1-Color
January 23, 2014
75 cents Arapahoe County, Colorado | Volume 125, Issue 27 A publication of
littletonindependent.net
Fire chief is poised to blaze new trail Armstrong says he’ll be hands-on, inclusive By Jennifer Smith
jsmith@coloradocommunitymedia.com
der with Lone Tree to just beyond its western border, all two miles or less from C-470. They join a couple of existing microbreweries already garnering strong local support. South suburbia’s newest brewers say the area’s been underserved, and it’s a gap
As a teenager, Chris Armstrong was so sure about what he wanted to do for the rest of his life that he traded in his senior year of high school for the fire academy and was working by the time his classmates graduated. “My stepdad was a firefighter, so I grew up around firefighters and the fire station,” said the new chief of Littleton Fire Rescue, looking back on when he joined the Miramar Fire Rescue Department in Florida, where he Armstrong grew up, and spent the entirety of his career — until now. “It was just a natural progression for me,” he said. Along the way, the 48-year-old rose through the ranks from paramedic to deputy chief of operations. He has earned a bachelor’s degree in occupational health and safety and a master’s degree in emergency-services management from Columbia Southern University. He is also a graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and received the Chief Fire Officer Designation from the Center for Public Safety Excellence. As deputy chief, he was responsible for 155 employees serving a population of almost 125,000. Here, he’ll oversee the 170 employees who provide emergency-response services and life-safety education to the 220,000 citizens of Littleton, the Littleton Fire Protection District and the Highlands Ranch Metropolitan District. “I’m excited to be here, and I’m ready to get to work and meet everyone,” he said Jan. 15, five days before his first official day
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Graphic by Stephanie Ogren
South suburbs tap into craft beer trend By Jane Reuter
jreuter@coloradocommunitymedia.com National statistics show most Americans now live within 10 miles of a brewery. For those residing along the C-470 corridor, the drive is soon to get a lot shorter than that. Four new microbreweries will open in
south suburban Denver during the first few months of 2014, and at least two others say they have solid plans but still are zeroing in on sites. The biggest of them all — Breckenridge Brewery — plans a spring 2015 opening of its 12-acre Santa Fe Drive complex. The establishments under construction extend from Highland’s Ranch’s eastern bor-
School board meets for first time since shooting Members thank community for support By Jennifer Smith
jsmith@coloradocommunitymedia.com The Littleton Public Schools Board of Education met on Jan. 16 in its first regular meeting since the Dec. 13 tragedy at ArapaPOSTAL ADDRESS
hoe High School, publicly addressing the incident for the first time. “The Claire Davis family, to me, is an inspiration about compassion and forgiveness and asking the students to look to the future, and asking them to be a part of that future,” said Carrie Warren-Gully, the board’s vice president. Claire Davis was the 17-year-old student who died Dec. 21, eight days after being shot by classmate Karl Pierson. Moments later, he
turned the gun on himself and died in the school library. All five board members praised the first responders for their swift response, the community for its generous outpouring of support, the everyday heroes who stepped up to offer comfort. Warren-Gully made particular note of the AHS Parent-Teacher Organization. “None of us were prepared for this, the PTO wasn’t prepared for this, but boy, did
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they come together,” she said. Superintendent Scott Murphy said there were many heroes that day. “I’m awestruck by the love and support that’s been shown to one another,” he said. “It takes courage to overcome darkness, and it begins with the power of one and becomes the power of many.” Lucie Stanish, who was overseeing just
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