose ADHD gives them such severe fits of rage that she was not allowed to renew

the lease on her last apartment.

“Even once this pandemic is over, homlessness is not going away,” Kim said. “It can happen to anyone. We live in a fragile world. All people need is a helping hand.”

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Roberta Frances Gillis

Roberta passed away November 19, 2020 at the age of 90.

She was born April 8, 1930 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

She is survived by her son, W. Bruce Gillis III, and daughter, Colleen Dobson. She was blessed with five grandchildren-Tanner, Cody, Chloe, Caitlin, and Abigail.

A memorial was held for Roberta at All Souls Catholic Parish; she will be laid to rest at Fort Logan National Cemetery.

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12 Centennial Citizen

December 24, 2020D

VACCINE

she did in April. Centennial Medical Plaza is a campus of the Medical

Center of Aurora.

“We’re still here for (the public)

no matter what it is,” Schroder said.

“We’re taking absolute precautions with visitor restrictions and PPE (personal protective equipment) so we can treat patients without fear of (them) catching something.”

She emphasized that “wearing masks and washing hands works,” adding that she’s worked throughout the pandemic and has not gotten sick with COVID-19.

Schroder wants the public “to hang in there,” she said. “Wearing masks, washing hands, staying home if they don’t need to be out.

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re not there yet.”

Schroder, who lives in Aurora, felt excited to be the among the first groups of Coloradans to be vaccinated. But she also felt a sense of duty.

“I also feel it’s my responsibility to help stop the spread,” Schroder said.

“I’m seeing a lot of folks (in the ER).

If I can help folks get back to their jobs and kids get back to school, I’m going to do it.

“Because it’s not just about me,” Schroder said. “It’s about my community.”

his drive-thru idea as he would have liked, Langer has his hopes invested in several other new restaurant features.

“We purchased in October six fire-pit tables, and they’ve gained a lot of traction,” said Langer, watching a patio of diners sitting at his tables. “People call. They want to wait for those — they sit in their car and wait until those are open. We’re getting three more fire pit tables, so we’ll have nine total.”

The eatery has also installed five heated fabric tents with tables inside of them — to enable eating “even in terrible weather,” Langer said “We also made tables out of beer kegs — it’s a fun atmosphere,” Langer said.

The changes have come partly with help from the Colorado Restaurant Association, an organization that supports the state’s foodservice industry. The organization’s Outdoor Grant Program is an effort to help restaurants winterize outdoor space for dining amid the challenges restaurants face in the pandemic.

Langer knows the struggles firsthand: 2 Penguins laid off 30 people in March amid the indoor dining shutdown. It rehired 18 in June. After a few more hires, the staff grew to about 24 over the summer.

“Now we’re down to eight,” Langer said, due to the level-red restrictions imposed on the Denver metro area and other regions of the state. He intends to bring the employees back when he can. The restaurant is making just 18% of the revenue it brought in at this time last year.

“I wouldn’t have remained open during the pandemic, but I have too many great employees,” Langer said. “And this way, I can basically lose the same amount of money but keep eight or 10 of them employed. And that’s really important to me.”

2 Penguins isn’t a franchise or chain — it has just one location at 13065 E. Briarwood Ave., east of Peoria Street and Arapahoe Road.

Langer ran the business as the Terrace Gardens Event Center starting in 1998, but he and his team “reimagined” it as the tap and grill in 2015, he said.

“I had a business partner, Ernie, for 34 years — he died, and his wife is our `silent partner,’” Langer said.

The large building holds up to 800 people in normal conditions, Langer said.

“We used to do two events at one time. Now we have the tap room open at one side, with the casual events on the other side,” Langer said. He added: “Our guests come in and we want them to feel like they’re in our home.”

Shannon Sullivan, 54, and Julie Wismann, 44, sat at 2 Penguins Tap and Grill on a cold afternoon with a mix of some sun and light snow. The two friends from Aurora said they’re trying to support local businesses who are struggling under Colorado’s public health restrictions aimed at combating the coronavirus. Finding restaurants with heat is a challenge, Wismann said.

“We definitely appreciate the people trying to adapt and overcome,” Sullivan said. “These guys are trying to figure it out, and it’s not easy.”

Langer is seeing some optimistic signs — patrons have been receptive to the new outdoor seating, and they’re showing support.

“Our tip average for our staff is 23%, which is 5% higher than it normally is,” Langer said. “And it’s because people want to support the servers and they want to support independent businesses.”

FROM PAGE 1

aware it was an option for combating COVID-19.

Technology that uses mRNA — “messenger ribonucleic acid,” molecules that carry genetic code from DNA to help make protein in cells — has been used in efforts to battle cancer, Schroder referenced.

“When you look at controlling a pandemic, the first line is always a vaccine,” said Schroder, noting that mask-wearing and other precautions help as well. “I’m hopeful that getting some of the population vaccinated will mitigate disease spread.”

Like other emergency rooms, the ER at Centennial Medical Plaza has seen a decline in volume of patients amid the pandemic because people fear coming in contact with COVID-19. But in the past couple months, Schroder has seen the numbers pick back up, and she’s seeing more COVID-19 patients in the ER than

DINERS FROM PAGE 1

“We ran it for 10 days, and we had three cars come through,” Langer said. “The bottom-line reason is people are set in their paradigm — people are used to sitting in their Chick-fil-A lines for 25 minutes” but not so for a tap-and-grill restaurant.

Though the public didn’t adjust to

Michelle Schroder, 48, an emergency-room nurse for Centennial Medical Plaza in east Centennial, fills out paperwork before receiving her first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at the Medical Center of Aurora. Colorado received its first shipments of a vaccine for COVID-19 on Dec. 14, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

PHOTO BY ELLIS ARNOLD

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Patrons sit in 2 Penguins Tap and Grill’s recently expanded outdoor seating options. The eatery sits at 13065 E. Briarwood Ave., just east of South Peoria Street along East Arapahoe Road.

COURTESY PHOTO

Centennial Citizen 13

0December 24, 2020

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14 Centennial Citizen

LOCAL

LIFE

How to elevate your baking

December 24, 2020D

game

Making bread at a mile high can be tricky, but with experience comes wisdom

BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

N

othing brightens a home quite like the warmth and smell of baking bread, but life at a mile high means baking the perfect loaf can get a bit tricky.

“High-altitude baking is definitely a skill that takes time to develop,” said Chelly Klann, the founder of the Good Food Project, Project Bake and Edible Revolution — a trio of Denver-area nonprofits dedicated to teaching kids and adults the finer points of cooking and baking.

But before understanding how to bake at high elevation, Klann said bakers should understand bread in general.

“Bread is a whole zen experience,” she said. “You can’t rush it. Cooking is an art — you just throw stuff in a pan and taste it as you go — but baking is both an art and a science.”

Bread is also “the purest food,” Klann said, built on just flour, salt, water and yeast.

Home baking exploded this spring during the early days of COVID-19 shutdowns, with flour and yeast flying off shelves as fast as toilet paper. Klann said she thinks that had to do with a renewed focus on personal skills when people are cooped up.

“Bread is aspirational,” she said. “Lots of people say someday they’d like to learn French, or play the piano, or learn to bake.

Suddenly people had time for things. Everything takes longer this year, and bread fits right in with that.”

But many home bakers in Colorado soon discovered the trouble that comes with high elevation.

“Dough rises quickly here, but it deflates quickly too,” Klann said.

Loaves and wishes

She offered a few pointers: First, high-elevation dough needs more moisture.

“It’s better to have sticky hands than dry dough,” she said. “If your rolls turn out like hockey pucks, it’s because there’s not enough water in them.”

Next, increase the temperature in the oven, by as much as 25 degrees over what standardized bread recipes call for. That may also bring down baking time by several minutes.

Also, Klann said many home bakers simply don’t knead the dough enough.

“People ask if you can overknead bread, but you’ll get bored long before that happens,” she said.

Perfecting sourdough — bread made with fermented flour using

At Trompeau Bakery in Englewood, head bread baker Rande Smith, second from left, said good ingredients make for good bread, PHOTO BY DAVID GILBERT but so does practice.

naturally-occurring yeast — is worthy of an entire article, or even a book of its own, Klann said.

“It took me the better part of a year to get good at it, and I turned out some bad sourdough in that time,” she said. “It’s a pretty steep learning curve.”

Klann said a home baker’s best bet to get good at bread is the same as the way to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice.

“Find a recipe that came out OK one time, and make it over and over until you’re good at it,” she said. “If something goes wrong, you’ll figure it out quicker.”

Bread baking is also influenced by ambient conditions, she said, including outside weather, humidity, temperature and other factors.

“This might sound weird, but try keeping a bread journal,” Klann said. “Is it 100 degrees in your kitchen? Is it raining? Is it cold out? You think you’ll remember, but you never do, which is where writing it down comes in.

Don’t fret — you’ll get there.”

Fine ingredients

For those looking to step up their bread baking game, ingredients can make a big difference, said Beth Ginsberg, the owner of Englewood’s Trompeau Bakery, which specializes in classic French breads and pastries.

“Grocery store flour can be weeks old, and it can sit in your SEE BREAD, P15

Chelly Klann shared this recipe that works well at high elevation: Tomato Foccacia

Adapted from Food of the Italian South, by Katie Parla The semolina flour and potato flakes in this focaccia recipe give it a soft and fluffy texture that is great dipped in olive oil or marinara sauce. Substitute olives for the tomatoes or simply add dried herbs and omit the tomatoes altogether.

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 1/4 cup semolina flour 3 ounces potato flakes 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1 teaspoon sugar 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided 1/2 pound grape tomatoes Dried herbs of your choice — rosemary, thyme, oregano, dill, etc.

Sea salt

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, add the water, flour, semolina, potato flakes, yeast, salt, sugar, and 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Mix, using

the dough hook or a wooden spoon, until the ingredients come together and become a soft, satiny dough, about 10 minutes.

2. Cover the bowl and set in a warm place until more than doubled, about 2 hours.

3. Add the remaining olive oil to a 9x13 pan, preferably metal. Tip the pan to distribute the oil.

4. Gently turn the dough into the pan, deflating it as little as possible.

5. Put some olive oil on your hands and use your fingers to gently press the dough into the pan.

6. Press the tomatoes into the top of the dough and sprinkle the top with dried herbs.

7. Set the dough aside to rise until puffy, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 425 degrees.

8. Just before the dough goes in the oven, sprinkle some additional sea salt across the dough.

9. Put the dough in the oven and bake until golden brown, 15-20 minutes, rotating the pan after 10 minutes for even browning.

10. Remove the focaccia from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then slice and enjoy!

Centennial Citizen 15

0December 24, 2020

BREAD FROM PAGE 14

cabinet a lot longer than that,” Ginsberg said. “Here at the bakery, we’re using fresh, high-gluten flours, which also have a much higher moisture content that dissipates the older it gets. We’re also using live yeast, not the dried stuff, which is a lot more finicky but produces some really wonderful bread.”

Trompeau sells smaller amounts of high-end flour and yeast to home bakers wanting to give the good stuff a try, she said.

Rande Smith, Trompeau’s head bread baker, said he hasn’t adjusted any of the bakery’s recipes to adjust for high elevation, but that’s because he works dough by feel.

“Every batch of flour is a little different,” Smith said as he dumped a sack of flour into a jumbo mixer. “It comes from wheat, which of course is a plant — wheat from different places, from different years will all have slight variations. Some absorbs more water, for instance, or responds to yeast differently.”

Smith said even without fancy ingredients, home bakers can improve their bread by avoiding common mistakes like letting the dough get too warm.

“People wake up their yeast with warm water, but you really don’t want the dough that warm,” he said. “Even a stand mixer like

a Kitchenaid can warm it up too much.”

Good dough shouldn’t register higher than 75 degrees, he said, and many good recipes call for letting dough rise overnight in the refrigerator.

Baking through time

The intricacies of high-elevation baking go back to Colorado’s settler period, said Andrea Wilhelm, a historical interpreter at the Littleton Museum, which features a working pioneer-style homestead.

Many pioneer diaries and letter mention making alterations for elevation, Wilhelm said.

“Early cooks were intuitive cooks,” Wilhelm said. “There wasn’t so much science behind it as trial and error. Cooks were constantly asking themselves if the batter and looked and felt consistent with past experiences.”

Colorado was settled decades after places like California, Utah and other high-elevation locales, Wilhelm said, so settlers were already aware that baking would be trickier here.

Early recipes were also more “robust,” Wilhelm said, and were more forgiving of errors. Over time, though, “recipes became more delicate with refined flours and sugars, so the room for error increased.”

But just like in the early days, “so much of it is about experience,” said Smith, the head baker at Trompeau. “Don’t give up.”

Trompeau Bakery head bread baker Rande Smith dumps flour into a mixer. Smith said while high elevation can make baking in Denver challenging, so can low humidity.

PHOTO BY DAVID GILBERT

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16 Centennial Citizen

December 24, 2020D

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December 24, 2020

Centennial Citizen 17

LOCAL

SPORTS

For some, the more sports the merrier With many turning to specialization, multi-sport athletes are becoming less common

BY JIM BENTON JBENTON@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Multi-sport competitors used to be prominent in Colorado high school athletics, but their ranks have been decreasing in recent years.

More young athletes are specializing in one sport, often because of the pressure to earn a scholarship in their chosen athletic endeavor.

But there are still some athletes who believe in the benefits of playing different sports in different seasons.

Connor Mantelli — a kicker and basketball player at Douglas County High who was a standout performer at the 2020 Kicking World National Showcase in Austin, Texas — says specialized athletes miss out on the experience of being on different teams in different sports.

“I definitely stay in shape year around and the skills are always in use with me,” said Mantelli. “The biggest disadvantage of not being a

multi-sport athletes is you don’t get the experience of other sports. Doing a sport year around, you don’t get a break.”

Those who participate in multiple sports develop different muscle groups and different skills, while overuse injuries are reduced and concerns about burnout are lessened, many coaches and athletes say.

Athletes who compete in multiple sports are needed to keep programs in operation at the state’s smaller schools. For instance, athletic director Mike Hawkes of Single A Shining Mountain Waldorf in Boulder says the school has four athletes who have a chance to participate in the four sports (cross country, girls volleyball, basketball, and track and field) offered at the school.

In the south metro area, even some of the largest high schools have multi-sport athletes.

Julian Hammond was the quarterback on this season’s state championship football team at Cherry Creek, and he is also an outstanding basketball player who has agreed to play next season at the University of Colorado. Hammond was one of six Bruins’ basketball players who were on the football squad.

SEE ATHLETES, P24

Cherry Creek quarterback Julian Hammond plays football and basketball for the PHOTO BY JIM BENTON Bruins.

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18 Centennial Citizen

December 24, 2020D

C R O S SWO R D P U Z Z L E

This year’s “Main Street Mini” from Watkins Stained Glass is available from the shop. Call 303-7981515 to inquire.

COURTESY PHOTO

Class and glass merge in yearly special ornament

E

ach year, Jane Watkins, of Watkins Stained Glass, 3821 S. Broadway, Englewood (on Littleton’s Main Street for SONYA’S many years), creSAMPLER ates a special Main Street ornament to hang on the tree or set on a shelf. This year’s “Main Street Mini” is available at the shop. Probably some from previous years are available as well.

303-798-1515, watSonya Ellingboe kinsstainedglass. com. Nice gift for friend or self !

Holiday lights ... daytime garden visits

While Hudson Gardens in Littleton decided not to produce a light show this season, (open for walkers during the day and free), Denver Botanic Gardens and the Denver Zoo are lit up, if that’s part of your holiday celebration. Advance tickets required — spaced out for timing. No tickets sold onsite. Denver Botanic Gardens is open for walking from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 720-865-3500, botanicgardens.org. “Blossoms of Light” at DBG: December is sold

out, but readers can check for dates in early January. Chatfield’s “Blossoms of Light” is sold out. Chatfield open days, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., again — reserve in advance. 720-865-3500, botanicgardens.org. Denver Zoo Lights 5 to 10 p.m.: must reserve in advance: 720-337-1400 (call 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) or check denverzoo.org. These gardens are great places to work out the wiggles when kids and parents have been in the house for long stretches. Daytime walks are fun.

And, there’s always a family drive to look at home lighting. Englewood residential areas were great when my kids were young. Bow Mar in Littleton was fun and there’s Littleton’s dazzling Main Street, where a stop for coffee or hot chocolate might be nice. Nixon’s Coffee House at Hudson Gardens is open until 3 and also offers hot chocolate and such ... (Unless we get a “Stay at Home” order from the governor.)

Gift thoughts

Possible gifts for grownups — classes at one of these garden spots: Hudson Gardens offers classes on beekeeping January to April; or “Start Your Garden From Seed” SEE SAMPLER, P24

Answers

THANKS for

PLAYING!

© 2016 King Features Synd., Inc.

Solution

Centennial Citizen 19

0December 24, 2020

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20 Centennial Citizen

December 24, 2020D

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Centennial Citizen 21

0December 24, 2020 Roofing/Gutters

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22 Centennial Citizen

December 24, 2020D

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Centennial Citizen 23

0December 24, 2020

Visit gallery’s caboose when it opens again Railroad photographs are focus of exhibit space in Littleton

BY SONYA ELLINGBOE SELLINGBOE@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Just north of the Littleton Fine Arts Guild’s Depot Art Gallery at 2069 W. Powers Ave. sits a compatible caboose which holds railroad art photos by guild member Samuel Howard, who frequently has the space open during Depot hours, which are unfortunately nil as we write. As soon as the state lets our immediate world open up again, this choice relic will be one to visit. We will hope to keep readers posted.

In 1876, the nation’s Bicentennial year, there was some extra grant money in the federal system, which Guild members found, adding it to what they had raised in the community through sales of donated works. They were able to negotiate

a lease with the City of Littleton to convert Littleton’s 1881 Rio Grande Depot into an art gallery for members — and at times, other artists, to display their paintings and sculptures. The wooden Santa Fe Depot had been moved to a safe spot in Bega Park when it had to be removed from the actual train tracks.

(Local businessman, developer and arts patron Varian Ashbaugh took care of moving it several times.)

Littleton also had preserved the old stone Rio Grande depot, which was moved and serves commuters today.

Fairly soon after the Depot Gallery opened, a relative of a member came to the group with the opportunity to add a caboose to the tracks.

Logistics came later, as I recall it, but the offer was accepted and soon the depot had company on its little piece of track. At first, there was a club of railroad photographers who exhibited, but now, Samuel Howard is the sole artist in the Caboose Gallery. He lives in Centennial and loves photographing mountain railroading scenes and the amazing

landscape that surround us.

“I photograph all over the state of Colorado where steam engines on the narrow gauge are still king,” he writes. “My favorite place to photograph is still the Durango/Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad ... My choices to photograph have spectacular environs and complement the power of the trains. A thundering steam engine is a joy to photograph and the viewer is transformed to a long time ago.”

He exhibits color, black and white images and some created on infused aluminum.

His statement adds that he is now the sole artist in the Caboose Gallery in Littleton, housed in an authentic 1880s Chicago/Burlington/Quincy wooden caboose. He also creates notecards with trains on them, which would make a great gift to an adult or a kid who’s a railroad buff — if only we can open up again.

Perhaps the Easter Bunny can deliver some if the present closure extends into 2021 ...

The Caboose Gallery at the Depot Art Gallery in downtown Littleton. Photographer Samuel Howard displays his art inside it.

PHOTO BY SAMUEL HOWARD

To advertise your place of worship in this section,

call Erin at 303-566-4074 or email eaddenbrooke@ColoradoCommunityMedia.com

Serving the southeast Denver area

Castle Rock/Franktown

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Advertise Your Place of Worship

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7249 E. Park Dr. Franktown, CO TIME: 10:30 PM PHONE: 303-688-1004 ENGLISH TRANSLATION

EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

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Call or check our website for information on services and social events! www.cbsdenver.org

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PUBLIC NOTICES

Public Notices call Sheree 303.566.4088 Legals Public Trustees COMBINED NOTICE - PUBLICATION CRS §38-38-103 FORECLOSURE SALE NO. 0193-2020 To Whom It May Concern: This Notice is given with regard to the following described Deed of Trust: On September 18, 2020, the undersigned Public Trustee caused the Notice of Election and Demand relating to the Deed of Trust described below to be recorded in the County of Arapahoe records.

Original Grantor(s) ARTHUR C WEBER III AND EVONA S BOWEN Original Beneficiary(ies) U.S BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION ND Current Holder of Evidence of Debt Citizens Bank, N.A., formerly known as RBS

Citizens, N.A. successor by merger to Charter One Bank, N.A. Date of Deed of Trust February 23, 2005 County of Recording Arapahoe Recording Date of Deed of Trust March 08, 2005 Recording Information (Reception No. and/or Book/Page No.) B5033051 Original Principal Amount $38,000.00 Outstanding Principal Balance $24,680.32 Pursuant to CRS §38-38-101(4)(i), you are hereby notified that the covenants of the deed of trust have been violated as follows: failure to pay principal and interest when due together with all other payments provided for in the evidence of debt secured by the deed of trust and other violations thereof.

THE LIEN FORECLOSED MAY NOT BE A FIRST LIEN.

legals@coloradocommunitymedia.com

THE EASTERLY 48.50 FEET OF THE WESTERLY 156.00 FEET OF LOTS 1 & 2, BLOCK 15, BOULEVARD GARDENS, COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE, STATE OF COLORADO. Also known by street and number as: 2676 W DARTMOUTH AVE, ENGLEWOOD, CO 80110.

THE PROPERTY DESCRIBED HEREIN IS ALL OF THE PROPERTY CURRENTLY ENCUMBERED BY THE LIEN OF THE DEED OF TRUST. NOTICE OF SALE The current holder of the Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, described herein, has filed Notice of Election and Demand for sale as provided by law and in said Deed of Trust.

THEREFORE, Notice Is Hereby Given that I will at public auction, at 10:00 A.M. on Wednesday, 01/20/2021, at The East Hearing Room, County Administration Building, 5334 South Prince Street, Littleton, Colorado, 80120, sell to the highest and best bidder for cash, the said real property and all

interest of the said Grantor(s), Grantor(s)' heirs and assigns therein, for the purpose of paying the indebtedness provided in said Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, plus attorneys' fees, the expenses of sale and other items allowed by law, and will issue to the purchaser a Certificate of Purchase, all as provided by law.

First Publication: 11/26/2020 Last Publication: 12/24/2020 Name of Publication: Littleton Independent IF THE SALE DATE IS CONTINUED TO A LATER DATE, THE DEADLINE TO FILE A NOTICE OF INTENT TO CURE BY THOSE PARTIES ENTITLED TO CURE MAY ALSO BE EXTENDED; DATE: 09/18/2020 Susan Sandstrom, Public Trustee in and for the County of Arapahoe, State of Colorado By: Susan Sandstrom, Public Trustee

Anna Johnston #51978 Randall Chin #31149 Joseph D. DeGiorgio #45557 Ryan Bourgeois #51088 Barrett, Frappier & Weisserman, LLP 1391 Speer Boulevard, Suite 700, Denver, CO 80204 (303) 350-3711 Attorney File # 00000008964934 The Attorney above is acting as a debt collector and is attempting to collect a debt. Any information provided may be used for that purpose. ©Public Trustees' Association of Colorado Revised 1/2015 Legal Notice NO. 0193-2020 First Publication: 11/26/2020 Last Publication: 12/24/2020 Name of Publication: Littleton Independent

###

The name, address, business telephone number and bar registration number of the attorney(s) representing the legal holder of the indebtedness is:

Centennial Legals 12.24.20 * 1

24 Centennial Citizen

December 24, 2020

SAMPLER FROM PAGE 18

(online) Jan. 27, which is about when the resident gardener starts to get really antsy ... Or a gift card for O’Toole’s or Tagawa, or a specialized catalogue ... or a bookstore gift certificate ... or dinner at a favorite restaurant when they can open ... And then, there are museum memberships, gym memberships, garden memberships that last all year long and will grow new interests and perhaps new skills.

In another direction: art classes and a gift card at Guiry’s or Michaels or Arapahoe Community College? Adopting a shelter animal is a gift all around — to the family and that furry friend.

(I recently found a lovely little black cat at the Dumb Friends League, thanks to a friend who volunteers there.)

Parker Arts

“Shoshana Bean — Sing Your Hallelujah,” is an online streaming performance by the Broadway and television star in a show that sold out at Harlem’s famous Apollo Theatre in 2018/2019. Contact Parker box office: PACEtickets@parkeronline.org. Must watch within 24 hours of purchase. 303-805-6800, parkerarts.org.

Denver Art Museum

Frida Kahlo tickets are sell-

ing in blocks 10 days in advance of the date you want to visit.

Reserve a specific time and date in advance. Masks required. 720865-5000, denverartmuseum.org.

Colorado Book Awards

Reminder to authors, publishers: Submissions to Colorado Humanities for the Colorado Book Awards are due by Jan. 8. At least 10 categories: anthology/collection; biography; children’s literature; fiction, creative non-fiction; history; and more ... Information at coloradohumanities.org. Also, volunteers are needed to select and judge books.

Mark your calendars

Virtual Littleton Public Schools Student Art Show will be online, running from Jan. 19 to May 31, in conjunction with Arapahoe Community College.

(Will run prize winning images in January.) Look for more information later.

Own an Original

Littleton’s annual Own an Original art exhibit is installed at the Littleton Museum, which had to close about 15 minutes after the exhibit opened. It’s available online. Keep an eye on the news for any changes in availability. 303-795-3950. Go online to www.littletongov.org/ city-services/city-departments/ museum and click on “Liberating Humor” and then on “Digital Exhibit.”

ATHLETES FROM PAGE 17

“Getting in basketball shape isn’t a problem,” said Hammond.

“It’s just different running up and down the court over and over again, where football is a five-second play. Football wears more on your body than basketball, where you have to be in a lot better running shape.”

Arapahoe’s Hussein Safieddine, a football player, wrestler and member of the track team, agrees with Mantelli.

“Some of the advantages of being a multi-sport athlete include you get the experience of different coaching,” said Safieddine. “My wrestling coach and football coach are really different people. I learn like two different sets of lessons from them.”

Katie Edwards is on the track and field team, was the leading hitter on the Arapahoe softball team last fall and was the leading scorer on the girls basketball team last season with a 12.2 scoring average.

She says time management is a key to being a multi-sport athlete.

“You are doing so many sports you have to watch how to manage your time really well ,” she said.

“There are relationships you build being in different sports.

You meet tons of different types of people. Sports are so different that I think they help you rather than focusing on one the whole year.”

Arapahoe’s Katie Edwards is on the softball, basketball and track and field PHOTO BY JIM BENTON teams.

Jim Keller, president of the Colorado Athletic Trainers Association and owner of Next Level Sports Performance, said too often parents pick a sport for a youth to specialize in.

“There’s just a select few children that can take (sport specialization) early and make it happen,” Keller, of Golden, said. “But I think the majority take it early and get burned out or get hurt.

It’s too much year round. It’s too much time on the field, it’s too many camps, it’s too many scholarships and a lot of pressure.”

C Mo #1 olora rtg Rev do ag ers ’s eB e rok er

The Fixed-Income Fight

by Sam Stroup

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ave you found now that you are retired you constantly worry about which bills to pay on your fixed income? Is there no joy in the Golden years because your budget is so tight? A reverse mortgage may be the lifesaving help you need.

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To qualify for a reverse mortgage at least one borrower must be 62 or older, the home must be your primary residence, and you should have 30–60% equity.

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