LOCAL

Council to review resident surveys before selecting new chief

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Brighton residents got a say in who the city hires as its next police chief at a Dec. 15 reception.

The city invited residents to meet the two candidates, Matthew Domenico and James Hughes, to the Armory Performing Art Center on Dec. 15.

Numerous community members attended to meet the candidates and completed a survey with questions about what makes a good police chief and why. The survey also asked which candidate was their favorite.

Human Resources Director Kevin Young said City Councilors will review comments from the meeting.

“The city manager will collect all the information from this session, the police department sessions and the interviews. I think they’ll be probably make a decision at some point in the beginning of January, if everything works out,” Young said

Domenico, currently the Interim Chief of the Brighton Police Department, said there are many challenges, like any police agency in the area.

“What we have done, throughout my career with Brighton, is to surround ourselves with really good people who care about the community and who are invested in this community and who are not afraid to speak up and bring forward those innovative solutions,” Domenico said.

Domenico is a Colorado native from Arvada that had been with the Brighton police since 2004, working in different roles in every division.

Domenico said his plan if hired for the job permanently is to develop a comprehensive strategy to help guide Brighton for the next five to 10 years. He wants specific goals, as well – not just a plan.

“How do we get to those areas where we need to be and want to be the premier public safety agency in the metropolitan area?” Domenico said. “That’s our desire, in a way, to reflect our community’s needs, the expectations of our residents and all stakeholders.”

Arizona experience

The other candidate, James Hughes, is the former police Chief for Maricopa County in Arizona. Hughes said Maricopa County was one of the fastest-growing com-

SEE CANDIDATES, P3 Matthew Demenico Interim Chief of the Brighton Police Department. PHOTOS BY BELEN WARD

James Hughes former police Chief of the Maricopa, Arizona Police Department.

Saturday, December 24, 7-8pm

Scriptures & Songs

Sunday, December 25, 11am-noon

“King of Kings & Lord of Lords”

Join us Christmas Eve

for a beautiful candlelight service in the historic St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church.

We will sing carols at 6:30 p.m. followed by worship with Holy Eucharist at 7:00 p.m.

Everyone is welcome in the Episcopal Church. Anyone who is baptized may partake of the communion bread and wine.

munities in the nation while he was there. We moved there in 2012; the population was 40,000 and is now up to 75,000.

“You think about how you appropriately staff for projected growth, you know how the economy turns, things can change, you don’t want to invest too much,” Hughes said.

The biggest challenge for growing communities is they don’t have time to focus on the future as much as they should. The Chief and police staff need to focus on a forecast, a five-year plan, and a vision.

“A community has to be the center of everything because it’s who we serve. Some parts of this country lost sight of that over the last 20 years and interjected themselves and their safety, not serving the communities. It’s about having that community support and engagement,” Hughes said.

Hughes said he wants the number one call for service in Brighton to be the community calling to report suspicious activity. For residents that care about crime, that early intervention is important.

“Anything we can do before it becomes a problem, if someone is making a bad decision or has too much to drink,” Hughes said. “We are all in this together, I don’t have all the answers and need input from our officers, detectives, command staff, and professional staff with strategies, problem-solving, and community policing.”

Hughes said data is also essential. Police cannot simply operate according to their intuition and gut feelings. Data drives criminal investigations and you look at the facts.

Hughes said his goal is to keep crime low and quality of life issues at the front of his mind. Community engagement is important when dealing with non-profits, homelessness, mental health issues, and diversion to programs. Working together makes life easier, he said.

Hughes was born and raised in a suburban community in northern New Jersey. He became a cop when he was 19, following in his father’s footsteps. His dad was also a cop in his hometown.

“It was my calling for police work,” Hughes said.

From New Jersey, Hughes moved to Hawaii, working as the director of the Honolulu Police Commission for a year in a half.

Hughes served for ten years in Maricopa County, including eight years as commander and two as Chief. His wife is from Steamboat Springs, and the remainder of her family lives in Canyon City.

“We love Colorado and are blessed to be here tonight and put my hat in the ring for this job,” Hughes said.

MANAGER

Authoriity for Reinvestment. He previously served as the planning division manager for the City of San Jose, California, and a city planner for the city of Henderson, Nevada.

“I have no doubt that Mr. Rogers will do great things for our residents, businesses, and our city as a whole, as well as the 700 employees under his leadership,” said Mayor Benjamin Huseman. “I know he will rise to the occasion and exceed every expectation placed forth by this City Council and every future City Council so long as he decides to remain in Commerce City, and I hope that is a long time.”

A native of Staunton, Virginia, Rogers holds a bachelor’s degree in urban and environmental planning from the University of Virginia. Rogers also serves as a water quality control commissioner for the State of Colorado and previously served on the Utah Shakespeare Festival Board of Governors; helping to build an amphitheater to broaden cultural and educational opportunities in the area of Cedar City, Utah.

Phillips

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How to heat building with sewage

No. It does not smell

BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

As long as humans are around, there’s vast renewable energy to be had from the results of their daily living.

The National Western Center and Colorado State University’s growing Denver Spur campus are now heated every day by energy that experts in renewables were tired of seeing literally flushed down the drain. In a squeakyclean building in the shadow of Interstate 70, energy is pulled from one of Denver’s main sewage lines and transferred to clean water pipes shooting out to buildings on the National Western Center campus next door.

It’s the largest sewage heat recovery system in North America, online since April, and an offshoot of the 72-inch sewage main provides 90% of the energy needed to heat and cool local buildings. In winter, the 65- to 70-degree sewage heats water in the exchanger. In summer, the sewage flow cools the exchange water well below ambient air temperature on a 95-degree downtown day.

Sewage-loaded institutions from Canadian cities to Las Vegas hotels are studying the project for lessons as the budding renewable technology takes hold among carbon-conscious customers.

The attraction for CSU was clear, Spur campus Associate Vice Chancellor Jocelyn Hittle said, as the university builds up a complex researching everything from clean water sources, to veterinary medicine, to vertical horticulture.

“It’s in our ethos to think about sustainability, to think about the long term, and we know that a low-carbon option here was important,” Hittle said. Overall, the building energy costs are a few percent higher than simply connecting to the existing grid, Hittle said, but CSU “is going to be here for a long time. So the benefits accrue, when you think about sustainability and climate over that period.”

Making the sewage-to-heat system even more obvious was the fact it was basically an in-house project. Jim McQuarrie was the director of technology and innovation for Metro Water Recovery, the region’s largest sewer utility, when he pitched the idea to one of his former graduate school engineering advisers at CSU.

Metro Water Recovery wants to off-load heat from sewage before it gets to the treatment plants along the South Platte River, and is then discharged into the stream. Warmer water hurts fish and other wildlife.

Denver has billion-dollar redevelopment plans for the National Western site, traditional home to the January stock show and other events. The area’s sewer main was above ground on the site, which helped Metro Water Recovery lose heat but blocked ideal site development.

The planning coalition that developed around the idea agreed to put the big sewage pipes underground, and run an offshoot pipe to the new exchange building. The gleaming pipes throughout are labeled “sewer” or “ambient water.” Incoming sewage is first screened for large objects, then ground inside the pipes to a slurry that will maintain its flow.

As in all cities, wastewater temperatures are boosted by hot shower or kitchen drains over 100 degrees and dishwashers that hit 140 degrees.

In the exchange chamber, the sewage pipes flow next to clean water pipes, which are then pumped to circulate through CSU’s Spur buildings a block away, and the growing complex of National Western Center renovations. Heat pumps in each building add or subtract a few degrees from the piped clean water to create the right indoor temperatures. Then the clean water circles back to the exchange building for another run.

And the sewage keeps on coming. After leaving the exchange, the sewage flows back into the mains headed over to Metro Water Recovery, having lost energy but gained a purpose.

Every two hours, the sewage flow in the pipes is reversed to clean out silt and sand deposits, said Bryan Scott, chief operator on site for CenTrio, which financed, built and manages the exchange complex for Denver and National Western Center. The exchange equipment is built by SHARC, a British Columbia energy firm.

Developers in Boulder are working on a small system for an apartment complex, as is a slopeside condo at Snowmass Village, among others, CenTrio noted. The U.S. Department of Energy has estimated the energy from all the nation’s sewage could heat 30 million homes if recaptured.

“Anyone looking to utilize the free energy just going down the drain,” Scott said.

Besides getting a reliable and low-carbon form of energy, CSU wants its energy and engineering students to continue involvement in the project as part of their education, Hittle said.

“That’s another opportunity for us from a project of this scale,” Hittle said. “We’re learning as we go.”

This story is from The Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support The Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com. The Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media.

when Santa’s Reindeer get tired they are dropped o here. We take care of them for a while and Santa uses my reindeer for a little bit,” he said.

Reindeer, a labor of love e trio of reindeer lives alongside McIntosh’s other hooved animals. A fth-generation dairy farmer, he owns the McIntosh Dairy in Brighton, which has been in operation since 1906, providing milk from their 600 cows for much of the metro area.

While cows are their livelihood, the McIntosh family always been interested in raising other farm animals.

“We have been agriculture all our lives. My family has been into caring for all kinds of animals and doing the best they can for them. My grandpa liked llamas, and he raised llamas in his pen,” McIntosh said.

When his grandpa passed away, McIntosh’s dad took over the pen and raised elk. When his dad moved to another property, McIntosh took over his elk pen.

David had been curious about reindeer since he was a little boy but began researching them earnestly about eight years ago.

“I researched if you could actually have reindeer in the lower 48 and also to see some people with reindeer,” he said. “For the most part, they were so few and far between, I didn’t really think they actually raised reindeer down here.”

David said he wanted to know if it was feasible and e ective to raise them and to ensure a good quality of life, to keep them happy on his farm.

“I got in contact with lots of people in other states. ere is a whole reindeer community throughout the U.S.,” he said. “I learned how to best take care of some health problems and to watch out for other health problems to raise them at their happiest and healthiest they can be.” e Macintosh’s reindeer half-sisters Juniper and Cranberry came from the Jessen ranch in Loveland. And Khristoph comes from a South Jordan ranch in Utah.

“ e European species, the reindeer have been domesticated – depending on which article you read – for about 6,000 years and have been domesticated longer than horses and canines,” David said. “ ey have found cave paintings they have been domesticated for that long, pulling sleighs and helping the northern Europeans.”

Reindeer come from Lapland, in the extreme northern part of Finland bordering Norway, Sweden, Russia and the Baltic Sea. Only the Lapland-native Sami people kept the animals domesticated, with herds of thousands moving between Scandinavian pastures.

“In 1890 the U.S. government imported the rst domestic reindeer from Europe to the Inuit tribes of Alaska to trade for land,” McIntosh said. “ e caribou herds there bred with the reindeer. “

His small herd is a mix of the two, and there are di erences beyond size, he said.

“ e North American reindeer is mostly reindeer with a few caribou genes. My bull has caribou, with his larger body and longer face,” McIntosh said.

“ ere is a big di erence between reindeer and caribou. A herd of caribou will stick together, and are very diligent to their hierarchy, and staying in big herds,” McIntosh said. “ e reindeer will grow in small groups, but those small groups will change if a couple of caribou get into a reindeer herd.” e Sami people kept the herd size under control by eating them, McIntosh said. at’s not the case with his herd.

“In the United States we don’t eat them, they are my family,” he said. “We bring them to events for children to see them and learn about how amazing the reindeer are.”

He notes that, although they are not magical creatures, they do have some peculiar adaptations that other animals do not.

“ ey are the only mammal that can see in ultraviolet light,” McIntosh said.

Wild herds rare

And while there are wild caribou in Canada and beyond north, they don’t exist in the continental U.S.

Kayla McIntosh said there are no wild herds of reindeer caribou in the lower 48. e native Kalispel tribe in Washington state has been trying to reintroduce them, however.

Reindeer grows the largest, heaviest antlers of any species of deer, she said. Both males and females have antlers and yearlings usually grow their rst set of small two-prong antlers three months after birth.

“Khristoph, when he was a year old, grew his rst set of antlers,” she said. “And after a year, the antlers dropped and he grew another set of even larger antlers, with up to 50 points.”

Bulls lose their antlers every year, growing a new pair with a velvet nish, McIntosh said. at’s why they rub their antlers on trees or fences, scraping o the velvet and leaving the hard antler underneath,” she said.

Having antlers does determine their rank in the herd, she said. Khristoph, with his huge antlers, is dominant now. But once they drop, Juniper and Cranberry will be back in charge.

“It’s natural in the wild that the female becomes dominant in the winter when food is scarce and hard to nd,” he said. “ ey must defend their food from the bull, because they are growing a baby.

“ e bull does not need that much food but can starve nding their own food,” he said. “ e female will also take whatever food the bull has to feed the baby in their bellies, and they can be feisty.”

David McIntosh with his Reindeer at Denver Premium Outlets a few weekends ago.

The mighty Kristoph with the giant antlers. His magnifi cent antlers currently make him the leader of his small herd. He’ll lose them soon, and will be less dominant until they grow back.

Cranberry and Juniper’s eating time.

PHOTOS BY BELEN WARD

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