Canyon Courier 011923

Our in-depth look at the housing crisis

Trickling up:

BY TAYLER SHAW AND LUKE ZARZECKI COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

A home means everything to Shelley Gilson, a 50-year-old single mother of three girls who works as a guest service agent at an airline.  “It’s one word: priceless,” she

said.

Coloradans

e rising cost of housing in the Denver area has made it di cult for her to a ord a home. She spent years bounding around working for low pay, including to several a ordable housing communities across the state.

Eventually, more than a decade ago, she found a home at Orchard Crossing Apartments in Westminster. It is an a ordable housing community that includes Section 8 housing, the federal government program that provides vouchers to low-income families, the disabled and elderly.

SEE TRICKLING UP, P10

Inter-Canyon looking at two sites for communications equipment

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Two existing towers are the InterCanyon Fire Protection District’s top choices for adding equipment to improve communication among rst responders.

ese two alternatives mean the proposal to erect an 80-foot tower at Station 5 in Hilldale Pines is now the third alternative, Fire Chief Skip Shirlaw said at the Jan. 11 re board meeting.

Several audience members sighed in relief when they heard that news. ey are neighbors of Station 5 who spent nearly six hours at Je erson County Planning Commission meetings last year explaining that the tower would be detrimental to their lives in many ways.

However, the re board still needs to vote on where the communication equipment will be placed. Board members asked for details on the locations and costs at their Feb. 8

Controversial Hilldale Pines site less likely SEE TOWER,

P9

How housing is becoming less a ordable for more

Je erson County o cials sworn in for new terms

mitting or recommitting themselves to improving the lives of Je co residents for the next four years.

BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Sheri Regina “Reggie” Marinelli has no time to rest on her laurels, saying, “ ere’s work to be done.”

After winning the November election, Marinelli kicked o her rst term as sheri during the Jan. 10 Je erson County Swearing-In Ceremony.

Likewise, Clerk & Recorder Amanda Gonzalez and Surveyor Robert Hennessy started their rst terms Jan. 10, while four other county ofcials began their second terms after being reelected in November.

e elected o cials remarked how important the occasion was, com-

Gonzalez thanked her family, friends and supporters for all their help during her rst-ever campaign. She said she ran for clerk & recorder to protect people’s right to vote and “make sure everyone’s voice is heard.”

Lesley Dahlkemper, who was reelected to a second term as District 3 county commissioner, was grateful for the voters’ trust in her. During her rst term, she and her colleagues were forced to charter unknown waters during the COVID-19 pandemic. She felt fortunate that Je co had such strong internal and external partners during that time, adding how collaboration in general is key to elected o cials’ work.

She and other elected o cials commended county sta members for their tireless e orts and innovation, with Dahlkemper saying they

make Je co what it is.

Treasurer Jerry DiTullio thanked his sta for weathering two years of budget cuts and COVID-19-related challenges. He also shared how his o ce is working with the state legislature to improve seniors and veterans’ lives.

“We’re working hard for the citizens of Je erson County,” he continued.

Coroner Annette Cannon also believed her sta ’s e orts usually go unseen and unheard because of the nature of their work. During her rst term, her sta had to handle the pandemic, the opioid epidemic, mass fatalities, sta ng shortages and budget cuts, and other harrowing circumstances. She praised their very critical work and dedication, adding how her sta members make all the di erence.

As they start new jobs or new terms, the elected o cials re ected on how much serving Je co means

to them.

Marinelli shared how she hadn’t considered how important becoming Je co’s rst female sheri would be, until several people told her on Election Night how much it meant to them — how their daughters could become anything they wanted.

She said she doesn’t take this job lightly, especially given how di cult the past few years have been for those in law enforcement.

Assessor Scot Kersgaard, quoting other public gures, described elected o ce as “where poetry meets prose, where vision meets action.”

He described how, four years ago, on his rst day as assessor, someone asked if he planned to run for reelection. Only one day into his new job and with reelection four years out, the question took him aback.

Ultimately, he responded: “If I’m having fun.”

Connect with elected o cials at Central Je co Town Hall

9:30-11:30 a.m. Jan. 21 at  West Metro Fire headquarters, 433 S. Allison Parkway in Lakewood. is is an opportunity for community members to connect with their elected o cials, ask questions and receive an overview of their priorities during the 2023 legislative session. Co ee and doughnuts will be provided.

Reps. Chris deGruy Kennedy, Monica Duran, Sheila Lieder and Sens .Lisa Cutter and Jessie Danielson will hold a Central Je co Town Hall from

Sheri Regina “Reggie” Marinelli takes the oath of o ce during the Jan. 10 Je erson County Swearing-In Ceremony. Marinelli, who’s been with the Je co Sheri ’s Department for 36 years, was elected to her first term as sheri in November. She’s also the first woman to hold the o ce.

Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper talks to Surveyor Robert Hennessy during the Jan. 10 Je erson County Swearing-In Ceremony. Dahlkemper was reelected for a second term as District 3’s county commissioner in November, and Hennessy ran unopposed for his first term as surveyor.

Marinelli, Gonzalez begin first terms as Je co sheri , clerk & recorder

Clerk & Recorder Amanda Gonzalez, center right, hugs one of her supporters during the Jan. 10 Je erson County Swearing-In Ceremony. Gonzalez, a newcomer to Je co politics, was elected to her first term as Clerk & Recorder in November.

Undersheri Scott Eddy’s mom pins on his badge during the Jan. 10 Je erson County Swearing-In Ceremony. Regina “Reggie” Marinelli, the new Je co Sheri , o cially announced Eddy as her undersheri during the ceremony.

PHOTOS BY CORINNE WESTEMAN

El Rancho reopens after getting its liquor license

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

El Rancho restaurant has opened. e restaurant, which had a soft opening Jan. 11, got its liquor license from Je erson County on Jan. 13 and opened that day, according to Olivia Mo ett, a spokeswoman for Bonanno Concepts, which is operating the restaurant.

Denver restaurateurs Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno, who own seven restaurants in the Denver area, will operate the historic restaurant to be called El Rancho Colorado that closed abruptly last summer.

e dinner menu includes a bit of everything: comfort food, wild game, steaks, sandwiches, a touch of Mexican and things chef Frank Bonanno is having fun playing with, Mo ett explained. ere’s also a big salad bar.

It is open for dinner Wednesdays through Sundays, with live music on Friday and Saturday nights. Breakfast, brunch and lunch will be added, and the brewery should be operating soon.

“We will work our way to a sevenday schedule but with no real timeline,” Mo ett said. “We will have to see how sta ng goes.”

Mo ett promises that El Rancho looks much like patrons remember with a few updates such as reupholstered chairs and more art.

“We’re put tiny new touches on it,”

she said. “We’re proud of how it’s come together.”

El Rancho is celebrating its 75th year, and it’s exciting to be part of the next era of history, Mo ett said, noting, “We want to do it right.”

History e El Rancho restaurant opened in a log cabin in 1947. In 1953, a banquet room and gift shop were added, plus it became designated as a post o ce. When Interstate 70 was being built in the mid-1960s, the owners convinced the Colorado highway department to name the exit “El Rancho.”

According to Golden History Park and Museum, El Rancho is said to have the most photographed view of the Continental Divide in America.

El Rancho has had several owners over the last few decades, and the owners who bought the property in 2015 abruptly closed the restaurant this past summer after a nasty battle over the restaurant’s management.

In November, Jack and Sherry Buchanan of Evergreen with Northstar Ventures and Travis McAfoos bought the El Rancho property for $2.7 million, and they signed a lease and operating agreement with Bonanno Concepts.

Northstar Ventures will not be involved in the restaurant’s operation. Instead, it will focus on working to develop the parcel across the street from El Rancho.

Cars filled the parking lot on Jan. 11 at El Rancho Colorado as the new operators, Bonanno Concepts, held a soft opening.

PHOTOS BY DEB HURLEY BROBST

Bartenders wait behind the bar to create beverages for guests.

Chill Out Fest in Evergreen on Feb. 4

In early February, it’s time to chill out despite what is usually pretty cold, snowy weather.

e Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce is planning the inaugural Chill Out Fest on Feb. 4 with three signature events.

e Mushies Cup obstacle course will begin at 10 a.m. at Evergreen Lake, with one person pulling a team on an in atable. Cost is $25 for two people or $50 for four.

It will be a timed event,” Evergreen Chamber President Nancy Judge said. “If you lose a passenger, you have to start at the beginning. If you pop the in atable, you’re out. ere’s a sweet spot of not pulling too slow or fast.”

Next will be the Evergreen version of “ e Amazing Race” with teams of four starting at the Stone House in Bergen Park at 1 p.m. and solving clues to go to di erent restaurants.

Each location will have a challenge, Judge said, and each team will get points for completing challenges and solving the clues. Of the four-member team, one will be the designated driver.

Cost per team is $150, and prizes will be awarded to the top three teams.

Completing the day will be a glow skate at Evergreen Lake, which is targeted to teens, Judge said. If the weather is not cooperating or the ice is not skateable, the glow skate will turn into a glow dance inside the Lake House.

For more information and to register, visit evergreenchamber.org.

Stop the Bike Park launches video

Stop the Bike Park, a group against a proposed downhill mountain bike park on Shadow Mountain Drive, has created a video to help viewers visualize the negative impacts of the park on the way of life of residents, wildlife and the environment.

e four-minute video, an all-volunteer creation, has stunning video of wildlife and the area’s environment with a narrator explaining how the proposed Shadow Mountain Bike Park would change the way of life. It is called, “Is it Worth it?”

Developers Phil Bouchard and Jason Evans want to put the downhill mountain bike park on 230 acres

owned by the State Land Board two miles up Shadow Mountain Drive, and the proposal has faced extensive backlash from neighbors since it was originally proposed in January 2021.

e developers have not submitted a formal application to Je co Planning & Zoning.

Evans and Bouchard propose a day-use bike park with a chairlift that would be open generally from March to October. It would have a parking lot for 300 cars, 16 miles of trails, a lodge for registration and a small shop. Estimates show about 700 daily visitors to the park.

“We wanted to create something that would really answer the question, Is it worth it?,” said Barbara Moss Murphy, a member of the Stop the Bike Park board. “We have been looking at issues such as safety, the environment, re mitigation, evacuation and water contamination, but we wanted to have a visual that would say it all.”

Murphy said she hopes the Je co Planning Commission and county commissioners, who will decide on whether the bike park can proceed,

will see the video along with locals, volunteer and environmental groups, the State Land Board and the developers, hoping the developers will decide to change locations.

“ e video,” Murphy said, “captures everything we have been ghting for for two years.”

View the video at www.stopfullsendbikeranch.com.

Indian Hills Winterfest on Jan. 28

Indian Hills wants to send “old man winter packin’” during its inaugural Indian Hills Winterfest 2023. e event is from noon-4 p.m. Jan. 28 at Arrowhead Park, and proceeds bene t the Indian Hills Improvement Association and Indian Hills Fire/Rescue.

Snowshoe races are scheduled for 12:15 p.m., a tug-o-war at 1 p.m., egg toss at 1:30 p.m. and a lake plunge at 3:15 p.m. with a $10 fee. A silent auction is planned with bids closing at 3 p.m. roughout the four-hour event, there will be live music, a youth art show, food trucks, gourd bowling and more.

Dr. Graham Anduri is the new executive director at Ovation West.

“Graham is a dedicated vocal performance artist and conductor, operatic director, music educator and entrepreneur,” said Kris Waggoner, president of the Ovation West Performing Arts board of directors. “Graham shares our goal of producing transformative music and musical theater for our community, and we are delighted to have a leader of his caliber at the helm of our wonderful organization.”

Anduri has a doctorate of musical arts in vocal performance and pedagogy from the University of Southern Mississippi.

He grew up in Fairplay, Colorado, and comes to Evergreen from Grand Junction, where he was recently the director of voice studies at Colorado Mesa University. Following his time at CMU, he and his wife, Dr. Stefanie Anduri, co-founded Sing for Your Lives, a corporation dedicated to teaching transformative singing to a global clientele of emerging professional musicians.

Graham is the managing director of the International Performing Arts Institute, where he has directed young artists across America and around the globe. He has previously been the director of West Slope operations for Art Song Colorado, a nonpro t dedicated to musical storytelling through the synthesis of music and poetry.

Graham, Stefanie and their two children will move here from Grand Junction.

Ovation West names new executive director

The Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce sta did a trial run of its Mushies Cup activity for the Chill Out Fest. Kelly Cox pulls Courtney Thorud in an inflatable.

PHOTO BY MADDY REYNOLDS

Dr. Graham Anduri

Honoring a veteran

Conifer residents unite to replace flag along U.S. 285

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Never underestimate the resolve of area residents wanting to honor a veteran.

rough social media, they joined together to replace a Marine Corps ag on U.S. 285 near Highway 8 that commemorates where truck driver and Marine Corps veteran Albert Lujan died in an accident on May 6, 2021. Lujan was traveling northbound on U.S. 285 when he crashed the truck, and the cab dislodged, going down an embankment. Lujan died at the scene.

In mid-December, Carylon Edwards of Conifer noticed how the elements had taken their toll on the ag, which was in shreds.

“When I got home, I posted on NextDoor, wondering if there was a Marine who had a ag to replace it,” Edwards said.

Soon Dawn Borg of Conifer said she would provide a ag if someone could locate a Marine to help raise it. Residents reached out to Elliot Pappas, a Marine Corps veteran and quartermaster for the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Shawnee.

Pappas joined Borg at the site of the ag, properly replacing it. e tattered ag also was properly disposed of.

“ is is so impressive that total

strangers would do that,” Edwards said. “It gets me emotional. It was hard to see the ag in bad shape.”

Borg remembers the accident since she was caught in the trafc backup while rst responders cleared the scene. She remembers the rst Marine Corps ag being erected on Dec. 30, 2021.

“ at ag gave a face to a tragedy that people up here in the hills laid witness to,” she said. “ at heavy

Mount Evans means recovery

degree of sadness echoed through the community. It was good that we could replace the ag, and it made a lot of people feel good.”

According to his obituary, Lujan, 65, of Johnstown, Colorado, served in the Marine Corps, enjoyed riding his Harley motorcycle, brushing up on his photography skills and spending time with his family. He was kind, loving, warm and his own teacher, always willing to share a

great book or knowledge that he had taught himself. He was passionate about books, cars, trucks and riding his bike, and was always a source of positivity. Lujan was buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery. ose involved with the agreplacement e ort hope Lujan’s family knows that area residents are thankful for his service, and the spot where he died is well cared for.

Seeking guesses for the Ice Melt Barrel on Evergreen Lake Evergreen

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

e Ice Melt Barrel is now positioned on the ice at Evergreen Lake, so it’s time to guess when the barrel will touch the water.

Proceeds from this fundraiser sponsored by Mountain Foothills Rotary go to the INSPIRE special needs program operated by the Evergreen Park & Recreation District, Evergreen Christian Outreach, Crutches 4 Africa and the Mountain Foothills Rotary Foundation.

Tickets are available at evergreenicemelt.com, and are $3 for one guess, $5 for two guesses, $10 for three guesses or $20 for 11 guesses. e person guessing closest to the time the barrel hits water gets $1,000, second place $500, third place $250 and fourth place $150. Last year, the barrel touched the water at 2:25:15 p.m. on April 10. at was not the latest in the contest’s 16-year history. e latest touch was on April 17, 2019, while the earliest touch was March 5, 2009.

Marine Corps veteran Elliot Pappas and Conifer resident Dawn Borg erect a new flag at the site where veteran Albert Lujan died on U.S. 285 near Highway 8. COURTESY PHOTO

Members of Mountain Foothills Rotary, the Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce and the Evergreen Park & Recreation District INSPIRE special needs group pose for a ribbon cutting before the barrel is placed on Evergreen Lake.

PHOTO BY DEB HURLEY BROBST

Chifu’s Cantina opens in Georgetown

Skalski is the owner of Guanella Pass Brewery next door, and Chifu’s Cantina is his newest business venture. Skalski wants to take a backseat in this venture though, focusing the restaurant on “Chifu” himself.

restaurant opened in Georgetown, and the chefs are sure the authentic menu will blow you away.

Chifu’s Cantina opened its doors for the rst time on Jan. 7 and saw a great crowd on opening day, according to Steve Skalski.

Roberto Lopez or “Chifu” was well-known in Boulder for his authentic Mexican cuisine. When one of the brewmasters from Guanella saw him in Georgetown after he left Colorado to run a food truck on the coast, they knew they needed to lock him down.

“We did it kind of on a whim because of Taylor’s (brewer’s) relationship with Chifu,” Skalski said.

Opening a restaurant just made

space next to the brewery.

Chifu and Zahira Romero, better known as Chef Z, are the heart and soul of the restaurant. ey have a combined 35 years in the industry and know how to serve food that keeps people coming back.

“Our goal is to be known all over the area,” Chef Z said. “We want to be the one spot everyone wants to go.”

e pair are both chefs, with Chifu mostly occupying front of house and Chef Z running the kitchen.

e menu o ers a variety of authentic Mexican food, with everything homemade. So far, the en-

chiladas and street-style tacos have proved to be popular menu items.

No matter where he’s serving food, Chifu said one thing is always true: “Everybody loves my food.”  e pair are in the process of moving up to Georgetown, to make this new restaurant truly locally operated.

“I want people to know this is a family-friendly environment and considered a family-owned business,” Chef Z said.

e restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and is located at 505 Rose St. in Georgetown.

Chifu (right) with bartender Eddie Fuentes serving up food.

Chef Z working her magic in the kitchen.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY STEVE SKALSKI

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Another maxim holds that we’re blessed or stuck with the family we were born into; friends, on the other hand, are matters of choice. But are they? Do we consciously and deliberately choose our friends, especially those we grow close to, or are friendships the result of inexplicable or ine able forces?

Have you ever said that so-and-so is like a brother or sister to me? If so, was that so-and-so already a member of your family—cousin, nephew,

VOICES

Friends and family

JERRY FABYANIC

ere are many ways we do that every day. It involves things like teaching them to eat well and look both ways before crossing the street. What if we think a bit further into the future and look at the state of the planet they will be inheriting from us? If you are concerned about the climate crisis and the future we are leaving our children and grandchildren, and recent polls show that most people are, then here are some

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tor virtual since it serves only to minimize their relationship(s) and relegate it/them to a second-place status. After all,they might consider their friends to be their true family. Which means there are families, and then there are families.

Columnist

close friend once quipped that family is the reason we have friends. On the surface, the line comes across as a dig at family with its sometimes fractious relationships and challenging dynamics. But there is another layer, a more positive one, that can be gleaned from the axiom. Friends ful ll a relational need that cannot be addressed within the family. For no matter how much someone says their mom, brother, or cousin is their best friend, their family history is intricately and indelibly woven into the fabric of their “friendship.” And as such, it will always play an unconscious role in the relationship.or niece—or were they outside of it? If you have a like-abrother or like-asister, what made them so? Can you zero in on, pinpoint, or delineate the speci c events, interactions, et alia that led up to that relationship developing in a deeply personal manner? Or was it that you realized at some point that you and they shared a special bond that didn’t need to or couldn’t be explained? It just was.

As is my wont, I took my friend’s maxim and ipped it: Friends are the reason we have family. at thought prompted me to consider those who as an only child or orphan don’t have blood siblings. en there are those who have siblings but are not relationally close with them. I have friends for whom those scenarios are true. Some consider their friends to be their family. We often call such relationships virtual family, but I wonder why we feel compelled to include the qualifying descrip-

Plain and simple, friend and family relationships are complicated, which paradoxically makes them neither plain nor simple. In psychology, an applicable term is antinomy: a paradox in which opposing truths are equally true and valid. It’s a world that I love living in. It’s one of complexity and ambiguity, which I traverse with kindred “out-there” spirits in the pursuit of something we cannot exactly put our ngers on. ey’re my philosophical family not to be confused with my literal family or my non-virtual, mix-of-friends family. Yep, it’s complicated.

Since I’ve been blessed to be one of 13 siblings and have oodles of friendships made over the course of my lifetime, when I think of those I feel close to, I imagine them in two broad groupings. I picture each group as a colored sphere — sage green is my choice — with the shades of the color increasingly

getting lighter as I move from the center outward. At the center of my birth family circle, I place those I feel closest to, and at the perimeter, those not so much. At the core of my friends circle is my non-virtual virtual family, and on the outer reaches are those I call transactional or super cial friends, the ones who get in contact only when they need or want something.

So yes, the family-friend matrix is complicated. But it is that complicatedness that makes friendships ful lling and vital for healthy aging. Unlike a complication which can disrupt unity and smooth functioning, relationship complicatedness suggests intricacy, complexity.

Consider creating your own matrix. While doing so, identify traits, attributes and other aspects that were and remain integral. A vital one for me is trust because trust is like glass and reputation in Ben Franklin’s aphorism: once broken, never well mended. You will, of course, identify your own.

Jerry Fabyanic is the author of “Sisyphus Wins” and “Food for ought: Essays on Mind and Spirit.” He lives in Georgetown.

For this year, a resolution for our kids’ future

s we all are taking down the tree, putting away the menorah and otherwise wrapping up from the holidays, we turn our attention to the new year. We think about what we’d like it to look like and things we would like to accomplish before next year at this same time. While some make resolutions, others aren’t as formal in their goal setting. New Year’s resolutions are often about selfimprovement like exercising more, or about increasing happiness with a new job or a new home. For parents, it often involves the whole family and is often designed toward our ultimate goal for our kids – that they grow up happy and healthy. It’s what every parent wants when it comes to their kids.SARA KUNTZLER

resolutions that can help you do your part.

These are things everyone can do this coming year to ensure our kids grow up in a healthy environment: Carpool: there are likely other families close by that have kids at the same school. Carpooling saves on ll-ups for the car and as a bonus it saves time too. Exploring other ways to get to school like biking or walking is great exercise. It also lets kids get some of the wiggles out so they can settle in and focus in class better.

Ditch the disposable school lunch packaging: ere are so many great options these days like beeswax wraps and reusable silicone bags.

Hand-me-down and consignment clothes: they save resources and money. It’s something to think about for adults as well. Fast fashion has people treating their wardrobe as if it’s disposable, which uses a tremendous amount of resources.

LINDA SHAPLEY Publisher

lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com

MICHAEL DE YOANNA Editor-in-Chief michael@coloradocommunitymedia.com

LINDSAY NICOLETTI Operations/ Circulation Manager lnicoletti@coloradocommunitymedia.com

DONNA REARDON Marketing Consultant dreardon@coloradocommunitymedia.com

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Gifts: the same applies to all the stu we buy including gifts. ink about low impact gifts for your kids and the gifts you need for all those birthday parties. Experiences are a fun way to give a memorable day without the plastic stu that most moms will say they have enough of.  Meatless Monday: Eating meat has a huge impact on our planet. e greenhouse gas emissions of the meat industry are about equal to that of the entire transportation sector — all the emissions from driving and ying. Lower your impact by removing meat from your diet one day a week. If you’ve already successfully done that, bump up to two or three days a week.

Get involved: Join an organization that helps you understand how to best use your limited time to make an impact on the decisions that are being made that will a ect the air your child breathes, their health and their future. at is our number one goal at Mountain Mamas. We monitor the decisions that our elected o cials are making so that you don’t have to. When there’s an important decision that will impact our kids’ future, we let you know. We also let you know how to make your opinion

heard and above all make it easy for you.

Research your family’s carbon footprint to get personalized advice on ways to reduce it: Several organizations o er carbon calculators.

Can one person solve these problems on their own? Not likely, but if everyone does their part, we get a lot closer. And importantly, if we all join together to tell our elected ofcials that we want them to address the climate crisis, then signi cant changes can be made. Use your new year’s resolution this year to make big changes for the future generations that are counting on us. Join the discussion, get involved and take action.

Sara Kuntzler lives in Arvada with her husband and two young children.

She is the Colorado Program Manager for Mountain Mamas, a nonpro t organization working towards a clean, livable planet for future generations. You can learn more about Mountain Mamas and get involved at www.mtnmamas.org or on Facebook/Instagram @CoMtnMamas.

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Columnist opinions are not necessarily those of the Courier.

We welcome letters to the editor. Please include your full name, address and the best number to reach you by telephone.

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FROM PAGE 1

meeting, so they can make a decision.

Inter-Canyon went to the Planning Commission, hoping for approval to erect the tower in Hilldale Pines, but the commission voted 5-2 not to allow it. So, the re department went back to the drawing board.

e rst and second alternatives will cost more than the Hilldale Pines alternative, Shirlaw said, but it will be worth it to address community concerns. He said engineers need to visit the existing towers — one on Doubleheader Mountain — to assess whether they will provide the needed coverage before the department negotiates on a fee to lease space.

Better first-responder communication

Inter-Canyon wants to add another communication tower to provide better coverage for the east end of the district. It must have a direct line of sight to the tower at Mount Lindo. e Inter-Canyon communication towers are interconnected with other re departments’ towers in the foothills to allow rst responders to communicate during emergencies.

Inter-Canyon has been working to upgrade its communications system since 2018, and failures in the system during emergencies in 2019 added to the re department’s need to make changes, Shirlaw said. Inter-Canyon hired an engineering rm in 2020 to study the system and to make recommendations to improve communications.

Residents said while they understand rst responders’ need to communicate with each other, and they respect Inter-Canyon for the work it does, they don’t want to bear the brunt of the negative impacts. About 70 people signed a petition opposing the proposed tower at Station 5.

Residents have retained an attorney to take action if the Inter-Canyon re board decides to construct the tower at Station 5, according to neighbor Linda Marrs.

eir concerns, expressed at public hearings before the Je co Planning Commission, include:

• Health impacts of radio frequency exposure;

• Fire risk if lightning struck the tower: Residents said lightning could move to nearby trees;

• Visual impacts since the tower would be nearly 40 feet above nearby trees: One neighbor called it like an eight-story building in the middle of a residential neighborhood, and they said the tower would ruin their views;

• Issues if the tower fell over because of strong winds: Residents said if the tower fell, it might fall across nearby roads, making travel and evacuation impossible for some residents;

• Decreasing home values: ey say home values near the tower would decease about 20% because people don’t want to live near a tower.

ey were unhappy that the tower could be used to generate revenue for the re department if Inter-Canyon leased some of the space to commercial entities, noting that commercial use is not compatible with the residential zoning in Hilldale Pines.

SCHNEIDER

John Howard Schneider, 84, of Evergreen, Colorado, passed away suddenly on December 23, 2022. John was a Native of Colorado. John is preceded in death by a sister Pat Walke. John is survived by his Wife; Bonnie of 38 years, Children; Joe (Salena), Je Schneider, Grandsons, Seth and Justin , Jennifer Me ord (Matt) and Erica

Tom Gebhard of Evergreen passed on unexpectedly at home on January 2, 2023. Tom was born on August 1, 1959 and grew up in South Denver. He moved to Evergreen where he worked in the construction eld. Tom is survived by his wife of 20 years, Diane Dennehy, and family members Amberly, Nathan, Jocelyn, Todd, Beverly, Khaner, Amy, Mike, Emrys, David, Patty, Jamie, Ellen, and Damien. He was preceded in death by Doris, Dick, Steve, Jordan, and Vern.

Tom loved nature and was an avid

Please visit www. evergreenmemorialpark.com to leave a message for the family.

outdoorsman. From childhood he enjoyed shing, skateboarding, hiking, biking, skiing, snowboarding, and camping with family, friends, and his pets.

In lieu of owers, please mail condolences to Diane Dennehy 7361 Brook Forest Dr. Evergreen, CO 80439. We invite you to join us for Tom’s celebration of life at the Evergreen Elk’s Lodge on February 4 at 2:00. Please wear tie-dye. https://gofund. me/118e30d1

Inter-Canyon Fire says it is less likely that it will erect an 80-foot tower at its Station 5, pictured here, because it has found two additional locations that will be suitable for communication equipment.

PHOTO BY DEB HURLEY BROBST

Hilldale Pines residents’ concerns

Anderson Bubinski (Rob), Brothers; Bill (Libby), Mike Schneider (Vicke) and Brother In Law, Herman Walke. Celebration of Life Service at a later date.

John Howard Schneider

GEBHARD

Thomas Charles “Tom” Gebhard August 1, 1959 - January 2, 2023

The Long Way Home Examining the impacts of the housing crisis

People across the metro area are struggling to a ord a place to live.

Minimum wage earners might spend upwards of 60% of their paychecks on rent. Many millennials, now entering their 40s, have accumulated less wealth than prior generations and are struggling to nd a rst home they can a ord. At the same time, those who might sell, baby boomers, are prone to hold onto their homes, unable to downsize in the supercharged market.

ese and other factors, including homelessness, a history of racial disparities where 71% of white Coloradans own homes but only 42% of Black Coloradans do, and a slow down in building that began more than a decade ago during the Great Recession, add up to constitute what some experts call a crisis in housing a ordability and availability.

Over the last six months, two dozen journalists, editors and sta at Colorado Community Media worked to answer questions on why this is happening, how

TRICKLING UP

FROM PAGE 1

From work to school to neighborhood events, the program has created a way for Gilson’s family to be a part of a community. With housing and communities come resources, though not all are created equal. Gilson explained that in her prior communities — predominantly lower socioeconomic status and people of color — it resulted in a lack of resources, such as academic and mental health.

at’s why she moved to Westminster, where she has lived for 12 years.  “I wanted my kids to have a stable education and stable housing,” she

said.

we got here and what the solutions are. e work to nd the answers carried our journalists along the Front Range to talk to mayors, housing authorities, experts and, most importantly, lower- and middle-class families experiencing the crisis rst hand.

Our reporters and editors also held focus groups, talking directly to prospective homebuyers, like the single mom worried that another rent increase could land her in her car and the real estate agent who understood the problems but worried about a lack of solutions.

Over the next four weeks, Colorado Community Media provides an in-depth look at how the current crisis impacts our communities. In Week 1, e Long Way Home breaks down how we got here. On Week 4, we look at how local, state and federal governments are investing millions of dollars into a range of possible solutions – from helping the homeless to a ordable housing programs.

It’s not just low-income residents who struggle to a ord housing. Across the metro area and along the Front Range, rising in ation and mortgage rates, a long-term building slowdown and increasingly crowded cities and towns have combined to create what some observers and experts say is a housing crisis.

More and more people throughout the metro area are nding the cost of renting or buying a home eating up signi cant portions of their budgets.

“ at’s the No. 1 reason that people move, is they can’t keep up with their rent (and) utilities payments,” said Heidi Aggeler, managing director and co-founder of Root Policy Research, a Denver-based community planning and housing

Contributors to theproject include:

research rm.

ere’s a term for it: “cost-burdened,” which describes households paying more than 30% of their income on housing. A little more than 700,000 households in Colorado are cost-burdened, most of which are renters, according to a November 2021 report from Root Policy Research.

“We’ve never done a very good job of housing extremely low-income people and families and helping to move them out of poverty,” Aggeler said. “We’ve never had enough resources to adequately address that.”

People who make $25,000 or less a year have long faced a housing crisis on some level, Aggeler said. But now, the number of people who make more money and are feeling

the pinch of high housing costs is growing.

It has become increasingly common for middle-income households with incomes of roughly $35,000$75,000 to experience cost burden, according to Root Policy Research.

As long as Colorado continues to be an attractive place for people to move to, invest in and retire, Aggeler thinks housing challenges will continue.

ere are also too few options for would-be buyers. Many nd the cost of single-family homes beyond their reach but have few options a step below that, such as condos.

“If you believe that Colorado will be a place that employers will

The cost of housing

Practically every community in the metro area is facing its own housing a ordability and availability issues. South of Denver, in Lone Tree, Mayor Jackie Millet said there is a “housing crisis.”

“I think it varies in severity throughout our state, but I do think it is a problem that is a ecting all of Colorado,” she said. “ ere’s so much supply pressure on our market right now that we have, then, created this crisis.”

Not everyone is describing it as a crisis, but those who use that word point to the numbers across the metro area, as the costs of singlefamily homes and townhomes have skyrocketed.

Northwest of Denver, in Arvada, the median sale price of a singlefamily home was $667,000 as of late 2022, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors. at’s up by 71% from 2017, when the price was around $390,000.

e story is similar in Brighton, northeast of Denver, where the median sale price increased by approximately $225,000 over that period.

Littleton, south of Denver, saw an increase of approximately $300,000 in the price of single-family homes from 2017 to 2022.

Lone Tree saw an increase of

$473,750.

“What we have seen is our housing prices doubling and our wages have not been keeping up,” Millet said.

From 2000 to 2019, median rents rose at a faster rate than median renter household incomes did “in every Colorado county and city with 50,000+ residents,” according to Root Policy Research.

Many residents want a home of their own, Millet said.

“ at was our ultimate goal, and that is also the way most of us accumulated wealth,” she said.

When the cost of buying or renting is too high, however, people cannot establish these roots, she added.

Supply versus demand

One of the main causes of the rise in cost-burdened households and lack of a ordable housing is that production has failed to keep up with demand.

ere was a 40% decrease in the number of homes built between 2010 and 2020 in Colorado, according to the 2022 “A ordable Housing Transformational Task Force Report.”

Susan Daggett, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, said the crash of 2007 a ected housing supply. People left the construction industry and many companies went bankrupt.

“ e housing market bottomed out, people left the construction industry, a lot of people went bankrupt,” she said.

At the same time that housing development slowed, Colorado’s population grew.

“In the meantime, the population has grown tremendously and the supply just hasn’t been able to catch up with that demand,” Daggett said.

In 2010, Colorado had a population of 5,029,196, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 2022, the population was estimated at 5,839,926 — a roughly 16% increase.

As of June 2021, Colorado’s for-sale housing inventory was 13% of what is needed for a functioning sales market, according to Root Policy Research’s report. A functioning sales market means there are enough units so that people can move easily, such as being able to upsize or downsize, Aggeler said.

To return the housing market to a functioning level, Colorado would need an average of 44,250 units built each year until 2030, according to the report, published in November 2021. is would be 1.6 times the state’s current production levels.

Ted Leighty — the CEO of the Colorado Association of Home Builders, an a liate organization of the National Association of Home Builders — said, overall, depending on who is talking, Colorado is somewhere between 175,000 to 200,000 units short of demand.

“ at’s really challenging to come back from, especially, you know, the pace by which we were able to produce new housing in Colorado,” Leighty said.

He hates to use the word “crisis” when discussing housing in Colorado, describing it instead as a major challenge.

Leighty explained the challenge comes down to the ve L’s — lumber and other building materials, labor, land, loans and access to capital, and local government. All have played roles in slowing down housing construction, especially since the Great Recession, leading to higher demand and decreased a ordability. “ ese are always our main cost drivers for residential construction,” Leighty said. “All ve of those right now, and have been, unfortunately, for the last several years, been huge challenges for us.”

He said high lumber costs and some supply chain issues have improved marginally recently, but they still pose problems for developers.

Also, there is a labor shortage.

“We’ve seen a little bit of uptick in (the) labor participation rate for construction, but not nearly enough,” Leighty said. “We’ve got an aging skilled labor demographic, and we haven’t done a great job replacing that labor with younger, skilled laborers.”

In addition to training the laborers of the next generation, Leighty said a “sound immigration policy” could help bring more workers to projects.  “ ere’s a pretty big de cit, and we need to do all we can, policy standpoint and otherwise, to increase labor,” Leighty said.

During the pandemic, there was a perception the housing market was hot, Leighty said.

“It was the most challenging hot market ever on record — to source materials, to source labor, to get projects through the pipeline was immeasurable in how di cult it was,” Leighty said.

The market cools

But there are signs the hot market is cooling.

Lending issues have recently risen to the top of many homebuyers’ concerns. Leighty cites concerns for in ation, economic uncertainty and rising interest mortgage rates.

Imagine a $500,000 home that roughly a year ago a person could buy at a 3% rate, Leighty said. eir monthly payment might be around $2,600.

By July 2022, as rates rose to roughly 5%, the payment for the same house would rise to $3,500. at’s an increase of more than 34%.

“So, how do you get back down to that $2,600, you know, something that’s more achievable for the average home buyer?” Leighty asked rhetorically.

In December, rates on a 30-year xed mortgage were more than 6.5%, according to Bankrate.

Higher mortgage rates caused a spike in cancellation rates for homesale contracts last summer, reaching above 40% — causing further disruptions, Leighty said.

“By the time the home was ready, or maybe even wasn’t ready yet, they knew what their debt-to-income ratio was going to be and that it had increased immensely, and they could no longer a ord it, so they canceled,” he said.

By comparison, the cancellation

rate was 13% in July 2021 and 18% in 2019.

Due to these high cancellation rates, it is likely there will be fewer homes on the market in the next few quarters, Leighty said, further exacerbating housing issues.

Yet Matthew Leprino, a spokesperson for the Colorado Association of Realtors, explained there’s an upshot for some potential homebuyers. ere are more homes available now than in years past as the market reacts to the changing economy.

“ e story that I’ve been telling a lot of clients lately is, ‘Yeah, you can pay a higher interest rate now than you were a year ago, but you’re paying $100,000 less for the house,’” he said.

ere are more properties available now than any time since October of 2019, he said.

“It’s a better time to buy now than in the last three years,” Leprino said.

A balanced market’s months’ supply of inventory stands at about four months. For the metro area, October 2022 was the rst time that number hit two months or above since October 2019.

e metro Denver area hasn’t reached a balanced market for housing since at least 2014, when the Colorado Association of Realtors started tracking that data — and Leprino suspects it’s been much longer than that.

“Number one, houses are a lot more expensive than they used to be,” Leprino said. “Number two, there’s not enough of them.”

The role of local governments and zoning

Local governments have played a huge role in the lack of housing supply and lack of a ordability in Colorado, Leighty said.

He notes they play a role through their regulations, land use zoning and entitlement process and their fees.

Zoning can be a signi cant factor in the housing issues people see today, Aggeler of Root Policy Research said. It refers to when a city or county divides its land into di erent sections and designates an intended use for each, such as industrial or residential development.

“Really, the problem, it’s very simple: ere’s a scarcity of housing for people of all income levels,” said Pat Cronenberger, vice chairperson for South Metro Housing Options, the City of Littleton’s public housing authority. “Colorado is a popular place. People want to be here, and we have restrictive zoning laws that really don’t make it easy to build housing.”

“And that’s all contributed to high rents and big, skyrocketing home prices,” she said.

One of the more controversial zoning issues across the metro area is how dense a city can build.

“People are very afraid of adding units, very afraid of density — and I think probably overly so,” Aggeler said. “We should be zoning artfully, in a way that preserves what we love about communities but also provides opportunity for other people to live there.”

Leighty said some local elected ofcials have expressed concerns that if they approve denser housing units, they could be recalled “because there’s so many people that believe we have — we’re growing too fast.”

“But the numbers belie all of that,” he said. “Our net migration is still positive.”

Net migration refers to the di erence between the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants throughout the year.

“ at’s how you’re going to attack this issue, right, is allowing greater density — taking down the land costs a little bit by being able to do more with less as far as more construction on less land,” Leighty said. “Zoning plays a huge role in our ability to bring new product on the market.”

A lot of communities in Colorado are mostly single-family homes, resulting in lower density and forcing developments to sprawl out.

With the dominance of singlefamily homes, many communities in Colorado face a “missing middle,” meaning there are not a lot of diverse housing options such as townhomes, cottage courts, accessory dwelling units and duplexes.

Part of the reason for that is because of a policy change, Leighty

“We made it really, really easy to sue for what they call ‘construction defects’ on multifamily for-sale condominiums,” he said.

Multifamily for-sale condominiums went from roughly 20% of the market to about 2% of the market when going into the recession, Leighty said. By 2017, it rose to about 12% of the market, but then the pandemic hit.

“If you kept that 20% pace of condominiums, you wouldn’t be in the same situation you are now. You wouldn’t necessarily be in market equilibrium, right? But you wouldn’t be … 200,000 units shy either,” Leighty said.

Condominiums are a really important product, he said, as they provide places for young professionals and families to achieve homeownership and for empty nesters to downsize.  “ at product has been absolutely missed in this marketplace and it has certainly contributed to our inability to keep up with demand,” Leighty said.

Lone Tree Mayor Jackie Millet said in 2004, she served on the city’s planning commission and approximately 20% of the new buildings were condos.

“To my recollection, in Lone Tree, we haven’t seen one in probably 15 years. And the ones that are being built in the metro region are either — they’re very, very expensive,” she said. “ at was our supply of entrylevel housing, and it is no longer being produced.”

Millet thinks the construction-defects law played a signi cant role in the supply of the entry-level housing market. She also knows of residents who wish to remain in the community and want to downsize, but cannot nd any a ordable options.

Typically, Millet believes the markets should resolve the issues themselves.

“But in my opinion, the markets have been corrupted by a number of things,” Millet said. “And so I do feel at this point, we must do something other than just complain about it, because we’ve seen it increase as a priority issue for our residents and our businesses.”

“If we just keep complaining about it, which is what we’ve been doing, without taking any kind of action to increase the supply of housing that people can a ord, the problem is just going to get worse.”

A vast view of homes from Blu s Regional Park and Trail in Lone Tree on Oct. 21, 2022. PHOTO BY TAYLER SHAW

The perfect storm: Many factors lead to today’s housing crisis

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Kim Howard of Evergreen has been in her 2,600-square-foot home for 40 years. Now alone, the 70-yearold is looking to downsize and move closer to Denver, but she can’t nd a smaller home with the same or lower mortgage payments.

She feels guilty staying because she knows the house is a perfect size for a young family, but she’s staying because she can’t a ord to move.

Rising interest rates in the last year aren’t helping, since that increases monthly payments on any home she could buy.

“I’m going to wait it out … because it has to make economic sense,” Howard said. “I can’t a ord to move, and that puts a damper on those who want to move in. We need more a ordable housing for retired and rst-time buyers instead of large, expensive homes that we can’t a ord.

“I feel kind of guilty. (Young families) are desperately looking to start their lives, and we senior citizens can’t a ord to move. Unless someone provides for those rst-time home buyers and for seniors who want to downsize, it’s not going to happen.”

Howard’s story is typical of the issues faced by many in the metro area when it comes to housing. While it seems like the crisis came on suddenly, it cannot be attributed to one moment or incident. Instead, think of it like the spokes on a bicycle wheel, with the center being the current housing situation.

Each spoke contributes to rising costs and shrinking availability, starting with the Great Recession that began in 2007, the loss of builders and labor, the dichotomy of home ownership between baby boomers and millennials, and more recently the pandemic, the consequences of the Marshall Fire and the popularity of short-term rentals.

Couple all that with population increasing in metro Denver, and it’s a recipe for disaster for many: higher home prices, increasing number of unhoused, lack of places to both buy or rent, frustrated home buyers and more.

A perfect storm has combined to create what many experts say constitutes a housing crisis throughout the Denver area and into the foothills — from Brighton to Empire and everywhere in between. It’s been brewing since the Great Recession more than a decade ago that created a harsh economic downturn, pushing skilled workers who built homes out of their careers.

It’s been exacerbated by a rising younger population and part-time residents who converted residences in some of the state’s most attractive settings into vacation homes, the skyrocketing costs of homes and increases in interest rates.

“ ere’s no incentive in the traditional market structure that we have around housing to build for those who are struggling economi-

cally,” said Phyllis

an independent, nonpartisan, academic nonpro t. “We think (the housing market) is feeling unhealthy for folks because housing that is a ordable to lower-middle to low-income households is still very di cult to nd and isn’t probably being built at the rate it’s needed.”

Great Recession

e metro area’s housing challenges start with the Great Recession that began in late 2007, part of a national trend where the housing market crashed. Before the recession, rising home prices, loose lending practices and low interest rates were the norm. When the economy soured, many homeowners could not keep up with their payments, prompting a rash of foreclosures.

According to real estate data company RealtyTrac, 6.3 million homes went through foreclosure in the United States from January 2006 to April 2016, more than double the norm of around 250,000 foreclosures per year. According to the Colorado Department of Local A airs, from 2006 to 2016, Colorado saw 299,775 foreclosures.

With foreclosures came a glut of available homes that ooded the market, according to real estate agent Gaye Ribble with e Ribble Group, a real estate rm that o ers home-buying services across the metro area. In the Denver metro area at the peak of the recession, 45,000 homes were on the market, Ribble said, when a balanced market is roughly 10,000 to 12,000 homes.

“As a result, builders were reluctant to get back in and buy land, buy materials, pay wages and build — all the capital expenses they incur before selling a single home,” said Tupper Briggs with Madison & Co. Properties, a real estate agent for more than four decades. “ ey did

not add to the supply of housing for years.”

In other words, Ribble said, “builders stopped building homes because of the glut, and some builders went out of business because of the lack of work.”

Loss of tradespeople

e Colorado Futures Center bears out what Ribble noticed. A 2018 study by Resnick and Jennifer Newcomer, research director, examined the factors contributing to the growing cost of housing in Colorado. Much of it could be traced to the Great Recession.

e decrease in units built after the recession was linked, in part, to limited amounts of developable land, rising material costs and little incentive to build entry-level housing, according to the study. A bigger issue turned out to be the closure of several local construction companies and the related issue of a shortage of labor in specialty trades.

“Labor was short, it was a mixed story on materials, and there were some regulatory barriers, but I think we came away thinking that part of the biggest problem was we lost a lot of people in the development and building ecosystem,” Resnick said.

According to a 2014 report published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Housing: Before, During and After the Great Recession,” construction industries experienced signi cant job losses during the recession.

From 2003 to 2013, for example, the residential construction industry experienced a 26.8% decrease in employment, which the report said was “precipitated by the recent recession.” e report also showed from 2003 to 2013, the number of businesses in the residential construction industry decreased by 10.8%.

Lone Tree Mayor Jackie Millet said she thinks the recession absolutely impacted the growth of housing.

“ e bottom fell out of the market, the tradespeople — we lost people in the trades, we didn’t have people coming into the trades, and we lost that time,” Millet said. “And it’s, you know, cyclical, so we have been playing catch-up ever since then.”

Ted Leighty, the CEO of the Colorado Association of Home Builders, said the Great Recession made a lot of people more cautious, including banks, lenders and builders.

ere were fewer land developers coming out of the recession, he said, so more builders have had to become their own land developers.

“ eir access to capital and their cost of capital has increased greatly since the recession,” Leighty said.

Ribble added: “Not only every year are we lagging (in home construction), but we were never able to make up for six years with no new construction. During that time, population continued to increase.”

Population growth, interest rates

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the seven-county metro area has seen a substantial rise in population in roughly the past decade. Douglas, Arapahoe and Adams counties each grew by more than 80,000 people, with Je erson County gaining more than 45,000 people.  When the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to move the United States out of the Great Recession, many more people who wanted to buy a home could. Rates remained low as the economy rebounded. at increased demand across the housing market. As demand rose, prices across the metro area began to skyrocket, creating a crunch. Fewer homes were available and many people were simply priced out of the market.

Real estate agents interviewed by Colorado Community Media agree that the Federal Reserve should have increased the ultra-low interest rates to keep the market more balanced.

Baby boomers, millennials and shortterm rentals

Adding to the housing challenges is stagnation. Baby boomers, those nearing retirement age and older, aren’t leaving their homes. Meanwhile millennials, some now new to Colorado and in their 40s, are looking to get into their rst home and sometimes even a second home such as a short-term rental that can be used for both vacation and added income..

Boomers, many of whom are empty nesters, aren’t downsizing for many reasons. While some simply don’t want to move, others want to downsize but can’t nd a good deal on a home in the community they want.

According to Jackie White, a real estate agent in the Conifer and Evergreen area for nine years, if a baby boomer sells a home for $1.5 million, that person isn’t going to nd a home about half the size for

Resnick, executive director and lead economist for the Colorado Futures Center,

Shelley Gilson smiles at the playground at Orchard Crossing in Westminster on Sept. 27, 2022.

PHOTO BY ANDREW FRAIELI

Low Rate of Pay:

How minimum wages are failing to keep pace with housing costs

BY ANDREW FRAIELI AFRAIELI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

In recent years, minimum wages have slowly increased, with Denver reaching $17.29 an hour, and the suburbs surrounding the city being lower, based on the state of Colorado’s minimum of $13.65 an hour.

While workers have welcomed the increases, apartment rental prices have outpaced those gains for workers, with almost 60% of a minimum wage worker’s paycheck expected to go to a landlord.

at’s the highest proportion in a decade, and a calculation that doesn’t include other expenses, such as utilities.

“We’ve seen over the years that the minimum wage actually erodes over time, and periodically has to be readjusted,” said economist Markus Schneider.

Schneider, chair of the Economics Department at the University of Denver, said these cost-of-living adjustments to the minimum wage do help workers — both Denver and the state make adjustments to their minimum wages — but despite increases, the adjustments don’t completely stave o the consequences of rising in ation and skyrocketing housing costs on low-income workers.

Even after a decade, workers are still forced to dedicate too much of their salaries to housing, and it’s only worsened.

A “living wage” is what is needed to keep up with the costs of living, the “very ne line between thenancial independence of the working poor and the need to seek out public assistance or su er consistent and severe housing and food insecurity,” according to MIT’s Living Wage calculator. MIT describes it “as a minimum subsistence wage.”

For the metro area, that living wage is $19.62, well above the state minimum wage and even Denver’s. e cost-of-living adjustment that both minimum wage rates are tied to is called the Consumer Price Index — a “positive step in the right direction,” according to Schneider.

“At the same time, the minimum wage is below a living wage,” Schneider said. “It’s, at best, going to keep it in proportion.”

at means the disparities won’t grow as badly as they could, but will still not keep up with a living wage.

In 2010, the state minimum wage was $7.24 an hour. Rent for a studio in the metro area was $638, according to U.S. Housing and Urban Development fair market rent data.

at came out to half of a worker’s wages, which the National Low Income Housing Coalition — a nonpro t that aims to end the a ordable housing crisis through policy and data research — deems una ordable, as is anything upwards of 30% of wages spent on rent and utilities. e coalition considers paying upwards of 30% as placing workers at risk for homelessness.

By 2023, the situation had only grown worse for minimum-wage

workers. While their wages rose to $13.65 an hour, metro-area studio apartment rents hit $1,390, meaning workers have to pay almost 60% of their wages to keep a roof over their head.

Part of the gap between the index increases and rent is inequality, Schneider said.

CPI is calculated by looking at how much change there is in the average price of household items, food, energy, rent, electronics and more, weighted by how big that category is in the household budget. is calculation is for the entire metro area, though. With di erent parts having di erent wages and costs of rent, the CPI can become skewed for some.

“ e CPI for Colorado is going to be very responsive to what’s happening in Denver just because that’s the big population center,” Schneider said. “We know that Denver has actually had a hotter housing mar-

ket, and housing is a big component of what that living wage means.”

However, higher minimum wages do not cause rents to increase, in his view.

“ ere’s really not much evidence for it — in the ranges that we’re talking about raising minimum wages,” he said. “If we raised it by a factor of two, or even of ve, then yes, that’s probably a big thing. But we’re talking about just getting closer to a living wage — I’m very skeptical that it’s a big e ect.”

“Certainly not a big impact on the price aspect, because even when people get up to that living wage, it’s really only going to impact relatively cheap housing, and relatively bottom end of the rent market — you’ll see some of those rents go up a little bit. But the average rent in Denver isn’t going to budge much.”

is leads to CPI not adjusting enough for the lowest wage earners in the metro area, and not keeping

up with their rising rents. As Schneider said, the adjustments are better than nothing, but still do not set minimum-wage workers to earn a living wage — a goal that, since more than a decade ago, has only become further away.

“When people make more money, particularly at the bottom end, when we’re talking about pushing poverty line or at least well below the living wage, they’re likely to move to a nicer neighborhood or closer to a nicer school, which means the rents in the places that they were living won’t be a ected that much,” Schneider said.

According to MIT, a “livable wage” for Colorado is about $19.16 an hour, and the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metro area “livable wage” is even higher at $19.62 per hour. Current minimum wage in the state is far less at $13.65 an hour, with Denver’s being $17.29 per hour. Both the state and Denver may be increasing minimum wage year over year to follow in ation or cost of living, but they may never actually reach a “livable wage” when they are already so far behind.

Colorado state’s minimum wage, and Denver’s own minimum wage, rise incrementally based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). is is functionally a measurement of the cost of living, measured by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. It includes food, housing costs, transport, medical care and recreation among others, all broken down to smaller parts like gas, and electric bills. MIT’s “living wage” considers many of the same categories, but is stricter.

“ e living wage is the minimum income standard that, if met, draws a very ne line between the nancial independence of the working poor and the need to seek out public assistance or su er consistent and severe housing and food insecurity,” according to MIT’s Living Wage calculator. “In light of this fact, the living wage is perhaps better de ned as a minimum subsistence wage for persons living in the United States.” eir calculator uses Fair Market Rents (FMRs) — which “represents the cost to rent a moderately-priced dwelling unit in the local housing market” — along with local utility prices, to determine housing costs.

According to e National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), a nonpro t that aims to end the a ordable housing crisis through policy and data research, anything upwards of “the generally accepted standard of spending no more than 30% of gross income on rent and utilities,” is considered una ordable housing, though. is brings needed wages, according to NLIHC, even higher than MIT’s livable wage that already lies on the razor’s edge of nancial independence and public assistance.

Other major costs in MIT’s calculation are food and transportation, which take up another $9,160 per

With voter approval, the state will embark on how to have more a ordable housing statewide. SHUTTERSTOCK IMAGE

With a look at the ins and outs of inflations, the Colorado Sun’s Tamara Chuang breaks down Colorado’s Q3 growth. SHUTTERSTOCK

$750,000.

“ at doesn’t feel good to them,” White said. “Add to that, because of low inventory of homes, kids can’t a ord to buy homes in the communities they grew up in, so there are fewer multigenerational families in one community. Kids can’t easily check in on their parents.”

Many millennials can’t a ord homes that are for sale. at eventually will change as baby boomers are forced to sell as they age, White said.

As Ribble noted: “In 18 years, this issue will resolve itself because baby boomers won’t be in their homes any longer.”

But at that point, some millennials will be in their 60s. For that generation, the dream of home ownership is still alive for many, Briggs said.

“ e millennial demographic is larger and more powerful than the baby boomers,” Briggs said. “ ey are the bulge in the snake, and we baby boomers are sitting on our homes, getting old and not moving.”

Short-term rental ownership is becoming more popular, especially among millennials.

“Close to 50% of buyers (in Clear Creek County) ask if it can be a short-term rental,” said Josh Spinner, longtime Clear Creek County real estate agent.

More recent issues

e COVID-19 pandemic brought a new trend. Many people were able to work from home and some decided to move out of urban areas to more scenic, less populated towns, real estate agents said.

“Whoever would have thought home prices would have gone up during COVID?” Spinner asked rhetorically. “Who could have predicted that? In addition to arti cially low interest rates, we had a lot of articial stimulus money. It de es logic that prices would go up in a pandemic.”

e Colorado Futures Center study agreed.

“ e disruption of COVID and the

almost complete lack of (market) churn really distorted supply with respect to what was available for sale,” Resnick said. “We believe, and we’re still working through all of this, that was a somewhat signi cant contributor in the run-up in prices.”

Briggs said the transition to people working remotely wasn’t an easy one.

“ e seeds of remote work were there before COVID,” he said. “People started looking at their living arrangements and decided they wanted an o ce in their homes.

ey discovered if they work remotely, they could work where they wanted. ey decided to get out of the city and into the suburbs or bedroom communities.

“ ey no longer were commuteoriented in making (home-buying) decisions. Instead, they were quality-of-life focused because they were able to do that. at created a surge in people moving from one place to another.”

e COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help, Millet in Lone Tree said, as well as the subsequent supply-chain issues.

“ e demand has continued to increase that whole time, and supply has been falling further and further behind,” Millet said. “When you don’t have enough supply, price goes up — and that’s the space that we’re sitting in.”

en toward the end of the pandemic, the Marshall Fire in Boulder County took place, burning 1,100 homes. at added to the situation — many families looking for temporary or permanent housing, further depleting the number of homes on the market.

Building homes City and county planners say they are seeing more builders wanting to build residential developments recently, but they are facing several issues.

“ ere’s a housing shortage because we can’t get homes built fast enough,” said Chris O’Keefe, Je erson County planning director. “In Je erson County, we have a lot of land but not a lot of land that is shovel ready.”

He noted that it doesn’t help when members of the community don’t want new high-density residential development near them.

“Recently we’ve seen some areas where … developers have wanted to rezone for higher density,” O’Keefe said. “ e community sometimes is not supportive of higher density.”

In Clear Creek County, little developable land is available, and most of the building permits are for singlefamily homes.

“Over the last 20 years, buildingpermit applications that we are seeing for single-family homes indicate that homes are getting larger and more expensive,” said Fred Rollenhagen, community development director for Clear Creek County. “We are not seeing as many smaller or middle-class type homes like what we saw 20 years ago.”

Lakewood, for example, also doesn’t have large parcels available for residential development except in the Rooney Valley along C-470, where a residential development is under construction with plans for 1,200 homes when complete.

“As a rst-tier suburb of Denver, our vacant land is minimal,” said Paul Rice, manager of planning and development assistance for the City of Lakewood. “Other than the Rooney Valley, there are not a lot of development opportunities that are easy.

“A developer has to work to make a project successful. Lakewood is not an easy place to develop. Most everything is redevelopment. Developing land is a matter of aggregating property to create property that can be redeveloped.”

What’s to come

A 2022 analysis from Newcomer and Resnick on housing a ordability in Colorado found that the share of housing a ordable to people making the median Colorado income dropped 25% between 2015 and 2020. e same research found that statewide housing prices would need to fall by 32% to return to the a ordability levels the state saw in 2015.

“Market correction alone will not restore relative a ordability without

considerable market pain,” the 2022 analysis concluded.

Newcomer said it wouldn’t be easy for the housing market to become more balanced.

“We do need to nd ways to build, essentially, a parallel market that’s incentivized di erently,” Newcomer said. “ e normal constructs of housing development in the full market don’t incentivize doing anything di erently. We have, especially with this disruption because of the pandemic and supply chain issues, these elevated costs from material goods to labor and so on. It’s going to be really hard for those to come back down in the overall market environment now.”

When projecting what housing production may look like in 2023, Leighty said a lot of it depends on mortgage rates.

“Will we see a recession? What will we see that necessarily starts to bring down the federal funds rate and then, you know, brings down the mortgage rates?” Leighty asked, highlighting the uncertainty of the future.

e Colorado and U.S. economies are projected to avoid a recession in 2023, but the “path for continued expansion is narrow” and “a wide array of unforeseen shocks could push the economy into a downturn,” according to the Colorado Legislative Council Sta ’s December 2022 Economic and Revenue Forecast.

Leighty thinks 2023 may start slowly for home builders.

“Builders, they’ll move cautiously on land acquisition until there’s probably more clarity, especially in (interest) rates,” he said.

Real estate agent Briggs thinks the relationship between home buyers and sellers is changing.

“Although we’ll probably see more price negotiation in speci c transactions, housing values will not decline overall, and there certainly won’t be a crash,” Briggs said. “But the days of multiple o ers and over-asking selling prices are numbered. We can also expect it to take longer to sell as buyers sharpen their pencils when considering an o er.”

year — $4,153 and $5,007 respectively. Housing, food and transport together take up 75% of their salary — which leaves some room for the $4,814 cost for “clothing, personal care items, and housekeeping supplies,” and $2,768 for medical care, but none for the $7,929 in annual taxes.

MIT speci es that the calculation “accounts only for the basic needs of a family. It does not account for what many consider the basic necessities enjoyed by many Americans,” such as dining out and other forms of entertainment, but it also “... does not provide a nancial means for planning for the future through savings and investment or for the purchase of capital assets.”

And this is all for single adults without children. A single adult with one child brings the livable wage from $20.61 an hour to $39.96.

NLIHC’s “Out of Reach” reports use “housing wage” as the wage a

per month, the “housing wage” would be $23.77 an hour before taxes — 1.5times what a minimumwage worker currently makes. is is even higher than MIT’s $20.61 an hour “livable wage” for a studio apartment and even includes utilities, as MIT’s wage is only enough to be on the brink of nancial ruin.

Based on NLIHC’s metric, no housing in Denver is actually “affordable” to a minimum-wage worker. It may never reach this point

Denver’s 2020 minimum-wage ordinance began with increasing minimum wage to $12.85 per hour in January 2020, then $14.77 in January 2021, then $15.87 in January 2022, and $17.29 this year.

From now onward, it’s tied to CPI. According to the ordinance, “the Denver minimum wage rate shall increase by an amount corresponding to the prior year’s increase, if any, in the Consumer Price Index …” But this wage is already below the “living wage” determined by MIT, so staying on par with the CPI will only ever keep the minimum wage stable, not increase its value.

full-time worker must make to a ord FMRs without spending over 30% on

rent. For a studio apartment in Denver with an FMR in 2022 of $1,236

Castle Pines Colorado

SHUTTERSTOCK

Big lines from Gov. Jared Polis’ 2023 inaugural

Kicks o second term

BY JESSE PAUL, ELLIOTT WENZLER AND SANDRA FISH THE COLORADO SUN

Gov. Jared Polis provided a road map for how he plans to spend his next four years leading Colorado as he was sworn into o ce for his second term.

“When you listen to enough folks, you realize that in many ways people across our state are asking for some of the same things in di erent ways: practical solutions to the rising cost of living in every corner of our state, safe communities, good schools, a ordable access to health care, the opportunity to build a great life for yourself and your family and the freedom to forge your own path without the government telling you how to live your life,” Polis said in a speech delivered on the west steps of the Colorado Capitol.

He added: “I don’t think I’d be standing before you today if we hadn’t shown some real progress on delivering on di erent parts of this vision.”

Here are the top lines from the Democrat’s 2023 inaugural address:

1. “Throughout our first term, we may have crossed some big things o our todo list, but that doesn’t mean the list in front of us today is any shorter than it was four years ago.”

Polis was busy during his rst term. He signed into law bills reimagining Colorado’s oil and gas regulations, providing universal kin-

dergarten access and targeting high health care costs.

e governor is still working out what his agenda will be over the next four years — it wasn’t clear until after the Nov. 8 election that he would continue to have a Democratic legislature to work with — but his line about a long to-do list ahead suggests he plans to be as busy in the next four years as he was during the last four.

We know that a ordable housing, water management and conservation, and economic development are top of mind for Polis.

2. “Anything we can do, we must when it comes to helping you hold onto more of your hard-earned money.”

e governor and Democrats in the legislature started really prioritizing a ordability in Colorado during the 2022 legislative session.

ey plan to continue making it a focus this year, though it’s not so clear how.

In 2022, the legislature slashed and paused fees — several of them enacted by Polis and Democrats in prior years — and reshaped the tax code to try to lower Coloradans’nancial burden. e General Assembly isn’t planning to continue the vast majority of the fee relief, instead focusing on what Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, called “structural problems.”

A ordable housing will be a big focus.

“For many people in our state, life is too hard and too expensive,” Polis said. “We’re going to reduce housing

costs across Colorado with options for every budget to a ord to live in communities where people work and want to live.”

e governor also promised “lower taxes, lower transportation costs, lower medical bills, lower business fees and, of course, lower housing costs.” He didn’t outline his detailed plans for accomplishing that hefty list of vows.

3. “We’re going to tackle crime head on, yes by holding criminals accountable, but also by preventing crime before it happens.” is was one of the most interesting lines of the governor’s speech. ere are many criminal justice activists in the legislature now, including state Rep. Elisabeth Epps, D-Denver, who don’t want to see Colorado enact any new criminal penalties. Instead, they want to see more investment in behavioral health and drug treatment.

Polis wants those things, too, but he has also already called for the legislature this year to beef up Colorado’s car theft statutes to combat the rising number of stolen vehicles across the state.

Republicans in the legislature see tougher criminal penalties as the sole solution to Colorado’s rising crime rates. Polis appears to be walking a line between the sides.

4. “We’re going to continue on our bold path toward making Colorado 100% renewable-energy by 2040.” is is a promise Polis made during his rst gubernatorial campaign,

in 2018. e governor has said the state has already “locked in” 80% renewable energy by 2030. But what steps the legislature and the Polis administration will take to make the goal a reality remain unclear.

Liberal Democrats and Polis have clashed in recent years over policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change.

Polis also mentioned during his speech that Colorado has an “increasingly scarce water supply,” but he didn’t provide any speci c plans on how to address that fact.

5. “Nobody could have predicted all that these last four years would bring, the trials, the tribulations, the challenges.”

Polis’ rst term was marked by a string of tragedies and hurdles, the biggest of which was undoubtedly the COVID-19 pandemic.  e pandemic began a little over a year after Polis took o ce, forcing him to lead the state through a oncein-a-century global disaster, which is still unfolding. e governor shut down schools and businesses, asked people not to leave their homes and had to abandon at least a year of policy proposals at the legislature as the state prepared for a sharp tax revenue decrease that never materialized.

Polis didn’t directly reference the pandemic and the upheaval it caused during his speech Tuesday, but it was clear that is what he was

Gov. Jared Polis is being sworn in standing next to his husband, Marlon Reis, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver

PHOTO BY HUGH CAREY / THE COLORADO SUN

Je co Board of Education discusses draft legislative priorities

BY ANDREW FRAIELI AFRAIELI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

e Je erson County Board of Education routinely communicates with state and district legislators on their priorities about education in Je co. On Jan. 9, the Board discussed a formal draft of ideas for legislative priorities to be presented to these legislators.

Board President Stephanie Schooley described how the priorities allow the board to weigh in on legislation as it moves forward, and lend a voice to the decision-making and what education priorities should be included.

One of those draft priorities is for the legislature to avoid creating new grant programs.

“ ese often detract districts from focusing on student learning and use resources that could be more equitably allocated to the school nance act, bene ting all districts,” according to the board’s priorities document.

Some of those resources Ed

Ado ex machina

CONIFER – On or about Dec. 17, a person or persons unknown were mean to machines. Speci cally, they spray painted the windows of a skid steer and an excavator that had been spending a quiet weekend alone at a new home site. As to suspects, the machines’ owner could only say he’d had a bit of a run-in with a certain fellow in the neighborhood who objected to the nascent new home, but couldn’t say whether he was behind

Bowditch, a partner at Bowditch & Cassell Public A airs and lobbyist for the board, described as being spent on grant writers, raising the question of whether it should be the “highest priority for all districts in the state to be competing over funds.”

Other priorities included determining “what an e ective K-12 education costs in Colorado and to set our expectations to that level,” rather than “assuming we can adequately educate and support students with the amount of funding available to districts.”

Superintendent Tracy Dorland described this discussion as a way to give the lobbyist a few key areas the board cares about so as to advocate for them. e priorities list is a proactive platform, she continued, and as bills emerge, there is also an opportunity for a reactive stance to those bills from the board.

e priorities list will be put to a vote in the next Board of Education meeting, according to Schooley.

the Bobcat blackout or not. e certain fellow wasn’t in residence when the cops came a-calling, but his wife assured them he had nothing to do with the vandalism. She also said that a lot of the neighbors were peeved about the project on account of “removed trees” and “more people using the water.” Without more to go on, deputies could only go.

Flee market SOUTH JEFFCO – e thrift store

employees called on the y. ey were in hot pursuit of a white Ford F250 heading south with a bed-full of boosted donations. Acting fast, deputies stopped the truck and asked its sole occupant to explain diversity of pre-owned goods piled in back and jammed in the cab. About a month ago, the driver told o cers, a guy at the thrift store assured him that items placed in a certain area were to be discarded and could be procured without permission or

penalty, and that everything he’d taken had been in that area. e thrift store employees begged to di er, saying that he’d taken his second-hand swag from the area reserved for depositing donations and they planned to press theft charges. Turning to that principle of law that says you can’t steal your own stu , the accused announced that most of the stu in the truck-bed, and

The Je co Public Schools Board of Education heard another update on the e ects of possible elementary school consolidation.

PHOTO BY BOB WOOLEY

No. 2 D’Evelyn girls hoops still undefeated

BY DENNIS PLEUSS JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

DENVER — Macy Scheer was a beast on both ends of the court Jan. 11.

e 6-foot D’Evelyn junior created havoc defensively playing at the top of the Jaguars’ half-court trapping defense while pouring in 18 of her game-high 20 points in the rst half against Evergreen.

“ at’s why I smile a lot,” D’Evelyn coach Chris Olson said of Scheer’s performance. “We haven’t had a bunch of length and when we’ve been shorter we’ve done more fullcourt pressure. is year what has worked is using our length to take away passing lanes and make the other team uncomfortable.”

D’Evelyn— No. 2 in the CHSAA-

Now.com Class 4A girls basketball rankings — dominated the Cougars with a 78-30 home victory in the 5A/4A Je co League game.

e undefeated Jaguars (13-0, 3-0 in league) jumped out to a 16-0 lead three minutes in the rst quarter. Scheer hit four 3-pointers in the rst half while creating a number of Cougar turnovers.

“I like it a lot,” Scheer said of being the point of the Jaguars’ trapping defense. “It creates a lot of turnovers and we can get easy baskets in transition.”

Senior Rebecca Taylor was hot pouring in 10 points in the rst quarter as D’Evelyn grabbed a 24-9 lead after the rst 8 minutes. Taylor nished with 15 points and junior Peyton Marvel was her normal steady self with 18 points.

Marvel came in averaging a double-double with 17.9 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. Scheer is the Jaguars’ second-leading scorer just under 17 points per game and has been shooting the 3-ball very well averaging more than four 3-pointers and 23 points over the past three games.

“ e one thing I really love about this team is they are really unselfish,” Olson said. “ ere are very few forced shots when we play. e ball moves and nds open people.”

D’Evelyn’s defense held Evergreen senior Jameson Mott to 12 points.

e Cougars’ leading scorer went over the 1,000-point career mark last week.

“She (Mott) is a dangerous player,” Olson said of last year’s 4A Je co League MVP. “She is smart and

crafty. Great players are going to get their points and do their things.”

D’Evelyn kept on doing its thing as it took undefeated record up against Wheat Ridge (6-6, 0-3) in another home conference game Jan. 13. e Jaguars defeated the Farmers 78-15.

“We try to work hard every day to get better to be ready for our next opponent,” Scheer said. “We work hard to beat everyone we play.”

Evergreen (3-9, 1-2) grabbed its rst league win Jan. 14 with a 45-35 road victory against Bear Creek (5-7, 1-2).

Dennis Pleuss is the sports information director for Je co Public Schools. For more Je co coverage, go to CHSAANow.com.

D’Evelyn wins after erasing Evergreen’s early double-digit lead

BY DENNIS PLEUSS JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

DENVER — Evergreen boys basketball brought the early energy, but D’Evelyn short-circuited the Cougars to grab a big conference win Jan. 11.

Evergreen (6-6, 1-1 in Class 5A/4A Je co League) came out on re on the Jaguars’ home court. e Cougars held a 17-4 lead late in the rst quarter. However, D’Evelyn outscored Evergreen 46-20 after the early de cit to take an eventual 50-

PLEUSS/

JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Evergreen senior Luke Killian (5) looks to get o a shot during the Cougars’ road loss against D’Evelyn on Jan. 11. Killian had a game-high 22 points in the 5037 loss.

PHOTO BY DENNIS

D’Evelyn sophomore Ellie McMann (22) drives through the lane as Evergreen senior Jameson Mott (10) pressures McMann defensively during the Class 5A/4A Je co League game Jan. 11 at D’Evelyn Junior/Senior High School. D’Evelyn took a 78-30 victory to remain undefeated on the season.

PHOTOS BY DENNIS PLEUSS/JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

D’Evelyn junior Macy Scheer pulls up for a 3-pointer during the first half Jan. 11 at D’Evelyn Junior/Senior High School. Scheer had a game-high 20 points in the Jaguars’ dominating 78-30 victory over Evergreen.

Conifer boys wrestling grapples with a loss but hopes to qualify for state

BY ALYSON MEYERS CONIFER HIGH SCHOOL

e Conifer boys wrestling team lost its dual meet against Rampart High School Jan. 10 thanks to multiple wins by forfeit and match losses. ough Conifer did not beat Rampart, the match yielded some success.

“Everything went pretty well. Everyone performed basically as expected,” boys wrestling head coach Nick Adamson said.

Senior Jack Fetzer emerged as the star of the night, winning two matches. Both ended in a takedown of Rampart’s wrestler. e other two victors were senior Jacob Reynolds and junior Asher Phillips.

“I was against an easier kid, so I won, but he was a lower skill set, so I didn’t have to try as hard. I like matches where I can try,” Reynolds said.

Assistant coach Tim Book suggests Conifer fans look out for Fetzer, Reynolds and Metzger in the postseason.

“Jack Fetzer unfortunately didn’t wrestle the last two years, but I have a feeling he’s going to run deep into the tournaments,” Book said.

Philips’ mother, Amanda Phillips, was especially excited to see him win his match. For most of his wres-

BASKETBALL

FROM PAGE 20

37 victory.

“ ey came out with more energy,” D’Evelyn senior Kellen Olson admitted. “But then we kept going at them and keeping the pressure up. ey couldn’t handle it and we kept going after them.”

D’Evelyn (7-6, 3-0) made four 3-pointers during a 3-minute span of the second quarter. Junior Taj Kumar nailed back-to-back 3-pointers 17 second apart to close the Cougars’ lead to 17-12.

Kumar nished with a team-high 16 points with the Jaguars playing on back-to-back nights. D’Evelyn suffered a 58-39 home loss to Lutheran the night before.

“Taj has really been hard on himself,” Gosch said. “To see him just kind of turn the switch into something he has and we’ve seen in

tling career, she has been his “bad luck charm,” and tonight was one of the rst bouts she has seen him win.

“It’s kind of amazing to see, you know, a little baby now is wrestling and is so strong,” Phillips said.

e night was not a success story for everyone, though. Sophomore Ben Metzger lost his match after three rounds. Because neither wrestler had completed a takedown in the time allotted, Rampart’s wrestler was declared the winner based on points.

“Frankly, I think I could have done better,” Metzger said.

Adamson noted that though wrestling is an individual sport, the sheer amount of mental and physical stress that the players go through together creates a tight-knit team. e dual only proved this as teammates shouted encouragement and advice from the bench. Whenever a Lobo grappler came close to completing a takedown, his teammates would be out of their seats, acting like the fans at the World Cup nal.

“Even though it’s an individual sport, wrestling teams have more unity than a lot of team sports,” Adamson said.

Now that their season has three weeks left, the boys wrestling team is looking toward regionals and state quali ers.

practice was really neat. He gave us the con dence.”

Olson gave the Jaguars their rst lead early in the third quarter with a pair of free throws to o cially erase the double-digit lead. Olson was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line in the second half to nish with 13 points. Sophomore Vince Scaturro had a solid game with a dozen points.

“ is is big win,” Olson said of the league win over Evergreen. “ ey were one of our more competitive games last summer. We love playing against them.”

Evergreen made just two eld goals after halftime. Senior Luke Killian had his lone basket in the second half midway through the third quarter and sophomore Rob Beldock scored in the nal minute of the third to cut D’Evelyn’s lead to 35-34.

After Killian had 16 points by halftime, D’Evelyn decided to put senior Nick Vancanti on the Cougars’ lead-

“Right now, we’re basically gearing up to try to perform in that regional tournament as best we can and try to qualify as many wrestlers to get to that state tournament as possible,” Adamson said.

Experience levels on the team are widespread. Newer players are focusing on fundamentals while veteran players are working on higherlevel techniques. Book notes that the team will be speci cally focusing on bottom work, footwork and take-

ing scorer. Killian had 6 points in the third quarter to nish with a gamehigh 22 points, but was held scoreless in the nal quarter.

Senior Ethan Scheik made three free throws in the fourth quarter for the Cougars’ lone points.

“I just felt like until they were going to come out and put some pressure on us we mine as well (slow it up),” Gosch said of the fourth quarter where a 3-pointer by Scaturro was the lone eld goal made in the nal 8 minutes. “We looked for just quality shots and adjusted to what they were doing defensively.”

Evergreen did rebound Jan. 13 with a 69-52 victory over Pueblo West (6-6).

“Hal (Evergreen coach Hal Farmwald) doesn’t a fantastic job with them,” Gosch said. “He is a competitor which I love. He brings that competitiveness to Evergreen. ey’ll do well in league.”

Gosch will have his coaching cut out for him with the Jaguars

downs to prepare for the regional tournament.

“ e guys are continuing to get better at the things that we’re working on each day. We’re continuing to improve throughout the end of the season,” Adamson said.

eir next home dual will be on Feb. 2 against Evergreen. Varsity league championships will be Feb. 3 at Alameda High School and JV State will be the same day at Northglenn.

playing shorthanded for at least the next few weeks. Senior Elijah Gusmus— D’Evelyn’s leading scorer at 16 points per game — will be out with a knee injury for at least the majority of January.

“We are missing Elijah (Gusmus) which is a key player. ese guys have played around Elijah their whole life. Elijah has been the guy,” Gosch said. “Now these guys are learning on to be self motivators and how to step up.”

Gosch says best outcome from Elijah’s injury would for him to be back in about three to four weeks.

Olson believes the Jaguars are up to the challenge.

“We just have to have 32 minutes of hell re. It’s next man up,” Olson said of playing without Gusmus for at least the next few weeks. “It just has to be that next guy stepping up.”

Dennis Pleuss is the sports information director for Je co Public Schools. For more Je co coverage, go to CHSAANow.com.

Sophomore Ben Metzger grapples with his opponent during a match on Jan. 10. PHOTOS BY ALYSON MEYERS/CONIFER HIGH SCHOOL

SHERIFF’S CALLS

FROM PAGE 19

all of the articles packed into the cab, belonged to him all along. In other words, he’d just been tooling around town with a ling cabinet, stair-stepping machine, portable air-conditioner, three pairs of skis, a broom, and a child’s bicycle with a “Goodwill” sticker on it in the back of his truck, and a leaf blower, a drying rack, a folded-up weight bench, a power-washer and two small chairs taped together in his cab. e thrift store employees disputed him on several points, most signi cantly regarding the skis and the broom, which are kept on store property and could only have been obtained through a determined act of tres-

pass. Deputies cited the anti-donor for theft and second-degree trespass, and the goods were returned to the store’s “Not for Stealing” area.

Uncivil service

EVERGREEN – A while back, the business owner placed a $1,200 order with a large supplier. On Dec. 19, a deliveryman appeared with $1,200 worth of goods and demanded that Business Owner pay $1,500 directly to him. Business Owner preferred to stick with the original price and payment arrangements and Deliveryman departed unpaid, only to call a few minutes later and scorch the phone lines with a ery ume of surprisingly graphic and distasteful threats. Not particularly concerned, but not willing to let Deliveryman’s dirty diatribe go unanswered, Business Owner referred the matter to

JCSO. Contacted for comment, Deliveryman denied about half of his super-salty statements, and vowed to see Business Owner in civil court. Deputies gured that was as good a place as any to deal with the disagreement and dropped the case.

SWM? OMG!

EVERGREEN – It’s all very distressing, she tells deputies. For the last couple of weeks a middle-aged guy has been frequently observed sitting in the school parking lot. His pickup truck bears signage for some manner of home cleaning business, but he doesn’t seem to be doing any business, unless it’s of the monkey kind. Some parents are starting to get uptight, she says. O cers trace the mysterious malingerer to his home. No anxiety intended, he assures them. With numerous clients

POLIS

FROM

talking about.

Meanwhile, two tragedies hit close to the governor’s Boulder home during his rst term. In March 2021, 10 people were killed in a shooting at a King Soopers grocery store in the Table Mesa neighborhood. en, in December 2021, the Marshall re destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Superior and Louisville.

Just weeks after his reelection, ve people were killed and at least 17 others were wounded in a mass shooting at Club Q, a gay nightclub

in Colorado Springs.

e state has also contended with several other record-breaking wild res over the past few years, including the Cameron Peak, East Troublesome and Pine Gulch res. A total of 6,761 wild res burned more than 744,120 acres in Colorado in 2020 alone.

Addressing such emergencies over the past four years often distracted Polis and the legislature from their aspirations. Polis acknowledged Tuesday the future always holds uncertainty.

6. What the governor didn’t mention Abortion and gun control.

Democratic lawmakers this year

are expected to introduce legislation tightening Colorado’s gun regulations, including by enacting a waiting period between when someone can purchase a rearm and access that weapon and by raising the age at which someone can purchase a ri e or shotgun to 21.  e legislature is also poised to expand who can petition a judge to order a temporary seizure of someone’s guns under what’s called the red ag law.

Some Democrats, including Epps, want to go even further by banning a host of semi-automatic weapons, a policy proposal the governor is likely to reject.

Democratic leadership in the legis-

in the area, he nds the spacious school parking lot an ideal spot to eat lunch and make a few phone calls between jobs. Deputies explain that the prevailing social climate is hostile to lone males parked in public places frequented by children, and advised that it might be better for everyone if he found a less convenient place to brown-bag. I smell what you’re stepping in, he nods. I don’t want to cause a stink.

Sheri ’s Calls is intended as a humorous take on some of the incident call records of the Je erson County Sheri ’s O ce for the mountain communities. Names and identifying details have been changed. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty.

lature also plans this year to shore up abortion access in Colorado, indicating reproductive rights will be a major focus of the General Assembly in 2023. e governor, however, did not mention abortion once during his inaugural address despite signing into law last year a measure enshrining nearly unfettered abortion access in Colorado.

Dry January: giving up drinks for a month

leaning on alcohol as hard for social interaction,” he said.

“Dry January” is a phenomenon Indrehus has seen grow over the years, even beyond the month.

BY OLIVIA JEWELL LOVE OLOVE@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Chances are if you’re on social media, you’ve heard of “Dry January,” the trend of giving up alcohol for the rst month of the year. According to some Colorado residents, the challenge isn’t new, but it is worth a try.  Kara Rowland, a 39-year-old Denver resident, is on her third year of the challenge. She has family at home in D.C. taking on the challenge with her, but as far as her local Colorado group goes, she’s doing it alone.

“Out here it really is a solo e ort,” Rowland said. “You can’t go a block here, especially in downtown Denver, without hitting a brewery.”

It’s not just the city that experiences the alcohol-heavy social culture. Steve Indrehus is the director of brewing operations at Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs. He said alcohol was a big part of older generations, like his.

Others continue to sound o on social media, explaining their reasons for going sober all year long, and saying the social landscape in society doesn’t exactly make it easy.  Indrehus thinks now however, he’s starting to see a shift.  “ e younger generations aren’t

“ e non-alcoholic category is entering our culture and becoming a stable part of our culture,” he said.

Tommyknockers has ventured into the category, o ering a NA version of its most popular beer, the Blood Orange IPA.

Indrehus himself is participating in “Dry January,” explaining that he can already see a di erence in his focus and sleep. He said he also likes the aspect of leaving his comfort zone.

“I like uncomfortable, challenging things,” he said.

Indrehus said there are some misconceptions about NA beer, mainly in that people expect it to be cheaper. He explained that it’s actually the opposite.

“Most people would think NA beer would be less expensive because it doesn’t have alcohol, but it’s actually more expensive,” he said.

Essentially, brewers like the team at Tommyknockers have to go through the process of making beer but then take the alcohol out, which takes more time, labor and money.

Rowland, a self-proclaimed craft beer enthusiast, has been exploring NA options during the month.

“I went to dinner with a friend last Saturday and the restaurant had some NA options,” she said. “ ere’s some, if I gave it to you, you would not know it’s a NA beer.”

Besides taking the month to get

perspective of her drinking habits, Rowland said she’s also seen positive e ects on her body.

“I think having zero alcohol improves your sleep,” she said.

She also noticed a renewed glow in her complexion.

“Maybe it’s a placebo e ect, but I look in the mirror and I swear my skin looks a little better,” she said.

Dr. Manan Shah, ENT and Chief Medical O cer at Wyndly, said the improvements in sleep are just one

real side e ect of “Dry January.” He explained that better sleep is one of the biggest bene ts he sees from giving up alcohol.

“Alcohol a ects your sleep, even if you only have one or two drinks, your sleep will markedly improve if you drop alcohol,” he said.

Shah added that dropping the drink can also help decrease your risk of cancer, improve sex drive, help weight loss and support a healthy immune system.

People all over Colorado are spending the month of January sober; here’s why

We’d like to know about events or activities of interest to the community. Visit www.canyoncourier.com/calendar/ and post your event online for free. Email dbrobst@coloradocommunitymedia.com to get items in the print version of the paper. Items will appear in print on a space-available basis.

will lead hikes on Jan. 21, Feb. 11, March 4 and April 1. For more information and to register, visit www. evergreenaudubon.org/events/ snowshoe-hike-with-georgetownoutdoor-discovery-january-2023

UPCOMING

THURSDAY

EPRD discovery sessions: As part of its strategic planning process, the Evergreen Park & Recreation District board will host sessions to gather public input on what programs and facilities the district should have in the future. Sessions are: 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Jan. 19 via Zoom: Links will be posted on the strategic plan page at evergreenrecreation.com by Jan. 18; 6 p.m. Jan. 25 at Wulf Rec Center: parks and outdoor recreation; 6 p.m. Jan. 26 at Buchanan Park Rec Center: rec centers and indoor programs; 6 p.m. Jan. 31 at Evergreen Lake House: special programs and topics; and 6 p.m. Feb. 2 at Buchanan Park Rec Center: serving the whole community.

SATURDAY

Snowshoe hikes: Explore the beauty of Colorado’s winter wonderland on a guided snowshoe hike in Georgetown. Kimberly Knox of Georgetown Outdoor Discovery and Evergreen Audubon’s Emma Vasicek

Evergreen chamber breakfast and bene ts: e Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce will host its virtual breakfast and bene ts meeting from 10-11 a.m. Jan. 26. For more information, to register and the Zoom link, visit evergreenchamber. org.

EHS Pom for a Day: e Evergreen High School varsity poms are hosting their annual Junior Poms Clinic from 4-8 p.m. Jan. 27 at EHS. e event includes includes dinner and a halftime performance. Boys and girls in kindergarten through fth grade are invited to learn what it’s like to be a pom. Email ehspomsbooster@gmail.com with any questions and to register.

Indian Hills Winterfest: Indian Hills will host its inaugural Winterfest from noon-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, at Arrowhead Park. In addition to a youth art show, kids area, food trucks, a bon re and live music, there will be snowshoe races at 12:15 p.m., a tug-o-war at 1 p.m., egg toss at 1:30 p.m. and a lake plunge at 3:15 p.m. Proceeds bene t the Indian Hills Improvement Association and Indian Hills Fire/Rescue.

Festival of One-Act Plays: e

Festival of One-Act Plays will be performed through Jan. 29 in the Black Box eatre, 27886 Meadow Drive, with performances at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $30 for adults, $20 for seniors and $15 for students. For tickets, visit www.evergreenplayers. org or call 720-515-1528.

Evergreen Area Republican Club: e Evergreen Area Republican Club will meet at 6 p.m. Feb. 1 at the Evergreen Fire/Rescue Administration Building, 1802 Bergen Parkway. Featured speaker will be Dick Wadhams, former Colorado state GOP chair, who will address the future of the GOP in Colorado. Park near the administration building and do not bring food. Independents and unaf-

liated welcome.

Free legal clinic: A free legal clinic for people with no attorney will be from 2 to 5 p.m. ursday, Feb. 2. By telephone or video, volunteer attorneys will answer questions, help ll out forms, and explain the process and procedure for all areas of civil litigation. Pre-registration for individual 15-minute appointments is available by calling 303-2355275 or visiting je colibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/search/ q=free%20legal%20clinic or call 303-235-5275.

Chill Out Fest: e Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce will host Chill Out Fest on Feb. 4. e Mushies cup obstacle course on Evergreen Lake will be at 10 a.m., Evergreen Amazing Race at 1 p.m. and a glow skate at 5:30 p.m. Visit evergreenchamber.org for more information.

Evergreen chamber mixer: e Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce will host a mixer from 5-7 p.m. ursday, Feb. 9, at the Design Showroom, 3045 Whitman Drive, Evergreen. In conjunction the showroom will have an open house, where the community can meet designers and tour the showroom.

Evergreen Audubon Explore More: Registration is now open for Evergreen Audubon’s Explore More after-school programs starting the last week of March at Marshdale

WORSHIP DIRECTORY

ASCENT CHURCH

“Real people pursuing a real God” All are Welcome Sundays at 10am

In-person or Online www.ascentchurch.co 29823 Troutdale Scenic Drive, Evergreen

BERGEN PARK CHURCH

Bergen Park Church is a group of regular people who strive to improve ourselves and our community by studying the Bible and sharing our lives with each other.

On Sunday mornings you can expect contemporary live music, Children’s Ministry that seeks to love and care for your kids, teaching from the Bible, and a community of real people who are imperfect, but seek to honor God in their lives. We hope to welcome you soon to either our 9:30AM or 11:00AM Sunday service.

Search Bergen Park Church on YouTube for Livestream service at 9:30am 31919 Rocky Village Dr. 303-674-5484 info@bergenparkchurch.org / www.BergenParkChurch.org

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH SERVICES 28244 Harebell Lane

Sunday Service & Sunday School 10am Wednesday Evening ZOOM Meeting 7:30pm

Contact: clerk@christianscienceevergreen.com for ZOOM link Reading Room 4602 Pletner Lane, Unit 2E, Evergreen OPEN TUE-SAT 12PM - 3PM

CHURCH OF THE CROSS

Please join us for Sunday worship at 28253 Meadow Drive, Evergreen or visit www.churchotc.com

8:30am Traditional Service

10:30am Contemporary Service Communion is served every Sunday at both services. All are welcome! Visit our website at www.churchotc.com for info on church activities. 28253 Meadow Drive, Evergreen • 303-674-4130 • o ce@churchotc.com

CHURCH OF THE HILLS PRESBYTERIAN (USA)

Serving the mountain community from the heart of Evergreen Worship 10:00 a.m.

Reverend Richard Aylor

O ce Hours: Tu-Thur 9:00 - 4:00; Fri 9:00 - noon Bu alo Park Road and Hwy 73 www.churchofthehills.com

CHURCH OF THE TRANSFIGURATION EPISCOPAL

In-Church: Sunday Communion Quiet Service 8:00 am & with Music 10:15 am 10:15 am only Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86017266569

In-Meadow: 2nd Sunday of the month at 9:30 a.m. --June through September—

27640 Highway 74 – ¼ mile east of downtown Evergreen at the Historic Bell Tower www.transfigurationevergreen.org

CONGREGATION BETH EVERGREEN (SYNAGOGUE)

Reconstructionist Synagogue Rabbi Jamie Arnold www.BethEvergreen.org / (303) 670-4294 2981 Bergen Peak Drive (behind Life Care)

CONIFER CHURCH OF CHRIST

“Doing Bible Things in Bible Ways” 11825 U.S. Hwy. 285, Conifer, CO 80433

Sun: 9:00a.m. Bible Study-10:00a.m. Worship; Wed: Bible Study 7:00p.m.

EVERGREEN CHRISTIAN CHURCH (DISCIPLES OF CHRIST) 27772 Iris Drive, Evergreen - 303-674-3413 www.EvergreenChristianChurch.org - eccdoc01@gmail.com

Sunday Worship 10:00 a.m., with communion every Sunday We are an inclusive faith community and welcome you to join us in our new ministry journey.

EVERGREEN LUTHERAN CHURCH 5980 Highway 73 + 303-674-4654

Rev Sara Wirth, Interim Pastor Join us for Virtual Worship on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/EvergreenLutheranChurch Sunday Worship uploaded by 10am. www.evergreenlutheran.org + All Are Welcome!

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY CHURCH – EPC 1036 El Rancho Rd, Evergreen – (303) 526-9287 www.lomcc.org – o ce@lomcc.org Sunday Worship 10:00 a.m., with communion every Sunday “Real Church In An UnReal World” A community empowered by the Holy Spirit which seeks authentic relationships with God and others to share the good news of Jesus with Evergreen, the Front Range and the world. Come as you are, all are welcome!

MOUNTAIN REVIVAL CHURCH

“Baptizing the Mountains in Jesus Name” Sundays 11:00 am & Wednesdays 7:00 pm

Location: Aspen Park Community Center 26215 Sutton Road, Conifer, CO 80433 (Additional parking at the Park & Ride next to Big O Tires) 720-770-0380 Call, Text, or Just Drop In www.mountainrevival.org

PLATTE CANYON COMMUNITY CHURCH

Located: 4954 County Road 64 in Bailey. O ce hours MWF

ROCKLAND COMMUNITY CHURCH “Connecting all generations to Jesus” Please check our website, www.Rockland.church, for updated service times ¼ mile north of I-70 at exit 254 17 S Mt. Vernon Country Club Rd., Golden, CO 80401 303-526-0668

UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF EVERGREEN Rev. Sarah Clark • 303.674.4810 • www.evergreenumc.org 3757 Ponderosa Dr. across Hwy 74 from Safeway in Evergreen Join us in person every Sunday at 10:00am for worship “Open Hearts, Open Doors, Open Minds”

UNITY OF THE FOOTHILLS

Transforming lives through the power of Love Join us on Sundays from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., in person or on Zoom, for a unique, member-led service. Each week a member volunteer presents a spiritual topic of their choice along with discussion questions. Attendees are encouraged, not required, to share their experiences and views on the chosen topic. We find our discussions to be lively, thought provoking, and meaningful. We are an all-inclusive community and welcome all perspectives. 28577 Bu alo Park Road, Suite #120 • Evergreen, Colorado • 80439

Email: unityofthefoothills@gmail.com

TRIVIA

1. GEOGRAPHY: What is the second-longest river in North America? 2. MOVIES: Which 1973 movie advertised itself as a place “where nothing can possibly go wrong”? 3. GAMES: Which party game claims that it can “tie you up in knots”? 4. U.S. PRESIDENTS: Which president was the rst to appoint an African American as a member of his Cabinet? 5. HISTORY: When was the Warsaw Pact between the Soviet Union and seven Eastern Bloc countries signed? 6. TELEVISION: Which TV game show often uses the phrase “Survey says ...”?

ANIMAL KINGDOM: What is a female peacock called?

FOOD & DRINK: How many meals do Hobbits eat in a day,

according to the movies? 9. ADVERTISING: Which product used a manicurist named Madge in its advertisements? 10. MEDICAL: What is a common name for the condition called septicemia? Answers

1. e Mississippi. 2. “Westworld.” 3. Twister. 4. Lyndon Johnson. 5. 1955. 6. “Family Feud.” 7. A peahen. 8. Seven. 9. Palmolive dishwashing liquid. 10. Blood poisoning. (c) 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.

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Eliminate gutter cleaning forever! LeafFilter, the most advanced debrisblocking gutter protection. Schedule free LeafFilter estimate today. 20% off Entire Purchase. 10% Senior & Military Discounts. Call 1-833-6101936

Miscellaneous

DISH TV $64.99 190 Channels + $14.95 High Speed Internet. Free Installation, Smart HD DVR included, Free Voice remote. Some Restrictions apply. Promo Expires 1/21/23. 1-866-479-1516.

MobileHelp, America’s premier mobile medical alert system. Whether you’re home or away. For safety & peace of mind. No long term contracts! Free brochure! 1-888489-3936

Careers

Help Wanted

RECEPTIONIST

Elk Meadow Animal Hospital is actively seeking a receptionist. We are looking for someone who is a team player and has excellent communication skills. Come join our pack! Contact info: 303-674-7400 elkmeaodwvet@gmail.com

Miscellaneous

Caring for an aging loved one? Wondering about options like seniorliving communities and in-home care? Caring.com’s Family Advisors help take the guesswork out of senior care for your family. Free, noobligation consult: 1-855-759-1407 BATH & SHOWER UPDATES in as little as ONE DAY! Affordable prices - No payments for 18 months! Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Senior & Military Discounts available. Call: 855-761-1725

Help Wanted

DRIVER

Class B CDL propane delivery truck driver for Spring Valley Gas, Elizabeth.

P/T & F/T positions; responsible for propane delivery and customer service.

HazMat/Tanker endorsement. Propane certification a plus. Insurance age requirement 26 with clean MVR. SVG is building a team, not just a job! Starting salary based on experience & qualifications. Call 303-660-8810.

Help Wanted

Miscellaneous

Donate Your Car to Veterans Today! Help and Support our Veterans. Fast - FREE pick up. 100% tax deductible. Call 1-800245-0398

The Generac PWRcell solar plus battery storage system. Save money, reduce reliance on grid, prepare for outages & power your home. Full installation services. $0 down financing option. Request free no obligation quote. 1-877-539-0299

!!OLD GUITARS WANTED!! GIBSON, FENDER, MARTIN, etc. 1930’s to 1980’s. TOP DOLLAR PAID. CALL TOLL FREE 1-866-433-8277

Prepare for power outages today with a GENERAC home standby generator $0 Down + Low Monthly Pmt Request a free Quote. Call before the next power outage: 1-855-948-6176

Safe Step. North America’s #1 Walk-in tub. Comprehensive lifetime warranty. Top-of-the-line installation and service. Now featuring our free shower package & $1600 off - limited time! Financing available. 1-855-4171306

Become a published author. We want to read your book! Dorrance Publishing trusted since 1920. Consultation, production, promotion & distribution. Call for free author`s guide 1-877-729-4998 or visit dorranceinfo.com/ads

Miscellaneous

Switch and save up to $250/yr on talk, text & data. No contract or hidden fees. Unlimited talk & text with flexible data plans. Premium nationwide coverage. 100% U.S. based customer service. Limited time get $50 off any new account. Use code GIFT50. 1-855-903-3048

Attention Homeowners! If you have water damage and need cleanup services, call us! We’ll get in & work with your insurance agency to get your home repaired and your life back to normal ASAP! 855-7677031

HughesNet– Finally, super-fast internet no matter where you live. 25 Mbps just $59.99/mo! Unlimited Data is Here. Stream Video. Bundle TV & Internet. Free Installation. Call 866-499-0141

Clear Creek County is hiring with new higher pay rates! Apply at: 403 Argentine Street in Georgetown.

Community Development will submit a request to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on behalf of Blue Spruce Habitat for Humanity for the release of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds under Title 1 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, to undertake the following project:

Project Title: 29592 Spruce Road Duplexes

Purpose: The purpose of the project is for acquisition of a multi-lot property in Evergreen for the construction of seven duplexes with affordable units in Jefferson County. CDBG funds will be used to pay for the acquisition costs for the property located at 29592 Spruce Road, Evergreen, CO 80439. 29592 Spruce Road Duplexes will serve residents earning up to 80% of the area median income.

Location: 29592 Spruce Road, Evergreen, CO 80439

Estimated Cost: CDBG funds through Jefferson County: $465,000

Total Project Cost: $4,763,300.00

FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT

Jefferson County Community Development has

determined that the project will have no significant impact on the human environment. An Environmental Impact Statement under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), therefore, is not required. Additional project information is contained in the Environmental Review Record (ERR). Due to staff working remotely, the ERR will be made available to the public for review electronically via email. Please submit your request, weekdays 8 A.M. to 5 P.M., to Jefferson County at esander@jeffco.us or by phone at 303-248-6318.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

Any individual, group, or agency may submit written comments on the ERR to Jefferson County. All comments received by February 3, 2023 at 5 P.M., will be considered by Jefferson County prior to authorizing submission of a request for release of funds. Comments should specify which Notice they are addressing.

ENVIRONMENTAL CERTIFICATION

Jefferson County certifies to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that Kat Douglas, Director, Housing, Economic and Employment Services Division, in her capacity as Certifying Officer consents to accept the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts if an action is brought to enforce responsibilities in relation to the environ-

mental review process and that these responsibilities have been satisfied. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s approval of the certification satisfies its responsibilities under NEPA and related laws and authorities and allows Foothill Regional Housing to use Program funds.

OBJECTIONS TO THE RELEASE OF FUNDS

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will accept objections to its release of funds and Jefferson County Community Development’s certification for a period of 15 days following the anticipated submission date or its actual receipt of the request (whichever is later) only if they are made on one of the following bases: (a) the certification was not executed by the Certifying Officer of Jefferson County Community Development; (b) Jefferson County Community Development has omitted a step or failed to make a decision or finding required by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations at 24 CFR Part 58; (c) the grant recipient or other participants in the development process have committed funds, incurred costs, or undertaken activities not authorized by 24 CFR Part 58 before the approval of a release of funds by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; or (d) another Federal agency, acting pursuant to 40 CFR part 1504, has submitted a written finding that the project is unsatisfactory from the standpoint of

environmental quality.

Objections must be prepared and submitted via email in accordance with the required procedures (24 CFR Part 58, Sec. 58.76) and shall be addressed to Noemi Ghirghi, CPD Region VIII Director, at CPD_COVID-19OEE-DEN@hud.gov. Potential objectors should contact CPD_COVID-19OEE-DEN@hud.gov to verify the actual last day of the objection period.

Kat Douglas, Certifying Officer

Legal Notice No. CC1099

First Publication: January 19, 2023

Last Publication: January 19, 2023 Publisher: Canyon Courier

LEGAL NOTICE

According to the Liquor Laws of Colorado Snowpack Taproom LLC Has requested the licensing officials of Jefferson County to grant a Tavern Liquor License at.

Date of application: November 29, 2022. Public hearing on the application will be held by the Liquor Licensing Authority Board on February 02, 2023 at the hour of 9:00 A.M. Hybrid at 100 Jefferson County Parkway Hearing Room one and through a WebEx virtual meeting platform,

945.64

36.00

125.36

55,939.79

SENERGY PETROLEUM LLC Motor Oil 565.47 Fleet Services Fund Total 57,373.87

ACCO BRANDS CORPORATION Graphic Supplies 2,312.42

A&A

HS-Miscellaneous Contract Services 424.74 ALAN L BUDDEN HS-Mileage 185.75 ALLISON MARIE LINCOFF HS-Mileage 2,051.25 ALYSIA C JACOBS HS-Mileage 137.50 Amanda Tovar HS-Mileage 159.38 Angelyn Ritt HS-Mileage 193.19 Ashley Hoffman HS-Mileage 81.69 BAIRD, DIANE HS-Miscellaneous Contract Services 875.00

BILLIE L BAIN HS-Mileage 60.88 Brenna Kelly HS-Mileage 57.38 BRIANNE R BENEFIELD HS-Mileage 635.43 CLIENT

AMAZON CAPITAL SERVICES INC Office Supplies 103.95

AMAZON CAPITAL SERVICES INC Graphic Supplies 19.98

AMAZON CAPITAL SERVICES INC Recognition/Appreciation 89.20

AMAZON CAPITAL SERVICES INC General Supplies 582.23

AMAZON CAPITAL SERVICES INC Special Events Supplies 525.08

AMAZON

AMAZON

AMAZON

Arianne

ARMSTRONG

ARVADA,

AT&T

BACKGROUND

BAKER

BEAR

Public Notices

the event information for attendees:

Citizens may receive a call back by providing a phone number when joining the event online; or calling into the public hearing by dialing 1-408418-9388 and entering meeting Access Code 2481 668 3072.

Event address for Attendees is: https://jeffco.webex.com/jeffco/onstage/g.php? MTID=e7d29202099e290f41c4a683e25a10d8e

Event Password: a5JpTQwu8D7

Additional details for accessing the public hearing will be posted at the following, https://www. jeffco.us/events. Please note that citizens who would like to comment during the liquor hearing must be in person or access the hearing through the WebEx computer platform and use the chat feature to let the host know you would like to make a public comment.

The name(s) and address(es) of the Officers: Michael Thompson 25501 Mosier Circle, Conifer CO 80433

By Order of Liquor Licensing Authority of the County of Jefferson, State of Colorado

Legal Notice No. CC1098

First Publication: January 19, 2023

Last Publication: January 19, 2023

Publisher: Canyon Courier

Public Notice

CLEAR CREEK COUNTY NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN of a public hearing before the Board of County Commissioners for Clear Creek County, Colorado, at 10:00 a.m. on the 7th day of February, 2023, at 405 Argentine Street, Georgetown, Colorado, 80444, for the purpose of considering the adoption of Ordinance No. 16, An Ordinance Ordinance Providing for the Banning of Open Fires by the Board of County Commissioners, County of Clear Creek, Colorado

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this hearing will be held both in person and via Zoom teleconference. Please use the link or phone numbers below to participate via Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/167562115

Or Telephone: Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: 669 900 6833 or 346 248 7799 or 301 715 8592 or 312 626 6799 or 929 205 6099 or 253 215 8782

Webinar ID: 167 562 115

Or iPhone one-tap : US: 669-900-6833,,167562115# or 346-248-7799,,167562115#

We are also streaming live via: https://www.facebook.com/Clear-Creek-CountyColorado-130701711250/

This notice is given and published by the order of the Board of County Commissioners of Clear Creek County.

Dated this 10th day of January, 2023.

Randall Wheelock, Chairman Board of County Commissioners Clear Creek County

AN ORDINANCE PROVIDING FOR THE BANNING OF OPEN FIRES BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, COUNTY OF CLEAR CREEK, COLORADO

WHEREAS, the Board of County Commissioners of Clear Creek, State of Colorado (hereinafter referred to as “The Board”), desires to regulate intentional outdoor fires in Clear Creek County; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to C.R.S. § 30-15-401(1) (n.5), the Board is authorized to ban open fires to a degree that is necessary to reduce the danger of wildfires within those portions of the unincorporated areas of the county where the danger of forest or grass fires is found to be high; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to C.R.S. § 30-15-402, the Board has the authority to impose penalties in violation of an ordinance adopted pursuant to C.R.S. § 30-15-401(1)(n.5); and

WHEREAS, the Board is responsible for determining the level of open fire ban that is necessary to prevent wildfires as required by law; and

WHEREAS, the Board adopted Resolution R-0183 authorizing the Clear Creek County Sheriff to declare and revoke fire bans; and

WHEREAS, the Board desires to appoint the County Sheriff as the person with primary responsibility for determining when and to what extent a fire ban is appropriate, based on consultation with appropriate agencies in the community; and

WHEREAS, The Board exercised its authority on this subject by enacting/adopting Ordinance No. 8 on June 25, 2002; and

WHEREAS, thereafter, the General Assembly of the state of Colorado enacted laws affecting the manner of enforcement, and the penalties for violations, of county ordinances and regulations, specifically SB21-271 and HB22-1229; and

WHEREAS, the County Attorney recommends that Ordinance No. 8 be amended to comply with this legislation, by amending the enforcement provisions; specifically by rescinding Ordinance No. 8 and re-enacting it, as amended, as Ordinance No. 16, both actions to be effective simultaneously;

WHEREAS, it is in the interest of public health, safety and welfare that open fires be regulated by the Board or the Board’s designee.

AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. Legislative Declaration.

The Board of County Commissioners of Clear Creek County, State of Colorado, hereby declares that open fires can be dangerous under certain conditions and are a matter of local and public concern and that in order to protect the public health, safety, welfare and natural resources of Clear Creek County it is necessary to control open fires in unincorporated areas.

Section 2. Definitions.

A.(1)”Open Fire” means any fire outdoors for any purpose, including, but not limited to, bonfires, campfires, charcoal or wood barbeques; lighting off fireworks of any kind, trash or rubbish burning, smoking and lawn, weed, ditch or crop burning.

(2) ”Open Fire” does not mean propane or natural gas barbeque or liquid fuel stove if it is attended at all times and is in a fully enclosed, covered barbeque grill or is contained within a liquid fuel stove.

Section 3. Procedures.

A. On its own motion, the Board may open a hearing on the issue of a fire ban in the unincorporated areas of Clear Creek County;

B. The Clear Creek County Sheriff is empowered to invoke or lift a fire ban for unincorporated areas of Clear Creek County. The Clear Creek County Sheriff shall consult with appropriate authorities, including, but not limited to, local fire districts, the Board, State Forester, and the U.S. Forest Service, in making the decision to invoke or lift a fire ban.

C.If the period of time that a fire ban shall be in effect was not specified in the declaration of the fire ban, the Board shall thereafter from time-totime review the continuing need for such a ban, based on consultation with the County Sheriff and appropriate agencies, to determine when the fire ban shall expire.

D. Pursuant hereto, the Board or County Sheriff shall limit Open Fires in any manner and to any extent deemed necessary or appropriate to reduce the danger of wildfire.

E. All bans shall describe the manner and extent of such a ban, provided that if there is no limitation included in the ban, the ban will be deemed to be a ban of all Open Fires, applicable everywhere in unincorporated Clear Creek County.

Section 4. Open Fires Prohibited in Unincorporated Areas.

If the Board or the County Sheriff determines that an Open Fire Ban shall be in effect in Clear Creek County, no person shall build, maintain, attend or use an Open Fire as prohibited by that particular fire ban on any private or public land in unincorporated Clear Creek County.

Section 5. Exemptions

The following persons and acts shall be exempt from any fire ban:

A. Persons with a valid written permit from the Clear Creek County Sheriff based on his consideration of the risks, time and location of the fire, fire hazard mitigation to be used, and safety measures to be taken during the event.

B.Any federal, state, or local officer or member of an organized rescue or firefighting force in the performance of an official duty.

C. Burning of irrigation ditches located within and completely surrounded by irrigated farmlands, where such burning is necessary for crop survival, and a specific written permit has been granted by the Clear Creek County Sheriff.

D. A federal agency or the Clear Creek County Sheriff.

Section 6. Posting.

If a Fire Ban is invoked or lifted pursuant to this Ordinance, notice of a fire ban, or lifting thereof, will be posted at the following locations:

A. Outside of the Commissioners’ Hearing room at the Clear Creek County Courthouse; and B.In the lobby of the Courthouse; and C. At the entrance to the Sheriff’s Department; and D. Along roads and other places as the County Sheriff may determine to be appropriate.

In addition to the posting, local newspapers, local radio, local cable access channels and community agencies (including, but not limited to, CDOT, Colorado State Forester, Clear Creek County Fire Authority, local fire protection districts, U.S. Forest Service) shall be informed when a fire ban is invoked or lifted.

Section 7. Penalties.

A. Any person who violates any provision of this Ordinance commits a civil infraction and shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) and not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) for each separate violation; provided that the fine for the second or subsequent offense during any 24 month period shall be not less than five hundred dollars ($500.00).

B. Surcharges as required by law, including pursuant to C.R.S. § 30-15-402(2), shall also be assessed and paid in accordance with the statutes imposing the surcharges.

C. Any person having the authority and responsibility to enforce the ordinances of Clear Creek County and having knowledge of any violation of the rules and regulations stated herein may use the Penalty Assessment Procedure defined under § 16-2- 201, C.R.S., as amended, by issuing the violator a penalty assessment notice and releasing the violator upon its terms or, as the law allows, by taking the violator before a county court judge. The penalty assessment notice shall be a summons and complaint and shall contain the identification of the offender, the specification of the offense, and the applicable fine.

Section 8. Effective Date.

The Board of County Commissioners of Clear Creek County finds that this Ordinance is necessary to the immediate preservation of the public health and safety because of the drought and extreme fire hazards existing in the County and the State, and, therefore, hereby adopts the Clear Creek County Fire Ban Policy as set forth in this Ordinance effective immediately upon signing of this Ordinance.

INTRODUCED, READ, ORDERED PUBLISHED IN FULL AND SET FOR PUBLIC HEARING THIS 10th DAY OF January, 2023.

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, COLORADO

Randall Wheelock, Chairman CERTIFICATION: THE FOREGOING ORDINANCE WAS INTRODUCED AND READ ON January 10, 2023 , BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, COLORADO, AND APPROVED FOR PUBLICATION.

E.A. Luther Deputy Clerk & Recorder Clear Creek County

Legal Notice No. CC1904 First Publication: January 19, 2023 Last Publication: January 19, 2023 Publisher: Canyon Courier Public Notice

VICTIM

AND WITNESS ASSISTANCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT BOARD

First Judicial District State of Colorado 500 Jefferson County Parkway - Golden, CO 80401 (303) 271-6767

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL January 6, 2023

THE 1st JUDICIAL DISTRICT VICTIM ASSISTANCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT BOARD ANNOUNCES THE AVAILABILITY OF VICTIM ASSISTANCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT GRANT FUNDS

For JULY 1, 2023 through JUNE 30, 2024 ELIGIBILITY AND EVALUATION CRITERIA ARE ATTACHED APPLICATIONS ARE DUE BY 12:00 NOON ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2023

For more information contact: Melissa Secrease, VALE Grant Evaluator E-mail: msecrease1stjdvale@gmail.com or Allison Boyd, VALE Administrator 1st Judicial District Attorney’s Office 500 Jefferson County Parkway Golden, Colorado 80401 (303) 271-6767

January 6, 2023

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Funding Cycle July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024

The 1st Judicial District Victim Assistance and Law Enforcement (VALE) Board announces the availability of local VALE funds authorized by Title 24, Article 4.2, Colorado Revised Statutes.

PURPOSE: This request for proposal provides prospective applicants with sufficient information to apply for VALE Grant Funds.

ANTICIPATED AMOUNT AVAILABLE: Because VALE funds are obtained through the assessment of fines by the courts, it is impossible to know the exact amount of funds that will be available for grants in 2022/2023. It is anticipated that approximately $1.4 million will be available for 2023/2024.

PERIOD:

GRANT

July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024

ELIGIBILITY: The local VALE Board is authorized to enter into contracts for the purchase and coordination of victims and witnesses assistance services with persons or agencies that the Board deems appropriate. The Board shall accept and evaluate applications related to the implementation of the rights afforded to crime victims pursuant to Section 24-4.1-302.5 C.R.S. and for the provision of services delineated pursuant to Sections 24-4.1-303 and 304 C.R.S. Such moneys shall not be used for defraying the costs of routine and ongoing operating expenses.

Grants submitted to the Board must serve persons residing or victimized in the 1st Judicial District, which is Jefferson and Gilpin Counties.

PRIORITY CATEGORIES: The 1st Judicial District VALE Board will give priority consideration to victim services and law enforcement programs which:

(1) Are required to provide victim services for the implementation of the rights afforded to crime victims pursuant to Section 24-4.1-302.5 C.R.S.;

(2) The provision of the services and programs delineated in Sections 24-4.1-303 C.R.S., 244.1-304 C.R.S. and 24-4.2-105(4) C.R.S. related to all crimes as defined by Section 24-4.1-302(1) C.R.S.;

(3)Provide direct services to victims of crime;

(4) Have demonstrated an effective response to victim needs; or will provide new, innovative, or unmet victim services;

(5) Do not duplicate other victim services in the 1st Judicial District.

PLEASE NOTE: According to C.R.S. 24-4.2-105(2.5)(a), “The board shall not accept, evaluate, or approve any application requesting grants of money…from any state agency, including local offices of such agencies; except…the court administrator…for the purpose of collecting all moneys assessed by the courts…(and) local

probation department…for the purpose of implementing the rights of victims…”

PLEASE NOTE: Copies of the state statutes related to these funds are available on the Colorado State Government web page (www. state.co.us, click on Government, then Colorado Constitution and Statutes, then Colorado Revised Statutes C.R.S.)

January 6, 2023

RFP’S and application materials e-mailed to prospective applicants and current grant recipients

February 17, 2023

Grant Application Submission Deadline – A singlesided original and seven 2-sided (duplex) copies of the completed grant application must be received by 12:00 noon on this date at the Office of the District Attorney, 500 Jefferson County Parkway, Golden, Colorado

NOTE: Applicants mailing their applications must allow sufficient mail delivery time to ensure receipt of their proposals by the specified time.

LATE PROPOSALS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

April 2023 Applications will be reviewed by the VALE Board; Board will be hearing oral presentations and applicants will be notified of the date and time of the presentations at the Office of the District Attorney, 500 Jefferson County Parkway, Golden, Colorado. VALE Board will hold its decision-making meeting after finishing oral presentations.

10 days after the funding decisions Applicants will be notified of preliminary funding decisions (Funding decisions will be finalized following a review of requests for reconsideration of decisions for denial of funding, if any.)

10 days after the decision notification Deadline for submission of written requests for reconsideration of decisions for denial of funding

Within 30 days Board will review requests for reconsideration of denials, if any June, 2023 Signed contracts due back to the Board

APPLICATION SUBMISSION:

One (1) single-sided original and seven (7) two-sided copies of the entire application must be received no later than 12:00 noon, Friday, February 17, 2023 by the VALE Administrator, 500 Jefferson County Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401.

Applicants may not fax or e-mail applications to the VALE Board under any circumstances.

Applicants mailing their applications must allow sufficient mail delivery time to ensure receipt of their proposals by the deadline.

EVALUATION CRITERIA:

(1) Grant project falls under the VALE Statue Title 24, Article 4.2, C.R.S.

(2) The project provides victim services to implement the Victims Rights Constitutional Amendment.

(3) Application is complete, concise, clearly represents the proposed project, and provides all information requested.

(4) The project provides direct services to victims of crime in the 1st Judicial District.

(5) Applicant has demonstrated a need for the project.

(6) The applicant is effective in responding to the needs of victims of crime.

(7) Applicant does not duplicate services provided by other resources.

(8) Applicant efficiently utilizes its resources, including volunteers or otherwise maximizes the number of persons served per grant dollar.

(9)Applicant demonstrates good fiscal management practices.

(10) Applicant has demonstrated the ability to comply with financial and program requirement (if applicant has received past funding from the VALE Board).

(11) Applicant demonstrates reasonable fund raising efforts, local volunteer and/or financial support and, if appropriate, a diversified funding base.

(12) Applicant has demonstrated an effective response to victim needs, or provides new, innovative or unmet victim needs in the 1st Judicial District.

(13) The board will give appropriate deference to the need for continuity in providing service to programs with a proven track record with the local VALE Board.

NOTE: The fact that an applicant meets eligibility requirements or has received funding in the past does not guarantee funding.

A requesting agency or person shall acknowledge in writing that such agency or person has read and understands the rights afforded to crime victims pursuant to Section 24-4.1-302.5 and the services delineated pursuant to Sections 24-4.1-302 C.R.S. and 24-4.1-304 C.R.S. (commonly referred to as the “Victim Rights Act” and “Enabling Legislation”.) Such written acknowledgment is a part of the application and must be addressed. The Board shall not accept for evaluation any application for a grant or monies pursuant to this section until the requesting agency or person provides the Board with such this acknowledgeme

The VALE Board reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, or to reject any portion of a proposal if it is determined to be in the best interest of the 1st Judicial District to do so. All applicants who have been denied funding have a right to request a reconsideration of the Board’s denial of funding if the applicant can show that additional information is available or if a change in circumstances has occurred.

NOTICE OF A REQUEST FOR RECONSIDERATION MUST BE IN WRITING AND MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE BOARD WITHIN 10 DAYS OF THE DATE ON THE LETTER NOTIFYING THE APPLICANT

OF THE DECISION TO DENY. The Board will review the request for reconsideration and make a decision and inform the applicant within 30 days of receiving the written request. Board decisions on reconsiderations are final.

APPLICANTS MAY REQUEST A GRANT APPLICATION PACKET BY CALLING OR WRITING:

Allison Boyd District Attorney’s Office

500 Jefferson County Parkway Golden, CO 80401 (303) 271-6767 aboyd@jeffco.us

Note: You may request that grant application materials be e-mailed as Word and Excel attachments by contacting VALE Grant Evaluator or a msecrease1stjdvale@gmail.com.

Legal Notice No.CC1093

First Publication: January 19, 2023

Last Publication: January 19, 2023 Publisher: Canyon Courier

Metropolitan Districts

Public Notice

A CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE FOOTHILLS FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO 1-13.5-501, 1-13.5-1102(3), 32-1-905(2), C.R.S.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, and, particularly, to the electors of the Foothills Fire Protection District of Jefferson County, Colorado.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that an election will be held on the 2nd day of May, 2023, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. At that time, three (3) directors will be elected to each serve for a 4-year term, and two (2) directors will be elected to each serve for a 2-year term. Eligible electors of the Foothills Fire Protection District interested in serving on the Board of Directors may obtain a Self-Nomination and Acceptance form from the District’s Designated Election Official (“DEO”):

Dana Retterer, DEO c/o Coaty Marchant Woods, P.C. 1202 Bergen Parkway, Suite 110 Evergreen, Colorado 80439 (303) 674-0800

e-mail: dretterer@cmw-evergreen.law

The office of the DEO is open on the following days: Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.

The deadline to submit a Self-Nomination and Acceptance form is close of business on Friday, February 24, 2023 (by 5:00 p.m.) (not less than 67 days before the election). Earlier submittal of a Self-Nomination and Acceptance form via e-mail is encouraged. If the DEO determines that a SelfNomination and Acceptance form is not sufficient, the eligible elector who submitted the form may amend the form once, at any time, prior to 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 24, 2023.

Affidavit of Intent To Be A Write-In-Candidate forms must be submitted to the office of the Designated Election Official by the close of business on Monday, February 27, 2023 (by 5:00 p.m.) (the sixty-fourth day before the election).

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN, if an eligible elector of the Foothills Fire Protection District wishes to receive an Absentee Ballot by mail for this election, an application shall be filed with the Designated Election Official no later than the close of business on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 (by 5:00 p.m.). If an eligible elector of the Foothills Fire Protection District wishes to be a permanent mail-in voter of the District on all future elections, an application for permanent absentee voter status shall be filed with the Designated Election Official no later than the close of business on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 (by 5:00 p.m.).

Foothills Fire Protection District

By: /s/ Dana Retterer Designated Election Official

Legal Notice No. CC 1096

First Publication: January 19, 2023

Last Publication: January 19, 2023

Publisher: Canyon Courier

Public Notice

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, and particularly to the electors of the North Fork Fire Protection District of Jefferson & Douglas County, Colorado:

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that an election will be held on the 2nd day of May, 2023, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. At that time two (2) directors will be elected to serve 4-year terms to the Board of Directors of the North Fork Fire Protection District.

Self-Nomination and Acceptance Forms are available from the Designated Election Official, Michael T. Bono at 303-838-2270.

Self-Nomination and Acceptance Forms are to be returned to the Designated Election Official at least 67 days prior to the regular election: February 24th, 2023.

Legal Notice No. CC 1097

First Publication: January 19, 2023

Last Publication: January 19, 2023

Publisher: Canyon Courier

Bids and Settlements Public Notice

NOTICE

OF FINAL SETTLEMENT JEFFERSON COUNTY, STATE OF COLORADO

Pursuant to C.R.S. Section 38-26-107, notice is hereby given that on the 31st day of January 2023 final settlement will be made by the County

Denver can celebrate Chinese New Year Party to take place Feb. 4

BY CHANCY J. GATLIN-ANDERSON SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

Colorado State University doctoral student Xinyi “Katya” Zhou grew up celebrating Lunar New Year in her hometown of Beijing, China. Each year to celebrate, Zhou’s family would prepare an elaborate dinner on the eve of the Lunar New Year, full of potstickers, chilled braised beef, many prepared vegetables, chocolates, nuts and wine.

Potstickers, the most important part of Zhou’s family celebration, were made with yellow chives, eggs and napa cabbage with homemade Sichuan peppercorn oil to add avor.

“Years ago, when my grandparents were healthier, we’d make potstickers together. My mom would mix the llings and my grandpa — the chief in the family — was the quality control and would tell Mom if the potstickers need more salt or any adjustments,” said Zhou. “Grandma, my mom, and sometimes my aunt, would actually make the potstickers. I would help as well, especially as I got older. My uncle either helped with the potsticker making or would make the dough and roll it into thin pieces.”

Guests would come and go from Zhou’s house throughout the several days of the Lunar New Year celebrations, sometimes bringing gifts along with them such as food and potted plants. Guests were greeted by a decorated front door, adorned with the Chinese character that means luck.

Zhou’s family will be celebrating the Lunar New Year in Beijing, but because it falls in the middle of the spring semester, Zhou will be staying in Colorado and expects to spend most of the time dedicated to her studies — writing and working on her dissertation, she said.

“I do want to nd some time to make potstickers with my boyfriend and friends from the CSU anthropology department, if I have time,” Zhou added.

Lunar

New

Year

celebrated in many places

China is a large, diverse country with varying cultural traditions. e majority of the population celebrates Lunar New Year and it is tradition-

It’s the year of the rabbit

IF YOU GO

The Nathan Yip Chinese New Year Celebration takes place from 5-10:30 p.m. Feb. 4 at the Grand Hyatt Denver. Tickets cost $295 general and $195 for young professionals. Proceeds benefit the Nathan Yip Foundation. To learn more, visit nathanyipfoundation.org.

There are many other family friendly Lunar New Year events taking place throughout the Denver area. Here are a couple suggestions: 19th annual Colorado Chinese New Year Celebration

Where: George Washington High School, 655 S. Monaco Parkway, Denver. When: 10:30-3:30 p.m. Jan 21

For: Everyone

Cost: $25 (40% discount code: DCS40) tinyurl.com/FECLNY

Far East Center Lunar New Year 2023

Where: Far East Center, 333 S. Federal Blvd., Denver.

When: Multiple weekends beginning Jan. 14.

For: Everyone

Cost: Free entry with shopping and dining available tinyurl.com/yck23h7n

The Denver Public Library is o ering a variety of free and family-friendly Lunar New Year events. Visit the library’s website to find out about Lunar New Year events at your local branch: denverlibrary.org/events/upcoming.

ally associated with the reunion of families, homemade food and time o work. Many people hold parties with food and dancing, and towns usually set o reworks. In many areas of China, people receive seven days o of work, as preparations for the holiday start well in advance.

Lunar New Year is also celebrated outside of China in other East Asian countries such as Taiwan and Korea; in India in South Asia; in Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia in Southeast Asia; and in parts of the Middle East and North America.

e 2023 Chinese Lunar New Year marks the year of the rabbit. Each year’s animal classi cation is a part of the Chinese zodiac and is based on the lunar calendar. e Chinese zodiac repeats on a 12-year cycle. For 2023, the rabbit symbolizes compassion, creativity, con ict avoidance, friendship and family bonding. Many Chinese people use the zodiac symbolism to help de ne the coming year.

Parties for the incoming year of the rabbit and Lunar New Year celebration will be held across the world, including one in Denver hosted by

the Nathan Yip Foundation. e Nathan Yip Chinese New Year Celebration is Denver’s largest and, according to the foundation, the most authentic Lunar New Year Party. It will take place on Feb. 4.

“ e event is going to be amazing,” said Nathan Yip Foundation Executive Director Jill Shenkel Henwood. is year’s event will have a ChinoLatino theme, and the Colorado Mambo Orchestra will provide musical entertainment.

“We have a large Hispanic population, so it’s tting to re ect the diversity of the city and the rest of the state,” Henwood said. “We really want to celebrate the mixing of cultures with this event.”

In addition to the musical entertainment, the event will include a silent and live auction, a cocktail hour, lion dancers, a main presentation, family style dining and a post-dinner night market.

e dinner will include a traditional Chinese “prosperity” salad toss called yusheng. e tradition involves the mixing of traditional

Chinese ingredients — all of which symbolize positive things such as money, luck, long life and prosperity in business. Ingredients are added to the salad one at a time and are accompanied by recited greetings of good luck.

e Nathan Yip Foundation has a rich history of improving education quality and access in remote areas of China. Now, they’ve turned their attention to Colorado, supporting teachers and students in rural school districts.

e Lunar New Year Celebration is the foundation’s biggest fundraising event of the year, and proceeds from the event will help support its mission.

“After spending years working to help schools in rural China, the Nathan Yip Foundation Board decided to look at the struggles in our own backyard and those of students in rural Colorado,” said Henwood.

“We’re working to address the equity and opportunity gap that exists between education in the city compared to rural Colorado schools.”

of Jefferson, State of Colorado to: Kone Inc. PO Box 894156 Los Angeles CA, 90189

hereinafter called the “Contractor”, for and on account of the contract for the 2022 Elevator Modernizations project in Jefferson County, CO.

1. Any person, co-partnership, association, or corporation who has an unpaid claim against the said project, for or on account of the furnishing of labor, materials, team hire, sustenance, provisions, provender, or other supplies used or consumed by such Contractor or any of said work, may at any time up to and including said time of such final settlement, file a verified statement of the amount due and unpaid on account of such

claim.

2. All such claims shall be filed with Heather Frizzell, Director of Finance for Jefferson County Colorado, 100 Jefferson County Parkway, Golden CO 80419-4560.

3.Failure on the part of a creditor to file such statement prior to such final settlement will relieve the County of Jefferson, State of Colorado, from any and all liability for such claim.

County of Jefferson, State of Colorado Andy Kerr, Chairman Board of County Commissioners

Legal Notice No. CC 1088

First Publication: January 12, 2023

Last Publication: January 19, 2023

Legal Notice No. CC1090

Publisher: Canyon Courier

Dragon Dancers will entertain the crowd at the Nathan Yip Foundation Chinese New Year Celebration. COURTESY OF THE NATHAN YIP FOUNDATION

and Wilmot elementary schools and Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen. ese programs are for kids who love being outdoors and learning about nature and science. For more information and to register, visit www.EvergreenAudubon. org and click on Events.

ONGOING

Hiwan Museum winter hours: Hiwan Museum has shortened winter hours for tours, open ursday and Friday from noon to 4 p.m. and weekends from noon to 4:30 p.m. Private tours of large groups may be accommodated when the museum is closed by calling Erica Duvic at Hiwan Museum at 720-4977653.

Community Bible Study: Several

community Bible study groups are available — women (in person and online), co-ed young adults, school age, preschool & babies. is year’s study covers six books of the Bible: Philemon 1, 2, 3, John, Jude and Revelation. In-person classes are ursday morning at Rockland Community Church in Genesee, Tuesday night at Bergan Park Church in Evergreen and Wednesday morning at Conifer Community Church in Conifer. More information is available at cbsclass. org/evergreengolden.

1232 Bergen Parkway.

Support After Suicide Loss: Heartbeat and Resilience1220 o er Support After Suicide Loss from 5:30-7 p.m. the fourth ursday of the month for ages 14 and older. Join in-person or online. Suggest donation is $15. For location, email heather@resilience1220.org or call 720-480-6672.

History Happy Hour: e Evergreen Mountain Area Historical Society will host a History Happy Hour from 4:30-6:30 p.m. the second Friday of each month at Hiwan Museum. Join us in a round table discussion on any and all aspects of history with topics driven by the attendees.

group: A Parkinson’s disease support group meets the rst Friday of the month from 1-3 p.m. at Evergreen Christian Church, 27772 Iris Drive, Evergreen. For more information, email esears@parkinsonrockies.org.

Mountain Foothills Rotary meetings: Mountain Foothills Rotary meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays both in person at Mount Vernon Canyon Club at 24933 Club House Circle, Genesee, and via Zoom. Join the Zoom meeting at https://us02web. zoom.us/j/81389224272, meeting ID 813 8922 4272, phone 346-248-7799.

ESA EverGREEN Re ll Station: EverGREEN Re ll Station (re ll your laundry detergent, lotions, soaps and more. We have many sustainable products available).  e Re ll Station is open Tuesdays from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and Wednesdays from 1-4 p.m. It is located upstairs in the Habitat Restore in Bergen Park,

Sensitive Collection: Resilience1220 o ers a monthly workshop for highly sensitive people to help them live healthy and empowered lives from 3:30-4:30 p.m. the third Wednesday of the month via Zoom. Visit r1220.org for more information.

Parkinson’s disease support

Beyond the Rainbow: Resilience1220 o ers Beyond the Rainbow, which is two support groups that meet from 7-8:30 p.m. the second Wednesday of the month. One is a safe group for those 12-20 and the other is group for parents and caregivers wanting support for raising an LGBTQ child. To RSVP, contact Lior Alon at lior@wisetreewellness.com.