Herald
Englewood 4/26/13
Englewood
April 26, 2013
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A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourenglewoodnews.com
Arapahoe County, Colorado • Volume 93, Issue 10
Water plan awaits comment Conservation blueprint ready for public input By Tom Munds
tmunds@ourcoloradonews.com Englewood completed development of a water-conservation plan and awaits public comment on the plan before it is submitted
to the state. The plan will be available for review May 1 on the city’s website at www.englewoodgov.org. Starting May 1, comments on the plan can be made through the website, which will be listed under the “In the Spotlight” portion of the home page. Residents also can make comments in person by attending one or both of the meetings of the Englewood Water and Sew-
er Board that will be held at 5 p.m. May 14 or at 5 p.m. June 11 in the community development conference room. The conference room is on the third floor of the Englewood Civic Center, 1000 Englewood Parkway. The deadline for public comment is July 1. The main objective of a water-conservation plan is to improve water-use efficiency, which, in turn, reduces overall water de-
mands. Englewood developed a water-conservation plan in the mid-1990s. A new plan was needed following the state decision four years ago to revise water conservation requirements. The city’s draft plan was created by staff members and conservation consultants hired using a state grant. Those working on Water continues on Page 9
Home values show decline in Arapahoe Assessor notes that figures aren’t tied to current sales By Jennifer Smith
jsmith@ourcoloradonews.com
Once a month, volunteers from Englewood Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 322 spend four or five hours handing out free coffee to visitors and staff at the Veterans Affaird Medical Center in Denver. A trio of volunteers, Lyle Carter, Phil Phillips and Ruby Clark, staffed the booth on April 19. “It is so nice to have the coffee booth here,” said Mike Latrell, who was wounded in Iraq. “It’s usually a fair wait to see my doctor, so the coffee is sort of a pick-me-up for me. Bless them for being here and I really appreciate the smiles, a little conversation and, of course, a free cup of coffee.” Latrell was among a steady parade of visitors to the booth that kept the volunteers busy filling orders for coffee black or with a specific number of cream and sugar packets, a cup of hot chocolate and even a request for a cup of mocha. “The coffee booth is a statewide Veterans of Foreign Wars project. There is an effort to have volunteers here every Monday through Friday,” Carter said. “I guess other posts are like us when it comes to difficulty recruiting volunteers, because some days the booth isn’t staffed.” Phillips said he thinks the VFW has staffed a coffee booth at the Denver VA hospital since about 1975. Carter has been among the volunteers for 25 years or more.
“The recovery has not happened yet in Arapahoe County.” That’s the news Corbin Sakdol, Arapahoe County assessor, gave officials from throughout the 348 taxing entities in the county on April 18. Having just finished reassessing property values, he has a pretty good handle on the situation. Although sales are up in most places, values of the 150,000 single-family homes in the county are generally down but with a few bright spots. Centennial and Greenwood Village are up. Aurora, Sheridan and Englewood are down, and Littleton is split. “Ridge Road is still quite Sakdol the dividing line,” he said. Homes south of Ridge Road are mostly maintaining or climbing, while the north isn’t in such great shape. Sakdol says condominium values are way down across the board, but office buildings and commercial properties are up. Foreclosures are down from the peak in 2008. “It’s happening, but it’s not near as bad,” he said. “Things are much better, but they’re still not good.” One reason there’s discrepancy between rising sales and falling values is that Colorado law requires Sakdol to use 2-year-old sales data to determine current taxable value. The tax bill property owners will be getting in the mail starting May 1 reflects sales that occurred between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2012. So as home prices started crashing during the housing bubble of August 2008, property taxes reflected July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007. Conversely, as sales are now beginning to increase, taxable values remain low. Those 348 taxing entities can significantly impact property owners’ tax bills, as well. Similar homes in similar neighborhoods might be valued about the same and still have vastly different property-tax bills. It depends on voter-approved mill levies collected by the school district or water entity, for example. Sakdol also points out that, in Colorado, commercial properties are taxed at a rate of 29 percent, while it’s just under 8 percent for residential. (Keep that in mind when considering converting a cute bungalow to a charming coffee shop, he notes.) The Gallagher Amendment intended to maintain a 55/45 split between commercial and residential property taxes, so it ratcheted down
Coffee continues on Page 9
Values continues on Page 9
Englewood VFW volunteer Lyle Carter, left, hands a cup of coffee to Marine veteran Robert Sanders on April 19. VFW Post 322 volunteers staff the coffee booth at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver once a month. Photos by Tom Munds
Kindness, coffee warm veterans Post 322 volunteers hand out free beverages at VA hospital By Tom Munds
tmunds@ourcoloradonews.com
VFW Post 322 volunteer Ruby Clark, left, readies to greet another visitor as Sherry Forsyth accepts her free cup of coffee. Clark and other volunteers staffed the coffee booth April 19 at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
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