Herald HIGHLANDS RANCH 1/31/13
Highlands Ranch
Douglas County, Colorado • Volume 26, Issue 11
January 31, 2013
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourhighlandsranchnews.com
Efficiency spurring economic upswing Announcements keep coming in for county By Ryan Boldrey
rboldrey@ourcoloradonews.com
Although the theme of the National Western Stock Show is livestock, many equipment vendors are also on hand to show off the latest in farming and ranching technology. Here, 3-year-old Hannah Snider of Lakewood finds a quiet place to avoid the crowds inside the giant wheel of a front loader.
KIDS AND CRITTERS PHOTOS BY DEBORAH GRIGSBY The National Western Stock Show on Jan. 27 concluded its 107th year. It is always one of the biggest events for ranchers from across the country. Kids and critters make the show fun and always unpredictable. A quick look around the show found a variety of barnyard favorites as well as a few new exotic breeds making their way into the mainstream. Kids worked, played and gave it their best shot in the annual stick rodeo. A pair of goats, apparently not happy with their score from the last round, eat their score card right off the side of their cage. The goats were part of a myriad of livestock on display at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, on Jan. 26.
HRCA examines energy audit Pilot program with state could save big dollars By Ryan Boldrey
rboldrey@ourcoloradonews.com In an effort to become more energy efficient and save money, the Highlands Ranch Community Association is taking the first step in teaming with the Colorado Energy Office as part of a pilot program that could help the organization for years to come. HRCA CEO Jerry Flannery introduced the idea to the delegate body Jan. 15, outlining a plan that would allow the organization to avoid dipping into its reserve fund for major expenditures, but instead finance 10 years’ worth of savings as result of an energy audit to pay for future fixes, something that could save $200,000 per year. The organization, which is up against a
March 1 deadline to apply for the program, was given the green light to begin interviewing participating Energy Service Companies, so they can have one selected prior to voting on whether to go ahead with the initial audit. The state, which has worked with public entities in a similar fashion in the past, has launched the pilot program to encourage private entities and major nonprofits to become more energy efficient as well. “The Department of Energy wanted to support a program that mirrored the public sector program and provided third-party help, but at the same time help remove some of the barriers of cost that goes along with the energy audit,” said Brian Carlin, senior consultant with the Boulder company, Nexant, which has been providing third-party assistance to the state for the past four years. In helping remove some of that cost, the energy office is providing a 75 percent buydown on the technical energy audit with a cap of $25,000. With that help, along with rebates from
Xcel Energy, the audit would cost the HRCA somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. According to Flannery, if the decision were made to go ahead with the program, that cost would be rolled into the long-term financing. If the HRCA opted against participating in the program, the audit would be paid for out of the reserve fund. “If we move forward with the audit, I think it’s going to be beneficial regardless of what we decide to do with it,” Flannery said. “Even if our decision is to make our equipment more efficient on our own with a catch-as-catch-can approach that is something we can do too. We are still becoming more efficient and saving money.” According to Carlin, the program has helped save more than $350 million in upgrade costs for public entities in Colorado over the past four years. The HRCA would be the first nonprofit organization to become involved with the pilot program, but seven public recreation districts have been assisted by the program.
After a 2012 that saw Hitachi, Dish Network and Children’s Hospital, among others, move into Douglas County, 2013 has started with a bang. In the first month alone, Charles Schwab, Redwood Trust and Visa have announced a combined 1,500 new jobs in the county. What’s the secret? “I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that Douglas County has done a good job with property tax, has got a good business climate by and large, and overall statewide there’s a pretty low tax rate,” said director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and Lund International Trade, Ken Lund. “We’ve got a phenomenal workforce and a great place to be. I think we can compete on that basis.” That, modest incentives and a “get-it-done” attitude, Lund said, are what have allowed Colorado and Douglas County to haul in Repella new business at an alarming rate. While other states may offer better incentives, Colorado has been focused on saving prospective businesses time and money with speedy, topnotch execution to lure them in. “We competed for the Visa project with Virginia and Utah, two states that claim to be the best in execution, but we had a final contract with Visa before those states even submitted a bid,” Lund said. With each announcement, Douglas County becomes more of an attraction, too. “Every time we land one business, Hitachi for example, it demonstrates to other businesses, `wow, something is good there. If that business chose to go there, we should look at that area,’” said Douglas County Commissioner Jill Repella. Repella knows it’s all about the followthrough, though, and that’s part of the reason Douglas County has been so successful. “As an elected official I can pretty much say anything I want,” she said. “But if we don’t have follow-through all the way through to the end ... when they open their doors. Our words mean nothing.” Even bigger than the number of jobs that has come into the county of late - an estimated 4,000 in the last six months - is the overall economic impact. “Children’s hospital came in with 300 new jobs and that’s about a $3 million yearly economic impact,” Repella said. “So do the math. We are talking significant numbers. That trickles through the entire economy and existing businesses benefit from that.” “From a state perspective, you see the difference in speed in Douglas County,” Lund said. “The metabolism of government is different. I see that because we are sitting on top of the whole state. You may or may not see it depending on where you sit, but we see it every single day. ... Speed does matter.”
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