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Age 79, surrounded by her family, passed away peacefully on July 7, 2023, after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. She was born April 15, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan, to Carl George Lepar and Gertrude Loretta ( eel) Colley.

In 1962, Lynne graduated from Irvin High School in El Paso, Texas, and continued her education, taking criminal justice classes at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Michigan. While she held various jobs throughout her life, law enforcement was her passion. She held various positions within law enforcement, ending her career and retiring from the Adams County (Colorado) District Attorney’s O ce. Lynne loved to love people. She crocheted washcloths, hats, scarves, and blankets, donating 100’s to local charities, and was perfecting her hand at quilting. She was a fabulous cook, baker, and canner, sharing her culinary creations with family and friends. Her garden, however, was her biggest passion, pride, and joy. She canned what she grew, and her owers, so beautiful would sing. She also loved to read, sing, swim, and enjoyed traveling and the outdoors. roughout her lifetime, she was a

Yvette Martinez, City of Brighton Chamber community concierge.

Evans covers House District 48, which includes parts of Weld and Adams counties, including Brighton, Lochbuie, Fort Lupton, Todd Creek, and Platteville.

Evans won his rst term in Nov. 2022. He is a retired Army and

National Guard veteran ying the UH60 Black Hawk helicopter. He also served with the Arvada police department.

Groupthink

Evans opened the meeting by recounting the legislative process and discussing house bills he worked on.

He said he worked with the Colorado Restaurant Association to kill House Bill 1118 because it required restaurant workers to schedule two weeks’ vacation in advance with no changes. It just put too many requirements on restaurant workers and management.

“My group advocated against this particular piece of legislation by the Colorado Restaurant Association,” Evans said. “It would be a lot of restaurants out of business to hire sta .”

He also fought against a bill that would have required landlords to pay the tenant two to three months of relocation assistance equivalent to the monthly rate if they chose not to renew a tenants’ lease.

“As a landlord, I will have to increase my rates if I have to pay my tenants whenever I don’t renew a lease, paying the equivalent of a quarter of the years of my income back to them so that they could relocate,” Evans said. “We were able to defeat that piece of legislation.”

Property taxes a concern

Art Biersvach with V10 Consulting, told Evans he worries about rising property taxes, saying he’s considering leaving the state.

“As citizens, we should get to debate or vote on this issue,” Biersvach said.

Evans said changes are beyond him, while he’s a member of the minority party.

“We have a saying the minority member of several choirs in Michigan and Colorado. Lynne is survived by her three daughters, Dawn (Bartholomew) Bagozzi, Lisa Ralph, and Rebecca (James) Cook; nine grandchildren and several great-grandchildren; her sister Kasey Anne and brother James Robert (Bob), along with several nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. Lynne also leaves her trusted service dog and best friend, Cherry.

Lynne is preceded in death by her parents, brother Carl Andrew, sister Kandy Marie, and granddaughter Heather Anne. A sun ower, Lynne’s favorite ower, symbolizes happiness, cheerfulness, joy, and new hope. Lynne lived like a sun ower, living life to the fullest and always in bloom. e family invites you to join them in the celebration of Lynne’s life on ursday, July 27, 2023 from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. with services beginning at 11:00 a.m.at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 106 Dexter Street, Milan, Michigan. Private burial will follow in Glen Eden Cemetery, Livonia, Michigan. In lieu of owers, the family requests donations in Lynne’s name be made to her church St. Paul Lutheran Church; or Aid in Milan, 89 West Main Street, Milan, MI 48160. www.ochalekstark.com gets their say, and the majority gets their way,” Evans said.

He said state house Republicans are ghting attempts to water down or repeal Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights. ey failed to stop Proposition HH, which will be on the ballot in November. Proposition HH would raise the cap on state revenues, allowing government to keep more excess revenue before having to refund the money, under TABOR.

He promised to do better.

“We will have a better piece of legislation next year,” Evans said. Evans said if voters approve in November, it will allow state and local governments to keep around $10 billion in refunds that should be going back to the citizens.

“Unfortunately it stinks to live in Colorado right now where the ruling majority isn’t really interested in providing meaningful property tax relief.”

Evans said he’d prefer to TABOR as it is and let residents keep getting their refunds.

“My party represents 46% of the voters. We weren’t even allowed to debate this down at the state capitol,” Evans said. “ ese measures came in last week with procedural rules that were implemented down at the state capitol that basically shut o debate. If we can’t debate this, and the governor wants it, and he’s got a supermajority and it’s going to get passed.”

Evans said it would negatively impact folks who did not get to have their voice represented in the legislature since opponents were not given the time to argue the point.

“We recommended a two-year timeout, that doesn’t have to go to a vote of the people in November,” Evans said. “ at can be an e ect now and we ignore the 2022 valuation data everybody keeps paying property tax at the same rate they’ve been paying and then folks don’t have to leave the community.”.

Rachel Munoz, with Brighton JnR Insurance, said the state’s current high insurance rates will lead to people leaving the state and or to foreclosures.

“We have had an uninsured motorist problem here in Colorado, and now we’re going to increase that rate to 30% to 60%,” Munoz said. “With these rate increases, what are we doing about it? A lot of money is funneled in from the company but what about the consumer? Legislation seems to be taking the side of the big guy versus us as consumers.”

Again, Evans said it’s what happens when one party is in charge.

“Right now, in Colorado, there’s one party that’s in control of everything,” he said. “And that party doesn’t sometimes consider those unintended consequences that ultimately raise costs for the end user. “

He pointed out that Colorado’s crime rates are high.

“We are the number one state in the nation for auto theft, the number two state in the country for cocaine usage, the number two state in the nation for property crimes, the number one state in the nation for package theft o your porch, and he 16th state for violent crimes,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we have groupthink in Colorado because there’s one particular party that’s running everything,” Evans said.