Denver Herald Dispatch 1129

Page 1

FREE

November 29, 2018

DENVER

Castle Rock Home & Holiday Show Saturday, December 8th 10am – 5pm Sunday, December 9th 11am – 4pm

Since 1926

DENVER, COLORADO

A publication of

See ad inside for details!

Denver budget spans broad range of goals $2.4 billion spending plan has priorities around making city more livable BY DAVID SACHS DENVERITE.COM

in 1984. But by then, the site had caught the attention of the EPA. Many people were drawn to the issue when parts of Shattuck, like the smokestack, began to be torn down. “They just demolished it and all kinds of radioactive dust went everywhere,” Orr said.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Denver is focused on housing, homelessness and transportation. Now stop me if you’ve heard this before: Denver still has serious problems with housing, homelessness and transportation. The Denver City Council unanimously passed Mayor Michael Hancock’s 2019 budget earlier this month with those priorities in mind, plus new funding for mental health services, public safety and an office to streamline partnerships with the private sector. It’s a $2.4 billion spending plan, a 3 percent increase over 2018. And it’s not enough. But lawmakers say it’s not really controversial, either. The gap of 30,000 or so in affordable homes won’t be filled next year. A substantial shift in trips from driving solo to walking, biking and transit, which is all a part of the mayor’s goals, probably won’t happen. But that’s the nature of the budget, Councilman Paul Kashmann said in an interview. It’s incremental.

SEE RESIDENTS, P4

SEE BUDGET, P7

The Encore at Evans Station development is being constructed on the former site of the Shattuck Chemical Company. Fonda Apostolopoulos, the project manager for the site with the state Department of Public Health and Environment, called the redevelopment “a great success story.” KAILYN LAMB

‘It was a big chunk of our lives’ Long after chemical waste was removed from Overland, residents still feel its impact BY KAILYN LAMB KLAMB@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

M

ore than 30 years ago, Helene Orr was spending every second of spare time reading documents on chemical waste. Often she would be up until 2 or 3 in the morning trying to make sense of legal papers dealing with the Shattuck Chemical Company — which planned, along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to leave nearly 6 acres of unsafe waste near her home in Overland Park.

TO LEARN MORE The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a list of documents and information regarding the Denver Radium Superfund sites, which included the former Shattuck Chemical Company location at 1805 S. Bannock St. To lear more information about the history of the site, as well as the cleanup process, visit https://bit.ly/2OenzlY. The EPA also has a website dedicated to Superfund sites and more information about what they are and how the sites are cleaned. To learn more about Superfunds, visit https://www. epa.gov/superfund/learn-about-superfund. Before the boom of Denver brought new developments to the southern part of the city, residents of Overland Park were fighting a battle to remove decades’ worth of chemical waste from their quiet neighborhood. Over the years Shattuck Chemical had worked with several materials in its factory nearby — leaving behind waste from lead, radium, uranium and more — before being shut down

PERIODICAL

DID YOU KNOW INSIDE

The average American shopper will spend about $638 on gifts this holiday season. Source: National Retail Federation

VOICES: PAGE 8 | LIFE: PAGE 10 | CALENDAR: PAGE 6 VOLUME 92 | ISSUE 4


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.