Chronicle Parker
PARKER 1.25.13
Douglas County, Colorado • Volume 11, Issue 13
January 25, 2013
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourparkernews.com
Boys save man with dementia Senior citizen was wandering streets at night in cold temps By Chris Michlewicz
c m i c h l e w i c z @ o u rc o l o r a d o news.com Two quick-thinking Parker boys are being credited with possibly saving the life of a man with dementia. The temperature was hovering around zero at 2:30 a.m. Jan. 14 when Hunter Hicken, 13, heard the sound of a suitcase being dragged on the ground. When he looked out his window, he saw a man walking down the middle of his street in the Timbers subdivision. Hunter awoke his twin brother, Mason, and they watched quietly, unsure if the man was simply taking out the trash late at night. But
they soon realized something was wrong when the man stopped and stood motionless at the end of a driveway. The two Boy Scouts’ training kicked in and Mason ran to alert his sleeping father while Hunter kept an eye on the man. “They taught us in Boy Scouts to always be aware and be prepared” and to notify an adult when seeing something out of the ordinary, Mason said. The boys’ dad, Phil, went outside and found a 79-year-old man who was not wearing a hat or gloves. They later discovered that the man suffers from dementia, a brain disorder characterized by memory loss. He was out from California visiting his son, who lives one block from the Hickens. “He had been walking around for some time and was lost in the neighborhood,” said Lisa Hicken, the boys’ mother. A Douglas County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said the man was
able to remember his name and was later reunited with his son. Because of the frigid temperatures, a deputy who responded to the scene said the story might have had a tragic ending if the boys had not intervened, Hicken said. When asked what it’s like playing a part in saving a person’s life, the Sagewood Middle School students say they feel pretty good. Luckily, Hunter was lying wide awake in bed, unable to sleep, when he heard the strange noise from outside. “It’s kind of amazing that it worked out the way it did,” he said. “It could have been different.”
Hunter and Mason Hicken, 13-year-old twin brothers and Boy Scouts from Parker, helped save a dementia patient who was wandering in single-digit temperatures on Jan. 14. Courtesy photo
Employers may still ban pot New law doesn’t trump work rules By Glenn Wallace
gwallace@ourcoloradonews.com
Parker horse show legend and trainer Martin Cockriel, 86, looks at photos of his past champion horses. He brought six horses during his first trip to the National Western Stock Show in 1951. He is showing one horse this year, but would bring as many as 25 to the event in years past. Photo by Chris Michlewicz
Stock show legend not out to pasture Cockriel has run Parker training stable since 1955 By Chris Michlewicz
cmichlewicz@ourcoloradonews.com Even though it was 62 years ago, Martin Cockriel remembers his first foray at the National Western Stock Show like it was yesterday. At 86, his memory is still as sharp as the spurs on his boots, and at no point is that more apparent than when Cockriel recalls the day of his first stock show in 1951. “They had the stables outdoors and it was so cold, the water buckets froze in the stalls,” he says, punctuating his sentences with a signature belly laugh. “We started a fire in a 50-gallon drum in the middle of the hall to keep warm. The fire department would be there in two minutes now!” Reminiscing about the old days is made a bit easier by his comprehensive scrap-
book collection and the dozens of photos and honors that line the walls of his office in a 13-stall stable southeast of South Parker Road and Hess Road. The office is filled with familiar sounds: the exuberant whinnying of a prized horse, the soft meows of a barn cat and the jangling of straps and buckles. His trade is timeless, and it’s one that remains treasured in less populated areas of Douglas and Elbert counties. Cockriel is in his eighth decade of training show horses and has passed his knowledge to countless trainers who now operate throughout Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West. Over the years, everything except the western ridgeline has changed around the property where Cockriel built his “dream come true” red barn in 1954 on the side of Colorado 83. He shrugs off the development as “progress.” After selling the portion of the property in 1997 that houses the original stable — it was turned into Jackalope and is now Parker Country Market — Cockriel built the white stable with the red roof that stands today just up the hill. Cockriel Stables has downsized to five acres, and that suits the family
patriarch just fine. He no longer rides every day and has plans to retire in about a year. But make no mistake about his continued tradition of and passion for winning; it’s alive and well. He participated in eight shows over the summer, taking home various awards astride horses with names like High on Champagne, I’m Sir James and Catalytic. “He still gets a lot of anxiety,” says his grandson, Mickey Bacon, who works for Cockriel Stables and has won his share of horse shows. At this year’s stock show, Cockriel is showing only one horse. There were times when he would bring up to 25 horses to the event. In Cockriel’s mind, there is nothing that he has not accomplished in the industry. He has won convincingly across many classes with numerous breeds, most notably five-gaited American Saddlebreds. Longtime Parker resident Jean Bulger, who has known Cockriel and his wife, Barbara, for 30 years, says she is glad to see the stable still up and running. “And the fact that he loves what he’s doing,” she says. “He’s living the life.”
The passage of Amendment 64, legalizing recreational marijuana use — at least at the state level — may seem like a monumental shift in drug policy. But according to pot proponents as well as labor lawyers, not much will change in the workplace. “Amendment 64 clearly states that employers will be able to keep any enforcement policy that they’ve had,” said Mason Tvert, one of the co-directors of the amendment’s campaign. Tvert, now Director of Communications for the Marijuana Policy Project said that in the workplace, the pot status quo will remain. Employers that want to ban all drug use, including marijuana, would still be able to fire an employee who fails a drug test. “One thing that seems to be occurring is that some workers may not understand the scope of employers rights to continue to have drug testing policies and procedures,” Denver labor lawyer Emily Hobbs-Wright said. Hobbs-Wright said there is a Colorado statute that protects employee rights to participate in legal activities outside of the workplace, which has been cited by some medical marijuana users to protest a firing. “The problem with the argument is it goes back again to federal law, where it’s still illegal,” Hobbs-Wright said. That is bad news for anyone at a drugfree workplace that was hoping to enjoy a little weekend weed. Unlike tests for alcohol that typically show levels of intoxicaMarijuana continues on Page 6
Printed on recycled newsprint. Please recycle this copy.