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May 15, 2014 Elbert County, Colorado | Volume 119, Issue 15 A publication of
elbertcountynews.net
Felony DUI bill defeated Measure would have created stiffer drunken-driving penalties in state By Vic Vela
vvela@coloradocommunitymedia.com
Elizabeth Fire Chief TJ Steck, serving as an incident commander, goes over plans during a briefing at the Douglas County Fairgrounds as part of an interagency wildfire drill on May 3. Photo by Hannah Garcia
Local agencies prep for real thing Elizabeth fire chief serves as an incident commander By Hannah Garcia
hgarcia@coloradocommunitymedia.com Although some may have been startled to see Humvees and police cruisers crawling around Happy Canyon in Douglas County on May 3, it was only a mock wildfire drill that had public safety officials converging on the subdivision. Crews were dispatched to evacuate and protect homes in the Happy Canyon area, where the mock fire ensued. National Guard officials set up roadblocks and checkpoints while trying to corral participating residents to the evacuation center,
which was located at the Douglas County Justice Center. The interagency drill included officials from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the Colorado National Guard and various fire agencies, including Elizabeth Fire Rescue, in the area and ran from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The drill simulated a wildland fire, giving agencies a chance to practice command and control, communications and support functions. Citizens were notified before the drill and invited to participate in the simulated evacuation. The agencies set up a command post at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. Lt. Col. Mitchell Utterback said the National Guard has had “a lot of practice” over the last four years with wildfires like Black Forest and Waldo Canyon.
“The goal is always to save lives, then mitigate,” Utterback said. “And we’ve been practicing our asses off.” Elizabeth Fire Chief T.J. Steck, who serves as an incident commander for a multi-agency task force made up of officials from Douglas and Elbert counties, said the drill is just as much about cohesion as it is about training officers and firefighters. “It’s different now. It used to be really important so that responders knew their job, but as we break down our fences and start working with our partners at National Guard, our partners in other counties (and) statewide, we all have to work together,” Steck said. “So it’s become even Drill continues on Page 14
Health providers tackle toll of mental illness Untreated: How ignoring mental illness costs us all (Part 1 of 3) By Kristin Jones and Burt Hubbard Rocky Mountain PBS I-News
Call them frequent flyers. Or superutilizers. Or loyal customers. In hospitals across the country, they’re known to doctors and nurses as the people who come back time and again for care. They make up a very small percentage of patients, but they rack up an inordinate share of medical expenses, often preventable. Among Colorado Medicaid enrollees, they spend an average of around eight times as much as their peers. POSTAL ADDRESS
found is that it’s impossible to treat the most expensive customers of emergency rooms and other hospital services without addressing mental health. “You can’t improve the overall health if you’re not treating the whole person,” says Dr. Angela Green, who co-directs an Aurora-based project called Bridges to Care. Health-care costs, many of them preventable, rank among the highest indirect impacts of mental illness, an analysis by And many of them — nearly three- Rocky Mountain PBS I-News has found. quarters, by an Aurora study’s recent Medical expenses associated with count — have a mental illness. mental illness reached an estimated $2 It makes intuitive sense, and research billion in Colorado in 2013, according to confirms it: A troubled mind can take a 2005 figures from the federal Substance toll on the body, and vice versa. Abuse and Mental Health Services AdThis simple fact is leading medical ministration, updated for growth and inprofessionals and health officials in Colo- flation. rado to rethink how to curb high costs in Lost wages cost even more. Workers the health-care system. What they have with mental disorders earn $16,000 less per person per year, according to a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. I-News estimates Colorado’s share of these lost wages at $2.9 billion. The costs keep piling up: $425 milPrinted on recycled newsprint. lion for disability pay in 2012, according Please recycle this copy. to the Social Security Administration; $62 million in state education spending for children with emotional disorders in 2012; $44.7 million to hold inmates with Mental continues on Page 6
An effort that dies every year suffered another death this Legislative session as a Senate committee on May 6 killed a bill that sought to create a felony drunkendriving penalty in Colorado. The bill would have made a person’s third DUI in seven years or fourth in a lifetime a felony punishable with possible prison time. But the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 6 put an end to the bill, which would have resulted in millions of dollars in costs for having to incarcerate more offenders. But that’s a cost worth paying for a safer society, said Republican bill sponsors who blasted Senate Democrats who killed the legislation. “The health and traveling safety is at risk from people who consistently drive under the influence Report of alcohol,” said Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction. “They do have a problem and they’ve gone through treatment and they continue to drive because it’s easy for them. “At what point does justice outweigh treatment?” The bill had previously passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support. But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Pat Steadman, D-Denver, said the bill would have resulted in an enormous cost to the state. The bill wouldn’t have cost anything for the 2014-15 fiscal year, but state expenditures over the next three years would have combined for about $20.7 million, according to an updated Legislative Council fiscal analysis. But Rep. Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, the bill’s House sponsor, said the state is in much better economic shape than it has been in recent years. That led him to wonder, “If we’re not going to prioritize it this year, with this budget, when are we going to prioritize it? “There is money in the budget to make this happen and we’re never going to have a better circumstance than what we have today to make this happen,” Waller said. Both Waller and King have tried for several years to make a felony DUI law a reality in Colorado. The bill has failed each time. Colorado is one of only a handful of states that does not have a felony DUI law. Senate President Morgan Carroll, DAurora, said she wasn’t opposed to the bill, but understood why it failed. For one thing, Carroll said the bill would have resulted in $15 million in state costs for prison beds alone. “It might make us feel better, but if you have $15 million to either put in treatment for alcohol abuse or $15 million in prison
Capitol
DUI continues on Page 14