ArvAdA 3/28/13
March 28, 2013
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourarvadanews.com
Jefferson County, Colorado • Volume 8, Issue 44
City’s 2012 finances ended in good shape Financial report shows revenue increases across the board By Sara van Cleve
svancleve@ourcoloradonews.com
Cacee Fleming has her head shaved for the third time in support of St. Baldrick’s Foundation by Danielle Dahl, of Centre Salon and Spa in Arvada. Fleming shaved her headto help raise money for research of childhoold cancers and in memory of Zachary Sisson, a friend’s son who died from a brain tumor when he was 10. Photo by Sara Van Cleve
Making a ‘bald’ statement for cancer Shavees raise $18,000 for childhood cancer research through Arvada St. Baldrick’s event By Sara van Cleve
svancleve@ourcoloradonews.com
A
rvada residents gave up their locks to raise more than $18,000 for childhood cancer research. About 60 people, from children to adults, came to the March 19 shave-athon at Arvada West High School. This was the fourth year that Arvada resident Lois Sisson organized the event to raise funds for St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a national foundation that raises money for childhood-cancer research. At the high school, participants included family and friends of cancer patients, and Arvada firefighters. They had their heads shaved to raise money for and awareness about childhood cancers. “I do it to honor my son Zachary who passed away six years ago in December from brain cancer,” Sisson said. “(St. Baldrick’s) means hope for the end of childhood cancer. It’s hope for a cure and hope for our kids.” Before a razor was put to the first scalp,
Sisson spoke to honor the lives of several children, both those who overcame their fight with cancer and those who died from cancer. Kaden Madsen and Andrew Kent, both of whom are in remission after three and a half years of cancer treatments, attended the shaving. Sisson also honored the memory of five young men who were lost to cancer: Alex Lacovetta, 19, and a 2011 Arvada West graduate; Austime Williams, 17; Nate Jurney, 20, and an alumnus of Ralston Valley High School; Sisson’s youngest son, Zachary, 10; and Taylor Easterberg, 11. “Taylor had a rare form of leukemia, and Taylor beat his cancer, but because the treatment was so harsh and so long, it destroyed his body,” Sisson said. Easterberg died March 16, the Saturday before the shave event. The head coach and members of his swim team, Rocky Mountain Thunder Swimming, participated in the event to honor their teammate and support other children facing similar diseases. “It’s something the team has done for four years,” said RMT Swimming Head Coach Brent Bergstedt. “Our team has lost three teammates or parents to cancer in the last five years.” Sisson’s older son, Lyle, is a former member of RMT Swimming.
The team started participating in St. Baldrick’s events in support of the Sisson family and continued to participate when Easterberg was diagnosed. “It’s bittersweet,” Bergstedt said. “It’s hard because [Easterberg] is no longer with us, but he’s no longer suffering. We loved him and cared for him, and he unified the team.” As Bergstedt sat in the barber’s chair and cosmetologist Danielle Dahl, of Centre Salon and Spa in Arvada, ran the clippers through his hair, he held an iPad on his lap with a red Lego displayed on the screen in memory of Easterberg. He was an ambassador for Legos for Leukemia. Bergstedt said St. Baldrick’s is just one of the organizations the swim team supports. “Giving back is a big deal,” he said. Lyle Sisson, a sophomore at Colorado School of Mines, said he participates in St. Baldrick’s shaving events and supports the organization because it’s something he can do to support children facing cancer. “It’s a way to help,” Lyle said. “I spent two years with my brother, watching everything he went through, and I couldn’t help. This is something I can do to help.” Lyle said one of his favorite quotes is something another participant said, “I hope by doing this, in 10, 15, 20 years, there will be no reason to do this.”
2012 was a good year for the city of Arvada. On March 18, City Council heard the annual financial report, and it was all positive. “The city ended 2012 on a very positive note,” said interim Director of Finance Lisa Yagi. “We were all very pleased with the results. We’ve seen a return to pre-recession levels in a lot of our major revenue categories, so that’s a good thing.” Single-family-home permits and building use tax revenues totaled $4.5 million last year, the highest they have been in six years. Sales-tax revenue, which accounts for about 66 percent of the general fund, was also up, Yagi said. “Our sales tax for 2012 ended up with about a 5.86 percent increase over 2011,” Yagi said. “We do have a stable revenue source in our grocery stores, and we had an increase of about 10.65 percent. That’s really unusual for us. It’s not uncommon to see an increase, but it’s usually 3 to 5 percent. We’re thinking that with the renovation of major grocery stores, maybe we’re pulling shoppers in from outside of Arvada.” Sales tax from department stores saw an increase of 5 percent, and all three restaurant categories — sit-down, fast food and fast casual — saw an increase. “The only dim light was utilities,” Yagi said. “We saw a decrease of 2.95 percent, and it was entirely weather-related because of the warm winter.” The general fund ended about a quarter of a million dollars higher than anticipated. “Our revenues were strong,” she said. “Our sales tax, auto use tax and building-related revenues all showed increases, so our revenues were about $2 million more than we expected.” Expenditures were down because of salary savings and savings for the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority, totalling another $2 million “Because of our strong revenue and exFinances continues on Page 23
Arvada one of three cities to receive health-related grant Professional panel studies city, make recommendations for “Healthy Places” By Sara van Cleve
svancleve@ourcoloradonews.com The city of Arvada’s recent focus has been making the city a great place to live, work and play – and soon it will become a healthier place to do just that. “The city of Arvada received a grant from the Colorado Health Foundation, called the Healthy Places grant,” said Arvada Sustainability Coordinator Jessica Prosser. “This grant is about designing an active Colorado.”
The Healthy Places initiative is a fiveyear, $4.5 million effort to help selected communities in the state become healthier places to live, work and play through a community process, Prosser said. Arvada was one of three Colorado cities to receive the grant. Lamar and Westwood also were selected. The first step of the initiative is to have a professional panel study the city and talk to residents, and then make improvement recommendations, which was done last week. The panel was led by Ed McMahon, a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute and chairman of the advisory services panel on Healthy Places. “Our mission in Arvada is to make strategic recommendations to the city on how
to enhance public health through changes and improvements to the built environment,” McMahon said during the March 18 City Council meeting. “We were impressed with the opportunity in what the city already has. With the coming of the Gold Line, there will be changes, and how do you use those to address this issue of health.” The panel included experts in a number of areas, including architecture, transportation planning, health planning and policies, real estate development and community design and health. The panel spent last week receiving briefing from city staff, touring the city and talking to residents about what they want to see. “We can’t make recommendations unless we know what people here are thinking
and what they think will work,” McMahon said. The panel has completed its study of the city and has created recommendations on how to best use the grant. As of press time, the recommendations had not been made available. “Health is a very broad topic,” McMahon said. “What our process is really about is empowering citizens and cities to figure out how to provide citizens, both young and old, with more choices.”
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