Colorado homeowners have seen increasing property taxes over the years, and the Notice of Valuation forms that recently arrived in mailboxes came as a shock to many, re ecting the peak of property values that was hit on June 30 of last year.
e Town of Kiowa has applied for several multi-million-dollar grants to help fund improvements throughout the area. ese include the Drainage and Sidewalks Project to revitalize the town’s walkability and the Water Redundancy Project to generally improve the Kiowa Water and Wastewater Authority’s infrastructure.
e town also recently received
two $25,000 grants through the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, one to carry out a rate study for the Kiowa Water and Wastewater Authority and one to update the Town of Kiowa Comprehensive (Master) Plan.
Below is a summary of each of the grants along with comments from Kiowa Town Administrator Kimberly Boyd.
On April 21, the Town of Kiowa applied for a Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) Grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) seeking $2 million
in funding for the engineering and design portion of the drainage and sidewalks project. e total project is estimated to cost about $12 million to $13 million.
“Over the course of thirty-plus years, winter icing has severely deteriorated the sidewalks, curb, gutter, and street along the main drag of downtown Kiowa, along both sides of CO-86, creating extremely unsafe conditions for pedestrians, bikes, and particularly those using mobility devices in those areas,” Boyd wrote in a May 2 email. “ is grant would allow the Town to get started on a long overdue, critical project.”
e increases are causing many homeowners to be concerned about their nancial futures. State lawmakers and local leaders have been working to devise plans for taxpayer relief in the face of growing property-tax bills.
Two 2023 state Senate bills were introduced that would o er relief to homeowners in the form of reduced property taxes. SB23-303 was introduced on May 1, while SB23-108 was introduced earlier in the year on Jan. 31.
Below are summaries of both Senate bills accompanied by comments from Elbert County Commissioner Christopher Richardson. The outcome of both measures will need to be decided by the adjournment of the Colorado General Assembly on May 8, which is after the Elbert County News press deadline. Go online to elbertcountynews.net for updates on what became of the bills.
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On May 1, Gov. Jared Polis and members of the Senate Appropriations Committee announced a historic $1 billion property tax relief plan known as SB23-303. e plan would provide long-term property tax rate reductions and valuation limitations, as well as immediate savings on this year’s property taxes.
SB23-303, combined with reductions previously passed, would cut the average homeowner’s tax increase in half, saving $1,264 on average over the next two years. In total, this package would provide up to 1.6 billion annually in property tax relief for homeowners and commercial property owners in Colorado. If it survives the legislative session, Colorado voters will decide in November whether to approve the plan.
“ e governor’s plan has some very good points. Probably the most impactful piece is raising the homestead exemption to 50% of the rst $200k,” commented Elbert County Commissioner Christopher Richardson in a phone interview from May 1.
According to the governor’s press release, tax relief and protections proposed in this plan include the following:
1. Reducing the residential assessment rate from 7.15% to 6.7% in 2023 and 2024, and continuing this reduction for primary residences (not second homes or investment properties) in future years.
2. Reducing the taxable value of
residences by $40,000 in 2023 and 2024, and continuing this reduction for primary residences (not second homes or investment properties) in future years.
3. Capping the growth in district property tax collections excluding school districts at in ation and allowing local governments to override the cap after giving notice to property owners.
4. Protecting funding for public education and back lling revenue to re districts, water districts, ambulance and hospital districts in areas of the state that aren’t growing as fast by dedicating a portion of the state TABOR surplus to back ll.
5. Providing seniors who currently receive the Homestead Exemption a larger reduction of [up to] $140,000 [of taxable property value] and allowing them to continue to receive this reduction if they move.
“We still don’t know what SB23303 will be like at its nal form. I certainly like pieces of Polis’ plan,” said Richardson. “I certainly like the TABOR cap, but it’s going to the vote of the people, as it should.”
SB23-108
Also on May 1, the Elbert County commissioners sent out a press release urging citizens to contact Colorado House Majority Leader Monica Duran to advance the stalled Senate Bill 23-108. SB23-108 would allow a local government to provide temporary tax relief through temporary tax credits or mill levy reductions and later eliminate the credits or restore the mill levy. On March 1, the bill passed with a Senate vote of 35 to 0 and has been awaiting nal approval in the House since April 13. From the date of the press release, the Colorado House of Representatives had seven
days to vote on the bill.
“Within my district (District 1), and the county as a whole, we could see an increase in property taxes of 35%-45%,” said Richardson. “We want SB23-108 to pass because we don’t need that increase. at would be an almost $4.8 million increase. We certainly don’t need that to run the county.”
At the time of the commissioners’ press release on May 1, SB23-303 had not yet been released, though Gov. Polis had announced that he was working with Colorado legislators on his own bill to provide relief for taxpayers. In the press release, the commissioners voiced their concerns for Polis’ SB23-303, stating that it could be rushed. ey also spoke about the bene ts of SB23-108 in contrast.
“It is unknown who is providing input or who is drafting the Governor’s mystery bill, or what it might contain,” the release said. “We do know it will have to be rushed through the committee hearing process with little chance for public scrutiny in less than one week if it is to be enacted this year. By contrast, SB23-108 is a simple 3-page bill that is poised for passage and has been carefully crafted with strong bi-partisan support to serve a single purpose — provide local property tax relief under the control of local taxing authorities.”
“If the Polis plan were to fail in November, SB 23-108 would give us a fall back of at least being able to reduce the mill levy,” commented Richardson.
For more information on Senate Bill 23-303, visit leg.colorado.gov/ bills/sb23-303.
For more information on Senate Bill 23-108, visit leg.colorado.gov/ bills/sb23-108.
How do you show up for life and all it can potentially o er when you’re only 21 years old, knowing you may only have a few years left? at’s a question Ellie White asks herself almost every day.
She was born with a rare neurodegenerative disease called Wolfram syndrome, which causes diabetes, blindness, hearing loss, and eventually it a ects the brain stem, resulting in respiratory failure at an early age. With no current cure, the life expectancy of someone with Wolfram syndrome is typically between 25 and 40 years.
“Eventually my body will forget how to breathe, and I won’t be able to breathe, which makes this disorder a terminal disorder,” White said, adding that dying at a young age is di cult to contemplate, even for her. “I want to get stu done. I want to live life.”
In fact, she is — getting stu done and living life — as best she can.
White nds joy by surrounding herself with family, friends and pets at her home in Centennial. She is also studying music therapy at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Over the last several years, she has performed with her dance group, e Silhouettes, on the television show “America’s Got Talent” and she traveled to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
ese are things that are paramount for her, as much of her time is also spent traveling out of state to meet with various specialists for what can feel like constant medical testing.
“I just went to St. Louis and was there for ve days. I had doctors appointments from seven in the morning until three in the afternoon. I did cognitive exams like memory and speech, taste tests, smell tests and blood work,” she added.
Wolfram syndrome is considered an orphan disorder, which means it is extremely rare and there is not a lot of research for funding to help nd a cure, and there is no treatment for it yet.
Ellie’s mother, Beth White, a molecular biologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the school of medi -
cine’s infectious disease department, is trying to change that. And she feels her background in research can help.
“I feel like I see her dying in front of me,” she said. “We started the Ellie White Foundation for Rare Genetic Disorders because we realized we needed to raise money for research because Wolfram syndrome is so rare that when Ellie was diagnosed with it, not only was she the only person alive in Colorado at the time who had it, but there was no research being done to nd a cure.”
Wolfram syndrome typically starts with a diagnosis of childhood diabetes, then vision problems, which is what happened with Ellie. When she was three, doctors diagnosed her with diabetes. Four years later, during a routine eye exam, Ellie was found to be colorblind. After more tests, Ellie was diagnosed with Wolfram syndrome.
“Unfortunately, it’s a terminal disorder. So, we’re working as quickly as we can to help nd a cure and save her life,” explained Beth White, adding that her goals are raising awareness and money. “Ultimately nding a cure for Wolfram syndrome is the most important thing in my life right now.”
at’s when Beth started reaching out to as many researchers as possible, sending pictures of her daughter with pleas to do something.
“I wanted to reach out to these doctors and scientists and say, ‘ is cute little girl has this horrible terminal disorder that’s going to steal her entire life.’ I wanted to see if I could nd someone to work with her. And I discovered that Dr. Urano was doing similar research,” Beth recalled.
“People like Ellie keep me going and keep my enthusiasm high. Partnership and friendship is very important while working to nd a cure and treatments for this disease,” said Urano.
Beth White describes her daughter as someone who is so brave that other people don’t realize that she’s su ering. “She has such a beautiful tendency to always look for the best in every moment of life, and the best in every person.”
Ellie describes herself as feeling empowered. “I’m hoping to make a di erence. I’m not doing this to save my life. I’m doing this to help save other people’s lives.”
is story via Rocky Mountain PBS, a Colorado Community Media content partner.
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‘Arabian Nights’ concert coming to PACE Center
BY SONYA ELLINGBOE SELLINGBOE@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
On May 19, conductor Rene Knetsch will lead the 70-member Parker Symphony Orchestra in a concert called “Arabian Nights” at the PACE Center.
In a recent talk for residents of Vita in Littleton, Knetsch described the program, with help from concertmaster/violinist Nadya Hill and cellist Cheri Swisher, who played passages of music from the program as he explained it.
“Bachinal Brasilieros # 5 for Soprano and Cellos” by Heitor VillaLobos begins the program. e text is Brazilian Portuguese, which is more melodic than European Portuguese. e multi-talented Hill, who also performs as a soprano, will sing the aria.
“Cuban Overture,” a tone poem by George Gershwin, will be included. It was rst performed on Aug. 16, 1932 at New York City’s Lewiston Stadium by the New York Philharmonic — in the rst all-Gershwin concert, with 17,842 attending. (Bigger than Red Rocks, Knetsch commented.) Hill, Parker Symphony’s concertmaster, played a segment from it.
Next will be Carl Nielsen’s “Aladdin Suite opus 34.” He was a Danish composer who taught at the Royal Danish Academy until 1931. He played second violin in the Royal Danish Orchestra for seven years.
“Scheherazade” by Nicoloy RimskyKorsakov, one of his most famous works, tells the tale of the young woman who told stories for a cruel sultan. It had previously been his custom to spend a night with a young virgin, then kill her in the morning.
Scheherazade would always stop midway through her story, when the
sultan would fall asleep and make him wait until the next night for a nish, then start another new one, again stopping midway. is continued for 101 nights, readers may recall. ere is music that re ects the sultan’s anger
Knecht commented that he was not a big fan of having a theme in a concert, but this one does. He was charmed the rst time he heard the work, less so now. Hill said it was fun and showed a spirit coming out of the First World War. Knecht’s wife, Lynn, also a Parker Symphony violinist, commented that is “very accessible.” She added: “We wouldn’t be playing this music if we didn’t have Cheri and Nadya.”
Knecht said that after the “Scheherazade” opening, the heavy music re ects the sultan’s anger — it’s increasingly di cult to play. Hill played the leitmotif from “Scheherezade,” a familiar theme, then heavy music portraying the angry king, a theme that has become familiar for angry kings ... a devil tone, repeated many times. “I nd it di cult every time we play it,” Swisher said.
“Nothing here is very simple,” Knecht agreed.
In the early part, the cello is Sinbad’s ship, with the violin playing on top ... e theme repeats in the fourth movement. He wrote the tri-tone on purpose, a “Devil tone,” Knecht commented.
Knecht taught at Arapahoe Community College for 17 years, he said.
He also told a bit about the upcoming fall season. “In October, we will perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto, with the concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Yumi Hwang Wang, playing on her 1748 Guadagnini instrument.”
Energetic, friendly volunteers age 16 and older are needed during the Douglas County Fair & Rodeo July 28 through Aug. 6. Serve your community, celebrate your County’s history and have fun all at the same time. Visit douglascountyfairandrodeo.com and click on the Get Involved tab, to learn more and sign up.
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Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, one of the largest funders of oral health initiatives in the state, said it’s granting a total of nearly $5 million to four colleges to help them expand existing dental hygiene programs or start new ones from scratch — all with the goal of addressing workforce shortages and diversifying the profession.
e grants, split among Front Range Community College, Community College of Denver, Colorado Mountain College and Pikes Peak State College, will be distributed in installments over the next four years. e colleges were selected in part because of their diverse student populations, said Adeeb Khan, executive director of Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation.
e grants will help establish dental hygiene programs at Front Range Community College, Colorado Mountain College and Pikes Peak State College by 2025 and will expand the number of seats available to students in an existing dental hygiene program at Community College of Denver starting this fall.
e three public colleges that currently o er dental hygiene programs in the state have a total of 75 seats for students who want to become dental hygienists. e new grants aim to double the state’s capacity to train
dental hygienists in programs that usually last two to three years.
“Two years ago, we made a fundamental decision to deepen our commitment to oral health equity by investing with an expectation of longterm outcomes,” Khan said. “ e investments we’re celebrating today will ensure that Colorado has the ability to address oral health care workforce shortages by expanding our capacity to train dental hygienists and also providing more pathways for diverse populations.”
Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation leaders announced the grants at a time when the number of dental hygienists continues to dwindle and the industry struggles to meet the needs of Colorado’s growing population. Coloradans won’t see a drastic change in the number of dental hygienists for a few years, but Delta Dental leaders said the grants are essential to eventually closing the gap.
e grants are o ered to schools that already have a commitment to diversifying their student population. Attracting, educating and retaining dental hygienists who are people of color, and those who speak multiple languages, for example, can help achieve racial balance between dental providers and their patients, increase access to care and create oral health equity.
Higher education o cials recently
gathered with Gov. Jared Polis, at a Denver coworking space for health care professionals to announce the distribution of the grants.
At the event, Polis said, the dental industry is not the only profession navigating a workforce shortage in Colorado. Last year, the state created e Care Forward Colorado Program to address shortages in health care jobs. e program provides a free education to students interested in becoming certi ed nursing assistants, emergency medical technicians, pharmacy technicians, phlebotomy technicians, medical assistants or dental assistants, he said.
Since the program was implemented, more than 1,400 Coloradans have gone through the program, and there has been a 20% to 30% increase in the number of people seeking certi cation to work in those professions, Polis said.
Now, with the new grants from Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, many more students will have the opportunity to train for careers in dental hygiene to help ll the gaps the state has, said Polis, who has made addressing workforce shortages part of his gubernatorial agenda.
e number of dental hygiene positions needed will grow by 35% by the end of this year with about 650 openings remaining every year, said Joe Garcia, chancellor of the Colorado community college system, who spoke at the event.
About 95% of students who attend community colleges in Colorado remain in the state after they graduate, he said. And nearly half of all students of color involved in higher education are also educated in Colorado’s community colleges, he said.
“ ese are often the students who have been overlooked or who haven’t been able to access higher education opportunities in Colorado, and yet, they are the fastest growing demographic in our state,” he said. “We’ve got to start to serve them and we’ve got to rely on them because they’re going to serve us. We cannot meet our workforce needs or gaps without doing a better job of educating underrepresented populations.”
Since September 2020, employment of dental hygienists has steadily declined and may continue to dwindle without swift and immediate interventions, according to the American Dental Hygienists’ Association and the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute.
A March 2022 poll by the Health Policy Institute found almost 34% of dental practices were actively recruiting dental hygienists. More than 80% of dental practices that responded to the poll said it was “extremely challenging” or “very challenging” to recruit dental hygienists.
Delta Dental Foundation leaders o ered funding to schools that are able to continue fundraising to handle any remaining costs associated with expanding or starting new dental
hygiene programs.
Projections show that by 2045, people of color will make up the majority of the U.S. population for the rst time. And as demographics of the U.S. population continue to shift, a diverse and culturally competent workforce will become more crucial than ever.
Research shows patients are more trusting of health care providers who share their race or ethnicity. But the demographics of the dental workforce don’t match the makeup of the U.S. population. A 2020 Health Policy Institute poll showed less than 10% of dentists were Black, Hispanic or Latino in 2020, while those groups made up more than 30% of the U.S. population, according to the Health Policy Institute.
In Colorado in 2019, 81% of Black people had insurance, meaning they collectively had more coverage than any other racial group in the state. However, only 56% of Black Coloradans visited a dental professional that year, meaning they were the least likely to visit a dentist when compared with all other racial groups, according to the 2019 Colorado Health Access Survey.
e data highlights a disconnect that needs to be resolved, and a lack of diversity in the workforce is a signicant part of the problem that should be swiftly addressed, Delta Dental leaders said.
For example, Black dentists are about twice as likely to accept Medicaid compared with white dentists, according to the Health Policy Institute poll. If the profession remains overwhelmingly white, patients with Medicaid will continue struggling to access oral health care, as they have for decades.
Creating more dental hygiene programs in Colorado that include a more diverse student population will increase access to oral health care and could reduce oral health inequities that have persisted for many Coloradans of color and for people living in rural and urban parts of the state, Delta Dental leaders said. e expansion of the programs is especially vital, more than two years after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the oral health care system for 10 or 11 weeks in Colorado, which was followed by apprehension and fear about visiting dental o ces among patients and providers, a trend that caused some hygienists to leave the profession altogether or retire early, Khan said.
Now, with the new grants, the dental profession has another chance at reviving the dental hygiene industry. e Colorado schools selected to receive grants got their rst payments in November, Khan said, and will receive another installment sometime this week.
Lance Bolton, president of Pikes Peak State College, said the funding will help school leaders develop a new
dental hygiene program that will open in fall of 2025. e number of students accepted will depend on formulas determined during the upcoming accreditation process and the number of faculty available to teach. e new program will most likely be able to accommodate 30 students, he said. “We don’t have a dental hygiene program,” he said. “Starting one is incredibly expensive. It requires us to hire a faculty member for approximately two years before we even enroll our rst student to build the curriculum, get the program accredited and get ready to start. It also requires a very signi cant investment in dental equipment. So the Delta Dental gift absolutely catalyzed the initiation of this program. We wouldn’t be here without that.”
Pikes Peak State College leaders plan to develop curriculum based on existing dental hygiene programs at other Colorado colleges, Bolton said. irty percent of the seats in the dental hygiene program will be reserved for students graduating from the school’s dental assistant program, where about 75% of students are minorities, he said. at strategy will help train students who are underrepresented in the dental industry and hopefully encourage them to work in Colorado, he said.
ere is no dental hygiene program o ered in the Pikes Peak region, he said, meaning local dentists are having a di cult time lling those positions.
Paola Hernandez, a second-year student at Pikes Peak State College, from a young age had dreams of becoming a dental hygienist. But she’s currently studying to become a dental assistant because there aren’t any dental hygiene programs near her home in Colorado Springs. e closest schools o ering dental hygiene programs are in Pueblo or Denver, too far away for Hernandez to consider.
e new grant will make it possible for her to come back to Pikes Peak State College to study dental hygiene after she graduates in May 2024 and spends at least a year working as a dental assistant. “ at has always been my number one plan and the rst thing that I wanted to do.”
Dental care is not routine in Durango, Mexico, where Hernandez was born. Her parents, who speak mostly Spanish, often struggle in Colorado to communicate with dentists and hygienists about where they’re feeling pain in their mouth. Sometimes her parents have to return to the dentist because the pain wasn’t resolved. Hernandez said she sometimes attends those appointments to help interpret.
“Being able to communicate with your patients is what I want to be able to give,” she said.
e most important part about becoming a dental hygienist is gaining the skills needed to help people feel con dent and digni ed when they
smile, she said at the event. When visiting a dental clinic, most people expect to have their teeth examined by a dentist. However, patients often spend the most time at a clinic under the care of a dental assistant or a dental hygienist. Dental hygienists provide regular cleanings, o er uoride and sealants, perform screenings and give patients tips for e ective oral health care at home while dental assistants help dentists during treatments, ask about the patient’s medical history, take client’s blood pressure and pulse, sterilize equipment and help people feel comfortable before, during and after treatment, according to the American Dental Association.
Licensed dental hygienists have the opportunity to earn a good wage. eir median annual wage was $81,400, according to May 2022 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and those earnings increase as these professionals advance in their careers. Some dental hygienists who work on a contract basis have more exibility in their work, and in Colorado, a dental hygienist can open their own practice, Khan said.
One of the challenges many colleges face is nding people quali ed to teach dental hygiene classes and train hygienists.
Now, Delta Dental is raising awareness about the new and expanding dental hygiene programs in communities across the state where the organization is already working to advance oral health equity through other initiatives.
It’s too hard to say if more funds will be needed to help colleges add or expand dental hygiene programs, by the time the grants run out, or if workforce shortages will be addressed, Khan said.
Colorado does not contribute as much funding to higher education when compared to other states and there may be other opportunities for the state to make monetary contributions to the dental hygiene e ort in the future, he said. For example, in Oregon, a proposed bill would provide $20 million for recruiting and retaining dental workers, and to support and create training programs.
“ is funding in and of itself is not enough for what the schools are going to need to be able to really execute on these programs, so they still have additional fundraising requirements to be able to fully execute on some of their plans,” Khan said of the foundation’s grants.
As the program progresses, schools will report to Delta Dental on progress made about how well it’s attracting and retaining hygienists from underrepresented groups and other data to show enough students are graduating to help close the workforce shortage.
“It’s a long runway, but at the end of the day, this is the solution we need,” Khan said. is story from e Colorado Sun, www.ColoradoSun.com. e Colorado
In addition to the drainage issues, there are several areas along CO86 where the existing sidewalks do not meet ADA standards due to narrow widths, curb ramp slopes and sidewalk slopes. In some areas, sidewalks are missing altogether.
e town’s intent for the TAP application is to fund the design of the sidewalks and drainage. e town also hopes to fund the possible removal of a through lane in each direction and to convert the space to a continuous left turn lane. If able, the town will also include bike lanes in each direction, providing safer routes for drivers and nondrivers alike.
“We anxiously await word on the application,” said Boyd. “ e issues this project would address have been longstanding issues for the town regarding the winter icing. is past winter was just terrible. Fingers crossed CDOT feels the same.”
On April 1, the Kiowa Water and Wastewater Authority applied for a Tier II grant from the Colorado Department of Local A airs seeking $3.7 million in funding to create a water redundancy system for the town. e authority critically needs a second well, adequate pumps, controls, valves, housing and stor-
age tank. Altogether these will address the water system redundancy need. e town plans to use a mix of grants and state revolving funds to accomplish this project
“After losing the pump to our current well last year and coming hours away from having a town with no water at all, the need for this redundancy system moved to the top of the authority’s priority list,” said Boyd. “ e primary goal of this project is to protect the water system and the community it serves. As a small community like ours is built around infrastructure and water is a driving factor in the sustainability of any community. is project will address the need for that stable infrastructure now and in the future.”
Kiowa Water and Wastewater Authority: Rate Plan Study
e Kiowa Water and Wastewater Authority sought an administrative grant from the Colorado Department of Local A airs in the amount of $25,000 to provide needed updates to the authority’s nancial plan and cost-based rates. e rates have not been updated since the authority’s inception on May 14, 2013.
A rate study of the current service fees would provide the data that ensures the authority is setting rates appropriately. Setting appropriate rates ensures the authority continues to have the nancial resources needed to meet their budget, maintain their infrastructure, grow
their distribution system, explore new technologies and implement a capital improvement plan.
24 and requires a match of $25,000 from the authority. e authority is actively seeking a quali ed individual or rm through a Request for Proposal (RFP) to conduct this study. is RFP closes on May 18.
Town of Kiowa Comprehensive (Master) Plan Update
e town sought an administrative grant from the Colorado Department of Local A airs in the amount of $25,000 to hire a consulting individual or rm to update the current master plan, which was adopted in 2004. e current plan has served the town for over 19 years as the primary long-range guiding document for the community to achieve its vision and goals.
is grant was awarded on Feb. 1 and requires a match of $25,000 from the town. e town is still actively seeking a quali ed individual or rm through RFP to conduct this update. is republished RFP closes again on May 26.
“ e contents are antiquated and need to be updated with current events,” commented Boyd. “Our community has had notable changes occur in the last 19 years. Some of the things we need to consider in the plan update include growth and development interests, image and design updates, housing, economic development goals, transportation planning, public services and infrastructure, parks, recreation, and open space, environmental issues, historic and cultural amenities, and
align with the vision?
6. Are our goals, policies, objectives and strategies enough to get us to where we want to go?
7. What needs to be reinforced?
8. What’s missing and needs to be added?
9. Are our implemented documents, including our land development regulations, design guidelines and entitlement procedures, in line with the Comprehensive Plan?
“Citizens, local business owners, civic leaders, and leaders in our local emergency services have been great in providing us with the letters and emails of support helping us draw the big picture,” said Boyd. “I know some days we sound like broken records, but please continue to be patient with us and know we hear you and appreciate you and we are working toward resolution for our town and for you. We are a small community with very small and restricted budgets, and these critical priorities clearly far exceed our small-town budgets, but we have entities hearing our pleas and working with us today to help us get resolution. We are getting there!”
For questions about the grants or Request for Proposals, please contact Kimberly Boyd at kboyd@ townofkiowa.com.
Colorado’s trucking industry will need to start investing in zero-emission semitrailers, buses and delivery trucks as soon as 2027 as part of the state’s strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of climate change.
e Colorado Air Quality Control Commission has approved a plan to convert most of the medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold in the state to electric vehicles or vehicles that run o of hydrogen fuel cells, starting in 2027, with a goal to have 40% of all semitrailers sold running on zeroemission engines by 2035.
e plan, which is modeled after a rule created in 2020 in California, does not require companies to buy these trucks, but instead orders truck manufacturers to sell the vehicles.
“ e manufacturers are required to make sure they meet a certain percentage of sales targets so it will encourage them to bring their vehicles to Colorado and provide attractive pricing for those vehicles,” said Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy O ce.
e new rule also requires companies that operate diesel- or naturalgas-powered trucks to move toward lowered nitrogen oxide emissions.
ose emissions are a precursor to ozone pollution.
e plan was unanimously approved after nearly three days of hearings last week and it had support from elected o cials as well as environmental organizations and community groups, who said the new rule would improve air quality, especially for communities that are adjacent to the three major interstates that run through Colorado.
e new rule received some opposition from those who expressed concern that the utility grid will not be powerful enough to support thousands of semitrailers that need to be charged daily. Others expressed concern that technology won’t be developed fast enough to support the requirement, while some worried about independent truck drivers’ ability to invest in electric vehicles.
And Weld County o cials opposed the rule because they wanted vehicles powered by natural gas included in the plan.
But Colorado regulators are in a hurry to reduce air pollution in the state after the Environmental Protection Agency in September reclassied the state’s air quality as being in “severe non-attainment” of federal ozone standards. at designation comes with expensive penalties for private industry and consumers, such as more stringent permitting and higher gas prices during the summer.
Medium and heavy-duty trucks emit nitrogen oxides and particular matter, compounds that contribute to ozone pollution on hot days, and cars and trucks are the second-largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, Garry Kaufman, director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s regulatory a airs program, said during a presentation on the new rule.
On high ozone days, the thick smog blankets much of the Front Range, causing respiratory problems for people working or exercising outdoors and reducing visibility of
Colorado’s majestic mountains.
While the Front Range is mandated by the EPA to reduce its ozone pollution, people living in mountain communities also supported the move, saying a haze often lingers there, too.
“It’s not just about heavy powder days or big raft days,” Glenwood Springs Mayor Jonathan Godes testied during a public hearing. “It’s about the health of our entire city.”
e new plan requires auto manufacturers to produce a specied number of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty trucks to sell in Colorado, starting with 2027 models. Trucks that run on electric batteries and fuel cells will count as zero-emission vehicles, and companies will get partial credit for hybrid vehicles.
Federal and state tax credits are available to help companies o set the cost of buying zero-emission vehicles.
e percentage of zero-emission trucks that need to be on the roads increases each year through 2035, and the goals vary for pickup trucks and vans, delivery trucks and semitrailers.
When questioned about whether or not there would be enough inventory to meet the demand for zero-emission trucks, Kaufman told the Air Quality Control Commission that manufacturers are heading in that direction and he believed there would be.
“It’s not science ction technology,” Kaufman said. “It’s happening now.”
Trucking industry raises concerns about power grid
e Colorado Motor Carriers Association, a trade organization for the trucking industry, said it supports a transition to zero-emission vehicles, but did not back Colorado’s plan.
Representatives from the association were not available for an interview at deadline, but the group presented a rebuttal to the state plan during last week’s hearing. e organization argued that Colorado has not invested enough money into the transition and that the state’s infrastructure will not be able to support
electric semitrailers.
It could take up to 1 megawatt — enough to power 350 homes — to fully charge a semitrailer, and it could take eight hours of charging to power up a truck to drive 350 miles, the motor carriers’ rebuttal said.
“As more electric trucks hit the road, the projected power needs for a big truck stop by 2035 will equal that of a small town,” the group said in its document, which cited a study by the utility company National Grid Plc. “In that study, they further identi ed that a connection to the grid that can handle more than 5 megawatts may take up to eight years to build, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. Without some tremendous power upgrades to the grid, the transition to electric trucks will be constrained by a grid unprepared for the demand.”
But Toor said the threats of power grid failure are exaggerated. e state legislature years ago ordered utility companies to begin preparing for a switch to electric vehicles and there’s enough capacity to handle it, he said.
Plus, the urgency for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ozone pollution is strong for the air quality commission. And the amount of support for the move far outweighed opposition during the hearing.
Electrifying trucks and vans will bene t public health, said Jacob Smith, executive director of Colorado Communities for Climate Action. As the transition to zero-emission trucks occurs, air pollution levels are expected to drop in areas where people live along highways and near warehouses and trucking distribution centers.
“It’s a big deal from an equity perspective,” Smith said. “A lot of vulnerable communities also happen to be in close proximity to highways, manufacturing and distribution centers.”
Thu 5/18
Wind, Women, & Water Clinic @ 4:30pm / $55
Cherry Creek Reservoir, 4800 S Dayton St, Greenwood Village. 303-757-7718
Sun 5/21
Son Little @ 6pm
Levitt Pavilion Denver, 1380 W. Florida Ave., Denver
Violent Femmes: performing the debut album cover to cover @ 5pm Levitt Pavilion Denver, 1380 W. Florida Ave., Denver
Something For Tomorrow @ 5pm Herman's Hideaway, 1578 S Broadway, Denver
Smile Empty Soul @ 5pm Herman's Hideaway, 1578 S Broadway, Denver
Teague Starbuck @ 5pm
The Pint Room, 2620 W Belleview Ave, Lit‐tleton
Less Than Perfect @ 5pm Herman's Hideaway, 1578 S Broadway, Denver
Thu 5/25
Gii Astorga @ 4pm Jacks on Pearl, 1475 S Pearl St, Denver
Sygnal To Noise @ 5pm
Herman's Hideaway, 1578 S Broadway, Denver
Death Valley Dreams @ 5pm
Herman's Hideaway, 1578 S Broadway, Denver
Dibu @ 5pm
Herman's Hideaway, 1578 S Broadway, Denver
AOA: Cooking with Friends: Meatless Meatloaf @ Platt Park @ 5pm Platt Park Recreation Center, 1500 S. Grant St., Denver. 720-913-0654
Fri 5/19
Kowan Turner @ 7pm
Herman's Hideaway, 1578 S Broadway, Denver
Sat 5/20
Within Destruction @ 6pm Gothic Theatre, 3263 S Broadway, Englewood
Wed 5/24
Rachel Baiman @ 6pm Swallow Hill Music Association, 71 E Yale Ave, Denver
The Sweet Lillies @ 3pm Breckenridge Brewery, 2920 Brewery Ln, Littleton
Tony Goffredi: Tony G w/Mike @2 Penguins @ 5pm
2 Penguins Tap and Grill, 13065 E Briarwood Ave, Centennial
GBH @ 6pm Gothic Theatre, 3263 S Broadway, Engle‐wood
The Stone Eye @ 5pm
Herman's Hideaway, 1578 S Broadway, Denver
The Nocturnal Affair @ 5pm
Herman's Hideaway, 1578 S Broadway, Denver
Chatham Rabbits: Tuft Theater at Swallow Hill @ 7pm
Swallow Hill Music Association, 71 E Yale Ave, Denver
FROM THE EDITOR
Ilove the Luke Bryan song, “Most People are Good.” Besides agreeing with the song’s premise that despite what we hear on the news and read on social media about the worst in society –most people are good humans and try to do right by others.
e song also has the line, “most mommas oughta qualify for sainthood.” I also agree with this one particular line. Moms in the world work hard. Over the years — through journalism, through reading, and through becoming a mom and nding myself around other moms a lot more often — I have met some amazing women who get little to no credit for what they do.
First – we have to start with my own mother. She has three biological children, but raised 10 or 20 kids at some point. She raised her brothers and sisters when her own mom died at the age of 50. My uncle is more like my brother because he was only 7 when his mom died.
She also had a hand in raising some of my cousins and others through the years. I can’t say I remember a time in my childhood when my parents were not helping kids and family members.
I have more respect for how hard she worked all those years now that I have a busy, crazy life managing three children of my own. ey say the apple does not fall far from the tree. at is true, as I myself have helped raise other children who needed a parent. I am proud of my adopted daughter and where she has come in the last few years. I’d like to think that my mom’s in uence on me has generated a bit of how I raise her.
en, there are the other mothers out there who deserve
more credit. A story I heard about here in the Denver metro area this year is about an immigrant mom working to take care of her 7-year-old daughter. In her home country she was a lawyer. Here, she is a housekeeper worrying every month that another rent increase will put her in the streets.
Moms like her carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and every day they work to do whatever they can to keep their children safe.
All the single, struggling moms out there deserve our support these days in a world where just getting by is getting harder than ever.
To the working moms. I have to say I feel your pain. I recently got my son to hockey practice late. I was distracted with a work thing, and somehow started driving to the wrong ice center. My son was late in hitting the ice and his coach was asking him why. It was no surprise when my son threw me straight under the bus. Another nearby mom said it happens, pushing me to cut myself a break. She went on to tell me how she was more than 30 minutes late for private practice because she made the same mistake.
Working moms are hard on themselves. To you all, I say what she told me — “Cut yourselves a break.”
I could extend this week’s column to thousands of words by listing all the amazing moms we have in this world. My boss, my publisher, speaks often about her adult children and the time she spends with them. I hope to be like her when my kids are grown because her love and support shows that we really never top being mom.
Ahead of the day to celebrate moms — I just want to send a heartfelt Happy Mother’s Day wish to all of you.
elma Grimes is the south metro editor for Colorado Community Media.
LINDA SHAPLEY Publisher lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com
MICHAEL DE YOANNA Editor-in-Chief michael@coloradocommunitymedia.com
Examining equity
E orts to improve schools over the last half century have been built on the foundational principle that all learners are di erent and that educators should strive to meet their individual needs.
Whether it was called an individualized education plan, multiple intelligences, di erentiated learning, whole child or student centered learning,
the understanding that every student comes with their own unique needs has guided school improvement e orts since way back in the day when I got my masters in special education.
Now there is this emergent notion of “anti-racist” equity policy must rejects those decades of understanding by
In 2017, the public lost 1,470 acres of wilderness-quality land at the base of Mount Sopris near Aspen, Colorado.
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For decades, people had hiked and hunted on the Sopris land, yet Management handed it over to Leslie Wexner, request. e so-called “equivalent terrain” he no match for access to trails at the base of the is ill-considered trade reveals how land management agencies pander to
Columnist
wealthy interests, do not properly value public land and restrict opportunities for public involvement. It’s an ongoing scandal in Colorado that receives little attention.
Since 2000, the BLM and the Forest Service have proposed over 150 land exchanges in Colorado. Last year alone, the agencies proposed to trade more than 4,500 acres of public lands, worth over $9 million, in three major Colorado land exchanges.
Land to be traded away includes precious riverfront, lands recommended for Wild and Scenic River designation, and hundreds of acres of prime hunting and recreation territory.
Public land exchanges can be a useful tool. Federal agencies use them to con-
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solidate land holdings, improve public access, reduce management costs and protect watersheds.
By law, the trades must serve the public interest, and the land exchanged must be of equal value. e agencies are supposed to analyze, disclose and mitigate the impacts of relinquishing public lands in exchanges, and also solicit public input on whether a trade makes sense.
But here in Colorado — and elsewhere around the country — this management tool has been usurped by powerful players who aim to turn valuable public lands into private playgrounds.
Often, the deals proposed sound good in terms of acreage. In the Valle Seco Exchange, for example, the San Juan National Forest in southern Colorado would trade 380 acres for
actively encouraging educators to pick and choose which students to favor academically based solely on immutable characteristics. It actively seeks to prove Ibram X Kendi’s assertion that “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination and the only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”
When educators are forced to embrace this philosophy through board directive, racism becomes a moral imperative. It should be self evident that this blind push for equity is stumbling into a truly gruesome place.
I am deeply saddened by the stories some students have told me over the last several months. I wish I could o er my 50 years of wisdom to help them understand that the rise in racial issues isn’t because people are more racist, but because a spotlight has been forced upon immutable differences for the last two years under the DCSD equity policy. Continuing to divide us by those di erences as required by equity is the problem, not the solution. It is time for that policy
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880 acres of prime game-wintering habitat. But the trade mostly bene ts the landowners pushing the exchange.
Public lands for trade in the Valle Seco Exchange include river access, corridors considered for Wild and Scenic River designation, wetlands, sensitive species habitat, and signicant cultural sites.
Alarmingly, the Valle Seco exchange also includes more than 175 acres of a Colorado Roadless Area, a designation meant to block development of high-quality land. e exchange would allow a neighboring landowner to consolidate those 380 acres with his 3,000-plus acre ranch, opening the door to development.
e Valle Seco Exchange follows a long-standing pattern. “Exchange facilitators,” people familiar with the land-acquisition wish lists of agencies, help private landowners buy lands the agencies want. e landowners then threaten to manage and develop those lands in ways that undermine their integrity.
to die and to allow the content of our character to return to the core principles of human decency in DCSD.
Allyson Rydwell Parker
As Douglas County homeowners experience an increase in auto insurance, homeowner insurance, and now property tax increase, what impact to their insurance will Douglas County School District have after their settlement (through insurance) of the former superintendent? Is the political position of the school board worth the possible increase? Where does the money come from to pay for this insurance, Taxpayers!
I recognize that there is a need for an increase in funds to retain teachers and provide for a good education of our youth but is it good timing in light of already increases taxpayers are feeling. I would hate to see asking for an increase in MLO funds or capital money to fail again but do these political bias gures feel this is the right time. I realize politicians don’t use common sense and feel they are always right in making decisions for us but is asking for tax increase in November realistic?
Dave Usechek, Parkerted 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 o ce. 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 within 12 days of an election.
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e Valle Seco proponents did this by closing formerly open gates and threatening to fence the 880 acres for a domestic elk farm and hunting lodge.
is is blackmail on the range.
While catering to these private interests, the agencies suppress public scrutiny by refusing to share land appraisals and other documents with the public until afterthe public process has closed — or too late in the process to make it meaningful.
e proponents and their consultants have ready access to these documents, yet the public, which owns the land, does not. In Valle Seco, appraisals were completed in August 2020, but they weren’t released to the public until December 2021, just a few weeks before the scheduled decision date for the exchange. Advocates managed to pry the appraisals out of the agency only after submitting multiple Freedom of Information Act requests and taking legal action.
In another deal, the Blue Valley Exchange, the BLM also withheld drafts
of the management agreements until just before releasing the nal decision. is is hardly an open and fair public process.
e federal government presents what are, in e ect, done deals. Development plans and appraisals are undisclosed and comment periods hindered. By prioritizing the proponents’ desires over public interests and process, the land management agencies abdicate their responsibilities.
e result is that too many land trades are nothing less than a betrayal of the public trust as the public loses access to its land as well as the land itself.
Erica Rosenberg is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonpro t that works to spur lively conversation about Western issues. She is on the board of Colorado Wild Public Lands, a nonpro t in the town of Basalt that monitors land exchanges around the state.
At e Alley in downtown Littleton, you might nd a musician who’s so into the music, they’ll get up and dance on the bar.
When a local band surprises the crowd with a stellar performance that no one saw coming, “it just knocks people’s socks o ,” said Mary Riecks, e Alley’s bar manager and a Littleton-area native. e watering hole on Main Street doubles as a music venue that nds and helps grow local talent — and the shows are free. It’s one of the bars in the metro Denver suburbs that o ers a window into up-and-coming homegrown performers amid a music scene that one longtime bar owner says is growing.
“Twenty years ago when I opened up the bar, there were a few bars around that had live music,” said Doug Jacobsen, owner of Jake’s Roadhouse in Arvada.
Since then, he’s noticed that “all of these di erent bars” now o er space for shows, said Jacobsen, who has friends who perform at spots around metro Denver.
“ ere’s a lot of great musicians here,” Jacobsen said.
Here’s a look at places o the beaten path where you can catch some lesser known — and sometimes famous — music artists in person.
‘Something for everyone’ Wild Goose Saloon in Parker
o ers a bit of a di erent environment: It’s a bar but also a large event venue.
It aims to be “Colorado’s version of the Knitting Factory” — a unique, independent venue that hosts local and national artists, said Chris Dellinger, who serves as co-owner of Wild Goose Saloon with his wife.
ey’re both longtime musicians themselves — they perform in a band called Lola Black, garnered play on the radio and toured around the country — and have played Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre several times, Dellinger said.
ey take their knowledge of the industry to running the Wild Goose, which was built around the concept of serving as a music venue and has a bigger stage,
sound and lighting setup than most bars do, Dellinger said.
It’s “kind of like every musician’s dream to own their own venue at some place and time, and we just ended up being able to pull it o ,” said Dellinger, who lives in Aurora.
After opening in July 2021, Wild Goose has hosted some large country artists and “some `80s artists that are still big,” Dellinger said. National pop-rock act American Authors is set to play there in late April.
“My motto always is, ‘If you don’t like the music one night, that’s OK — it’ll be completely di erent the next night or the next week,’” Dellinger said. “So we really try to have something for everyone here.”
His venue tries to get exposure for local talent by letting them open for national touring acts. For the audience, the typical admission cost for a national artist’s show at Wild Goose sits around $25 to $30, but local artists’ ticketed shows can cost as low as $10, and most of the local artists’ shows are free.
Dellinger and his wife have
“snuck in” a performance or two at Wild Goose, he said — they were set to play there in late April with the Texas Hippie Coalition, an American heavy metal band. Keeping classics alive
You might also see Jacobsen, a guitarist himself, playing with a band at Jake’s Roadhouse in the north metro area every now and then.
His bar started o ering live music “right away” after opening near the end of 2003. Sitting in east Arvada close to Denver and Westminster, the venue o ers mostly cover bands and blues, and on Wednesday nights, bluegrass is on tap. Sometimes, artists play original songs, but it’s rare, Jacobsen said.
“Our people come in to hang out, and most original bands don’t have four hours’ worth of original music,” Jacobsen said.
But playing covers at Jake’s Roadhouse is one way to get a new artist’s foot in the door in the local music scene.
“We have bands that come to us all the time that can’t get these other bars to give them a chance to play because they haven’t played anywhere before,” Jacobsen said. He added: “We’re not like that. I know a lot of musicians around town, and we will give a band a chance to play just on the word of a friend.”
He feels that live music is im-
Local suburban bars a place for up-and-coming music talent in Denver metro area
portant to promote — “especially nowadays.”
“I’m 68 years old, so I grew up with really a lot of good rock and roll from the `60s and `70s, and I think it’s important to keep that alive,” he said.
And there’s no ticket cost to watch the live music at Jake’s Roadhouse.
New talent in Littleton Music is always free to watch, too, at e Alley in Littleton on the southwest side of the Denver
suburbs.
e bar had its grand opening near the start of 2017 and has always featured live music, said Riecks, the bar manager.
“ ere were not that many places on Main Street here in downtown Littleton that featured live music other than karaoke or a DJ on the weekends, at least not regularly,” Riecks said. “If you did catch a live band, it was maybe one day a week.”
e Alley came in and established a consistent place for live music, leaning toward classic rock but offering a variety of genres including blues, jazz, folk and bluegrass. Most of the acts that Riecks books are
local. And among the original artists, performances typically include about 25% original songs and 75% covers, she said — catering to the crowds.
e small main-street outlet is still an ideal place where you can catch new talent: Some nights of the week are centered around new artists.
“If you come play my open mic night and the open mic host thinks you have some serious potential, they’ll send them to me,” and then the artist may be featured in “new talent ursday,” Riecks said. After that, Riecks may o er an artist a weekend spot — a paid opportunity to play from 8 to 11 p.m.
“So there’s kind of a ladder,” Riecks said.
Some well-known artists have played at e Alley, including Sean Kelly of e Samples, “which was a huge band in the `90s,” said Riecks, who added that she receives at least 40 to 50 emails a month from local artists and national touring acts.
A large part of e Alley’s crowd on any given night comes for the live music, Riecks said.
People can get a typical bar experience at many other places, she noted.
“But if they want to have a great craft-made cocktail and see some local talent,” Riecks said, “this is the place to do it in Littleton.”
A plan to turn a piece of longtime agricultural land near Parker into a residential neighborhood met resistance from two of Douglas County’s elected leaders.
“Based on what you’re proposing, it just does not seem to be congruent” with nearby neighborhoods, said County Commissioner Abe Laydon at an April 25 meeting. e pushback comes on the heels of the Douglas County Planning Commission’s April 17 meeting, where more than a dozen other speakers criticized the proposal in front of a crowd that applauded several other commenters. After hearing the feedback, the planning commission locked in a 3-3 tie vote, unable to send a recommendation to the county’s board of three commissioners — Laydon, Lora omas and George Teal — who ultimately make the nal call on development decisions in areas outside of municipalities.
At that earlier hearing, the plan was referred to as “high-density housing,” and residents in the rural area lamented what they said would be an encroachment on country living. at meeting heard concerns about streetlights ruining the view of stars, a lack of quiet and the potential for more tra c — including congestion on Hilltop, which is a two-lane road in that area.
Many commenters at the April 25 meeting in front of the county commissioners spoke against the
southeast of Parker and close to the Elbert County border. Flintwood Road runs along the proposed development’s eastern boundary, in an area where rural life is not far from suburban neighborhoods.
e plan could place public park space, open space and 247 singlefamily homes on smaller lots on land otherwise dominated by eight home properties that are 35 or more acres in size, in keeping with the rural setting.
Sharon Wallden, a member of the family that has long owned the land, is pushing for the proposal.
“Our parents bought this land from our grandfather over 75 years ago. ey worked hard to pay for it and
Wallden has said.
Even though nearby development has a ected her family’s farming activity, she believes in the right of property owners to build on their land, she said.
“We did not object to the properties around us. We ask for the same respect for our property rights,” Wallden said.
County o cials rezoned the property from agricultural to “estate residential” status in March 2022.
ough the land is vast, most of the homes would be grouped close together in a neighborhood that would appear to have homes somewhat similar in property size to homes in e Pinery area — and similar to properties in some, but not all, other parts of the area.
Many properties in the immediate area, especially to the east, are larger than the closer-grouped lots would be.
e size of the smaller home lots has been a major sticking point for the residents in the area, who object to the density.
“We understand that development is going to happen in this area,” but residents are asking the commissioners to “decline the high density,” said Audra Labak, one of the residents who opposes the proposal.
Commissioner omas noted the density matches what the proposal is allowed to have under county rules.
Laydon argued the density does not re ect the “outcomes and desires of the comprehensive master plan based upon the current location of adjacent communities and their current characteristics.”
use standards can sometimes be di cult to pin down: e county comprehensive plan’s introductory section, the section on urban areas, the section on nonurban areas and the glossary all do not appear to include a de nition of the term “character.” e county zoning rules section that lists de nitions also does not de ne “character.”
Teal, another commissioner, also felt the density went too far.
Jill Repella, with the development team, eventually said the proposal could be changed to increase the home lot sizes “a bit.”
e development team is “making the commitment that we can increase half the lot sizes,” said Repella, who is a former Douglas County commissioner.
Laydon said he appreciated the concession.
Repella said some nearby residents want the proposed lot size to expand to 1- to 1 1/2-acre lots.
“We’re not going to get to that, but we’re going to” work on a change, she said.
omas praised the proposal’s planning as it relates to water resources.
“What it appears to me is that this developer has chosen to ( gure out) how many homes they can put on this parcel (and) cluster them together so they can get a central water and wastewater system, which is gold,” omas said, adding that it “gives the neighborhood a better opportunity to maintain those wells that Ms. Repella talked about.”
Avoiding having new homes “sucking wells out of the aquifer” is a part of the plan that “saves your wells,” omas said.
“I thought that is the genius in this,” she said.
e Colorado Parks and Wildlife board of commissioners have approved a nal plan to restore wolves in Colorado.
Concluding two years of work — and hundreds of hours of meetings across the state — the commissioners unanimously approved a 301page plan to begin restoring wolves, as mandated by voters in November 2020.
Commissioner Dallas May said it was “morally imperative” for the commissioners to approve the plan and hand it o to CPW wildlife managers on schedule. e agency is on track to begin introducing wolves on the Western Slope by year’s end –per the voter mandate in November 2020 – even though there are many challenges ahead that threaten to derail that schedule.
“We now have the opportunity to place this in the hands of people who are absolutely the best team that can be assembled to enact it,” May said. “Is it a perfect plan? Probably not. It is an assemblage of giveand-take, of trying to nd the middle of the road. ere will be many things that we did not anticipate.
“ is is where the CPW team of dedicated professionals will begin their di cult and arduous task to ful ll their mission,” May said. “It is not our job to micromanage their work. Our job is to give them this plan and let them do what they do best.”
Gov. Jared Polis called the commission on May 3 to thank the agency’s sta and volunteer commissioners for what he called “a big lift.”
Outgoing commissioner Carrie Besnette Hauser, the commission chair, said the nal approval “was a bit emotional” after months of healthy debate.
“I’m really proud of Colorado and I’m proud of all of you,” she said. e restoration plan was developed over two years of meetings with both a Technical Working Group and a Stakeholder Advisory Group. Colorado Parks and Wildlife also held 47 meetings that engaged with 3,400 residents. e plan calls for phased management that can be adjusted as wolf populations grow in the state.
e restoration will begin with introducing 30 to 50 gray wolves in the next three to ve years. e state proposes wintertime releases of captured wolves in two areas on the Western Slope: along the Inter-
state 70 corridor between Glenwood Springs and Vail, and along the U.S. 50 corridor between Monarch Pass and Montrose. e rst releases are planned for state or private land around the I-70 corridor.
As the state has planned restoration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing an exemption under the Endangered Species Act that would establish wolves in Colorado as an experimental population. e so-called 10(j) rule allows exible management strategies, like allowing ranchers to kill wolves that are threatening livestock or people.
e plan will allow ranchers who lose livestock to wolves to be compensated as much as $15,000 per animal. e plan outlines many nonlethal interventions to discourage wolves from killing livestock and it does allow the killing of wolves caught in the act of attacking livestock, saying both the stakeholder and technical groups viewed lethal management “as being critically important to a successful wolf management program.”
e federal wildlife service has expedited its review and expects to issue a nal Environmental Impact Statement by December. Legislation introduced in the Colorado Senate in March — Senate Bill 256 — prohibits introduction of gray wolves in Colorado until that 10(j) analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act is complete.
Mike Samson, a four-term Gar eld County commissioner, spoke during public comment before the agency’s commissioners began reviewing the nal plan, saying the wolf restoration was “Colorado voters attempting to be Mother Nature” and “ballot-box biology.” He urged the commissioners to allow lethal taking of wolves, pointing to Idaho, where lawmakers have approved legisla-
tion allowing for killing up to 90% of the state’s estimated 1,500 wolves. ( e Colorado plan does not allow hunting, but the adaptive management strategy leaves open most management options in future years as wolf populations grow.)
“Wolves need to be legally hunted and trapped to keep their numbers in check,” Samson said.
Representatives for cattlemen groups urged the commissioners to approve compensation for ranchers who spend money on wolf mitigation, not just those who lose livestock to the predators.
Many public speakers asked the commissioners where they plan to get wolves to relocate into Colorado. e state’s plan calls for capturing wild gray wolves in Idaho,
Montana and Wyoming. e draft plan says Colorado has “begun to explore an agreement” with the three states. A recent report by 9News quoted o cials in each state saying there were no discussions with Colorado about donating wolves. e draft plan also says Colorado “has also begun to explore an agreement” with Washington and Oregon. e 9News report also quoted o cials in Oregon and Washington saying they were not working with Colorado on sourcing wolves for restoration in the state.
is story from e Colorado Sun, www.ColoradoSun.com. e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, which owns Colorado Community Media.
Colorado school districts receive extra funding based on the number of at-risk students they educate — those students living in poverty who could struggle in school as a result. But the way the state accounts for all students who are considered at-risk has long been riddled with problems that only worsened with the pandemic.
Two of the core issues: Colorado’s method for tallying its most vulnerable students has led to signi cant undercounts, particularly in the past few years during COVID-19, and the way the state de nes its at-risk student population is too narrow to capture all students facing hardship that could hinder their ability to thrive in classes.
at’s why a working group convened by the Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes under legislation that passed last year set out to overhaul the way the state de nes its most vulnerable students and introduce a more well-rounded approach to counting them. eir progress stopped short of adopting a new formula, which the legislation required them to do. at means school district counts of at-risk students will likely remain lower than the number that would truly re ect all students from backgrounds that challenge their academic success.
at also translates to serious economic consequences for districts, which will receive less state funding next year based on those undercounts as they try to provide targeted resources and additional support to their neediest students.
“I think it probably just means another year of status quo for at-risk students where we are relying on a system that we know is not ideal and probably is not accounting for all the students who experience economic disadvantage” and would bene t from more resources at their school, said Leslie Colwell, vice president of youth success initiatives at the Colorado Children’s Campaign and a member of the working group.
“ ere’s no way around it at this
point,” Colwell added. “I think moving to this new factor will yield a better, more accurate, more holistic count, but I think the state really wants to get it right because we are going to be I think the only state doing it this way. And so (it’s) not ideal, but I do think that that extra time could bene t us in the long run.”
Colorado’s system for tracking its at-risk students revolves around a single metric: the number of kids who qualify for free or reducedprice lunch, which has long been a federal indicator of poverty. But that method is awed and persistently undercounts its students grappling with the greatest needs.
Part of the problem is a program known as Community Eligibility Provision, which gives schools and districts the ability to provide free school meals to all their students if a certain percentage of their kids bene t from government assistance programs, such as the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. at discourages families from lling out free and reducedprice lunch forms, which districts need to show the state how many of their students qualify as at risk. e pandemic only added to schools’ struggle to collect free and reduced-price lunch paperwork from families as kids shifted to remote learning and families were no longer going to school to drop o the paper forms, Colwell said. Meanwhile, the federal government swooped in to give all students, regardless of their family’s income, access to free school meals for two years, further disincentivizing families from completing free and reduced-price forms.
As a result, the state’s recorded population of at-risk students dropped dramatically during the pandemic, even as families were still struggling to make ends meet.
e number of counted at-risk students started to rise this year. But after Colorado voters in November approved a school meals program that will feed all students — known as the Healthy School Meals for All program — families again won’t see much of a reason to submit forms to their school.
Additionally, using free and reduced-price lunch eligibility as the sole driver to measure students living in poverty severely restricts the scope of kids who can be considered at risk. Colwell describes it as a “onedimensional measure” that only looks at a student’s family income. It “ignores the other factors that are economic or social that we know are really important to student need,” she said.
An income threshold dictates who quali es for free and reducedprice lunch. Families whose income
exceeds that amount by just a couple dollars must pay for their student’s meals while families right below it are guaranteed free school meals.
Free and reduced-price lunch as a measure also does not parse out di erent levels of poverty or account for the varying needs of students coping with di erent degrees of hardship, Colwell added.
Frank Reeves, another workgroup member and former superintendent of East Grand School District in Granby, recalls how challenging it was to collect forms from families, including those from Mexico who feared lling out paperwork and being deported. Others living in poverty also felt exposed.
“ ere’s just a point of pride for families,” Reeves said, “and it’s really tough to get some families to apply knowing that they qualify.”
e workgroup, composed of members from education groups as well as state agencies including the Colorado Department of Education, the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing and the Colorado Department of Human Services, aimed to revise and expand who exactly ts into a school’s at-risk student population.
One proposed component would incorporate kids who are directly certi ed — including those who re-
ceive government aid through SNAP, TANF and the Migrant Education Program as well as homeless students and children in foster care.
However, participation rates in those government programs are low among qualifying kids in the state, Colwell said.
“We would see a pretty dramatic drop in the numbers of kids who are counted because of the low participation rates” if Colorado based its at-risk student population solely on direct certi cation, she said.
Another option would allow Medicaid, the joint state and federal government health insurance program for people with low income, to be added to the list of programs under direct certi cation. So all Colorado kids enrolled in Medicaid would ultimately be labeled at-risk students.
“Even before the public health emergency, Medicaid had a higher uptake than other public programs,” said Erin Miller, vice president of health initiatives for the Colorado Children’s Campaign.
Colwell is hopeful that the state could capture more at-risk students through Medicaid than the number of students calculated through the current system of free and reducedprice lunch forms.
But there are a couple caveats. Efforts to create a new at-risk student funding formula have been hampered by a lack of data, with state agencies working to tally up the number of students enrolled in Medicaid by school district. e data lag
ultimately prevented the workgroup from crafting a new way to determine at-risk students, since districts will rst need an understanding of how those Medicaid enrollment numbers will impact their funding.
e decision to postpone changes spared districts from potentially bigger problems in the future, said Reeves, the former East Grand superintendent who now serves as director of rural recruitment for the Public Education & Business Coalition and operations manager for the Colorado Rural Schools Alliance.
Reeves feared that any premature recommendations to the legislature could end with “drastic unknown consequences if we don’t have actual numbers and runs.”
Additionally, many children who have been covered by Medicaid during the pandemic will likely be among more than 300,000 Coloradans who could soon lose coverage with the end of the federally declared Public Health Emergency.
“We’ll probably see this dip especially among kid enrollment” possibly followed by an increase as people re-enroll once they realize they no longer have coverage, Miller said.
A decline in the number of children bene ting from Medicaid would likely impact Medicaid enrollment gures by district, but there are ways to work around any decreases. One idea is to use the enrollment numbers that predate kids losing their coverage, Colwell said.
e workgroup, which wrapped up in January, also looked into using a much more expansive set of factors that de ne student need in much greater detail. ose elements include how much money a student’s family earns; how often a student’s family relocates; how far a student’s parents progressed through their own schooling; how much money a student’s family spends on housing; whether a child is adopted, in foster care or living with relatives other than their biological parents; whether a student’s family shares their home with another family; and what language is primarily spoken at home.
Next year, after another workgroup sorts out other parts of Colorado’s school nance formula during the interim months, policymakers must decide how much funding for at-risk students is driven by enrollment in public bene ts programs, such as Medicaid, and how much is determined by other factors of poverty, like mobility and housing costs. Reeves is certain that once changes go into e ect during the 2024-25 school year, most Colorado districts will be impacted.
“I believe in every district there are more at-risk students than what we are counting.”
is story from e Colorado Sun, www.ColoradoSun.com. e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, which owns Colorado Community Media.
BY JUDITH GRAHAM KFF HEALTH NEWS
Friends sitting around a table, talking and laughing. A touch on the arm, as one of them leans over to make a con ding comment. A round of hugs before walking out the door.
For years, Carole Leskin, 78, enjoyed this close camaraderie with ve women in Moorestown, New Jersey, a group that took classes together, gathered for lunch several times a week, celebrated holidays with one another, and socialized frequently at their local synagogue.
Leskin was di erent from the other women — unmarried, living alone, several years younger — but they welcomed her warmly, and she basked in the feeling of belonging. Although she met people easily, Leskin had always been something of a loner and her intense involvement with this group was something new. en, just before the covid-19 pandemic struck, it was over. Within two years, Marlene died of cancer. Lena had a fatal heart attack. Elaine succumbed to injuries after a car accident. Margie died of sepsis after an infection. Ruth passed away after an illness.
Leskin was on her own again, without anyone to commiserate or share her worries with as pandemic restrictions went into e ect and waves of fear swept through her community. “ e loss, the isolation; it was horrible,” she told me.
What can older adults who have lost their closest friends and family
members do as they contemplate the future without them? If, as research has found, good relationships are essential to health and well-being in later life, what happens when connections forged over the years end?
It would be foolish to suggest these relationships can easily be replaced: ey can’t. ere’s no substitute for people who’ve known you a long time, who understand you deeply, who’ve been there for you reliably in times of need, and who give you a sense of being anchored in the world.
Still, opportunities to create bonds with other people exist, and “it’s never too late to develop meaningful relationships,” said Robert Waldinger, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development.
at study, now in its 85th year, has shown that people with strong connections to family, friends, and their communities are “happier, physically healthier, and live longer than people who are less well connected,” according to e Good Life: Lessons From the World’s Longest Scienti c Study of Happiness, a new book describing its ndings, co-written by Waldinger and Marc Schulz, the Harvard study’s associate director.
Waldinger’s message of hope involves recognizing that relationships aren’t only about emotional closeness, though that’s important. ey’re also a source of social support, practical help, valuable information, and ongoing engagement with the world around us. And all
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these bene ts remain possible, even when cherished family and friends pass on.
Say you’ve joined a gym and you enjoy the back-and-forth chatter among people you’ve met there. “ at can be nourishing and stimulating,” Waldinger said. Or, say, a woman from your neighborhood has volunteered to give you rides to the doctor. “Maybe you don’t know each other well or con de in each other, but that person is providing practical help you really need,” he said.
Even casual contacts — the person you chat with in the co ee shop or a cashier you see regularly at the local supermarket — “can give us a signi cant hit of well-being,” Waldinger said. Sometimes, the friend of a friend is the person who points you to an important resource in your community you wouldn’t otherwise know about.
After losing her group of friends, Leskin su ered several health setbacks — a mild stroke, heart failure, and, recently, a nonmalignant brain tumor — that left her unable to leave the house most of the time. About 4.2 million people 70 and older are similarly “homebound” — a gure that has risen dramatically in recent years, according to a study released in December 2021.
Determined to escape what she called “solitary con nement,” Leskin devoted time to writing a blog about aging and reaching out to readers who got in touch with her. She joined a virtual travel site and found a community of people with common interests, including ve (two in Australia, one in Ecuador, one in Amsterdam and one in New York) who’ve become treasured friends.
“Between [Facebook] Messenger and email, we write like old-fash-
ioned pen pals, talking about the places we’ve visited,” she told me. “It has been lifesaving.”
Still, Leskin can’t call on these long-distance virtual friends to come over if she needs help, to share a meal, or to provide the warmth of a physical presence. “I miss that terribly,” she said.
Research con rms that virtual connections yield mixed results. On one hand, older adults who routinely connect with other people via cellphones and computers are less likely to be socially isolated than those who don’t, several studies suggest. Shifting activities for older adults such as exercise classes, social hours, and writing groups online has helped many people remain engaged while staying safe during the pandemic, noted Kasley Killam, executive director of Social Health Labs, an organization focused on reducing loneliness and fostering social connections.
But when face-to-face contact with other people diminishes signicantly — or disappears altogether, as was true for millions of older adults in the past three years — seniors are more likely to be lonely and depressed, other studies have found.
“If you’re in the same physical location as a friend or family member, you don’t have to be talking all the time: You can just sit together and feel comfortable. ese low-pressure social interactions can mean a lot to older adults and that can’t be replicated in a virtual environment,” said Ashwin Kotwal, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of geriatrics at the University of California-San Francisco who has studied the e ects of engaging with people virtually.
Meanwhile, millions of seniors — disproportionately those who are low-income, represent racial and ethnic minorities, or are older than 80 — can’t a ord computers or broadband access or aren’t comfort-
able using anything but the phone to reach out to others.
Liz Blunt, 76, of Arlington, Texas, is among them. She hasn’t recovered from her husband’s death in September 2021 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer. Several years earlier, Blunt’s closest friend, Janet, died suddenly on a cruise to Southeast Asia, and two other close friends, Vicky and Susan, moved to other parts of the country.
“I have no one,” said Blunt, who doesn’t have a cellphone and admitted to being “technologically unsavvy.”
When we rst spoke in mid-March, Blunt had seen only one person she knows fairly well in the past 4½ months. Because she has several serious health issues, she has been extremely cautious about catching covid and hardly goes out. “I’m not sure where to turn to make friends,” she said. “I’m not going to go somewhere and take my mask o .”
But Blunt hadn’t given up alto-
gether. In 2016, she’d started a local group for “elder orphans” (people without spouses or children to depend on). ough it sputtered out during the pandemic, Blunt thought she might reconnect with some of those people, and she sent out an email inviting them to lunch.
On March 25, eight women met outside at a restaurant and talked for 2½ hours. “ ey want to get together again,” Blunt told me when I called again, with a note of eagerness in her voice. “Looking in the mirror, I can see the relief in my face. ere are people who care about me and are concerned about me. We’re all in the same situation of being alone at this stage of life — and we can help each other.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.
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