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July 31, 2014 VOLU M E 1 3 | I S SUE 28
LoneTreeVoice.net D O U G L A S C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
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District rejects federal lunches County high schools won’t adopt what nutrition chief calls ‘strict standards’ By Jane Reuter
jreuter@colorado communitymedia.com
Rusty rests in his kennel at the Lone Tree Veterinary Medical Center days after a donated five-hour surgery to repair a leg shattered in a fall from a truck bed. Photo by Jane Reuter
Vet donates care for abandoned dog La Plata County pup recovers after fall from moving truck By Jane Reuter
jreuter@colorado communitymedia.com When Rusty the puppy fell from the bed of a moving truck in Durango July 12, one of his legs shattered. His owner, the truck’s driver, abandoned the injured dog. Rusty was among five homeless, injured dogs brought recently to the La Plata County Animal Shelter in Durango. Lacking money to care for them, shelter leaders sent out a call for help. Lone Tree Veterinary Medical Center responded. Today, the 8-month-old dog is recovering in a kennel at the Lone Tree Veterinary Medical Center after a 5-hour, $4,000 surgery to repair his leg. Eventually, the brown-eyed, sweet-tempered mixed-breed will be ready for adoption. “He’s getting more love and attention than he’s probably ever had, and he’s graciously accepting it all,” center co-director Nancy Moyle said. Rusty’s treatment was donated by the clinic through its Mercy Care program, a fund established by Moyle and her husband, veterinarian Bill Moyle, to help
abandoned animals. Nancy Moyle saw a news report about the injured La Plata County dogs on the television news. Because Bill Moyle is skilled in orthopedic care, she believed they could help. Shelter manager Chris Nelson gratefully accepted the offer. “I drove Rusty up,” he said. “Before I even got home to Durango the next day, they had completed his surgery. He’s got a long road ahead of him, but he’s in great hands up there. We’re real hopeful he’ll make a full recovery.” Rusty’s surgery wasn’t simple. “My husband had never seen a fracture on a leg so bad,” Nancy Moyle said. “It was broken horizontally, vertically, into the joint — it was just terrible.” The leg was pinned and plated. Another leg also suffered a nerve injury, for which Rusty will need rehabilitation. Xrays revealed an additional old fracture that already has healed. But his youth gives Rusty a good chance at making a full recovery, Moyle said. Since the Mercy Care program’s inception three years ago, it’s helped about 25 different pets. “They may have been euthanized, or would have had to live with chronic limb issues that didn’t heal properly,” Nancy Moyle said. They are unlike most of the pets that
visit the Lone Tree center. “The vast majority of animals we see have an owner,” Moyle said. “These are animals that have nobody and have never known love. They’ve been left on the side of the road, they have injuries that need attention and are going to cost a lot of money. Their prospects for being adopted are not real great. We want to give them a chance.” Based upon their responses to good care, Moyle believes the animals know it. “All the homeless dogs we have helped have had that same kind of receptiveness to attention,” she said. “It’s sweet and heartbreaking at the same time. They’ve been abandoned or abused; you want them to see there are really good humans in the world.” In Durango, Nelson’s been overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers. Since the shelter put out its call for financial assistance, it’s received a flood of donations. The shelter asked for $5,000 to help with its five dogs. So far, it has received $32,000. “Humane societies always have to struggle with where they’re going to get funding for animals in need like this,” Nelson said. “The next dog or cat that comes in, we don’t even have to think about it; we’ve raised the money and can use it for these kinds of surgeries.”
Longtime fire chief prepares to retire Qualman to hand over reins in January Staff report After nearly four decades in fire service, chief Dan Qualman will retire from the South Metro Fire Rescue Authority. Qualman spent 28 years at the helm of the Parker Fire District and South Metro Fire Rescue Authority, the agency with which Parker Fire merged. The highly decorated chief will leave his post in early January, but will begin the transition in October to assistant chief Bob Baker, who was named as Qualman’s successor June 30. Qualman began his career
in 1969 as a volunteer of the John Brown University campus fire department in Arizona. Moving to Colorado in 1983, he served as assistant chief of fire prevention with Parker Fire Protection District until August 1986, when he was appointed fire chief. Following Qualman the consolidation of South Metro Fire Rescue and Parker Fire District in 2008, he was appointed fire chief for the new authority. Pat Mulhern, president of the South Metro Fire Rescue
Authority Board, said Qualman has “demonstrated remarkable leadership” during his tenure. He has been a “low-key leader” but an effective one, seeing the department through periods of major growth and economic hardships, Mulhern said. Qualman has been instrumental in several multiagency agreements that have improved service delivery to residents and businesses in the district and reduced costs. In 1994, the Parker Fire District partnered with the Town of Parker and the Douglas County School District to build the one-of-a-kind Joint Services Facility on Twenty Mile Road near Plaza Drive that all parties still share.
He supported the development of the Miller Life Safety Foundation, a nonprofit providing safety education, and turned the department’s fleet bureau into a vehicle maintenance enterprise that contracted service to 25 fire departments and reduced taxpayer costs for operations. Qualman has also served as president of the Colorado State Fire Chiefs and been honored several times with prestigious awards, including the 2007 Parker Economic Development Council’s Cornerstone Award, the Special District Association of Colorado’s Manager of the Year 2012, and the Colorado State Fire Chiefs Association’s Fire Chief of the Year in 2012.
The Douglas County School District is opting its high schools out of the 201415 National School Lunch Program, citing concerns about the stringent level of the program’s newest nutritional requirements. By not accepting the federal funds provided through the program, DCSD does not have to adhere to the standards. The recommendation to leave the program for a year was based on student needs, said Brent Craig, director of DCSD’s Nutrition Services. “I support the USDA and what they’re doing; it’s the right thing to do to help teach kids to eat better,” Craig said. “We’re still committed to healthy food for the high school kids. But we can’t live by those strict standards of sodium and calories.” The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 funds free and reduced-price lunch programs and sets nutrition standards, a key part of first lady Michelle Obama’s fight against child obesity. The latest round of regulations, which went into effect July 1, set nutritional standards that limit the sodium, fat and caloric content of items sold in school vending machines, a la carte lunch lines, in student stores and fundraisers. Those restrictions would put the nine Subway franchises located in DCSD’s high schools out of business. The decision comes at an estimated cost of about $200,000, funds provided by the National School Lunch Program for students who qualify for free and reducedprice meals, but Craig said Nutrition Services will pick up that expense. That is more than offset by the estimated $3 million in food sales the department estimates it would lose by adhering to the new regulations. Approximately 6 percent of DCSD students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. District continues on Page 12
NUTRITION STANDARDS LIMITS ON calories, sodium, fat and sugar as established in the National School Lunch Program: CALORIE LIMITS ENTRÉES: 350 calories or less SNACKS/SIDES: 200 calories or less SODIUM LIMITS ENTRÉES: 480 mg or less SNACKS/SIDES: 230 mg or less *FAT LIMITS TOTAL FAT: 35 percent of total calories or less SATURATED FAT: 10 percent of total calories or less TRANS FAT: 0 grams *SUGAR LIMITS TOTAL SUGAR: 35 percent of weight or less from total
sugars
*WITH LIMITED exemptions SOURCE: USDA