Elbert County News 060123

Elizabeth considers historic district

Meeting set for June 12 as board lays out plan

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

In early 2022, the Town of Elizabeth Historic Advisory Board (HAB) launched a survey to gauge public interest in historic preservation and in creating a historic district for the town — and received an overwhelmingly positive response from town residents and others in the area.

Now the HAB has laid out plans for a new historic district, based on more than a year of work updating design and preservation guidelines.

On May 8, the HAB held a community meeting to update residents and discuss the bene ts of creating a historic district, led by HAB Chair John Quest.

As explained, a historic district would:

1. Protect and enhance the identity and character of the town.

2. Protect and enhance property values.

3. Enhance the economy of the town, encouraging marketing and sales opportunities.

4. Expand access to state and federal tax credits.

5. Open up opportunities for certain grants, including facade improvement grants.

6. Enhance the concept of a sense of place.

7. Increase heritage tourism.

8. Revitalize downtown Elizabeth.

“We’ve de ned a boundary so we can move forward with the idea. We do have some legwork to do to work with the property owners to get their approval. We’ll be working on that this summer,” said Quest. “A lot of the groundwork is in place, we just need to move towards making it happen.”

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Friday Night Market returns

Elizabeth event will launch season June 9

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

e Friday Night Market is picking back up on June 9 for another year’s live music, food trucks and local vendors. e weekly events will continue through Aug. 18 at Running Creek Park in Elizabeth.

e Town of Elizabeth has hosted the weekly Friday Night Market events since 2018 and this year the series is being touted as bigger and better than ever. e Friday Night Market events are family-friendly and people of all ages are welcome.

“It is a great opportunity for people in the community to meet and relax over some live music and food. ere are many people who attend the event regularly, including those that pride themselves on not missing a single Friday night,” said Patrick Davidson, town administrator. “Generally, even the vendors are there every Friday and form relationships and friendships with their customers. If someone has not been, I would encourage them to go a couple of times and just see how fun and relaxing it can be, particularly if they are new to the community.”

In collaboration with the Town of Elizabeth, the Elizabeth Brewing Company also hosts the event. ough the Friday Night Market events started a year before EBC opened its doors, the company is aiming to establish itself in the town and to help host an event that would bring everyone together.

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Plans displayed during a May 8 public meeting show a proposed Elizabeth historic district in pink and town historic designated properties in yellow. PHOTO BY CHANCY J. GATLIN-ANDERSON

to discuss the proposed draft of the updated design and preservation guidelines for the Town of Elizabeth Municipal Code. e current guidelines were written in 1998 and include limited text regarding historic preservation. ey also focus primarily on new construction and renovation of non-historical structures.

e newly proposed guidelines would focus speci cally on preservation within the town limits. ey will also include information on new construction in a historic district, including both residential and commercial properties.

e HAB will propose the guidelines to Town of Elizabeth Planning Commission and Board of Trustees later this summer. e new historic preservation guidelines will apply to any building 50 years old or older classi ed as contributing structures, especially those buildings that meet one or more characteristics of his-

tive architectural style.

e design guidelines for properties within the limits of the proposed historic district would apply to the exterior building surface that faces the street. Building components that will be addressed include siding and roo ng, front wall fascia and cornice detailing, doors and windows, awnings and canopies, building mass and integration with its surroundings, and color.

“We de nitely don’t want to recommend creating a false sense of history on Main Street, we want buildings 100 years from now to be recognizable from the 2020s and not mistaken for the 1920s,” said HAB Vice Chair Aimee Woodall. “ ere is nuance in design for that (for new “in ll” construction). We want there to be a sympathetic gesture to the historic buildings without trying to replicate something that wasn’t here in the 1920s.”

Audience members posed several

Q: “I assume there is a cost to being a part of this district?”

A: “No, there is not,” said Quest. “It’s not a taxing district.”

Q: “Are you working in conjunction with the Main Street Board?”

A: “We’re both on the same path that historic preservation is an important component. We’re totally behind the things they’re considering doing with the street and landscaping,” said Quest. “We continue to meet with them and talk about stu and make it look like the decisions are coming from one place rather than from two separate entities.”

Q: “Are there drawbacks to creating an historic district?”

A: “You don’t have total control and free reign of what you’re going to do with your building,” said Quest. “It has to maintain the historic presence that it has on Main Street.”

Q. “What are the bene ts for property owners?”

A: “A lot of towns have this in place

already and they’ve seen the change erty values are going up,” said Quest. “It’s hard to explain how much that will be, but it does happen.”

“It’s knowing there’s security in your investment,” said Zach Higgins, Town of Elizabeth Community Development Director. “It’s being maintained and continuing to be sellable for generations to come.”

In order to approve the proposed historic district, 75% of the property owners within the district must agree. It is done through a vote-bysignature process.

e Historic Advisory Board will hold a second informational meeting about the proposed historic district and design guidelines on June 12 in the Elizabeth Town Hall board room, 151 S. Banner St. e meeting will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Members of the community are encouraged to attend and bring any questions and suggestions they have with them.

To learn more about the HAB and read about their historic preservation plan, visit townofelizabeth. org/cd/page/historic-preservationprogram.

Local residents and business owners discuss potential e ects of creating a historic district in Elizabeth at a May 8 public meeting.

PHOTOS BY CHANCY J. GATLIN-ANDERSON

John Quest, the Town of Elizabeth Historic Advisory Board chair, gives a presentation about updated design guidelines and the board’s hope of creating a town historic district.

Aimee Woodall, the vice chair of the Town of Elizabeth Historic Advisory Board, writes out public comments and important notes during a May 8 public meeting.

Elizabeth employees and residents listen to a Historic Advisory Board presentation on May 8.

“We are expecting this year to be our biggest year yet. New bands are coming as well as fan favorites from previous years,” said Rickie Baumert, head brewer for Elizabeth Brewing Company. “We’ll also have new food trucks and vendors. We are also working on getting more activities for kids to make it an event the whole family can enjoy. My favorite part is the community aspect of it. Seeing the faces we’ve grown accustomed to in the taproom as well as new faces out there all coming together to enjoy the summer and each other’s company.”

Beginning this year, visitors to the Friday Night Market events can bring along their four-legged, furry friends. In the past, dogs have not been allowed at the event because dogs are generally not allowed in Elizabeth’s parks. Dogs will now be allowed at the event as long as they are on a leash and are picked up after.

“We’re new to the Elizabeth area and are really excited to go to the Friday Night Markets this year,” said Pam Harris, a resident of Spring Valley Ranch. “I was really excited to hear that we could bring our dog. We have a French bulldog that just loves to meet new people.”

ere is limited seating at Running Creek Park. Attendees should plan on bringing their own folding camp

chairs if able. ere are some picnic tables and Adirondack chairs available near the stage for those unable to carry their own chairs.

“People bring their lawn chairs, but there are no formal seating arrangements. Most attendees sit in groups with their friends and family in a very casual atmosphere,” said Davidson.

the sun starts to go down.”

With more people moving into the Elizabeth area, the Friday Night Markets are sure to be bigger and busier than ever. Town leadership hopes to see the event expand over time with even more vendors and food trucks.

beth moved here for the small-town atmosphere and a sense of community. is summer-long event is every bit the way of life that brought people here and keeps them here.”

“

e weather is generally great, but it is Colorado, so perhaps consider bringing a raincoat or a sweatshirt depending on what the weather may be. It does tend to get cooler when

“For those people who are new to Elizabeth, or have not attended the Friday Night Market, I really do think they are missing out on one of the `secrets’ of living in a small community,” commented Davidson. “Everyone living in and around Eliza-

Running Creek Park is located at 500 E. Kiowa Ave. in Elizabeth. Parking is available on Main Street, at Town Hall and at the Gesin Lot. ere is limited handicap parking available at Running Creek Park for the event. For more information on the Friday Night Market events, visit tinyurl. com/ElizFNM.

Visitors gather at Running Creek Park to eat food from local vendors and listen to live music in a previous year’s Friday Night Market. The event is returning to Elizabeth on June 9.

PHOTO BY CHANCY J. GATLIN-ANDERSON

Visitors to the Friday Night Markets can purchase food from food trucks and local food vendors.

Deal creates state’s largest oil-gas producer

BY MARK JAFFE THE COLORADO SUN

Chevron Corp. is buying PDC Energy in a $7.6 billion deal that will make it by far and away the largest oil and gas producer in Colorado and continues a trend in the state of bigger companies gobbling up smaller ones.

PDC Energy shareholders will get stock in San Ramon, California-based Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company by share value after ExxonMobil. Chevron will also assume more than $1 billion in PDC Energy debt.

For the money Chevron will get 275,000 acres adjacent to the company’s present holdings in the DenverJulesburg Basin, in Weld County, with estimated reserves of 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent, a measure of oil and gas combined.

Chevron will also get 25,000 acres Denver-based PDC Energy owns in Texas in the Permian Basin, the largest and most productive oil eld in the country.

“ e deal makes Chevron an even more formidable operator in Colorado,” Andrew Dittmar, a director at Enverus Intelligence Research, said in an analyst’s note.

“ e Colorado assets do come with some increased regulatory risk,” Dittmar said, “but the worst case for stopping permitting feared several years back has largely not come to pass. Companies have successfully been able to secure years of drilling permits.”

For years Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Onshore, a subsidiary of Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Corp., was the No. 1 oil and gas producer in Colorado.  It was followed by Noble Energy, a Chevron subsidiary. PDC Energy has been in third or fourth place among producers.

In 2022, Kerr-McGee pumped 27 million barrels of oil. Noble and PDC Energy’s combined output was more than 52 million barrels, according to data from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which starting July 1 will be known as the Energy and Carbon Management Commission.

e PDC Energy purchase will boost Chevron’s cash ow by $1 billion and create $400 million in e ciencies, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth told analysts on a call in May presenting the deal.

“ is seems like a testament to the idea that the DJ can be a core U.S. position even for a company as large as CVX,” Brad Handler, a researcher at the Colorado School of Mines’ Payne Institute for Public Policy, said in an email, referring to Chevron by its stock ticker symbol.

e PDC Energy acquisition is part of a wave of Colorado oil and gas sector consolidations over the past ve years.

In 2019, Occidental bought Anadarko Petroleum and its Kerr-McGee assets for $55 billion, including debt. A year later Chevron took over Noble

Energy in a $13 billion deal.

In 2021, three midsized operators — Extraction Oil and Gas, Bonanza Creek Energy and Crestone — merged to form Civitas Resources. at came after Bonanza Creek had purchased bankrupt Highpoint Resources.

PDC Energy has been in the acquisition hunt itself, buying SCR Energy in 2019 for $1.7 billion and Great Western Petroleum for $543 million in 2022.

Still, PDC Energy’s share price languished, trading below peer companies. In late May, shares were trading at $65.12. After the announcement, shares jumped to $69.91.

“Some analysts thought that the company was undervalued with valuation dragged down at least in part by the regulatory environment in Colorado,” Handler said.

In 2019, legislation changed the mission of the COGCC from promoting the e cient development of oil and gas resources to protecting public welfare, health, safety and the environment and wildlife in the development of oil and gas operations.

In the following years oil and gas regulators and air quality regulators adopted a spate of regulations for the industry.

Several analysts on the call with Wirth and Bart Brookman, PDC Energy’s CEO, raised questions about the regulatory impacts on oil and gas operations in the state.

“Both companies have demonstrated a respect for the higher expectations expressed by the people of Colorado,” Wirth said.

One of the new rules’ innovations, comprehensive area plans — which block out huge swaths of land for coordinated oil and gas development — has removed some uncertainty, Wirth said.

“We’ve received comprehensive area plan approvals as has PDC having years and years’ worth of approved development plans,” Wirth said. Bookman said, “We’ve been successful in the process obtaining approximately 1,000 permits in the last nine or 10 months.”

Still, PDC Energy’s concentration of assets in Colorado may have been seen as a risk by some investors. “ e markets assign a certain concentration risk,” Wirth said. “Conjecture in the market that may have weighed on that.”

When asked by oil and gas analyst Paul Sankey whether political risks could have “excessively discounted” share price, Bookman said “that is always a consideration for any Colorado operator.”

e Colorado Sun co-owns Colorado Community Media as a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy. It is a reader-supported news organization dedicated to covering the people, places and policies that matter in Colorado. Read more, sign up for free newsletters and subscribe at coloradosun.com.

Are you prepared for wildfires?

It only takes one spark to change your life forever. Thankfully, it takes only seconds to sign up for free emergency notifications, ensuring that you will be in the know if a wildfire is happening near you. Sign up today at douglas.co.us/CodeRed

Is yard work on your to-do list?

Warmer weather is ahead, and you can drop off any tree limbs, shrubs or brush that you need to dispose of for free every Saturday through October at Douglas County’s Slash-Mulch site. For more information, visit douglas.co.us and search for Slash Mulch.

Skip the trip!

Motor vehicle services just a click away

Renew your driver license or motor vehicle registration and more from the convenience of your smartphone, tablet, desktop or laptop. You can also renew vehicle registrations at six local grocery store MVExpress kiosk locations. Find information at DouglasDrives.com

CSU Extension is helping Douglas County residents learn to grow vegetable gardens while planting extra to share with local food banks and community members in need. Longtime gardeners or first-time planters can get info at GrowandGiveColorado.org

Live Town Hall meetings

Did you know Douglas County offers Live Town Hall meetings, inviting you to engage in the local issues of importance to you and your neighbors? Register at douglas.co.us/townhall to ensure you are contacted about all future Live Town Halls. Join online or by phone and listen to community conversations, ask questions and hear responses from experts.

2023 Bike to Work Day

Wednesday, June 28

Put some joy back into your commute! Join Way to Go and thousands of Denver-region residents for Bike to Work Day. Register to swap a ride in your car for a ride on two wheels on Wednesday, June 28, and help improve air quality. Sign up and be automatically entered into a drawing to win prizes. Visit biketoworkday.co for more information

‘Civics bee’ aims to turn corner on education

Event held at St. Cajetan

BY ERICA BREUNLIN THE COLORADO SUN

Even at 12 years old, Siram Yalavarthy sees the unbreakable thread between history and the current moment, something he’s long loved learning about in social studies classes going back to the founding of the United States.

“Learning that the past actually happened” is what Sriram said fascinates him the most. “It’s not just a story we tell every single day, and it a ects us today still.”

e seventh-grader from Drake Middle School in Arvada was crowned the winner of the rst of its kind state civics bee in May at St. Cajetan Catholic Church in Denver, where he competed against 14 other Colorado middle schoolers. Similar to a spelling bee, the Colorado National Civics Bee put students in front of an audience to quiz them on all kinds of facts related to how government is structured and the rules that dictate how it works.

Using electronic tablets they got to keep, the students who battled against one another tackled two rounds of questions that pressed

them on some of the ner details of civics: What is the name of the document that allows a visitor to the U.S. to stay for a speci c period of time?

(A visa.) Which amendments all deal with some aspect of the presidency?

(Twelve, 22 and 25.) With the Monroe Doctrine, the United States did what?

(Warned European nations not to interfere with a airs in the Western Hemisphere.)

e students stand out from many of their peers and even adults across the country, who largely struggle to understand government systems and remember critical components of democracy in an era when deepening political divisions have sparked battles over history curriculum and how it is taught.

e de cits in students’ grasp of civics became more apparent when the results of last spring’s National Assessment of Educational Progress — which includes state and national tests that gauge student achievement in subjects including reading, math and civics — revealed fewer students reaching pro ciency in civics. Civics scores decreased an average of 2 points, with nearly 80% of eighth graders ranking below pro ciency on last year’s exams, the results of which were released this year. Meanwhile, students are also broadly failing in

history, with 40% of eighth graders performing at the lowest level in U.S. history on 2022 exams, compared with 34% in 2018, Chalkbeat reported.

“ e time for action is now,” said Hilary Crow, vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, which launched the National Civics Bee last year with pilot programs in ve states. “We are at a crisis point, and this is the perfect time and opportunity to engage leaders, business leaders, legislators, educators and communities all across the country to elevate civics as a priority. e strength of our democracy, of free enterprise and the future of our country depends on us.”

e chamber foundation has partnered with the Daniels Fund, a Denver-based charitable foundation, to roll out civics bees across the country with the goal of creating competitions in all 50 states that culminate in a national competition, which Crow said will debut next year in Washington, D.C. is year’s round of bees started in more than 50 communities in nine states, with competitions at the local level hosted by chambers of commerce, each sending the top three nalists to a state bee hosted by each state’s chamber.

Colorado students in the Denver

metro area, Arvada, Buena Vista, Craig and Pueblo put their civics knowledge to the test last month in local contests. ree winners from each community advanced to the nal bee, hosted by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, which wants to strengthen students’ understanding of how government functions and help them see that they will set the foundation and tone for the next decades of democracy.

“If they believe that our democracy is in trouble, and if they don’t understand how government works, then they can’t change the process, they can’t in uence the process,” said Loren Furman, president and CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce.

Bee organizers at the state and national level say the task of polishing students’ grasp of civics falls on far more than educators.

“Our schools have so many responsibilities right now that this is a way to come alongside our schools and say, ‘In our communities we have a responsibility too,’” Daniels Fund CEO Hanna Skandera said. “And we can join with our education, our schools, having families and communities and chambers help be a part of the solution.”

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CIVICS BEE

e rst-ever decline in civics prociency on last year’s NAEP exams led communities and educators alike to worry and intervene.

And while Barbara Taylor, who teaches Advanced Placement U.S. History, honors government and honors geography at Pomona High School in Arvada, is disheartened by student performance in civics, but she also sees students actively pursuing an understanding of government systems every day in her classes.

Low NAEP scores aren’t “a very accurate re ection of the interest that real kids have in their country,” said Taylor, who has been teaching for 23 years and also serves as treasurer for Colorado Council for the Social Studies.

“ ey really want to understand what’s happening to them, what we see in the community,” she added.

Rather than educating students about civics and history just through textbooks, Taylor builds students’ knowledge by connecting their learning to the real world. at includes putting students through a legal simulation with help from University of Colorado law students, who challenge them to look at evidence and craft arguments based on school-related issues, including the question of which bathrooms should be available to kids who identify as transgender. at also includes pushing students to trace a certain topic throughout its arc of history, whether fashion, food, hairstyles or issues involving the LGBTQ+ community.

She has also seen a resurgence in interest among high schoolers studying civics that she attributes to the deep-seated division roiling communities and in aming politics at every level.

“ e divide we have in this country is in part because people don’t know how to have a civil conversation, and they’re easily intimidated by people who seem to have information and seem to know things,” Taylor said. “And because we don’t know how to talk, we stop talking. And so the consequences are dire.”

All the clatter of outside political fury was absent during the civics bee, when students were asked how history has shaped democracy, before seven nalists presented ideas to solve community issues, drawing

from essays they had written. Judges peppered them with questions about their proposed solutions, which addressed the lack of a ordable housing in Colorado, the rising cost of eggs and the ways educators could discreetly help students a ected by mental health issues, among other topics.

Sriram, champion of the statewide bee, who took home a $1,000 prize, spoke of the need for civility among politicians and across the country during his presentation. His grandparents used to see the United States as a place where everyone would greet strangers and be nice to each other, he said after the competition. Now, that sense of kindness is largely fading.

“It’s still there but not as much,” Sriram said.

Runner-up Joseph Drexler, a seventh grader at Darren Patterson Christian Academy in Buena Vista, raised concerns about Cha ee County housing becoming out of reach for local residents, noting that 64% of people in the county spend more than half of their income on housing.

“We sometimes look for housing, and it’s crazy how expensive all the houses are, and I thought, whoa, these should be less,” Joseph, 13, said after the bee.

He and Sriram were jittery with nervous excitement after spending hours looking over a study packet and rehearsing their speeches.

Joseph, who won $500, said he will use the knowledge he gained from the bee to help him one day vote, prepare for a possible career in government and educate others about civics.

“You just have to know things about the government before you can make really good choices about the government,” he said.

at knowledge is key when looking both backward and forward, Sriram added.

It’s critical to study civics, he said, “so you know how our country was founded and not make the same mistakes they made in the past and make better decisions in the future.”

e Colorado Sun co-owns Colorado Community Media as a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy. It is a reader-supported news organization dedicated to covering the people, places and policies that matter in Colorado. Read more, sign up for free newsletters and subscribe at coloradosun.com.

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Snowmelt is swelling Colorado’s rivers

BY SHANNON MULLANE THE COLORADO SUN

Floods, swollen rivers, road closures — Colorado’s spring runo season is in full swing and much of the snow in the state’s mountains hasn’t melted yet.

Colorado saw higher-thanaverage snowfall build up on the Western Slope this year, a boon for irrigators and other water users who rely on the Colorado River Basin which spans Colorado, tribal lands, six Western states and parts of Mexico. But the snowmelt, with the help of recent weather, is leading to high runo and its adverse impacts are popping up around the state like a game of whack-a-mole.

Beyond monitoring for mudslides and rockfalls loosened by rain and high runo , the Colorado Department of Transportation is also watching bridges and roads for possible closures.

“I’m seeing higher ows in almost every single drainage that we have over here (in western Colorado) than what we’ve seen probably in at least four or ve years, if not longer,” said Julie Constan, a CDOT regional director. “We had such a heavy snowpack across the entire western portion of the state, so that’s causing all of the creeks to de nitely be running higher than what we’re used to seeing.”

On the Front Range and Eastern Plains, 10 days of rain in May helped with the state’s continuing recovery from drought over the past year. e amount of the state experiencing drought conditions has dropped from 93% a year ago to just 11% today.

But the rain has also combined with snowmelt to cause ooding around Colorado. In northeastern and southwestern Colorado, communities in the WhiteYampa River Basin and along the Dolores River have built sandbag barriers to slow encroaching ooding.

On May 11 in Denver, Cherry Creek leapt to its highest ow rate since 1980 after intense rain supplemented by reservoir releases, according to media reports.

For anyone traveling,

weekend, checking road and weather conditions will be key for a safe outing.

Statewide, 42 people died in water-related accidents in 2022, according to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife. As of May 18, two people died in con rmed water-related incidents this year. e state recommends that boaters wear life jackets regardless of age or experience level.

Campsites could also be temporarily closed. Dinosaur National Monument closed its Pot Creek campsites this month due to the possible failure of an old, earthen dam on private land. e dam is structurally sound, but the area has received so much snow this year that, as of mid-May, runo in ows increased the reservoir’s elevation to within a few inches of the dam’s crest, Park Ranger Dan Johnson said.

“ e state o ce was concerned that, should that dam fail in the middle of the night when people are camping there, it could create a hazardous situation,” Johnson said, adding that the campsites could reopen in time for Memorial Day weekend campers.

e high spring runo is also impacting road conditions across the state. In southeastern Colorado, the Arkansas River ooded U.S. 50 near La Junta.

A debris ow at the Hanging Lake exit on Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon blocked access to the trailhead for two weeks before it reopened last week. e Forest Service announced the trail is closed again until at

“ e amount of water coming down the trail in many spots is really impressive,” Leanne Veldhuis, Eagle-Holy Cross district ranger, said in a news release. “ ere is currently no good way around the water, so we have closed the trail until the runo lessens or our trail crew can mitigate it.”

CDOT is also working to repair a gaping sinkhole that appeared on Colorado 133 near Paonia. Rushing spring runo overwhelmed a culvert under the highway and caused enough erosion to collapse a section of the road that is roughly 20 to 30 feet wide — and certainly large enough to t a sedan, she said. A temporary bridge should be installed by earlyto mid-June, and permanent repairs should begin this fall.

“Lots of monitoring going on, but so far, the only real major failure we’ve had has been on 133,” Constan said. “It’s a good thing that there’s only been one major failure and everything else pulled together OK.” is winter, Colorado saw storm after storm add snow to the growing snowpack in the mountains.

By early April, that buildup peaked. e amount of liquid water in the snow, called the snow-water equivalent, across the Western Slope was 130% to 140% of the median between 1991 and 2020, according to the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center. e estimate is based on SNOTEL data collected using a network of highelevation instruments that measure snowpack. On the

median this winter.

In the Upper Colorado River Basin, which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, the amount of water peaked in early April at about 150% to 170% of the historical norm. ese states are situated upstream of Lake Powell on the UtahArizona border, one of the basin’s largest water storage reservoirs. e reservoir’s dam, Glen Canyon Dam, sends water down to Lower Basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — which also had an exceptionally wet year, said Cody Moser, senior hydrologist at the forecast center.

However in the Upper Basin above Lake Powell, most of the snowpack is still sitting at 150% to 170% of the norm, Moser said, according to SNOTEL data.

“Across the northern part of the Upper Colorado River Basin, there’s been alternating periods of sunny, warm weather that generates the snow melt and the higher ows,” he said. “And then we’ve seen those periods alternating with cooler, cloudier weather that’s brought some additional moisture in both rain and snow. It’s helped the snowmelt rate decrease, so it’s been kind of up and down in April and May.”

Southwestern Colorado has seen more continuous warm, sunny weather and thus more snowmelt than other parts of Colorado, like the northwestern region, he said.

Colorado also received higher-than-normal snowpack across elevations

lower than 9,500 feet, where quickly. at thick layer is also frequently downstream of reservoirs which means, depending on the location, the water is going straight into streams and rivers.  at has led to an extended period of high ows, especially in the White-Yampa River Basin in northwestern Colorado and the Dolores River Basin, Moser said. And when rain falls onto snow, as it has in isolated patches across the state, the liquid water speeds up melting even further.

“We’ve entered into a period of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoons and evenings,” he said. “We’ve had some enhanced melt due to rain-on-snow with some of these storms.”

SNOTEL sites are generally located above 9,000 feet so lower elevation runo isn’t re ected in basinwide snow-water equivalent percentages. ese sites target between 9,000 and 11,500 feet where most of the snowpack typically accumulates. at’s why the snow-water equivalent percentages from SNOTEL data have not changed by much, he said.

“ ere’s still a lot of highelevation snow up there,” Moser said.

e Colorado Sun co-owns Colorado Community Media as a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy. It is a reader-supported news organization dedicated to covering the people, places and policies that matter in Colorado. Read more, sign up for free newsletters and subscribe at coloradosun. com.

Snowmelt season in Colorado is well underway but government o cials warn that there is still plenty of snow left to melt in the mountains.

FILE PHOTO BY ANDREW FRAIELI

Much more snow is still waiting in the high country

Mom joins wrongful death suit against Snapchat

Daughter died in 2020 from fentanyl poisoning

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

When Patti Lujan sees butter ies, she thinks of her daughter, Lauren, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 18.

A senior at Littleton High School at the time, Lauren died from fentanyl poisoning after taking a counterfeit Percocet she got through the social media app Snapchat.

As Lujan continues to cope with the loss of her daughter, she has now joined a legal ght against Snapchat, which she believes is partly responsible for her daughter’s death.

She is among nine families nationwide participating in a wrongful death lawsuit led by the Social Media Victims Law Center against Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat.

“I know she would want me to do this. She’d want me to get involved in this lawsuit and ght, and so I’m doing it,” Lujan said.

‘It’s time for me to speak up’

Sitting in her home in Centennial, surrounded by photos of her daughter, Lujan described Lauren’s many talents, from her beautiful singing voice to her athletic skills.

“People always say, you know, someone lit up a room. She really did,” Lujan said. “I feel blessed that she was in my life, even for a short time. She taught me a lot.”

Lauren lived with the mentality that she could accomplish whatever she put her mind to, her mom said.  “One of the greatest things about Lauren is she just — she had such a big heart,” Lujan said. “She was amazing because she found the beauty in everything.”

On March 29, 2020, Lauren was on spring break and staying at her father’s house, according to the lawsuit. She left the house for a few hours, which is when her parents thought she met up with someone, whom she communicated with via Snapchat, to get the painkiller Percocet.

e next morning, on March 30, Lujan was working in her o ce, which is near Lauren’s father’s house. She remembered getting a phone call from Lauren’s father, who said he did not think Lauren was breathing and that she was dead.

Lujan went to the house, where she saw paramedics and an ambulance.

“ ey wouldn’t let me in. So, I’m trying to, like, storm into the house to get to her and they wouldn’t let me in, which was horrible. And then I followed the ambulance to the hospital,” she said.

“Supposedly, she was alive when she went to the hospital,” Lujan recalled. “ ey kept coming in and telling me, ‘OK, well, we got a heartbeat.’ And it was like, ‘It’s really faint.’ And yeah — nightmare.”

According to the lawsuit, the Percocet that Lauren took was a pill laced with fentanyl. Lauren died from fentanyl poisoning on March 30.

e National Institute on Drug Abuse explains on its website that when people overdose on fentanyl, their breathing can slow or stop, which decreases the amount of oxygen reaching the brain and can lead to death.

Song for Charlie is a national nonpro t that raises awareness about fake pills made of fentanyl. It argues that when someone dies after taking a fake pill made of fentanyl, these deaths should be classi ed as “poisoning” rather than “overdose” because the person did not know what they were ingesting.

It took Lujan a long time to nd out what had happened, she said.

“I don’t know if it was six months later, or nine months, or a year later, really, when I nally read the autopsy report and realized it was fentanyl, and that she took one Percocet and it was laced,” Lujan said.

“I didn’t really think much more about it because the grief and the sorrow is overwhelming. And for me, not thinking about it, not dealing with it, was my defense mechanism,” she said. “I was just trying to deal with, you know, coping with

A year ago, Lujan began wondering what happened with the police investigation. She contacted the Arapahoe County Sheri ’s O ce and spoke with someone who essentially said, “‘Once we realized it was (Snapchat), there was nothing more we could do,’” she recalled.

At that moment, she felt emotionally overwhelmed and was unable to think straight, she said.

“And so, I just let it go,” she said.

But then a friend told her it was time “to get angry about this,” Lujan recalled

One day, Lujan’s friend mentioned she heard on the news about the Social Media Victims Law Center and a lawsuit against Snapchat. Lujan did some research and reached out to the center

“I feel like it’s just time for me to not sit back anymore,” Lujan said. “It’s time for me to speak up.”

“I kind of look at it like she was murdered. And I’m upset because Snapchat doesn’t seem to do anything,” she said. “I almost feel like these drug dealers are protected behind Snapchat.”

The fight against Snapchat e wrongful death lawsuit alleges that Snapchat created an environment that allows drug dealers to “operate in a manner that directly contributed to the deaths of nine minors and young adults,” according to a Social Media Victims Law Center news release.

e nine minors and young adults

Majekodunmi, Juan Jiménez Trujillo, Cole Brown, Michael Leonardi, Dylan Moore, Kevin Andrew Hutchings, Jaylen Penix and Allie Higdon. Each of these individuals died after taking fentanyl-laced pills and/ or edibles purchased from drug dealers connected to them by Snapchat, according to the news release.

“I want to be really clear — we don’t condone the sale of prescription drugs outside of a doctor’s prescription. We also understand that young people make bad decisions. ey don’t deserve to die for it,” said Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center.

A wrongful death lawsuit alleges that a person lost their life as the result of the misconduct of another, Bergman said.

“In this case, the negligent and unreasonably dangerous design of the Snapchat platform,” he said.

He noted that it does not mean there are no other factors at play, and while he acknowledges people should not use prescription drugs without a prescription, “that doesn’t mean that they needed to die for it.”

“And that doesn’t mean that it’s appropriate to absolve Snapchat of its responsibility for contributing to the situation that led to the child’s death,” he said.

e lawsuit alleges that Snapchat’s platform “purposefully

Lauren Lujan smiling with her mother, Patti Lujan.

Lauren Lujan was a senior at Littleton High School in 2020.

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Our border crisis FROM THE EDITOR

As Title 42 expired this month, news outlets had images of people waiting to cross the Mexico border into the U.S. Some estimated tens of thousands are now coming across the border in what our president said could become a time of chaos.

Chaos at the border is not new. However, border chaos seeping into other states has become more common in the last year as governors from border states have started sending busloads of migrants to cities like Denver and New York.

I am not debating the issue of busing the migrants, but I do want to add to the border discussion. I lived in Southern Arizona. I grew up there. I started my journalism career there. Dealing with issues from our border was common and the realities are tough to swallow.

Now, our own state is starting to get a look at what border towns deal with. Reports were common last week in saying resources were running low, but the in ux of immigrants was continually increasing. What do we do?

For decades, many judged the border towns as being closed-minded and not open to letting immigrants come into our free country. It’s becoming a little tougher to judge those states when our own state is now dealing with the crisis on a rsthand basis.

e border crisis is massive and expanding. e border crisis is decades in the making and our lawmakers have continually passed the buck and ignored it.

In Arizona, the highway patrol regularly struggles with issues caused by the border. Coyotes, or people who lie and cheat immigrants to get them into the U.S., are known to pack trailers full of people in the 110-degree Arizona heat. It was not uncommon for me to cover a story about innocent lives being lost because they were abandoned

or left in the hot truck too long.

On another occasion, I covered a car accident where a 4-year-old was shoved into a small car with 10 other immigrants. e 4-year-old was pronounced dead in front of me that day with her mother crying over her. at day still sticks with me.

How awful are the circumstances for these people that are putting themselves in dangerous, unsafe situations for life in America? ey are bad. Economics, gang wars in Central America. ese human beings have true reasons for wanting a better life.

I looked in the faces of Central American teens being forced to leave home to avoid dying or being recruited to gangs. ey were sent by their parents who hoped they would nd peace in America and be safer than in their home countries.

On another day, I was among journalists challenged to take a twomile trek that immigrants were taking to get into Arizona. I did it in the middle of summer across the hot desert. I certainly never question providing water to them after that.

No one can doubt the human side of the border crisis. ese are human beings seeking a better life. Here, they are being used as political pawns.

However, the burden is being put on our states and the federal government has chosen to ignore it and blame Republicans.

No fence is going to slow down this crisis. Believe me, I’ve walked along the fence in Nogales and watched immigrants use a ladder, jump over and wave with a smile.

To address this — we need leaders who have compassion but understand reality. We need compromise and empathy. We need to talk to other countries and develop solutions instead of clickbait banter for the daily news cycle.

Unfortunately, this crisis is decades in the making and I doubt will be xed in this or the next decade given the state of our current leadership.

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

A return to grace

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WINNING

Listening to the conversation around a business dinner table, I found myself trying to stay away from the conversation as it began to center around what was wrong with society and basically the world in general. If you are a regular reader of this column, you know that I try and remove myself as quickly as possible from anything I perceive as negativity, and this conversation was devolving quickly in that direction.

Remaining quiet and checking my phone to try and avoid being drawn into the discussion didn’t quite work out the way I had hoped. Before I knew it, the group turned their attention to me and asked me what I thought. e good news is that I was already prepared with my response, it’s my same response whenever I nd the people around me focusing on what is wrong with the world instead of what is right.

After placing my phone on the table, I looked around the table and

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one by one, I made eye contact with everyone before saying, “A return to grace.” I will share that whenever I give that response the rst reaction is usually confusion, followed by cynicism, and then possibly a little mocking, questioning my sincerity. Standing my ground, I made it a point to once again making eye contact with everyone before restating my position, “Yes, you all heard me correctly, a return to grace.”

Remaining silent once again, I waited for someone to ask me what it means to return to grace. And it never fails, someone will always ask me to elaborate on that statement.

Returning to grace means that we give everyone the same grace that we would expect when we screw up. I haven’t met the person, the company, the politician, or anyone else who hasn’t screwed up royally. And I include myself among the elite when it comes to making mistakes, I am pretty sure I am close to the top, if not at the top, when it comes to screwing up.

Are society and the world at large teetering on the precipice of total chaos and anarchy? OK, maybe that is a little dramatic, but then again

SEE

NORTON,

P13

Columnists & Guest Commentaries

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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.

ELBERT COUNTY NEWS (USPS 171-100)

A legal newspaper of general circulation in Elizabeth, Colorado, the Elbert

Thelma Grimes

Istill marksmanship. and grew became ized. things, as destruction. keep move active-shooter curriculum. Day Colorado, received emails informing a time that killed in Here were yet were recounted which must all your might, reach might automatic. country. of and pushing interpretations

Ilearned to shoot on the family ranch, as ranch kids are wont to do.

Guns have changed everything, especially childhood WRITERS ON THE RANGE

My gun education was furthered at a Catholic summer camp, and I still have my paper target proving my marksmanship. Hunter safety classes, and calm, clear-eyed common sense. is was the rural approach to guns I grew up with.

en it’s a story we all know: Guns became politicized. Polarized. Lobbyized. Humans are good at inventing things, so guns got more militarized as they turned into weapons of mass destruction. Our laws, sadly, didn’t keep up, because humans can also move quite slowly.

en, I had children, and suddenly, active-shooter drills were part of their curriculum. And then, on Valentine’s Day 2018, parents across Fort Collins, Colorado, received emails informing us that our children had been in a lockdown drill at roughly the same time that 17 children were being killed in Florida.

My brain fritzed out with confusion: Here a drill, but in Florida, children were being mowed down. Relief, and yet also great grief. Other mothers were getting di erent news.

My kids came home, stunned, and recounted their drill instructions, which included advice such as: “If you must ght to save your life, ght with all your might, using anything within reach as a weapon.”

Yes, kids, please ght with all your might against a grownup with a semiautomatic.

What a sad curriculum. What a sad country. Many of us know this. Many of us keep saying the same thing over and over, and a few loud voices keep pushing back. Why even discuss interpretations of the murkily written

Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, written at a time when muskets were the weapon of the day? Some conversations aren’t worth having.

What I am interested in is brainstorming real solutions — with like-minded people who also felt a real crack in their hearts every day that innocent people are mowed down, which, it seems, is nearly every day. A day without a shooting now seems the exception.

It strikes me that besides gun zealotry or idolatry, the other tragedy here is our seeming unwillingness to act. Really act. Act like grownups. My daughter and her friends helped organize a walkout to protest gun violence, which spread to other schools. Kids poured out of the high schools and toward the town center, and parents rode their bikes or walked alongside — especially near the coal-rolling trucks lled with counter-protesters that heckled them from the roads. is was the rst act of civil disobedience for most, borne out of a mix of desperation and courage.

Even as the kids gathered to pass the mic and speak, my heart was sunk even lower. Why? I knew what you know: Nothing would really change. Not until the adults of this country protested seriously, left work, took to the streets. e students protested, marched, wrote letters, made calls, and I watched, knowing. Adults wouldn’t go the distance. ere’s not enough will.

It’s ironic: I grew up with guns, but

my salient memory of childhood was peaceful summer walks through a green eld, carrying a .22 to go practice shooting. Tragically, that is not true for youngsters today. ey might not shoot as much, but they’re the ones forced by our irresponsibility and inaction to have it forefront in their minds and hearts.

So, solutions. I celebrate Moms Demand Action, a group founded by a mother of ve right after the Sandy Hook tragedy, based on her belief that all Americans should do more to reduce gun violence. No group has “risen so far, so fast, in uencing laws, rattling major corporations, and provoking vicious responses from hardcore gun rights activists,” according to Mother Jones.

Although I’m all for background checks and safety locks, these seem like tiny bandages on a gaping wound.

e big thing we can do is ban assault weapons immediately, and, even more importantly, elect gun-sensible politicians who don’t take NRA money.

If not Moms Demand Action, there is the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Gun Owners for Safety. All these groups need people willing to spend some time calling legislators, step up, protest. People like you. People who believe in common sense. People who believe in childhood.

Laura Pritchett is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonpro t dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She is the author of several novels and non ction books and directs a program in nature writing at Western Colorado University.

maybe not. Are there people whose actions and words are driving us crazy? Absolutely. Do we sit stunned as we read or watch the news, wondering, “What idiot thought that was a good idea?” Or maybe we just let the anger and resentment fester inside of us until it reaches a boiling point or creates an ulcer. And then we share our outrage with anyone who will listen. And even if there is no one to listen, we go on a rant on social media, posting our anger and frustration, continuing to carrying the weight of what’s wrong with the world on our shoulders.

A return to grace means that instead of playing the blame game, we play the love and forgiveness game. I know, I know, I have heard it before that this is not a realistic approach in dealing with the nonsense and idiotic decisions being made and the ridiculous actions of those who we do not agree with. And everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

My opinion and position are that I would rather live under the spirit of love and forgiveness as opposed to harboring anger, resentment, and frustration relative to the things that I have absolutely no control over. And if you still disagree with me, or think I am a bit too naïve, then maybe this can be your rst attempt at o ering me some grace.

Will society ever be perfect? No. Will people ever be without fault? No. Will the world ever get back to what the majority of us would call normal? Maybe, maybe not. But wouldn’t it be a better place if we all gured how to o er love and forgiveness instead of spite and hostility?

As always, I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail.com, and when we can truly make that leap towards a return to grace, it really will be a better than good life.

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

Laura Pritchett

BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Spring is in full swing, bringing many folks around Colorado out of the doldrums of winter with the promise of outdoor recreation.

For folks who aren’t fans of “traditional sports” — think baseball, basketball, football, soccer — there are plenty of unique, exciting alternatives throughout the Centennial State. From roller skating to parkour, there is no shortage of variety in Colorado’s recreation options.

Roller skating, roller hockey and roller derby

Roller sports are alive and well in Colorado. Folks have quite a few options for activities revolving around wheeled feet; from roller skating to roller hockey to roller derby, there is no shortage of options.

Roller skating lovers have a plethora of skate

parks in the metro area and can get all of their gear — and some lessons — from the newlyopened Denver Skates Shop in Arvada. e store provides ttings and skating lessons for folks ranging from novices to experienced park skaters.

Brina Wyss, a sales associate and coach at Denver Skates Shop, said that roller sports experienced a surge in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic that’s since died down, but has nonetheless roughly doubled the community’s size.

“I think there was a big surge in interest in wheels and skating during the pandemic, but it was a trend” Wyss said. “I people had a lot of spare time and were looking for something active to do. e community has de nitely grown at least twice as much during the pandemic.”

Wyss participates in roller derby, which is played at the professional and recreational level

TOP PHOTO: Park lessons by Denver Skates Shop at Trailwinds Skate Park in Thornton.

PHOTO BY RICH VOSSLER

‘A lot of people do (skating) for joy and exercise. I do it as a way to escape, and it’s also a great way of community meeting.’

Brina Wyss, a sales associate and coach at Denver Skates Shop SEE UNIQUE, P15

in Colorado. Wyss said the competitive nature and team atmosphere of roller derby came to be a replacement for volleyball, which she played competitively growing up.

“A lot of people do (skating) for joy and exercise,” Wyss said. “I do it as a way to escape, and it’s also a great way of community meeting.”

Denver Roller Derby operates a large number of recreational and traveling teams and has opportunities for new players.

Folks looking for a non-contact alternative to ice hockey might nd roller hockey appealing — Skate City operates rinks in Arvada, Westminster and Littleton that o er roller skating and hockey, while Rocky Mountain Roller Hockey operates youth and adult leagues out of the Foothills Fieldhouse in Lakewood, and the Parker Fieldhouse also hosts youth and adult roller hockey.

Ultimate frisbee/disc golf

Frisbee sports have come into favor in Colorado recently — a semiprofessional ultimate frisbee team kicked o their inaugural season in Golden this month — with two main ways to play.

Ultimate frisbee resembles American football in that teams

must complete passes in an end zone to score points. As the name suggests, disc golf resembles “traditional” golf, but is played with a disk instead of a ball.

e Denver Summer Ultimate League is the oldest ultimate frisbee competition in the state, and just nished registration for its 2023 season.

Disc golf fans may nd more frequent playing options. In Arvada, the Johnny Roberts Disc Golf

Course and Birds Nest Disc Golf Course both operate at city parks.

Colorado Christian University operates a disc golf course in Lakewood, and Foothills Parks and Recreation operates the Fehringer Ranch Disc Golf Course in Morrison.

For those looking for a more secluded experience, the Wondervu Disc Golf Course in Golden is considered to be one of the most scenic — and challenging — courses around.

Parkour

According to gym owner Lorin Ball, the de nition of parkour is simple: “Using environment to get from point A to point B in the most e cient way possible.”

Ball is the owner of Flow Vault, a parkour and ninja warrior — yes, American Ninja Warrior — training gym in ornton. Flow Vault opened in 2008 and o ers classes to people ages 5 and up. His gym has even graduated some ninja warriors to the popular NBC show.

“It’s a full curriculum, similar to that of gymnastics, where you have di erent levels of progressions,” Ball said. “We’re training people to be more intentional with their movement and apply that to other sports or physical activities that they do.”

Other parkour gyms in the area include APEX Denver, Path Movement in Littleton and Ninja Intensity in Parker.

Aerial Adventures

Finally, Colorado has no shortage of arial adventure options. Ropes courses and adventure parks are plentiful in the Centennial State and are often and family-friendly way to recreate uniquely.

e Colorado Adventure Center is based in Idaho Springs,   e EDGE Ziplines and Adventures is in Castle Rock, and the Treehouse Adventure Park is based in Bailey.

A parkour class at Flow Vault in Thornton. COURTESY OF FLOW VAULT

A roller hockey team at Rocky Mountain Roller Hockey in Lakewood. PHOTO BY RYLEE DUNN

obstructs parental supervision” and “enables (drug) dealers to locate and access nearby minors and young adults,” per the news release.

Bergman said Snapchat provides people the opportunity to commit a crime knowing that the evidence is destroyed after the crime is committed, since Snapchat automatically deletes messages.

“ e disappearing message feature allows drug dealers to actually put a menu or a smorgasbord of drugs online, knowing that the evidence of their crime will … disappear,” Bergman said. “ e only bene t of the disappearing messages is to perpetrate crimes.”

Bergman noted Snapchat also has a geolocating feature, also called a “Snap map,” that allows users to share their location with one another. is feature allows for drugs to be delivered “like DoorDash or Uber Eats,” he said.

A third feature that Bergman said “unnecessarily facilitates young people hiding, forever, evidence of their solicitation of drug dealers” is Snapchat’s “my eyes only” feature, which allows for users to hide content behind a passcode on the app. “ ey have made (an) intentional decision to not change the architecture of their platform, presumably because one of the appeals of the platform is to encourage kids to evade parental responsibility,” he said about Snapchat. “ ey’ve decided to not implement readily available design modi cations because it reduces engagement, and their pro ts are tied to engagement.”

e lawsuit’s prayer for relief, meaning the damages and other remedies it is seeking, includes requests for punitive damages, loss of future income and earning capacity of each of the nine people, and monetary and emotional damages su ered by plainti s.

“ is is not a case that is about the money. ese families have suffered the worst loss that anybody can imagine,” Bergman said. “If through these e orts, we can prevent one family from going through this loss … then it’s worth it.”

The relationship between fentanyl and social media

At least every other day, the Social Media Victims Law Center hears from another parent who lost a child to fentanyl, Bergman said.

“I can’t tell you how horrible it is to get all of these calls,” he said. “We have 70 cases led involving children who have died of fentanyl.”

Bergman urges parents to have open discussions with their children about the risk of fentanyllaced drugs.

“It’s a hard discussion to have because no kid is ever gonna want to admit to their parent that they might be tempted to use Oxy or

Percocet or something like that,” he said. “But I think you need to have the kind of discussion and relationship with your kids so that they understand that they can die from this … and that the prospect of getting drugs online from a stranger is not worth the risk.”

“As opposed to just saying, ‘Don’t ever do this,’ saying, ‘If you — I hope you never do it, but if you do, don’t do it this way,’” he added.

According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), fentanyl is involved in more deaths of U.S. citizens under the age of 50 than any other cause of death.

e Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment found that the state’s total number of drug overdose deaths due to synthetic opioids mentioning fentanyl increased from 540 deaths in 2020 to 912 deaths in 2021, representing an increase of nearly 69%.

As reported by Bloomberg in January, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is examining Snapchat’s role in fentanyl poisoning deaths.

Bergman said the Social Media Victims Law Center only has one case where Snapchat was not the conduit through which the fentanyl-contaminated drugs were obtained.

“ e fentanyl phenomenon appears to be a Snapchat-only problem, arising from the unique design of the Snapchat platform,” he said.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser released a report in March highlighting how social media platforms are used for illicit drug activity.

In the report, it notes that online access to illicit drugs is a “whole-ofInternet” challenge, as drug sellers are often active on multiple social media platforms.

e report describes the challenges that social media platforms like Snapchat may present to law enforcement investigations, given the “disappearing content.”

“When platforms intentionally tout features like near-immediate deletion of communication exchanges and short retention periods of data held on the platforms’ servers, it puts law enforcement at an extreme disadvantage when investigating those using

the platforms for illegal activities like selling drugs,” said Cmdr. Nick Goldberger of the Boulder County Sheri ’s O ce in a news release.  e report also mentions the Social Media Victims Law Center’s civil lawsuits against Snap Inc. “ is is, by any fair estimation, cutting-edge litigation. And it is unclear how this is all going to come out because we’re the rst rm to do it,” Bergman said. “We have no illusions that this is an easy ght. And we have every expectation that Snapchat is going to ght every step of the way.”

Snapchat’s response

In an emailed statement to Colorado Community Media, a Snap Inc. spokesperson wrote, “While we can’t comment speci cally on active litigation, we can share all the progress we have made in this area.

“We use cutting-edge technology to help us proactively nd and shut down drug dealers’ accounts. We block search results for drug-related terms, redirecting Snapchatters to resources from experts about the dangers of fentanyl.

“We continually expand our support for law enforcement investigations helping them bring dealers to justice, and we work closely with experts to share patterns of dealers’ activities across platforms to more quickly identify and stop illegal behavior.

“We will continue to do everything we can to tackle this epidemic, including by working with other tech companies, public health agencies, law enforcement, families and nonpro ts.”

According to the statement from Snap Inc., Snapchat has a new in-app parental tool, called Family Center, so parents can see all the friends their teens are communicating with on Snapchat and report any accounts for investigation.

ere has also been a decline in community-reported content related to drug sales, per the statement. Snap Inc. said in September 2021, more than 23% of drug-related reports from Snapchat users contained content speci cally related to sales. As of December 2022, it was 3.3%.

In the statement, Snap Inc. said it preserves and discloses data in re-

sponse to valid legal requests. e company published a statement in January on how it works with law enforcement authorities.

On May 9, which was National Fentanyl Awareness Day, the company said on its website that it has been working with senators on legislation, speci cally the Cooper Davis Act, that would create a legal framework for tech companies to share information about drugs with law enforcement.

Hoping for change

Bergman said the Social Media Victims Law Center’s purpose is to “address the carnage that social media has in icted on young people, not only in the United States but around the world.”

He pointed to the increased rates of mental health issues and suicide.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), rates of depression and anxiety among young people have increased over time.

Suicide rates increased roughly 36% between 2000 and 2021, and suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 1014 and 20-34 in 2021, per the CDC.   e National Alliance on Mental Illness said on its website that research has shown people who spend more time on social media and less time interacting with others have an increased risk of feeling anxious and depressed. It notes, however, that it is di cult to know if spending time online actually causes anxiety and depression.

One of the allegations in the lawsuit is that Snapchat is designed to be addictive to minors.

“Social media is not going to go away. It’s going to be part of our lives for generations, but it doesn’t have to be as dangerous as it is,” Bergman said. “What I hope is that the companies will change how they design their platforms, and that they’re safer.”

Patti Lujan hopes that with this lawsuit, Snapchat will change its ways, if not go away completely. She said the platform allows criminals to hide, and she wants it to change so that messages and posts do not disappear.

“I’m hoping that they change their platform completely so these things are not hidden, and that if something happens, at least we can nd the person responsible,” she said.

She wants parents to talk with their kids about what can happen on Snapchat.

“I really want to make parents aware of what’s happening, because … I was just so naive to all of it,” she said. “It just never even entered my mind that this could be going on.”

Lujan hopes to educate people about the fentanyl crisis and the importance of not taking substances that came from unknown places.

“I’m just hoping some other parents … see this and maybe it can save someone else’s life,” she said. “It’s what Lauren would want me to do.”

Lauren Lujan, 18, passed away in 2020 from fentanyl poisoning.

Lauren Lujan as a young child with her mother, Patti Lujan. PHOTOS PROVIDED BY PATTI LUJAN

Littleton police o cer awarded Medal of Valor from president

Took lifesaving action in 2021 shooting

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Littleton Police Cpl. Je Farmer became the rst o cer in Colorado to receive a Medal of Valor.

e Medal of Valor is the highest national award for valor by a public safety o cer.

Farmer, his family, and Police Chief Doug Stephens attended the awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., where President Joe Biden presented the award.

Farmer was one of eight to receive the country’s top honor, including two of whom were recognized posthumously.

“ e award is given for actions above and beyond the call of duty and exhibiting exceptional courage, extraordinary decisiveness, presence of mind and unusual swiftness in action, regardless of his or her personal safety, in an attempt to save or protect a human life,” Biden said at the ceremony.

Farmer was chosen for the award for his lifesaving actions on Sept. 21, 2021.

at evening, he and O cer David

Snook responded to a call of shots red, according to a press release from the department. After locating the suspect, they pursued the suspect on foot.

During the pursuit, Farmer severely injured his knee, according to the press release. Snook, who followed the suspect into a nearby apartment building, was met with gun re.

e suspect shot Snook nine times, Division Chief Gene Enley shared at a city council meeting on May 16.

Despite his injury, Farmer chose to enter the building to assist Snook, who he knew had been shot.

He joined Snook in the doorway while the gunman continued to re at both o cers. Farmer stayed with Snook and returned re enough to cause the gunman to retreat.

en, aware of the severity of his partner’s injuries, Farmer dragged Snook to safety and transported him to the hospital.

Wwith the suspect still loose, assisting o cers helped bring Snook into a patrol car and Farmer drove him to Swedish Medical Center.

According to police accounts of the shooting, hospital sta later said Snook would have likely died, had Farmer not made the decision to get him medical attention so quickly.

O cers later arrested the suspect, Rigoberto Valles-Dominguez, whose trial is set to begin in July, according to the department.

“Because of Corporal Farmer’s actions, O cer Snook is still here with us today,” Enley said at the city council meeting.

Stephens said the department submitted Farmer’s nomination for the Medal of Valor to the Department of Justice about a year ago. He said he

was incredibly proud last week when they found out Farmer had been selected.

“We couldn’t be more proud, you know, of Je and of David Snook in the tragic incident that they went through and the courage and the bravery that they both demonstrated,” he said. “Especially Je , being able to go in there and make … the sacri ce he made to pull David out of that line of re and ultimately save his life, and we’re tremendously proud of that action.”

Mayor Kyle Schlachter proclaimed May 14 through 20, 2023 in the City of Littleton “National Police Week,” honoring all police o cers in the city.

“Both David Snook and Je Farmer’s actions on that night really, truly demonstrate the courage and dedication that our o cers have for our community and for each other,” Stephens said. “ ey’re very indicative of the actions that police, and sheri ’s o cers take, and deputies take, nearly every day in our country. And it’s nice that we could have an o cer recognized on a national level for the courage that he demonstrated.”

Farmer declined to comment on this story to avoid jeopardizing the related case because it is still pending trial.

President Joe Biden places the Medal of Valor on Cpl. Je Farmer, recognizing him for his life-saving actions and bravery.

COURTESY PHOTO

Colorado o ers millions to help fleets plug in

Grants will support fast charging stations

BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

Colorado regulators have wielded plenty of sticks in recent years while mandating the changeover of fossil fuel use in the state to clean-generated electricity. Clean cars, clean trucks, clean stoves and furnaces, clean power stations — the rules are stacking up in bundles.

But state o cials say they have plenty of carrots in stock, too. And they’re adding another, calling it Fleet ZERO, and dangling $7 million in the rst year with millions more to come.

Fleet ZERO o ers grants for building fast charging stations to local governments or private businesses that run large groups of light-, medium- or heavy-duty electric vehicles. e government has done its job requiring manufacturers to produce

increasing percentages of clean electric vehicles of all sizes, state regulators say, and now Colorado must ease the change with grants for charging and other support systems.

e transportation sector is the leading contributor of greenhouse gas emissions and the building blocks of local ozone pollution, said Matt Lerman, infrastructure program manager at the Colorado Energy O ce, which is funneling many federal and state grants for electri cation. Moreover, truck and service eets are often located in or spend their day driving through disproportionately impacted communities, so the eet changeover is a key to environmental justice mandates, Lerman said.

“Infrastructure is a foundation for that change,” he said.

e $7 million rst-year fund is part of $310 million in electri cation funding available through the Colorado Energy O ce and other state agencies in coming years. e budget is also committed to tax credits for new and used electric vehicle

purchases, e-bike support programs, home electri cation by replacing gas appliances with induction ranges and heat pumps, and more.

Helping eets transition to clean fuel faster will “protect the environment and signi cantly improve air quality in some of Colorado’s most polluted communities,” said Will Toor, executive director of the energy o ce.

Medium- and heavy-duty trucks are only 10% of vehicles on Colorado’s roads, but contribute 22% of transportation greenhouse gases, 30% of the nitrogen oxides that build into ozone, and 40% of particulate matter, another EPA-controlled pollutant. Colorado still generates a signi cant portion of its electricity through coal, but that percentage is declining fast and coal will be gone from the system by 2031.

Colorado has a goal of nearly 1 million electric light-duty cars, SUVs and pickups on state roads by 2030.

e Air Quality Control Commission recently passed rules requiring manufacturers of medium- and heavy-duty work vehicles to produce a gradually increasing percentage of clean-fuel engines beginning with the 2027 model year.

e Fleet ZERO (short for ZeroEmission Resource Opportunity) grants can cover up to 80% of the cost of projects, ranging from install-

ing eet charging stations to upgrading local electrical transformers and other transmission equipment. Disadvantaged businesses or neighborhoods can see up to 90% grant nancing for their projects.

Initial projects will focus on eets and businesses with vehicles traveling up to 150 miles a day and returning to a “base” for nine to 10 hours of overnight charging between shifts. Later grants will help expand public charging access for working vehicles that use interstates or other heavily traveled corridors, Lerman said.

Grant recipients agree to share charging data on a network, which allows the state to see which funding ideas are the most e cient and how charging patterns develop as more electric vehicles join eets.

e state grants can be combined with utility and local grants for electric infrastructure, Lerman said. e current round of grant applications is open through June 30.

e Colorado Sun co-owns Colorado Community Media as a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy. It is a reader-supported news organization dedicated to covering the people, places and policies that matter in Colorado. Read more, sign up for free newsletters and subscribe at coloradosun.com.

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Medicine on ice — hockey

BY JARED MILLER UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO NEWS CORPS

On a typical Wednesday morning at Edge Ice Arena, skates cut into a sparkling, freshly cleaned sheet of ice. Patrick Donnelly is standing on the bench spitting blood because his wisdom teeth were pulled the day prior. But he wouldn’t miss supporting his friends and teammates at a practice. Not for pulled teeth. Not for the mid-March snowstorm. And certainly not for his heart condition.

Hockey players have a toughness to them, but Donnelly and the rest of his crew of amateurs, all part of the Dawg Nation Hockey Foundation, aren’t afraid to share what’s in their hearts with the world.

Donnelly is here for hockey as much as he is for the community the players have built around it.

Dawg Nation started with a pass of a hat among friends more than a decade ago. Since then, the men’s league hockey team has evolved into an organization that has given away more than $4 million to those who need it most.

It all began in 2009 when the Dawgs were just 15 friends who loved playing hockey together. en, in the span of just nine days that February, three of them were diagnosed with cancer.

“Each time I would pass my hat around the room and we would go see Danny or Dave or Andy in the hospital,” Dawg Nation founder and CEO Marty Richardson said. “It wasn’t that we gave them 250 bucks, but it was the fact that they have

buddies that had their back.” All three won their battles. About a year later, Jack Kelly, a fourth member of the Dawgs, would come down with an autoimmune disease. In six months, Kelly was gone. Richardson spoke at his funeral, and it was the rst time he had lost a close friend.

“I told his three daughters, ‘I want to do something in your dad’s honor,’” Richardson added. “‘I don’t know what it is, but I want to do something.’”

Eight months later, in 2011, Dawg Nation Hockey Foundation was born. Nobody was sure, including Richardson, what it would grow to be.

“We started Dawg Nation, and what it was designed for was [that] we can’t be the only team in the whole area that needs help or has players that need help,” Richardson said. “So we put on a [hockey] tournament to help a couple of guys, and then we put on a golf tournament,

When times get tough, Littleton’s Dawg Nation has a goal to heal

SEE HOCKEY, P23

Sarah Karr (left) and Marty Richardson hug on the ice at a Hockey Heals skate on March 22.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAWG NATION HOCKEY FOUNDATION

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and we put on a comedy night, and all of these di erent things in that rst year.”

After that, it just kept growing and growing.

Along the way, Donnelly found Dawg Nation. Or, rather, Dawg Nation found him. About 10 years ago, Donnelly was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

He was forced to quit his job and moved back into his parents basement because of his heart. But he found a new calling: becoming an operations manager at Dawg Nation.

He fought his heart condition with medicine at rst, but as time went on, it worsened and his heart was too far gone for the medicine to help. Doctors installed a pump in his left ventricle to keep him alive by circulating blood to his body.

He was also put on a heart transplant list, but was okay with the pump because it worked.

“I was implanted with this LVAD and all of a sudden I had a new lease on life. So I decided to get back in shape,” Donnelly said. “One day I got a wild hair to put on my skates and go get on the ice. It was just so obvious that that’s what I should be doing to stay in shape.”

Donnelly would keep getting on the ice while also learning his limits of how hard he could push his body. He decided as long as he has warm blood

in his body, he’ll spend his time on the cold ice he loves.

As Richardson said, Donnelly, who relied on the team for support as he rst hit the ice, now thrives on helping others.

“He all of a sudden was in a position not to accept, but to give,” Richardson said.

Or, as Donnelly said, “I use what’s left of my heart to help people.”

Recently, Dawg Nation made their way up to Minnesota. A family was in need of help, and the Dawgs responded. ey were there for Ethan Glynn, a three-sport athlete in hockey, baseball and football. Some would call Glynn a superstar bound for the pros. But just 11 plays into his freshman high school football season, his life changed on a routine tackle. In one moment, Glynn became a paraplegic.

A pond hockey tournament was organized, and Glynn and his family had $81,000 to help navigate the bills, thanks not only to Dawg Nation, but the wider community that supports their mission.

Sarah Karr, who lives in Parker, Colorado is another Dawg Nation member uplifted by the community.

Karr was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer that spread to her liver and given a year to live.

“Luckily, I’m giving it one heck of a run for its money,” Karr said.

Karr is one of the regulars that hits the ice in Littleton, despite what life is throwing at her.

“It just gives me this high for like the rest of the week,” Karr said. “It’s like I have a whole team behind me sup-

porting me.”

At the rink, Karr is never without a smile. She resonates with friendliness and loves to talk with everyone who is skating, usually causing her to be one of the last players to leave the arena as everyone is clearing out.

Recently, Karr went to a Colorado Avalanche game with Dawg Nation. Team legend and now President of Hockey Operations Joe Sakic spent an entire period in a suite talking with Karr and everyone else, listening to all the stories about how hockey can heal.

Richardson re ects on what the organization has grown into. It is constantly planning, giving, helping families and communities, he said.

“We didn’t envision that we would be tied into [helping] handicapped children and adults and veterans and blind hockey players,” Richardson said. “No one, including myself, could have seen this, and last year alone we were able to hand out checks around $900,000 in one year.”

And, thanks to people like Donnelly, di erences are being made on the ice. e early-morning ice time Dawg Nation gets can be a bit daunting, but one person drives the rest to be there: Van Stone.

Stone su ered a traumatic brain injury in 2018. He now faces a slew of struggles, whether it is speech, motor skills, or navigating everyday life. He was told by doctors that he would never be able to play hockey again, but he wasn’t ready to give up. Stone, with the help of the Dawgs, proved those doctors wrong.

“ is is one of the only places he can

go where he is just one of the guys,” Donnelly said.

While dealing with his own struggles, Donnelly will still go out of his way to help others. It’s bigger than one person, he explained.

“What we created was a place where you can go when you know you want to help,” Richardson said.

And Dawg Nation isn’t nished either. ere is a bigger goal still on the horizon: a $64 million arena with three sheets of ice that anyone — disabled or not — can access. It would be one of the only facilities like it in the country. is is still years in the making, but the group is determined to see it through. A place where Dawg Nation can call home. Where players can go to escape the hard times and enjoy the game that brings them all together. Somewhere where people like Richardson and Donnelly can go to positively a ect the lives of hundreds who need to be uplifted.

As of February, Donnelly was moved up to number one on the heart transplants list.

For a month and a half, all he could do was wait with the Dawg Nation family behind him. In April, he got the call he was waiting for. e next morning he was in the hospital. Donnelly got his heart.

“I can’t wait to slide him the puck and watch that one-timer hit the back of the net for the rst time with his new heart,” Richardson said with a smile.

For more information about Dawg Nation and how you can help, visit https://www.dawgnation.org/ .

The Designated Election Official of the Elbert & Highway 86 Metropolitan District has been duly authorized by the Board of Directors to cancel and declare candidates elected if, at the close of business on the sixty-third (63rd) day before the election or thereafter, there are not more candidates than offices to be filled at the election to be conducted on May 2, 2023;

As of the close of business on February 28, 2023, or thereafter, there were not more candidates for Director than offices to be filled, including candidates filing affidavits of intent to be write-in candidates.

Notice is hereby given that, at a properly noticed public meeting on May 23, 2023, a proposed budget has been submitted to the Board of Education of Douglas County School District RE-1, Douglas and Elbert Counties, Colorado, for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2023, and has been filed in the principal administrative offices of the School District, 620 Wilcox Street, Castle Rock, Colorado, 80104, and online at the Douglas County School District website at www.dcsdk12.org, where it is available for public inspection.

Formal adoption of the proposed budget will be considered at the regular meeting of the Board of Education, at the Wilcox Administration Building, Castle Rock, Colorado on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, beginning at 5:00 p.m.

Any person paying school taxes in said district may either at such June 20, 2023 meeting, or at any time prior to the final adoption of the budget, file or register his/her objections thereto.

Douglas County School District RE-1

Dated: May 23, 2023

Ronnae Brockman

Board of Education Assistant Secretary

Legal Notice No. 25005

First Publication: June 1, 2023

Last Publication: June 15, 2023

Publisher: Elbert County News

Notice to Creditors

Public Notice NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Barbara Sue Miller;

a/ka Barbara S. Miller; a/k/a Barbara Miller; a/k/a Barb Miller;

a/k/a Barbara Sue DeHerrera;

a/k/a Barbara S. DeHerrera;

a/k/a Barbara DeHerrera;

a/k/a Barb DeHerrera;

a/k/a Barbara Sue Landry;

a/k/a Barbara S. Landry;

a/k/a Barbara Landry;

a/k/a Barb Landry, Deceased Case Numbe: 2023PR30032

All persons having claims against the

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