Helping break the cycle of nicotine

teeth into those motor vehicle thefts down at the state capitol,” Brown said, referring to Senate Bill 97, Motor Vehicle eft and Unauthorized Use. “I think that we are gaining some traction with our state legislators on moving towards having the ability to do that.”

Addressing Tyre Nichols’ death

Brown said the citizens advisory committee met Feb. 9 and the main talking point was the killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Scorpion unit within the Memphis Police Department, as well as “how seriously we take those actions.”

“It may have been Memphis, but law enforcement gets categorized in a specific category when those incidents happen and we’re all responsible to make sure that we get out and we discuss these issues, and make sure that our citizens understand that that’s not who we are as an agency,” Brown said.

“We’re a community partnership. We work with our businesses. We work with our citizens to make sure that we have the ability to mitigate crime. And we don’t take punishment into our own hands. There’s a process for that,” he added. “We have very stringent policies. And that’s part of the reason that we have the agreement with the City of Centennial — to make sure that we are accredited at the highest level nationally.”

Centennial Councilmember Marlo Alston expressed gratitude for the report.

“It is very important to the citizens of Centennial and Arapahoe County to understand the culture of the sheriff’s department,” Alston said. “Thank you for that. I

appreciate that.”

Upcoming election

South Metro Fire Rescue will hold an election this spring to select four members of its board of directors, said Communications Director Eckmann.

The agency serves roughly 550,000 people in the south Denver metro area. Last year, South Metro Fire Rescue got more than 50,000 calls throughout the district, Eckmann said. Out of those, there were 9,433 calls in Centennial.

South Metro Fire Rescue is governed by a seven-member board of directors who are publicly elected and oversee an annual budget of more than $127 million, according to the agency’s website.

Each board member represents a specific geographical portion of the overall fire district, known as a director district, the agency explained in a 2020 governing body document.

Four of the directors’ terms expire in 2023, including Sue Roche of District 1, Jim Albee of District 3, Cindy Hathaway of District 4 and Renee Anderson of District 5.

“There are two seats that were open for Centennial — District 1 and District 3,” Eckmann said.

“Jim Albee, he was the candidate for District 3, which is kind of the western part of Centennial. He is running unopposed.

“And then we have District 1, who Sue Roche, she is the one that is currently on our board — she is running opposed by one individual in that area.”

According to the agency’s website, the candidate opposing Roche is Randy W. Perlis. A ballot will be mailed to voters between April 10 and April 17, per the website.

“The individuals just in that district will be receiving that ballot — it won’t be an at-large voting process,” Eckmann said.

For example, eligible voters in District 3 will get a ballot mailed to them that will only include Albee’s name.

“That is something that we’re required to do,” Eckmann said. “We’re hoping that doesn’t cause confusion, that it will just be one name on his ballot.”

Fire station rebuild

South Metro Fire Rescue is looking to close down Fire Station 15, located at 2702 E. Dry Creek Road, to rebuild it in May, Eckmann said.

“End of May, beginning of June is when you’ll start seeing construction on that, where we’ll start scraping that site and looking at rebuilding it,” she said. “We’re looking at probably an August 2024 timeline to actually get the station reopened.” commercial farms are impacted, it takes months and millions of dollars to recover from a mass death event.

Before the old station is taken down, South Metro Fire Rescue plans to hold an open house for the public, she said.

The agency is also preparing itself so that there is no impact to service delivery when the station is going through construction, Eckmann noted.

Residents interested in learning more about the Station 15 rebuild can visit: southmetro.org/612/ Station-15.

From avian u to zoning permits, here’s what you need to know about raising backyard chickens e federal government is discussing the possibility for a large-scale avian u vaccination program for poultry, and e New York Times reports a potential vaccine is already being tested. ere’s “no clear end in sight” for this avian u outbreak, Baldwin said. With no treatment available and the uncontrollable nature of bird migration coming back into play, it appears this strain of avian u is here to stay. 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.

Baldwin, along with experts from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Colorado State University, will host a webinar next week to share more information about the avian u and how to keep ocks safe this spring.

Avian u cases among humans are extremely rare, and they usually occur only when people are heavily exposed to infected poultry.

“ e USDA is really the rst step in getting that approval process started because, if you vaccinate, there are potential trade implications,” Baldwin said.

In the meantime, agriculture ofcials and veterinarians are still searching for other solutions.