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Your voice will help us protect your home and our community

Douglas County is updating its Community Wildfire Protection Plan – a document that defines how we can proactively protect life and property. The first step in updating this plan is your input, by completing a short survey. Visit douglas.co.us/cwpp-survey to complete the survey by April 26.

Building records now available online

How often have you wondered where your home’s property line ends, and your neighbor’s begins? Do you need to schedule a building inspection and yet remembered to do it after business hours? To access publicly available records and documents visit

https://apps.douglas.co.us/building/services

Need flood zone information?

If you live in unincorporated Douglas County, Flood Insurance Rate Maps and zone information are available by request. Visit douglas.co.us and search for Flood Plain Information. A form may also be requested by calling 303-660-7490 or visiting Public Works, 100 Third St. in Castle Rock.

What’s happening with your County government?

Our commitment to open and transparent government includes online posting of information about public meetings at which the business of government is conducted. To view public meeting agendas, participate in-person or remotely, or watch select meetings via live stream visit douglas.co.us and search for Meetings and Agendas.

Do you have...

Mysterious insects? Trees in trouble? A need for gardening advice?

CSU Extension is here for you. We provide answers and education. For more information call 720-733-6930 or visit https://douglas.extension.colostate.edu

D istrict fi nancial chief leaving over frustrations with school board

BY JESSICA GIBBS JGIBBS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Records show the Douglas County Schools chief fi nancial offi cer is the second high-ranking offi cial to resign out of frustration with the new school board majority’s actions.

Kate Kotaska, the chief fi nancial offi cer for Douglas County Schools, will be leaving her cabinet position in June, just shy of two years with the district.

Kotaska formally notifi ed Superintendent Erin Kane of her decision on April 5. Colorado Community Media obtained her resignation letter in a public records request.

The fi nancial chief wrote in her resignation letter that the district “quickly felt like home, and my team like family,” when she joined DCSD in July 2020. She also believes she and other district employees “have made a difference” in the district, she wrote.

“When the decision was made to terminate former Superintendent Wise, I began to question whether I’d continue to have the ability to make a difference. I began to question whether my values, that center deeply

WILDFIRE

FROM PAGE 1

Alexander spoke about the specific risks faced by Douglas County.

“Wildfire is the number one natural hazard in Douglas County,” he said. “More than 80% of our residents in Douglas County live within some measure of wildland urban interface risk.”

The county has seen a more than 60% increase in the 5-year average of fire occurrence since the period from 2006 to 2010, Alexander said.

Alexander said they expect that increase to continue unless there is a drastic change in the climate or residents’ personal habits.

“Current predictions for the year, for this coming summer and fire season into next winter are predicting warmer and drier than average local conditions,” said Mike Alexander with the Office of Emergency Management. “We are currently facing a fair amount of risk within the county.”

The exclusive-use contract, which parks a 300-gallon-tank helicopter in the county to respond to wildfires, is for about $1 million. Three other contracts for call-when-needed aerial support from April 13 to Dec. 21 were approved for about $300,000 altogether.

Alexander included that the median sale price of single-family homes in Douglas County was $706,000 in February this year.

The commissioners unanimously approved the contract and spoke in support of the effort to mitigate wildfires.

“When you think about the very small investment that we make into aerial support, we are getting a remarkable return on investment,” Commissioner Abe Laydon said.

This is the largest-ever investment in wildfire aerial support in the county’s history, according to a news release from the county.

“There is no more effective way to suppress a wildfire, save lives and protect property than with the combination of aerial resources working in direct support of ground firefighters,” said Alexander, who has 22 years of experience fighting wildfires.

The county also provides resources to help residents mitigate wildfire risk on their property by removing weeds and vegetation. More information is available at douglas.co.us/wildfire-mitigation.

Residents can sign up for phone call emergency notifications by visiting douglas.co.us/ codered.

rado’s North Front Range ozone problem to “severe” from “serious,” a long-expected move that SEE FRUSTRATED, P7 requires state and local officials to take stronger runs at cutting the health-damaging pollution. tions would require the State of Colorado to apply more stringent air quality measures to sources across the area,” an EPA release said, in announcing the proposed change after months of pressure from environmental advocates who said the deadlines to do so had already come and gone. sification, these requirements include the use of reformulated gasoline in summer months and a reduction of the threshold requiring control measures on emissions sources from 50 tons per year to 25 tons per year,” the EPA said. will be published on April 12, Colorado officials said the pending EPA downgrade will require hundreds of companies to get emission permits from a state system already critically backlogged. State health officials say their steep budget request is designed to clear the jam and improve the air. be required for 473 more sources of pollution that contribute to ozone, as the threshold drops from 50 tons of covered pollutants a year to include all those emitting 25 tons or more, Air Pollution Control Director Michael Ogletree said. That new

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EPA downgrades Colorado’s ozone problem to ‘severe’

Will force more cuts to pollution

BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

The EPA has downgraded Colorado’s North Front Range ozone problem to “severe” from “serious,” a long-expected move that requires state and local officials to take stronger runs at cutting the health-damaging pollution.

“The proposed reclassifications would require the State of Colorado to apply more stringent air quality measures to sources across the area,” an EPA release said, in announcing the proposed change after months of pressure from environmental advocates who said the deadlines to do so had already come and gone.

“Under the ‘severe’ reclassification, these requirements include the use of reformulated gasoline in summer months and a reduction of the threshold requiring control measures on emissions sources from 50 tons per year to 25 tons per year,” the EPA said.

In a previous interview that will be published on April 12, Colorado officials said the pending EPA downgrade will require hundreds of companies to get emission permits from a state system already critically backlogged. State health officials say their steep budget request is designed to clear the jam and improve the air.

It will mean state permits will be required for 473 more sources of pollution that contribute to ozone, as the threshold drops from 50 tons of covered pollutants a year to include all those emitting 25 tons or more, Air Pollution Control Director Michael Ogletree said. That new

work will run headlong into a state health permitting system already assailed by courts and environmental groups as years behind, potentially endangering the health of more Coloradans living in highly polluted areas. One set of permits at a key polluter, the Suncor Energy refinery in Commerce City, whether my values, that center deeply expired in 2012, and another in 2018, with a state court judge in January ordering Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment officials to finish renewing the permits “without delay.” When the state did issue a revised permit that it said put important new restrictions on Suncor, the regional EPA office sent the proposed permit back for tougher revisions in March. “Our pollution control division is really at a transition point,” CDPHE Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan said in an interview. “It’s been under-resourced for two decades. We’re changing the way that we fund it. And I’m on a mission to really modernize and rightsize it to meet today’s air quality demands.” EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker said, “Ground-level ozone remains one of the most challenging public health concerns we face, affecting large numbers of Coloradans and their families.” The reclassification “will make sure we are leveraging all available measures and resources as we move forward to reduce ozone pollution” with the state and other partners, she said.

This story is from The Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support The Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com. The Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media.