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Week of March 10, 2022
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
EnglewoodHerald.net
VOLUME 102 | ISSUE 4
Englewood looks to create community forestry program Concern centers on ash trees threatened by beetles BY ROBERT TANN RTANN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
of homelessness as short as possible,” said Mike Sandgren, a task force leader who heads Change the Trend, a regional network of nonprofits, churches, schools and agencies working on homelessness solutions. By connecting those who are unhoused with a social safety net, task force leaders hope to address the root causes of homelessness while making it easier for people to exit that life.
For Englewood Open Space Manager Dave Lee, the arrival of an infamous tree-killing beetle in the city is a certainty. “This is something that’s been on the horizon for a while now,” Lee said. “It’s not if, it’s when.” The emerald ash borer, first identified in Colorado in Boulder County in 2013, is a destructive, non-native insect that infests, and ultimately kills, ash trees. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the beetle is responsible for killing tens of millions of ash trees in 30 states. With the beetles’ continued spread throughout the Front Range, the City of Englewood is preparing to launch a new community forestry program to provide subsidies to homeowners looking to treat or remove the trees. Ash trees make up about 15% to 20% of Colorado’s urban forests, according to the Colorado Department of Agriculture, with about 22,600 in Englewood. Though the beetle has not yet been identified in the city, it was last reported less than 20 miles away, in Arvada, in June 2020.
SEE HOMELESS, P5
SEE FORESTRY, P10
In a September 2020 file photo, a man dismantles a canopy during a sweep of a homeless camp along the South Platte River. PHOTO BY DAVID GILBERT
Metro cities propose a ‘navigation center’ to address homelessness But what does that mean? BY ROBERT TANN RTANN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
With homelessness on the rise throughout the Denver metro area, a task force made up of the cities of Littleton, Englewood and Sheridan, along with local and regional nonprofits, are forging ahead on solutions outlined in a
2021 action plan to mitigate an ever-present crisis. Among the laundry list of items: the creation of a physical space to centralize services and resources for people who are unhoused, which the cities have dubbed a “navigation center.” “The navigation center would be kind of a one-stop shop that’s actually meeting people on the street and bridging some of the gaps, sending them off to the services that are going to be right for them and making their experience
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 22
BRUNCH IS BACK
Combining breakfast and lunch is back on the menu at several locations P14