THORNTON — e dynasty of Evergreen’s girls swim and dive team continued on Feb. 11 at the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center.
e Cougars dominated in the pool to claim a fth straight Class 3A state championship.
“I really think the true secret is we are here to have fun,” Evergreen
A dilapidated historic building near Bu alo Creek may get new life now that it is on Colorado’s Most Endangered Places list.
e South Platte Hotel, which was built in 1913, is in the North Fork Historic District and the only building remaining of the South Platte community. e property has been owned by Denver Water since 1987, and the building was slated for demolition.
e Most Endangered Places list is created each year by Colorado Preservation Inc., and the organization announced on Feb. 9 additions to the list, which included the South Platte Hotel.
Last August, the Je erson County Historic Commission received a letter from Denver Water stating that the building would be demolished, which made John Steinle, a local historian, spring into action.
“We have talked about that building for a long time, what might be done and how it could be saved,”
SEE HOTEL, P2
Steinle said. “ e letter put us into emergency mode. What (the letter) did was galvanize us, and we contacted a lot of local organizations to get them mobilized and aware of the situation.”
Among the organizations interested in preserving the building are the Evergreen Mountain Area Historical Society, the Conifer Historical Society, the Pine Elk Creek Improvement Association and Je erson County Open Space.
Steinle hopes the organizations can meet with Denver Water ocials and put their heads together to come up with a plan.
“Our next step is to contact the decisionmakers at Denver Water and have a discussion of what they are amenable to do,” Steinle said. “Hopeful we can work with them in the near future and keep them from tearing it down and gure out what to do with it.”
Colorado Preservation Inc. will facilitate and assist the local organizations with nding a solution to
keep the building, said Endangered Places Director Katie Peterson, who noted that it takes local community initiative to preserve historic sites.
She said since the hotel was so close to the Colorado Trail and the South Platte River, options should be available to keep the building.
According to Jose Salas, a Denver Water spokesman, Denver Water bought the hotel building because it would be within the area underwater with the proposed Two Forks Reservoir, which ultimately was never built.
“With no waterworks purposes for Denver Water to warrant the expenditure of ratepayer funding for building repairs, the structure has progressively deteriorated over the last four decades and is currently extremely unsafe,” Salas wrote in an email. “Denver Water has installed fencing to deter the public from trying to enter the unsafe structure while we go through the process of determining its future.”
He said Denver Water understood the site’s historic signi cance and wanted to work with other groups to determine potentially viable options, and no decisions have been made.
e community of South Platte was at the con uence of the North Fork of the South Platte River. According to Preservation Colorado, the hotel originally was constructed in 1887 by Charles Walbrecht and his wife Millie, an example of a workingclass resort hotel. In its day, the hotel o ered 14 rooms to stagecoach passengers and train passengers on the Denver, South Park and Paci c Railroad narrow-gauge line.
Steinle said many communities sprang up in the late 1800s along the railroad, especially between Bu alo Creek and Pine Grove, a reminder of how intense railroading was in Colorado and how important the railroads were to the state’s economy.
e hotel also operated a post ofce, and by 1900 the town, population 40, included the hotel, railroadrelated businesses and a general merchandise store. Five years later the Walbrechts expanded the hotel to include a saloon.
According to legend, the hotel was set on re and burned to the ground in 1912. It was replaced with the structure that is still standing today, according to Preservation Colorado.
It’s not just area historical societies who are interested in preserving the South Platte Hotel. In the 2012-13 school year, West Je erson Middle School English teacher Frank Reetz and a team of students embarked on a project to restore the Billy Westall Monument near the South Platte community. is project was successfully completed in 2014 and recognized by the Je erson County Historical Commission.
With that success, Reetz and his students began studying the South Platte Hotel, and students wrote essays on what should be done with the building, especially given its neglected state, that were published in 2018 in the periodical “Historically Colorado.”
While a few students said the building was too expensive to renovate and preserve, some suggested restoring it to a functioning hotel, preserving part of the building, or creating a park on the property as a way to preserve its history.
As one student put it: “We must protect this historic space from the forces of nature. We cannot let the destruction of this area. It is spiritual and special to the community.”
A house in the 3800 block of Spring Valley Trail was destroyed in a re early Feb. 7. No one was home at the time.
Evergreen Fire/Rescue responded to a re call at about 12:45 a.m. to the home o Stagecoach Boulevard, and the home was fully involved in ames when re ghters arrived, according to Einar Jensen, an EFR spokesman.
Indian Hills and Elk Creek re departments assisted in ghting the re. ey were tasked primarily with hauling water to the scene since there were no re hydrants nearby, Jensen said.
Neighbors were noti ed through Lookout Alert about the re, so they would know EFR was at the scene, Jensen said.
Fire o cials were told the property had recently been purchased, and
Jensen didn’t know whether the new owners had moved anything into the home.
e home, which was remote, was in a gated community on a one-lane road, and snow and ice made getting to the house more di cult, Jensen said.
e cause of the re is under investigation.
is is the third house re in the Evergreen area in a week.
Causes have been determined for the rst two res, both on Jan. 31 by the EFR re investigator. e rst re on Silver Spruce Lane that morning was accidental, starting near a wood-burning replace. e second that evening on Aspen Way was caused by improperly stored replace ashes.
e Je co coroner’s o ce has not released the cause of death of the woman who died in the Silver Spruce Lane re.
New communication tower site
e Inter-Canyon Fire Department likely has found a new home for its communications tower.
District o cials have found a new site, so the district won’t build the tower in Hilldale Pines, Chief Skip Shirlaw said at the Feb. 8 re board meeting. He promised Hilldale Pines residents who attended the meeting that the department heard their concerns about a potential tower in their neighborhood, which is why this site is at the top of the list.
is spot was not in consideration because of other available locations, he said.
Shirlaw declined to say where the site was because the department was still negotiating a rental price with the owners, but he said it was a commercial tower site with only the property owner’s home nearby. He added that the department likely would erect a separate 40-foot tower at the location.
e re board still needs to vote on where the communication tower will be placed and the costs involved.
Neighbors of Inter-Canyon’s Station 5 in Hilldale Pines were concerned a proposed 80-foot tower at the station would cause health impacts of radio frequency exposure;
re risk if lightning struck the tower; visual impacts since the tower would be nearly 40 feet above nearby trees; issues if the tower fell over because of strong winds; and decreasing home values.
“We had a good meeting with owners of the tower property last week,” Shirlaw said. “It was very favorable, and they are happy to have us there.”
Community paramedicine program starts
Inter-Canyon’s community paramedicine program has o cially started.
e goal of the program is to help ful ll smaller medical needs such as checking blood pressure, giving
EKGs and taking blood samples so the person — usually a senior citizen — doesn’t need a doctor visit or an ambulance. Community paramedics look for clues and ask questions to make sure the senior is healthy.
Battalion Chief Dan Hatlestad said he expected the department to get requests from the community, doctors and hospitals to help residents in the district. To learn more, call Inter-Canyon at 303-697-4413.
Sign up for chipping starting Feb. 20 Elk Creek and Inter-Canyon re departments will open their chipping program registrations on Feb. 20 for those living in those re districts.
Last year, the chipping crews for the two departments worked at 480 address locations, and all of those people signed up on the rst day. is year, residents living in areas with community ambassadors will get the rst shot at signing up. If you aren’t sure if you have a community ambassador, check the Community Ambassador Page on the Wildland tab of either re district’s website to nd your planning unit and who represents you.
Fifteen of the 46 neighborhoods still need community ambassadors. If you are interested, contact Capt. John Mandl at Inter-Canyon Fire Protection District, jmandl@icfpd. net.
No new fire station for now Inter-Canyon Fire Protection District is holding o on building a new re station on U.S. 285 until it learns whether it will consolidate with Elk Creek and North Fork re departments.
Fire Chief Skip Shirlaw said if the departments move forward with consolidation and voters approve it in November, decisions on the scope and size of the station should be decided by the new large department. If consolidation doesn’t take place, Inter-Canyon will continue with its original plan to build a new station where its current Station 3 is located at a cost of about $5 million.
BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Despite indications to the contrary, the ability to spell is alive and well in the foothills.
Sixteen students from Wilmot and e Bergens elementary schools and Evergreen Middle School took to the Bergen Valley stage on Feb. 2 to take on the challenge in the annual
Mountain Area Spelling Bee. is year Cullen Dick, a Wilmot fth grader, won the bee by spelling “gargantuan” and “frequently” correctly. Taking second place was Owen Whitman, an EMS eighth grader. e students at the Evergreen bee won their school bees, and the Mountain Area Spelling Bee was the next stop on the road to the Colorado bee on March 11. at winner will go to the national Scripps Spelling Bee in May in Maryland. e last time a Colorado student won the national bee was in 2002. Despite electronic spelling help that most people use, learning to
spell is still important, according to e Bergens’ Kirstin Pulio , digital teacher librarian who organized this year’s bee.
“Spelling bees are still important because they allow for students to learn in a fun way while promoting reading, writing, vocabulary and public-speaking skills,” Pulio said. “It helps students set personal goals and work hard to achieve them.”
Among words students spelled this year were “moxie,” “masa,” “tiara,” “pneumonia,” “frequently” and “feisty.” e bee was over in six rounds.
Cullen said his secret to spelling success was reading a lot, so he no-
tices how words are spelled.
“I’ve been reading my entire life,” he said. “I love to read.”
Dad Adam Dick was happy for his son, adding that he was even happier that Cullen was an avid reader. Adam enjoys watching Cullen in spelling bees since Adam never participated in one himself.
Owen said he loves words and plans to write books one day.
Mom Stephanie Whitman called Owen a wordsmith.
“I am a good speller, but some of the words he spelled today were beyond my capability,” she said.
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She loves the outdoors and met her husband Ben on a sledding hill when he was using a hard-sided suitcase as a sled. Since then, they’ve had two wonderful kids and his job has taken them all over the U.S. so buying, remodeling, staging and selling homes is second nature to her. ey spent a year in Denver some time ago and, when the opportunity to move back to our area came up, they opted to go big and live in the foothills.
Jackie loves all aspects of real estate, but prides herself on educating her clients on everything they should know before buying or selling because she’s done it so many times herself. Reach Jackie at (720) 6631093 or JquelinGrubb@Gmail.com.
e Morrison Board of Trustees will move forward with a scaleddown version of improvements to the downtown area.
e board at its meeting on Feb. 7 decided to use the grant money provided by the Colorado Department of Transportation as part of its Safer Main Street Initiative. It decided against turning the money down because the projected improvement costs were more than the town could a ord.
Trustees asked town o cials to begin the CDOT process to scale back the original plan.
In June 2021, the town learned it was getting a $426,000 grant from CDOT, and the town must put in about $106,000. e scaled-back projects are expected to cost less than $532,000.
junior Finley Anderson said of the Cougars’ dynasty. “ ere is obviously pressure to get another state title every year, but the main goal is
While the town is working with CDOT on preliminary plans, there also be community outreach to learn what Morrison residents want to do to help make the downtown area safer. None of the plans is set in stone.
Town planner Carrie McCool has told the board that criteria for the improvements will be whether the community wants them, do they slow tra c, and are they pedestrian friendly and ADA compliant. CDOT also will look at tra c statistics including crash data, and businesses will be surveyed about how they use Bear Creek Avenue.
e scaled-back project includes pedestrian crossing improvements at the intersections of Bear Creek Avenue and Park Street, including removing the tra c signal, Mill Street and Market Street. It also looks at adding an LED sign on the east end of town to advertise town events, and highlight businesses and attractions.
Trustees in November were concerned that the original project would go over budget, so they asked o cials to see whether refusing the
to have fun and enjoy each other. It is fun working hard with people that you like.”
Evergreen is now tied for second with Mullen for the most girls swim and dive state championships with seven. e Cougars won back-toback 4A state titles in 2014 and 2015 before its current run on ve straight
grant or scaling back the project were options.
McCool said when she met with CDOT o cials, they told her the town could apply for additional funding if it needed it. She said it would raise CDOT’s eyebrows if the town turned down the money
3A championships that began in 2019.
e title came with the third head coach for Evergreen over the past three years. Longtime coach Liz Hudd coached the Cougars to 3A titles in 2019, 2020 and 2021 before retiring. Lisa Morrow stepped in as the Cougars’ head coach last season, and this year Steve Schneiter took over.
“It’s been crazy. I’ve known Liz for a really long time since I was about 10 years old. I knew Lisa a little bit because I swam with her daughter on the same team,” Anderson said of both former head coaches who were on hand Saturday night to help the Cougars celebrate. “I didn’t know Steve at all until this season, but he has been great. He has de nitely adapted to our team a lot. It was fun getting to know him and hopefully he comes back next year.”
e Cougars nished with 443 team points, edging out last year’s team total of 422. Discovery Canyon went home with the state runner-up trophy racking up 333 points. Glenwood Springs nished third with 310 points.
e Cougars had six individuals in
because it got funding in the rst round, beating out other towns for the grants.
e town will contract with Toole Design for the preliminary and the nal design and more once the community has been consulted. e cost is estimated to be $90,555.
multiple A heat nals.
Freshman Tally Riddle (200 and 500 freestyle), junior Aspen Fisher (200 IM and 500 freestyle), junior Kileigh Ackerman (50 freestyle and 100 backstroke), sophomore Maya Patel (100 butter y and 100 backstroke) and junior Riley Rains (100 butter y and 100 breaststroke) were all in multiple championship heats.
“ ere was a lot of pressure with the number of state titles we have,” Schneiter said after guiding the Cougars this season. “I knew we had a great team to build upon and continue to take it to the next level.”
Anderson came in attempting to repeat as the individual state champion in the 100 butter y and 100 backstroke. Anderson — who has verbally committed to swim at the University of California, Berkeley — had no problem defending her individual titles.
She won the butter y in a time of 55.35 seconds. Anderson then repeated in the backstroke by breaking the 3A state record that she had set the previous day during preliminaries. Her time of 54.10 seconds is now
just a little more than a second o the all-Colorado state record of legend Missy Franklin.
“It’s crazy. I’m committed to the same college she went to,” Anderson said of Franklin, who set the 100 backstroke record with a time of 52.30 seconds in 2011 swimming for Regis. “Missy is someone all of us looked up to. It is fun to be in her shadow still, but fun to see those records and maybe it’s a possibility one day.”
Anderson has one more year of high school left to try to chase down more records.
“Great performances by Finley in both the 100 y and 100 back,” Schneiter said. “She is an extremely talented athlete who puts the work in. She truly understands what it takes to be a next caliber athlete.”
Another record-setting performance on Saturday night was from St. Mary’s Academy junior Caitlin Crysel. She broke her own 3A record in the 200 IM that she set last year. Crysel swam a time of 2:04.38, almost a minute faster than her time last year in the nals.
Still, the night belonged to the Cougars who got o to a great start before the swim events even started. Sophomore Ailish Ocasek, senior Julia Swanke and freshman Eliza ompson got things going for the Cougars.
Evergreen’s trio of divers racked up 30 team points during the Saturday morning dive competition. Ocasek (8th), Swanke (10th) and ompson (19th) provided some nice early points before the swim nals.
Swanke was the only Evergreen
Evergreen’s girls swim and dive team racked up 443 points during the Class 3A state meet at the Veteran’s Memorial Aquatics Center in Thornton. The Cougars won the team title by more than 100 points over Discovery Canyon.
diver to place in the top-20 last year. e swimming started with the Cougars repeating as state champs in the 200 medley relay. Anderson, Rains, Ackerman and senior Alyssa Cook combined for a winning time of 1:48.79.
“It was so bittersweet,” Cook said after the Cougars wrapped up their fth straight 3A. “I will never forget my time swimming for Evergreen. e last four years have been amazing.” Cook and Anderson are best friends. Anderson also added that it was sad to swim in the last meet with Evergreen’s current seniors.
“Everyone works super hard on their club teams and with our high school team,” Cook said. “We had some fast freshmen coming in. It was amazing to nish out the season with them at state. It was so cool.”
Dennis Pleuss is the Sports Information Director for Je co Public Schools. For more Je co coverage, go to CHSAANow.com.
Becoming and remaining part of a group is more than a choice. It is a demand of the human psyche. For all the blather about individualism, a tenet of secular American religiosity, belonging is the dominant human social gene. It is as instinctive to human behavior as walking, eating, and copulating. In fact, individualism is not part of the human social genome. It is a relatively modern idea, a philosophy, a choice birthed during the Age of Enlightenment.
More than we need to belong, we want to belong. Belonging to a group fosters good mental health and social cohesion, which is requisite for survival. Unbelonging induces loneliness, which leads to despair. One of the worst punishments that can be imposed on someone for not following a group’s rules is banishment or ostracization. Whether political exile, solitary con nement, or shunning, forced separation from a group or society can cause deep distress and potentially irreparable harm.
While some groups wither away, others last long after current mem-
bers move away or die. Groups — families, religions — are greater than the sum of their parts and thus hold an even more dominant grip on their members. If and when a member separates from the group, there can be hell to pay for it. at is especially true with cults.
Groups like school classes that are formed by happenstance and have a select, nite number of speci c members gradually wither away as nature takes her course. Others like the local Elks or Hotrod Club might or might not fade away when members move on. Friendship groups formed organically eventually die too.
Choosing to detach from a group can be excruciating because the group, whether social or religious, holds power over the individual, and it never likes when a member says, “Tata. Time to go.” Leaving a group is considered the worst form of heresy.
A good friend posed this question to me: “Why do we often hang on to a group after we realize that remaining part of it no longer serves a good purpose and is, therefore, not good for our social or mental health?”
en he added, “It’s the moment when you really admit something no longer works for you. It evolves slowly and you feel it coming. en you nally admit it and know it. You continue anyway because whatever it is—group, activity, people—it brought you happiness in the past. You hang on despite the payo being minimal or even negative. But you continue. Why? No good alternatives? Force of habit? Don’t want to o end? And all the time, your inner core continues to melt because you are not being true to yourself and nding new things like you used to.”
Hmm, I thought. Yes, all of those, and possibly more.
One of my favorite lms is Brokeback Mountain, a story about two young cowboys — more accurately, sheepherders — who fall passionately in love. From the outset, you have a sense, and even know, that
the story will not have a happy ending given it is set in Wyoming in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. ey tear at each other in frustration, but they can’t seem to end — quit — the relationship. ey are full of angst about it, and that is relatable to almost everyone, whether in the context of a one-on-one relationship or a group. Ending a relationship is di cult. I don’t have a good answer for my friend other than to say we should step back and note the power and attraction of both the groups you would like to separate from and the ones you want to stay in. en work to sort out why you want to separate from the ones you want to leave instead of focusing on the challenge of detaching. It’s like breaking an addiction. e rst step is to recognize the problem. e second step is to note the emotional attachment to it. If it doesn’t feel good, why keep doing it? at is when the power of choice come into play.
Time to move on.
Jerry Fabyanic is the author of “Sisyphus Wins” and “Food for ought: Essays on Mind and Spirit.” He lives in Georgetown.
High on a mesa where everyone can see it, a trophy house is going up in the northern Colorado valley where I live. Some of my neighbors hear that the house will be as big as 15,000 square feet. Others say it will take three years to complete. Whether that is valley gossip or truth, the house is now the center of everybody’s attention.
Until this happened, my valley seemed to o er much of the best of what Colorado has to o er, including views of a snow-capped mountain range, and spread out below, irrigated hay elds with black cows on tan rangeland. But now, right in the center of the valley, will be one person acting out a lack of consideration for others.
Gigantic trophy houses seem to signal, “I built here to see, but also to be seen.” It’s a jarring reminder that we in the New West are remaking the Old West in our own image, a job that apparently requires a drastic redoing of topography. ese big homes seem to follow a pattern of complicated roo ines, lots of windows that re ect the light and “ego
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gates” at the beginning of driveways.
Most of us in this valley delight in what we’ve been able to see from our front door: Uninterrupted ridgelines, cli s, and the rounded slopes that converge to make foothills, which then rise into mountains. Nature made these views, and we’ve been fortunate to have them in our lives every day.
But more and more, houses that resemble castles are sprouting on ridgelines and hilltops, here and all over the mountains. And sometimes it’s ordinary houses or trailers that get built on ridgelines, interrupting the natural ow of the land.
Where only a few years ago our eyes might nd comfort in tracing a ridge’s backbone — wondering how it got to be named White Pine Mountain when no white pines grow there — now we look at manmade structures that irritate the eyes.
People who have lived in my valley
LINDA SHAPLEY Publisher lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com
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for decades share a di erent style. Appreciating what a winter wind can do to steal warmth from inside a house, they looked for sheltered areas to build. ey saw it made sense to build low, tucking a home against the south side of a hill or cli .
Most yard lights were few and hard to see, as were their homes. But the new Western lifestyle broadcasts yard lights at night for all to see, just as the homes are conspicuously visible during the day.
In this newfangled West that has “ranched the view,” people apparently need to stand out to enjoy an amenity lifestyle. Will these new folk ever take time to appreciate the human and natural histories of the place they live in now, to show respect for the land and its natural beauty? Will they learn to be considerate of neighbors and not take away from the views that de ne where we live?
It’s shameful to think that just as we rst moved into the West to exploit its valuable resources, we now exploit the last resource our region has to o er — its heart-stopping beauty.
KRISTEN FIORE West Metro Editor kfiore@coloradocommunitymedia.com
DEB HURLEY BROBST Community Editor dbrobst@coloradocommunitymedia.com
RUTH DANIELS Classified Sales rdaniels@coloradocommunitymedia.com
ere is some good news, because in many parts of the West we are learning how to sustainably log, graze, divert water and develop energy. I hope it’s not too late for us to also realize the value of tting into the land as residents, to keep intact our ridgelines, mesas, mountains and valley oors. Once a house caps a hilltop, however, that view is irretrievable, gone forever.
I hope we can learn how to value homes that blend with the land in shape, color and location. Maybe a new generation of home builders, architects, and developers will lead the way in paying due respect to our region’s natural beauty.
But I’m afraid that it’s too late for our valley. e great writer Wallace Stegner told us that the task of Westerners was to build a society to match the scenery. From what I see, we’re not doing the job.
Richard Knight is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonpro t that hopes to inspire lively conversation about the West. He works at the intersection of land use and land health in the American West.
Columnists & Guest Commentaries
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The issues of wildlife-vehicle collisions
I was extremely pleased to read Allen Best’s “Dismantling the wall to wildlife in Colorado.” Many of us who drive along Highway 74 through Evergreen think about the issues of wildlife-vehicle collisions every time our tires roll onto the asphalt. I founded a nonpro t organization in December 2019, to tackle this problem. Wild Aware has been working with CDOT and CPW for three years on wildlife-vehicle mitigation e orts on Highway 74.
In 2021, after close consideration for a wildlife underpass, CDOT and CPW informed Wild Aware that, among other things, land ownership along Highway 74 (at least one side of the highway is private property for the entire 7 miles from I-70 to the lake) precluded our community from being a candidate for a structure. We have been successful at requesting and receiving intermittent installations of Variable Message Signs along Highway 74 on six occasions over the past 3 years and CDOT has awarded Highway 74 permanent signs to be installed in 2023.
Wild Aware celebrates the addition of an underpass on I-70 at Genesee and an overpass on I-40 near Empire. ese projects will bene t our wildlife
tremendously and we congratulate CPW and CDOT for coming together on these projects. ere are many more wildlife crossing structures planned throughout Colorado and across the west due to a new appreciation of the problem and funding to support mitigation.
Driving safely on Highway 74 requires a shift in mindset. Rather than the means to an end, Highway 74 is also where we live and is as central to the Evergreen experience as Elk Meadow and Evergreen Lake. Wild Aware encourages us to think of Evergreen as a wildlife park. Over every hill and around every corner, elk could be standing or, as we know, on a slow meander across the road. In 2023, Evergreen lost 58 animals including six bears, 21 deer and 29 elk to Highway 74. at number represents about half of the actual roadkill count.
For more information about our work with CDOT and CPW as well as our current programs including barbed wire removal and Evergreen Lake Wildlife Watch, please visit our website at www.WildAware.org.
Christie Greene Founder and President, Wild Aware, EvergreenFebruary 20, 1955 - January 10, 2023
Darrell R. Goodwin of Vail and Evergreen, CO lost his long courageous battle with cancer on Jan. 10, 2023 at his home in Arrowhead. His wife Gail and daughter Caroline (Eric) were by his side. He was 67 years old.
Darrell was raised in Rutland, VT and Point au Baril, Canada. His love of nature and the outdoors was instilled in him from his time spent in both places. He was an avid skier, y sherman, hiker, hunter, golfer and boater.
Darrell’s love of heli skiing was legendary to all who knew him. When he was not heli skiing, he was skiing all over Vail Mountain or hiking and hunting in the fall. He loved to travel and bring both Gail and Caroline along for adventures. It was never an outing with Darrell unless he asked “Can we just go one more ridge? I want to see what’s beyond”.
Darrell’s optimism and love of life will never be forgotten by those he’s left behind.
Darrell was a graduate of Middlebury
College (1977) and received his MBA from Boston University (1980). He then moved to Colorado and worked at Public Service Company of Colorado in their nance and real estate divisions before moving to Northwestern Mutual as a nancial analyst.
Upon his initial diagnosis, Darrell faced his cancer battle with a quiet optimism and show of strength that astounded all who knew him. He is survived by his wife, daughter, son in law, father, and two brothers. He was preceded in death by his mother.
In Darrell’s honor a Celebration of Life will be held on ursday, March 9th at Hovey and Harrison in Edwards, CO from 3-5 PM.
In lieu of owers the family requests that donations be made to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society (https://www.lls.org/), e Small Choices Foundation (www. smallchoicesfoundation.org) or Evergreen Christian Outreach Food Bank (https:// evergreenchristianoutreach.org/).
Rita Mary Hansen, 92, matriarch, mother of six, and long-time Evergreen, Colorado resident and real estate broker (“who sold every house in town three times”) passed away on 1/29/2023. She was born on 3/18/1930 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, the rst child of Rosella and Raymond Gschwind. She graduated from Aquinas High School in La Crosse in 1948, entering Wisconsin State College. Rita left college to marry her high school sweetheart, George Keith Hansen in 1950. In 1967 e two Yankees moved to Monroeville, Alabama and rapidly made some great friends, enjoying golf and bridge. Always a go-getter, Rita enjoyed acting in community theater with her career topping role as the clairvoyant in Blithe Spirit. She and a friend opened a shop, “ e Boodleheimer” (house of junk in German), the rst boutique in Monroeville, o ering up such controversial items at the time as black light posters and incense. She was active in politics, becoming president of the local Republican Women’s Party. She went back to college and earned her business degree. When the family moved to Kansas City, she became a realtor. Rita continued her real estate career when they moved to Evergreen, Colorado, eventually opening her own real estate companies, Timberline Real Estate and Metro Brokers of Evergreen. Many of Rita’s clients became good friends. Rita and George loved Colorado, learning to ski and enjoying
the wildlife that passed through their property. Rita loved to garden, and the yard was full of Colorado wild owers and rhubarb every spring. She put that rhubarb to good use with her incredible pies, and you were sure to always get up early to partake in her wa es and pancakes. Rita and George bought a cherished second home to share with all their family in Crested Butte, Colorado. In 2013 they reluctantly were forced to move to a lower altitude for health reasons. George passed away while they were living in Las Vegas in 2015. Rita then moved to a senior community in Southern California for a time and then to Magnolia, Texas where she was surrounded by her loving family until her peaceful passing. She is preceded in death by her beloved George, her parents, her sisters Regina and Marcile, her brother Charles, her rst born child Chris, and by her nephew Joel. She is survived by 5 of her 6 children, Peter (Nicole), Pam (Tom) Gardner, Randy (Sheri), Jenny (Fred), and Nick (Ti any); by her grandchildren Tara, Peter Jr., Derek, Luke, Tyler, Jack, and Trinity Hansen, Jacob, Nicholas, Adam, and Rachel Gardner; by her sister-in-law Lois Hansen and niece Angela Pinker, by her brother-in-law Bill Swingle; by 11 great-grandchildren; and numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews. She will be greatly missed and fondly remembered. A private memorial service will take place this summer in Crested Butte, Colorado.
February 25, 1949 - January 26, 2023
Kerry L. Smith of Evergreen CO passed away suddenly at home, on January 26, 2023 at the age of 73. Kerry was born in San Antonio, TX on February 25th 1949 to Mildred and Allen Smith. He is survived by his wife Lois, daughter Tracy Dendel (Chris Dendel), his son Sean Smith, In laws; Richard Everard, Vivian Derenne, Eileen Mach, Dan Berg
and numerous nieces and nephews. A celebration of life will be held at the Evergreen Elks Lodge, 27972 Iris Drive, Evergreen, CO 80439 on March 18th at 1pm. In lieu of owers, donations to the Golden Retriever Rescue of the Rockies are appreciated. For the full obituary go to www.EvergreenMemorialPark.com
Ronald Walton, 82, of New Braunfels, Texas, went home to the Lord on February 4, 2023, with his family by his side in San Antonio. Ron was born July 1, 1940,to Talford and Helen Walton in Loogootee, Indiana. He graduated from Loogootee HS in 1958 and enrolled at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. Ron was a very proud IU graduate, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Geology and brie y played basketball for the Hoosiers. Upon graduation he began his career asa Water Specialist with the National Oceanographic Data Center in Washington, DC, in 1961. It was in DC that he met the love of his life, Judith Bethel,at the Cave Dwellers ice rink party. e two were married December 28, 1963,at First Presbyterian Church in Odessa, Texas, Judith’s hometown. e couple remained in DC until 1967. From 196770, Ron served as Chief of the Great Lakes Regional Data Center at the US Lake Survey Michigan. He was in charge of the collection/ dissemination of Great Lakes limnology data for the largest fresh water body (Great Lakes) in the world. From 1970-79, he was Chief of Data Processing for the Coastal Engineering Research Center in Maryland, collecting/disseminating erosion data on all US coastal beaches and earned a Master’s Degree from American University. He concurrently worked as a realtor to provide additional support to his growing family.In 1979, Ron moved to Evergreen, Colorado,and spent the last 15 years of his 34-year federal career at the US Geological Survey in Central Region in Denver as the computer coordinator of collection/dissemination of all natural resource data for the western US states. Upon retiring from the USGS, Ron continued his career as a realtor and was joined by Judith where they both worked with Coldwell Banker in the Evergreen and Genesee area. Ron would continue in real
estate sales in New Braunfels until retiring only recently. Ron and Judith relocated to New Braunfels, Texas,in 2008. Ron was an active member of Oakwood Church and participated in mission trips and men’s retreats among other events. Ron also served the New Braunfels community as Director, District 9 (Comal & Guadalupe counties) of the Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA) board in San Antonio, over-seeing the utilization of the major water source for south central Texas, serving as a volunteer from 2014-2022. Ron was a passionate fan of the Indiana Hoosiers, St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Redskins. He held Redskins season tickets for decades, even after moving to Evergreen, Colorado in the late 1970’s. His support of his favorite teams is legendary within the family. As passionate as he was about his teams, his devotion to Jesus and love of his family is what will be best remembered, along with his kindness to all he met. Ron simply loved life. He was an avid hunter, with many trophies adorning walls of the family home in Evergreen, Colorado. He played golf and loved church activities throughout his life. He truly enjoyed serving others and touched many, many people with his sel ess desire to know their stories. Ron was preceded in death by both his parents and his sister, Marilou. He is survived by his wife of 58years, Judith, and their three children, Cindy Montgomery (Doug) of Longmont, Colorado, Ronald Walton Jr. (Stacey) of San Antonio, Texas,and Stephanie Polay (Derik) of Austin, Texas. He is also survived by six grand children and his sister Judy Ann Smith of Bloomington, Indiana. A celebration of Ron’s life will be held Saturday, February 18,at 2pm at Oakwood Church in New Braunfels. In lieu of owers or gifts, donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. www.stjude.org
John Davis wore many hats in Evergreen. e retired United Airlines pilot was part of the heart and soul of Evergreen Players for more than 50 years and an icon on the Evergreen arts community. He was a great family man, doting on his wife, Kathleen, children and grandchildren, and had special relationships with his three brothers.
“ ere are many from his di erent families here,” Scott Ogle, a board member with Evergreen Players, told the crowd that packed El Rancho Restaurant for John’s celebration of life on Jan. 24. John died on Jan. 15 after a brief bout of heart failure. He was 79.
Friends, colleagues and family members called John enthusiastic, approachable and fun-loving. He was enamored with all things tech,
was meticulously organized and enjoyed the little things in life. He was an avid skier, diver and hiker, and loved taking family trips.
“What I remember most is the wonder he had about things,” Ogle said, noting that John even could make a taped-out square on the oor fascinating.
Evergreen Players
Newlyweds John and Kathleen moved to Evergreen in 1966 and soon after, they saw an announcement in the Canyon Courier of an Evergreen Players meeting. ey attended, and that was the beginning of their 56-year story with the theater group.
John, who had worked on lighting in college productions, remembers making the rst stage lights out of co ee cans and building the rst stage at e Little Log eatre, where Evergreen Players performed for about 30 years.
At Evergreen Players, John had every job imaginable from acting and technical director to several
I am Magnolia, a beautiful orange, brown and white short haired calico. I’m 4yo and was previously living in an old car with my 7 babies when I was rescued. They have all left home now, and now I’m ready to nd a nice warm, stable home with big people and little people to love and cuddle. I have lots of love to share.
positions on the Players’ board of directors. e stories at the celebration of life attested to his love for community theater and its contributions to make Evergreen and surrounding communities better.
John and Kathleen did just about everything related to the Evergreen Players, most notably, building a path to sustainability. For years, each devoted about 40 hours per week to community theater.
eir vision guided the organization through many ups and downs.
ey worked tirelessly to create leadership roles and divide responsibilities, so the organization’s success didn’t rely on an individual.
During the COVID pandemic, John worked tirelessly researching and applying for grants to fund the organization when live performances were prohibited.
John and Kathleen acted together in shows over the years including Neil Simon’s “Mary, Mary,” and most recently, John played Carlyle the Genie in the production of “Human Beings and Other Acts of Comedy”
in January 2022, which several people referred to as one of his favorite roles.
John volunteered on many boards and committees over the years, including the board of directors for the Colorado Community eater Coalition, the Evergreen Arts Council, and several committees with the American Association of Community eaters.
In 2018, the AACT named John a Fellow. In 2001, John was named Arts Person of the Year by the Evergreen Area Council for the Arts, now known as Center for the Arts Evergreen. He was also chairman of the Buchanan Park Building Committee.
Brad Moore, a member of the Colorado Community eater Coalition board of directors, said John was the leader the organization needed by shifting the focus and energy of that organization.
“John was a genius in his love and his care and his willingness to take a
deep breath,” Moore said. “He would say, ‘We will make this work. We don’t have to make a big deal out of it. He taught me to just take a breath and go on.’”
Love of tech
John loved spending hours in electronic stores, including time there with his grandchildren.
Grandson Gabriel Chow spoke of a trip he took with John to the Boeing Airplane factory in Everett, Washington, and Gabriel had two tour guides: the o cial one and his grandfather.
“While walking to the tour center, Papa’s excitement eclipsed the size of that building,” Gabriel said. “It’s one of the best trips I ever took.”
John was a union o cer and became part of United Airlines’ management team culminating as a eet captain of the 747-400s. After retiring from ying, he worked for Boeing as an instructor.
Daughter Anna Chow explained that John would get so excited about something everyone would take for
granted, and he loved experiencing life and sharing it with others.
A nice guy
Chow said John was her dive buddy, and she learned four tenets about life from him. First, always have a plan, whether it’s diving, ying or in life. Second, always make sure the equipment is safe. ird, keep an eye on each other, andnally, when in doubt, just breathe.
Family members talked about all the people John touched throughout his life, making a di erence to all of them, noting that his energy and spirit will always be here.
Jimy Murphy of Evergreen said John was so nice that he worried about John.
“I never met a nice, kind, interesting man like John, and I watched carefully to see if he could navigate this world. Not only could he navigate it, but he probably was the happiest, most successful human being that I knew. I’m so proud to have his friendship.”
Chow said this of her dad, paraphrasing “Mary Poppins”: “A spoonful of my dad made everything a little lighter.”
Just Around Here and Evergreen Players contributed to this story.
Building a high school wrestling program is no easy task, but it has been happening at Conifer High School for the last two years.
Nick Adamson of Bailey, who wrestled from the time he was a young child through college, took on the challenge of starting the team from scratch. A couple of years before that, he became involved with Mountain Grapplers, a local club team for children in kindergarten through eighth grade.
With a feeder program in place, Adamson was ready — with a little coaxing from Conifer Athletic Director Eric Kragel — to tackle building a team.
“As time went on, it became more and more obvious the longer (the Conifer team) laid dormant, the harder it would be to come back,” Adamson said.
With a six-member team last and a 14-member team this year, Conifer wrestling is gaining momentum.
“We are still very much in a re-
building process,” he explained. “ e high school has made huge strides, and hopefully kids from (Mountain Grapplers) will lter up to the high school team.”
e team has won about half of its meets this year, which is a good sign, especially considering the team doesn’t have grapplers wrestling at all 14 weight classes. e team took several wrestlers to regionals Feb. 10-11 in Eaton, Colorado, and Adamson hopes some grapplers will qualify for state.
“In a couple years, I think everything will have a whole varsity team and JV as well,” he said, noting that anyone, boys and girls, can participate in wrestling.
King of the Mountain meet
At Conifer’s dual meet against Evergreen on Feb. 2, Evergreen won what is called the King of the Mountain meet 45-36.
“We were kind of playing the underdog (with a) forfeit in ve weights, so it was going to be a tough path for us anyway,” Adamson said.
e match was the last one of the season at home for the Lobos, as well as senior night.
Senior Jacob Reynolds, who spent two years with the program, admitted he felt the pressure of the night, and he won his match.
“No matter what, I didn’t care if I
broke an arm, or if I bled or sweat, I was going to win this match no matter what,” Reynolds said.
Senior Jack Fetzer, who is ranked seventh in 3A in the 144-pound weight class, will be making a run for the podium at state this year. He won his match in 60 seconds.
“It felt awesome,” Fetzer said. “ ere’s no other feeling.”
An individual sport
Adamson said wrestling was a unique sport because of the mental and physical challenges, calling it
the purest individual sport. “ ere is no equipment, no balls, no bats, no rims,” he explained. “You don’t have coaches calling plays. at strips the sport down to its barest form, so it’s all about individual responsibility. In a lot of other sports, you can hide behind your teammates or blame the coach for a bad call or game. In this sport, you own the whole thing.”
Three’s a crowd
CONIFER – Seamus was mad as hops. He’d been enjoying a quiet pint in the local pub when John appeared at his elbow with a mug in his st and a scowl on his mug. A poet at heart, and a lover of peace, Seamus sidled over a few stools to avoid trading insults with John. Himself a practiced sidler, John followed, determined to speak his angry piece. “Get away from me,” Seamus demanded. “I should punch you,” John responded. About that time John’s friend Buddy showed up to cool John’s jets, and the Publican showed up to give all three the bum’s rush. Reassembled in the parking lot, John and Buddy “both punched me once and left,” Seamus told a JCSO deputy. With John and Buddy long gone, the deputy looked to the Publican for corroboration. In fact, the barkeep began, Seamus was the one who sat down next to John and Buddy, and he’d immediately started directing extremely o ensive stage whispers at Buddy, prompting John to come to his friend’s defense.
e way the Publican saw it, Seamus was the villain of the story, although it’s his professional policy to expel all parties to a potential perturbation. Seamus said it was the o cer’s duty to arrest somebody. e deputy said Seamus was at the top of his list. Seamus decided not to let a little scrap among friends ruin an otherwise pleasant evening.
Banishing act
PINE JUNCTION – Awakening to nd himself alone in bed at 1 a.m.,
he went in search of his lady love. He found her sleeping alone on the living room couch, six sheets to the wind. Craving her company in the master suite, he gently shook her awake and invited her thither. Except Lady Love liked the couch, and she didn’t like being roused from drunken repose. Lady Love kicked him to the curb – quite literally – and it was from the curb that he called JCSO. Deputies explained to Lady Love that she couldn’t evict her boyfriend without a whole lot of due process. Feeling misunderstood, Lady Love tried to summarily evict the deputies, who assured her that it doesn’t work that way. Lady Love decided to stop talking to the deputies, her boyfriend decided to let her sleep it o on the couch and the deputies decided that was as good a resolution as they were liable to get.
The moving finger writes...
EVERGREEN – Most people don’t call the cops when somebody writes a snotty little message on the back of their unwashed car. Pamela Pickup isn’t most people, however, and the snotty little message scrawled on her dusty tailgate hit a little too close to home. “Stop smoking inside,” urged the anonymous author. Oh, Pamela had plenty of suspects. “My neighbors actively dislike me,” she explained to deputies, “as much as I dislike them.” Since the road-dirt diktat hurt her feelings more than her paint job, she merely asked o cers to document the crude communique in case more impertinent prose appears.
Pitched purse perplexes
EVERGREEN – On the morning of Jan. 17, a good Samaritan showed up at JCSO’s mountain substation with a purse she found on the ground at the intersection of Kipling and Quincy in Lakewood. Early prospects of repatriating the purse with its rightful owner seemed promising. Inside it, next to a pink and yellow “Elf Bar vape machine,” deputies found a valid U.S. passport. Unfortunately, the passport’s owner didn’t seem to register on o cial databases either in Colorado or Alabama, the owner’s listed place of birth. Inquiring further, o cers learned that the purse came to Samaritan’s attention when it was thrown from the window of a moving vehicle, make and model unknown. JCSO will hang onto the mysterious jetsam in case somebody comes looking for it.
Postbox pill-aged EVERGREEN – Accustomed to receiving his medications by mail, he was surprised when they didn’t show up on Jan. 14 as expected. When postal authorities assured him the meds had been duly delivered, he was disgusted to nd himself a victim of mailbox theft. When a stranger called out of the blue on Jan. 17 to inform him she’d found his necessary nostrums scattered about the parking lot at her place of business, he wasn’t particularly relieved. Since the medicines may have been “tampered with,” his HMO agreed to replace the prescriptions. Since suspect information may yet surface, JCSO is leaving the case ajar.
Changer danger
EL RANCHO – When Beryl Bigbox nished her shift and couldn’t nd her phone, she gured it for stolen. “It’s usually in my back pocket,” Beryl told deputies on the afternoon of Jan. 10. Riled and resourceful, she’d tracked the missing device to a North Evergreen address, and had instantly recognized the construction crew thereat as one she’d seen in the store earlier. Under Beryl’s persistent grilling, one of the workers eventually produced her phone, explaining that he’d “found it” and “was going to return it.” at might have been the end of the story if she hadn’t subsequently discovered that the phone had been “messed with” and several “settings and items” had been “changed.” While Beryl merely wanted JCSO to document the incident, she told deputies she’ll expect more concrete action from the worker’s superiors.
Thelma and Louise
EVERGREEN – e two women who strolled into the Stagecoach Boulevard out tter on the evening of Jan. 12 weren’t exactly discreet. One wore camou age from toe to topknot, the other a bright red hoodie and a white du e bag slung from her shoulder. ey ambled the aisles for the better part of an hour, at times asking employees about “gun holsters” and “Carhartt pants.” Turns out what they were really looking for was a Milwaukee battery and charger, which Hoodie boldly stu ed
SEE SHERIFF’S CALLS, P14
into her du el and “ran out of the store.” An employee ran after her, nding her seated in an F-150 wearing an exaggerated expression of innocence. “I didn’t take anything,” she purred, just as Camo showed up at the truck. “Did my friend steal something?” asked Camo, seemingly aghast. When another employee arrived to even the odds, Camo leapt into the passenger side and the pair roared away. e case was placed on hold pending an o cial review of the store’s surveillance tapes.
What lies beneath EVERGREEN – Every remodel has
its share of unforeseen complications, but the bathroom upgrade on Little Cub Creek came to a screeching halt on the afternoon of Jan. 8 when a workman hoisted up the old bathtub to nd a cache of mouldering bones. e grisly remains appeared to be of human scale, and they’d been deliberately and cleanly cut into easily concealable lengths. Deputies called to the scene sent photos of the grisly trove to the Coroner’s o ce, where they were quickly declared animal bones “cut up to be dog treats.” Deputies buried the case.
It runs about $5 per syllable SOUTH JEFFCO – A guy walks into a department store and asks to return a jar of LancomeGeni queYeux Eye-Illuminating Youth Activating
Concentrate for cash. e clerk asks to see his receipt, but the guy says he can’t nd it, so the clerk issues him a store credit, instead. As soon as the guy heads out onto the shopping oor, the clerk realizes that all the LancomeGeni queYeux Eye-Illuminating Youth Activating Concentrate in the department store in under lock and key because it’s not supposed to be available for sale yet.
e clerk gures the LancomeGeniqueYeux Eye-Illuminating Youth Activating Concentrate is stolen and suspends the guy’s store credit. e guy goes to the shoe department and nds out his store credit doesn’t work, which is about when the cops show up with a couple questions about his jar of LancomeGeni queYeux Eye-Illuminating Youth Activating Concentrate. e guy says his
mom gave him the LancomeGeniqueYeux Eye-Illuminating Youth Activating Concentrate, but that he has no idea where she got it. Although the cops can’t prove a crime, the clerk tells the guy he can have his LancomeGeni queYeux Eye-Illuminating Youth Activating Concentrate back just as soon as he comes up with the receipt for it.
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.
If you have recently moved, you probably have questions...we have the answers and a beautiful bag of gifts, gift certificates and community info for you.
If we haven’t found you yet, please call Jennifer Shipley
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.
THURSDAY
Evergreen chamber speed networking event: e Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce will host a speed networking event from 7:30-9 a.m. Feb. 16 at Troutdale Tavern. For more information, visit evergreenchamber.org.
Navigating the Unhoused Crisis: e League of Women Voters of Je erson County and Je erson Unitarian Church Community Action Network will co-sponsor a virtual panel discussion Tuesday, Feb. 28, from 6-7:30 p.m. to explore what can be done in Je erson County to ease the plight of the unhoused. e public is invited to join via Zoom. ere is no charge to attend, but registration is required at https://bit.ly/3DRkhkW. For more information, visit LWVJeffco.org.
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 303-235-5275 or visiting https://tinyurl.com/ ykzs2ej7.
p.m. Shows are at Evergreen Players Black Box eatre, 27886 Meadow Drive, Unit B, Evergreen. Tickets are $30 and may be purchased online at www.evergreenplayers.org or by calling 720-515-1528.
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 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.
teen book club that meets from 4-6 p.m. the fourth Monday at the Resilience1220 o ce next to the Buchanan Park Recreation Center. e group’s rst book is “Hell Followed With Us.” For more information and to register, visit R1220.org.
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.
“Spirit of Love” show: Shadow Mountain Gallery in downtown Evergreen will have its “Spirit of Love” Valentine’s show and sale through March 4. All items are made by local artists e gallery, which is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, is next to Beau Jo’s Pizza.
Young Writers’ Conference: e Young Writers’ Conference will be from 6:30-8:30 p.m. ursday, March 30, at Marshdale Elementary School. Register by Feb. 28. For registration and event questions, email kirstin. pulio @je co.k12.co.us.
Evergreen chamber monthly breakfast: e Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce will host its monthly breakfast from 7:30-9 a.m. Wednesday, March 1, at Troutdale Tavern. For more information and to register, visit evergreenchamber.org.
Free legal clinic: A free legal clinic for people with no attorney will be from 2 to 5 p.m. ursday, March 2. By telephone or video, volunteer
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 will lead hikes on March 4 and April 1. For more information and to register, visit www.evergreenaudubon. org/events/snowshoe-hike-withgeorgetown-outdoor-discoveryjanuary-2023
Evergreen chamber mixer: e Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce will host a mixer from 5-7 p.m. ursday, March 9, at Restoration 1 of West Denver in Wheat Ridge. In conjunction the showroom will have an open house, where the community can meet designers and tour the showroom.
“Chapter Two:” Evergreen Players will perform “Chapter Two” by Neil Simon March 10-26. Friday and Saturday are at 7 p.m. and Sunday matinee performances are at 2
If you don’t have a K-Lawn Dealer in your area, we are looking to add a few quality dealers to our 10-state network. Key benefits include:
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Foothills Home, Garden & Lifestyle Show: Foothills Home, Garden & Lifestyle Show will be April 1-2 at Evergreen High School. e show, sponsored by Evergreen and Conifer Rotary, will be from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. ere is no entry fee, though bringing two nonperishable food items for Evergreen Christian Outreach is encouraged. Net proceeds are distributed as grants for charitable causes through the Evergreen and Conifer Rotary Foundations. For more information, visit foothillshomeshow.com.
ONGOING
Mountain Area Democrats: Mountain Area Democrats meet the fourth Saturday of each month at 9 a.m. through April at United Methodist Church of Evergreen, 3757 Ponderosa Drive, Evergreen. For more information, email MountainAreaDems@gmail. com.
LGBTQ+ teen book club: Resilience1220 is o ering a LGBTQ+
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.
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, 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, visit R1220. org.
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
rate that becomes elevated from a
director of the UCHealth Post-COVID Clinic, one site of a national study looking at recovery after COVID.
Jolley said only 30 to 40 percent of long COVID patients have returned to their individual health baseline so far, based on what she’s observed and seen in research.
“ ere are a number of folks where symptoms persist much longer and so it’s hard to estimate what proportion of that 600,000 will have longerterm symptoms versus shorter-term long COVID symptoms,” she said. “I would say the minority of individuals that we’ve seen have had complete recovery.”
e implications of that are enormous, Jolley said, both in terms of so-called long-haulers’ quality of life as well as Colorado’s workforce, education, health care and other systems.
Jolley said the best protection and prevention against long COVID is getting fully vaccinated, including the latest booster. “We know that vaccination lessens the risk of long COVID, lessens the severity of initial disease,” she said, noting the lagging
number of people getting the omicron booster in Colorado. Currently, only about a quarter of eligible people in the state have received the omicron booster, according to the state’s vaccine dashboard, far below the uptake for the initial series of vaccines.
e report includes testimonials from Coloradans that provide a window into what its authors described as the “immense human costs” of the illness:
Chelsey B., 49
“I went from being a t, active, successful and nancially secure professional in the prime of life to a broken — and broke — person,” Chelsey reported. “COVID kills some people outright; many of us with long COVID are dying, too — just very slowly and painfully.”
Melissa, 54
“Four months after my initial
symptoms in March 2020, my heart still raced even though I was resting,” Melissa reported. “I could not stay in the sun for long periods; it zapped all of my energy. I had gastrointestinal problems, brain fog, extreme fatigue, ringing in my ears and chest pain.”
Melissa said her condition improved but reported that she was still feeling symptoms nearly three years after her initial COVID infection.
Amanda, 35
Amanda reported testing positive for the coronavirus in November 2020. “COVID has wrecked the person I thought I was before. I now have been forced to go back to full time work against my cardiologist recommendations,” she said.
“ is was in fear of losing my job I’ve had for 7 years! I am 35 years old and have heart problems I’ve never had before,” including a racing heart
insurance claims. e Center for Improving Value in Health Care provided the state with a dataset of claims from a database of state insurance carriers, including Medicaid and Medicare.
It found around 16,000 Coloradans had gotten a long COVID diagnosis between Oct. 1, 2021, and Aug. 31, 2022. e report’s authors said that was likely an undercount based on several factors.
e o ce has also hired a senior policy advisor on long COVID, Dr. Mirwais Baheej, who was unavailable for an interview.
“As far as we know, there are no other states undertaking similar work at this time although the White House has published two reports on long COVID,” said Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera in an introductory letter to lawmakers and the governor. “We do hope to partner with the federal government as we move forward.” is story is from CPR News, a nonpro t news source. Used by permission. For more, and to support Colorado Public Radio, visit cpr.org.
As many as 1 in 10 Coloradans could have been a ected
Museum. Join us in a round table discussion on any and all aspects of history with topics driven by the attendees.
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.
Caregiver support groups: Mount Evans Home Health Care & Hospice o ers two monthly groups to provide emotional support services for caregivers helping ill, disabled or elderly loved ones. An in-person support group meets every third Monday from 4-6 p.m. at 3081 Bergen Peak Road, Evergreen, and a virtual support group meets every rst Tuesday from 10 a.m.noon via Zoom. Call 303-6746400 to learn how to connect to the group virtual call. For more
information visit mtevans.org/ services/emotional-support/.
Parkinson’s disease support 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.
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.
While working out at a gym in Golden recently, someone approached Ty Scrable and asked if he was associated with Colorado School of Mines. Scrable had to explain that, no, he’s just a Golden resident.
Unfortunately, Scrable said, this isn’t the rst time it’s happened.
“I get that a lot,” he said. “People think I’m a student, professor or tourist because I’m Black.”
Systemic racism stubbornly remains in Golden. But, as Scrable said, it has morphed from Ku Klux Klan demonstrations in the 1920s and racist housing policies in the 1940s to something less overt but still widespread and endlessly frustrating.
Because White people make up the overwhelming majority in the city and, thus, are seen as the norm, Scrable said, “many people don’t view me as part of my own community.”
In the wake of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the summer of 2020, many cities and newspapers across the United States have started reckoning with their pasts, examining how they’ve contributed to systemic racism, learning what they can do to be more inclusive and fair. e Golden community has started the process, and now it’s the Golden Transcript’s turn.
e newspaper, which now is part of Colorado Community Media, isn’t immune to biased coverage. is report is the product of its journalists attempting to examine the paper’s coverage of the Black community since the Civil Rights era and own up to its mistakes.
Since 1866, the Golden Transcript — known as the Colorado Transcript for its rst 103 years — has been a record keeper for Je erson County. While its stories are extensive and valuable, the paper contains original and reprinted content that was harmful to the Black community and other marginalized groups.
Just one example is its coverage of the Black Panther Party, a group that gained national attention in the late 1960s for its response to policing in Black communities across the country.
Between 1969-1971, the newspaper published approximately 170 articles that referenced the Black Panther Party. Nearly all of these articles
In our newspaper this week, you’ll see an article about the Golden Transcript. It’s one of two dozen newspapers owned by Colorado Community Media, which also owns this paper. The article tackles the issue of systemic racism in the Transcript’s pages.
The idea for the project started in 2020, when the Colorado News Collaborative, Colorado Media Project and Free Press convened the Black Voices Working Group, which was made up of Black leaders, community members and journalists. The group addressed media coverage and focused on how to improve trust in mainstream media among the Black community. Acknowledging past harm was the No. 1 recommendation made by the group.
A few months later, I attended a Denver Press Club event where Jameka Lewis, a senior librarian at the BlairCaldwell African American Research Library, illustrated biases in mainstream local media coverage of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and ’70s while exhibiting rare prints of the Black Panther Press. Many of Lewis’ examples came from the Transcript. Most articles were wire stories from
other cities, but editors still chose to run them, affecting perceptions of the party in Golden.
We pursued and were awarded a grant from the nonpartisan Colorado Media Project to explore, uncover and analyze this issue in the form of the special report that is in this edition of your newspaper.
Our newsroom, which is predominantly White, also participated in the Maynard Institute’s diversity, equity and inclusion Fault Lines training along the way. West metro editor Kristen Fiore was a speaker at the Advancing Equity in Local News convening with journalists from publications like the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Washington Post to talk about this project.
We believe this story is important beyond Golden — and we hope to spark conversations in our communities across the Denver area about race and inclusion and how our news coverage impacts those issues.
Linda Carpio Shapley is publisher of Colorado Community Media, which runs two dozen weekly and monthly publications in eight counties. She can be reached at lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com
presented the group in a negative light, with words such as “fugitive,” “thugs” and “militants.”
And, the Transcript appeared to rarely cover the Black community in the city and wider region. Because of this, their voices are missing in archives, now online as an important chronicling of Colorado’s history.
By not including these voices in an accurate light, and by publishing stories that reinforced harmful stereotypes and/or recorded Black people’s traumatic experiences in an apathetic or ippant way, the Golden Transcript’s coverage contributed to systemic racism, according to researchers and Black community leaders.
Jameka Lewis, senior librarian at the Denver Public Library’s Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library and a freelance researcher on this report, said Transcript readers may have had their beliefs about the Black Panther Party, and the Black community in general, shaped by the Transcript’s negative portrayals.
“ ere is harm when it comes to media and the Black community in Denver and Colorado,” Lewis said. “If we want to repair the harms, we have to acknowledge that (they are) factual.”
Alfonzo Porter, editor-in-chief at Denver Urban Spectrum and a journalism professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said mass media has been at the epicenter of “propagating negative images and re ections of the AfricanAmerican community.”
“It really stems out of our country’s background, and we’re still dealing with those biases,” he said.
While almost all of the Transcript’s stories about the Black Panther Party were from wire services like United Press International, Porter said the Transcript and other newspapers are accountable for reprinting those stories.
“It’s exactly like original reporting, because … the editorial sta sat in a room, looked at this piece, determined that it was appropriate and ran with it in the paper,” he said.
The Black Panther Party
e Black Panther Party for Self Defense started in 1966 in Oakland, California. Founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale started the organization as a response to police brutality there and in other Black communities, according to Lewis’ research.
e party had a 10-point program that included demands for Black liberation and societal
How national, Denver-area papers covered the party Sisters Ida Daniel, Pat Rogers and JoEllen Greenwood grew up in Denver and graduated from East High School in the ’60s and early ’70s. ey recalled reading e Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News and watching the nightly news on TV. ey also listened to the city’s Black radio station, KDKO, and read Black-oriented magazines like Ebony and Jet.
Overall, the three didn’t recall a lot of news stories about Black people in the mainstream press, unless it was negative. e news covered Black people who were arrested for murder, robbery, rioting and other crimes. Rogers summarized the coverage as: “Be afraid of Black people.” at kind of coverage played out with the Black Panthers. In 2016, e New York Times analyzed stories about the Panthers, noting “journalists were at once fascinated and frightened by them” and their activities in the 1960s and ‘70s. Coverage about the Denver Panthers in Black newspapers in the area at the time was scant. Of those Lewis researched, the Black-owned publication e Denver Blade published the most articles on the group’s activities, both locally and nationally, in 1969.
Its coverage appears to be fairly balanced, Lewis said.
One Blade article discussed the Panthers’ orga-
improvement. Eventually, the Black Panthers led more than 35 community programs across the country, like the Free Breakfast for School Children Program — also known as e Free People’s Food Program, which helped feed Black children from economically disadvantaged families.
In Denver, a chapter gained recognition in 1967. Led by Lauren Watson, the chapter’s history was largely erased or ignored, Lewis said, adding that the Denver Panthers were instrumental in the ght for civil rights in Colorado.
It’s important to note that many Black community members both then and now have mixed feelings about the Panthers and their work, Lewis stressed.
Longtime Denver residents she interviewed formed their opinions largely based on what they read about the Black Panthers in newspapers and saw on TV. Yet that coverage contrasts with what many in the community saw the Denver Black Panthers doing. ey were involved in school board and City Council meetings, provided free meals for children, and worked to
nizing a meeting to discuss policing and police presence at Cole Jr. High School in Denver’s diverse Whittier neighborhood. It chronicled the Black community’s e orts to address a racial gap between teachers and Black students. One possible solution, and likely at the suggestion of the Denver Black Panthers, was to establish Cole as a Freedom School, a concept that focused on Black pride and Black liberation in academics.
In contrast, the Denver Post also covered the meeting but didn’t mention the Panthers’ involvement in organizing the event or the Freedom School proposal. In a review of Post archives, the story focused on arrests. e Denver Blade coverage did not mention any Black Panther arrests.
“Oftentimes, it was up to Black news media to cover this group in a more comprehensive way, which I believe e Denver Blade did,” Lewis said. “It covered all aspects of the local and national Panthers, and o ered readers a more balanced view of the members of this group.”
e Denver Blade stopped operating in 1970.
How Golden’s newspapers covered the Panthers
e Transcript published approximately 170 articles that used the terms “Black Panther” or “Black Panthers” between 1969-1971. Almost all of these were reprinted stories from wire services, which seldom described anything positive about the party or its members.
improve the welfare of their neighborhoods and its residents.
“Many Black people believed what the media said about the Panthers,” said Terry Nelson, a lifelong member of the Denver community. “ … It depended on the source. We recognized that the newspapers weren’t telling the truth about the members. … We knew that the Denver members were active in schools, speaking with teachers and parents. We never saw that in the major newspapers.”
Tracie Keesee, a former Denver police captain and co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity, described how during this tumultuous period, the press played into the hands of government o cials.
Newsrooms considered police as trustworthy and well-respected sources, so it was easy for them to hand reporters a story and have it taken at face value, Keesee said.
Keesee added: “We see it now, right? at divisiveness in the media, the stories that are being told — or not being told.”
e only article referencing the party’s free breakfast program was published April 30, 1970, about Baltimore police rounding up Black Panthers suspected of killing a patrolman. After searching party headquarters, police searched a school where it conducted its breakfast program, among other locations.
In contrast, the Colorado School of Mines student paper, e Oredigger, published at least two stories about the Black Panther Party. Both were straightforward accounts of Lauren Watson, the head of the Denver chapter, visiting Golden.
Ultimately, while coverage of the Black Panthers varied by publication, the Golden Transcript failed to cover the party’s community initiatives or involvement. It did, however, print dozens of wire stories about the party’s supposed criminal activity and police raids associated with the group.
e coverage used negative language to describe the Panthers, their neighborhoods and any activities they were involved in. Because of this, Golden-area residents absorbed and believed what they heard and saw in the news coverage, Lewis stated.
e role of the press in forwarding racial inequality really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, Keesee said, especially to communities of color.
“It’s not just that person that wrote the story,
that person had an editor, right?
ere wasn’t anything in that editor’s mind that said, ‘Yeah…this seems a little biased. Did you even go into the community, or did you just take that o the wire and repeat it?’”
ere’s no excuse for sloppy journalism, as it is harmful and contributes directly to a larger narrative, Keesee said.
“When you talk about media coverage, there were only three channels on the television, back then; there was no social media,” she said, adding, “the newspapers were cranking out those stories overnight and you were waiting for your morning paper. Nobody was up waiting for breaking news. So, the news that was coming out, it was more focused and easier to control.”
And when news was breaking, “it
Golden in the 1960s and ’70s
Built on lands traditionally inhabited by the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ute and other tribes, Golden City was founded in 1859. According to Allan Tellis, a doctoral student of political science at the University of Colorado-Boulder and freelance researcher on this report, Golden has never had a signi cant Black population.
Census data from 1960 shows that the Golden division of Je erson County had 28 Black residents. By 1970, that number had increased to 86. Overall, those numbers represent 0.15% and 0.27% of the total population, respectively, according to Tellis.
As of 2020, Golden had 388 Black residents, representing 1.9% of the city’s population.
Longtime Golden residents recalled how many of the city’s Black residents in the late 1960s and early ’70s were associated with Colorado School of Mines as students, professors or their family members. As far as discussions about the Black Panther Party speci cally or race relations in general, longtime White residents said the topic didn’t come up much because there wasn’t a large Black population in the area.
Rick Gardner, a resident who has studied Golden’s history extensively, said the community had “other preoccupations at the time,” such as labor clashes at the Coors brewery and the Vietnam War.
John Akal, a longtime Goldenite and current columnist for the Transcript, described how he spent his summers in Chicago, where it was “a whole di erent situation.” Because of the 1968 Chicago riots, which were sparked by the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Akal remembered a lot of racial tension in the city at the time.
But that was Chicago. Golden was di erent, but not necessarily better.
The KKK in Golden Overt discrimination in Golden against Black people and other
was breaking only one way, and those narratives were pretty narrow,” she added.
The newsroom
During this timeframe, the Transcript was a daily paper with a small sta of six and a wire service that provided regional and national news.
Neil Paulson, who was managing editor from 1970-75, said the paper relied on United Press International reports to cover many issues, including the Black Panthers.
“It was a terrible service, especially for a small paper,” he said. “It cost us a little more, but eventually we went to e Associated Press.”
e only dictate from the paper’s owners, e Kansas City Star and the Great (Kansas) Tribune, was to run a local story on the front page, Paulson said. National and regional stories ran inside.
Paulson noted that Golden’s population at the time, as it is today, was
communities peaked with the Ku Klux Klan, which had a strong presence in the city and throughout Colorado, particularly in the 1920s.
e Klan began in Denver in 1921 and eventually “all but took possession of the state of Colorado,” according to a report in the Steamboat Pilot. Klan members throughout Denver gathered on Golden’s South Table Mountain for cross-burnings and other rituals. According to Golden History, the mountain could attract up to 10,000 members.
Overall, the Klan helped prevent or deter unknown numbers of Black people from carving out lives in the area. History Colorado recently released ledgers of KKK membership that show seven members of the terrorist organization resided in the Golden area, Tellis added.
Racist housing policies, practices
While the Klan’s activities are certainly one reason Golden has a small Black population, it’s not the only reason. Discriminatory housing practices also contributed.
Don Cameron, a former Jefferson County teacher and current Golden city councilor, has researched zoning history and discriminatory housing policies and practices, including some accounts recorded in the Transcript.
While many Black residents in Denver were constricted by redlining, their counterparts in Golden faced other challenges.
“Starting in the ’20s and into the ’40s, it was common for people to say that they would only sell their individual property to those of the Caucasian race, or non-Negro race individuals,” Cameron stated in a self-published article about Golden’s zoning history.
“ e courts backed up this right because they were protecting the homeowners’ use of their land and had no civic duty to prevent this discrimination,” the article continues. “Blacks were excluded from being shown properties in these restrictive neighborhoods, and if they tried to purchase them, (they) might have it taken away soon
predominantly White.
He knew two Black Goldenites during his years as editor. One was Monroe Jordan, an assistant chef at downtown Golden’s historic Holland House, who later worked at the nearby Ace-Hi Tavern.
When Jordan died, Paulson ran a story on the front page that brie y memorialized him but mostly discussed an attempt to nd his relatives, as no one had come forward to claim Jordan’s body nearly two weeks after his death.
Readers didn’t react positively to the front-page piece.
“I got a couple of nasty phone calls, but no one admitted to their bias,” Paulson said. “ ey refused to apologize, of course. ey said I shouldn’t have put that on the front page. In typical Golden fashion, there was nothing speci c, other than to say, ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’ e thought of another race didn’t exist.”
For the Transcript’s newsroom, Paulson said there was no “codi ed
policy on racism” during his time there.
“We condemned it, but we made little e ort to actively attack it,” he said. “( e) Black Panthers seem remote from Golden, where there were few Black families.”
One place where Paulson thought racism showed up was on the editorial page. e paper had four syndicated columnists every day who lived outside the community. ey were selected by the publisher because “they were cheap and not already being published by the two Denver dailies,” he stated.
Paulson said he had no doubt the paper could be accused of racism for its coverage in those days.
“But I’d like to think it was by omission rather than intent,” he said. “We rarely spoke of racism and did little to come out against its pernicious e ects. I don’t remember anyone on the sta making racist remarks, and I think I would have remembered that.”
after.”
Perhaps the most evident example of this was in 1942, when Logus Butler and Susie A. Allison paid $1,500 for 30 acres near present-day Boyd Street in north Golden. ey planned to build on it, but they were forced to sell a few months later after Golden residents drove them out.
“A large number of citizens appeared before the City Council
Wednesday evening,” the Transcript reported Oct. 22, 1942, “and stated that a group of colored people had taken possession of the land recently purchased by them east of the Clark’s Garden addition, within the city limits of Golden, and were apparently staking out some building sites.”
After Butler and Allison were
forced to sell the land, plots on the same land were listed for sale two
In the community
While growing up in Denver in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Daniel and her sisters used their education and life experiences to help them decipher which news stories were biased and which were reputable. ey also relied on family and friends’ advice.
“I don’t think news at the time covered Blacks in the world that they lived in,” Daniel said. “To me, the general stories about how Blacks lived, what they did, what their concerns were and some of their needs, were not covered.”
The sisters felt this trend in coverage didn’t change until the ’80s, when news about Black people and Black communities became more prominent.
As an example, Daniel described how The Denver Post did a feature article on her late husband, Wiley Y. Daniel, who was a prominent attorney and
For Goldenites
In more recent years, especially in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter rallies in the summer of 2020, the Golden community has started examining the long reach of systemic racism in and around the city. e City of Golden started work on its Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, and groups like Golden United and Golden Anti-Racism Collective formed.
While these are good rst steps, real change has to start with people’s attitudes, GAC members Scrable and Michele Minihane said.
Although many Goldenites are open-minded and inclusive, Minihane personally believed there are still some residents who “do not value an integrated community and don’t feel like it’s important to make people of color feel welcome.”
She added: “I don’t get the sense that (attitudes) have changed a lot in 40 or 50 years.”
Scrable agreed that tangible changes, whether in attitudes or policies, have been slow. He said it’s going to take time and everyone working together to make Golden a more welcoming and inclusive place.
e two described how the Golden Anti-Racism Collective has become a place where people can share their experiences, examine systemic racism’s impact on the community, and nd ways to improve Golden for current and future generations.
As of last month, GAC has about
years later. Ownership was restricted to “members of the Caucasian race.”
ese accounts are just glimpses of Golden’s treatment of people of color, but Tellis emphasized how they demonstrate “institutionalized
the state’s first Black U.S. district court judge. She also recalled how e Post’s society section ran pictures of positive stories happening in the Black community.
“I do think it began to change in the ’80s,” Daniel continued. “ ere were positive stories (but) … the stereotypes were still going on.”
Diversity in the newsroom also seemed to improve during this timeframe, the sisters said. They recalled Reynelda Muse, the first Black person to anchor a newscast in Colorado, and Bertha Lynn, who started in Denver television in 1976.
While a lot has changed in how traditional outlets cover Black people and Black communities, the sisters believe there’s still plenty of bias. Rogers admitted that she avoids local news because there are still more negative stories about Black people than positive ones.
“I think there absolutely still is biased coverage,” she said. “I don’t want, every day, to hear
400 members on an email list and a few dozen who come to its regular meetings. ere are several subgroups within the Golden Anti-Racism Collective that tackle di erent topics such as policy and policing, education, and books and media.
While the bulk of the members are White, any Goldenites of color are welcome to join and participate as they’re able, the members said.
e group has established a unique partnership with the Golden Police Department, as some of its members sit on the department’s community engagement group, GAC member Sandra Knecht explained. GAC and other community members have given feedback on various department policies, particularly around use of force.
GAC members also try to comment on City Council discussions and participate in other local matters, including education, youth outreach and a ordable housing. In doing so, the group has developed partnerships with Shelton Elementary, the Golden Library, Colorado School of Mines student groups, Golden United and other groups that share GAC’s goals.
Similar to GAC, Golden United formed after the 2016 election as “there was a fair amount of division, nationally and locally,” Ronnie Rosenbaum said. e group sought to bring people together and encourage respect for those who have di erent ideas and opinions.
Rosenbaum, who’s vice president on Golden United’s board of directors, described the partnership between Golden United and
anti-Black behaviors and norms” in the area. So, he said, it’s no surprise that the Black Panther Party, an organization that “unapologetically called for Black liberation and the dismantling of White supremacist power structures, would catch the
about, ‘there’s another Black person who got in trouble.’”
Going back through American history, the Urban Spectrum’s Porter described other incidents where media outlets didn’t give Black people the bene t of the doubt. He listed the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and the Emmitt Till lynching as examples of the media portraying those involved as “guilty until proven innocent,” adding how the trend has persisted into today’s coverage of police shootings and similar incidents.
“And it seems as though that mentality continues to manifest in those organizations in their treatment of our community,” he said. “And so, it’s always the bad news. ere’s really never any positive re ections.”
Regarding news coverage of the Black Panther Party, the journalism professor described it as a peaceful organization that was responding to violence “against
GAC, saying the two groups and others joined forces for a rally in summer 2020 and pushed City Council to approve the “Golden Stands with Black Lives” banner on Washington Avenue.
Minihane stressed how the GAC believes systemic racism impacts all Golden residents, regardless of race, and recommended locals read “ e Sum of Us” by Heather McGhee to learn more about that impact.
In summer 2020, the Golden City Council produced a series of resolutions meant to address its history of racial exclusion and racist domination of non-White groups, Tellis stated.
ese resolutions included:
Resolution 2736 – Declaring Racism a Public Health Crisis
Resolution 2747 - Declaring Support for Black Lives and Racial Equity rough a Public Display, and
Resolution 2748 - Declaring A Commitment to Anti-Racism Actions
Resolution 2736 states, “the Golden City Council recognizes that racial inequities have become institutionalized in the policies and practices of many agencies, governmental and otherwise. Council recognizes the need to examine seemingly neutral policies and practices to determine whether they are contributing to inequity and, where needed, change or eliminate the policy or practice as cities have a long history of decision and policy making that have resulted in classist and racist outcomes.”
ire of local reporting.”
Tellis added: “Golden has displayed a deep commitment to the marginalization of Black people. To re ect on this legacy is pivotal if we desire to not replicate the racial strife and injustice of our past.”
African-American people in an attempt to say, ‘We will protect our community.’”
“ e idea was that Black folks with guns clearly scared the hell out of people,” Porter continued. “Because obviously, if you’ve got a gun, then you’re going to be violent. And it’s only that mentality because of our profession (as journalists). Our profession has continued to promote that re ection — still does, to this day.”
As for Golden and the Transcript’s coverage of the Black community, Porter believed it likely made Black residents feel unsafe and unwelcome, saying, “ ey know that any coverage of them will not be balanced and fair.” Fairness and racial equity are concepts Golden, Denver, the United States and journalism as a profession need to work on, he stated.
“I don’t see our profession doing enough work in that area,” Porter said. “I hear the talk. But I’m not seeing anything to back it up.”
Building on that, the city hired a consultant in June 2021 to develop a Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan based on community input. After developing it for more than a year, the plan outlined four goals:
Create a culture of inclusion and belonging throughout the community of Golden; Increase access to services and resources for diverse community members;
Foster an organizational culture and environment within the City of Golden that’s committed to racial equity, diversity and inclusion; and
Expand economic opportunities for diverse businesses.
Along with the REDI Action Plan, the consultants also recommended dozens of strategies toward these goals and an implementation plan.
For instance, public documents and other information should be available to those who don’t speak English or have di erent abilities. City boards and commissions should have a more inclusive recruiting process to ensure diversity among their members.
e city also should host training about Golden’s history, structural racism and implicit bias.
e City Council adopted the REDI Action Plan in December 2022 and called on the community to ensure Golden achieves the four goals in a timely, e ective way.
e plan was developed with race as the leading element because of how widespread and
damaging racial inequalities are in the United States, according to city consultants. However, the REDI Action Plan is overall intersectional, examining how to make Golden a better place for people of all ages, abilities, gender identities, sexual orientations, socioeconomic backgrounds, religions and other demographics.
Officials said the next step is to assemble an implementation team of community members and city staffers to make recommendations to City Council on how to achieve goals. Golden expects to assemble the team this spring.
In a Feb. 10 email, Mayor Laura Weinberg highlighted city officials and community members’ ongoing work to “live up to our value as a welcoming and inclusive city.”
“I applaud the Golden Transcript’s work to identify its role in racial inequities in the past and its role in systemic racism,” she stated. “The City of Golden has undertaken similar work … (and) I look forward to this year’s actions to take the information from our new REDI plan and put community-driven solutions into practice.”
For the Golden Transcript
While the Transcript’s ownership and newsroom has changed greatly since the late 1960s and early ‘70s, it’s not immune from the biases and attitudes that riddled its past coverage and contributed to systemic racism in and around
Golden.
Scrable said reading the Transcript’s past coverage of the Black community can be “demoralizing,” but even recent stories have failed to represent Black voices.
He pointed to an Aug. 31, 2020 Transcript story about City Council’s decision to display a “Golden Stands With Black Lives” banner
over Washington Avenue. The story said the banner would be displayed for 60 days, “an amount of time intended to symbolize how long it took for slave ships to cross the Atlantic.”
Scrable and his GAC co-chairs did advocate for 60 days, but they never assigned any symbolism or significance to the number.
“It might’ve been said (in the meeting), but it wasn’t us,” Scrable said of GAC. “It was a misquote.”
After the Aug. 31, 2020 story, Scrable received about 20 phone calls from people upset about the supposed symbolism. He felt the Transcript hadn’t done enough
research and ultimately misrepresented the facts, and that insensitivity created a very frustrating experience.
He wanted the Transcript to ensure there are positive stories about people from historically marginalized groups, and do better educating Goldenites about their neighbors’ achievements and experiences.
Scrable added: “I’m looking to the Transcript to paint a positive picture for all people of color … and representing ‘all’ versus ‘a few.’”
The Colorado Community Media
newsroom acknowledges it has work to do, and this February 2023 report is only the first step in what the team hopes will open a wider conversation about systemic racism and media coverage for years to come. Working on this report brought CCM staff members face-to-face with outdated practices and implicit biases.
Going forward, CCM’s goal is to include more voices of color in the newsroom and on the pages of its two dozen publications, Publisher Linda Shapley said. CCM wants to ensure all local voices are heard and included, while also reflecting on racial equity, diversity and inclusion. CCM will strive to consider the lenses through which the staff decides to cover stories in the first place. Appreciating differ-
ences in CCM’s coverage areas, like history and culture, will guide the newsroom in its efforts.
Other newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Kansas City Star, Philadelphia Inquirer and more have done similar analyses of their past coverage, and the Transcript encourages other newspapers in the region and across the country to do so as well, Shapley said, adding that it wouldn’t have been possible without a Colorado Media Project grant.
For all journalists, Porter stressed the importance of continuing to diversify newsrooms and ensuring fair, balanced and objective coverage and “stop convicting people without evidence.”
He called on more publications
to review their past coverage and acknowledge its harmful impacts, saying it’s important to shine a light on the truth, to be honest and to be transparent.
“If we’re ever going to get past this, it’s going to take some truthtelling,” he said. “It will be hard. It will be difficult. But it really is one of the last vestiges to make this country what it said it was in the beginning — freedom and liberty for all. Which has not been the case for us.”
Jameka Lewis, Allan Tellis, Kristen Fiore, Rylee Dunn, Christy Steadman, Steve Smith and Deborah Grigsby contributed to this report. Greg Moore contributed as an editor.
1-877-328-1512
John Hickenlooper has been quietly convening fellow U.S. senators from six other Colorado River Basin states over the past year in an e ort to assist in the increasingly frantic conservation negotiations around the parched and overtaxed waterway that some 40 million people in the Southwest rely upon.
Hickenlooper, a Democrat, sees the informal, bipartisan caucus as a way to mediate interstate disagreements over how the river should be managed — and who should have to use less of its water — in the hope of preventing federal intervention. While states’ governors may not meet on a regular basis, senators from across the river basin are frequently together in Washington, D.C.
“ e idea here is that we’re looking at how to use more carrot and less stick,” he said. “ e key here is the federal government is not the best one to force a deal. e best solution is going to be a solution that all seven states sign o on.”
e group of senators has been meeting every few weeks to discuss Colorado River Basin issues.
e gatherings have become more frequent amid Biden administration deadlines for basin states to come to
a water conservation agreement that prevents Lake Mead and Lake Powell levels from dropping too low.
e reservoirs are already at historically low levels, yet the negotiation deadlines have come and passed without a deal.
“I think the senators can provide additional information that maybe the states don’t all have,” Hickenlooper said, “and make sure that everyone is working together.”
Hickenlooper didn’t provide details on what the caucus has discussed, but he said the group has met with Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton, who warned that 4 million acre-feet in existing water use must be pared back.
“We’re all really hearing what priorities and speci c issues are with each state and with the water users in each state,” he said. “As long as we understand that and are working from the same set of facts, we’re probably going to come up with a much better solution than if things degenerate into lawsuits.”
Hickenlooper said the caucus is looking to formalize itself with a chair and subchairs from the upper and lower Colorado River Basin.
is story is from e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support e Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com.
e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media.
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.
DEER PARK UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Pastor Joyce Snapp, Sunday Worship 10 AM
Located one mile west of Pine Junction just o Rt. 285 966 Rim Rock Road, Bailey (303) 838-6759
All are welcome to our open/inclusive congregation!
EVERGREEN LUTHERAN CHURCH
5980 Highway 73 + 303-674-4654
Rev. Terry Schjang
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 8am-1pm 303-838-4409, Worship & Children’s Church at 10am
Small group studies for all ages at 9am
Transitional Pastor: Mark Chadwick Youth Pastor: Jay Vonesh
Other activities: Youth groups, Men’s/Women’s ministries, Bible studies, VBS, MOPS, Cub/Boy Scouts.
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
2. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: To date, how many people have walked on the moon?
3. GEOGRAPHY: What is the capital of the Canadian province Nova Scotia?
4. MOVIES: How many “Police Academy” movies have been produced?
5. U.S. STATES: Why is Indiana known as “ e Hoosier State”?
6. FOOD & DRINK: What percentage of a cucumber is water?
7. HISTORY: Which company published its rst mail-order catalog in 1872?
8. ANIMAL KINGDOM: What does the armadillo’s name mean in English?
9. LITERATURE: What is author Mark Twain’s real name?
10. CELEBRITIES: What is one of singer/actor Frank Sinatra’s famous nicknames, based on a physical attribute?
Answers
1. Long Branch Saloon.
2. 12.
3. Halifax.
4. Seven, including the original movie and six sequels.
5. e name became popular in the 1800s, likely from the poem “ e Hoosier’s Nest.”
6. 96%.
7. Montgomery Ward.
8. Little armored one.
9. Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
10. Ol’ Blue Eyes.
(c) 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.
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* Hanging shoe racks are a wonderful organizational tool, especially the ones made of plastic that have see-through pockets. You can use them on the back of your bathroom door for small towels and toiletries, or how about on the back of baby’s door as a diaper organizer? My favorite use is on the back of my garage door to hold all the cleaning bottles and solutions with other supplies. ey are nice and high, and out of reach of little hands. Send your tips to Now Here’s a Tip, 628 Virginia Drive, Orlando, FL 32803.
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1. Who released “Lady Sings the Blues” and when?
2. “I’m Still Standing” was released on which Elton John album?
3. Which song was the rst to rank as No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100? When was that?
4. In 1953, Elvis Presley recorded a double-sided record with “My Happiness” and “ at’s When Your Heartaches Begin.” Who was the record for?
5. Name the song that contains these lyrics: “Too many long conversations and no one is hearin’ a word.”
Answers
1. Diana Ross, in 1972. e song was on the double soundtrack album for the lm of the same name, a biopic about singer Billie Holiday.
2. “Too Low for Zero,” in 1983. e song
did well on the charts, helped by an MTV video.
3. “Poor Little Fool,” by Ricky Nelson, in 1958. e rst thing Billboard ranked, however, wasn’t records, it was sheet music, in 1913. Records weren’t listed until 1936.
4. His mother, as a birthday present. Presley paid $3.98 for the recording fee.
5. “Dancin’ Shoes,” by Nigel Olsson, in 1978. Olsson got his start in England with the Plastic Penny band and eventually collaborated with Elton John, Neil Sedaka, Rod Stewart and several others on numerous albums.
(c) 2023 King Features Syndicate
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Live In Caregiver/ Life Facilitator
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Independent Propane Company has openings for a full-time delivery driver in our Pine Junction office. Here’s your chance to avoid the metro rat race and enjoy working in the mountains year round. Apply with a company that is family oriented, cares for people, pays a competitive wage, and has a superior benefit package.
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e Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies recently warned state lawmakers that it is unprepared for its assigned job of implementing the state’s new, second-in-thenation legal “magic mushroom” industry, which voters approved in November.
e department — which normally oversees sectors like insurance and banking — is tasked with quickly adopting a regulatory structure under which psychedelic mushrooms can be legally consumed by people 21 and older at licensed facilities.
e facilities are set to open as soon as late 2024.
DORA will also be responsible for writing regulations governing the cultivation and manufacturing of psychedelic mushrooms, as well as protecting consumers, developing public education campaigns and making recommendations to the legislature about how to shape the industry.
ere’s just one problem: DORA says it has no idea what it’s doing when it comes to psilocybin, the hallucination-inducing compound derived from psychedelic mushrooms.
“ is is an area completely outside the scope of any existing expertise or regulatory history within the department,” DORA wrote in a budget document submitted to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee. “ is is unlike anything else the department regulates. e department has no resources or expertise to begin implementation of this expansive new program involving substances with agricultural, controlled substance, chemical/scienti c and facility issues.”
Proposition 122, which legalized magic mushrooms, passed by nearly 8 percentage points. e measure was unique in that it speci cally charged DORA with rolling out the psilocybin industry, as opposed to
letting the state gure out for itself which of its agencies should be responsible for regulating magic mushrooms. And it doesn’t appear Proposition 122’s proponents reached out to DORA to see if they could handle the responsibility.
“Did they come sit down and say do you want to take this? I don’t think so,” said Katie O’Donnell, a spokeswoman for DORA. “It could have gone in a lot of places. It doesn’t t perfectly in any of them.”
(Patty Salazar, who leads DORA, declined an interview request as her agency works to determine who will take on the psilocybin assignment.)
e Colorado Department of Revenue, for instance, regulates the cannabis industry. Hemp is handled by the Department of Agriculture.
DORA? It houses the Colorado Civil Rights Division and Broadband Deployment O ce. To put it simply: DORA isn’t synonymous with psychedelics.
“It just doesn’t t in the mold of what we regulate,” said O’Donnell, who explained that DORA is preliminarily planning to handle regulations for psilocybin and the other plants through its Division of Professions and Occupations.
Tasia Poinsatte, who leads the Healing Advocacy Fund, an oshoot of the group that funded the passage of Proposition 122, said supporters of the measure thought DORA was an appropriate place to regulate Colorado’s new psychedelic mushrooms endeavor because of its licensure work.
“Proposition 122 was designed to provide breakthrough therapies to Coloradans for mental health and wellness,” Poinsatte said. “At the heart of this new regulated program are the licensed facilitators who supervise the preparation sessions, the natural medicine administration session, and the integration sessions. We believe it’s appropriate for the agency that regulates other health professions, such as therapists, addiction specialists and nurses, to also regulate this new profession of licensed facilitators.”
Still, Poinsatte said she recog-
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 2490 606 8478.
Event address for Attendees is: https://jeffco.webex.com/jeffco/onstage/g.php?M
TID=e91792178d5497604e725bb41468105aa
Event Password: Gp9NRSKSN64
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:
NAME ADDRESS
Somying Fox: 24202 Pleasant Park Rd., Conifer CO 80433
By Order of Liquor Licensing Authority of the County of Jefferson, State of Colorado
nizes DORA may need help creating a “program that works for all Coloradoans and is a model for the rest of the country.” Oregon is the only other state where psychedelic mushrooms are legal, and that only happened Jan. 1.
Proposition 122 allows people 21 and older in Colorado to grow and share psychedelic mushrooms. Sales, however, are not allowed.
Where DORA comes in will be the state-regulated centers OK’d by Proposition 122, where people will be able to make appointments to consume psilocybin.
Gov. Jared Polis last month appointed 15 people to serve on the state’s “Natural Medicine Advisory Board,” which is tasked with advising DORA on implementing the regulations. 5280 magazine reported there were more than 200 people who applied to be on the board.
But DORA says it still needs more help.
In its budget request to the legislature, DORA said it wants to spend
Legal Notice No. CC 1137
First Publication: February 16, 2023
Last Publication: February 16, 2023
Publisher: Canyon Courier Metropolitan Districts
Public Notice
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR KEN CARYL WEST RANCH WATER DISTRICT
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, and, particularly, to the electors of the Ken Caryl West Ranch Water District of Jefferson County, Colorado.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a regular election will be held on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. At that time, five (5) Directors will be elected to serve a term of four (4) years.
Eligible Electors of the District interested in serving on the Board of Directors may obtain a Self-Nomination and Acceptance form from Renee Lewis, the Designated Election Official for the District, on the District’s website at www.westranch.org. Self-Nomination and Acceptance forms must be filed with the Designated Election Official, either by email at reneelewis7@gmail.com or in person at the District’s administrative office at 1 West Ranch Trail, Morrison, CO 80465, no earlier than January 1, 2023 nor later than Friday, February 24, 2023 at 12:00 p.m.
NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that applications for absentee or replacement ballots may be filed with the Designated Election Of-
$700,000 this year and next to “contract resources and expertise” to get its trip down the rabbit hole going. It says the speed at which it’s expected to implement rules is unprecedented, and it’s still guring out the fee structure for legal-use facilities under which it will fund its work.
And once DORA gets its psychedelic mushroom regulations squared away, the work may be just beginning.
Proposition 122 gives the Natural Medicine Advisory Board the option to similarly legalize and regulate a number of other naturally derived psychedelics, including dimethyltryptamine (known as DMT), ibogaine and mescaline, which is found in the San Pedro cactus.
is story is from e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support e Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com. e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media.
ficial at reneelewis7@gmail.com or the District’s administrative office at 1 West Ranch Trail, Morrison, CO 80465, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. from April 18, 2023 until May 2, 2023. All absentee or replacement ballots must be returned to the District’s administrative office at 1 West Ranch Trail, Morrison, CO 80465 by May 2, 2023 at 7:00 p.m.
KEN CARYL WEST RANCH
By: /s/ Renee Lewis
Any individual, corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, limited liability company, partnership, association, or other legal entity that has furnished labor, materials, sustenance, or other supplies used or consumed by such Contractor or its subcontractors, in or about the performance of the work contracted to be done or that has supplied laborers, rental machinery, tools or equipment to the extent used in the prosecution of the work, and whose claim therefor has not been paid by the Contractor or its subcontractors, at any time up to and including the time of final settlement for the work contracted to be done, is required to file a verified statement of the amount due and unpaid, and an account of such claim, to the BOWLES
DISTRICT, c/o Mulhern MRE, Inc., 188 Inverness Drive West, Suite 140, Englewood, Colorado 80112, Attn: Scott Barnett, with a copy to: Icenogle Seaver Pogue, P.C., 4725 South Monaco Street, Suite 360, Denver, Colorado 80237, on or before the date and time hereinabove shown. Failure on the part of any claimant to file such verified statement of claim prior to such final settlement will release the District, its Board of Directors, officers, agents, and employees of and from any and all liability for such claim.
