July 7, 2016 VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 25
BLESSED GIFTS Christian organization provides toys, sports equipment as part of outreach. PAGE 12
LoneTreeVoice.net D O U G L A S C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
A publication of
DOUGLAS COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Block grant money declined Board requests work session to look for alternative funding By Shanna Fortier sfortier@coloradocommunitymedia.com The Douglas County Housing Partnership has used federal Community Development Block Grant funding to offer down-payment assistance for first-time home buyers and help provide affordable senior housing. In 2015, the multi-jurisdictional housing authority — which connects businesses and local and county government to address the issue of the lack of affordable housing for people who work in the area — received $310,000, the largest individual CDBG grant in the county, for its supportive housing program. With CDBG funding, the partnership has added 10 families per year to the program. But with the Douglas County Board of Commissioners’ June 28 decision to decline all CDBG funding in 2016, Diane Leavesley, executive director of the partnership, said the program will be severely limited and some aspects are uncertain. “Beyond 2015 funds we will only be able to continue this program with money from when a family repays their loan,” Leavesley said. “No new money will be coming in.” In 2015, Douglas County received $1 million in CDBG funding, which was disbursed to nonprofits, governmental and Board continues on Page 5
Twins Liliene and Kayleigh Anderson decorate their bikes for the children’s bike parade. The parade down Lone Tree Parkway to Sweetwater Park kicked off festivities that concluded with fireworks choreographed to music at dusk. Photo by Rick Gustafson
Families, fun fill park July 4 festivities start with bike race for kids By Rick Gustafson Special to Colorado Community Media It was another sold-out year for Lone tree’s Independence Day celebration as roughly 10,000 people
Holiday continues on Page 5
At buildout, community will have 12,000 homes and 33,000 residents living in neighborhoods with latest in technology
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Dozens of football coaches gather to discuss ways to keep young players safe. PAGE 19
varieties of inflatables. Gravity Play provided nearly a dozen attractions, and two big hits with the kids were scaling the 32-foot portable climbing wall and cooling off in the foam pit, an inflatable pool filled with bubbles. Lone Tree resident Cherie Bredil
The rise of Sterling Ranch By Alex DeWind adewind@colorado communitymedia.com
PLAYING IT SAFE
filled Sweetwater Park for the city’s annual festival. The afternoon kicked off with a children’s bike parade. Families arrived early to decorate bikes and then travel down Lone Tree Parkway into Sweetwater Park. At the end of the parade route, the kids and their parents were met with dozens of attractions and performances, including nine
bout two years ago, Harold and Diane Smethills and about 20 congregants from Valley View Christian Church walked up a grassy hill in the rolling landscape near Roxborough in northwest Douglas County. They joined hands and began to pray. For the land. For the well-being of
neighboring communities — Roxborough, Littleton, Highlands Ranch. For the residents of Sterling Ranch, the community that would rise from the land around them. “We prayed that it would be a wonderful place to live,” Diane said, “filled with wonderful families.” Sterling Ranch has been the Smethillses’ dream for 12 years: A $4.4 billion multigenerational, eco-conscious Sterling continues on Page 6
Brock Smethills, left, and his parents, Diane and Harold, stand in front of Sterling Ranch plans in their Highlands Ranch office. “In all candor,” Diane said of the development, “we were inspired by our two millennial sons.” Photo by Alex DeWind
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