STANDARD BLADE B R I G H T O N
SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1903
75cI
VOLUME 119
Issue 18
WEEK OF MAY 5, 2022
CELEBRATING CINO DE MAYO
Robots change the face of producing concrete blocks Company claims Fort Lupton factory is largest of its kind in North America BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Weld Re-8 school district students performed a traditional Mexican folks dance, part of the Ballet Folklorico performance at the Fort Lupton Library on April 29. The showcase was part of the library’s early Cinco de Mayo BELEN WARD celebration. See story on page 5.
What stands out about the concrete block-making robots at the center of Basalite’s Fort Lupton factory is not just the scale – although the size of the massive machines is impressive. It’s just how nimble and precise they are.
Colorado taxpayers will receive $400 this summer Here’s how some plan to spend it BY ALISON BERG ROCKY MOUNTAIN PBS
Menah Elsarrag can pay off a small portion of her student loans. Diane Hopkins can drive to Southern Colorado to visit her family and explore the outdoors. Anne Tincaid can put more money toward a vacation in Mexico, where she hopes to go snorkeling. These are just a few of the ways Coloradans plan to use the $400 coming their way this
summer. Gov. Jared Polis announced April 25 that Colorado taxpayers will be receiving a cashback rebate later this year. Individuals will receive $400 while joint filers will get $800. The money will be sent out between late August and early September, Polis said. “We know that this last year has been difficult with rising prices,” Polis said in a news conference announcing the action. The money comes from a clause in the Colorado Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which gives the state legislature power to determine how to
OBITUARIES LOCAL SPORTS CALENDAR LEGALS CLASSIFIEDS
The money would have come to Colorado taxpayers in April 2023, but Garnett, Polis and Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno emphasized that the money is SEE TAXPAYERS, P3
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refund excess tax revenue to those who pay it. “This is Coloradans’ money, and we’re making sure that we make government efficient in getting those dollars back to them as soon as possible,” House Speaker Alec Garnett, a Democrat, said in the news conference. “These checks will help people immediately.”
LOCAL
2 •Sephora opens at 3 Prairie Center 7 8 • Page 3 19 22
SPORTS • Brighton native takes next steps in hockey career
• Page 7
The machines pour the concrete, set the molds and send them to kilns before pulling the blocks out and stacking them, ready to be shipped. It was back-breaking labor before the robots, according to Basalite Plant Manager Dean Walton. “Before robotic automation, men would manually be flipping blocks and pallets all day,” Walton said. Basalite Concrete Product opened its 189,000 square foot facility with 8,000-square feet of office space in Fort Lupton last SEE ROBOTS, P4
Thornton, Reunion get new schools in 27J District Reunion elementary expected this fall, Thornton magnet school due 2023 Growth in the 27J School District means more schools – two, as a matter of fact. One is in the Willow Bend section of Thornton, near East 146th Avenue and Holly Street. 27J spokesperson Janelle Asmus said originally, the school was going to be a charter school. “But the charter that had been working on that was
not able to make it happen,” she said. “So, the district is building a new school in that community, and it will be a pre-K-8 school and it is slated to open in the fall of 2023.” The new principal is Sheri Collier, the interim principal at Brantner Elementary School. Asmus said the administration is considering the school’s organization will look like as a proposed magnet school. “As a magnet school, that school would not have traditional boundaries like neighborhood schools,” she said. “It would draw from throughout the district. SEE 27J, P3
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