OPINION

During the COVID pandemic shutdown impacted the therapy dogs and handlers too not being able to come to the hospital.

“They let us back in with staff for a while and it’s been wonderful with the dogs. Slowly we are allowed on all the units with patients, but with COVID, it’s been the main concern with us, “ said Wiant.

All the therapy dogs are members of their owners’ households but go through obedient training and Canine Good Citizen training. The handlers go through training, too.

Beverly Cudsik with her dog Pepper has volunteered for six years visiting hospitals.

“Pepper did a lot of training in the beginning when she was a puppy and I took her to obedience and Canine Good Citizen classes. Then you are connected to organizations,” said Cudsik. “When you use your dog, you know what kind of personality they have. When I got my dog seven months ago, she was just so sweet and calm. I just knew she’d make a great therapy dog.”

Once the dog completes training, they are evaluated on basic skills, such as how they react to people, to noises and to different environments. After passing, the therapy dog is ready to visit organizations.

The breed of a dog does not matter, Cudzik said. The main thing is personality and if they like people or like being petted.

“It could be any dog, a big dog or small dog. Whatever you choose, you know your dog,” said Cudsik. “Sometimes the dog can be wonderful at home but don’t like people or crowds, so they are not a good therapy dog.”

Cudsik chooses where she and Pepper want to visit from hospitals, nursing homes, and schools. PVMC was her fi rst assignment has been coming ever since.

“I go other places, but I like Platte Valley. It’s like home and family. It makes me so happy. Pepper just loves it and seeing the joy she brings to people,” said Cudsik.

“Also, we bring them to the courthouse and she calms people down,” she said. “They are all stressed out and afraid to testify. S,he just makes them happy and the staff too. They say ‘You just made my day.’ “

Brad Layman is a registered nurse and nurse educator at the hospital for 22-years and was in the emergency department.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to have known Susan Wiant since the inception and watched her wonderful family of dogs going through here, which I got very connected with,” said Layman.

Layman says with the patientcentered care model at PVMC the therapy dogs are a great addition to the hospital.

“This is phenomenal addition is very successful, in my opinion, as far as with visiting the patients,” said Layman. “In this day on how healthcare has gone and the stress on healthcare workers is a lot and associates as well. It’s not only for the patients, which is a huge part of it and very effective.

The hospital’s employees look forward to seeing the dogs, too.

“Everybody is just overjoyed with them and it has helped with the health and wellness of the caregivers as well,” said Layman. “It’s a huge asset to the entire organization. I can’t imagine not having them. They make my day every time I see him.”

Joy Memmen a registered nurse at Platte Valley and has held various positions, but spent most of her time as an ICU nurse.

During the COVID pandemic, I would describe it to people there are two worlds, there’s the world outside the hospital, and the world inside the hospital- the world inside the hospital has been like a war the last couple of years,” said Memmen. Our staff, our patients, all the caregivers have endured a lot of trauma.”

Memmen says when the staff sees the dogs it helps to heal the trauma, but when the dogs were unable to come in during the shut down the staff was devastated for the fi rst few months. So when the therapy dogs were allowed to come to the parking lot outside, the staff scheduled time to come out to visit them.

“I seek out the dogs and know what time they come in and when they are at the bistro. I’ll go down to say hello to the dogs just to spend a few minutes with them. I’m not sure what we would have done without them, “ said Memmen.

“It is so important for mental health to have that little bit of sunshine and a little bit of animal companionship.”

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www.edwardjones.com Member SIPC Joy Memmen a ICU registered nurse has two visitors left Sweets and Pepper.

PHOTO BY BELEN WARD

MARIJUANA

FROM PAGE 2

More pot talk

Council also seemed inclined to leave potential marijuana cultivation alone until sometime in June.

“I’d like to see us get through the lottery and the initial licensing before we move to cultivation,” Ausmus said. “There’s going to be a lot of administrative things going on, and I’d prefer to wait.”

City consultant Laura Bower agreed.

“I recommend you get comfortable with the process,” she told councilors. “Different types of licensing processes can be a challenge. They want to grow their own. They want to sell it in stores. Having separate license processes could be a problem.”

The city’s contracted planner, Todd Hodges, said it would take 60 to 90 days to review a site plan once the city receives the application.

“I have no objection to waiting until we get our licensees,” Stieber said. The rest of council didn’t either.

VESTAL

FROM PAGE 2

nonpotable water systems and street repairs will be about $9 million spread into two sections. Four million is set aside for street work.

The Coyote Creek subdivision (council approved the fourth fi ling Feb. 1) needs special improvements, too, to the tune of $2.6 million. Most of that work is similar to the Murata development.

Finance part 2

Vestal suggested the council approve a $119,000 contract with Burns & McDonnell, an engineering and consulting fi rm, for a utility plan for the required wastewater improvements. Another fi rm, CH2M Hill, also submitted a bid.

“Did you ask them (CH2M Hill) if they would meet the price? Mayor Zo Stieber asked.

“Yes. They kind of waffl ed,” Vestal said.

Vestal also updated the council on an increase in money from the state’s highway user tax fund. The state collects money from such things as road safety surcharges, oversize/ overweight surcharges, rental car surcharges late vehicle registration fees.

“The formula changes every year,” he told councilors. “In 2021, we had 67 user miles of roads. Now the total is 72.3, That means you’ll get an increase. But I don’t have a specifi c amount.”

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A company that specializes in artificially intelligent, driverless systems that help dock trailers full of goods into distribution yards said they are ready to go to market.

For Andrew Smith, founder and CEO of Golden-based tech firm Outrider, it might be a key solution to the nation’s current supply chain woes.

“Automation is key to relieving the inflationary pressure on the supply chain,” Smith said. “Distribution yards are critical links in the supply chain and prime targets for automating the flow of goods between over-the-road transportation and fulfillment centers, warehouses, and manufacturing plants.

Automating yards requires reliable systems capable of backing trailers of all kinds safely and precisely into parking spots and dock spots billions of times a year, he said.

Outrider specializes in the kinds of autonomous yard operations that could change the face of the trucking industry and distribution yards. The Golden company has been testing its fleet of fully autonomous yard trucks that can back semitrailers using a full range of motion, parking them into tight spots without additional modifications. It is designed to fit on any semi-trailer — including 28-foot single trailers and articulated trailers up to 53-feet — and can also park dry van trailers, containers, and refrigerated trailers without human interaction.

Outrider opened its first testing facility site in Brighton in August 2021, using self-driving trucks driven in a distribution yard with technology to move and park semi-trailers into loading docks to distribute freight and cargo. The facility, located at 22600 E. I-76 Frontage Road in Brighton, has been used both to assemble and test the selfdriving vehicles.

The facility is a 200,000 square foot distribution yard built with 49 dock door. Each yard truck is capable of precisely backing trailers into the docks, controlled by a computer operated by an employee within the building near the dock using Outriders backing technology. Each unit is fully autonomous with strict operational requirements.

Crooked parking

Tyler Hults, a former truck driver, joined the Outrider team in 2020 as a Test Operations Lead at the Brighton Outrider location. He has experience parking a rig in a distribution yard and understands the job’s challenges.

“High-precision articulated backing will increase the efficiency and organization of distribution yards by having trailers backed perfectly in their spot, every time,” said Hults. “In most yards, you have trailers that are parked crooked, double-parked, or so off-center that the dockworker can’t get the loading ramp into the trailer, requiring a yard hostler to redo the job. With Outrider’s precise backing abilities, the job will be done right the first time and allow more throughput at the facility.”

The Outrider system is designed into three parts; the management software, the autonomous vehicles and the site infrastructure. The system uses robotics to hitch, unhitch, connect and disconnect brakes lines on trailers. It also has built-in commands to interact safely with loading docks, tractor-trailer locations and it manages all of the system functions from one location.

RE-8 signals interest in IGA with city

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

The Weld Re-8 School District has its eyes on land for potential school development on the east and west ends of Fort Lupton.

With that as a backdrop, Superintendent Alan Kaylor told his bosses, the members of the school board, it should engage with the city of Fort Lupton to make it happen. The two entities had a renewable, five-year intergovernmental agreement that expired in 2013.

The lack of an agreement with the city of Fort Lupton costs the district money in terms of rooftops, he s. The district and the city of Dacono have an IGA.

Kaylor said a piece of the builders’ permit cards indicates an obligation to pay the local school district.

“That’s what we’re after. We are collecting zero dollars on these new houses,” Kaylor told the school board. “It’s instant profit for the builders. We have a problem collecting these moneys. The builder basically says, ‘Thank you but no thank you. We have no obligation to pay you.

“Think of the numbers of homes that have gone up since 2012, 2013. At some point, we may need to do some leveraging and go to a council meeting and encourage them to go forward with an IGA,” he added.

The district has been in talks with city Planner Todd Hodges and City Administrator Chris Cross. Kaylor said he sensed some interest on the city’s part to enter into another IGA. Kaylor also suggested an agreement of no more than five years in length to leave open the chance for revisions based on growth and enrollment patterns.

“We have to be careful that we spend the money appropriately,” Kaylor cautioned. “We can use the money for building and land acquisitions only.”

Kaylor also enlisted the services of Shannon Bingham, to produce an estimate of the value of rooftops in Dacono and Fort Lupton. The cost is between $5,000 and $6,000, Kaylor said. She helped the district redesign its school-board member boundaries last year.

“It’s well worth it,” Kaylor told the board. “We should get more money per rooftop. We’re looking at growth on the east and west ends of the district.”

One parcel is near Weld County Road 13 and Summit Boulevard, on the west end of the district. The 50acre project wound up on the back burner because of the pandemic. Kaylor also identified 55 acres on the east end of town as a site for potential development.

“At some point, we’re going to be needing that,” he told the board.

Former 27J employee accused of sexual assault

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STAFF REPORT

A former employee of 27J Schools faces three sexual-assault charges.

The 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office charged Cathia Covarrubias Ruiz, 24, for having an alleged sexual relationship with a student at Quist Middle School in Thornton while she was employed as a paraeducator at the school between October 2021 and January 2022, according to a statement.

The district released a statement in which it said it was “very sad and angered by the alleged inappropriate relationship of a former employee with a student.”

“Based on the charges brought against the defendant, we find this situation deeply disturbing and traumatic,” the statement said.

Ruiz also faces a count of sexual

assault on a child as a pattern of abuse and sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust both felonies. “Our first priority is the care and support of the victim,” the district’s statement said. “We have offered support to the victim’s family and will continue to offer ongoing support.” Thornton police are continuing their investigation, so extra information is not available. “However, because we value transparency with our families, earlier this week we reached out to our school - parent community to let them know about the allegation and the nature of law enforcement’s investigation,” the district said. “As we received further information about this case today, we shared with Quist parents the name of the defendant and the charges brought against her.”

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