Week of August 4, 2022
$1.00
An edition of the Littleton Independent A publication of
VOLUME 21 | ISSUE 37
Community enjoys summer night
As Tri-County Health disbands, counties take different approaches Price tags to go solo will vary BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The band Darling Revival performed at the District 4 summer social at Indian Ridge Elementary School on July 26. BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Crouched down in the grass, Jerry Wasikowski smiled at his 2-year-old son, Cam, as he played with pieces of a giant Connect Four yard game during the Centennial District 4
summer social event at Indian Ridge Elementary School on July 26. “We like to do local community events, and so obviously getting him out of the house and listening [to] some music and playing some games, that was the motivating factors,” Wasikowski said about why
PHOTO BY TAYLER SHAW
he and his wife, who live near the school, came to the event with their son. “It’s good to meet some of the community leaders.” Families gathered on the school’s field to enjoy an evening of yard SEE SOCIAL, P10
Council takes deeper look at adding lodging tax to ballot Reactions are mixed on 5% proposal BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Following some debate during its July 18 meeting, Centennial City Council voted 7-2 in favor of further exploring the addition of a lodging tax question to the November ballot.
Eric Eddy, the assistant city manager, presented the drafted ballot language for a proposed 5% lodging tax, making for an estimated revenue of $1.5 million in the first year. The tax would be imposed on the price of a short-term rental, meaning less than 30 consecutive days, in any hotel, inn, bed and breakfast or Airbnb located in the city. Centennial currently does not have a lodging tax. With the city’s 2.5% sales tax rate on lodging ser-
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 14 | LIFE: PAGE 16 | CALENDAR: PAGE 19
vices, the proposed 5% lodging tax would make for a combined total tax rate of 7.5%, Eddy said. For example, if a hotel room rate was $100 per night, the sales tax would be $2.50 and the proposed lodging tax would be $5, making it a total tax of $7.50, according to the staff report. Mayor Stephanie Piko asked how the proposed rate compares to Lone
The embattled Tri-County Health Department lists 10 staff members as its “executive team,” a collection of leaders that oversee priorities like emergency preparedness, disease surveillance and environmental health. Arapahoe County has scooped up six of those leaders — plus TriCounty’s former director of nursing — to work for its upcoming single-county health department as Tri-County prepares to dissolve at the end of this year. Adams County will absorb one of those 10 leaders, plus Tri-County’s former policy expert. Douglas County has not hired any of those key Tri-County staff members. Dr. John Douglas, head of TriCounty, says he doesn’t think the politics surrounding Tri-County’s decisions on the pandemic played a role in general in determining which counties the health agency’s high-level staff will end up working for. But the disparity is one example of how the new health departments among the three counties are likely to shape up in different ways as the decades-old
SEE EXPLORE, P12
SEE APPROACH, P22
ART IN THE OPEN
There’s plenty of sculpture to see in parks and public places
P16
