ARVADA 1/3/13
January 3, 2013
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourarvadanews.com
Jefferson County, Colorado • Volume 8, Issue 32
Another snag for beltway land swap
BOX BY BOX
Land plan remains contested in the courts By Glenn Wallace
gwallace@ourcoloradonews.com
Jack Ferndelli, left, watches as his grandson, Jack, and his son, Scott, of Arvada Presbyterian Church use a cart to load up vehicles with Christmas dinner food boxes to be delivered to families Saturday, Dec. 22. The Arvada Community Food Bank contributed 150 boxes along with the church’s 125 boxes. Photo by Andy Carpenean
Dogs learn, teach new skills with students Middle, high schoolers train service dogs to further develop their patience, understanding By Sara Van Cleve
svancleve@ourcoloradonews.com Both shelter dogs and students are giving a second chance through Pawsitive Connection. Pawsitive Connection is a program hosted by Freedom Service Dogs of America, a nonprofit organization that rescues shelter dogs and trains them to be service dogs for soldiers, veterans and children with disabilities, physical and mental. As part of the program and the dogs’ training, the dogs work with various groups for at-risk children and teens, including Connections Learning Center, an alternative, specialty school in Jefferson County Public School for students in seventh through ninth grade students who were expelled or at risk of failing. “I saw so much personal growth and change,” said CLC facility manager Donette Kagarise. “They treat each other with great respect. They’ve learned a lot.” For the last semester, Freedom Service Dogs interns Maureen Huang and Kris Landen, both students working on their master’s degrees in social work at the University of Denver, brought service dogs in training to their classroom and taught them how to train the dogs. “Our goals are to help the students develop social skills,” said Huang. “It’s an important confidence builder because dogs can connect with kids in a way adults can’t.” The students were taught how to teach the dogs basic skills, like sit and stay, as well as other “tricks” that are necessary for some of their future owners, such as fetch and pull, to open a refrigerator, for example. Though they were being taught how to train dogs, they learned a much bigger virtue that any dog owner knows is a necessity — patience.
Rhino, a Golden Retriever from American Freedom Dogs, gets a hug from Lorenzo, a student at Connections Learning Center, Friday, Nov. 30. Photo by Andy Carpenean On the last day of class, each student said what he or she learned over the eight weeks, and for many it was patience, which many realized should be transferred to their fellow humans too. Lise Morgan, the serve and learn coordinator for CLC, said the students learn a lot from their furry companions. “They engage, come out of their shell and actively learn trust, empathy and giving,” Morgan said. “The teachers and staff are amazed and see glimpses of the student’s true self.” And the dogs learn a lot, too. Once the dogs have completed their training through Freedom Service Dogs, they will be paired up with a child, solider or veteran who faces challenges such as autism, a traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. “It’s a great opportunity to train the dogs for veterans with PTSD,” said Destiny, a stu-
dent at CLC. “It’s cool to get to learn how to do that. I learned how to train dogs and how to read body language, which helps understand people better.” Destiny’s last name is not being published for privacy reasons. Other students said they learned not to judge people without getting to know them first, how to better read emotions and how to cooperate in a group setting. Pawsitive Connection is one of several community-oriented programs CLC offers its students. The students are required to take one of the courses and are placed in the course that best suits them. “It’s all about building empathy,” said special education teacher Lynn Larsen at CLC. “We try to put programs in place that help them understand how other people think.” Other programs include a chance to become an entrepreneur, work with senior citizens, visit patients at Children’s Hospital and other community opportunities.
The long and winding story of the Jefferson Parkway took two sharp corners recently, as one federal court ruled in favor of allowing a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service land swap to move forward, only to have an appeals court announce a temporary injunction last week. A federal judge on Dec. 21 dismissed the lawsuit that sought to stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from transferring a 300-foot right of way, 617 acres along the eastern edge of the Rocky Flats Wildlife Reserve. Five days later, an appeals court ordered the temporary injunction. That strip of land is proposed to become a 10-mile toll road called the Jefferson Parkway. The new road would connect Highway 128 in Broomfield to Highway 93, about three miles north of the city of Golden, as part of the continuing effort to complete a ring road around the Denver Metro Area. A year ago, the cities of Superior and Golden, along with two environmental groups, all filed lawsuits to halt the land swap, arguing that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had not done adequate environmental review to justify the sale, specifically mentioning the possibility of buried radioactive materials that could be disturbed as a result. Bill Ray, the interim executive director of the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority (JPPHA), called it ironic that environmental groups were asking the court to halt a plan that he says would dramatically improve the Rocky Flats Wildlife Reserve. He added that the land swap, including a provision to add 600 acres of open space to the reserve, was vindicated by the ruling. “The decision is very comprehensive. It is very clear, very thorough that none of the arguments presented by the plaintiffs were accepted by the federal government,” Ray said. According to Ray, the land swap deal, which includes about $17 million in funding from multiple agencies and municipalities, had been set to close escrow on Dec. 31. The city of Superior, along with the environmental groups WildEarth Guardians and Rocky Mountain Wild, immediately appealed the lawsuit to the 10th Circuit District Court of Appeals, and filed an emergency motion to stop the deal. According to the temporary injunction, the JPPHA and fellow defendants had until Dec. 27 to file a response to the injunction. After reading that response, the 10th Circuit court judges decided that the plaintiffs would have until noon on Dec. 28 to file a rebuttal, which they did. The court’s injunction was scheduled to lift one hour before the escrow deal is set to close, on Dec. 31. If the judges do decide to extend the injunction past the 31st, Ray said it could imperil the entire land swap deal. Beltway continues on Page 3
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