Elbert county news 0905

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Elbert Co 9-5-2013

Elbert County

September 5, 2013

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Elbert County, Colorado • Volume 118, Issue 32

County eyes 911 surcharge increase Emergency dispatch rates expected to increase threefold

By Deborah Grigsby

dgrigsby@ourcoloradonews.com

Elbert County Coalition for Outreach Director Pam Witucki shows off just a small portion of the “jazzed up” junk that will be up for auction at the fifth Annual Jazz Up Our Junk event, which will be held on Sept. 14 at the Casey Jones Park Pavilion in Elizabeth. Photo by Deborah Grigsby

Jazzy junk set for charity auction Annual fundraiser aids families, community

By Deborah Grigsby

dgrigsby@ourcoloradonews.com It’s easy to get jazzed about junk, especially when it helps those in need.

And that’s exactly what Elbert County Coalition for Outreach Director Pam Witucki has planned.

Now in its fifth year, the festive Jazz Up Our Junk event, set for Sept. 14 in Casey Jones Park, is a partnership that invites local artists to “jazz up” items donated to the ECCO thrift store.

Those items, once refurbished, redecorated and repurposed, are then auctioned off at a gala event, with the proceeds returned to ECCO, a local nonprofit organization that provides emergency support for families and children in need.

“This is really the one time of year that we ask the community for help,” Witucki

if you go What: Jazz Up Our Junk Where: Casey Jones Park Pavilion, 4189 Highway 86, Elizabeth

When: 5 to 9 p.m. Sept. 14 tiCketS: $10 each or two for $15 eventS: Live and silent auction; wine and cheese

tasting

DetailS: Cash or check only; proxy bidding permit-

ted

More inforMation: Call 303-621-2599 or go online to www.myecco.org said. “Most of the time we are out and about helping others and connecting resources, but in order to do that, we do need to raise funds, and this is a fun way to do it.”

Witucki said the silent auction usually has approximately 25 refurbished items up for bid, along with more than 40 items do-

nated by the community.

Along with the auction, the $10 ticket price includes a wine and cheese tasting, featuring a local vintner, as well as a selection of goat cheeses produced by members of 4-H. Guitarist George Whitesell will provide live music throughout the evening.

“This year we’ve got some really interesting items up for bid,” Witucki said. “Along with a chair and table made out of old suitcases, we’ve also got several prints by Bev Doolittle.”

All proceeds from the event will be returned to ECCO to support its outreach programs, which include emergency funding for housing, transportation, medical needs, clothing and food. ECCO also assists families and individuals with job search and budgeting skills.

“We just really want the community to come out and get to know us and what we do,” Witucki concluded. “And Jazz Up Our Junk is a great chance to get to that in a comfortable, country atmosphere. If nothing else, come for the wine and cheese.”

Elbert County residents may soon see a bump in their phone bills if the Public Utilities Commission approves a request to increase the 911 emergency surcharge from the current 70 cents per telephone per month to $1.20.

The Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved an Aug. 14 request from the Elbert County Communication Authority to ask for the increase because Douglas County, which provides emergency dispatch service to Elbert County, will soon start charging for use of its radio feeds.

“Essentially Douglas county is increasing its rates and the county’s share of that cost will go from $35,000 annually to $102,000 for emergency dispatch,” said District 2 Commissioner Kurt Schlegel. “This applies to every pre-paid, mobile and fixed telephone line in the county.”

ECCA picks up the remainder of the cost.

“The biggest cause for the increase is, in the past we have not been charged for traffic stops,” explained Schlegel. “Every time someone in the county dials 911, the request goes in to Douglas County’s call center, and then they dispatch emergency services to the scene.”

Elbert County has been charged for everything except for traffic stops.

According to Schlegel, each time a vehicle is stopped, a radio transmission must be sent back t0 verify the background of the vehicle or its occupants.

That radio call costs approximately $27, but will increase after the first of the year.

Although Schlegel said the county is currently in negotiations with Douglas County, 911 continues on Page 8

Rural road deaths reflect limits on assistance Sparse services tied to high fatality rates

By Kevin Vaughan

I-News at Rocky Mountain PBS A car swerves across the centerline and slams into you head-on in a sickening thud, a spray of glass, an exploding air bag.

You’re alive, but you’re hurt and you need help — fast. Someone calls 911. Who comes to render aid, how much training and experience they have, and even how long it takes

them to arrive will vary drastically, depending on where you are in Colorado.

So will your chances of living or dying.

That’s because in emergency medicine, minutes matter. And Colorado is a state with 82 percent of its 5.2 million people concentrated along the Front Range from Fort Collins to Pueblo. It’s also a state with vast sweeps of rural land, including three of the nation’s 15 least-populous counties.

Those realities have spawned a patchRoad continues on Page 7

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Volunteer firefighter and paramedic Matt Araki leads his horses “Cat” and “Cash” to the arena at Aspen Park’s Squair Deal Riding Center as he waits for an emergency call Aug. 26. About 50 firefighters make up the all-volunteer InterCanyon Fire Protection District that averages one call per day in this 55-square-mile section of mountainous and heavily forested land in Jefferson County. Photo by I-News at Rocky Mountain PBS

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2 Elbert County News

September 5, 2013

Display puts hunger in the picture The 22 8-by-10-inch photographs are simply set in a display case in the airy lobby of the Denver Public Library’s central branch. On an early Saturday afternoon, men and women, old and young, stroll by on the marble floors. A few glance at the images — portrayals of lives lived with hunger — but so far today no one stops.

Most never see the stories just beyond the glass, much the way many never see the hunger hidden among us every day.

“It’s something I hear a lot since I’ve been talking to people about poverty — `You’re not the average homeless person; you’re not the average hungry person,’” says Caroline Pooler, 53, who came to know hunger and homelessness after losing her job two years ago. Three of the photographs in the case are hers. “There really is no average hungry or homeless person. They can be someone who’s working full-time and they’re not going to get lunch that day because they have to give lunch to their kids.”

Caroline and nine other women are participating in Hunger Through My Lens, an innovative project by the advocacy organization Hunger Free Colorado that gave them digital cameras to document how they see a world without consistent and healthy sustenance.

The goal is simple, project manager Lauren Flax says: Give the experts, those who know what it’s like to be hungry, a platform to voice their opinions and help shape answers to what should be a solvable issue.

“We really believe there is a solution to ending hunger,” Flax says. “Just as there are many solutions, there needs to be multiple people coming up with them. Who better than the hungry?”

The women are a diverse group. They are Latino, African-American and white, ranging in age from 22 to late 60s. They are mothers and grandmothers in Jefferson and Adams counties, Denver and Aurora.

Some have lived in systemic poverty since they were children. Some live an “average, normal, middle-class life but they go

to bed hungry every night, hiding it even from their church groups,” Flax says. Some have made bad choices, either through lack of education, access to resources or circumstances.

But all share the common denominator of having experienced the isolating and desperate hunger that comes when you don’t know how or when you’ll have your next meal.

Through their photographs, they hope to provide a glimpse for others — perhaps a dawning understanding — into that world.

“It’s a way to put faces to statistics,” Flax says. “It’s easy to forget a number. It’s a lot harder to forget a face or a story.”

First, the statistics, compiled from various federal and state reports: • One in six Americans in the U.S., and nearly one in four children, are foodinsecure.

• More than 25 percent of working families in Colorado don’t have enough food to meet basic needs.

• An estimated 270,000 children in Colorado, or 22 percent of all children, live in food-insecure households.

• Colorado has the fastest-growing rate of childhood poverty in the country.

The numbers are astonishing.

And here are Caroline’s stories, told in her photographs, which she titled: • “Reverse Disparity,” a photograph of two banana clumps. One is full, fresh and smooth yellow, selling for 59 cents a pound in a grocery store in an affluent neighborhood. The other is in a smaller, privately owned grocery 30 blocks away in

a neighborhood considered a “food desert” because it has no large supermarkets offering healthy options within a mile. These three bananas are slightly bruised, for sale at 89 cents a pound.

“I’m certainly not faulting that grocer,” Caroline says. “We need that grocer in that area.” But lower quality food for higher prices is the reality.

• “Farming for Food Sustenance for the Heart.” A close-up of an orange nasturtium, taken in an urban garden in which Caroline was working.

“I really did find that while I was on my hands and knees trying to feed myself, people in suits and briefcases were looking in and wishing that was them. I am the lucky one in so many ways,” she says, “pulling my food from the ground.”

• “Ancestral Meals.” A photo of a Cambodian family’s ceremonial meal, spread out in bowls and prepared in honor of ancestors for a holiday.

“It’s an inside look at the diversity of the culture here in Denver and Colorado and how those cultural food needs must be met as well,” Caroline says.

Although Caroline began struggling when she lost her job working in a medical research office, she initially resisted applying for food stamps, turning instead to urban gardening as a way to feed herself.

She took the bottle cap- and cigarettestrewn lot of a friend and began tilling and planting the soil until it flowered into an organic garden in which she harvests tomatoes for a nearby bodega, and lettuce, squash, eggplants and green beans for herself. A nonprofit restaurant, which operates on donations, uses her produce to cook her lunch.

Local food banks also helped. But last November, one turned her and others away when it ran out of food. The memory still brings tears. “I just walked down the street and cried, more so for the thought of the moms that were turned away.”

Shortly after that, she applied for food stamps. And “it has been a blessing to go to the grocery store and really meet my

nutritional needs.”

An artist also, she considers her work with Hunger Free Colorado among her most important.

The organization offers training on how to advocate for hunger issues before local governments and agencies to those who, like Caroline, want their voices to be heard and want to make a lasting difference for others in their shoes.

In October, Caroline starts a school program she hopes will lead to a job that can provide her with the stability to provide not only for herself, but also for her 24-year-old son, who despite his job still finds himself hungry at times.

“I would like to buy groceries every two weeks and take them over to his house,” she says — just the way she used to.

Back at the exhibit at the library, a woman glances at the photographs as she walks by. She slows down, and backtracks for a closer look.

The photo of a hand-scrawled sign — “Will Work 4 Food” - caught her attention.

“It just made me want to look,” Susan Wolinsky, 71, a retired lawyer, says. “I just think it’s pretty sad that in this country people don’t have enough to eat … People who have full stomachs have a better chance of being productive citizens and of helping others.”

She was surprised to find out she was one of only two passersby in an hour who had studied the exhibit, which will travel to four Adams County libraries, the 16th Street Mall in Denver and Hunger Free Colorado’s Oct. 1 Hunger Summit.

“It’s too bad,” Wolinsky says, “that some of the photographs aren’t on billboards towering over the city so that people have no choice but to look at them.”

Indeed. That would put big faces on the big numbers that are hunger in Colorado.

Ann Macari Healey’s column about people, places and issues of everyday life appears every other week. She can be reached at ahealey@ourcoloradonews. com or 303-566-4110.

Your Colorado news Colorado Community Media connects readers to 19 local communities: Castle Rock, Douglas County, Parker, Elbert County, Lone Tree, Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Englewood, Centennial, Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Golden, Northglenn, Thornton, Westminster, Teller County, Pikes Peak and Tri-Lakes. To find out more about our communities visit www.ourColoradonews.com the online home of Colorado Community Media.

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Elbert County News 3

September 5, 2013

Black Forest Together gaining momentum Group recently received $15,000 grant

By Danny Summers

dsummers@ourcoloradonews.com

how Nearly three months after a devastating fire destroyed cal o, 486 homes and 5,000 acres of trees, Black Forest Together eard is stepping up its efforts to help all resident any way it can.

“We’re here to help people in need or who don’t have inor surance at all,” said Eddie Bracken, chairman of the board pro- of directors of the citizen group. “We want to help recover, an rebuild and restore the sense of community that was afe notfected by this fire.” r-old Bracken and his group have moved swiftly in their efself forts.

“Eight or nine of us got together within days after the two fire broke out and figured out a plan,” said Bracken, whose home on Milam Road was spared during the fire. “We don’t ,” have a bunch of paid people. We’re all volunteers.

“This is not a short-term project. The recovery effort will she go on for a long time.” cks

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In early August, Bracken and his group’s board of five directors set up a Community Resource Center at Black Forest Fire Station One, located on Teachout Road in the Forest.

Operating hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The telephone number is 719-495-2445. You can also check out the web site at www.blackforesttogether.org.

The resource center offers a sort of one-stop shopping.

It is modeled after Colorado Springs Together, the group that was formed after the 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire that destroyed 347 homes in the Mountain Shadows part of the city.

The board meets every other week at La Foret in the Forest. Tonight at 6:30, there will be a general public meeting at the fire station.

Black Forest Together is working with various local, county and state government agencies, as well as private and public entities. Among them are the El Paso County, La Foret, AspenPointe, Salvation Army, Tri-Lakes Care and Share, Catholic Charities, the Housing and Building Association, area churches, and the El Paso County Health Department.

Feds won’t block Colorado pot rules Justice Department memo clarifies stance

By Vic Vela

vvela@ourcoloradonews.com

as ho The federal government finally proel vided clarity on Colorado’s marijuana h laws on Aug. 29, with the Department of Justice issuing guidance saying that prosecutors will not seek to block recome reational pot use and sales here — so s long as the newly created industry ave abides by state regulations.

However, the memo does spell out the priority cases involving serious mardo. ijuana-related offenses that federal prosecutors will continue to investigate, regardless of state laws. And it life maintains that possession, cultivation and distribution of the drug will res. main a federal crime.

Still, the memo makes it clear that federal prosecutors won’t be beating down doors of most recreational pot users in Colorado any time soon.

The clarity provided by Attorney General Eric Holder’s office has been a long-time-coming for many around the state, who have sought guidance from the feds ever since Colorado voters passed Amendment 64 — the bal-

lot measure that legalized recreational pot use and sales — last year.

“This is a good thing,” said state Sen. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge.

Jahn played an instrumental role in crafting regulations associated with Amendment 64 during this year’s legislative session.

“It’s not a matter of this being something that was statuatorial,” she said. “This was citizen-driven and put into the (state) Constitution. How do you not respect that?”

The AG’s Office memo reiterates that “the federal government has traditionally relied on states and local law enforcement agencies to address marijuana activity through enforcement of their own narcotics laws.”

The memo also says that the federal government has left “lower-level or localized (marijuana) activity to state and local authorities (to deal with).”

But the guidance from the Justice Department makes it clear that federal prosecutors will continue to make marijuana enforcement determinations, depending on the seriousness of the case.

The department laid out eight “enforcement priorities” where the feds will continue to devote resources, “regardless of state law.”

They include cases where drug money goes to gangs or cartels and cases involving drug trafficking. The feds also make it clear that they do not want marijuana distributed to minors.

The guidance memo says it’s up to states that legalize the drug to ensure there are strong enforcement laws.

“The Department’s guidance in this memorandum rests on its expectation that states and local governments that have enacted laws authorizing marijuana-related conduct will implement strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems that will address the threat those state laws could pose to public safety, public health and other law enforcement interests.”

Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, who was the chairman of the legislative select committee that drafted Amendment 64 legislation this year, said that’s exactly what the Legislature accomplished this session.

“We drafted the most robust marijuana regulations in the country because public safety is our top priority,” Pabon said through a statement. “The feds’ action validates all our hard work to protect public safety, comply with the will of the people of Colorado and keep marijuana out of the hands of kids and criminals.”

ELBERT COUNTY NEWS IN A HURRY Affordable Care Act info offered

Elbert County small business owners are invited to learn about the Affordable Care Act — often called Obamacare — in weekly webinars.

The Small Business Administration and Small Business Majority are launching the Affordable Care Act 101 weekly webinar series. Small business owners can learn the basics of the Affordable Care Act and what it means for their company and employees, including insurance reform, the small business health care tax credit, the new health insurance marketplaces, and employer shared responsibility provisions. Each week, SBA representatives will walk through key pieces of the law so small business owners

can make informed decisions. The webinars take place every Thursday from Sept. 7-26, beginning at noon.

For more information, contact Chris Van Es at christopher.vanes@sba.gov.

mosphere. Vendor space is available.

For more information, visit www. coloradomarkets.net or call Chris Schade at 719-339-5229 or Gary Jones at 303-910-5021.

Fiber Fest scheduled

Car show revs up

The second annual Elizabeth Fiber Festival will be held Sept. 21-22 at Casey Jones Park, 4189 Highway 86 in Elizabeth.

The event will showcase all fiber animals, goats, sheep, rabbits, llamas and, of course, alpacas.

The event is designed to promote and educate the public about fiberproducing animals and their fleece.

There will be skirting, seminars and demonstrations in a relaxed, fun at-

The Spring Valley Golf Club, 42350 County Road 17-21 in Elizabeth, will host its fourth annual Car Show on Sept. 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Car enthusiasts are invited to bring their own cars, or just come and admire the heavy metal history. Parking for the cars will be on the grass.

There will be live music and prizes.

Registration is $5. Sunday brunch is $12.95. For more information, call 303-646-4240.

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Black Forest Together became incorporated with the State of Colorado early in its efforts. The group has applied for 501c3 status.

“That’s pending,” Bracken said. “We’ve been told we’re on an accelerated process for disaster relief organizations.”

Last week, the organization received its first big financial boost; a grant from the Pikes Peak Community Foundation for $15,000.

“That will be used to get us up and running,” Bracken said.

Bracken added that the United States Small Business Administration has been given approval to write loans up to 30 years at 1.8 percent to residents who lost their homes due to the fire. Black Forest Together has established a committee to evaluate requests for funding.

Bracken’s group is also working on plans for long-term forest midigation, clearing the forest of thousands of dead trees, and the repair septic systems and wells that were damaged by the fire.

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4 Elbert County News

September 5, 2013

Tractor Supply coming to Castle Rock Store will be located north of Oakes school

By Virginia Grantier

vgrantier@ourcoloradonews.com Tennessee-based Tractor Supply Co., which has more than 1,200 stores in 46 states, picked Castle Rock for its first Colorado store, and in early August began grading the five-acre site for a store of about 22,000 square feet.

“It’s exciting to be moving dirt and getting under construction in Castle Rock,” said Ray Hix, founder of Hix Snedeker Companies. The Alabama firm owns the property, is developing the site, and then will lease the space to Tractor Supply Co. There won’t be any tractors, however.

Tractor Supply Co., which started in the 1930s as a mail-order tractor-parts business

‘Life is pretty simple: Say what you’re going to do and exceed expectations.’

Ray Hix, developer

in Chicago, has since phased out its tractor supply, Hix said.

“They sell all the stuff that goes with the lifestyle … of a hobby farmer,” he said.

Hix said the site at 959 Plum Creek Blvd. is great, across the street from the Douglas County Fairgrounds, which is a landmark easy to describe to people.

And the type of customer that needs what Tractor Supply sells is “well-represented in the area.”

“We thought this would be a good market to have the store,” said Hix, who has developed Tractor Supply Co. stores across the country.

Hix said animal feed is probably the store’s top product as well as “various things for small farms.” His last visit to a Tractor Supply store was to buy a hand truck and trailer jack.

“It has a little bit of everything,” Hix said.

He added that customers appreciate the ability to get out of the store faster than in visits to big-box supply stores.

The site, which is in the southwest corner of the intersection of Plum Creek Boulevard and Plum Creek Parkway, is also just north of Daniel C. Oakes High School. He said the lot will be fenced and screened.

Hix said Tractor Supply, which is typically the second-best-performing stock on NASDAQ, second only to Apple, is a wellrun, conservative company that caters to

Tractor Supply Co., which has stores in 46 states, has picked Castle Rock for its first store in Colorado. Grading began in August on the five-acre site located just north of Daniel C. Oakes High School, which is pictured in the background.

Photo by Virginia Grantier customers’ needs. “Life is pretty simple: Say what you’re going to do and exceed expectations,” he said.

Denver Metro CU Alumni Partner with Tilted Kilt for Watch Parties A partnership intended to build camaraderie amongst Buffs in the Denver Metro area.

In the true spirit of building Remarkable Relationships, the Denver Metro CU Alumni Chapter has partnered with the Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery in Greenwood Village for the upcoming football and basketball seasons. Watch parties will begin one hour prior to game start time and seating is on a first come, first serve basis. There will be door prizes and CU swag, as well as some fun surprises.

Guests will enjoy a custom menu, created especially for Buff fans. Any money raised from these events will benefit the CU Boulder Scholarship Fund for Denver area students.

CU selected the Tilted Kilt after meeting with Owners Lisa and Mark Voss. This husband and wife team is wholeheartedly committed to offering CU Alumni top notch customer service.

Tilted Kilt will offer Buffs an exclusive menu, signature cocktails, premium seating, swag, a great view of HD TV’s throughout the venue, discounts and

more. Also available to CU Alumni at the Tilted Kilt is the “Buff Brew Mug.” This mug is personalized and offers a 10% discount on beer. Mugs will be showcased in a permanent display in the restaurant.

“I’ve been a part of the CU Boulder Alumni Association since I graduated in 1983”, said Kimbirly Orr, Board Chair of the Denver Metro CU Alumni Chapter.

“Meeting Lisa and Mark Voss, owners of the Tilted Kilt, has taken partnership with a venue to a new level for our chapter. Their commitment to CU Alumni, our Scholarship Foundation and our local CU sports watch party events is unprecedented for our chapter. We welcome all CU Alumni, family and guests to join us to cheer in CU Athletics throughout the year. You never know who you will meet at a CU Alumni event!”

“We are tremendously excited about this partnership and look forward to serving the Denver area CU alumni!” said Lisa Voss.

by 2015, executive vice president Phil Fasano said.

“South Denver is thrilled to welcome Kaiser Permanente and its new IT center to our business community,” South Metro Denver Chamber President & CEO John Brackney said.

The Kaiser Permanente IT center is located at 6560 Greenwood Plaza Blvd.

“There is an increased demand for IT solutions and support to deliver quality patient care,” Fasano said.

“This new IT location is a center of excellence where best in class employees

Calendar of Events For a complete calendar of South Metro Denver Chamber events or more information, visit our web site at www.bestchamber.com or call 303-795-0142.

Thursday, September 5th Healthcare Policy Taskforce The Chamber Center, 2154 E. Commons Ave., Suite 342, Centennial Tailgate Party hosted by Century Cancer Centers 5275 DTC Parkway, Greenwood Village

2013 University of Colorado Football Schedule: *-watch party Aug. 31 vs. Colorado State* Sept. 7 vs. Central Arkansas Sept. 14 vs. Fresno State Sept. 21 bye Sept. 28 at Oregon State* Oct. 5 vs. Oregon Oct. 12 at Arizona State* Oct. 19 bye Oct. 26 Arizona (homecoming) Nov. 2 at UCLA* Nov. 9 at Washington* Nov. 16 vs. Cal Nov. 23 vs. Southern Cal Nov. 30 at Utah*

Kaiser Permanente Opens IT Center in Greenwood Village The South Metro Denver Chamber joined Kaiser Permanente executives to celebrate the grand opening of Kaiser’s new information technology center in Greenwood Village.

The health care provider is employing 350 workers at the new technology center and is expected to hire an additional 95 people by the end of the year. Officials expect to have about 700 employees when the center is completely filled out

Construction time for this store, which will employ about 20 people, will take about six months, it’s estimated.

use technology to ensure the delivery of high-quality, affordable health care to Kaiser Permanente members living in Colorado and across the country.”

Kaiser Permanent is one of the largest private employers in the state with more than 6,000 employees in Colorado.

Later this year, the health care provider will open a multi-specialty clinic in Lone Tree and hire an additional 130 positions there.

As Kaiser Permanente continues to add new membership in Colorado, it’s estimated that hundreds of additional jobs could be created in the state in the next three to five years.

“We are pleased to provide a sustained boost to Colorado’s economy,” said Donna Lynne, president of Kaiser Permanente Colorado.

Officials from the City of Littleton, Littleton Public Schools and The South Metro Denver Chamber cut the ceremonial ribbon officially opening the new location of The Littleton Preparatory Charter School at 5301 S. Bannock Street. The school offers an academically rigorous curriculum, direct instruction, positive discipline and a precision placement system. www.littletonprep. littletonpublicschools.net

FastTracks New Investor Orientation The Chamber Center, 2154 E. Commons Ave., Suite 342, Centennial Grand Opening Celebration for DSW Shoes 8055 W. Bowles Ave., Littleton

Friday, September 6th BLRG: Meet Cathy Noon, Centennial Mayoral Candidate The Chamber Center, 2154 E. Commons Ave., Suite 342, Centennial

Saturday, September 7th Fashion Fabulous at Park Meadows Retail Resort 8401 Park Meadows Center Drive, Lone Tree

Tuesday, September 10th Business Bible Study The Chamber Center, 2154 E. Commons Ave., Suite 342, Centennial The Impact of Colorado’s Water Scarcity: A Panel Discussion The Chamber Center, 2154 E. Commons Ave., Suite 342, Centennial Business After Hours hosted by the Marriott DTC 4900 S. Syracuse St., Denver

Wednesday, September 11th Business Watch Seminar with Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office The Chamber Center, 2154 E. Commons Ave., Suite 342, Centennial Meet Centennial City Council Candidate Doris Truhlar The Chamber Center, 2154 E. Commons Ave., Suite 342, Centennial Professional Development Seminar: Maximizing Your Communications The Chamber Center, 2154 E. Commons Ave., Suite 342, Centennial

Friday, September 13th Economic Development Group Monthly Investor Meeting The Chamber Center, 2154 E. Commons Ave., Suite 342, Centennial Colorado Center for the Blind Celebrates 25 Years 2233 W. Sheppard Ave., Littleton Greater Littleton Youth Initiative The Chamber Center, 2154 E. Commons Ave., Suite 342, Centennial

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Elbert County News 5

September 5, 2013

Preemie study sparks debate over research Parents wish they had been informed of risk

By Lauran Neergaard Associated Press

Dagen Pratt’s parents enrolled their tiny premature baby in a study of oxygen treatment believing she’d get the best possible care. They didn’t understand it was an experiment to test what dose works best. No one mentioned any risks.

Now 6, Dagen struggles with cerebral palsy, and they wonder: Is that long-ago study to blame?

“Tell me that the Support study did not hurt Dagen in any way,” her father, Shawn Pratt, challenged a government panel on Aug. 28 as his daughter, dressed in a bright sundress, stood quietly by.

A major controversy has erupted over what sounds like a straightforward question: How much should patients be told about the potential risks before they’re enrolled in certain kinds of medical research?

The issue isn’t about how to study a brand-new, unapproved therapy. All sides agree that those studies must fully inform participants that there’s no guarantee the hichexperiment will work, or even be safe. bout Instead, the debate is about one of modern medicine’s dirty little secrets: Doctors frequently prescribe one treatment over another without any evidence to know which option works best. There’s no requirement

that they tell their patients when they’re essentially making an educated guess, or that they detail the pros and cons of each choice.

Researchers are supposed to outline all the risks when they study which commonly used option is best. But could that mislead patients into thinking research is riskier than their own doctor’s best guess?

Federal health officials put that question to the public Aug. 28, as they debate how strictly to regulate this type of research — a debate sparked by that study of premature babies who included Dagen Pratt of Kingwood, W.Va.

Serious health dangers

The tiniest preemies face serious risks, including death and disabilities.

Oxygen has been a mainstay of treating them, but doctors didn’t know just how much to use. Too much causes a kind of blindness called retinopathy of prematurity. Too little can cause neurologic damage, even death. So hospitals used a range of oxygen, with some doctors opting for the high end and some for the low.

The Support study, conducted between 2005 and 2009, aimed to settle which end of that range was the best dose. It randomly assigned about 1,300 preemies at 23 hospitals to a lower or higher oxygen dose. To researchers’ surprise, slightly more babies who got the lower dose died, a finding that has led to new standards for the care of preemies.

The problem: A government watchdog agency last spring ruled that researchers violated federal regulations that required them to spell out the risks of the study for parents. Nowhere in the consent forms that parents had to sign was death mentioned.

“This was a very, very important study to do,” Dr. Jerry Menikoff, head of the Office for Human Research Protections, stressed Aug. 28. “All we were asking for,” he added, “is a couple of sentences to say there were risks.”

He agreed with consumer advocates that a similar study in New Zealand phrased the issue more appropriately, saying the question is whether the lower dose “is safe and effective in reducing serious vision and lung problems without increasing mortality or neurodevelopmental disability.”

But critics, including the head of the National Institutes of Health, argued that back in 2005, doctors didn’t think the lower dose really posed a survival risk — the question was more about which dose did a goodenough job at saving their vision.

In fact, preemies who didn’t enroll in the study — and got whatever range of oxygen their doctors deemed best — turned out to have a higher risk of death, said NIH Deputy Director Kathy Hudson.

Dr. John Lantos, a bioethicist at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., knows that firsthand. His twin grandsons were born during the Support study but weren’t given an opportunity to enroll.

One died soon after birth. The other today

is thriving but suffered severe retinopathy and has poor vision.

“Nonvalidated therapy is often more dangerous than careful research,” Lantos said, adding that the consent forms should make that clear as well. “Doctors just hate to say they don’t know something. When they do say it, we should listen.”

Families share stories

While the experts debated how to explain research risks, two families who traveled to Washington for the unusual meeting outlined a bigger hurdle: Reeling from the stress of having a vulnerable preemie, they simply didn’t understand that they were participating in an experiment. And they still haven’t been told what dose of oxygen their children received, and it’s impossible to say whether lingering health problems are a consequence of the study or of being extremely premature.

Yet, they now wish they hadn’t participated.

“I unknowingly placed my son in harm’s way,” said Sharissa Cook of Attalla, Ala., who wonders if vision problems experienced by her 6-year-old, Dreshan Collins, were caused by the study or from weighing less than 2 pounds at birth. “The only thing a mother wants is for her baby to be well.”

Dagen’s mother, Carrie, was more blunt with reporters: “Why is omitting information not considered lying?” she said. “We were told they would give her the best care every day.”

THINGS TO DO Sept. 7 AnniverSAry open house. Elbert Lincoln School 42 will celebrate 100 years at an open house from 1-4 p.m.

Sept. 7.

Sept. 12 BuSineSS AFter Hours. The Elizabeth Area Chamber of Commerce presents a Business After Hours from 5-7 p.m. Sept. 12 at Running Creek Elementary in Elizabeth. Come learn how your local schools are shaping our future leaders. The public is welcome.

Contact the chamber at 303-646-4287 or director@elizabethchamber.org.

Sept. 13 GolF tournAment. The Elizabeth Area Chamber of Commerce presents the chamber golf tournament on Sept.

13 at Spring Valley Golf Club. A scramble format starts 8 a.m. Registration begins at 7 a.m. Enjoy a continental breakfast, 18 holes of golf, and a barbecue lunch.

Awards will be given out for many levels. Fun surprises at some holes this year with special awards. Contact Beverly for information 303-646-4287 or go to www.elizabethchamber.org and look under events for forms.

Sept. 14 Boot cAmp. A family fun boot camp to benefit Bright Pink, a nonprofit group focused on the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer while providing support to individuals at high risk for these diseases, is planned for 10 a.m. Sept. 14 at Lincoln Park, across from Chaparral High School in Parker. The event includes a family boot camp, fitness expo, free massages, temporary tattoos for kids, raffle prizes and music. Registration cost is $15 at 4EverBeFit.com. Free men’s bamboo tee or women’s sports bra to the first 50 registrants.

Sept. 19 A riBBon cutting and open house

at the new location for Through Your Eyes Photography, 276 E. Kiowa Ave. in Elizabeth, is from 5-7 p.m. Sept 19.

Come see Kimberly’s new studio and have some fun. For information, contact the chamber at 303-646-4287 or director@elizabethchamber.org. The public is welcome.

Sept. 30 GolF tournAment. Mark Wiebe will again host the 8th annual Adam’s

Camp charity golf tournament, presented by Retirement Plan and Investment Providers, to raise funds for the children, youth and families of Adam’s Camp. The tournament is on Sept. 30 at the Colorado Golf Club in Parker, home to the 2013 Solheim Cup, and 132 golfers will have the opportunity to play the exclusive course. Lunch, provided

by Noodles & Co., will begin at 11 a.m. and the tournament shotgun start will be at 12:30 p.m. Play will be followed by cocktails, dinner, live auction and prizes. Foursomes are $1,600, individual registration is $400 and limited sponsorships are available. Proceeds will support the children, youth and families of Adam’s Camp, of Centennial, which provides intensive therapy camps to children with developmental disabilities and their families as well as recreational camps for youth and young adults with disabilities. To sponsor, register or to learn more, visit www.adamscamp. org, call 303-563-8290 or email sarah@ adamscamp.org.

ridgegate.com

throuGh SeptemBer liBrAry cArd month. September is Library Card Month, and the Elbert County Library District will show you the many ways you can use your library card. Check your account online, read a non-fiction book, check out movie DVDs, use free WiFi, the list goes on and on. There are programs to attend, book clubs and Friends of the Library groups to join and more. As an added bonus for library card holders, when you come to any Elbert County Library location in September and show your card you will be entered in a drawing for a $25 gift card. If you don’t yet have a card for the Elbert County Library District, it’s easy to get one, and there is no charge. You can get the form off of our website and bring it to any location or stop by and fill it out. It’s all here at the swipe of your card. For more information, contact your branch library, or visit the Library District’s website at www.elbertcountylibrary.org. oct. 26 hArveSt FeStivAl. The Elizabeth

Area Chamber of Commerce presents the Harvest Festival from noon to 3 p.m.

Oct. 26 on Main Street in Elizabeth.

Food, music, games and more. Spend an afternoon in Elizabeth for a safe Halloween by coming for trick-or-treat street throughout the town and enjoying games, vendors, food, and more on Main Street. Visit www.elizabethchamber.org.

A more natural approach to new urbanism.

It’s so refreshing to be connected to Denver, but have your own urban oasis outside of the chaos. This is the mixed-use sustainable community of RidgeGate.

Light rail for an easy commute. Bikeable and walkable paths. Oh yeah, and 1,000 acres of preserved natural open space for your backyard. Come check out the homes. The shops. And the wildlife. Just south of Lincoln Avenue in Lone Tree.

6-Opinion-Color

6 Elbert County News

September 5, 2013

OPINIONS / YOURS AND OURS

Don’t let gum stick it to you I would venture to guess that at one time or another, all of us have either stepped on a piece of gum, or if we haven’t been so fortunate yet, will certainly step on a piece at some point in our lives.

You know the kind I am talking about, right? It’s a hot day, someone has carelessly spit out a piece of chewing gum, the heat of the sidewalk or asphalt has baked it into a soft or even liquid-like substance, and then we are blessed enough to step right on it.

We immediately know when it happens, too. We feel it, we look down at the strands that are partially stuck to our shoe and yet still connected to the ground behind us. We let out a sigh as we crinkle our nose, scowl at the mess, and maybe even utter a four-letter word or two.

How about the other things that are keeping our feet stuck in one spot and that make us snarl with angst as they slow us down on what we really and truly want to pursue? What kind of chewing gum is

holding us back, holding you back? Is it a lack of a certain skill or knowledge? Is there a tainted experience or memory that has jaded our hope and inspiration for following through on our goals and dreams? What is causing us to look back or look down at the lack of achievement or missed opportunities?

If you are like me, you also really hate gum on the bottom of your shoe. It’s not just the sticky strands and wondering whose mouth germs are under our feet, but it’s also about how we are going to

clean that mess up.

Here is the better question, “How will we clean up the mess under our feet that is holding us back from everything that we want to be, do, or have?” What has to be untangled and scraped away so that we are free to increase our stride and move with the purpose and passion we once enjoyed?

The tricky thing is that when we step on a piece of liquefied gum we immediately know it, but when we are stuck in other areas of our lives we either choose to ignore it or we just do not recognize what is keeping us on the periphery of moving up or ahead or maybe even greatness.

A good first step is to list all of the things that we want to have in our lives or give of ourselves. Then next to each one list all the potential barriers, all the possible pieces of chewing gum that could take us away from our mission. Are they real-world barriers or just things and

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Will the Broncos reach Super Bowl?

With the NFL regular season getting underway, we asked area residents visit-

ing Lone Tree for their take on the Broncos’ odds of reaching the Super Bowl this year.

“They’re kind of hurting with some of the players that are injured and out with other issues, but I think we’ve got a really great chance of at least making the playoffs and possibly going to the Super Bowl.”

— Charlie O’Neal, Denver

“With Peyton Manning and the receiving corps they have, I think they’re going to have a great chance of making it to the Super Bowl. Without Von Miller for the first six games, it’s going to be tough …”

— Joel Monroe, Lakewood

“I think they have a decent chance, but with that whole (Von) Miller thing going on, he’s not going to be there half of the season.

They have a good chance, but I don’t think they’re going to blow it out of the water.”

— Michelle Campbell, Denver

“I don’t know anything about football, but I think they’ve got a 50 percent chance. That’s based on nothing. … No, I don’t think they’re going to go to the Super Bowl.”

— Julie Schmidt, Colorado Springs

Whenever something goes haywire in the Middle East, I write a column about food. In other words, about every two weeks. It takes my mind away from it for at least a couple of hours.

“Imported from your childhood” is what it says on a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese. When I was in college I probably ate five boxes of it every week. Now? Practically never. But I still eat a lot of macaroni and cheese, mostly because of Jennifer.

When I was eating Kraft, I could buy five boxes for a dollar. Now it’s a dollar each, unless you’re a member of a food club, which I am not. But it is still priced right for a college student, and it gives the illusion of providing some actual nourishment, which Top Ramen, for instance, does not.

On your behalf, I decided to do some macaroni and cheese research. It can be one of our favorite, simple meals. But not always.

You might not know that some version of macaroni and cheese has been around for centuries. There’s a pasta and cheese

Gun control won’t safeguard schools

As I dropped my son off at school this morning, I couldn’t help but think of the image President Obama tweeted last night of Tom Mauser. Tom was holding a picture of his son Daniel, who lost his life in the Columbine school shooting.

I tried to put myself in Mr. Mauser’s shoes imagining what it would be like to receive that horrible call telling me that my son wasn’t coming home from school … I couldn’t. I literally can’t imagine the pain and suffering a parent goes through in the loss of their child. Even though I can’t imagine that pain, my heart breaks for all of the parents who have lost a child in these horrible senseless acts.

As a state lawmaker, I want to ensure my son and all Colorado children have the opportunity to learn and grow free of the threat of violence in their schools. Unfortunately, gun-control laws do nothing to help us accomplish this goal. We need to remain focused on eliminating schools as soft targets, making improvements regarding mental health issues, and reducing

Elbert County News 9137 S. Ridgeline Blvd., Suite 210, Highlands Ranch, CO 80129

GERARD HEALEY President and Publisher SCOTT GILBERT Assistant Editor

recipe in a 14th-century cookbook. The first modern recipe appeared in 1769 in “The Experienced English Housekeeper.”

I have no agility in the kitchen, and besides, the sublime convenience of a microwaveable container would keep me from assembling my own version, or yours, so don’t send me any recipes.

In addition to Kraft, whose cheese powder color is very disturbing, I have sampled Michelina’s, Banquet, Stouffer’s, Lean Cuisine and Whole Foods, and here’s Marshall continues on Page 8

Michael Norton, a resident of Highlands Ranch, is the former president of the Zig Ziglar organization and CEO and founder of www.candogo.com

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

CHRIS ROTAR Editor

Mac and cheese: a six-part analysis

obstacles we imagine or make excuses for that allow us to focus on the stickiness and scraping instead of the cleaning up and forging ahead?

How about you, have you looked at the bottom of your own shoes lately? What do you see? Are they full of stringy attachments and forgotten dreams and visions, or have they been wiped clean and ready for the next journey and walk of your life?

And maybe, just maybe you have one shoe stuck and one shoe clean, straddling the middle waiting and wondering which one will win the battle of will.

Wherever you are in that part of your journey, I would love to hear all about it at gotonorton@gmail.com, and as we scrape the gum away it will definitely be a better than good week.

ERIN ADDENBROOKE Advertising Director AUDREY BROOKS Business Manager SCOTT ANDREWS Creative Services Manager SANDRA ARELLANO Circulation Director RON ‘MITCH’ MITCHELL Sales Executive

recidivism.

Even though we have seen a number of mass shootings at our schools in recent years, the crime rate continues to drop.

According to the Colorado Department of Corrections, crime is down 34 percent in the past five years. Let’s continue that trend by working together.

If we are going to be successful we need to focus on the true goal we are trying to accomplish, which is enhancing public safety.

Unfortunately, far too many people have incorrectly identified the goal as controlling the purchase and use of guns in America without any real evidence this is going to do anything to enhance public safety.

We are never going to eliminate every tragedy that is going to happen, but I know this: If we remain focused on enhancing public safety together, fewer parents will be left knowing and understanding the pain and suffering of Tom Mauser.

State Rep. Mark Waller Colorado Springs

Colorado Community Media Phone 303-566-4100 • Fax 303-566-4098

Columnists and guest commentaries The Elbert County News features a limited number of regular columnists, found on these pages and elsewhere in the paper, depending on the typical subject the columnist covers. Their opinions are not necessarily those of the Elbert County News.

Want your own chance to bring an issue to our readers’ attention, to highlight something great in our community, or just to make people laugh? Why not write a letter of 300 words or fewer. Include your full name, address and the best number to reach you by telephone.

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Calendar calendar@ourcoloradonews.com Military Notes militarynotes@ourcoloradonews.com School accomplishments, honor roll and dean’s list schoolnotes@ourcoloradonews.com Sports sports@ourcoloradonews.com Obituaries obituaries@ourcoloradonews.com To Subscribe call 303-566-4100

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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU If you would like to share your opinion, go to www.ourcoloradonews.com or write a letter to the editor of 300 words or less. Include your name, full address and the best telephone number to contact you. Please send letters to letters@ourcoloradonews.com.

7-Color

Elbert County News 7

September 5, 2013

Road Continued from Page 1

work emergency medical system where a wide disparity exists between the on-theground care you could expect along a rural highway and what you would see along the urban Front Range.

It’s a state with dead zones, where no dedicated ambulance service exists. And it’s a state where many rural communities are fighting to maintain even a basic emergency medical service.

“We struggle day in and day out,” said Sue Kern, the emergency medical system coordinator and coroner in Cheyenne County on Colorado’s eastern plains. She is also the director of nursing at Keefe Memorial Hospital in Cheyenne Wells, just 18 miles from the Kansas border.

Fewer people, higher risk

I-News examined 10 years of traffic fatality data, compiled by the Colorado Department of Transportation, and then compared it with the average population in each county over a decade — calculating a rate equal to the number of deaths per 10,000 residents in road crashes.

The five counties with the highest rate of traffic fatalities — Mineral, Cheyenne, San Juan, Kiowa and Baca — are all small, remote counties, and four of them lost population in the first decade of the 21st century.

Two of them are among the three Colorado counties with fewer than 1,000 residents. r On the flip side, the five counties with ent the lowest rate of traffic deaths — Arapa. t of hoe, Boulder, Jefferson, Douglas and Denin ver — are in the highly populated Denver rendmetro area.

A new report by the National Highway need Traffic Safety Administration found that 55 o percent of those who died in road crashes in 2011 lost their lives in rural areas, while c only 19 percent of the population lived in rural areas.

In Colorado, 51 percent of those who ns died in 2011 crashes perished on rural his roads, according to the same report.

Part of this disparity is the result of geblic ography. Part is the result of philosophy — ry emergency care is concentrated where the now most people live. And part is an outgrowth g of Colorado’s long history of “local control” ill be— where local officials figure out how best in to care for those who suffer life-threatening traumatic injuries.

Waller Also, many rural areas are served by volringsunteers whose dedication is not in question but whose training and experience may pale compared to their urban counterparts.

Response time is crucial

“If you live in urban Colorado, the response is quick,” said Randy Kuykendall, interim director of the state’s emergency medical system. “If you live in rural Colorado, it’s longer, and it’s a day-to-day struggle.”

Kuykendall acknowledged that no one from the state has tried to determine exactly which areas fall into an emergency ambulance no-man’s-land — places where there is no contracted ambulance service.

As it stands now, neighboring agencies respond into those areas.

But none of that matters when you’re injured. Minutes matter.

“The `Golden Hour’ is a real thing,” said Dr. Gregory Jurkovich, chief of surgery at Denver Health Medical Center. “The concept is valid — you have a limited amount of time before you’ve lost your opportunity to save someone’s life.”

Get hit head-on Denver’s Federal Boulevard, and you can expect that an ambulance operated by Denver Health will arrive in a matter of minutes, two highly trained paramedics on board. Get hit head-on in Poudre Canyon west of Fort Collins, and it’s likely to be a very different experience.

First, you have to find a phone in an area with no cell service, said Bill Sears, president of the board of the Poudre Canyon Fire Protection District.

“In the lower part of the canyon, a couple of our volunteers work close, in the western part of Fort Collins, and they’re close enough that they can respond into the lower canyon in about — worst case is about half an hour,” Sears said. “If you’re bleeding to death, of course, that’s no consolation. But that’s the reality of being out in the boondocks.”

The backbone of Colorado’s on-theground emergency medical system is a patchwork of ambulances operated by more than 225 individual organizations

— cities, hospitals, ambulance districts, fire districts, private companies — and the emergency medical technicians and paramedics who staff them.

Training levels differ sharply

Colorado is one of two states — California is the other — that leave it to counties to license ambulance providers. And while the work of all those different organizations is coordinated by the state through 11 regional councils, there is no statewide oversight of such benchmarks as mandated response times.

Those seriously or critically injured are treated at a system of designated trauma centers, from Level 1, where the most grievously hurt are taken, to Level 5.

But in one part of the system after another, there are dramatic differences between the available care in urban and rural areas.

All three of the state’s existing Level 1 trauma centers are in the Denver area — Denver Health Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center and St. Anthony Hospital.

And in much of rural Colorado, the wounded are likely to be treated by volunteer emergency medical technicians, who have to leave homes or jobs, respond to the garage where the ambulance is parked, and then speed to an accident scene. Those EMTs — while highly dedicated — may initially have as little as 150 to 200 hours of training. Paramedics — such as those who staff all of the Denver Health emergency ambulances — have at least 1,500 hours of training.

Privately operated medical helicopters exist, but they are largely clustered along the Front Range — and often they aren’t called until initial responders have gotten to a scene and assessed the injured.

One area where the playing field has been leveled in recent years is equipment.

Thanks to a $2 charge on each motor vehicle registration, the state has about $7.5 million a year to assist local jurisdictions as they need to update their equipment and train their members.

No requirement for service

At the same time, there is nothing in Colorado law that obligates anyone to provide emergency medical services.

“We provide advanced life support ambulance service,” said Tim Rossette, deputy chief of the Kiowa Fire Protection District in Elbert County, “but if my board decides to stop providing that service, they can do that and there’s nobody that’s required to come in and fill that void.”

The dwindling population in many rural counties makes it more difficult for local or-

ganizations to raise money from a shrinking tax base or find volunteers willing to give up hours at a time for no pay.

Dramatically changing Colorado’s system would probably require a major infusion of money — most likely through taxes or fees or a combination of the two.

One state that has built such a system is Maryland. Motorists there pay $14.50 a year in vehicle registration fees that are dedicated to the state’s emergency medical system. The fee generates roughly $55 million Road continues on Page 8

OBITUARIES

Private Party Contact: Viola Ortega 303-566-4089 obituaries@ourcoloradonews.com

Funeral Homes Visit: www.memoriams.com

8-Color

8 Elbert County News

Marshall Continued from Page 6

my report.

Kraft’s pasta is the tiniest on the market.

How the orange powder could become anything resembling a cheese sauce is one of the Three Secrets of Fatima, and I think Kraft is smart to market their product as a favorable childhood memory.

Michelina’s is absolute glop. Their marketing strategy is to claim their product is “priced better” (i.e., cheap). All I saw under

Road Continued from Page 7

a year, and it funds a fleet of seven medical helicopters based around the state and operated by the state police.

All operating expenses are covered by the vehicle registration fees, which also support the state’s EMS certification system and pay for a statewide medical communications system.

According to the same federal report, 35 percent of those who died in auto crashes in Maryland in 2011 were on rural roads.

But even people in the Colorado system question whether there’s value in dramatically increasing fund-

Castle Rock

the list of ingredients were unpronounceable words. And good luck with removing the lid. I guess you could just leave it hanging on, but if you try to tear it off, well, you won’t be able to.

Banquet is almost as frightening. But at least you can remove the film cover.

Stouffer’s is in the ballpark. The elbow macaroni is good, and they use “100% real cheddar cheese.”

Lean Cuisine is my choice when I want to make something quickly that’s tasty.

The box says “tender macaroni in a creamy cheddar cheese sauce” and “no preservatives.” Lean Cuisine doesn’t try to market

ing in rural areas for a relatively small number of calls.

In southwestern Colorado’s Hinsdale County — where the Continental Divide crosses twice — EMS director Jerry Gray said people simply have to accept that emergency response in rural Colorado is very different from that in urban Colorado.

“The reality of the situation is that up on Stony Pass you’re never going to get a response like you will in downtown Denver,” Gray said. “It’s just the nature of the beast, and people need to realize when they’re headed out into the area. People come here for the solitude and the remoteness of it, and that brings with it delayed response times.”

Kuykendall, the acting state EMS chief, said that while little can be

Highlands Ranch

1200 South Street Castle Rock, CO 80104 303.688.3047 www.fumccr.org

Services:

Saturday 5:30pm Sunday 8am, 9:15am, 10:30am Sunday School 9:15am Little Blessings Day Care www.littleblessingspdo.com

I-News is the public service journalism arm of Rocky Mountain PBS. For more information, go to inewsnetwork.org or call 303-446-4932. Senior reporter Burt Hubbard contributed to this report.

Littleton

Sunday Worship 10:30 North Crowfoot Valley Rd.  4825 Castle Rock • canyonscc.org  303-663-5751

“Loving God - Making A Difference”



A place for you



  

Open and Welcoming

Sunday Worship 8:00 am Chapel Service 9:00 & 10:30 am

Sunday School 9:00 & 10:30 am

Sunday Worship 8:00 & 10:45 a.m.

Trinity Lutheran School & ELC (Ages 3-5, Grades K-8)

 www.tlcas.org  

 

Welcome Home!

Weaving Truth and Relevance into Relationships and Life

worship Time 10:30AM sundays

303-794-2683 Preschool: 303-794-0510

9:00am Spiritual Formation Classes for all Ages 90 east orchard road littleton, co

9203 S. University Blvd.

Highlands Ranch, 80126

303 798 6387

Abiding Word Lutheran Church 8391 S. Burnley Ct., Highlands Ranch

(Next to RTD lot @470 & University)

www.gracepointcc.us

303-841-4660

LET US CELEBRATE WITH YOU Have a wedding, anniversary, engagement, birth or special occasion coming up? Share it! Colorado Community Media invites you to place an announcement to share your news. Go to ourcoloradonews.com/celebrations for package and pricing information. Deadline is 10 a.m. Tuesdays the week preceding the announcement.

Parker

pastor@awlc.org www.awlc.org

Parker Bible Study (ongoing for more than 20 years) will begin the study of Romans this September. We are a non-denominational group focusing on our love for Jesus.

To join: call Diane at (303) 841-8799 4391 E Mainstreet, Parker, CO 80134 Church Office – (303) 841-3836

www.parkerbiblechurch.org

and gain approval from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission before residents will see an increase.

ECCA is authorized to collect proceeds from the county 911 surcharge on behalf of all the public service entities that use wireless communications within the county.

Parker

Joy LUTHERAN CHURCH, ELCA

SErviCES:

Saturday 5:30pm

Sunday 8:00 & 10:30am

Education Hour: Sunday 9:15am Joyful Mission Preschool 303-841-3770 7051 East Parker Hills Ct. • Parker, CO 303-841-3739 www.joylutheran-parker.org

Parker evangelical Presbyterian church Connect – Grow – Serve

Sunday Worship

8:45 am & 10:30 am 9030 Miller road Parker, Co 80138 303-841-2125 www.pepc.org

Parker

Community Church of Religious Science Sunday services held in the historic Ruth Memorial Chapel at the Parker Mainstreet Center

...19650 E. Mainstreet, Parker 80138

New Thought...Ancient Wisdom

First Presbyterian Church of Littleton

Sunday Service

& Children’s Church 10:00 a.m.

Visit our website for details of classes & upcoming events.

303.805.9890

www.P a r k er C C R S.org

Worship Services Sundays at 9:00am

P.O. Box 2945—Parker CO 80134-2945

Sunday

8:30 a.m.

11:00 a.m.

Hilltop United Church Of Christ 10926 E. Democrat Rd. Parker, CO 10am Worship Service www.hilltopucc.org 303-841-2808

Greewood Village

Pastor David Fisher Fellowship & Worship: 9:00 am Sunday School: 10:45 am 5755 Valley Hi Drive Parker, CO 303-941-0668

www.SpiritofHopeLCMC.org

1609 W. Littleton Blvd.

(303) 798-1389 • www.fpcl.org

Trinity Lutheran Church & School

he expects the cost of dispatch services to Elbert to increase threefold, beginning in January 2014.

ECCA must now petition

Empty Nesters, Seniors, Widows Any who want to keep in the word:

303-791-3315

 Franktown

Continued from Page 1

Parker

Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.

colored, thick, sophisticated and complex.

I say this without wanting to sound like one of the judges on “Chopped.”

Macaroni and cheese is often a sideshow instead of the headliner. It goes great with barbecue and chicken wings.

Finally, I bet you didn’t know that there’s a National Macaroni and Cheese Day in the United States. Whose idea was that?

But now that you do know, next July 14, get yourself some.

Craig Marshall Smith is an artist, educator and Highlands Ranch resident.

He can be reached at craigmarshallsmith@ comcast.net

911

Where people are excited about God’s Word.

www.st-andrew-umc.com

Presbyterian Church

their macaroni and cheese as a nostalgia item or a thrifty alternative.

Way out in front in quality, and cost, is Whole Foods’ macaroni and cheese. I brought some home for Jennifer and me one night, and since then she has written poems about it.

I have to warn you: It’s $6.99 a pound.

An argument could be made that macaroni and cheese should be kept simple. I don’t agree. Whole Foods has taken something that is basically simple, and made it something profound.

The sauce doesn’t look like aqueous yellow Crayolas (see: Banquet). It is banana-

done to change geography, one thing that can change is the way people think about ambulances.

Historically, ambulance services are paid when they transport a patient.

Kuykendall said he’d like to see EMS funded the way police and fire protection are, “because what you’re really paying for with an ambulance or a fire truck is you’re paying for it to be ready to go when the public needs it, as opposed to only paying for it when it actually is in use.”

First United Methodist Church

 An Evangelical



September 5, 2013

GRACE PRESBYTERIAN

Acts 2:38

Alongside One Another On Life’s Journey

www.gracecolorado.com

You are invited to worship with us:

Sundays at 10:00 am

Grace is on the NE Corner of Santa Fe Dr. & Highlands Ranch Pkwy.

(Across from Murdochs)

303-798-8485

60 W Littleton Blvd, Unit 101 Littleton CO 80120 303 523 7332

Sunday School

(for children and adults)

9:00 am

Morning Worship Service 10:30 am Evening Worship Service 6:30 pm

Erev Rosh Hashanah - September 4, 7:00 pm First Day Rosh Hashanah - September 5, 9:30 am Second Day Rosh Hashanah - September 6, 9:30 am Kol Nidre / Erev Yom Kippur - September 13, 7:00 pm Yom Kippur - September 14, 9:30 am

Join us at Sheraton Denver Tech Center

7007 S Clinton Street in Greenwood Village, CO 80112 (right off of I25 and Arapahoe).

303-794-6643

shalom@cbsdenver.org • Like us on Facebook

Breakfast 8:15 am Prayer 6:00 pm

Bible Study

Prayer 5:45 pm Dinner 6:15 pm Additional Meeting Times: Friday 6:30 pm Prayer Saturday 10:30 am—12:00 noon Open Church (Fellowship/Canvassing)

7:00 pm

To advertise your place of worship in this section, call 303-566-4091 or email kearhart@ourcoloradonews.com.

9-Life

South Metrolife

Elbert County News 9 September 5, 2013

Gallery displays winning art

m the lities resise. d to the e on serwirewith-

Karen Fisher, Scott Ruthven and Paul Smallwood won awards in the 2012 Plein Air Arts Festival’s Emerging Artists category, and their works are exhibited at the Byers-Evans House Gallery, 1310 Bannock St. in Denver, through Sept. 28. A free First Friday reception will be open from 5 to 9 p.m. Sept. 6, and gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.

Gallery admission is free. There is a charge to tour the mansion. Byersevanshousemuseum.org, 303-620-4933.

Artfest returns in Castle Rock More than 100 classic cars and 35 vintage aircraft helped raise awareness — and financial support — for the Morgan Adams Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving survival rates of children diagnosed with cancer. The annual Concours d’Elegance, held Aug. 24 in Centennial, attracted hundreds of patrons for an evening of fun and fundraising.

Wings, wheels fight cancer

Attendees throng to the TAC Air hangar at Centennial Airport for the 2013 Concours d’Elegance benefiting the Morgan Adams Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving survival rates of children diagnosed with cancer. Rare cars, planes and motorcycles were on hand for the festive evening.

One of the largest collections of rare automobiles and historically significant aircraft made its way to Centennial Airport on Aug. 24 for the Morgan Adams Foundation Concours d’Elegance, an annual charity auction and fundraiser for children diagnosed with cancer. More than 100 classic cars, 35 vintage aircraft and a handful of rare motorcycles served as the centerpiece for $150-per-person event. The organization works with leading physicians to directly fund pediatric cancer research and therapies to improve survival rates and reduce side effects. The foundation is named for the daughter of founders Steve Adams and Joan Slaughter. The 6-year-old girl died of brain cancer in 1998.

Photos by Deborah GriGsby

Gallery event has Western view Stories, music, poetry, art, food will be featured at gathering

By Sonya Ellingboe

sellingboe@ourcoloradonews.com Visitors are welcome at a special event planned by Hilliard Moore’s Great Western Art Gallery in downtown Denver from 5 to 9 p.m. Sept. 20, where art, storytelling, music, poetry and cowboy vittles will be presented. A percentage of sales The Great Western Art Galproceeds will lery, which represents a numbenefit the Bufber of south area artists, is falo Bill Museum located in the Brooks Tower, in Golden.

1455 Curtis St., just north of Steve Friesen, the Denver Performing Arts historian, direcCenter. Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 tor of the Buffalo p.m. Mondays to Fridays, noon Bill Museum and to 5 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays author of “Bill: by appointment. 303-396Scout, Show2787, greatwesternartgalman and Visionleryllc.com. ary,” and Carolyn Campbell, artist and author of “Soiled Doves of Colorado and the Old West,” will be among the storytellers.

The annual Colorado Artfest at Castle Rock will feature 178 juried artists on Wilcox Street, in historic downtown Castle Rock, on Sept. 7 and 8, with bands, strolling entertainers, food and children’s activities. Tickets: $5/$3/free under 12, at the gate or at Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce, 420 Jerry St. Hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sept. 7; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 8.

Ragtime in Centennial

The Ragtime Society of Colorado will present pianist Scott Kirby at 3 p.m. Sept.

8 at Forte Academy of Music, 8030 S. Holly St., Centennial. (Note that this is a new time and place.) Kirby has appeared at ragtime festivals across the nation and in Europe, and in recent years has taken up painting as well as performing, composing and teaching. He and his family recently moved to Boulder from Sandpoint, Idaho.

Tickets to the concert cost $15 for members, $20 for non-members, and may be reserved at 303-979-4353 or purchased at the door. Future concerts: Oct. 6, Frank French; Nov. 3, The Big Little Ragtime Band.

New surroundings at Swallow Hill

The Café at Swallow Hill Music, 71 E. Yale Ave., Denver, is newly renovated and will feature the Discovery Series: affordable concerts every Thursday at 7:30 p.m., starting with Matt Haslett on Sept. 5 and The Delta Sonics on Sept. 12. Tickets: $7, $5.

Swallowhillmusic.org, 303-777-1003.

Big night for Big Band

A Big Band Dance Night is planned at the Highlands Ranch Mansion, 9900 S. Ranch Road, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 13. The Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra will play. Tickets cost $25 in advance, $30 day of event if not sold out. Cash bar.

Hrcaonline.org, 303-791-0177.

Friendship Powwow returns

iF yoU Go

“The Price of Winning” by Albert Micale will be featured at “Art of the Range” on Sept. 20, an evening promoting the Buffalo Bill Museum in Golden. Photo by Picasa Singer and Western entertainer Liz Masterson will perform at the free event. She has taken her yodeling, singing, humorous stories and guitar-playing skills across the country to the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center.

She has appeared frequently at the Littleton Museum in past years.

Western art will be featured at the gallery through Oct. 25, including works by Albert Micale, who grew up in the East, drawing

cowboys and Indians since childhood, and became an established Western illustrator, although it was 1968 before he traveled west of the Mississippi. He studied history, collected books and other materials and painted from his imagination. He said he does not work from photographs.

In his “The Price of Winning,” the stars are positioned as they would be in a winter sky, according to Moore. The painting tells a sad story.

The 24th Annual Friendship Powwow and American Indian Cultural Celebration will begin at 10 a.m. Sept. 7 on the Acoma Plaza between the Denver Art Museum and Denver Public Library. The Grand Entry is at noon. Watch dancing, see artist-inresidence Marie Watt in a community sewing circle and enjoy fry bread. This is First Saturday, so museum admission is free, as is this event. Denverartmuseum.org.

Books make cents

The Arapahoe Library District’s Annual Used Book Sale will be held at Koelbel Library from Sept. 5 (9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.) through Sept. 6 and 7 (9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) and Bag Day Sunday, Sept. 8 (1 to 4:30 p.m.). Proceeds support Friends of the Library grants to the library system ($150,000 to date in 2013). 303-LIBRARY or arapahoelibraries.org.

10

10 Elbert County News

September 5, 2013

Kids toy with robotics, future Clubs lend edge to engineers, programmers of tomorrow

By Chris Michlewicz

cmichlewicz@ourcoloradonews.com Brian Dickman keeps a Commodore 64 on a shelf as a constant reminder of his computer science roots.

The antiquated machine, now out of place among the modern electronics at Deep Space Workplace & Events Center, was a crucial component to Dickman’s future as a mechanical engineering and programming whiz.

The Commodore 64 represented a fascinating world of possibilities when Dickman was 11 years old, and now he is sharing that passion with the next generation of programmers.

“I want this to be a memorable point in their development, where they look back and have a sense of accomplishment,” he says. “I want to help kids who … don’t have the resources or have not developed enough (knowledge).”

When opening Deep Space Workplace, a business that provides a co-working environment that promotes collaboration, Dickman also had an idea to create clubs based on STEAM education — or science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

The Deep Space Robotics Team, a 10-member group of boys and girls who gather each Thursday night, will spend the next three months preparing for a robotics competition for the Global LEGO League.

They are in the process of using LEGO Mindstorm sets, which enable children to assemble robots and program them to ac-

complish tasks. Dickman says his goal is to be a “team coach and mentor” who is there to watch and “guide the kids into making their own discoveries.”

On Aug. 22, the group was setting up a village and putting together the pieces of an obstacle course they will be charged with conquering. Similarly, Dickman has blocked out every Monday for the rest of the year to have robotics camps at Deep Space Workplace. He will teach a two-hour class on how to use basic programming languages to issue commands to a “Sphero” robotics ball. The camp is designed for grades 4-8; Dickman is planning a series of camps for younger children next spring.

The teams foster the collaborative spirit that Dickman hopes will catch on with co-working offices, which have gained in popularity in large cities and on college campuses. He says making sure young kids have the tools to succeed is among his main focuses.

“I’m most excited about taking someone who wants to learn and giving them as much access to new technology and new people to help them grow,” Dickman said.

Among those computer-aided engineering apprentices are Michael De La Pena, 13, and Trevor Rost, 12, who are members of the Deep Space Robotics Team. Both have an interest in LEGO robotics, and De La Pena, a Sagewood Middle School student who wants to be a computer programmer, says he wants to expand on the foundation of knowledge he already has.

Rost, who attends Parker Core Knowledge, knows he wants to go into the engineering field and took an interest in robotics two years ago. Joining the team is the

Brian Dickman, left, owner of Deep Space Workplace, instructs a 10-member robotics club at the business in the basement of the Victorian Peaks building in downtown Parker. Photo by Chris Michlewicz latest step in his learning process.

Dickman has enjoyed success as founder or executive of a string of software companies, and although his latest career choice isn’t as lucrative, he’s having fun

passing on his knowledge to those who will pursue great things in the future.

“It’s challenging, but really rewarding,” he says. “And the parents who have kids who need this are so grateful.”

Classic myths speak to today’s audiences ‘Metamorphoses’ plays at Aurora Fox Studio Theatre

if you go “Metamorphoses” runs through Sept. 22 at the Aurora Fox Studio Theatre, 9900 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora. Performances: 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets, $22 to $26: 303-739-1970, aurorafoxartscenter.org.

By Sonya Ellingboe

sellingboe@ourcoloradonews.com “Enchanting!” said a friend as we exited the Aurora Fox Studio Theatre still under a spell, while those who sat in the front row returned the ponchos they had been issued.

“Metamorphoses,” Mary Zimmerman’s beautifully crafted play based on ancient Greek and Roman mythology, is graced with an excellent cast, imaginative direction by Geoffrey Kent and an especially fine set design by Charles Dean Packard. Zimmerman had drawn on writings by Ovid and other classical and contemporary authors, including Rainier Maria Rilke.

The set, with its cleverly lit pool of blue water, is almost another character in the script, certainly important to the sounds one hears throughout. It splashes, rains, has a waterfall and is deep enough for characters to disappear underwater and exit backstage. One keeps wondering: “How did

they do that?”

The pool is surrounded by wooden columns that suggest Greek predecessors — and walls with openings where gods and men (and women) appear to present a collection of stories and characters that are part of our cultural fabric — and the source for many contemporary tales: Orpheus and Eurydice, Narcissus, Aphrodite, Erysichthon and Ceres, Phaeton, Baucis and Philemon, Eros and Psyche …

We first meet a modern King Midas (a skilled Michael Morgan, who shines throughout), who talks like self-centered billionaire seen in the news today. A god, pleased with him, offers a wish and he asks that everything he touches might turn to

Zachary Andrews and Jamie Morgan perform various parts in “Metamorphoses,” vignettes from classic mythology, by Mary Zimmerman at the Aurora Fox Studio Theatre. Courtesy photo by A&J Photography gold. Although he has been shushing his active daughter, he is heartbroken when she leaps into his arms and we all know what happens to her.

Staging of this scene and those that follow is carefully and precisely carried out,

with musical background, extraordinary lighting and sound. Every splash — and there are many — has a part in the characters’ story and elegant language.

A sense of humor is emphasized throughout by Kent’s expert direction. His experience as a classical actor is apparent.

A whiny Phaeton floats on an air mattress and complains that his dad, Apollo, God of the Sun, won’t give him the keys to the car so “he can light up the world for a day.”

A studly Narcissus appears from the wall portal and proceeds to admire his reflection until he freezes and is replaced by a plant.

While the spoken lines in “Metamorphoses” have a classical lilt, they are so clearly delivered that there is no problem in understanding them.

Throughout, Jada Roberts, who plays a nursemaid and others, serves as a sort of Greek chorus, interspersing observations as these humans and divine beings deliver vignettes. Other actors who play multiple parts include Zachary Andrews, Michelle Hurtubise, Jaimie Morgan, Carmen Vreeman, Justin Walvoord and Ryan Wuestewald.

Lovers of theater will not want to miss this fascinating production.

Curtain time

Notice To Creditors

Notice To Creditors

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS Estate of Virgil H. Hedlund, Deceased Case Number: 2013 PR 29

NOTICE TO CREDITORS Estate of Michael Conrad Kelley, aka Michael C. Kelley, Deceased Case Number: 2013 PR 30012

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Elbert County, Colorado on or before December 23, 2013 or the claims may be forever barred.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Elbert County, Colorado on or before December 30, 2013 or the claims may be forever barred.

Gary Hedlund Personal Representative 959 North Terrace Hill Drive Salt Lake City, Utah 84103

Mary Kay Kelley Personal Representative 1327 Conifer Place Elizabeth, Colorado 80107

Legal Notice No: 927750 First Publication: August 22, 2013 Last Publication: September 5, 2013 Publisher: Elbert County News

Legal Notice No: 927754 First Publication: August 29, 2013 Last Publication: September 12, 2013 Publisher: Elbert County News

“Trust Us!” Without public notices, the government wouldn’t have to say anything else.

Public notices are a community’s window into the government. From zoning regulations to local budgets, governments have used local newspapers to inform citizens of its actions as an essential part of your right to know. You know where to look, when to look and what to look for to be involved as a citizen. Local newspapers provide you with the information you need to get involved.

Notices are meant to be noticed.

Read your public notices and get involved!

Curious event

“After the Revolution” by Amy Herzog plays Sept. 5 to Oct. 19 at Curious Theatre, 1080 Acoma St., in Denver’s Golden Triangle.

Directed by Chip Walton. Performances: 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays; 2 p.m.

Sundays. (Sept. 5, 6 previews.) Tickets: $18$44, 303-623-0524, curioustheatre.org.

It’s a mystery

“Veronica’s Room” by Ira Levin (“Rosemary’s Baby”) plays Sept. 13 to Oct. 6 at Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora. Directed by Bernie Cardell. Performances: 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets: $25 ($20 advance), 303-856-7830, vintagetheatre.com.

Romantic musical

“She Loves Me” has a score by Bock and Harnick (“Fiddler on the Roof”) and book by Joe Masterhoff (“Cabaret”). It plays Sept. 12 through Nov. 3 at the Candlelight Playhouse,

4747 Marketplace Drive, Johnstown (I-25/ Exit 254, just south of Johnson’s Corner). Performances: Thursday, Friday, Saturday evenings; matinees Saturdays, Sundays. Tickets: $49.50-$59.50 show and dinner; $29.50 show only adults. ColoradoCandlelight.com, 970744-3747.

King Arthur and pals

“Camelot” by Alan Jay Lerner brings King Arthur’s court to the Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd. Sept. 10 to 29. Performances 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; Wednesdays 1 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays 2 p.m. Tickets: arvadacenter.org, 720-8987200.

A tiger prowls

“Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” by Rajiv Joseph, winner of the “Best New American Play Award 2008,” plays through Sept. 29 at the Edge Theatre, 1560 Teller St. Suite 200, Lakewood.

11-Color

Elbert County News 11

September 5, 2013

A place and time for reflection

This next Wednesday marks 12 years since the day the Twin Towers fell and al-Qaeda terrorists aimed their planes at the Pentagon as well as the White House.

Having been born in the ’70s, there are only two events that even come close to comparison for me — the Challenger explosion and the start of the Gulf War. Neither of those events holds a candle to those images we all witnessed a dozen years back; most of ase- us on television, a couple people I know who were unfortunately there.

I never had the opporo willtunity to see the towers while they stood tall, beaing,”cons in the New York City kidsskyline. My first pilgrimage to Manhattan was just weeks ago, and along with thousands of others on an early Sunday morning, I filed into the land of what was, to see what it had become, as the foundations of the towers became a place to remember each and every life taken on that fateful morning.

Moved to silence, and soon after tears, my mind drifted to a childhood friend, one of the 22 Navy SEALs shot down by Afghan insurgents on Aug. 6, 2011; the deadliest day for American forces in the now 12-year War on Terror.

o” by New ough er St.

A visitor takes some time to reflect at the 9/11 Memorial on Aug. 25 in New York City. The memorial opened two years ago on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. A total of 2,016 people died in the collapse of the Twin Towers, accounting for just a portion of lives lost that day. Photos by Ryan Boldrey

and donations from barges at nearby docks and the rest in a human chain carrying debris out from the destruction.

“I just really felt it was my duty,” Palmisano said in a 2010 interview with Colorado Community Media. “That was why I was going south while everyone else was fleeing north.

I was enraged. I’m still enraged that our country was attacked.”

And as he recalled casualties covered in soot, fleeing Ground Zero, and offering assistance to them, he also recalled an

overwhelming sensation of patriotism.

“I’ve never seen that kind of patriotism before,” he said. “Besides the nightmares, that’s what I remember. I didn’t know if I had it in me until that day.

Now I know I’m someone that can go in when others have to go out.”

Everyone, no matter how patriotic, at some point, should do the same.

Go there, see what he saw, and see what you have inside of you.

Because while that day may be 12 years gone, its images and impact

LET US CELEBRATE WITH YOU Have a wedding, anniversary, engagement, birth or special occasion coming up? Share it! Colorado Community Media invites you to place an announcement to share your news. Go to ourcoloradonews.com/celebrations for package and pricing information.

Deadline is 10 a.m. Tuesdays the week preceding the announcement.

CLASSIFIEDS TO ADVERTISE, CALL 303-566-4100

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Ryan Boldrey is a reporter for Colorado Community Media and a Castle Rock resident. He can be reached at rboldrey@ourcolorado news.com

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If it hadn’t been for the attacks that claimed the lives of 2,996 citizens that morning in 2001, my friend would never have been fighting on foreign soil, and the hundreds of lives that were affected and continue to be affected by his death would never have had the war and 9/11 put into perspective like they were.

It’s that same perspective that friends and family members of those 2,996 people as well as the more than 5,200 American soldiers who have died since in the resulting wars now experience each time they think of that morning.

My friend, like many others, felt a call of duty.

And as I stood there running my fingers over the names of lives lost surrounded by a skyline once dwarfed by the towers — I began to understand that call more than ever before.

These were the people he was fighting for.

It was a similar call of duty felt by another friend of mine, Paul Palmisano, who runs an alternative school in Monument, Colo.

My mind turned to him next. A native New Yorker, Palmisano spent five days, beginning moments after the attacks, working at Ground Zero, spending his time unloading equipment

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12-Color

12 Elbert County News

September 5, 2013

A little thing like being unable to balance your checkbook A little thing like putting your phone in the freezer A little thing like getting confused following your favorite recipe Little Things Can Make a BIG Difference These little things could be symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

Do a Little Thing See your doctor Sign up for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s

Little Things Can Make a BIG Difference

Coloradoalzwalk.org Helpline 800.272.3900

Saturday, Sept. 28th, 5-9pm ART SALE AND WINE TASTING Sample over 160 bottles of wine from around the world, delicacies from local restaurants and see regional artist demos. $35 – Members / $40 – Non-members Hotel packages available

For tickets call 720.488.3344 or visit thewildlifeexperience.org