Castle Rock News-Press 011013

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DOUGLAS CO 1/10/13

Castle Rock

News-Press

Douglas County, Colorado • Volume 10, Issue 42

January 10, 2013

Free

A Colorado Community Media Publication

ourcastlerocknews.com

Officials reviewing long-term water plan Deals set for 2013 with eye toward renewability By Rhonda Moore

rmoore@ourcoloradonews.com

From left, state Rep. Chris Holbert, state Rep.-elect Polly Lawrence and outgoing state House Speaker Frank McNulty address the Douglas County Business Alliance on Jan. 3 during a legislative kickoff session. Photo by Jane Reuter

Stay aware, legislators tell businesses GOP lawmakers speak to local alliance By Jane Reuter

jreuter@ourcoloradonews.com State leaders urged Douglas County business owners to stay aware and get involved in issues that could impact them as

lawmakers take their seats at the state Capitol for the new legislative session. Democrats have regained control of the Colorado House, and maintain their majority in the state Senate, and Republican members of the Douglas County legislative delegation said that could impact business owners. Four of them were on hand for a Douglas County Business Alliance-sponsored legislative kickoff session held Jan. 3 at Lone Tree’s Sky Ridge Medical Center.

“The bills you need to be cautious about aren’t going to be the ones grabbing the headlines, so it means you really do have to pay attention,” outgoing House Speaker Frank McNulty said. “They’re the ones that are going to have the highest impact on the economy.” McNulty urged business owners to “show up at the state Capitol,” testify and Legislators continues on Page 9

Housing director takes Peace Corps post Osborn leaves county with new programs, foreclosure support By Rhonda Moore

rmoore@ourcoloradonews.com She is a world traveler who was raised on a farm, is the only one of eight siblings to move out of Kansas, and she rose to the executive ranks not on ambition, but on the conviction that she could simply “do the job better.” And when Bonnie Osborn assumes her duties in Southeast Asia as a Peace Corps volunteer, she will do so with the hope that she can make a difference in the world and the awareness that she’ll never be the same again. It is an adventure she intends to relish. Osborn came to Douglas County in 2008 as the executive director of the Douglas County Housing Partnership, following her six-year stint as executive director of the Summit County Housing Authority. She was a single mother of two grown children, one who is a “nuclear guru,” she said, in Los Alamos and another who lives in Parker and spends a good deal of her time worrying about her mother. A born adventurer, Osborn has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, rode a bicycle crosscountry and, on three occasions, scaled the famed Mount Rainier.

Castle Rock Town Council got a year-end update on its long-term water negotiations, with a promise to advance some major deal points in the first quarter of 2013. During one of their last meetings of 2012, councilmembers had their final public meeting with former utilities director Ron Redd, with word that Redd’s efforts of the last year could begin to take shape in 2013. Those efforts are designed to help Castle Rock wean itself from its underground water sources and, within the next 20 years, transition to a 75 percent renewable source. The proposed solutions include a series of 11 wells in Adams County’s Box Elder Farm, projected to provide up to 3,000 acrefeet of water, and the Water Infrastructure and Supply Efficiency regional partnership, projected to provide up to 1,000 acre-feet of water for Castle Rock residents. Among the first steps in the negotiations will be to come to an agreement with Stillwater Resources, the water broker selected by council to represent the town in the Box Elder purchase, said Heather Beasley, water resources engineer. Once that agreement is in place, Stillwater can begin discussing the terms of a potential agreement to purchase some or all of the water rights at Box Elder Farm, which formerly provided the water for a tree farm. “Right now we’re going through due diligence with Stillwater helping us assess the value of those resources,” Beaseley said. The WISE agreement, which involves the participation of 11 water providers in an effort to purchase return flows from Denver and Aurora, remains in draft form as the partnership works out a number of issues, Redd said. Among the issues are agreeing on a reasonable solution to set long-term water rates; how to address impacts from climate changes; purchasing the pipelines to move the water from Aurora to Rueter-Hess reservoir; meeting the demands of the Army Corp of Engineers for permission to store the water in Rueter-Hess; and awaiting final approval from eight Western Slope entities to permit Denver and Aurora to sell the water to the WISE partners. Councilmembers can expect staff presentations within the first three to six months of 2013 for terms of the agreements necessary to secure a long-term water supply, Redd said. “We just wanted to provide an update on the Stillwater proposal and the WISE proposal,” Redd said. “There’s no action tonight.”

NEXT STEPS IN CASTLE ROCK’S WATER ACQUISITION Bonnie Osborn, right, conducts her final meeting at executive director of the Douglas County Housing Partnership in Lone Tree on Dec. 18. Photo by Courtney Kuhlen And as she prepares to go overseas to serve in the Peace Corps, her daughter is the only voice against the proposition. “My daughter is scared to death. She’s concerned about my safety and what adventures I might seek out on my own ‘in

some god-forbidden place,’” Osborn said. “She’s a worrywart. It’s her problem, not mine. Everyone but my daughter thinks it’s absolutely wonderful, a perfect opportunity for me to be who I am.” Osborn continues on Page 9

• WISE water delivery agreement with Denver and Aurora. • WISE participation agreement among 11 South Metro water providers. • WISE transmission pipeline agreement. • Stillwater Resources brokerage agreement to represent Castle Rock in Box Elder Farms negotiations • Box Elder Farms purchase and sale agreement. • Various augmentation supply purchase term sheets or agreements. Source: Town of Castle Rock utilities department.


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