Elbert County News 080422

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Week of August 4, 2022

ELBERT COUNTY, COLORADO

A publication of

ElbertCountyNews.net

VOLUME 127 | ISSUE 25

Elizabeth mail issue unresolved Town leaders say residents are subject to inconsistent treatment

BY CHANCY J. GATLIN-ANDERSON SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

Mayor Megan Vasquez, center, stands with the Elizabeth Board of Trustees.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE TOWN OF ELIZABETH

Vasquez reflects on time as mayor Town of Elizabeth seeks new mayor and four trustees

BY CHANCY J. GATLIN-ANDERSON SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

Election season is right around the corner and the Town of Elizabeth has many open seats to fill.

The town will have two items on Nov. 8 ballot: The first item is for those candidates seeking the open mayor’s seat, and the second item will be for the open positions on the Board of Trustees. There are four open seats for the 2022 election.

Megan Vasquez, born and raised in Kiowa, has been the Town of

Mayor Megan Vasquez, center, dressed as a snowman at an Elizabeth town event.

SEE MAYOR, P8

INSIDE: CALENDAR: PAGE 11 | VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 16

PHOTO COURTESY OF MEGAN VASQUEZ

The Elizabeth Board of Trustees held a meeting on July 26 at Town Hall to discuss issues relating to the delivery of mail to residents.

Several people have posed concerns regarding inconsistent treatment of Elizabeth residents, arguing that the Elizabeth Post Office is refusing to deliver mail to certain locations.

Though representatives from the United States Postal Service were meant to be in attendance, no representatives showed up to the event to field questions.

According to a statement by Elizabeth Town Clerk Michelle Oeser, the town has been working to receive residential delivery of U.S. mail for many years.

A town news release says: “Most of Elizabeth’s citizens and businesses have been required to obtain post office boxes for mail delivery.

Residents and businesses have been required to pay for those boxes to receive their mail, and those costs have increased drastically over time. However, this is not the case in all communities in Colorado. For some towns they are provided their individual post office boxes without any cost.

“Most recently, the town installed cluster mailboxes on the corner of County Road 136 and Pine Ridge SEE MAIL, P2

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2 Elbert County News

August 4, 2022

MAIL

‘Tax dollars went toward the cluster box project, which is an appropriate use. However, the taxpayers aren’t getting any use out of it.’

FROM PAGE 1

The Elizabeth Town Hall was the location of the July 26 community meeting to disPHOTO COURTESY OF TOWN OF ELIZABETH cuss mail issues.

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Road. This work had been done in coordination with the United States Postal Service, with the intention of having mail delivery at that location. The Post Office is now refusing to deliver mail to this location.

In the meantime, citizens in other areas around town receive mail service at neighborhood cluster mailboxes. Representatives of the Town of Elizabeth have been trying for months to address these concerns with the local, state, and regional representatives of the Postal Service. There has been no action on the part of the Postal Service.”

Unfortunately, no resolutions were made at the time of the meeting. According to Nannette Byrne-Haupt, constituent advocate with Sen. John Hickenlooper’s office, the towns of Elizabeth, Buena Vista and Crested Butte all have similar issues that are still in active review and one decision may impact multiple towns.

“The Postal Service is reviewing the universal delivery inquiry,” said Byrne-Haupt. “The inquiry is with the USPS HQ Government Relations and the legal team and will be decided upon shortly. We apologize for the delay in response as we work on a decision.”

In a phone interview with Town Administrator Patrick Davidson on July 27, he expressed his frustrations with the mail delivery and lack of resolution.

“I’ve contacted the post office multiple times throughout my time as administrator and we haven’t been able to get any resolution. We were hoping to bring it to a resolution last night,” said Davidson. “Tax dollars went toward the cluster box project, which is an appropriate use. However, the taxpayers aren’t getting any use out of it.”

He also stressed that the cluster boxes are helpful to the community and to the post office, underscoring his confusion as to why the Postal Service will not deliver to them.

“Cluster boxes are helpful and resolve issues like street maintenance and make mail delivery easier for the postmen,” said Davidson. “The area surrounding the boxes is built beyond USPS specifications. We’ve made them very accessible to people with physical disabilities and we’ve made the space large enough for snow removal. Overall, the space makes it easier for post office delivery.”

Some residents are frustrated and

Patrick Davidson, Elizabeth town administrator

feel that the issue lies in preparation and communication between the Town of Elizabeth administration and USPS, arguing that there should have been more coordination between the two parties prior to the paving boxes being installed.

In response to this argument, a statement was made from the Town of Elizabeth on their official Facebook page saying the following: “The discussion of mail delivery at the cluster boxes occurred over some time in preparation for the paving projects. The dialog regarding cluster boxes started in 2017 and continued through 2019, and included Postmaster Nicholas Games, Postmaster Al Hagerman, and other postal employees. Through these discussions, the Postal Service provided the town information regarding mailbox repair and maintenance, installation guidelines, and examples of commercial cluster boxes units on pedestals, as installed.”

In an email correspondence with Mayor Megan Vasquez, she gave a comment regarding the situation.

“The town staff and Board of Trustees are working diligently both on the state and federal level to get answers for the citizens of Elizabeth,” said Vasquez. “We will continue to work to find a resolution to meet the growing concerns and needs of the community.”

The Elbert County News attempted to reach the United States Postal Service for comment but received no response.

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August 4, 2022

Groups to host preparation event Self Reliance Exposition set for Elbert County Fairgrounds on Aug. 13 STAFF REPORT

The first Self Reliance Exposition fundraiser will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13, in the Exhibit Hall building at the Elbert County Fairgrounds in Kiowa.

The expo is sponsored by Elbert County Coalition for Outreach (ECCO), Elbert County Stands Up and KLZ-AM 560 radio. Elbert County Sheriff Tim Norton is scheduled to speak at 1:30 p.m. and there will be workshops, demonstrations and more than 40 vendors.

A $10 entrance donation is suggested for anyone 13 and older, with proceeds going to Elbert County emergency services.

Self-reliance matters covered by the event will include: • Raising animals for hard times • Home emergency/medical • Communications • Water sources • Canning and fermentation • Preparedness basics • Firearms/personal safety • Herbs • Greenhouses/gardening • High-efficiency woodstoves • Emergency supplies • Solar/alternative power • Off-grid living • Meeting health challenges

The Self Reliance Exposition at the Elbert County Fairgrounds on Aug. 13 will include a focus on preparedness issues.

A sampling of vendors includes: Sunshine Solar is a small distributor and designer of off-grid living products and systems, such as water pumping systems, garden irrigation, livestock watering, off-grid cabins, and solar energy systems.

Colorado Greenhouse Builders is an Elbert-based company specializing in geothermal greenhouses which can provide the opportunity to grow veggies year-round.

EMP Shield from Burlington, Kansas, will share information on systems that can protect from the effects of an EMP burst, which can harm anything electrical.

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Forty Mile Feed is a local Kiowa store that helps folks be self-reliant through the sales of seeds, poultry, bees, and equipment and feed.

Simon CPR Services teaches people the life-saving skills of CPR. Elbert County Stands Up Volunteer Medical Team will teach families how to build a complete home health medical package, to serve many different health problems.

Fires A Blazn, based in Elbert County, provides expert knowledge on choosing a quality woodstove.

Colorado Fruitscapes specializes in successfully growing all kinds of fruit trees and berries in Colorado.

There will also be workshops presented on the half-hour, starting at 9:30 a.m. Examples include: Growing Microgreens; All About Permaculture, The Basics of Gardening, Spiritual Strength, and The Importance of Staying Healthy.

Two food preservation demonstrations will be held: The Basics of Canning and How To Preserve Food Through Fermenting.

Complete and final vendor and workshop information for the expo will be posted online by Aug. 6 at elbertcountystandsup.com.

Questions can be directed by email to: ElbertCosu@yahoo.com.

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Elbert County News 5

August 4, 2022

Ganahl wants to eliminate state income tax Plan by GOP candidate targets largest source of revenue in general fund

‘I’m working with some experts on that. I don’t want to get ahead of us. But I wouldn’t be putting this big, bold pledge out there if I didn’t think we could get it done.’

BY JESSE PAUL COLORADO SUN

Heidi Ganahl, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, is campaigning on a bold promise to eliminate Colorado’s 4.55% individual income tax, the largest source of revenue for the state’s general fund, during her first four-year term.

“I will take us to zero income tax,” she told Republican voters during a candidate forum in April.

But Ganahl, a University of Colorado regent and the only remaining Republican in statewide elected office, hasn’t explained how she plans to eliminate Colorado’s income tax without dramatically affecting the state’s budget, nearly one-third of which is made up of income tax dollars.

Ganahl would either have to slash programs and services to make up for the lost revenue — likely including education funding — or find billions of dollars elsewhere by trying to hike other taxes or enacting new fees.

“It’s doable,” she said in an interview in June without offering detailed plans on how she would do it. “It’s not going to happen

Heidi Ganahl, Republican gubernatorial nominee

overnight.”

Republicans have been slowly chipping away at Colorado’s income tax rate for years. The latest effort is a question on the November ballot that would reduce the rate to 4.4%. But conservatives have mostly avoided calls to eliminate the income tax, which has been around since 1937, because no one has presented a feasible way to do it.

“Philosophically I agree,” said state Sen. Bob Rankin, a Carbondale Republican and the senior GOP member of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, which writes the state budget. “How we get there would take some work.”

Ganahl’s Democratic opponent in November, Gov. Jared Polis, is also a proponent of eliminating Colorado’s income tax, but only if it’s eliminated in a revenue-

neutral way. He has said he wants to raise taxes on other things — like pollution — to make up the difference.

And unlike Ganahl, Polis has not made eliminating Colorado’s income tax a cornerstone of his policy platform.

“We can find another way to generate revenue that doesn’t discourage productivity and growth,” he said at a conservative conference last year.

Polis also appears to be in favor of the measure on November’s ballot seeking to reduce the income tax rate. “I’m generally supportive of those kinds of measures,” he told The Sun earlier this year.

In the 2020-21 fiscal year, the state’s individual income tax revenue was roughly $9.5 billion, accounting for more than 60% of

total general fund revenue. The overall state budget that year, which also includes billions in federal dollars, was about $32 billion.

By comparison, sales tax revenue in the 2020-21 fiscal year, the second largest source of general fund dollars, was roughly $3.4 billion. The state sales tax rate is 2.9%.

In the 2021-22 fiscal year, which ended June 30, individual income tax revenue is expected to total $11.5 billion. In this fiscal year, which began July 1, Colorado’s individual income tax revenue is forecast to be about $11.6 billion.

Ganahl said her campaign plans to lay out the specifics of her proposal, a major part of her economic platform and her overall SEE GANAHL, P10

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August 4, 2022

More home sellers cutting prices in metro Denver Sudden drop in demand spooks homeowners who are looking to unload More home sellers along the Front Range are cutting the list prices of their properties as demand drops.

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BY TAMARA CHUANG, BRAMMHI BALARAJAN, AND MARVIS GUTIERREZ THE COLORADO SUN

Putting your house up for sale is stressful enough. Now, sellers find themselves having to cut their listing price after the home is already on the market.

Two to three times more sellers in Denver, Fort Collins and Colorado Springs reconsidered their list prices and then lowered them in June compared to a year ago, according to new data from Zillow.

Results are coming in on how much prices changed in June. Not the average price the house sold for, though.

Those have barely budged. There’s also the latest job report that shows Colorado has recovered 110% of the jobs lost in the pandemic, which helped push down the state’s unemployment rate to 3.4% in June. More on that below.

But first, let’s talk about housing.

Zillow says 18% of Denver and Colorado Springs sellers cut sale price in June Cutting the price of a house after it hits the market is normal. But it doesn’t come without adding stress

for the seller.

The share of listings with a price cut in June for Denver was 18.3%, up 7% month over month, according to data from Zillow. So, if there were 4,807 houses available in Denver for active listing according to Federal Reserve Economic Data, 879 cut their prices.

In Colorado Springs, prices were cut on 18% of listings. In Fort Collins, they accounted for 9.5%, a threefold increase from June 2021.

“Sellers in Denver and Colorado Springs are getting anxious due to the sudden pullback in demand from buyers in those markets,” senior Zillow economist Jeff Tucker said in an email. “The Mountain West is transitioning quickly from a whitehot sellers’ market toward much more balanced conditions, and many sellers have been caught off guard by this sharp turnaround. Some sellers overshot the mark with their initial list price, but after last year’s big runup in home values, they still have a lot of room to find a price point that will sell.”

But price cuts are normal and the trend has repeated itself historically. There were even price cuts last year as the housing price growth in Colorado seemed unstoppable. The number of sellers cutting their list price in June is now in double digits in the U.S. as well at 14.5%.

SEE HOUSING, P7

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Elbert County News 7

August 4, 2022

HOUSING FROM PAGE 6

It’s normal because homeowners who cut their listing price often “overprice and don’t realize (declining) market value,” Zillow economist Nicole Bachaud said.

Denver and Fort Collins both were below the national average for the median size of price cuts. But both places are increasing. The median price cut in Denver was 2.7% in June, compared with 3.3% nationwide. In spring 2021, Denver’s median price cut was 2.3% while the U.S. was 2.9%. Denver was also at a historical low when it came to the number of listings with price cuts at only 6.1% of houses.

Rent increases slowing Just like home prices, rents are still much higher than they were pre-pandemic. According to Zillow’s data, typical rent in the U.S. crossed the $2,000 per month threshold for the first time. In Denver, monthly rent is now around $2,005, up 20.4% since June 2019.

But the rise in rents is expected to decelerate for a number of reasons, Tucker said. They’re still growing, just slower.

“A rapid run-up in rents that peaked in February was likely a one-time event, driven by a return to cities and people moving out of shared apartments or their parents’ house. We’re expecting rent growth to ease back down over the next several months as vacancy rates rise above historic lows,” he said. “One factor that could slow the return to normal is the high cost of buying a home, which will encourage many renters to renew their lease instead.”

Time dwindles for renter assistance There’s still money available for folks who struggle to pay rent. But the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program is now in its final phase, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, which has been disbursing hundreds of millions of dollars to help residents pay rent.

During the pandemic, federal funds paid up to 15 months of past-due, current and future rent for thousands of Coloradans who suffered a financial hardship due to COVID. Eligibility for the program is no longer limited to renters impacted by COVID, but time

is running out.

On DOLA’s site, the agency said as of this month, it’s changing gears to focus on affordable housing because “it remains our primary concern to keep people housed, and ensure any experience of homelessness is as brief as possible.”

DOLA has been paying out more than $20 million a month this year, according to department officials. It’s disbursed about $246 million in rent, or about 65% of available funds. Combined with earlier programs, that’s helped more than 30,000 households in Colorado.

Pains and gains of Colorado housing When interest rates shot up in June, most people who took What’s Working’s housing poll said they were happy homeowners.

“No plans to move and on a fixed income,” wrote Chris from Pine Junction. “So glad I own!”

In the survey, 83% of 150 people who responded said they owned their home. And 80.6% said they spend less than 30% of their income on housing each month, a rule of thumb for eons.

But another large chunk said they pay nothing because they’ve paid off their mortgage. Of course, there are still taxes and other housing costs. As Dave from Lafayette wrote in all caps: “WOULD LIKE TAXES TO QUIT GOING UP!!”

In an interesting stat: Only 15.7% of about 150 people who took the survey said their housing costs are more than 30% of their income. Of those, 45% were renters. “House hunter but that mortgage rate hike just put ownership out of reach,” wrote Kylie, a renter in Denver.

Andy Stewart, a renter who spends more than 30% of his income on housing, works as a supervisor in the hospitality industry in Vail. He blamed the short-term rentals that are hogging up housing and remote workers with “high-paying finance jobs.”

“There is nowhere to rent in Vail,” Stewart wrote. “Almost impossible to hire staff w/o a place to live.”

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

Don’t miss the last weekend for the 2022 Douglas County Fair & Rodeo for some old-fashioned family fun. Enjoy live music, classic fair food, and even an Old West Town. For more information, a schedule of events, or to purchase tickets online, visit FairandRodeoFun.com or call 720-733-6941.

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8 Elbert County News

August 4, 2022

MAYOR FROM PAGE 1

Elizabeth’s mayor for the past four and a half years. Though not term limited, she will be stepping down at the end of her term in November.

In a phone interview from July 26, Mayor Vasquez reflected on her time with the Town of Elizabeth.

What was your general experience like as mayor?

It’s been a wonderful experience.

It’s been very rewarding and educational. It’s also been very stressful and difficult. It felt like a roller coaster in a sense, but I wouldn’t take it back for the world.

I’m the only mayor that has served four and a half years for the town. I’ve also been mayor through some very tumultuous times like the whole COVID-19 pandemic and several attempts by the group “We Are Not Parker” to recall me as well as the entire Board of Trustees. I have a love for this community. I have a business here. It was hard to see the community in a negative space.

Do you have a most memorable moment from your time as mayor?

One of my favorite memories was working on re-implementing the Student Liaison Program.

We have one student from Elizabeth High School that serves on our board, doing everything that a trustee would do. They get to learn about the inner workings of local government, and we get to learn about the student perspective.

I also think communication is key in running a successful town.

One of my favorite projects was when I was able to work with our different agencies, restarting conversations that were lacking.

I got our police chief, fire chief and sheriff together and we did a dunk tank for charity. We also did a chili dinner the year before where we took a pie in the face to raise money.

A thing I’m working on now that I’m really proud of is helping our seniors’ community. It’s a large demographic of Elizabeth and there isn’t a senior center here. Right now, we are working to find a plot of land to build a senior center.

Elizabeth Mayor Megan Vasquez, at bottom left, dressed as a unicorn for a town Halloween event.

FACTS ABOUT THE ELECTION Candidates for the office of mayor for the Town of Elizabeth, Colorado must be a registered elector of the town as shown on the records of the Elbert County Clerk and Recorder on the date of the earliest signature on the nomination petition and must have resided in the town for the twelve (12) consecutive months immediately preceding the date of election.

In case of an annexation, any person who has resided within the territory annexed for the prescribed time shall be deemed to have met the residency reWhy have you chosen not to run again?

When I do things in my life, I am all in. Being mayor can sometimes be a thankless job and with everything going on in the town, it’s become a full-time job.

I’ve had to put my personal life on hold and haven’t been able to pursue my dreams.

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quirements for the town. No person may be a candidate for two municipal offices at the same election nor hold two elective municipal offices simultaneously.

If you want to run for office, petitions may be picked up from the town clerk starting Aug. 9. Petitions must be returned by Aug. 29 by no later than 5 p.m.

Call or email Town Clerk Michelle Oeser if you are interested in running and have any questions. She can be reached by phone at 303-646-4166 (ext. 2) or by email at moeser@townofelizabeth.org What are your future plans?

On a personal level, my boyfriend of eight years and I would like to have children. We purchased land close to Elizabeth and want to have a family.

I’m also extremely passionate about community and would like to be more involved in the local nonprofits. I currently work with

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MEGAN VASQUEZ

the Elizabeth Firefighters Foundation, Elizabeth Education Foundation, and several others. I want to fully give back to them. Up to this point I haven’t been able to.

Do you have any advice for the future mayor of the town?

Keep an open mind and know that you’re not going to please everyone. Always listen. The new mayor needs to have a heart and love for the community, not an agenda. Welcome everyone with open arms and get to know the amazing stuff. You can trust them.

Is there anything else you would like the Elbert County community to know about your time as mayor?

I’m going to miss the position very much. I’ve learned so much about myself and our community and the business owners. We are all so unique and privileged to live here.

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Elbert County News 9

10 Elbert County News

August 4, 2022

GANAHL

TURN TO THE COLORADO SUN FOR NEWS ACROSS THE STATE

FROM PAGE 5

pitch to voters, later this summer. (“We have a policy team working on it,” Lexi Swearingen, Ganahl’s spokeswoman, said earlier this month.)

“I’m working with some experts on that,” Ganahl said of her income tax plan. “I don’t want to get ahead of us. But I wouldn’t be putting this big, bold pledge out there if I didn’t think we could get it done.”

Republican candidate for governor Heidi Ganahl speaks during the GOP assembly at the Broadmoor World Arena on Saturday, April 9, 2022, in Colorado Springs. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) Ganahl has also said she plans to cut Colorado’s 22-cent-per-gallon gas tax, which is one of the lowest state gas taxes in the nation, in half, which would sharply lower the funds available for the Colorado Department of Transportation There are already plenty of skeptics.

First off, Ganahl couldn’t unilaterally eliminate Colorado’s income tax. She would likely need the help of the legislature, and would almost certainly need the legislature to be controlled by Republicans. The GOP hasn’t held a majority in both the House and Senate at the same time in well over a decade, and while the party is primed to make gains in the Senate this year and could even take control of the chamber, it’s improbable that they win a majority in the House.

The Colorado State Capitol on Dec.

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10, 2021. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun) Secondly, Ganahl would have to find a way to eliminate the income tax without breaking state government.

Michael Fields, a conservative fiscal policy activist who has been pushing for incremental income tax rate cuts, said it wouldn’t be feasible to eliminate the state’s income tax without some serious planning.

“You would definitely have to fill in a lot of that revenue with some other source,” he said.

Democrats in the legislature and liberal fiscal policy groups are almost uniformly against the idea.

“It’s red meat for the base,” said Scott Wasserman, who leads the liberal-leaning Bell Policy Center, “but as with a lot of the things I see coming out of her campaign it’s not

grounded in governing.”

Proposing cuts to the budget is fair game, he said, but Ganahl needs to explain which cuts she would make or where she would find revenue to backfill what’s lost.

“Obviously that would have an impact on people,” he said. “It’s gotta be an informed conversation.”

The income tax rate Colordans paid used to be based on their earnings. People with higher incomes paid more while people with lower incomes paid less until 1987, when a flat, 5% rate was enacted. The rate was reduced by the legislature about 20 years ago and then again by voters in 2020.

State Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat who is slated to be the next chair of the JBC, said Ganahl should explain to voters how she would fund schools if she cuts the income tax.

“It would completely gut the ability of the state to deliver education and other services,” he said. “It’s just a bit nonsensical to say ‘we’re going to cut the income tax’ without a plausible plan to replace that revenue.”

Ganahl has provided some general ideas on how to remove Colorado’s income tax: find waste in the budget (she hasn’t said where there are billions in waste now, though she has complained about the budget’s size) and bring new businesses to Colorado to create more jobs and increase existing state revenue streams by improving the economy.

In Kansas, then-Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, cut income taxes in 2012 with the intention of boosting the state’s economy. That didn’t work and the reductions were eventually rolled back.

Ganahl has also pointed to the fact

that nine other states don’t have an income tax, including Florida and Texas.

However, Florida’s sales tax rate is more than double Colorado’s rate at 6%. Florida’s effective property tax rate is also much higher than Colorado’s, according to Rocket Mortgage, at 0.89% and 0.51% respectively.

In Texas, the state sales tax rate is 6.25%. Rocket Mortgage listed Texas’ effective property tax rate as the 7th highest in the U.S. Colorado’s rate was ranked as the third lowest.

Even if Ganahl wanted to raise the state sales tax rate in Colorado or the effective property tax rate, doing so would be immensely difficult.

Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights requires voter approval for all tax increases, and Coloradans have been mostly unwilling to approve state tax hikes since TABOR, a constitutional amendment, was adopted in 1992.

Hansen also points out that raising the state’s sales tax rate would be regressive since doing so would force poorer Coloradans to shoulder to shoulder the same increases as their wealthier counterparts.

But Ganahl said she is undaunted by the big challenges that come with trying to eliminate the state income tax.

“I am all about rolling up my sleeves and making solutions work,” she said.

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

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Elbert County News 11

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12 Elbert County News

LOCAL

A sad reality

August 4, 2022

VOICES

A

O

ne of the things I love about being an editor is going to meetings, forums, focus groups and awards banquets. I get to meet a lot of different people and listen to a lot of opinions, discussions and topics.

Recently, in a roundtable discussion, a group of us talked about housing affordability. In that discussion, we talked about how our workforce is being FROM THE pushed out of the housing market completely. Of course, in asking why — some EDITOR of the answers that sadly are reality — worries me.

When I say workforce, I am talking about our teachers, our police officers, our firefighters, our government employees and those who make our everyday lives possible. However, somehow, society has decided they are also the people we do not want as our neighbors. We have Thelma Grimes communities saying: Come here and work and teach our children, protect us, take care of our needs — but do not live here.

The problem with this mentality is the valued workforce is going to move on. We are going to get fewer of them in our communities as they move to states and towns where people want them. That is our loss.

My son’s kindergarten teacher, a 20-year educator and an awesome person, said she grew up in a house behind the school she currently teaches. However, on her salary, she couldn’t afford to live there now. Is that really the kind of world we want?

The idea that renters bring down our communities is also just nonsense. To afford to live in most of the housing communities in Douglas County and most of Arapahoe County — the rent costs are more than my mortgage. We have great neighbors who rent. We had horrible neighbors, who fortunately moved away, who owned their home.

Perception is everything these days and I am having a hard time understanding the belief some have about affordable housing creating a community nuisance.

Having loud groups fight every time a developer or elected body tries to bring more affordable options into a community has to change. That change has to come from those casting the votes. At some point, our elected officials have to take a stand and say a strong, steady workforce is what is needed to keep an economy on track. They have to start voting and finding solutions that help working families survive.

This trickles down to those young adults just entering the workforce as well. In listening to a 20-year-old out of college, he said he is living with his dad and there is no way he could afford to live in Douglas County where he grew up. There are no options for him.

That means our young, educated workforce will seek employment elsewhere and another state’s gain is going to be our loss. It is a loss we might now feel now but we will in the future.

For those fighting the affordable housing concept — go back to your younger days when you were trying to find your footing in this world. Would you have been as successful in a market like we have today? How would you have gotten your first apartment? Paid for your first home?

We need to create growth and opportunity for all levels of society and not just a select few who think they deserve the best houses, best views and best of everything without giving up something in return.

Thelma Grimes is the south metro editor for Colorado Community Media.`

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w i

The tidal wave of complacency

T

here is plenty of discussion happening around what is being called “The Great Resignation.” The impact of people not willing to work has a vastreaching impact and implications on every aspect of life. We are all experiencing fractured supWINNING ply chains, an understaffed WORDS service industry, and gaps in inventory resulting in shortages around the world, just to name a few.

This disruption and rising inflation are causing severe emotional and financial stress, leading to anxiety for businesses and many of us at home. When will it end?

Michael Norton That is a question no one can answer, with some experts believing that it will be around longer than we think and whether that is a little longer or a lot longer.

What many businesses are experiencing that is worse than “The Great Resignation,” is a tidal wave of complacency. When the pandemic began, both employer and employee were trying to figure out the whole remote work situation. In the beginning, there were struggles with working from home, and leaders were anxious because they felt work might not be getting done in the same capacity. But within just a few

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short months, employees became extremely comfortable and grateful to be able to work from home, especially those who had difficult commutes.

The work-life balance began to get better for most of us. We became aware of the fact that we could decide to work when we wanted to work and take a few hours off and then return to our work in the evening.

This strategy worked well for some, but it also created an opportunity for complacency for others. We would convince ourselves we would do the work later, and then later became tomorrow, and tomorrow became next week. We lost any sense of urgency that we may have had before.

Hunger and desire have been replaced by distractions and atrophy of our business muscles and attitude. Where we once strived for excellence, we have settled into striving for mediocrity. We know that talent without effort breeds mediocrity. We have fantastic people on our teams, and we know they can do more, do better, and once again be capable of striving for excellence.

There is so much great content around how we can break out of our comfort zone, or as I heard this week, how we can break free from our confinement zone. Comfort zones are breeding grounds for mediocrity, and confinement zones hold us hostage, as

Columnists & Guest Commentaries Columnist opinions are not necessarily those of the Elbert County News.

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.

SEE NORTON, P13

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Elbert County News 13

August 4, 2022

A

Older adults to talk with superintendent

hhh, summer. Soon thoughts of swimming pools, part-time jobs and relaxing time with family and friends will be replaced with class schedules, homework and locker combinations as LIVING AND our Douglas County students AGING WELL return to another new school year this month.

While summer is the wellneeded break that all students, staff and parents need, as a community we can’t help but be excited for the beginning of a brand new school year to focus on learning, relationships and opportunities for growth.

Bringing back education, and Erin Kane the well-being of students and staff as our primary focus is exactly what our school district needs. When we think about all we have to be thankful for — at the top of the list is the fact that we have the privilege of living,

NORTON FROM PAGE 12

they hamper our enthusiasm and our creativity. Just because we may work from home or have a hybrid work schedule does not mean we should settle for doing the minimally acceptable level of work. We owe our company, customers, coworkers and ourselves more than that. We owe ourselves and all of them our absolute best effort.

We become frustrated because we cannot find what we need at the store because of no inventory. We have the right to be upset because it takes our meals longer to come out because the restaurant is short

working and playing in Douglas County! We are excited to have our students (all 64,000 of them!) back in the classroom learning and taking part in activities and milestones our school district has to offer across our 89 schools.

Here in the Douglas County School District (DCSD) we have much to celebrate. We have one of the highest graduation rates in the Denver metro area at 90.7%. The Class of 2021 earned more than $116 million in scholarships and our students and parents saved $3.7 million in college expenses through DCSD’s concurrent enrollment partnerships in the 2021-2022 school year.

Currently, over 70% of residents in Douglas County do not have school-aged children. We know that much of that population includes older adults. We also know that there are many residents in Douglas County who are grandparents with grandchildren attending our schools — many of you have active and special relationships in your grandchildren’s lives. Grandparents, along with parents, have many concerns about school safety as well as the mental and

on help. Our impatience grows because we cannot get the car we want for several months. And we believe we have the right to be frustrated, upset and impatient, being angry about what we cannot get or have. Yet we never stop to think about how our lack of effort and complacency impacts our company, customers, co-workers, and even our ability to grow, advance, and earn a higher income. Complacency is the enemy of achievement.

“The Great Resignation” is very real. So, we must ask ourselves a hard question. Are we willing to accept or tolerate complacency just to keep the company going? Or do we need to find a way back to leading and motivating those who are on our team to break out of the com-

physical health of students following the pandemic. As a district, we want nothing more than for each and every student to be able to focus on learning and education while we continue to provide safe and healthy environments for all students and staff.

A meeting is planned for Thursday, Sept. 1 at 10 a.m. in the Event Room at the Castle Pines Library. Your input and suggestions are very important to our school community, as are the relationships between all grandparents and grandchildren. Superintendent Erin Kane is looking forward to an interactive dialogue and the opportunity to answer your questions and address your concerns regarding our students.

Erin Kane is the superintendent of the Douglas County School District.

This column is hosted by the Seniors’ Council of Douglas County. For more information please visit www.MyDougCoSeniorLife.com, email DCSeniorLIfe@douglas.co.us or call 303-663-7681.

placency zone and into the striving for excellence zone?

I would love to hear your thoughts at mnorton@xinnix.com, and when we can get back to what made our economy thrive in the past, that awesome work ethic, it really will

be a better than good year.

Michael Norton is the grateful president of XINNIX, a personal and professional coach, and a consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator to businesses of all sizes.

ABOUT LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Colorado Community Media welcomes letters to the editor. Please note the following rules: • Email your letter to letters@coloradocommunitymedia.com. Do not send via postal mail. Put the words “letter to the editor” in the email subject line.

• Submit your letter by 5 p.m. on Wednesday in order to have it considered for publication in the following week’s newspaper.

• Letters must be no longer than 400 words.

• Letters should be exclusively submitted to Colorado Community Media and should not be submitted to other outlets or previously posted on websites or social media. Submitted letters become the property of CCM and should not be republished elsewhere.

• Letters advocating for a political candidate should focus on that candidate’s qualifications for office. We cannot publish letters that contain unverified negative information about a candidate’s opponent. Letters advocating for or against a political candidate or ballot issue will not be published later than 12 days before an election.

• Publication of any given letter is at our discretion. Letters are published as space is available.

• We will edit letters for clarity, grammar, punctuation and length and write headlines (titles) for letters at our discretion.

• Please don’t send us more than one letter per month. First priority for publica-

tion will be given to writers who have not submitted letters to us recently.

• Submit your letter in a Word document or in the body of an email. No PDFs or Google Docs, please.

• Include your full name, address and phone number. We will publish only your name and city or town of residence, but all of the information requested is needed for us to verify you are who you say you are.

• Letters will be considered only from people living in Colorado Community Media’s circulation area in Adams, Arapahoe, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Jefferson and Weld counties.

• Do not use all caps, italics or bold text.

• Keep it polite: No name calling or “mudslinging.”

• Include a source — and a link to that source — for any information that is not common knowledge. We will not publish information, including quotes, that cannot easily be verified.

• We do not publish speculation about other people’s motives or thoughts.

Please keep your comments to a person’s actions or statements.

• Generally we will not publish multiple letters that make the same point in a given week. Only submit ideas and opinions that are your own — and in your own words. We will not publish any letter that appears to be part of a letter-writing campaign or that copies text from an outside source, such as a website.

• We do not publish letters promoting a business, product or commercial service.

Memory In Loving

Place an Obituary for Your Loved One. 303-566-4100 obituaries@coloradocommunitymedia.com Self placement available online at ElbertCountyNews.net

14 Elbert County News

August 4, 2022

Rocky Mountain National Park making a comeback COVID, East Troublesome packed a one-two punch

BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

The same few months of 2020 that Colorado crown jewel Rocky Mountain National Park was suffering its worst losses from COVID closures, the whole place also nearly burned down.

Now, things are looking up in the original Switzerland of the West.

The park’s in-house firefighting crew, which said they’d been prepping for a sparkfest like East Troublesome for 20 years, used a landscaping “catcher’s mitt” to stop the record fire from blazing on into Estes Park in October 2020. Those crews will be following up on that success with new federal grants to bolster firewall efforts on Deer Mountain, which stands sentinel between prime wildfire paths and Estes Park, evacuated as a precaution before East Troublesome smoldered out.

And with COVID’s grip loosened from much of the American psyche, the park returned to 4.4 million visitors last year — not a record, but enough to reinforce a timed-entry system that by some evaluations is going well.

Now park folks are ready to brag about some wins, not just some avoided losses.

• The Green Mountain Trailhead

Visitors line up at Rocky Mountain National Park’s Fall River Entrance Station, near Estes Park, on July 21, 2021.

area on the west side, just north of fire central at Grand Lake, is back open. The before-and-after photos above show some intriguing recovery, though the deeply blackened trunks and trees bent over by firestorm winds will linger for decades.

• Over the next year, the park will use $19 million in federal economic recovery money to close, rebuild and

reopen Moraine Park Campground, the largest in the park and for many Americans, their childhood memory of family camping.

• Nearly $40,000 in federal infrastructure law funds will go to more fire mitigation on Deer Mountain, for brush clearing, tree limbing of the same kind that helped slow East Troublesome. If fire coming from the west gets over Deer Mountain, it would roar down Fall River, the Stanley Hotel, and into town.

• Planners are making progress on replacing the housing for 22 employees that was lost when East Troublesome swept through Kawuneeche entrance station on the west side on its way up and over the high country toward Moraine Park. Affordable west-side housing is vital to attract park employees, RMNP spokeswoman Kyle Patterson notes, and to keep commutes shorter after long days on the trails.

The housing should break ground next spring, and “that’s a pretty quick turnaround in the federal government,” Patterson noted.

HART VAN DENBURG/CPR NEWS

Closing Moraine Park’s 244 camp sites, hosting 30,000 people a year, will put a crimp in tourism, but the park and town are working together to highlight other spots. A rehab is “way, way past due,” Patterson said.

One great feature of the rebuilt site will be 17 accessibility compliant campsites, including easier paths to bathrooms and other facilities.

The park is still seeing some of the same stresses hitting the surrounding territory. Park fire chief Mike Lewelling has been unable to completely round out his resident hotshot crew, as other jobs compete for their attention. Some of his crew is away now to protect Zion National Park in southwestern Utah.

“Our main message is we feel very, very fortunate that we have been able to receive the funds to be able to tackle these really important projects, with a park that’s as old as we are,” Patterson said, referring to the 1915 opening year. “We just have to continue to chip away at some of SEE PARK, P18

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Elbert County News 15

August 4, 2022

Thank you to the event organizers, vendors and volunteers. We’ll see you at the fair!

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16 Elbert County News

LOCAL

LIFE

Summer treat is signature product of state

BY WILLIAM WOODY THE COLORADO SUN

D

awn is breaking everywhere as the stillness of Sunday morning is interrupted by the sound of ears of corn being ripped from waist-high plants in the ground. An old Ford 350 motor slowly chugs to life as about two dozen migrant workers quietly walk into a field to begin the first day of the annual Tuxedo Corn Company’s Olathe Sweet sweet corn harvest.

Historically, Tuxedo’s first day of harvest begins in a field a few miles west of Pea Green, a rural crossroads near the Montrose and Delta county line. It is here, in fields still damp from recent monsoon rains, that farmer John Harold and

his sons begin the company’s 38th harvest season.

At about 5:30, before sunrise, the workers climb aboard a large mechanical harvester to begin the process of hand-picking and packaging corn. The three truck loads picked for the day will carefully traverse the Continental Divide on Interstate 70 and be distributed to awaiting stores in Denver.

Tuxedo Corn sweet corn is too tender to harvest by machine. So to avoid damage to the ears, it must be picked by human hands. Some of the workers have been working this same soil for decades. In June, they also train new workers, some of whom arrived about a week ago from Tijuana, about the repetitive work of harvesting sweet corn.

This year’s yield is expected to be about average: 600,000 boxes, Harold says. With 48 ears per box, that’s 28.8 million ears of the company’s famous Olathe Sweet brand sweet SEE CORN, P17

August 4, 2022

Farmer John Harold looks at an ear of sweet corn as the harvest gets underway around Olathe, Colorado. PHOTOS BY WILLIAM WOODY

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Elbert County News 17

August 4, 2022

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Workers toss ears of sweet corn in a field west of Olathe.

CORN FROM PAGE 16

corn leaving the Uncompahgre Valley for Kroger grocery stores from Alaska to Virginia.

Workers toss ears of sweet corn in a field west of Olathe.

“It’s been awfully wet, and I think that’s the problem with the corn’s maturity, it’s too wet,” says Harold, 82, as he checks as many boxes as he can before they get stacked on a truck. He’s pleased so far, though this is only day one.

But there is something about this year that is different: A new set of challenges spawned by a water crisis in the American West, compounded by inflation and labor shortages. In an effort to control these variables, the company pulled back on the number of acres it planted this season.

“You plan ahead, then you’re behind, then you plan behind and then you’re ahead,” Harold says jokingly.

Due to a worsening water crisis in the West, Tuxedo Corn is fielding phone calls from desperate grocery store buyers, particularly from California, where demand for summer sweet corn is extra high.

Tuxedo Corn Company, Harold says, has been asked to fill in major gaps in the nation’s corn supply chain this year. “There’s no corn in the country and now everybody needs corn. That’s just the life of a farmer.”

A worker with the Tuxedo Corn Company tosses ears of sweet corn.

22nd Annual And then there are rising costs brought on by — and feeding into — record inflation.

“Prices are going to be a real concern, everything has gone up, the

PHOTO BY WILLIAM WOODY

carton cost, pallet cost, labor cost, you name it, it’s gone up,” Harold says.

By 6:30 a.m., the first truck has left the field en route to Tuxedo Corn’s shipping facility where the boxes will be inspected and iced before being loaded onto trucks. Colorado consumers can be confident they will begin seeing the prized corn in grocery stores starting this week.

Farmer John Harold inspects an ear of sweet corn.

At dawn, a migrant worker crew uses a mechanical harvester to gather ears of sweet corn.

“It’s a whole different world than it was when we started,” Harold says “It’s not frustrating as much as the unknown. It’s hard to figure out what to do. Because of new labor laws we’re at a tipping point.”

In the meantime, as Harold sends this year’s crop to dinner tables across the U.S., he says water is already “of great concern next year.”

Factors like labor and inflation should work themselves out over time. Water though, is the real worry. As the water outlook in the West grows more grim, Harold says Tuxedo Corn Company will be ready to work through issues to fill in the supply gaps wherever they form.

“I’m a firm believer in climate change,” Harold says. “No hard feelings, but to those climate deniers, when they go hungry, maybe they’ll figure it out.”

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

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August 4, 2022

Where Colorado jobs would be if pandemic hadn’t happened

BY TAMARA CHUANG THE COLORADO SUN

Thanks to a gain of 4,500 nonfarm payroll jobs in June, Colorado has now recovered 110.1% of jobs lost in the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic. That helped push down Colorado’s unemployment rate to 3.4% in June, the lowest since February 2020’s very low 2.8%.

The U.S. unemployment rate didn’t change for the fourth straight month, at 3.6% in June.

But if the pandemic hadn’t happened, Colorado would have added another 100,000 more jobs by now, according to data compiled by the state Department of Labor and Employment. Before the pandemic, the state’s job growth trajectory was at 4,900 per month.

However, getting to 2,857,400, as the state did in June, still puts the state at one of its highest levels of jobs ever. Colorado had a fast recovery, said Ryan Gedney, senior econo-

PARK FROM PAGE 14

our deferred maintenance.”

Some of the boosts for the park were announced at the same time the National Park Service was reminding taxpayers of the economic impact of the lauded protected lands system in the U.S. In its annual impact report, the federal

mist with the labor department. But that job growth is starting to slow.

“I think we’ve gotten out of that recovery mode. The state has regained what jobs that were lost (after) February 2020,” Gedney said.

But he added that had the pandemic not happened, there might have been a recession anyway, or at least a slowdown in new job creation. It was already challenging to hire enough workers before the pandemic.

“Remember, at the end of 2019, the nation, the state, we were still at a historically long economic expansion,” he said. “Was 4,900 a realistic measure? Possibly not. Could there have been a recession that happened? You’d go crazy if you tried to play out all these different what ifs.”

But he did revise that 4,900 prepandemic projection, dropping it to a “what if” of 2,500 new jobs per month instead. That puts Colorado closer to reaching the projected job

growth had the pandemic not happened. See the red and black lines in the chart below.

Only two regions in the state haven’t recovered all the lost jobs.

The Fort Collins metro area has recovered 97% of jobs lost, while the Greeley region is still down 4,800 jobs having recovered just 59% of jobs lost.

The decline in mining and logging is to blame. The industry, which includes oil and gas companies, not only hasn’t recovered, it continues to shed jobs. It lost 2,400 jobs in the first two months of the pandemic, but is still down 3,400 jobs since April 2020.

But as Colorado continued to add more jobs elsewhere and people joined or returned to work, the state is now near its highest labor force participation rate since March 2020.

Approximately 69.5% of workingage adults were employed or looking for jobs in June. The preliminary count is 3,248,800 Coloradans in the

labor force — the highest number to date.

Industries that saw the most change in June: • Leisure and hospitality gained 2,300 jobs • Government (largely in education), gained 2,100 jobs • Professional & business services, down 1,800 jobs • Financial services, down 1,900 jobs Wages up again. Average hourly earnings reached $34.21 in Colorado in June, or up $2.61 from last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national average hourly wage was $32.08.

government said Rocky Mountain National Park had 4.43 million visitors in 2021, nearing pre-pandemic record levels. Those visitors spent $323.3 million for lodging, food and other services in the Estes Park area, supporting 4,421 jobs, the Park Service said.

Though not quite so high, impacts are significant from other national parks in Colorado.

Mesa Verde National Park in the Four Corners area attracted 548,000

visitors, spending $62.6 million and supporting 825 jobs, the report said.

Great Sand Dunes reported about 603,000 visitors spending $41.3 million in the area, supporting 536 jobs.

By contrast, Rocky Mountain National Park’s northern competitor, Yellowstone, attracted 4.9 million people spending $630.3 million, and supported 8,736 jobs.

RMNP staff continue to tweak the timed-entry and hiker shuttle systems now embedded in park management. They may never go back to the previous jammed chaos, though the park has fielded equity complaints and held talks with a group demanding the entry system go through a more rigorous National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) evaluation process.

Dan Denning is part of a group that has circulated petitions they say have collected thousands of signatures questioning timed-entry reservations. They argue park officials have not presented statistics or studies documenting park overuse or crowding to justify such a big change for the public.

Meanwhile, they say a reservation system discriminates against locals,

who use the park as a backyard for spontaneous picnics or family visits. Such a system also favors those with enough money to plan well ahead for air travel or RV vacations, or sign up for guided trips or other park uses arranged by others, they have told park officials.

Park officials have responded that annual visitation rose 42% from 2012, and that they have made presentations to the community about the impacts they see. They also have increased available reservation slots in subsequent years of testing the entry program, and keep the reservation windows to the busiest times of day and months of the year.

They say a formal NEPA process will take place in 2023, and there will be continued opportunities for public comment.

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

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

Elbert County News 19

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20 Elbert County News

August 4, 2022

C R O S SWO R D P U Z Z L E

Emergency agency scrutinized Investigation documents behavior by director

BY OLIVIA PRENTZEL THE COLORADO SUN

State officials are seeking a consultant to evaluate the culture, structure and effectiveness of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, state documents show, days after a Denver Post investigation documented a troubling history of aggressive and inappropriate behavior from one of its directors, Mike Willis.

The Colorado Department of Public Safety is looking for a consulting service to gauge employee satisfaction within the state’s division that responds to all types of disasters in Colorado, according to documents posted Monday on the state’s database of vendors.

The contractor will conduct “an environmental scan using whatever tool the vendor deems appropriate” to review leadership and employee development opportunities, as well as analyze current organizational structure, including office placement and supervisory lines, according to state documents outlining the project.

The state set a June 28 deadline for applications and is asking vendors to complete a report, including recommendations for the division to improve its culture and structure, no later than Dec. 31.

It’s unclear how much money the state plans to spend on the review.

The request for vendors comes after a scathing Denver Post report about Mike Willis during his five years at the helm of Colorado’s responses to natural and public health disasters.

Willis has been suspended twice in the past 18 months for behavior that included intimidating workers, throwing objects in rage and berating female employees, the Post reported.

Willis, who was appointed to run the state’s Office of Emergency Management in 2017, was warned that he would likely be fired “for any similar misconduct” in the future, the newspaper reported.

Willis did not immediately return a request for comment.

In an email to the Post, Willis called some accounts from his colleagues as “inaccurate,” that he can be “intimidating on occasion” and that he is “passionate about our mission and ensuring those that work, live and play in Colorado are served to the best of our ability.”

The controversy surrounding Willis has become a political issue for Gov. Jared Polis as he campaigns for reelection in November.

A spokesman for Polis declined to comment on the situation when reached on June 27

by The Colorado Sun. Polis’ Republican opponent, Heidi Ganahl, issued a statement calling for the governor to hold Willis accountable. Colorado GOP Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown blasted Polis for not speaking out.

“Coloradans deserve a governor who will fire individuals like this who create unacceptable, hostile work environments,” Burton Brown said in a written statement. “Polis’ lack of leadership in standing up for state employees against this kind of harassment is pathetic.”

Willis has been the director of Colorado’s Office of Emergency Management since November 2017, meaning he was hired when former Gov. John Hickenlooper was still in office. Polis became governor in January 2019.

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

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August 4, 2022

Commerce City area deals with ‘forever chemicals’ Water district buys from Denver to dilute pollution created by firefighting foam

‘We believe that we are going to get Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding. What we don’t know is how much.’

BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

The South Adams County Water and Sanitation District, anchored

by Commerce City, will be paying Denver Water $2.75 million this year for enough supply to dilute local well water tainted by PFAS “forever chemicals” from firefighting foam runoff, officials said on June 26.

The district serves 65,000 people, and said it needs a new $130 million treatment plant to filter out PFAS and past contamination from the industrial solvent 1,4-dioxane, in order to avoid buying relatively expensive Denver water indefinitely.

The district is applying for federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grants to build the new plant, but is now competing with dozens of communities newly in need after the Environmental Protection Agency radically lowered safe PFAS guidelines in June, officials said. PFAS is an abbreviation for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

More than 100 communities across Colorado are scrambling to retest drinking water under state guidance, and come up with dilution or treatment plans if PFAS levels prove too high. The EPA’s drinking water guidance for PFAS, a family of common water repellents used in thousands of consumer goods from rain gear to nonstick pans, was formerly no more than 70 parts per trillion of lifetime exposure.

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lion, respectively. South Adams was fine under the old guideline; under the new guidelines, its 2021 results of 4.6 ppt for PFOA and 13 ppt for PFOS are up to 1,000 times the new guidance.

Frisco was one of the first Colorado communities to see the changed guidance put them in potential hazardous territory, and the town shut down some wells and reopened a treatment plant. Thornton has also announced that past test results are now well over the lowered guidance and has changed well sources and sought new treatment methods to remove PFAS. PFAS testing The Forever Problem: “Forever chemicals,” also known as PFAS, are an increasing toxic burden on Colorado and the United States, and The Colorado Sun is committed to coverage of public health threats posed by the ubiquitous consumer chemicals. We continue to follow threats from the chemicals to drinking water, croplands and wildlife, and the extensive costs required to clean them up.

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100 agencies PFAS results that are above the new guidance, and need to be retested.

State and local news releases list the many potential hazards of PFAS contamination, including lowered immunity, lower birth weights and more. But they have also emphasized that drinking current water supplies is not dangerous or cause for a water crisis. Water agencies note that no current testing methods can reveal PFAS at the extremely low thresholds of 0.004 ppt and 0.02 ppt now suggested by the EPA. The testing threshold for South Adams, alongside many other agencies, starts at 2 ppt, and with Denver Water dilution, the agency is once again below those thresholds, said Abel Moreno, South Adams district manager.

“The EPA has moved the goal posts, and we are taking steps to reduce the presence of PFAS even further,” Moreno said.

Part of the confusion over the EPA and PFAS is the federal agency’s distinction between “guidelines” and “standards.” The EPA issues guidelines, considered strong suggestions and signals to state health departments, when research is still being done and the science is not settled. State health depart-

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

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ments and environmental groups are hopeful the EPA will turn its PFAS drinking water guidelines into enforceable standards through regulations issued this fall.

South Adams has shut off wells near a metro firefighting training facility. The district believes other wells it owns may have been contaminated by firefighting-related runoff from the former Stapleton airport. There has not been any connection established between PFAS in South Adams County water supplies and PFAS contamination at the nearby Suncor Energy refinery, Moreno said.

South Adams is scraping corners of its budget to find the $2.75 million it expects to pay to Denver Water through the rest of this year.

The agency had a previous backup contract with Denver Water for 2,000 acre-feet, and will now use that water and buy more. The district is trying to avoid raising customer rates for costs related to PFAS contamination, Moreno said.

Moreno said he thinks South Adams County has a good chance at some of the $130 million it needs for a plant treating PFAS and a chemical taint dating back to 2012, from industrial solvents that reached groundwater.

“We believe that we are going to get Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding,” Moreno said. “What we don’t know is how much.”

When the EPA issued the new lowered guidance in mid-June, Moreno added, “we were dealing probably with a handful or so of other utilities in the state. Now we’re dealing with a lot of others that are possibly going to be competing for the same dollars.”

legals@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Legals

John Bechtold, Personal Representative c/o Katz, Look & Onorato, P.C. 1120 Lincoln St., #1100 Denver, CO 80203

Notice to Creditors

Legal Notice No. 24861 First Publication: July 21, 2022 Last Publication: August 4, 2022 Publisher: Elbert County News

Public Notice

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NOTICE TO CREDITORS Estate of Robert L. Bechtold, a/k/a Robert Lemoine Bechtold, a/k/a Robert Bechtold, Deceased Case Number: 2022PR30022 All persons having claims against the above named estate are required to present them to the personal representative or to the District Court of Elbert County, Colorado on or before November 21, 2022, or the claims may be forever barred.

Elbert Legals August 4, 2022 * 1

24 Elbert County News

August 4, 2022

2022

PRESENTS

Holiday Craft Show & Mini-Market Saturday Nov. 26

10am - 6pm

Sunday Nov. 27

10am - 2pm

Douglas County Fairgrounds 500 Fairgrounds Dv. Castle Rock, CO.

Come shop for unique gifts and special items during the Colorado Community Media Holiday Craft Show and Mini-Market; With more than 200 exhibitors filling the Douglas County Fairgrounds, this is the best place to find that special, personal gift for friends and family.

The show will feature handmade crafts in all areas from metal and leather, to flowers, baskets, ceramics, and so much more.

In it’s third year - expanding into two buildings.

In 2021, 3,000 customers attended

Admission is free to the public Interested in selling your handmade crafts?

Interested in hosting classes?

Contact Event Producer Thelma Grimes at tgrimes@coloradocommunitymedia.com All applications must be approved to participate