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Week of May 5, 2022
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
EnglewoodHerald.net
VOLUME 102 | ISSUE 12
County clerks reassure voters while watching for cyber attacks Officials push back against fraud claims, stay alert BY JESSICA GIBBS JGIBBS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
While local counties’ clerks and recorders say they are still taking steps to unravel false claims of
widespread election fraud two years after the 2020 presidential election and ahead of the June primaries, they are also on the lookout for potential cyberattacks after warnings from President Joe Biden that such attacks are increasingly likely. “It’s definitely nerve-wracking, but something that we are starting to get used to,” Adams County Clerk and Recorder Josh Zygielbaum said.
“It’s the world we live in now, and we do everything we can to protect the system and to protect ourselves and our workers and our voters.” The cybersecurity threat level is similar to past elections, or the worst-case scenarios election offices have prepared for, metro area clerks said. “There is no question right now, every agency is indicating that
the risk of Russian initiated cyber security threats has increased,” Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder George Stern said. But Stern said “long before we had internal threats to our elections,” cybersecurity and the security of election from foreign interference “has been top of mind,” Stern said. SEE ELECTIONS, P8
Englewood honored for business help during pandemic
Wooden Spools buys and sells quilting fabric at its store on Broadway in Englewood.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF WOODEN SPOOLS
Quilters are in their element at Wooden Spools Englewood craft store has vigorous online presence too BY RACHEL LORENZ RLORENZ@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Wooden Spools in Englewood has more than a few friends. With more than 3,600 followers on Facebook and roughly 6,000 folks receiving its biweekly newsletter, the reach of the 12-year-old craft store extends well beyond the Den-
ver metro area. “We do have customers all over the country and even internationally,” owner Vicki Skigen told Colorado Community Media. The newsletter is the store’s main form of advertising, Skigen said. It lets people know what classes and events are coming up as well as the theme of the current sale. In addition to its brick-andmortar store, Wooden Spools has an online store. While its presence on the internet has been around almost as long as its presence near SEE CRAFT STORE, P6
Vicki Skigen of Denver owns Wooden Spools.
Grant program, outdoor expansion saved many local businesses during first 2 years of COVID BY ROBERT TANN RTANN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Within days of Gov. Jared Polis issuing an order halting indoor dining for bars and restaurants on March 16, 2020, the City of Englewood had a plan to save its local businesses. Within 10 days of that order, and days before Polis’ stay-at-home order was announced, money was already out the door. “We were probably one of the earliest, if not the first, communities to put checks in businesses’ hands,” said Darren Hollingsworth, economic development manager for the City of Englewood. Now the city has received stateSEE BUSINESS, P10
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 22
STAYING WILD
Colorado strives to protect wildlife and land P14