OPINION

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUMNITYMEDIA.COM

The Weld Re-8 board of education decided to put its signature on the purchase of two acres of land for a new Fort Lupton Public & School Library.

The June 3 vote came after a brief executive session. The land is near the new home of Dale’s Pharmacy and north of state Highway 52. Fort Lupton City Council approved the purchase earlier in the week, despite objections that the library board and not the city was the main fi nancial entity.

It took three votes. The fi rst involved allowing the district to remain as a signee on the purchase of the new building, pending further advice from legal counsel. That vote was 5-1. Cody LeBlanc voted no.

The second vote was to let the district sign off on the purchase agreement. The vote was the same, and so was the dissenting voter.

“I don’t feel it’s advantageous for the district to have the library move out (of Fort Lupton High School),” Leblanc said. “The space is perfectly adequate. I would like to see them stay in the present facility.”

The third vote allowed the district to be a signor on the title to the land. That vote was 6-0.

“I fi gure as long as we’re going to have to have it, the district should be able to lay our stakes to it,” LeBlanc said.

In late May, legal counsel advised the school board that its fi rst choice was to decide whether to be a signor on the agreement. The city and the district are library partners through the High Plains Library District.

Superintendent Alan Kaylor said the district is not the fi nancial agent for this purchase.

“It’s my understanding we don’t have a say,” he told the board May 25. “We aren’t the fi scal agent.”

“I don’t want to delay this. I think we’re ready to move forward,” said board member Kehle Griego. “I’d like information on why they (the city) is being negative).”

The issue that hung up city council was whether the library board was the fi scal agent in this matter. Councilman Tommy Holton said yes.

“They operated as its own entity from 1985 to 2014,” Holton said. “They were a signatory at one time. That’s why they moved it over to us.”

City Attorney Andy Ausmus didn’t think so.

“The IRS doesn’t recognize them as an entity,” Ausmus said. “Contractually, it’s impossible to do what you are suggesting. They are not a corporate entity. The board is not a fi scal agent.”

In an email, Holton explained his abstention.

“There is a big back story to this issue. But in the interim, I did not want to interfere with my wife on the two boards,” he said. “The city attorney and I went through a twoyear battle to get it where it is today. After battles, sometimes the passions run high.”

The purchase price is around $850,000, according to Franks. The land is near the new location of Dale’s Pharmacy on state Highway 52 east of Weld County Road 27. Ausmus said the wording of the agreement allows the Weld Re-8 School District to add its signature later on. As it stands, both the city and the district are members of the High Plains Library District.

“We’ve kept them informed every step of the way,” Ausmus said. “It’s more of timing for their meeting. If we didn’t do it this way, we would lose out on the property.”

Re-8’s concern was what happens to the existing 11,000 square feet of space in the library’s present home at Fort Lupton High School. Superintendent Alan Kaylor said in April he didn’t want to see that space turn into a cave.

The purchase price is around $850,000, according to outgoing library Director Sarah Franks.

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RECYCLE

Re-8 board adopts new middle-school math curriculum

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

The Weld Re-8 board of education approved a new curriculum for the district’s middle-school students late last month.

The district’s director of instruction and learning, Marci Hester, said the $95,000 contract with Houghton Miffl in Harcourt includes a lot of things for teachers and students the district doesn’t have now, including digital materials.

One goal of the curriculum, Hester said, is to improve on the number of students who are behind their grade levels in math.

“It updates technology resources. It has high-stakes assessment materials,” Hester told the school board May 25. “It’s important for the kids to get the concrete level of understanding before they apply it in an abstract matter.”

Board member Cody LeBlanc asked if the new curriculum was in line with the state’s mandated Common Core Standards, which outline what students should know in English language arts and math. Hester said that would be the case.

“There’s no way to avoid Common Core with this?” LeBlanc asked.

“Not if we want our students to be competitive in standardized tests,” Hester said.

The contract includes a three-year license, the digital piece and work materials.

The district last purchased a curriculum package in 2012 for $200,000, Hester said.

The vote was 4-2. LeBlanc and Jaime Sierra cast the dissenting votes.

“My vote against the math curriculum was purely budget-driven,” Sierra said. The district is facing a $2 million shortfall, according to a fi rst draft of next year’s budget. “I like the curriculum and do think it would be a great addition. However, after being presented with the proposed budget for next year (which is available to the public to view), I could not substantiate spending $95,000 on the new curriculum at this time.”

Autopsies will be processed in-house more quickly

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

For more than 40 years, the Weld County Coroner’s Offi ce has had to take the decedents to the McKee autopsy unit in Loveland to investigate the causes of death, a process that took weeks.

Weld County now has its own in-house fully functional coroner’s offi ce.

“It a much better way to provide good quality care for the community and provides a safer working environment for the employees. It’s a great addition for the county and community,” said Dr. Michael Burson, Weld County coroner.

Burson studied forensic pathology, fell in love with the specialty and has been performing autopsies for Weld County for more than 10 years as the principal forensic pathologist. He also provides services for Larimer County and some of the surrounding counties for Colorado and Wyoming.

The Weld County Coroner’s offi ce was in the Centennial Center in downtown Greeley and never had a facility. So, in September, offi cials rennovated the existing old ambulance building that was built in 1992 south of the Weld County Administration Building. It amounted to an overhaul of 12,621 square feet and an addition of 6,597 square feet of clinical space with a drive-thru garage. The new facility totals 19.218 square feet.

The new facility is equipped with labs, forensics, and an evidence room so the investigators can produce quicker results. The facility includes a secure room for highprofi le cases or a case that involves containment, such as a contagious disease. Also, there is a room for families and a secure locker room to safely hold loved ones’ valuables for the families.

Karen Jazowski Weld County morgue manager retired from the City and County of Denver and started working with Dr. Burson.

“I’m just so ecstatic. I’m a forensic radiological technician by trade as well, so I helped start up the radiology department coming this week. We will able to do our X-rays, and we won’t have to rely on the hospital. It will be all contained right here. It will also be effi cient for families, for everybody, and law enforcement. It will be nice to have everything done so quickly,” said Jazowski.

It will save the county money to no longer pay to use the McKee Medical facility. Also, for a fee, neighboring counties that do not have facilities can use Weld County’s.

The new offi ce is at 1121 M St., Greeley.

Thornton takes Weld to court over pipeline vote

City takes same legal action it did against Larimer County

BY LIAM ADAMS LADAMS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

The city of Thornton formally went to court against the Weld County Board of Commissioners after the board denied the city’s application to build a water pipeline through the county.

The board’s decision, “exceeds its jurisdiction and/or is contrary to law, misinterprets and misapplies its criteria, and was arbitrary and capricious because its fi ndings lack competent evidence to support the BOCC’s denial,” read the complaint fi led June 2 in Weld County District Court.

As Thornton nears its deadline to construct a pipeline from a reservoir near Fort Collins, the quickest and most direct way for the city to get approval for a Weld County pipeline is through the courts, rather than submitting a whole new application. The city asks in the complaint for a district court judge to intervene and overturn the board’s decision.

Thornton started the process for the Weld County section of the Thornton Water Project in 2015. In 2018, the city formally submitted its application to build a pipeline through 34 miles of unincorporated county land. The city then went before the county’s planning commission twice and the board of commissioners four times. That fourth meeting, May 5, is when the board unanimously voted to deny the application.

The denial and the court proceedings are additional setbacks for Thornton in its effort to complete the pipeline’s total 75 miles from a Water Supply and Storage Company (WSSC) reservoir by 2025. The city is engaged in a separate legal battle — currently in the Colorado Court of Appeals — with the Larimer County Board of Commissioners, who denied a similar application from Thornton in 2019. The complaint Thornton fi led in Weld County is the same kind that it fi led in Larimer.

The city has already installed six miles of pipeline in other municipalities it has reached agreements with, including Windsor and Johnstown.

In both the Larimer and Weld County cases, Thornton argued the boards of commissioners didn’t have the jurisdiction to deny the city’s application because it has owned the WSSC rights for decades. What’s different about Thornton’s argument against Weld County is that it’s simpler, according to legal fi lings.

Weld County staff, the planning commission and the board initially told Thornton to not construct the pipeline in the right-of-way, or literally underneath county roads. Instead, they suggested planning to build on privately owned land next to the road. However, the planning commission and board later asked the city to consider areas for the pipeline in the right-of-way. Thornton did that and over time, submitted several amended applications.

The board asked also Thornton to obtain more construction easements from private landowners before the board reached a decision. So, by the May 5 board meeting, Thornton obtained easements for 95% of the total stretch of the pipeline.

Thornton described itself in the complaint as a good partner to Weld County, despite larger changes along the way. Still, the board denied the application. The city also argued that the board didn’t “orally fi nd or conclude” that Thornton failed to meet fi ve of eight criteria that the board is supposed to consult in its decision-making.

The city added in the complaint that the board still hasn’t issued Thornton a written denial.

“Given the extraordinary breadth of information provided to the BOCC and the passage of nearly two and a half years since Thornton fi led its USR permit application, Thornton would suffer substantial prejudice if this matter was remanded for the BOCC,” the city said in its complaint.

The main reason for Thornton’s haste is rapid growth. The City council won’t approve applications related to large developments, such as Parterre, without the assurance of water from Larimer County.

Weld County spokesperson Jennifer Finch said the county attorney received the complaint Thursday, June 3 and started to read through it. The county had no further comments to add.

The city of Thornton is trying to deliver water from rights in the Larimer County’s Cache la Poudre River by constructing a water pipeline from Larimer County through Weld County to Thornton. The city faced another major setback when the Weld County Board of Commissioners denied the city’s application to build a segment of the pipeline in Weld. Thornton recently fi led a civil complaint in response.

PHOTO BY STEFAN BRODSKY

SCHOOL BOARD

Food service vendor

The school board also chose a new food service vendor May 25. The new contract with Taher Inc. is for one guaranteed year with an option for four more, depending on performance.

“Our food service program is like a good-sized restaurant,” Re-8 Director of Business Services Jessica Holbrook told the board. “Our revenues were more than $1 million. The food service contractor manages the employees separate from the district. The district provides the facilities for operations.

Six companies submitted bids, which turned into fi ve proposals, including one from Chartwell. It ranked last of the fi ve proposals, according to the evaluation committee’s fi ndings. Holbrook said some of the criteria included cost, stabilization and accountability.

“One district in Arizona was so excited about Taher,” Holbrook said. “They said the use of frozen food decreased dramatically and that they use more fresh food. They also prepare meals geared toward adults.”

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