I’LL EAT YOU LAST
July 28, 2016 VOLUME 92 | ISSUE 50
Emma Messenger plays 60s-70s Hollywood super-agent Sue Mengers in Edge Theater’s “I’ll eat You Last: a Chat With Sue Mengers.” PAGE 14
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Additional seven schools test for lead Molholm, Stober and Vivian elementaries among newly found problem spots Staff report
Paul Ditson, the president of the Eiber Neighborhood Association, shows the variety of housing visitors will find in Eiber. The neighborhood recently received a grant to conduct a survey of the area for houses built before 1946. Photo by Clarke Reader
Lakewood in one neighborhood 100-year-old Eiber Neighborhood receives historic preservation grant By Clarke Reader creader@coloradocommunitymedia.com As Paul Ditson, president of the Eiber Neighborhood Association, walks up and down the streets of the area, streets he’s known since 1964, he can point to almost any house and identify the decade it was built. “This subdivision was mostly built in the 1950s and 60s,” he said, walking near his home on Garrison Street. “This was a big agricultural area, and many of the homes started as apple orchard sheds and chicken coops that received additions.” Eiber continues on Page 7
Eiber Neighborhood Association President Paul Ditson in front of the house he was raised in. His family moved into the house in 1964, and his love of the neighborhood inspired him to help protect its history.
New syringe exchange program comes to Jeffco By Christina Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com
A typical kit will include, from left, a tourniquet, syringes, water, alcohol, cotton balls and a cooker for drugs with a twist-tie for holding. Courtesy photo
In response to increasing numbers of opioid use and overdose deaths among residents, Jefferson County Public Health has opened the state’s eighth syringe exchange program, which provides participants with sterile needles and a place to safely dispose of used ones. Called Points West, and housed in the Jefferson County Public Health building, the five-month-old program has 27 participants, a number expected to grow as word gets out and the health department begins to promote the program, said Nancy Braden, the health department’s communications manager. “We know there’s a need, we know they’re effective,” Braden said of syringe exchange programs. But “it’s not enough to have all of these studies showing they’re effective. We actually need to start the programs.” Syringes continues on Page 7
Testing of all 158 of Jefferson County School District’s school facilities continued last week, revealing seven new schools with some form of elevated lead in the water. The newly detected locations brings the total number of schools with lead issues up to 30, out of the 40 schools with test results reported so far. Arvada K-8, the first school including the middle school grades to have test results come back, found eight water sources with lead above the 15 parts per billion level established by the EPA as the level over which water providers must work to improve water quality. Four classroom sinks, a drinking fountain in the cafeteria, and three non-classroom sinks tested high. One of the district’s highest lead readings was from a workroom sink, reading 1,760.8 ppb. Other high readings were found at elementary schools, including Hackberry with three sites, Molholm with three, and Vivian with seven. At Vivian Elementary, the high test results came from three classroom sinks, two classroom sink drinking fountain bubblers, and a double sink in an art room. One Lakewood school, Glennon Elementary, was found to have acceptable water quality, the district’s 10th school to be cleared. The school district chose to begin comprehensive lead testing in April, after a Head Start preschool facility in Arvada, owned by the district, tested high for the metal. The district began testing the oldest facilities first, those built long before the EPA raised lead standards in 1986 on how much of the heavy metal could safely be in the water supply. Work began last week at Arvada’s Peck Elementary to try and reduce lead levels by replacing faucet fixtures, and feed lines with newer, virtually lead-free plumbing parts. Assuming those changes fix the water quality problem, the district hopes to change out those parts at all affected schools before classes begin in the fall. The district says faucets that have not been replaced and retested have been marked unusable, and will not be used until repaired. Jeffco schools estimates Initial testing of all the school facilities will cost $75,000. The district’s complete test results can be found at www.jeffcopublicschools.org.
IN THE FAST LANE A legendary racing family tradition continued.
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