LOCAL

GREELEY -- The man who shot a Fort Lupton Police Department sergeant two years ago drew a 96-year prison sentence.

Weld County District Court Judge Vincente Vigil sentenced 21-year-old Matthew Cotter last week after a jury convicted Cotter of ambushing and trying to kill two Fort Lupton police offi cers, Sgt. Christopher Pelton, who was shot in the face, and for shooting at Sgt. Jeremy Sagner. The two were injured during a call about an armed man who was trying to contact someone inside a Fort Lupton home.

“I’m very fortunate that this was an attempted-murder case and not a murder case,” Sgt. Pelton said during the sentencing hearing. “The moment that bullet went through my head I wasn’t even there going after the defendant. I was there to protect the scene. If someone was going to get shot that day, I’m glad it was me and not one of my young offi cers.”

According to a news release, both of Sgt. Pelton’s daughters made statements to the court and said they now suffer from fear and anxiety after their father almost died.

“The victimization doesn’t stop with me,” Pelton explained. “It affects my whole family.”

Sagner also addressed the court during the sentencing hearing. He said the impact from this incident has been felt throughout the department.

“It was not an accident,” Sagner said. “He knew what he was doing. I believe Mr. Cotter is where he needs to be. Anything short of him remaining in custody for the maximum time is detrimental to the public.”

During his sentencing argument, Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Pirraglia asked the judge to refl ect on the seriousness of the crimes.

“How much closer can you get to killing someone?” Pirraglia asked, according to the news release. “The physical pain is one thing. But the mental pain, the anxiety, the stress, the trauma. It’s appalling what Sgt. Pelton and his family now have to live the rest of their lives with.”

Pirraglia also read parts of letters from other offi cers who were at the scene after the shooting. In one letter, a female offi cer described how horrifi c the scene was and described that even her wedding ring was stained with blood.

Vigil made some remarks before he announced the sentence.

“This is really a unique situation,” he said, according to the news release. “While I was not there, I saw the videos. I heard the shots, saw the offi cer fall, heard just the most horrible gurgle that man omitted. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the gurgle of someone dying. It’s a shock to me that Sgt. Pelton is still alive.

“It’s only by luck that I even have sentence discretion here and that I’m not forced to impose a life without parole sentence today. I cannot send a message to the community that I love and have been a part of my whole life that this was acceptable behavior.”

District Court Judge Vincente Vigil sentenced 21-year-old Matthew Cotter last week after a jury convicted Cotter of ambushing and trying to kill two

Cotter

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www.edwardjones.com Member SIPC Fort Lupton Police Sgt. Chris Pelton.

COURTESY OF CITY OF FORT LUPTON

Fort Lupton City Council eyes rec center expansion

Mayor thinks e ort is going too fast

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Fort Lupton City Council approved two parts to a proposal to expand the city’s recreation center during a regular meeting May 17.

The fi rst was an eight-member, ad hoc committee to design the expansion. The vote was 6-0. Mayor Zo Stieber abstained for cause. She was participating via Zoom and did not hear the whole presentation.

The second was to hire a fi rm, Perkins & Will, to collect and present expansion information to voters this November. The cost for the contract won’t be more than $28,000, and the vote was 6-1. Voters will decide whether to pay for the expansion.

The idea for a new recreation center started with community meetings 20 years ago. At that time, recreation center manager Julie Seedorf Holm said three areas community members wanted did not become part of the present facility. Two of them were an auxiliary gym and a fi tness area.

“The community wanted it all, but we couldn’t afford it,” she told council. “Our memberships are increasing, and we love seeing the people come in and use the center. But we are so crowded. There are areas where we are at heavy use.”

The plan is to form an eightperson ad hoc committee, including one member from the city’s Culture, Parks, Recreation and Museum Committee, one from the city’s Senior Advisory Committee, two city council members, two city staff members and two members from the general public. Holm said there could be a rec center member survey to gather input on wishes and desires of users.

“It’s an issue of timing at this point,” she told council. “We kept going back to the original drawings and the meetings that took place. We took the things that were cut out but left them in place for a future expansion. It depends on the timing and where we can expand.”

Mayor Stieber, who cast the lone “no” vote to hiring the outside fi rm to present information to voters, had no problem with expanding the recreation center. Her issue was the speed.

“We’re trying to do this so quickly,” she said. “It feels like we are rushing to get something done and have it on the ballot this fall. I am not going to be able to support this.”

OT money

In other business, council approved a $3,200 supplemental budget request for the city’s facilities and grounds departments. The vote was unanimous.

Human Resources Director Laura Howe said the money will be overtime pay for employees who have to work outside of normal working hours for issues that require a fast response.

“There are special situations that require them to have a quick response,” Howe told council. “They will be paid a two-hour minimum for those situations. It helps pay our employees appropriately for time they spend during their time off.”

Howe also told council it would have to approve funds for this use in 2023 and beyond.

Residents will be asked about health concerns and other issues such as a ordable housing

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

To improve the community’s health, the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment has released its 2022 community health survey.

“This survey is our best tool for understanding the health concerns and needs of Weld County residents,” said Cindy Kronauge, senior data analyst, in a news release.

Kronauge has led the county’s efforts to collect population-level health data since the survey fi rst launched in 2007.

“We really cannot do this without the generous help of residents,” she said. “We encourage everyone who receives an invitation to please participate.”

WCDPHE conducts the surveys every three years and uses the results to get ideas on how to provide better services to improve the health of its residents. This year’s survey will include questions about a variety of topics including affordable housing and access to mental health services. Residents of Weld County will receive an invitation by mail, encouraging them to participate.

For those who choose to participate in the survey, responses will be confi dential.

According to offi cials, the county has grown rapidly in the last few years. The number of survey respondents rose to about 17,000 from 10,000 in 2019. The survey was open from early May through mid-June and offered in English and Spanish.

Key fi ndings from the 2019 com-

munity health survey were: • Three out of 10 adults reported experiencing depression, anxiety or other mental health problems. • About one in three low-income residents reported having unstable housing. • More than 50% of adult residents have one or more health problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma. • The county’s uninsured rate was the lowest it has ever been at 6.5%. To view data and reports from past ment of Public Health and Environ- surveys, go to https://www.weldgov. ment has released its 2022 commu- com/Government/Departments/ nity health survey. Health-and-Environment/Data-andReports.

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Recognizing the South Platte’s importance with work

So much of our Front Range environment access is owned by a variety of formal governmental agencies. Some are by private ownership, others are controlled by community organizations, some by outside absentee private owners, and some are a combination of public/private partnerships. The results of “joining hands” are typically positive and may not have become a reality if there were not a longstanding and elevated level of creativity and cooperation.

Parks, lakes, trail systems, open space tracts, and natural features in streams, rivers, and lakes have made Front Range Colorado an attraction for visitors and residents alike. It also offers an opportunity for you and me to be active supporters and volunteers in caring for and assuring our attractive, beaconing environment remains the attraction it is today.

The popular downtown segment of the South Platte River will be the benefactor of volunteer hands-on June 5 when members of the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BCHA) in cooperation with Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) take the lead and seek volunteers to join their outdoors members in cleaning up these public river waters.

We who enjoy and support our beautiful Front Range lands and waters can multiply our volunteer participation by bringing our individual local organizations of adults (Rotary, or Kiwanis)) and youth organizations (i.e., Boy Scouts, etc.) into the June 5th South Platte River Cleanup Day.

There are limitless reasons to join in this cleanup effort. One of significance is the fact the South Platte River system provides some portion of the domestic water supply for every area of the greater Denver region. Including Denver as well as the outlying suburban communities. Any effort to keep the South Platte River clean benefits Front Range Colorado citizens and businesses.

To take part in the June 5 event contact Brien Webster (406-926-

1908) of BCHA to preregister and then plan to meet at 9 a.m. at the Denver REI parking lot. The South Platte River with headwaters originating in the OUTDOOR Colorado South Park region LIVING provides the runoff for the South Fork branch, while the North Fork headwaters at Kenosha Pass near SH 285 generate the other major source of runoff water for the river as the two forks merge downstream near the Town of Bailey. There is a lot of South Platte River history. This is an opportuRon Hellbusch nity to start positive support of that history.

Outdoorsman and Westminster resident Ron Hellbusch can be reached at Ron-Hellbusch Comcast.ne

Hot and dry winds licking at winter’s back door

Ponds on a ranch in northwestern Colorado last week were full, a rare treat in recent years for horses that have gathered – like at a spa. It was a good winter there, cold and snowy. Now, a ranch owner had begun planning for a fiery summer.

“It’s a hot, dry wind licking at the back door,” says Kathleen Kelley of Meeker. “We can lose everything we’ve gained in just a few days to high temperatures and wind. The ponds have already lost half their volume.”

A poet I know has been singing that James Taylor song but with new lyrics “Oh, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen wind.”

We had the Marshall Fire with its 1,084 homes and other buildings destroyed while Christmas wreaths still hung on doors. Then came April with wildfires on the crispy-dry prairies of southeastern Colorado. Now the spring sky has become sullied by smoke from New Mexico’s latest wildfire, already the state’s second-largest, causing people in Santa Fe to inspect their insurance policies.

In Colorado, the three National Weather Service offices together issued 62 red-flag warnings, in April, the most since record-keeping began in 2006. The previous one-month record was 43.

On Earth Day, one of those red-flag days, an executive with a utility that delivers electricity to exurban homes in the foothills between Central City and Nederland was fretting about wildfire risks.

“These fires have already started,” said Bryant Robbins. the chief operating officer of United Power, Colorado’s second-largest electrical cooperative. “We usually don’t see them until later in the year. I am highly concerned about our lack of moisture, especially in the foothills west of Arvada, and I’m just worried sick about that.”

Colorado’s electrical utilities, both large and small, have been stepping up their game in recent years. They want to avoid wildfire destroying their infrastructure, but they also have also taken steps to minimize the risks of their wires causing fires, as has happened in several of California’s largest and most deadly blazes.

Most people correlate wildfires and mountainous areas. At the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control, Rocco Snart directs attention also to fire risks on the eastern plains. He sees the greatest risk until July being east of the Continental Divide, including in the foothills but also the San Luis Valley, Colorado’s reddest area on drought maps. Southwestern Colorado is of slightly less concern.

There is precedent. Major wildfires occurred in the foothills along the fringes of Colorado Springs and west of Fort Collins in 2012 and again in 2013. But the Great Plains have had major fires before, too. It’s just a matter of fewer people living there.

Come summer, the fire risk shifts as lingering snow melts in the high country. Snart predicts fire restrictions this summer. Expect fireless camps.

Is he apprehensive? He has, he says, “a healthy respect for the environment.”

The Yampa River Valley this week had snow-water equivalent 89% of average. Water managers warned of a water year similar to that of 2020. That snowy winter in Steamboat Springs and Craig was followed by an early spring, then an abnormally hot and dry summer. It was like a busted firstround draft pick, a benchwarmer.

It’s part of a broader trend manifested at Lake Powell, which barely has enough water to produce electricity for consumption in places like Granby and Gunnison, Aspen and Avon. Runoff again this year disappoints. The Bureau of Reclamation has revised its inflow projections downward to 59% of average.

North of Steamboat, on the Wyoming-Colorado border, rancher Pat O’Toole tells of unrelenting

winds that have left his family’s three flags—American, Wyoming and Ukrainian—tattered prematurely. On Interstate 80, a GUEST COLUMN place notorious for winds that can knock over trucks, the intensity has picked up, something Allen Best that O’Toole correlates with the changing climate. “Everybody’s talking about it,” he says of the wind. O’Toole hopes for more management of forests ahead of catastrophic wildfires. “We have to start realizing that we are in a different climate and react to it like it really is and not like it used to be.” Colorado’s three largest wildfires, as defined by acreage, occurred in 2020. At her ranch near Meeker, Kelley remembers another yet fire, too, one that caused her and her husband to build a more fire-resistant masonry house. “I glance toward my little town five miles to the east and hope the barrier mitigations they are now planning can soon be implemented effectively,” she says. “By mid-June the temperatures will be in the 90’s and might even push 100. By July I know my beloved country will be nothing more than brittle fuel.”

Allen Best publishes Big Pivots, from which this was extracted. See more at BigPivots.com.

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