Denver Herald 022323

Documenting Denver in the ‘80s and ‘90s

BY BRUCE GOLDBERG SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

He’s been legally blind since the 1990s.

Weinberg uses the latest technology to make the most of the little vision he has remaining to take photos, to get around on his own and to help other people learn how to live with blindness.

“ e World in Denver: e Photography of Robert Weinberg” exhibit opened Jan. 20 and will be on display for one year in the second- oor mezzanine at History Colorado. It features eight photos from his decades of photography.

“It’s kind of unbelievable,” Weinberg said. “Not only that it’s showing my work, but for a whole year.”

In a History Colorado rst, each exhibit photo will be accompanied by a sign written in Braille to better serve those who are sight-impaired.

“History Colorado means a great deal,” Weinberg said. “It’s one thing to archive your work and know it has a home. But showing the works you’ve done in the past, it gives (validation) to my work.”

But Weinberg, 75, has been through tough times as the world showed less and less of itself as the blindness advanced.

“I went through hell,” he said. “I was clinically depressed. It was years before I could go through all the training (to regain some sight). I did take a long time to learn a lot of things that help me.”

And help is available out there.

A text-reading software named JAWS (Job Access With Speech) helped Weinberg become a touch typist, easing the writing process.

“Now I can write all sorts of stu , use email and read websites,” he said. “It’s the best and most expensive text-reading software. When I rst started losing my sight, a doctor

Labor market, a ordability collide

Realtor summit notes large number of job openings in Colorado

BY TAMARA CHUANG THE COLORADO SUN

Housing and jobs are so connected that it was di cult to avoid the intersection of the two at an economic summit held last week for the Colorado Realtors Association.

Jobs in Colorado? So, so many job openings. Two for every unemployed person in the state. Available houses for sale? So, so few houses are available at a ordable prices, whatever those may be. at disconnect tempered the positive outlook that some had about the better years ahead and what the real estate industry can expect in 2023 and 2024.

“A ordability, or lack thereof, will remain our biggest hurdle. And people won’t come here and the jobs won’t move here, the companies won’t be here if we don’t o er some kind of a ordable housing,” said Kelly Moye, a Realtor at Compass Real Estate. “So, we’re trying to gure out how we do that. e regular market, with the way it works with supply and demand, just pushes prices up or down. at’s the way it goes. But is there anything that we can do as a city, as a state to help create a situation where everybody can live here?”

e data-heavy conference pointed to a possible reason for Colorado’s limited supply of workers: Not

SEE COLLIDE, P8

INSIDE:

VOICES: PAGE 12 |

CALENDAR: PAGE 11

BLACK HISTORY IN PRINT

Paging through a newspapers legacy, for good and bad

“Kenny” by Denver photographer Robert Weinberg. A collection of Weinberg’s photos are on display at the History Colorado Center in Denver. COURTESY OF WEINBERGPHOTOGRAPHICS.COM

Vitamins not always helpful in preventing heart disease

A healthy diet is better

BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Vitamins and supplements are not the best way to lower your risk of heart disease, instead Cardiologist Dr. Je Park says eating in moderation and nutritious foods is the most bene cial.

According to Park, of Aurora Denver Cardiology Associates at e Medical Center of Aurora, aIS vitamins can help the body but they can also be harmful as there are also toxicities.

“If vitamins were universally acceptable to improve heart health, then I believe that there would be a strong push for the FDA to approve these and say, everyone with heart disease should be on these vitamins, these supplements,” said Park. “But there’s never going to be that push.” e risk of heart disease is not strictly determined by the food one consumes. Rick factors also include environment and genetics.

Park says people need to realize there are a lot of lters in supplements and people don’t always know what’s in them.

Vitamins and supplements can be seen as alternatives to modern medicine but the unknown of what exactly is in pills can have an a ect on the body.

“Without some form of regulation, and if you don’t know what those

pills are lled with, right?” said Park. “And so, the actual vitamin itself might be safe, but the stu that’s in it with it, you have no idea about.”

A 2018 publication of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes concluded multivitamins do not reduce cardiovascular disease, heart attacks or strokes.

In addition, John Hopkins researchers - including Dr. Edgar R. Miller III, say consuming too much of certain vitamins can be harmful.

“Too much calcium and vitamin

risk of cardiovascular disease,” Miller said in the John Hopkins article.

Food and proper nutrients is the best way to manage heart health.

Park said breaking habits is stressful and eating a healthy diet is becoming expensive, which is why moderation is important.

e American Heart Association suggests getting adequate nutrients through a variety of foods in moderation instead of supplements.

Omega-3 fatty acid supplements are an exception as they have been

heart disease.

“When I see patients for the rst time and a lot of them do have a lot of comorbid conditions, metabolic syndrome, they’re obese, they have diabetes and it’s a matter of if they’ve had bad habits for a long period of time,” said Park.

Park says that it is a team e ort.

“I can’t change how you work, what kind of foods you’re accessible to,” said Park. “But the only advice I can give you is that you can do those things but in moderation.”

A nutritious diet is more e ective in treating heart disease than taking vitamins and supplements. SHUTTERSTOCK

Centura Health announces its breakup with others

AdventHealth, CommonSpirit to go alone

BY JOHN INGOLD THE COLORADO SUN

On Valentine’s Day, one of the largest hospital systems in Colorado announced that it is getting a divorce.

For more than a quarter-century, Centura Health has operated as a partnership between CommonSpirit Health and AdventHealth. Centura announced that CommonSpirit Health, which is Catholic-a liated, and AdventHealth, which is a liated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, will split, with each planning to manage their respective hospitals separately.

“CommonSpirit Health and AdventHealth have collaboratively agreed that they can best serve their communities and health care ministries without a partnership,” a news release announced.

Centura will continue to manage all 20 hospitals until the dissolution is nalized. e news release stated that there will not be any disruption to patient care, and the two divorcing systems said they are committed to their employees and patients during the transition.

“CommonSpirit Health and AdventHealth maintain a strong relationship and are united in their commitment to the caregivers and ensuring the communities they serve have access to the best health care during and well beyond this transition,” the news release stated. e release provided few details about the split, and contained no statements by executives explaining the decision. It did not provide a timeframe for how long it will take to unwind the partnership. A Centura spokeswoman would not even conrm if this announcement means that the Centura Health name will disappear.

“We will only be issuing the release at this time,” she wrote in a text message.

Combined, Centura manages 20 hospitals in Colorado and Kansas, and it ranks as the second-largest hospital system in Colorado in terms of revenue. In 2020, Centura Health hospitals statewide brought in more than $3 billion in net patient revenue, according to a report by independent health care consultant Allan Baumgarten. at ranked it behind only UCHealth in terms of statewide net patient revenue.

In the Centura Health marriage, CommonSpirit was the heavyweight, owning 15 of the 20 hospitals.

Once the partnership is dissolved, CommonSpirit will independently manage: Longmont United Hospital; OrthoColorado Hospital in Lakewood; Mercy Hospital in Durango; Penrose Hospital and St. Francis Hospital, both in Colorado Springs; St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood; St. Anthony North Hospital in Westminster; St. Anthony Summit Hospi-

tal in Frisco; St. Elizabeth Hospital in Fort Morgan; St. Mary-Corwin Hospital in Pueblo; and St. omas More Hospital in Cañon City. e chain will also manage three hospitals in Kansas — Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital in Ulysses; St. Catherine Hospital in Dodge City; and St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City — as well as a new hospital opening this summer in Colorado Springs.

AdventHealth owned the other ve hospitals currently part of Centura: Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville; Castle Rock Adventist Hospital; Littleton Adventist Hospital; Parker Adventist Hospital; and Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver.

Baumgarten, the health care consultant, said the news reminded him of a similar breakup that happened in Illinois in 2021, when AdventHealth and the Catholic-a liated Ascension broke up a partnership they had formed named Amita. In that divorce, Baumgarten said it was likely that the two sides disagreed about how to grow the joint company.

Centura has been around longer, though, Baumgarten said, and it was not immediately clear to him what might be driving the split. He mentioned possible tensions over Catholic health directives, especially in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

e Catholic hospitals in the Centura system do not perform abortions and will perform sterilization procedures only rarely — something that Centura had recently re-emphasized at Mercy Hospital in Durango.

“It’s also not unusual to have disputes about money,” he added.

e news release contained no mention of what will happen with people employed directly by Centura Health, as opposed to an individual hospital. at includes CEO Peter Banko, who has led Centura since 2007.

is story is from e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support e Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com.

e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media.

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The entrance to the Parker Adventist Hospital.

PHOTO BY HALEY LENA

Tra cking survivor shares her journey

Survivor is healing and moving forward

BY DANA KNOWLES, JULIO SANDOVAL ROCKY MOUNTAIN PBS

Mel is a mother of three, a grandmother of four, and works part time with people who are intellectually and developmentally disabled. She wants people to know that she’s more than a survivor of human tra cking.

Even though those experiences were a huge part of her life, Mel is healing and moving forward.

“ is healing becomes such a big responsibility on the victims of these crimes,” explained Mel, adding that resting is often part of the process. “Sometimes you get tired of this idea that because you’re a survivor and you’ve handled (human tra cking), that you can handle anything.”

Mel, who asked that Rocky Mountain PBS not use her last name, explained how she started running away from an abusive situation at home when she was 15. Two years later, she met an older man who started grooming her. e man made

Mel feel loved and special.

“He started to treat me like a princess. is man was giving me all this attention, and all this stu , and he put a big diamond ring on my nger,” she said. “He made me feel very secure.”

Mel said the man eventually convinced her to go with him to New York City, where she was immediately put on the street and forced to prostitute herself.

“It was scary and hard. I got arrested with a bunch of other girls one night and ended up in a Bronx, New York jail.”

It was in jail when Mel realized there was no way out of her situation.

“ ere were so many girls that were being picked up like me. We were handcu ed together, and held in a cell all weekend together, put in front of a judge, and sent back out on the street,” Mel recalled.

Marianna Kosharovsky, the founder and executive director of Alight, an organization that helps connect human tra cking survivors with attorneys, said tra ckers are extremely savvy when it comes to targeting their victims.

“Tra cking is not about movement, it’s about pro ting from some-

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one else’s vulnerability. Tra ckers know when someone has a vulnerable moment in their life and then they gure out how can they pro t as much as they can from this person,” said Kosharovsky.

Alight has an app with the idea of making it easy for survivors to nd attorneys. e organization has tasked itself with providing as many free legal services as possible for survivors.

Attorneys helped Mel expunge an old arrest warrant from the early 90s. Since 2017, Kosharovsky said Alight has helped more than 200 survivors in 33 states, as well as Washignton, D.C.

According to the U.S. Department of State, there is an average of 24.9 million tra cking victims worldwide at any given time. De ned as a crime of exploitation, human tra cking a ects people of all races, ages and genders. Victims are pressured into providing labor — including sex as a form of labor — through the use of force, fraud or coercion.

“ e most important thing people need to know about human tra cking is that it is (as) simple as going out on a date with someone that you’re not all that familiar with,” Mel ex-

education.

Now, The Colorado Sun co-owns this and other Colorado Community Media newspapers as a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy. The Sun is CCM’s partner for

plained.

Tra cking can happen in industries such as landscaping, hospitality and restaurants, construction, massage parlors, childcare, domestic work, factories, and janitorial services. Many of these workplaces are in low-wage industries with high turnover rates.

“Domestic tra cking is the majority of the tra cking. It’s not taking place in other countries and it doesn’t necessarily require someone to be bound; we pass them on the streets every day,” explained Kosharovsky.

For Mel, taking care of herself and spending time with her family is top priority. She says healing can feel like a full-time job, so self-care is paramount.

“Every day is a healing journey, and I don’t think it’s easy; there are days I don’t want to deal with it. I get tired of being called a survivor.”

is story is from Rocky Mountain PBS, a nonpro t public broadcaster providing community stories across Colorado over the air and online. Used by permission. For more, and to support Rocky Mountain PBS, visit rmpbs.org.

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World premiere on Denver stage

BY SONYA ELLINGBOE SELLINGBOE@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

The world premiere of “Laughs in Spanish” by American author Alexis Scheer plays through March 2 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and is set in the Wynwood section of Miami, Florida.

Scheer, who is also an experienced actor, was born and raised in a Jewish-Colombian household in Miami and knows Wynwood well. The gallery where her play is set lies on this strip, noted for its colorful murals and art galleries.

We found her new work highly entertaining.

As the play opens, gallery manager Mariana (award-winning Stephanie Machado) is faced with empty walls — the artwork stolen and a major opening scheduled for that evening, tied in with the annual Art Basel showings. Her assistant, Carolina (Danielle Alonzo) and Caro’s boyfriend Juan (Luis Vega), a policeman, are there with her, searching for the missing art. Sirens are sounding out on the street.

“I need to think,” wails a flustered Mariana. Also present: Jenny (Olivia Hebert), Carolina’s friend.

Mari’s mother, Estella (Maggie Bofill), a former film actress, is visiting to help with the opening by means of a “special live performance” at the opening ... and needs help with her own problem: She is facing an upcoming court date.

The gallery is set up for a party, even though the art is still missing ... “I will probably be charged as accessory to a crime,” Estella says.

It seems that in the ‘80s, friends asked her to carry two suitcases across a border for them. “I thought they were filled with guavas,” she says.

Mariana and her mother talk about art and politics throughout the play and about how artists push for changes in the world — whether or not successful.

This leads to Estella talking about roles she will not play: the maid or the one who handles the cocaine — Hispanic stereotypes. She is presently working the night shift ... is she a brujera? (One who combines healing and intuition about the spiritual world?)

Maggie Bofill, who plays Estella, is a widely experienced actor and playwright. Her skill was apparent as she dominated the scene, and her daughter made it quite clear that she did not want to be like her mother!

Mari continues to listen as Estella tells her that she wants Mari to know her as more than a mother: as a person with hopes and dreams and ambitions out there in the world ...

The playwright does a good job of developing a mother-daughter relationship that sends one home with something to consider ...

“Laughs in Spanish” plays through March 12 in the Singleton Theatre, with evening and matinee performances.

Stephanie Machado and Olivia Hebert appear in the world premiere of “Laughs in Spanish” at Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

PHOTO BY JAMIE KRAUS PHOTOGRAPHY

`Laughs in Spanish’ plays through March 2

Colorado may force new homes in wildfire-prone areas

Bill would create new board

BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

Fire chiefs fearing disaster from wild res where open space meets urban areas are joining lawmakers to push for a statewide board with power to de ne so-called wildlandurban interface danger zones and impose preventive building codes on local governments.

A bill for the mandatory codes board is set to be introduced this week by Sen. Lisa Cutter, a Littleton Democrat, but is already raising opposition from local-control advocates who are battling potential statewide impositions on multiple fronts, including a ordable housing. Democratic supporters abandoned a similar idea introduced late in the 2022 legislative session after Republican opponents to the policy threatened to block other measures in protest.

Fire o cials from Colorado Springs to Fairplay are lobbying hard for the uniform codes, citing the 2021 Marshall re in Boulder County, the East Troublesome re that swept through Grand County in 2020, and the 2012 Waldo Canyon re in Colorado Springs as dire wake-up calls to fast-growing communities on the edge of wild re-

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“Fires aren’t jurisdictional. ey cross borders,” said Colorado Springs Fire Chief Randy Royal, who is also an o cer in the Colorado State Fire Chiefs.

Recent wild res destroying hundreds of homes in suburban and exurban areas of Colorado have spread through embers blowing o wooden shake roofs, or down into excessive roof venting, Royal

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said. Uniform preventive building codes could outlaw shake roofs and limit vents, protecting re ghters, residents and property from blazes that explode on high winds.

“Wild res are a huge problem, and we have to come at them with every tool we have. I’m taking all my cues from the re chiefs,” said Cutter, lead sponsor of the bill that would create the “Wild re Resiliency Code Board.”

“We can harden our homes,” Cutter said. “We obviously continue to build in the WUI, and we need to be responsible about that.”

Local governments who want to retain control over building code decisions will lobby hard against the bill, already registering their opposition and at the very least looking to soften the draft language.

“We have a number of concerns with what’s being proposed,” said Heather Stau er, legislative advocacy manager for the Colorado Municipal League, which lobbies at the Capitol for towns and cities.

“ e needs of a community on the Front Range may not be the needs of another community in the mountains,” Stau er said. “It’s appropriate for local governments to have input on these decisions.”

Gov. Jared Polis’ o ce indicated he could support the idea with some changes.

“ e Governor’s team is working with the sponsors and stakeholders to ensure legislation ts with his goals of making Colorado safer and reducing home prices,” Polis’ o ce said, in a statement on the draft language.

Local governments also worry statewide codes would create expensive standards for homeowners and homebuilders, exacerbating housing shortages. ey also complain the building code would represent an unfunded mandate on local authorities, who would have to inspect and enforce the rules.

Local o cials might consider supporting a statewide board creating model codes that cities and counties could choose to adopt, Stau er said. Negotiations

have also oated the idea of a code board de ning a “menu” of tighter codes that local governments could mix and match to suit their condiCutter rejects that idea out of

“ e menu idea won’t y,” she said. “ is is long overdue, to get on the same page.”

e other lead sponsors for the mandatory codes bill include Sen. Tony Exum, D-Colorado Springs, and Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, DGlenwood Springs.

e code board legislation would:

First require the appointed board to set the geographic boundaries of wildland-urban interface zones across the state where new codes would apply.

Adopt minimum building and landscaping codes for local governments to pass, though cities and towns could make them tougher than the state minimum.

Establish a petition process for local governments to appeal and modify the codes.

Allow the governor to appoint 10 members of the board, the legislature to appoint 10 more members, and name three subject matter expert board members participating ex-o cio.

e codes would apply to new residential buildings; how much renovation of an existing home would trigger a mandatory code update is still to be negotiated.

e re chiefs’ association says members are ready to push back against local o cials’ arguments that they understand the wild re threat and will make changes.

“ en why haven’t you done something already? Really simple question,” said Garry Briese, executive director of the Colorado State Fire Chiefs. “As a result of the inaction of local jurisdictions we have a statewide problem that doesn’t respect political boundaries, that is incredibly destructive, and something has to be done.”

e Marshall re at the end of 2021 burned nearly 1,100 homes and caused more than $2 billion in damage as it swept east from Marshall Mesa through Superior and Louisville. ough a report on the re’s origins is still pending, the wild re was fanned by 100 mph winds that pushed embers across grassland and into subdivisions bordering open space.

East Troublesome in the fall of 2020 burned close to 200,000 acres and 366 houses, with $543 million in damage. Winds whipped embers over the Continental Divide, burning large portions of Rocky Mountain National Park and forcing evacuation of Estes Park before it was stopped in Beaver Meadows.

e Waldo Canyon re destroyed about 350 homes and forced thousands to evacuate from western Colorado Springs, Woodland Park and Manitou Springs, causing $450 million in damage. It was followed the next year by the Black Forest re in more wildland-urban terrain northeast of Colorado Springs, resulting in nearly 500 lost homes.

Castle Pines Colorado SHUTTERSTOCK

said what I had was the best thing I could have had when you’re losing your sight.”

Closed-circuit TV has been another helpful tool. Its camera enlarges things, making them easier to see and read.

“It also has OCR — Optical Character Recognition — that can scan a printed-out page and read it to you,” Weinberg said.

Weinberg is a fan of the Colorado Talking Books Library at 180 Sheridan Blvd. in Denver’s Barnum West neighborhood. He downloads books to a ash drive and listens to the narrative.

“Which is wonderful,” he said.

Weinberg was drawn to photography in 1965 when he took his rst photo course at George Washington High School, using a pinhole camera.

“You’d work with printed-out paper, make an image work in the dark, x it and then you’d have a print without having had a negative,” he said.

He’s still taking photos — and gave himself an assignment to shoot a large project of workers replacing all the elevators in a residential building.

“So I documented all the cranes that were there,” Weinberg said.

He gave prints of his work to some of the workers.

Jeremy Morton, public engagement manager at History Colorado, praised Weinberg’s innate photogra-

phy skills.

“He has this ability to take closeup portraits of people in a way that intrigues them and highlights their humanity, and see into the person, even if you don’t know the back story,” Morton said. “He’s considered one of the preeminent photographers in Denver in the 1980s and 1990s. e work he produced during that time is considered (to be) like the documentation of Denver.”

“The World in Denver: The Photography of Robert Weinberg” exhibit is now on display at the History Colorado Center, 1200 Broadway, in Denver. The exhibit will be up until January 2024. To learn more, visit historycolorado.org.

To view more of Weinberg’s photos online, visit weinbergphotographics.com.

“Cleo Parker Robinson” by Denver photographer Robert Weinberg.

“Rick Ashton, Jumping Librarian” by Denver photographer Robert Weinberg. Ashton was head librarian in the 1990s and he made this leap to celebrate the progress of work on Denver Public Library’s Central Library.

“Rope Wrangler” by Denver photographer Robert Weinberg. A collection of Weinberg’s photos are on display at the History Colorado Center in Denver.

enough places for everyone to live.

A look at the data

e majority of households in America are homeowners, with ownership rates at about 65%, according to the U.S. census. Colorado’s not far o from the national numbers, with homeownership rates inching up in recent years to 65.9% in 2021. A recent low was 62.4% in 2016 while the high of 71.3% was in 2003.

A trend happening nationwide and in Colorado for several years has been that fewer houses are being built each year. e National Association of Realtors’ data guru Nadia Evangelou calls it a housing market slump with the number of new housing starts o by 1.5 million a year. She expects that atness to continue in 2023 as the industry deals with ongoing material bottlenecks.

But another thing limiting potential homeowners from buying a house is interest rates. When they shot up last year, homebuyers had to spend a lot more to buy a lot less.

In other words, at 3% (where mortgage rates were in January 2022), the monthly mortgage payment on a mid-priced home was $1,410, according to the National Association of Realtors.

At 6%, the payment jumped to $2,010.

At 8%, it would be $2,460.

e 30-year xed mortgage rate was 6.45% on ursday, after hitting a high of 7.2% in October, according to Mortgage News Daily.

Most renters can’t a ord a starter home, which NAR de nes as houses priced at 25% less than the median sales price. at puts the median price of a starter home at $321,600 in the U.S.

Evangelou, NAR’s senior economist and director of real estate research, broke it down into a chart. Keep in mind, these are national gures:

National stats on how many renters can buy a median-priced starter home right now put the number at 36%. e data comes from the National Association of Realtors.

To a ord a starter home, with a 10% down payment at a 6.1% interest rate, a buyer’s income must be $86,360 if they don’t want to spend

more than one-third of their income on housing. Only 36% of renters met that income level.

In Colorado, it looks worse for renters hoping to become homeowners. NAR pulled up the similar numbers for the Denver metro area and that translated to only 14% of local renters being able to a ord to buy a “starter home,” currently at a median price of $480,000. As for a mid-priced home? e number of renters who can a ord one drops to 6%, as seen in this updated chart below:

Housing costs a lot more in the Denver metro area, compared to the U.S. e National Association of Realtors provided Denver data to e Colorado Sun so we edited the chart to re ect local numbers. While Denver incomes are higher too, fewer residents can a ord a medianpriced starter home — a mere 14%.

“It’s a double pain because they have to deal with rent prices as well as saving up for the down payment,” Evangelou said. “We’ve talked about low a ordability and low availability of homes, but when we put these two factors together, we can see what is the real impact and what challenges buyers face out there.”

And if renters can a ord Denver’s starter home, there aren’t many available, according to data from REColorado. Currently, about 32% of the 1,015 condo or single-family home for-sale listings in Denver were below $480,000. Only 89 are for single-family homes, and only 21 are listed at less than $400,000, said Matt Leprino, a Denver-area Realtor with Remingo, who tracks the data.

e number may be rising though. Leprino said he was surprised there were even that many available. “I would’ve guessed that number was below 10% last summer,” he said.

On a hopeful note, the real estate

industry is counting on interest rates to drop. at may not come until next year, but in ation eased a bit in December, and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates a quarter of a point in January, compared to three-quarters of a point for several months last year.

“In 2022, home sales activity dropped about 15% per month,” Evangelou said. “In 2023, we expect home sales to continue to drop but slower, like around 7% drop. And 2024 is when the housing market will rebound and we expect to have about 10% more home sales than 2023.”

Where are the workers? Not “on the couch”

Had the pandemic not happened and Colorado’s job growth continued as forecasted years earlier, the state would have added 124,000 more jobs by now, said Patty Silverstein, president of Development Research Partners in Littleton.

e pandemic put hundreds of thousands of Coloradans out of work. e state’s labor department estimates the loss at 374,500 jobs during March and April 2020. But since then, Colorado added them all back and more — approximately 466,400 jobs have been added since spring 2020 for a 124% recovery rate, according to the most recent state jobs report.

But the job growth momentum we had before the pandemic is gone, Silverstein said.

“I will suggest to you that we are not going back to that pace, given the demographics, given changes in what we’re seeing in the employment base,” Silverstein said during her economic overview at the event. “I don’t think that 124,000 — our perfect pace of growth — is even going to be possible.”

However, employers say they’re still struggling to stay fully sta ed. And that shows up in a data point that ranks Colorado as the second highest state for how many available people are in the labor force. Out of all Coloradans 16 years and older, 69% are working or looking for work (the rest are retired or not looking for work). at’s 3.2 million people,

which is twice as large as Nebraska’s workforce. Nebraska had the nation’s highest labor force participation rate at 69.8%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“It’s incredibly, incredibly tight out there. And I know many of you are thinking, ‘Well, we just need to get those people to get back out and work.’ Maybe,” Silverstein said. “ ere are some of those folks across the country but they’re not here in Colorado. … People are not hanging out on the couch here in Colorado. ey are out working or actively looking for a job.”

e BLS, through its job openings report, estimated that Colorado had 231,000 job openings in November. At the same time, there were roughly 113,447 unemployed Coloradans. at’s two job openings for every person looking for work.

And according to Aspen Tech Labs, an Aspen-based company that tracks job openings, three of the top four industries with job openings were among the lower-wage occupations of health care, food service and retail.

Whether renters have vacated the state for cheaper housing is a little more di cult to research beyond anecdotal evidence.

Silverstein doesn’t blame the higher cost of living for chasing away lower-income earners. It’s more so about our demographics. With a shrinking number of younger workers entering the workforce, the average age of a worker continues to get older. When the Baby Boomers retire — and all Baby Boomers will be over 65 by 2030 — that will leave a big hole in Colorado’s labor force. Even the real estate industry must gure out how to maintain productivity, she said.

“ ere’s a company coming out of Buena Vista making homes in a matter of weeks. ey’re assembling them, a factory line. We need to get creative rather than putting in however many people it takes to build a home on site, they’re doing it much quicker, much faster and at a more a ordable cost by doing it in a factory,” she said, referring to Fading West modular home factory. “We need to gure out how we can use automation moving forward to do some of that and provide productivity.”

Here’s a year-old chart showing how Colorado’s population has changed and is forecast to change through 2050. ose 65 and over are the fastest growing segment of our population.

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

Waste No More will bring access to compost and recycling in Denver

re ll shops.

ankfully for Schmelzel, Ballot

BY ELICIA HESSELGRAVE SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

Bex Schmelzel is looking forward to the day that Recycle Island will no longer take over the tiny kitchen in their Capitol Hill apartment.

Schmelzel’s apartment building does not provide recycling. Recycle Island is what Schmelzel and their partner call the pile of recyclables they store until a friend — who works at a recycling center in Boulder — can pick up the recyclables and drop them o .

“It’s such a relief when we can get rid of it,” Schmelzel said.

ey added that when there are months that go by before the friend is able to help with their recyclables, Recycle Island has, at times, reached about two-by-two feet or more.

“I don’t like the idea of being wasteful,” Schmelzel said. “I literally feel bad in my heart for being wasteful.”

But until Schmelzel’s apartment complex starts o ering recycling, there’s little that they can do except let Recycle Island pile up. Schmelzel works at a school and is attending graduate school at the University of Denver so they are not able to a ord other sustainable options such as

Measure 306, known as Waste No More, passed in November with nearly a 71% yes vote. is law requires all buildings in Denver, like Schmelzel’s apartment building, to provide access to recycling.

Schmelzel hopes the Waste No More initiative will reframe how people think about recycling.

“It’s a good measure,” they said. “We want to be able to recycle.”

Still, it could be a number of months before Denver residents see any changes.

Denver is on the path to `Waste No More’

Ean Tafoya, a candidate for mayor who served as co-director of the Waste No More campaign, and his colleagues worked on the measure for two years. In 2016, Tafoya was petitioning for the Denver Green Roof Initiative — which voters passed in 2017 and is now known as the Green Buildings Ordinance — when he discovered that Denver residents actually had a greater interest in access to recycling.

So, he and a team went to work to start writing the Waste No More initiative in 2020 and collected more than 11,000 signatures to get Waste No More on the ballot. ey missed the deadline for the 2021 election, but knowing Denver residents cared about access to recycling, Tafoya and

1-877-328-1512

Bex Schmelzel will be glad when Waste No More will be implemented so that their Recycle Island will be a thing of the past. Schmelzel’s apartment in Denver currently does not o er recycling, so sometimes Recycle Island can pile up to two-by-two feet or more before a friend is able to pick up the recyclables and drop them o at a recycling center.

But the citizen-led ordinance needs revisions before it can be enforced

his team continued their work to ensure it was on the November 2022 ballot.

“ ere has been a delay in (the) climate action that science is asking for, and my generation is crying for,” Tafoya said. “It is clear from the vote of the Denver public, this is what we want.”

He added that Waste No More has the potential to make a signi cant impact on the local environment.

According to the most recent numbers available, Denver is sending about 75% of its waste to land ll.

ese numbers, which are from 2021, demonstrate that Denver’s diversion rate — the amount of material that is not sent to landll — is at 25.7%. For comparison, the Boulder County Sustainability website reports its diversion rate is 35%, and the 2021 Fort Collins Waste Reduction & Recycling Report states its diversion rate was 55.5% for that year.

e city of Denver is making strides to improve its diversion rate and Waste No More will play a big role.

Once implemented, every building in Denver will be required to provide three waste bins: land ll, recycling and compost. is includes restaurants, businesses, o ces, stadiums and multi-family housing with more than four units. With greater access to recycling and composting, the people of Denver will have the opportunity to appropriately sort their trash.

Another important component of the policy requires construction and demolition sites to adopt more sustainable practices.

“Demolition waste accounts for half of our climate emissions and materials like metal, corrugate, glass, concrete and asphalt can be diverted from the land ll,” Tafoya said, adding that the Waste No More law will ensure these materials

BILL

Colorado Springs enacted tough building codes after Waldo Canyon, including banning shake roofs, lowering the number of roof vents, moving decorative grasses and other ammable shrubs away from buildings, and more.

Many re chiefs see the 2002 Hayman re, which swept up from Lake George toward the southwest Denver metro area, as a marker for a

are properly recycled.

Timeline is di erent than other ballot measures

Waste No More will be enforced by the city of Denver with the O ce of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency taking the lead. But there is a lot of uncertainty about how the new law will work and it could be awhile before it is enforced.

Since Waste No More was a citizen-led initiative, the timeline for enforcement looks a little di erent than other ballot measures written by city council. One cause for delay can be attributed to the language the initiative used because it is not what the city would use.

Grace Rink, Denver’s chief climate o cer, used a tra c violation as an example. When a person gets a trafc ticket, there are speci c guidelines for how to appeal that ticket. With Waste No More, how it will be enforced is not written into the language, Rink said. Additionally, Rink added, the way it is currently written implies that an apartment building can be ned for not complying, but it does not de ne what the ne is or what an appeal looks like.  erefore, Rink said, the bill must be revised, but the language on the original ballot cannot be changed for at least six months after the election.

ere are a few steps the city is doing in the meantime to get things rolling. First, a task force must be created. is group of 25 individuals will consist of stakeholders from entities that are regulated by the ordinance. ese include recycling centers, trash haulers, special events companies, restaurant owners, organics processors and building owners. Waste No More ballot sponsors will hold two seats, according to Tafoya. Rink said the task force will hold regular meetings for six months, beginning in March and the public may attend and observe.

e goal of this task force is not to rewrite the ordinance, but to make recommendations for adjustments to state concise rules and enforce-

new era in preparing for wildlandurban re ghting.

“If we had just started this after the Hayman re, we wouldn’t be having this discussion today,” Briese said. “We would have re resistant roofs, we’d have all sorts of other things. So here we are, 20 years after Hayman, trying to play catch up, because the residences in the WUI have exploded in the meantime. e problem has gotten geometrically bigger and more complicated by inaction.”

Uniform codes could help address other growing problems for

ment guidelines. ese regulation revisions must rst be approved by city sta and then presented to city council.

Ordinances working in tandem

In addition to Waste No More, other environmentally-focused proposals were recently adopted in Denver. ese include the “pay as you throw” trash pickup, which charges for land ll waste bins while recycling and compost are free; the Bring Your Own Bag program, which encourages reusable bag use by charging for disposable bags; and the Single-Use Accessory Restriction Ordinance which requires all retail food establishments to only provide single-use condiments and plasticware upon customer request.

A statewide Producer Responsibility Ordinance (PRO) was also signed last summer. e PRO will provide free and equitable recycling to all Coloradoans as well as encourage more sustainable practices from Colorado manufacturers.

All of these ordinances will work in tandem to accelerate Denver’s goal. “CASR, in partnership with Denver’s Department of Transportation & Infrastructure and the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment, recommends to divert 50% of all solid waste generated by 2027 and 70% by 2032,” according to devergov.org.

With regard to Waste No More speci cally, some businesses have already adopted the three waste stream practices.

Vital Root, a restaurant located at 3915 Tennyson St. in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood, has been o ering three waste streams for years. e restaurant has incorporated the use of compostable supplies, including takeaway containers.

One of the managers, Kathryn Begley, said it’s important to the company and the restaurant’s guests to be environmentally conscious.

“It is a big mission statement to us,” said Begley.

But the city needs to provide better education on how to sort waste

Coloradans, including nding affordable insurance — or even any insurance policy at all — for homes that insurance companies say are indefensible from re, bill advocates said.

Cutter cites studies showing that for every $1 spent on hardening homes and landscapes in the interface areas, between $4 and $8 in damage is prevented.

Slowing wild res from hopping from home to home and getting out of control in one part of the state makes a di erence hundreds of miles away, Cutter said, with

material, Begley added.

Customers are receptive to the recycling and compost program at Vital Root, but Begley has noticed there are issues with people knowing what is compostable and what is not.

“Lots of people will send their whole trays to the trash, even though we have made an e ort to provide recycle and compostable bins,” Begley said. “ e general public needs better education.”

Vital Root isn’t the only business struggling with material sorted by the public becoming contaminated.   A1 Organics processes all the composting in Denver and has reported seeing glass mixed in with composted materials, Rink said. Unfortunately, this contaminates the material that can be composted so all of it has to be taken to the land ll. To combat this, A1 has restricted the material it will accept to just the basics: food scraps and yard waste only.

e city is preparing to improve the education program to help residents learn how to properly dispose of their trash. Clear messaging in multiple languages, as well as the use of symbols, are part of these improvements.

“Right now, everywhere you go the recycling signs are di erent,” Rink said. “It only adds to the confusion.” Rink’s goal is to provide the same information citywide. Whether it’s at school, a restaurant or at home, the same trash/recycling/compost signage will be posted throughout Denver.

“Education is key,” Rink said. “It’s one thing to o er the three waste streams, but if we are not using it right, it defeats the purpose.”

To learn more about the Waste No More Implementation Task Force, visit tinyurl.com/TaskForce-WasteNoMore. Deadline to apply to serve on the task force was Jan. 27, but the webpage has a meeting schedule, which are open to the public.

implications not just for property damage but for air quality and other issues.

“If there’s a re in Glenwood Springs,” she said, “we can’t breathe in Denver.”

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

Thu 3/02

Teague Starbuck @ 6pm Modern Brew - Kitchen, Coffee, Bar, 8221 S Holly St, Centennial

Shallow Side @ 8pm Wild Goose Saloon, Parker

Wild Love Tigress @ 105 West Brewing @ 6:30pm 105 West Brewing Company, 1043 Park St, Castle Rock

Sterling Ranch, 8155

RMRR March 5th 9:00 am- 5K

Johnson Lake at Clement Park @ 9am / $10

8116 W. Bowles Avenue, Littleton

Mon 3/06

YouthTuber - Rooney @ 3:15pm / $176

Mar 6th - May 1st

Rooney Elementary, 2200 S Coors St, Lakewood. 720-996-0894

Modern Swing Mondays @ 6pm / $10

Stampede, 2430 South Havana, Aurora

Tue 3/07

Culinary: The Luck of the Irish (16+yrs) @ 1am

Mar 7th - Mar 6th

PACE Center, 20000 Pikes Peak Avenue, Parker

ARTS: Coffee & Painting @ College View @ 5:30pm

Denver Parks and Recreation (CGV), 2525 S. Decatur St., Denver. 720-913-0654

Wed 3/08

Neil Z @ 7pm Earls Kitchen + Bar, 8335 Park Meadows Center Dr, Lone Tree

Scotty Austin @ 8pm

Wild Goose Saloon, 11160 S. Pikes Peak Drive, Parker HE$H @ 9pm

The Church Denver, 1720 S Alcott St, Den‐ver

Fri 3/03

Ninety Percent 90s @ 8pm Wide Open Saloon, 5607 US-85, Sedalia El Chaval De La Bachata @ 9pm / $40 Stampede, 2430 South Havana, Aurora

Sat 3/04

Blarney on Belmar @ 12pm Belmar, 439 S. Upham Street, Lakewood. janet@see-janet-work.com, 303-815-3504

Volleyball: Youth - IntroductoryAge 6 to 8 - Spring 2023 @ 3pm Mar 4th - Apr 29th

Parker Fieldhouse, 18700 E Plaza Dr, Parker

Fleming Mansion Walkthrough (for permit holders only) @ 6pm

Fleming Mansion, 1510 S. Grant St., Den‐ver. 720-913-0654

Cody Cozz @ 7pm

Wide Open Saloon, 5607 US-85, Sedalia

Dirty Side Down Band: Dirty Side Down @ Lincoln Station @ 7pm

Lincoln Station Coffee/Pizza/Music, 9360 Station St, Lone Tree

Wax Tailor @ 7pm Gothic Theatre, 3263 S Broadway, Englewood

Flag Football: Youth - Ages 12 to 14 - Spring 2023 @ 12am

Mar 8th - May 6th

Salisbury Sports Complex, 11920 Motsen‐bocker Road, Parker

Ladies Night @ 6pm / $10

Stampede, 2430 South Havana, Aurora

Christine Elise @ 9pm Gothic Theatre, 3263 S Broadway, Englewood

Fleming Mansion Walkthrough (for permit holders only) @ 10pm

Fleming Mansion, 1510 S. Grant St., Den‐ver. 720-913-0654

Steve Bug: Into The Void @ 11pm

Wax Tailor @ 9pm Gothic Theatre, 3263 South Broadway, En‐glewood Sun 3/05

Void Studios, 1790 S Bannock St, Denver

Sandra Wong @ 7pm Swallow Hill, 71 E Yale Ave, Denver

DJ Rockstar Aaron: Forbidden Bingo at 'Bout Time Pub & Grub @ 8pm Bout Time Pub & Grub, 3580 S Platte River Dr A, Sheridan

Thu 3/09

Scott Bartlett/SBCreations: The Mad Souls w/ Scott Bartlett & Rick Monroe @ 8pm Herman's Hideaway, 1578 S Broadway, Denver

Jill Tasei: Comedy Show @ 7pm

Piney River Ave Suite 150, Littleton

Humility — the lost character trait of success

While working with one of our clients, I had the opportunity to observe an interaction between a leader and someone on their team. We had all been working on a project that spanned several months, and the leader was an integral part of making the project a huge success as they battled behind the scenes removing roadblocks, pushing decisions through and advancing timelines.

When it was announced that the project was nished and considered a huge success, the leader was asked to share a few words on an all-company meeting. As she began to talk about the project, she started by naming each and every person who contributed to the success that the team had achieved. Not only did she mention everyone by name, but she also included something special about everyone’s contribution. She even went as far as saying she played a very small role, if any role at all.

In a world where many strive for attention or are OK with receiving the accolades for the hard work of the people around them or on their team, it was so refreshing to witness such humility. You can probably

guess that she has a very loyal team with hardly any turnover

Humility isn’t only about giving others the proper credit, it’s also being humble enough to admit when we have made mistakes. Now just as some like to receive the accolades and take credit for work they did not do, there are some people who refuse to admit their mistakes, instead nding a way to blame others. And just as the leader described above who developed a loyal following, the leader who takes the credit and who shifts the blame on others will soon nd themselves with no one left to lead.

I love this quote by Ezra Taft Benson, “With pride, there are many curses. With humility, there come many blessings.” Pride can be a dangerous thing. When it is about the satisfaction we feel when we have achieved a goal or realized a dream, that can be inspiring. It becomes dangerous when it leads to ego-

tistical and narcissistic behavior. I heard it said that egotism is the only disease that makes everyone else sick except the person carrying the disease.

We are leaders in some way, even if it means we are leading ourselves for now. ere are many traits that today’s leader must try and master as they grow personally and/or professionally. Leading with character, empathy, integrity, honesty, transparency, vulnerability, a servant’s heart, courage, respect and humility, just to name a few. Again, in a “me” centered world, humility shows up last or sometimes not at all. Whether we are leading at home, at work, in our community or in our house of worship, humility shows up when we start to live in a “we” centered world.

e Merriam-Webster de nes humility as freedom from pride or arrogance: the quality or state of being humble. Where leaders or people striving for success sometimes make the mistake is that they believe they need to be seen as always being strong, showing their strength by being strong-willed. ey confuse anything less with being seen as meek or weak. e reality is that some of the

strongest leaders in history have also been the humblest.

Humility is not just a necessary quality of leadership, it is often an overlooked quality of success in whatever we endeavor to do. Successful salespeople show humility as they give their surrounding team credit for the sale. e humble spouse who gives credit to their better half. e teacher or coach who gives all the credit to the student or player for putting in all the hard work. e faithful who gives God all the credit, honor, and glory for their blessings.

Life is so much easier when we live, work, and love from a position of humility. As always, I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@ gmail.com. And when we learn to live a humble life, putting pride aside to achieve lasting success, it really will be a better than good life.

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.

Radon: the leading cause of cancer in people who don’t smoke

Being a lifelong health enthusiast, health educator and tness trainer — and married to a primary care physician — my family and I were blindsided by my Stage 3A lung cancer diagnosis in October of 2018. We were shocked as I had no respiratory symptoms and I have never smoked. My cancer was found incidentally while investigating what later turned out to be a benign ovarian cyst.

It wasn’t until my son, an environmental engineer, asked me if I had ever tested our home for radon when I learned that virtually anyone with lungs can get lung cancer and that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. It is the rst leading cause of lung cancer in people who don’t have a history of smoking.

Considering the risk for lung cancer is high, why aren’t people exposed to high radon levels eligible for lung cancer screening? e United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends people ages 50-80 with a 20pack year history of smoking, or have

quit in the past 15 years, get a low dose CT scan, which is painless and takes only a few minutes.

Based on the conversation with our son, we tested our home using methods recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency and discovered that the radon levels in our home were elevated above the threshold of 4 pico curies (pCi/L). e EPA strongly advises that any radon level at or above 4 pCi/L should be reduced through a radon mitigation system. Radon mitigation needs to be done by professionally accredited operators and most health departments — including the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment — post lists of accredited mitigators. Radon is an invisible and odorless radioactive gas that can be found in many homes. It comes from the

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decomposition of uranium in soil, rock and water and gets into the air you breathe. When inhaled, radon can cause serious health problems including lung cancer. About half of all homes in Colorado have radon levels above the recommended limit of 4 pCi/L.

While there is no way for me to know with certainty if radon caused my lung cancer, I want people to know it is one risk factor that can be tested for and reduced to safe levels very easily. I also want people to know that smoking and exposure to radon are not the only risk factors for lung cancer and that many people develop lung cancer despite having no known risk factors. Exposure to secondhand smoke, family history of lung cancer and air pollution are risk factors for lung cancer. Report any persistent symptoms you have to your doctor. Being young and having no known history of tobacco use does not make you immune to lung cancer, even if the risk is low.

Despite the well-known risks of radon, it concerns me that there isn’t more public health messaging about

CHRISTY STEADMAN

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radon, especially given its high prevalence in Colorado and many other states. e EPA estimates that radon kills approximately 21,000 people in the U.S. every year and about 2,900 of these deaths occur among people who have never smoked. ese numbers may be a low estimate, as I know my doctor never asked me if I knew the radon level of my home when I was diagnosed. In fact, only a small number of family physicians transmit radon information to their patients. Please consider testing your home for radon at least every two years as recommended by the EPA because levels can change due to movement of soil, or new cracks in the foundation. Even if you have a mitigation system, testing is still recommended. A mitigation system is like any other appliance, and it can malfunction or stop working. Learn more about radon and radon mitigation from the EPA and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Columnists & Guest Commentaries

Columnist opinions are not necessarily those of the Herald-Dispatch.

We welcome letters to the editor. Please include your full name, address and the best number to reach you by telephone.

Email letters to letters@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Deadline Wed. for the following week’s paper.

Heidi Nafman Onda is a cancer survivor and health educator

Heidi Nafman Onda

Orchids: A diverse family of plants and people

The orchid family (Orchidaceae) is one of the largest and most diverse plant families on the planet. is diversity extends to the people who study, admire and grow these fascinating plant treasures. Charles Darwin, Carl Linnaeus and William Cattley are names you may recognize, but the history of orchid research and cultivation is far richer than these more familiar names. is year’s Orchid Showcase at the Denver Botanic Gardens shines a spotlight on some lesser-known champions of orchids. eir stories are as diverse as the orchid family itself.

Rebecca Tyson Northern, who lived from 1910-2004, was an orchid advocate with a Colorado connec-

High on a mesa where everyone can see it, a trophy house is going up in the northern Colorado valley where I live. Some of my neighbors hear that the house will be as big as 15,000 square feet. Others say it will take three years to complete.

Whether that is valley gossip or truth, the house is now the center of everybody’s attention.

Until this happened, my valley seemed to o er much of the best of what Colorado has to o er, including views of a snow-capped mountain range, and spread out below, irrigated hay elds with black cows on tan rangeland. But now, right in the center of the valley, will be one person acting out a lack of consideration for others.

Gigantic trophy houses seem to signal, “I built here to see, but also to be seen.” It’s a jarring reminder that we in the New West are remaking the Old West in our own image, a job that apparently requires a drastic redoing of topography.

ese big homes seem to follow a pattern of complicated roo ines, lots of windows that re ect the light and “ego gates” at the beginning of

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GUEST COLUMN

Nick Snakenberg

tion. She was a trained biologist with an M.A. from Mt. Holyoke College and along with her husband — a plant physiologist professor at the University of Wyoming — were members of the Denver Orchid Society who also traveled Central and South America studying orchids. Rebecca was also the author of numerous books on growing orchids. At a time when orchids were widely considered a hobby of the elite, her approachable writing style welcomed a new demographic to the orchid hobby. Decades after they were written, many of her books remain the go-to resource for beginner orchid grow-

ers.

In 2012, I had the pleasure of traveling to Peru and meeting Carmen Soto. Carmen attended Cusco National San Antonio Abad University and quickly put her biology degree to work protecting and conserving Andean ora and fauna in her native home. She was the chief biologist for Inkaterra Asociacion at Machu Picchu where she created an extensive native orchid garden that has become a major tourist attraction and is a model for similar gardens around the world. With her passion for orchids, she mentored and inspired young biologists as well as tens of thousands of visitors to Inkaterra.

e Dracula Youth Reserve —

named for an orchid genus growing within its borders — in Ecuador is a 244-acre protected area of cloud forest and is in one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world. reatened by mining, the reserve is part of the larger 5,300 acres managed by partners EcoMinga, Rainforest Trust and Orchid Conservation Alliance. e reserve is home to hundreds of orchid species — many new to science. e Dracula Youth Reserve is the rst entirely youthfunded nature reserve in the world with all funds generated by people 26 years of age or younger.

Nick Snakenberg is the curator of Tropical Collections at the Denver Botanic Gardens

The West is an exploiter’s paradise

driveways.

WRITERS ON THE RANGE

for decades share a di erent style. Appreciating what a winter wind can do to steal warmth from inside a house, they looked for sheltered areas to build. ey saw it made sense to build low, tucking a home against the south side of a hill or cli .

Richard Knight

Most of us in this valley delight in what we’ve been able to see from our front door: Uninterrupted ridgelines, cli s, and the rounded slopes that converge to make foothills, which then rise into mountains. Nature made these views, and we’ve been fortunate to have them in our lives every day.

But more and more, houses that resemble castles are sprouting on ridgelines and hilltops, here and all over the mountains. And sometimes it’s ordinary houses or trailers that get built on ridgelines, interrupting the natural ow of the land.

Where only a few years ago our eyes might nd comfort in tracing a ridge’s backbone — wondering how it got to be named White Pine Mountain when no white pines grow there — now we look at manmade structures that irritate the eyes.

People who have lived in my valley

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Most yard lights were few and hard to see, as were their homes. But the new Western lifestyle broadcasts yard lights at night for all to see, just as the homes are conspicuously visible during the day.

In this newfangled West that has “ranched the view,” people apparently need to stand out to enjoy an amenity lifestyle. Will these new folk ever take time to appreciate the human and natural histories of the place they live in now, to show respect for the land and its natural beauty? Will they learn to be considerate of neighbors and not take away from the views that de ne where we live?

It’s shameful to think that just as we rst moved into the West to exploit its valuable resources, we now exploit the last resource our region has to o er — its heart-stopping beauty.  ere is some good news, because

in many parts of the West we are learning how to sustainably log, graze, divert water and develop energy. I hope it’s not too late for us to also realize the value of tting into the land as residents, to keep intact our ridgelines, mesas, mountains and valley oors. Once a house caps a hilltop, however, that view is irretrievable, gone forever.

I hope we can learn how to value homes that blend with the land in shape, color and location. Maybe a new generation of home builders, architects, and developers will lead the way in paying due respect to our region’s natural beauty.

But I’m afraid that it’s too late for our valley. e great writer Wallace Stegner told us that the task of Westerners was to build a society to match the scenery. From what I see, we’re not doing the job.

Richard Knight is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonpro t that hopes to inspire lively conversation about the West. He works at the intersection of land use and land health in the American West.

BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

While working out at a gym in Golden recently, someone approached Ty Scrable and asked if he was associated with Colorado School of Mines. Scrable had to explain that, no, he’s just a Golden resident.

Unfortunately, Scrable said, this isn’t the rst time it’s happened.

“I get that a lot,” he said. “People think I’m a student, professor or tourist because I’m Black.”

Systemic racism stubbornly remains in Golden. But, as Scrable said, it has morphed from Ku Klux Klan demonstrations in the 1920s and racist housing policies in the 1940s to something less overt but still widespread and endlessly frustrating.

Because White people make up the overwhelming majority in the city and, thus, are seen as the norm, Scrable said, “many people don’t view me as part of my own community.”

In the wake of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the summer of 2020, many cities and newspapers across the United States have started reckoning with their pasts, examining how they’ve contributed to systemic racism, learning what they can do to be more inclusive and fair. e Golden community has started the process, and now it’s the Golden Transcript’s turn.

e newspaper, which now is part of Colorado Community Media, isn’t immune to biased coverage. is report is the product of its journalists attempting to examine the paper’s coverage of the Black community since the Civil Rights era and own up to its mistakes.

Since 1866, the Golden Transcript — known as the Colorado Transcript for its rst 103 years — has been a record keeper for Je erson County. While its stories are extensive and valuable, the paper contains original and reprinted content that was harmful to the Black community and other marginalized groups.

Just one example is its coverage of the Black Panther Party, a group that gained national attention in the late 1960s for its response to policing in Black communities across the country.

Between 1969-1971, the newspaper published approximately 170 articles that referenced the Black Panther Party. Nearly all of these articles

BEYOND THE GOLDEN TRANSCRIPT: Our efforts to reconcile racial mistrust begins with this story

In our newspaper this week, you’ll see an article about the Golden Transcript. It’s one of two dozen newspapers owned by Colorado Community Media, which also owns this paper. The article tackles the issue of systemic racism in the Transcript’s pages.

The idea for the project started in 2020, when the Colorado News Collaborative, Colorado Media Project and Free Press convened the Black Voices Working Group, which was made up of Black leaders, community members and journalists. The group addressed media coverage and focused on how to improve trust in mainstream media among the Black community. Acknowledging past harm was the No. 1 recommendation made by the group.

A few months later, I attended a Denver Press Club event where Jameka Lewis, a senior librarian at the BlairCaldwell African American Research Library, illustrated biases in mainstream local media coverage of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and ’70s while exhibiting rare prints of the Black Panther Press. Many of Lewis’ examples came from the Transcript. Most articles were wire stories from

other cities, but editors still chose to run them, affecting perceptions of the party in Golden.

We pursued and were awarded a grant from the nonpartisan Colorado Media Project to explore, uncover and analyze this issue in the form of the special report that is in this edition of your newspaper.

Our newsroom, which is predominantly White, also participated in the Maynard Institute’s diversity, equity and inclusion Fault Lines training along the way. West metro editor Kristen Fiore was a speaker at the Advancing Equity in Local News convening with journalists from publications like the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Washington Post to talk about this project.

We believe this story is important beyond Golden — and we hope to spark conversations in our communities across the Denver area about race and inclusion and how our news coverage impacts those issues.

Linda Carpio Shapley is publisher of Colorado Community Media, which runs two dozen weekly and monthly publications in eight counties. She can be reached at lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Linda Shapley

presented the group in a negative light, with words such as “fugitive,” “thugs” and “militants.” And, the Transcript appeared to rarely cover the Black community in the city and wider region. Because of this, their voices are missing in archives, now online as an important chronicling of Colorado’s history.

By not including these voices in an accurate light, and by publishing stories that reinforced harmful stereotypes and/or recorded Black people’s traumatic experiences in an apathetic or ippant way, the Golden Transcript’s coverage contributed to systemic racism, according to researchers and Black community leaders.

Jameka Lewis, senior librarian at the Denver Public Library’s Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library and a freelance researcher on this report, said Transcript readers may have had their beliefs about the Black Panther Party, and the Black community in general, shaped by the Transcript’s negative portrayals.

“ ere is harm when it comes to media and the Black community in Denver and Colorado,” Lewis said. “If we want to repair the harms, we have to acknowledge that (they are) factual.”

Alfonzo Porter, editor-in-chief at Denver Urban Spectrum and a journalism professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said mass media has been at the epicenter of “propagating negative images and re ections of the AfricanAmerican community.”

“It really stems out of our country’s background, and we’re still dealing with those biases,” he said.

While almost all of the Transcript’s stories about the Black Panther Party were from wire services like United Press International, Porter said the Transcript and other newspapers are accountable for reprinting those stories.

“It’s exactly like original reporting, because … the editorial sta sat in a room, looked at this piece, determined that it was appropriate and ran with it in the paper,” he said.

The Black Panther Party

e Black Panther Party for Self Defense started in 1966 in Oakland, California. Founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale started the organization as a response to police brutality there and in other Black communities, according to Lewis’ research.

e party had a 10-point program that included demands for Black liberation and societal

THE COVERAGE

How national, Denver-area papers covered the party Sisters Ida Daniel, Pat Rogers and JoEllen Greenwood grew up in Denver and graduated from East High School in the ’60s and early ’70s. ey recalled reading e Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News and watching the nightly news on TV. ey also listened to the city’s Black radio station, KDKO, and read Black-oriented magazines like Ebony and Jet.

Overall, the three didn’t recall a lot of news stories about Black people in the mainstream press, unless it was negative. e news covered Black people who were arrested for murder, robbery, rioting and other crimes. Rogers summarized the coverage as: “Be afraid of Black people.” at kind of coverage played out with the Black Panthers. In 2016, e New York Times analyzed stories about the Panthers, noting “journalists were at once fascinated and frightened by them” and their activities in the 1960s and ‘70s.  Coverage about the Denver Panthers in Black newspapers in the area at the time was scant. Of those Lewis researched, the Black-owned publication e Denver Blade published the most articles on the group’s activities, both locally and nationally, in 1969.

Its coverage appears to be fairly balanced, Lewis said.

One Blade article discussed the Panthers’ orga-

improvement. Eventually, the Black Panthers led more than 35 community programs across the country, like the Free Breakfast for School Children Program — also known as e Free People’s Food Program, which helped feed Black children from economically disadvantaged families.

In Denver, a chapter gained recognition in 1967. Led by Lauren Watson, the chapter’s history was largely erased or ignored, Lewis said, adding that the Denver Panthers were instrumental in the ght for civil rights in Colorado.

It’s important to note that many Black community members both then and now have mixed feelings about the Panthers and their work, Lewis stressed.

Longtime Denver residents she interviewed formed their opinions largely based on what they read about the Black Panthers in newspapers and saw on TV. Yet that coverage contrasts with what many in the community saw the Denver Black Panthers doing. ey were involved in school board and City Council meetings, provided free meals for children, and worked to

nizing a meeting to discuss policing and police presence at Cole Jr. High School in Denver’s diverse Whittier neighborhood. It chronicled the Black community’s e orts to address a racial gap between teachers and Black students. One possible solution, and likely at the suggestion of the Denver Black Panthers, was to establish Cole as a Freedom School, a concept that focused on Black pride and Black liberation in academics.

In contrast, the Denver Post also covered the meeting but didn’t mention the Panthers’ involvement in organizing the event or the Freedom School proposal. In a review of Post archives, the story focused on arrests. e Denver Blade coverage did not mention any Black Panther arrests.

“Oftentimes, it was up to Black news media to cover this group in a more comprehensive way, which I believe e Denver Blade did,” Lewis said. “It covered all aspects of the local and national Panthers, and o ered readers a more balanced view of the members of this group.”

e Denver Blade stopped operating in 1970.

How Golden’s newspapers covered the Panthers

e Transcript published approximately 170 articles that used the terms “Black Panther” or “Black Panthers” between 1969-1971. Almost all of these were reprinted stories from wire services, which seldom described anything positive about the party or its members.

improve the welfare of their neighborhoods and its residents.

“Many Black people believed what the media said about the Panthers,” said Terry Nelson, a lifelong member of the Denver community. “ … It depended on the source. We recognized that the newspapers weren’t telling the truth about the members. … We knew that the Denver members were active in schools, speaking with teachers and parents. We never saw that in the major newspapers.”

Tracie Keesee, a former Denver police captain and co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity, described how during this tumultuous period, the press played into the hands of government o cials.

Newsrooms considered police as trustworthy and well-respected sources, so it was easy for them to hand reporters a story and have it taken at face value, Keesee said.

Keesee added: “We see it now, right? at divisiveness in the media, the stories that are being told — or not being told.”

e only article referencing the party’s free breakfast program was published April 30, 1970, about Baltimore police rounding up Black Panthers suspected of killing a patrolman. After searching party headquarters, police searched a school where it conducted its breakfast program, among other locations.

In contrast, the Colorado School of Mines student paper, e Oredigger, published at least two stories about the Black Panther Party. Both were straightforward accounts of Lauren Watson, the head of the Denver chapter, visiting Golden.

Ultimately, while coverage of the Black Panthers varied by publication, the Golden Transcript failed to cover the party’s community initiatives or involvement. It did, however, print dozens of wire stories about the party’s supposed criminal activity and police raids associated with the group.

e coverage used negative language to describe the Panthers, their neighborhoods and any activities they were involved in. Because of this, Golden-area residents absorbed and believed what they heard and saw in the news coverage, Lewis stated.

e role of the press in forwarding racial inequality really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, Keesee said, especially to communities of color.

“It’s not just that person that wrote the story,

Jameka Lewis is a senior librarian at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library and a researcher on this project. COURTESY PHOTO

that person had an editor, right?

ere wasn’t anything in that editor’s mind that said, ‘Yeah…this seems a little biased. Did you even go into the community, or did you just take that o the wire and repeat it?’”

ere’s no excuse for sloppy journalism, as it is harmful and contributes directly to a larger narrative, Keesee said.

“When you talk about media coverage, there were only three channels on the television, back then; there was no social media,” she said, adding, “the newspapers were cranking out those stories overnight and you were waiting for your morning paper. Nobody was up waiting for breaking news. So, the news that was coming out, it was more focused and easier to control.”

And when news was breaking, “it

THE COMMUNITY

Golden in the 1960s and ’70s

Built on lands traditionally inhabited by the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ute and other tribes, Golden City was founded in 1859. According to Allan Tellis, a doctoral student of political science at the University of Colorado-Boulder and freelance researcher on this report, Golden has never had a signi cant Black population.

Census data from 1960 shows that the Golden division of Je erson County had 28 Black residents. By 1970, that number had increased to 86. Overall, those numbers represent 0.15% and 0.27% of the total population, respectively, according to Tellis.

As of 2020, Golden had 388 Black residents, representing 1.9% of the city’s population.

Longtime Golden residents recalled how many of the city’s Black residents in the late 1960s and early ’70s were associated with Colorado School of Mines as students, professors or their family members. As far as discussions about the Black Panther Party speci cally or race relations in general, longtime White residents said the topic didn’t come up much because there wasn’t a large Black population in the area.

Rick Gardner, a resident who has studied Golden’s history extensively, said the community had “other preoccupations at the time,” such as labor clashes at the Coors brewery and the Vietnam War.

John Akal, a longtime Goldenite and current columnist for the Transcript, described how he spent his summers in Chicago, where it was “a whole di erent situation.” Because of the 1968 Chicago riots, which were sparked by the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Akal remembered a lot of racial tension in the city at the time.

But that was Chicago.

Golden was di erent, but not necessarily better.

The KKK in Golden Overt discrimination in Golden against Black people and other

was breaking only one way, and those narratives were pretty narrow,” she added.

The newsroom

During this timeframe, the Transcript was a daily paper with a small sta of six and a wire service that provided regional and national news.

Neil Paulson, who was managing editor from 1970-75, said the paper relied on United Press International reports to cover many issues, including the Black Panthers.

“It was a terrible service, especially for a small paper,” he said. “It cost us a little more, but eventually we went to e Associated Press.”

e only dictate from the paper’s owners, e Kansas City Star and the Great (Kansas) Tribune, was to run a local story on the front page, Paulson said. National and regional stories ran inside.

Paulson noted that Golden’s population at the time, as it is today, was

communities peaked with the Ku Klux Klan, which had a strong presence in the city and throughout Colorado, particularly in the 1920s.

e Klan began in Denver in 1921 and eventually “all but took possession of the state of Colorado,” according to a report in the Steamboat Pilot. Klan members throughout Denver gathered on Golden’s South Table Mountain for cross-burnings and other rituals. According to Golden History, the mountain could attract up to 10,000 members.

Overall, the Klan helped prevent or deter unknown numbers of Black people from carving out lives in the area. History Colorado recently released ledgers of KKK membership that show seven members of the terrorist organization resided in the Golden area, Tellis added.

Racist housing policies, practices

While the Klan’s activities are certainly one reason Golden has a small Black population, it’s not the only reason. Discriminatory housing practices also contributed.

Don Cameron, a former Jefferson County teacher and current Golden city councilor, has researched zoning history and discriminatory housing policies and practices, including some accounts recorded in the Transcript.

While many Black residents in Denver were constricted by redlining, their counterparts in Golden faced other challenges.

“Starting in the ’20s and into the ’40s, it was common for people to say that they would only sell their individual property to those of the Caucasian race, or non-Negro race individuals,” Cameron stated in a self-published article about Golden’s zoning history.

“ e courts backed up this right because they were protecting the homeowners’ use of their land and had no civic duty to prevent this discrimination,” the article continues. “Blacks were excluded from being shown properties in these restrictive neighborhoods, and if they tried to purchase them, (they) might have it taken away soon

predominantly White.

He knew two Black Goldenites during his years as editor. One was Monroe Jordan, an assistant chef at downtown Golden’s historic Holland House, who later worked at the nearby Ace-Hi Tavern.

When Jordan died, Paulson ran a story on the front page that brie y memorialized him but mostly discussed an attempt to nd his relatives, as no one had come forward to claim Jordan’s body nearly two weeks after his death.

Readers didn’t react positively to the front-page piece.

“I got a couple of nasty phone calls, but no one admitted to their bias,” Paulson said. “ ey refused to apologize, of course. ey said I shouldn’t have put that on the front page. In typical Golden fashion, there was nothing speci c, other than to say, ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’ e thought of another race didn’t exist.”

For the Transcript’s newsroom, Paulson said there was no “codi ed

policy on racism” during his time there.

“We condemned it, but we made little e ort to actively attack it,” he said. “( e) Black Panthers seem remote from Golden, where there were few Black families.”

One place where Paulson thought racism showed up was on the editorial page. e paper had four syndicated columnists every day who lived outside the community. ey were selected by the publisher because “they were cheap and not already being published by the two Denver dailies,” he stated.

Paulson said he had no doubt the paper could be accused of racism for its coverage in those days.

“But I’d like to think it was by omission rather than intent,” he said. “We rarely spoke of racism and did little to come out against its pernicious e ects. I don’t remember anyone on the sta making racist remarks, and I think I would have remembered that.”

after.”

Perhaps the most evident example of this was in 1942, when Logus Butler and Susie A. Allison paid $1,500 for 30 acres near present-day Boyd Street in north Golden. ey planned to build on it, but they were forced to sell a few months later after Golden residents drove them out.

“A large number of citizens appeared before the City Council

Wednesday evening,” the Transcript reported Oct. 22, 1942, “and stated that a group of colored people had taken possession of the land recently purchased by them east of the Clark’s Garden addition, within the city limits of Golden, and were apparently staking out some building sites.”

After Butler and Allison were

A photo circa late 1960s or early 1970s shows the Seymour family gathered for a portrait in their family home in Denver. In this photo, the siblings — Ida Daniel, Pat Rogers, JoEllen Greenwood and Winfred Semour Jr. — were teens. COURTESY PHOTO

FOR THE RECORD

forced to sell the land, plots on the same land were listed for sale two

THE IMPACT

In the community

While growing up in Denver in the ’60s and ’70s, Daniel and her sisters used their education and life experiences to help them decipher which news stories were biased and which were reputable. They also relied on family and friends’ advice.

“I don’t think news at the time covered Blacks in the world that they lived in,” Daniel said. “To me, the general stories about how Blacks lived, what they did, what their concerns were and some of their needs, were not covered.”

The sisters felt this trend in coverage didn’t change until the ’80s, when news about Black people and Black communities became more prominent.

As an example, Daniel described how The Denver Post did a feature article on her late husband, Wiley Y. Daniel, who was a prominent attorney and

THE FUTURE

For Goldenites

In more recent years, especially in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter rallies in the summer of 2020, the Golden community has started examining the long reach of systemic racism in and around the city. The City of Golden started work on its Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, and groups like Golden United and Golden Anti-Racism Collective formed.

While these are good first steps, real change has to start with people’s attitudes, GAC members Scrable and Michele Minihane said.

Although many Goldenites are open-minded and inclusive, Minihane personally believed there are still some residents who “do not value an integrated community and don’t feel like it’s important to make people of color feel welcome.”

She added: “I don’t get the sense that (attitudes) have changed a lot in 40 or 50 years.”

Scrable agreed that tangible changes, whether in attitudes or policies, have been slow. He said it’s going to take time and everyone working together to make Golden a more welcoming and inclusive place.

The two described how the Golden Anti-Racism Collective has become a place where people can share their experiences, examine systemic racism’s impact on the community, and find ways to improve Golden for current and future generations.

As of last month, GAC has about 400 members on an email list and a few dozen who come to its regular meetings. There are several sub-

years later. Ownership was restricted to “members of the Caucasian race.”

These accounts are just glimpses of Golden’s treatment of people of color, but Tellis emphasized how they demonstrate “institutionalized

the state’s first Black U.S. district court judge. She also recalled how The Post’s society section ran pictures of positive stories happening in the Black community.

“I do think it began to change in the ’80s,” Daniel continued. “There were positive stories (but) … the stereotypes were still going on.”

Diversity in the newsroom also seemed to improve during this timeframe, the sisters said. They recalled Reynelda Muse, the first Black person to anchor a newscast in Colorado, and Bertha Lynn, who started in Denver television in 1976.

While a lot has changed in how traditional outlets cover Black people and Black communities, the sisters believe there’s still plenty of bias. Rogers admitted that she avoids local news because there are still more negative stories about Black people than positive ones.

“I think there absolutely still is biased coverage,” she said. “I don’t want, every day, to hear

groups within the Golden Anti-Racism Collective that tackle different topics such as policy and policing, education, and books and media.

While the bulk of the members are White, any Goldenites of color are welcome to join and participate as they’re able, the members said.

The group has established a unique partnership with the Golden Police Department, as some of its members sit on the department’s community engagement group, GAC member Sandra Knecht explained. GAC and other community members have given feedback on various department policies, particularly around use of force.

GAC members also try to comment on City Council discussions and participate in other local matters, including education, youth outreach and affordable housing. In doing so, the group has developed partnerships with Shelton Elementary, the Golden Library, Colorado School of Mines student groups, Golden United and other groups that share GAC’s goals.

Similar to GAC, Golden United formed after the 2016 election as “there was a fair amount of division, nationally and locally,” Ronnie Rosenbaum said. The group sought to bring people together and encourage respect for those who have different ideas and opinions.

Rosenbaum, who’s vice president on Golden United’s board of directors, described the partnership between Golden United and GAC, saying the two groups and others joined forces for a rally in summer 2020 and pushed City Council to approve the “Golden Stands with Black Lives” banner on Washington Avenue.

Minihane stressed how the GAC

anti-Black behaviors and norms” in the area. So, he said, it’s no surprise that the Black Panther Party, an organization that “unapologetically called for Black liberation and the dismantling of White supremacist power structures, would catch the

about, ‘there’s another Black person who got in trouble.’”

In the country

Going back through American history, the Urban Spectrum’s Porter described other incidents where media outlets didn’t give Black people the benefit of the doubt. He listed the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and the Emmett Till lynching as examples of the media portraying those involved as “guilty until proven innocent,” adding how the trend has persisted into today’s coverage of police shootings and similar incidents.

“And it seems as though that mentality continues to manifest in those organizations in their treatment of our community,” he said. “And so, it’s always the bad news. There’s really never any positive reflections.”

Regarding news coverage of the Black Panther Party, the journalism professor described it as a peaceful organization that was responding to violence “against

believes systemic racism impacts all Golden residents, regardless of race, and recommended locals read “The Sum of Us” by Heather McGhee to learn more about that impact.

For the City of Golden

In summer 2020, the Golden City Council produced a series of resolutions meant to address its history of racial exclusion and racist domination of non-White groups, Tellis stated.

These resolutions included:

Resolution 2736 – Declaring Racism a Public Health Crisis

Resolution 2747 - Declaring Support for Black Lives and Racial Equity Through a Public Display, and

Resolution 2748 - Declaring A Commitment to Anti-Racism Actions

Resolution 2736 states, “the Golden City Council recognizes that racial inequities have become institutionalized in the policies and practices of many agencies, governmental and otherwise. Council recognizes the need to examine seemingly neutral policies and practices to determine whether they are contributing to inequity and, where needed, change or eliminate the policy or practice as cities have a long history of decision and policy making that have resulted in classist and racist outcomes.”

Building on that, the city hired a consultant in June 2021 to develop a Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan based on community input. After developing it for more than a year, the plan outlined four goals: Create a culture of inclusion and belonging throughout the community of Golden;

ire of local reporting.”

Tellis added: “Golden has displayed a deep commitment to the marginalization of Black people. To reflect on this legacy is pivotal if we desire to not replicate the racial strife and injustice of our past.”

African-American people in an attempt to say, ‘We will protect our community.’”

“The idea was that Black folks with guns clearly scared the hell out of people,” Porter continued. “Because obviously, if you’ve got a gun, then you’re going to be violent. And it’s only that mentality because of our profession (as journalists). Our profession has continued to promote that reflection — still does, to this day.”

As for Golden and the Transcript’s coverage of the Black community, Porter believed it likely made Black residents feel unsafe and unwelcome, saying, “They know that any coverage of them will not be balanced and fair.”

Fairness and racial equity are concepts Golden, Denver, the United States and journalism as a profession need to work on, he stated.

“I don’t see our profession doing enough work in that area,” Porter said. “I hear the talk. But I’m not seeing anything to back it up.”

Increase access to services and resources for diverse community members;

Foster an organizational culture and environment within the City of Golden that’s committed to racial equity, diversity and inclusion; and Expand economic opportunities for diverse businesses.

Along with the REDI Action Plan, the consultants also recommended dozens of strategies toward these goals and an implementation plan.

For instance, public documents and other information should be available to those who don’t speak English or have different abilities.

City boards and commissions should have a more inclusive recruiting process to ensure diversity among their members. The city also should host training about Golden’s history, structural racism and implicit bias.

The City Council adopted the REDI Action Plan in December 2022 and called on the community to ensure Golden achieves the four goals in a timely, effective way.

The plan was developed with race as the leading element because of how widespread and damaging racial inequalities are in the United States, according to city consultants. However, the REDI Action Plan is overall intersectional, examining how to make Golden a better place for people of all ages, abilities, gender identities, sexual orientations, socioeconomic backgrounds, religions and other demographics.

Officials said the next step is to assemble an implementation team of community members and city

sta ers to make recommendations to City Council on how to achieve goals. Golden expects to assemble the team this spring.

In a Feb. 10 email, Mayor Laura Weinberg highlighted city o cials and community members’ ongoing work to “live up to our value as a welcoming and inclusive city.”

“I applaud the Golden Transcript’s work to identify its role in racial inequities in the past and its role in systemic racism,” she stated. “ e City of Golden has undertaken similar work … (and) I look forward to this year’s actions to take the information from our new REDI plan and put community-driven solutions into practice.”

For the Golden Transcript

While the Transcript’s ownership and newsroom has changed greatly since the late 1960s and early ‘70s, it’s not immune from the biases and attitudes that riddled its past coverage and contributed to systemic racism in and around Golden.

Scrable said reading the Transcript’s past coverage of the Black community can be “demoralizing,” but even recent stories have failed to represent Black voices.

He pointed to an Aug. 31, 2020 Transcript story about City Council’s decision to display a “Golden Stands With Black Lives” banner over Washington Avenue. e story said the banner would be displayed for 60 days, “an amount of time intended to symbolize how long it took for slave ships to cross the Atlantic.”

Scrable and his GAC co-chairs did advocate for 60 days, but they never assigned any symbolism or signi cance to the number.

“It might’ve been said (in the meeting), but it wasn’t us,” Scrable said of GAC. “It was a misquote.”

After the Aug. 31, 2020 story, Scrable received about 20 phone calls from people upset about the supposed symbolism. He felt the Transcript hadn’t done enough research and ultimately misrepresented the facts, and that insensitivity created a very frustrating experience.

He wanted the Transcript to ensure there are positive stories about people from historically marginalized groups, and do better educating Goldenites about their neighbors’ achievements

and experiences.

Scrable added: “I’m looking to the Transcript to paint a positive picture for all people of color … and representing ‘all’ versus ‘a few.’”

e Colorado Community Media newsroom acknowledges it has work to do, and this February 2023 report is only the rst step in what the team hopes will open a wider conversation about systemic racism and media coverage for years to come. Working on this report brought CCM sta members face-to-face with outdated practices and implicit biases.

Going forward, CCM’s goal is to include more voices of color in the newsroom and on the pages of its two dozen publications, Publisher Linda Shapley said. CCM wants to ensure all local voices are heard and included, while also re ecting on racial equity, diversity and inclusion. CCM will strive to consider the lenses through which the sta decides to cover stories in the rst place. Appreciating di erences in CCM’s coverage areas, like history and culture, will guide the newsroom in its e orts.

Other newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, e Kansas City Star, Philadelphia Inquirer and more have done similar analyses of their past coverage, and the Transcript encourages other newspapers in the region and across the country to do so as well, Shapley said, adding that it wouldn’t have been possible without a Colorado Media Project grant.

For all journalists, Porter stressed the importance of continuing to diversify newsrooms and ensuring fair, balanced and objective coverage and “stop convicting people without evidence.”

He called on more publications to review their past coverage and acknowledge its harmful impacts, saying it’s important to shine a light on the truth, to be honest and to be transparent.

“If we’re ever going to get past this, it’s going to take some truth-telling,” he said. “It will be hard. It will be di cult. But it really is one of the last vestiges to make this country what it said it was in the beginning — freedom and liberty for all. Which has not been the case for us.”

Jameka Lewis, Allan Tellis, Kristen Fiore, Rylee Dunn, Christy Steadman, Steve Smith and Deborah Grigsby contributed to this report. Greg Moore contributed as an editor.

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Legals City and County

Public Notice

Notice of Availability - Final NEPA Environmental Assessment and Finding of No

Significant Impact for the Proposed Phase I Construction and Operation of Fort Logan National Cemetery, 4400 West Kenyon Avenue, Denver, Colorado

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announces the availability of the Final Environmental Assessment (EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the proposed expansion of the Fort Logan National Cemetery (FLNC), located at 4400 West Kenyon Avenue, Denver, Colorado.

The proposed Phase I expansion is entirely within the existing grounds of the cemetery.

The expansion of the FLNC includes construction and maintenance of additional interment areas (including crypts and columbarium buildings), construction of a columbarium within the existing cemetery, improve existing infrastructure and embankment rehabilitation and dredging of the existing spillway on approximately 19.45-acres of undeveloped area within the FLNC. Approximately 19,581 in-ground cremains and 8,159 pre-placed crypt full casket gravesites will be provided by the Phase I expansion.

The purpose of the Proposed Action is to expand burial capacity to include traditional inground burials, in-ground cremains, columbarium niches, and support burial requests for eligible Veterans, family members, and staff at the FLNC. The Proposed Action is needed to address the depletion of National Cemetery burial space at the FLNC. Burial capacity will be depleted by 2027 / 2028.

VA prepared the Final EA and FONSI in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Council on Environmental Quality and VA regulations implementing the Act (40 CFR Part 1500, 38 CFR Part 26). The Draft EA was made available for public review and comment from September 16, 2022 to October 25, 2022. Comments received were addressed in the Final EA. The documents are available for review online at https://www.cfm.va.gov/environmental/index.asp

For questions or additional information, please contact the Environmental Program Office via email at (VACOEnvironment@va.gov),. Please use “Fort Logan National Cemetery Phase I Final EA” in the subject line. If you or are unable to submit your comments by email, please contact Mr. Fernando Fernandez at Fernando. Fernandez@va.gov.

Legal Notice No. 82095

First Publication: February 23, 2023

Last Publication: March 2, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Summons and Sheriff Sale

Public Notice District Court, City & County of Denver, Colorado 1437 Bannock Street, Room 256 Denver, CO 80202

Plaintiff(s)/Petitioner(s): Kenny A. Tadolini

v. Defendant(s)/Respondent(s): ROSALYNE E. MCDONALD; and all unknown persons who claim any interest in the subject matter of this action.

Address: R. Scott Fitzke, #35293

Fitzke Law, LLC

4 West Dry Creek Circle, Ste. 100 Littleton, CO 80120

Phone #: (303) 285-4470

Fax #: (303) 285-4379

E-mail: scott@fitzkelaw.net

Atty Reg No : 35293

Case Number: 2023CV030343 Division 209

SUMMONS BY PUBLICATION

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF COLORADO

TO THE ABOVE-NAMED DEFENDANT(S):

You are hereby summoned and required to appear and defend against the claims of the complaint [petition] filed with the court in this action, by filing with the clerk of this court an answer or other response. You are required to file your answer or other response within 35 days after the service of this summons upon you. Service of this summons shall be complete on the day of the last publication.

A copy of the complaint [petition] may be obtained from the clerk of the court.

If you fail to file your answer or other response to the complaint [petition] in writing within 35 days after the date of the last publication, judgment by default may be rendered against you by the court for the relief demanded in the complaint [petition] without further notice.

This is an action: to Quiet Title the title of the Plaintiff in and to the real property situate in the City and County of Denver, State of Colorado, and more particularly described as follows:

A strip of land 6-inches wide located in the South One-half (S ½) of Lot Five (5), Block One (1), Sundine Subdivision, City and County of Denver, State of Colorado

Dated: January 31, 2023

/s/ R. Scott Fitzke (Original signature on file) Attorney for Plaintiff(s)/Petitioner(s)

R. Scott Fitzke, #35293

Legal Notice No. 82066

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 16, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch Public Notice

CITY & COUNTY OF DENVER, DISTRICT COURT COLORADO CIVIL COURT Denver City & County Bldg. 1437 Bannock St., Rm. 256 Denver, CO 80202

Plaintiff: Cenco Building Services, LLC, a Colorado limited liability company,

Defendants:

H+L Development, LLC, a Colorado limited liability company and Bryant W. Long, an individual Case Number: 22CV30744 Div. Ctrm. 280

NOTICE OF LEVY OR SEIZURE

Sheriff Sale No. 22004964

STATE OF COLORADO )ss

COUNTY OF DENVER TO THE JUDGMENT DEBTOR BRYANT W. LONG:

Notice is hereby given that on May 9, 2022, a judgment against Bryant W. Long from the District Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado, entered in favor of CENCO BUILDING SERVICES, LLC, in the original amount of $36,522.62, and that on December 2, 2022 the Clerk of the DENVER County Court issued a Writ of Execution commanding the Sheriff of DENVER County to levy, seize and take into possession the following real estate, to wit:

LOT 22 AND SOUTH ONE-HALF OF LOT 23, BLOCK 31, MCCULLOUGHS ADDITION 3RD FILING TO DENVER, CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, STATE OF COLORADO.

Otherwise identified or referred to as 2127 High Street, Denver, CO 80205 (the "Property").

You have legal rights that may prevent all or part of your money or property from being taken. That part of the money or property that may not be taken is called "exempt property." Notwithstanding your right to claim the property as "exempt," no exemption other than the exemptions set forth in C.R.S. Section 13-54-104(3), may be claimed for a Writ. The purpose of this Notice of Levy is to tell you about these rights.

If the money or property which is being withheld from you includes any "exempt property," you must file within 14 days of receiving this Notice of Levy a written claim of exemption with the Clerk of the Court, describing what money or property you think is "exempt property" and the reason that it is exempt.

You must act quickly to protect your rights. Remember, you only have 14 days after receiving this Notice of Levy to file your claim of exemption with the Clerk of Court. Your failure to file a claim of exemption with 14 days is a waiver of your right to file.

Now therefore, you BRYANT W. LONG take notice that within fourteen (14) days from the date of service hereof, if served within the state, or if served by publication, within fourteen ( 14) dates after service hereof, exclusive of the day of service, you may file with the Clerk of the above-entitled Court, a written claim of exemption which you may have under the statutes of the State of Colorado; and in case of your failure to make and file such written claim of exemption with the Clerk of said Court you shall be deemed to have waived your right of exemption under the statutes of this state.

Elias Diggins, Sheriff City and County of Denver, Colorado

By: /s/ Deputy Sheriff Sergeant Line

CERTIFICATE OF LEVY

I, Elias Diggins, Sheriff of Denver County, State of Colorado, do hereby certify that by virtue of a certain Writ of Execution to me directed, from the Denver County District Court, State of Colorado, in favor of Cenco Building Services, LLC, and against Bryant W. Long and H+L Development, LLC, jointly and severally, Defendants, dated December 2nd, 2022, I did on this 5111 day of January, 2023, levy upon the following real estate, to

Street, Denver, CO 80205 (the "Property"). Situate in the City and County of Denver, Colorado.

Elias Diggins, Sheriff City and County of Denver, Colorado

By: /s/ Deputy Sheriff Sergeant Line

DISTRICT COURT, DENVER COUNTY, COLORADO Court Address; Denver City and County Building 1437 Bannock St Rm 2

Case Number: 22CV-030744 Div.: 280

Plaintiff: CENCO BLDG SERV LLC,

Defendant: HAND L DEV LLC, et al WRIT OF EXECUTION

Original Judgment Amount: $36,522.62

Judgment Date: May 9, 2022

Revived Judgment Amount: $.00

Judgment Date:

Judgment Status: UNSATISFIED

Additional Remarks:

JUDG ENTERS IN FAVOR OF PLAINTIFF AND AGAINST DEF IN THE AMOUNT OF 36,522.62 WITH INTEREST AT THE RATE OF 10% PER ANNUM, JOINTLY AND SEVERALLY.

Debtor (s): HAND L DEV LLC

BRYANT W LONG

Creditor(s): CENCO BLDG SERV LLC

Balance of Judgment to Date: $36,522.62

To the Sheriff of Denver County, You are commanded to satisfy the above judgment plus interest and costs executing against any property legally subject to levy of the above-named judgment debtor(s) and to return this execution within 90 days from the date of issue, unless sale is pending under levy made.

Nikolaus Zender, Clerk of Court District Court, Denver County

By: /s/ Deputy Clerk

Legal Notice No. 82047

First Publication: January 26, 2023

Last Publication: February 23, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Misc. Private Legals

Public Notice

TO: LAVON SMITH:

You are notified that you have 10 days after publication for this notice of levy to file your claim of exemption with the District Court of Denver County, 1437 Bannock, Room 256, Denver, CO 80202 in Case 2021CV031425 entitled: TIDEWATER FINANCE COMPANY, d/b/a TIDEWATER MOTOR CREDIT, d/b/a TIDEWATER CREDIT SERVICES v. LAVON SMITH, a/k/a LAVON DONNAILL SMITH, a/k/a LAVON DONNAIL SMITH, a/k/a LAVON D. SMITH $2,402.45 garnished at FirstBank, 2850 Quebec St., Denver, CO 80207.

Legal Notice No.82048

First Publication: January 26, 2023

Last Publication: February 23, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch Public Notice

SYNOPSIS OF ANNUAL STATEMENT FOR PUBLICATION

Required pursuant to §10-3-109(1), C.R.S FOR YEAR 2022

FAILURE TO FILE THIS FORM BY MARCH 1

WILL RESULT IN PENALTIES PURSUANT TO §10-3-109(3), C.R.S.:

If any annual report or statement from any entity regulated by the Division of Insurance is not filed by the date specified by law or by rules and regulations of the commissioner, the commissioner may assess a penalty of up to one hundred dollars per day for each day after the date an annual statement or report is due from any such entity.

Corporate Name: Securian Casualty Company

NAIC Number: 10054

Address: 400 Robert Street North St. Paul, MN 55101-2098

Assets: $ 619,793,783

Liabilities: $ 430,230,562

Capital and Surplus/Policyholder Surplus: $189,563,221

DIVISION OF INSURANCE CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORITY

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: THIS IS TO CERTIFY that the Securian Casualty Company, organized under the laws of Minnesota, subject to its Articles of Incorporation or other fundamental organizational documents and in consideration of its compliance with the laws of Colorado, is hereby licensed to transact business as a Property & Casualty insurance company as provided by the Insurance Laws of Colorado, as amended, so long as the insurer continues to conform to the authority granted by its Certificate and its corporate articles, or its Certificate is otherwise revoked, canceled or suspended.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the official seal of my office to be affixed at the City and County of Denver this first day of March 2023.

Michael Conway

Commissioner of Insurance

Legal Notice No. 82086

First Publication: February 23, 2022

Last Publication: March 16, 2022

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch Public Notice

SYNOPSIS OF ANNUAL STATEMENT FOR PUBLICATION

Required pursuant to §10-3-109(1), C.R.S FOR YEAR 2021

FAILURE TO FILE THIS FORM BY MARCH 1

WILL RESULT IN PENALTIES PURSUANT TO §10-3-109(3), C.R.S.:

If any annual report or statement from any entity regulated by the Division of Insurance is not filed by the date specified by law or by rules and regulations of the commissioner, the commissioner may assess a penalty of up to one hundred dollars per day for each day after the date an annual statement or report is due from any such entity

Corporate Name: MotivHealth Insurance Company

NAIC Number: 15743

Address: 10421 South Jordan Gateway, Suite 300 South Jordan, Utah 84095

Assets $44,864,039

Liabilities $38,265,860

Capital and Surplus/ Policyholder Surplus $6,598,179

DIVISION OF INSURANCE CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORITY

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

THIS IS TO CERTIFY that the MotivHealth Insurance Company, organized under the laws of Utah, subject to its Articles of Incorporation or other fundamental organizational documents and in consideration of its compliance with the laws of Colorado, is hereby licensed to transact business as a Life for the Accident and Health lines of business insurance company, as provided by the Insurance Laws of Colorado, as amended, so long as the insurer continues to conform to the authority granted by its Certificate and its corporate articles, or its Certificate is otherwise revoked, canceled or suspended.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand at the City and County of Denver this first day of March 2023.

Michael Conway Commissioner of Insurance

Legal Notice No. 82087

First Publication: February 23, 2023

Last Publication: March 16, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Storage Liens/Vehicle Titles

Public Notice

Broncos Towing, 303-722-3555 (office) will be applying for title to the following vehicles, abandoned.

1)2021 Kia Forte Blue 270608

2)2008 VM Boat Trailer 032694

3)2007 Blue Water Boat 00G708

4)2014 Top Hat Trailer 138091

5)1996 Glastron Boat 1215802

6)2016 Lark UnitedmTrailer 021046

7)1979 Chevy MalibuTan 418488

8) 2009 Dodge Van White 573337

Legal Notice No. 82067

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 9, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Notice to Creditors

Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Kathy Plato, aka Kathy Cook Plato, aka Kathy Plato Cook, aka Kathy Cook, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR030065

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 23, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS Estate of Donald Beltz, AKA Donald T Beltz, AKA Donald Thomas Beltz, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR30085

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 23, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Kimberly Raemdonck, Attorney for the Personal Representative of the Estate Donald Beltz AKA Donald T Beltz AKA Donald Thomas Beltz, Wesley Jay Beltz 2485 W Main Street, Suite 200 Littleton, CO 80120

Legal Notice No. 82085

First Publication: February 23, 2023

Last Publication: March 9, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of JANE MARIE CARLSTROM, also known as JANE M. CARLSTROM, and JANE CARLSTROM, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR30029

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 9, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Mary C. Rutherford-Birkey, Personal Representative 200 Rampart Way, #410 Denver, CO 80230

Legal Notice No. 82063

First Publication: February 9, 2023

Last Publication: February 23, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Richard James Morroni, a/k/a Richard J. Morroni, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR30051

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 16, 2023 or the claims may be forever barred.

Person Giving Notice: Craig J. Morroni, Personal Representative Estate of Richard James Morroni 3282 S. Magnolia Street Denver, CO 80224

Legal Notice No. 82076

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 2, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Melver L. Anderson, Jr., Deceased Case Number 2023PR30052

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 16, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Stephennie E. Anderson Personal Representative 9436 East 59th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80238

Legal Notice No. 82073

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 2, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Guadalupe Reyes Gonzales, a/k/a Guadalupe R. Gonzales, a/k/a Guadalupe Gonzales, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR30015

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 9, 2023 or the claims may be forever barred.

Rose E. Ruffino Personal Representative

Patrick R. Thiessen (40185) FRIE, ARNDT, DANBORN & THIESSEN P.C. 7400 Wadsworth Blvd, Ste. 201 Arvada, CO 80003

Phone Number: 303-420-1234

Attorney for Rose E. Ruffino Personal Representative

Legal Notice No. 82060

First Publication: February 9, 2023

Last Publication: February 23, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Ralph Charles Eggen, Deceased Case Number: 2022PR031661

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 16, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Gary Eggen, Co-Personal Representative

1309 Dixon Dr. Jefferson City, MO 65101

Susan Danaher, Co-Personal Representative

628 N. Maplewood Hills Rd. Nixa, MO 65714

Legal Notice No. 82078

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 2, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of MIRIAM KNIGHT FARRINGTON, a/k/a Miriam Farrington, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR30061

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 16, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Christine Farrington Fullerton, Personal Representative

375 Lafayette Denver, CO 80218

Legal Notice No. 82074

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 2, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Merrill Howe Leavitt, a/k/a Merrill H. Leavitt, a/k/a Merrill Leavitt, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR030119

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 23, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Catherine A. Short

Personal Representative c/o Janine A. Guillen, Esq. Guillen DeGeorge, LLP 9222 Teddy Lane Lone Tree, CO 80124

Legal Notice No. 82091

First Publication: February 23, 2023

Last Publication: March 9, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of ERIN PATRICIA STARK, a/k/a ERIN P. STARK, a/k/a ERIN STARK, Deceased

Case Number: 2023PR30026

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 16, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Susan Weinstein - Personal Representative

2024 Vine St. Denver, CO 80205

Legal Notice No. 82065

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 2, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Talia Braude, Deceased

Case Number 2023 PR 030086

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before July 10, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

James T. Anest #16727 Arant Law LLC

Attorney to the Personal Representive 19751 E Mainstreet Suite 365 Parker, CO 80138

Legal Notice No. 82094

First Publication: February 23, 2023

Last Publication: March 9, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of John R. McClain, a/k/a John Robert McClain, a/k/a John McClain, Deceased

Case Number: 2023PR30073

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 23, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Joyce L. McClain, Personal Representative

82083

of Marilyn H. Shaw, Deceased

Number: 2022PR31463

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 9, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Benjamin G. Shaw, Personal Representative 3219 Folsom St. San Francisco, CA 94110

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 16, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Martin Wilson, Personal Representative 432-2300 Mansfield Drive Courtnay, BC VN9 3S3 CANADA

Notice No. 82075

Publication: February 16, 2023

Publication: March 2, 2023 Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch Public Notice

TO CREDITORS Estate of MARY D. HADDON, AKA MARY DENISE HADDON, AND MARY HADDON, Deceased Case Number: 23 PR 30018

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the PROBATE COURT OF CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, COLORADO, on or before June 15, 2023 or the claims may be forever barred.

Timothy John Haddon Personal Representative 1201 N. Williams Street #18A Denver, CO 80218 Legal Notice No. 82061

First Publication: February 9, 2023

Last Publication: February 23, 2023 Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch Public Notice NOTICE TO CREDITORS Estate of Deo C. Fredrickson, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR030120

named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 23, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

David F. Steinhoff, Esq., #9980

o/b/o Estate of Ainslie R. O’Neil 750 W. Hampden Ave., Suite 505 Englewood, CO 80110

Legal Notice No. 82088

First Publication: February 23, 2023

Last Publication: March 9, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of RICHARD P. HOLME, also known as Richard Phillips Holme, Deceased Case Number 2023PR030143

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 23, 2023 or the claims may be forever barred.

Barbara F. Holme, Personal Representative 3944 S. Depew Way Denver, CO 80235

Legal Notice No. 82082

First Publication: February 23, 2023

Last Publication: March 9, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Linda E. Canaday, a/k/a Linda Ellen Canaday, a/k/a Linda Canaday, Deceased Case Number: 2022PR31593

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before 06/16/2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Richard Canaday, Personal Representative c/o Carleton H. Hutchins 1999 Broadway, Suite 1400 Denver, CO 80120

Legal Notice No. 82079

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 2, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of GEORGE RAMIREZ, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR30039

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court, Colorado, on or before June 16, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Christine Ramirez, Personal Representative c/o Law Office of Jennifer S. Gormley, PC 6060 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Suite 300 Greenwood Village, CO 80111

Legal Notice No. 82071

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 2, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

PUBLIC NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Gayla Holland Scheid, deceased Case Number: 2023PR30019

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 23, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Vicki Peterson, Personal Representative 832 Lakeside Drive Carbondale, Colorado 81632

Legal Notice No. 82089

First publication: February 23, 2023

Last publication: March 09, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald Dispatch

Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Audrone C. Tischner , a/k/a Audra Tischner, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR30067

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 23, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Erik Tischner, Personal Representative c/o Keith L. Davis, Esq. Davis Schilken, PC 7887 E. Belleview Ave., Suite 820 Denver, CO 80111

Legal Notice No. 82084

First Publication: February 23, 2023

Last Publication: March 9, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch

Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Fernando Anthony Apodaca, Deceased Case Number 2023PR30046

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 23, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Anthony J. Apodaca Personal Representative 5909 Boston St. Denver, CO 80238

Legal Notice No. 82092

First Publication: February 23, 2023

Last Publication: March 9, 2023 Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Ramona Juanita Valdez, a/k/a Ramona J. Valdez, and Ramona Valdez, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR30049

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to: Denver Probate Court City and County of Denver, Colorado 1437 Bannock St., #230 Denver, CO 80202 on or before June 16, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Jose Reynaldo Valdez, Personal Representative c/o Law Office of Byron K. Hammond, LLC 500 Cherry Creek Drive South, Suite 960 Denver, CO 80246

Legal Notice No. 82072

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 2, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch PUBLIC NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Carol Ruth Kreck, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR8

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 16, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Molly Kreck, Personal Representative 267 S Franklin Street Denver CO 80209

Legal Notice No. 82069

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 2, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald-Dispatch Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of PAMELA SUE WINSOR, a/k/a PAMELA S. WINSOR, a/k/a PAMELA WINSOR, a/k/a PAM WINSOR, Deceased Case Number: 2022PR31527

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado on or before June 16, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Samantha K. Mauck Co-Personal Representative 1747 Dahlia Street Denver, CO 80220

Chloe E. Winsor, Co-Personal Representative 11515 E Center Drive Aurora, CO 80012

Legal Notice No.82068

First Publication: February 16, 2023

Last Publication: March 2, 2023

Publisher: Denver Herald Dispatch Public Notice

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Francis Dennis Burns, a/k/a Francis Dennis Burns, Jr., a/k/a Francis D. Burns, a/k/a Francis Burns, a/k/a Frank Burns, Deceased Case Number: 2023PR30028

All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before June 16, 2023, or the claims may be forever barred.

Pamela Pei-Ling Liu Personal Representative Patrick R. Thiessen (40185) FRIE, ARNDT, DANBORN & THIESSEN P.C. 7400 Wadsworth Blvd, Ste. 201 Arvada, CO 80003

Phone Number: 303-420-1234

Attorney for Pamela Pei-Ling