PLANT

FROM PAGE 1 pilot program implementation,” according to the RTD website. e new pilot stems from a broader study on the structure of fare pricing and equity. Prices are going down for most riders and the fare structure is simplied to four price options.

In Denver, most high school students are ineligible for yellow bus service, limiting transportation options for them to get to school. Denver Public Schools pays for passes to ride public RTD buses to and from school, but students must live more than 2.5 miles from their school.

Facing driver shortages and rising costs, the Denver schools have cut bus service for some middle and elementary schools for the next school year and are o ering limited service to the Denver School of the Arts. e district must still

18875 Bromley Lane, just 600 feet south of Brighton’s Mt. Princeton St. and homes in the surrounding Brighton Crossings neighborhood and due north of Brighton’s water treatment plant. Neighbors have made their fears of res and pollution clear at Brighton City Council meetings.

Lithium-ion batteries have been the news lately, with res in battery-powered E-bikes and cars, but company o cials have said they plan to mitigate the threat of res and plan to deliver their batteries with minimal charge, reducing the re risk. e warehouse’s interior space would be divided into smaller, re-resistant rooms for making and storing the empty batteries and the factory will have a state-of-the-art re suppression system.

But the biggest threat, according to Jessie Williams, comes from chemicals the battery manufacturing process demands. Some of those chemicals will be stored in tanks along the southern end of the site — across Bromley Lane from Brighton’s water treatment facility.

“And then there are schools,” Joe Williams said. “We have Foundations Academy here, Eagle Ridge is here, you have Pennock. All of these schools are in this area and not everyone that lives in this area works here, but our kids all go here. And if something happens at this facility and they have to evacuate, I’ll all have to drive 30 minutes just to get back here and hopefully get to my kid on time.”

Joe Williams said he’s a fan of the product and would love to see the battery maker come to Brighton, just not the middle of the city and not within 600 feet of his home. He notes that the city has zoned lots for more residential development surrounding the building.

“Why can’t you just look out east?” Williams said. “ ere’s acres of empty land out there, acres of better places to put a facility like this. I’m not against your batteries but this is just not the right place to make them.” e two have attended all three neighborhood meetings Amprius has hosted and have gathered signatures to urge city o cials to say no to the project.Neighbors oppose battery plant. provide yellow bus service for high school students with disabilities, recent refugees who attend the district’s “newcomer centers,” and English-learning high schoolers in the district’s bilingual programs.

For free rides,drivers may ask kids to show a schoolor government-issued ID, according to Bill Sirois, RTD senior manager of transit oriented communities.

RTD plans to collect ride data two ways: transportation operators will key in information on their keypads, and surveys will be sent out throughout the school year. RTD wants to know if riders are taking advantage of the opportunity and if their opinions have changed on using more public transportation.

“We’re excited and we’re hoping for big success. We’ve reached out to a lot of the school districts and got some good feedback in terms of contacts to work with to collect data and hopefully see some good results,” Sirois said. e college program was renewed for another

RTD has projected that it will cost the system $3.5 to $4 million in the next year to o er free youth fares. e youth fare program ends Aug. 31, 2024. To continue the program, RTD o cials want other organizations to help fund a part of the project.

DPS did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

Last fall, RTD initiated the CollegePass program which provided unlimited free rides to all students whose universities opted into the program. Colleges paid for it in di erent ways. Some included a fee into a student’s tuition; other schools footed the bill.

Anniversary Bands

year with the addition of semester passes for higher education institutions that didn’t participate in the CollegePass program. e SemesterPass will be an opt-in program for individual students who use public transportation rather than the institutions paying for the entire student body. e pass costs $75 per student each month.

Chalkbeat is a nonpro t news site covering educational change in public schools.

A publication of Amprius, a maker of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and aircraft, hope to open their large factory in Brighton in 2024. They plan to take over the vacant former Sears/KMart distribution warehouse on Bromley Lane. FILE PHOTO

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