FORT LUPTON PRESS S E RV I N G T H E C O M M U N I T Y S I N C E 19 0 6
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2021
W ,N 25 , 2020 Fort Lupton gets details CLEANING UP T H Ereport SEASON FOR SHARING on water system
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Report on drinking water, backhoes and mosquitos topics at March 9 meeting BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
City Councilors found out just how much it would cost to stay current with new federal drinking water rules during their March 9 Town Hall meeting. The American Water Infrastructure Act went into effect in 2018, requiring that all community water system utilities that serve more than 3,300 people conduct risk and resilience assessments and develop or update an emergency response plan, according to Glenda Aretxuloeta, Assistant City Administrator. Mayor Zo Stieber asked if the risk and resilient assessment was done annually, or if it’s a one-time assessment. “It has been the first time it was mandated into law. It’s not annually but the first one has to be done this year and then it’s done every five years,” said Steve Ngyun with Clearwater Colorado Law, the city’s
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consultants. The new report was the top item on the Town Hall meetings, which are opportunities to discuss a wide range of issues. Other items on the agenda included purchasing a new backhoe, the city’s mosquito program and maintaining the city’s two traffic lights. The new water system assessment will have to be done in phases, Ngyun told councilors. The first phase is to create an action plan and a risk and resilience assessment, analyzing the water utility’s potential vulnerabilities and critical infrastructure. It includes creating a report of the findings that gets sent to the Environmental Protection Agency. The second phase requires the city to review its existing emergency response plan. That plan is a comprehensive overview of the utility system and is used to determine strategies and plans and procedures for staff in case of emergencies. The city would need to host up to three public meetings to review the plan and prepare the report, which would ultimately be sent to the EPA. The total cost for the risk and SEE WATER, P3
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Pete West clears snow from in front of his home along E. 133rd Circle in Thornton on PHOTO BY STEFAN BRODSKY Monday morning, March 15.
State adjusts COVID dial of restrictions Change comes as Jefferson appeared set to possibly slide back to yellow
qualify for level blue, in part, when they maintain enough days below 100 new cases per 100,000 people. Shortly after the state’s announcement on March 8, Broomfield posted on Twitter that it would move to level yellow at 6 a.m. March 10 as directed by the state public-health department. That afternoon, the state publicBY ELLIS ARNOLD health department had announced EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM changes to the dial public health order — the document that outlines As two Denver metro counties how the dial system works — that watched their rates of new coroinclude adding a new “disease incinavirus cases hover at a level that Every year before Thanksgiving, First United Methodist Church in Fort Lupton and the Fort Lupton Food and Clothingdence Bankmetric provide community buffer.” could roll back reopening success, members with food boxes. This will be the program’s 10th consecutive year. Above, Joe Hubert, left China Garcia and Sue Hubert with Change 4 Change, A county’s number of new COVthe state public-health department APOLOGIES announced changes tothat Colorado’s ID-19 cases per 100,000 people within another organization helps with the food drive. See more on Page 2. color-coded system of restrictions Due to recent heavy snowfall, delivery of this week’s paper may have been that make it easier for counties delayed! SEE COVID DIAL, P5 to remain in their respective dial levels. The state’s COVID-19 dial is the set of restrictions counties must follow based on local virus spread. The restrictions apply to capacity at restaurants, other businesses, indoor and outdoor events, and other settings. Among the dial’s six levels, blue is the second-least restrictive. The state moved Broomfield to level blue effective Feb. 22, according to Broomfield’s website. Jefferson,
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Park and Clear Creek counties entered level blue on Feb. 26, according to the state’s COVID-19 website. Despite Broomfield and Jefferson moving to blue, their one-week rates of new cases as of March 1 appeared to have ticked up to levels that threatened to move the counties back up one level to yellow. As of March 7, the counties still appeared poised to backslide: Jefferson sat at 105 new cases per 100,000 people, and Broomfield at 150. As of the Feb. 6 changes, counties
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