Lone Tree Voice 1210

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December 10, 2015 VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 46

HOLIDAY WORSHIP

SERVICE GUIDE INSIDE

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LET IT SNOW

Union tries to find fit in district Douglas County Federation lost ability to negotiate in 2012 By Mike DiFerdinando mdiferdinando@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Alex Budnick performs a backside 360 over the 6-footer at the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre. Liberty University in Virginia is currently the only Snowflex system in the nation. Castle Rock Town Council recently took a step toward building the second one at Philip S. Miller Park. Photo courtesy of Liberty University

Snow complex would be second in country $28-million, year-round park would include jumps, rails, tubing and more By Shanna Fortier sfortier@coloradocommunitymedia.com A year-round snow sports facility — only the second of its kind in the United States — slid one step closer to becoming a reality in Castle Rock when the Town Council entered into a memorandum of Snow continues on Page 7

‘For me, it’s introducing something that I love to the masses.’ Louie Vito, five-time Winter X Games medalist who attended the council meeting to voice support for the project

New retail, restaurant development for Lone Tree The Yard would bring urban design to the suburbs By Mike DiFerdinando mdiferdinando@coloradocommunitymedia.com The developers behind the Promenade at Castle Rock want to bring a new retail and dining development with an urban twist to Lone Tree. Called The Yard, it would be an outdoor, open-air expanse development located southwest of the exit ramp off C-470 at Yosemite Street near Park Meadows

Mall, according to Don Provost, principal of Alberta Development Partners. The western border is Willow Creek and the Willow Creek Trail. The new development will offer firstto-market restaurants, patio dining and gathering spaces, park-like landscaping and specialty retail, Provost said. “It’s really the last large undeveloped plot of land in the Park Meadows area.” The development will not include residential dwellings and will be strictly retail and dining space, Provost said. It The Yard continues on Page 2

A teachers’ union has not participated in collective-bargaining negotiations with the Douglas County School District since 2012, but for some teachers, it still pays to be a member. “The main reason I am a union member and support the union is very simple,” said Kelli Eastmond, a kindergarten teacher at Arrowwood Elementary in Highlands Ranch. “No one else has my back. No one else will fight for me. With all that is going on in this district, I need someone who supports me and is taking care of me and my best interest.” The previous collective-bargaining agreement between the school district and the Douglas County Federation had been in place in various forms for 47 years before it expired after negotiations failed in 2012. Until then, the union and district had enjoyed a relationship that was acclaimed nationally for its collaboration and willingness to work together, helping produce one of the nation’s first pay-for-performance programs in 1994. But the 2009 election of a conservative school board, which saw unions as serving national political interests rather than focusing on local teachers’ issues and development, eventually led to the collapse of that relationship in 2012. Although some incumbent board members who lost their bids for re-election in November brought up the union issue in the recent election, the union said it played no active role in the election. According to the Colorado secretary of state’s database, it did not directly contribute to any campaign. Union continues on Page 6

A VALOR WIN

Valor players celebrate winning the Class 5A state football championship by edging Pomona 29-26 in the game played Dec. 5 at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. For more photos and the story, turn to Page 21. Photo by Tom Munds

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