Highlands Ranch Herald 010622

Page 1

Week of January 6, 2022

FREE

DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO

A publication of

HighlandsRanchHerald.net

INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 10 | LIFE: PAGE 12 | CALENDAR: PAGE 9

Magician to perform in Highlands Ranch Scotty Wiese knew comedy and magic were his future early on BY THELMA GRIMES TGRIMES@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

At the age of 9, Scotty Wiese performed some magic tricks for family members. He was good at it. He liked it. For several years, Wiese, who will be performing in Highlands Ranch on Jan. 21, said he continued to perform magic tricks, with an added dose of humor, as a hobby. In high school and college, Wiese said he could not ignore it anymore and knew he would make a full career out of it. In 2017, Wiese said his high school basketball team was flying to Los Angeles to participate in a tournament when high winds forced the plane to divert and land in San Diego. While the team sat on the runway, Wiese said, everyone was in a bad mood and not happy about the situation. It was at that point, SEE MAGICIAN, P22

BY JESSICA GIBBS JGIBBS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

High turnout at a COVID-19 testing site in Douglas County created “unsafe traffic conditions” recently as Colorado sees “a significant in-

Douglas County poised for more growth 25% expansion in 10 years outpaces metro area BY MOLLY ARMBRISTER SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

26 that the state’s drive-through site on Sky Ridge Medical Center’s campus was seeing heavy traffic and up to two-hour wait times. The city urged people to consider testing at other nearby locations. On Dec. 27, Sky Ridge Medical Center requested that the state close its testing site on the campus for the afternoon as traffic interfered with access to the facility, Spencer said. “In partnership, we mapped a safe

After a decade of growth that far outstrips the Denver metro area as a whole, Douglas County shows few signs of slowing down, driven by high levels of demand and new development in expanding towns like Castle Rock, Lone Tree and Parker. There’s no doubt the entire metro area has grown at an unprecedented rate in the last decade. But Douglas County, home to smaller towns, scattered development and plentiful open space for years, was especially ripe for growth in 2010. From 2010 to 2020, Douglas County’s population grew by 25% to just over 360,000 people, according to the most recent data available from the Colorado State Demography Office, compared with just under 16% growth for the entire metro area. And while the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020 slowed migration, and growth, across the board, Douglas County still grew more than twice as fast as metro Denver over the course of the year. Douglas County’s population grew 2.5% from 2019 to 2020, while the metro area expanded by less than 1%, according to the demography office’s data. Since Douglas County’s population was much smaller to begin with, it makes sense that its rate of growth would be higher. But there’s no doubt that the county has seen an outsized share of development in recent years,

SEE TESTING, P23

SEE GROWTH, P11

Besides performing the Denver metro area, Scotty Wiese performs his magic/comedy COURTESY PHOTO throughout the county.

Demand for COVID-19 testing jumps Traffic plagued one Douglas County testing site, forcing early closure

VOLUME 35 | ISSUE 5

crease in demand for testing.” Spokesman Brian Spencer with the Colorado Joint Information Center said by email that rising case counts across Colorado are being fueled by the omicron variant, and that paired with the typically high demand for COVID-19 testing near the holiday season is causing traffic at some testing sites. “We still have (testing) capacity across the state,” Spencer said. The City of Lone Tree said through its Twitter account on Dec.

FOOD OF THE HOMELAND Local restaurateurs teach and serve

P12

LOOKING AHEAD

GM reflects on 2021, looks ahead to 2022

P6


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.