Week of January 6, 2022
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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
DouglasCountyNewsPress.net
VOLUME 120 | ISSUE 9
Dads of Castle Rock respond to Marshall Fire Douglas County
poised for more growth
Group collects donations, helps victims of destructive wildfire BY THELMA GRIMES COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
When the Marshall Fire, fueled by high winds, ripped through Boulder County last week, leaving more than 30,000 people homeless, the Castle Rock community wasted no time. Led by the nonprofit organization Dads of Castle Rock (DofCR), donations, trailers and residents mobilized quickly to provide assistance to neighbors to the north. Starting on Dec. 31, the day after the fire, DofCR starting accepting donations of all kinds in the Sam’s parking lot. With cars lining up and Castle Rock residents taking on the challenge to help, DofCR collected so much that they needed storage space, which was provided by the Douglas County Fairgrounds. The weekend was not just about collecting donations to go towards helping the displaced families. With continued calls on social media throughout the weekend, DofCR also worked to save animals and livestock.
25% expansion in 10 years outpaces metro area BY MOLLY ARMBRISTER SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
season is causing traffic at some testing sites. “We still have (testing) capacity across the state,” Spencer said. The City of Lone Tree said through its Twitter account on Dec. 26 that the state’s drivethrough site on Sky Ridge Medical Center’s campus was seeing heavy traffic and up to two-hour
After a decade of growth that far outstrips the Denver metro area as a whole, Douglas County shows few signs of slowing down, driven by high levels of demand and new development in expanding towns like Castle Rock, Lone Tree and Parker. There’s no doubt the entire metro area has grown at an unprecedented rate in the last decade. But Douglas County, home to smaller towns, scattered development and plentiful open space for years, was especially ripe for growth in 2010. From 2010 to 2020, Douglas County’s population grew by 25% to just over 360,000 people, according to the most recent data available from the Colorado State Demography Office, compared with just under 16% growth for the entire metro area. And while the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020 slowed migration, and growth, across the board, Douglas County still grew more than twice as fast as metro Denver over the course of the year. Douglas County’s population grew 2.5% from 2019 to 2020, while the metro area expanded by less than 1%, according to the demography office’s data. Since Douglas County’s population was much smaller to begin with, it makes sense that its rate of growth would be higher. But there’s no doubt that the county has seen an outsized share of development in recent years,
SEE TESTING, P8
SEE GROWTH, P11
With collection locations set throughout the weekend, including one at Sam’s Club, the Dads of Castle Rock collected trailers full of donations for the victims of the PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE DADS OF CASTLE ROCK Marshal Fire in Boulder County.
Using as many trailers as they could find, DofCR offered homes to show horses and other animals in need of relocating. By Jan. 2, DofCR had collected so much that they were told to keep it
at he Douglas County Fairgrounds for the time being. With a state of emergency officially declared in the tragedy, fire SEE DADS, P19
Demand for COVID-19 testing jumps Traffic plagued one Douglas County testing site, forcing early closure BY JESSICA GIBBS JGIBBS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
High turnout at a COVID-19 testing site in Douglas County
created “unsafe traffic conditions” recently as Colorado sees “a significant increase in demand for testing.” Spokesman Brian Spencer with the Colorado Joint Information Center said by email that rising case counts across Colorado are being fueled by the omicron variant, and that paired with the typically high demand for COVID-19 testing near the holiday
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 10 | LIFE: PAGE 12 | CALENDAR: PAGE 9
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