January 15, 2015 VOLU M E 1 3 | I S SUE 52
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
There’s no business like snow business But some residents have questions about the city’s process By Jane Reuter
jreuter @coloradocommunitymedia.com
Shoppers jam the parking lots at Park Meadows mall Dec. 26. Early numbers point to a successful shopping season for retailers. Photo by Jane Reuter
Holidays came through for retailers Indicators bring optimism as final numbers take shape By Jane Reuter
jreuter@coloradocommunitymedia.com Final numbers aren’t yet in, but shopping center managers in the south metro area believe full parking lots, full shopping bags and smiling consumers point to an economically merry holiday season. “We believe the holidays were very strong for us,” said Andrea Nyquist, marketing director for the Outlets at Castle Rock. “What we’re hearing from all our brands (stores) seems very positive. People seemed happy. We noticed bigger family units shopping, and spending more time. Folks seemed very happy with the offerings, and I also think the outlet concept lends itself to good value.” At Park Meadows, November sales figures were “really strong,” general manager Pamela Schenck Kelly said. “But it wasn’t as a result of Black Friday,”
she said. “It was really because customers were shopping during the earlier weeks in November. Weather was on our side.” December’s snow impacted traffic early in the month, “but the last 10 days before Christmas were just amazing,” Kelly said. “This year, people were really in the holiday spirit, especially that last week. They were much, much more cheerful than what I’d seen in past years.” The buying didn’t stop with Christmas. While Kelly doesn’t yet have solid figures, Dec. 26 often is Park Meadows’ busiest day of the year. She believes it may set that record again in 2014. Overall in 2014, Kelly estimates the top three busiest days were Dec. 20, 22 and 26. Kelly gains a good sense of the season’s success by watching vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and counting packages. Park Meadows provides complimentary gift wrapping services during the holidays. This season, mall employees’ fingers were flying. “We figured we wrapped over 5,000 packages over the four weeks of the holiday,” she
said. The gifts she saw indicated shoppers were feeling generous. “There were big gifts; one customer had bought iPads for eight members of his family,” she said. “We saw a lot of really nice gifts. Some years you see a lot of necessity-type of stuff. This year, Mom wasn’t just buying a sweater; she was buying the whole outfit. We saw a lot of technology items, and we got a gazillion American Girl and Build-a-Bear dolls.” Nyquist and Kelly both attribute the generous spending in part to the area’s demographics. Douglas County’s median household income exceeds $100,000. “You have a very positive and progressive demographic in this particular area, and we do have a positive economy moving forward,” Kelly said. The National Retail Federation forecast a 4.1 percent increase in retail sales from 2013 to 2014. The first wave of national sales figures were released Jan. 8, and so far indicate the upbeat forecast was accurate.
Lone Tree’s plow drivers are moving snow with a purpose in mind, using a technique that helps melt and remove it from the city’s streets as quickly as possible. But not all homeowners realize there’s a method to their seeming madness. “We’re providing an extra service, but people just think we’re creating extra work,” Mayor Jim Gunning said. “It’s confusing to our residents.” Lone Tree contracts its snow-removal services with Littleton-based Terracare Associates. The company’s drivers first clear the roads, and then work to ensure snow plowed into piles melts as quickly as possible. “They plow it off, then take what’s on the edge of the road and try to distribute a portion of it back out into the road,” public works director John Cotten said. “If it doesn’t melt during the day, generally they’ll come back and move it out to the side. “That’s what everybody thinks is us just making work for the contractor, but it’s not. It’s the way you get it to melt.” Gunning, Cotten and other council members fielded resident complaints about snow plowing after late December and early January storms. “If we’re not seeing any kind of a melt coming, all it looks like to residents is us moving snow from one side of the street to the other,” mayor pro tem Jackie Millet said. “That has been a consistent comment I’ve received. Also, the snow is being put back up on sidewalks that people have shoveled.” “They don’t really get the fact you’re trying to make it melt,” Gunning said. “I’d rather we Snow continues on Page 23
Area leaders put face on pro-fracking effort Douglas County residents tout controversial practice By Jane Reuter
jreuter@coloradocommunitymedia.com Some south metro-area residents are lending their faces and voices to the fracking debate, appearing on pro-fracking fliers published by Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development. CRED, a nonprofit formed in August 2013 by publicly traded Texas-based companies Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Noble Energy, describes the fliers as part of a broader education effort on the widely debated practice. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique that uses pressurized liquid to fracture rock and release natural gas and oil from deep in the earth. Among the Douglas County faces featured on the glossy mailers are Douglas County School Board member Meghann Silverthorn, Lone Tree City Councilmember Kim Monson and Colorado Business Roundtable president Jeff Wasden. “The mission and focus is to help folks get the facts on fracking — what it is, what it isn’t, and in this case, how it benefits them,” CRED spokesperson Jon Haubert said. “We find so many people have no idea that the vibrant oil-and-gas-driven economy here in Colorado does benefit them.” Silverthorn, Monson and Wasden all say they investigated
Colorado Business Roundtable president Jeff Wasden and Douglas County school board member Meghann Silverthorn are among those lending support for fracking in a campaign by Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development. Staff photo the pros and cons of fracking independently before agreeing to appear on the fliers. None received compensation for their participation. “One thing we teach our kids to do is to look at all the information, use the scientific method and critical thinking to come to your own conclusion,” Silverthorn said, adding she
did just that with fracking issues. “After weighing all the pros and cons, in my opinion, taxpayers come out ahead. (Some) of the revenue overall statewide from fracking comes back to education, so it’s not an additional tax burden on the people of Douglas County.” Silverthorn’s flier cites a University of Colorado study that says the oil and gas industry “brought more than $204 million in benefits and savings into Colorado schools in just one year.” Haubert couldn’t confirm how much the Douglas County School District has received. “I have not seen a Douglas-specific figure, though I imagine it is not record-breaking,” he wrote in an emailed response. “Funds tend to go where energy development occurs via property and severance tax (i.e. taxes paid on minerals extracted.)” At present, fracking is not underway in Douglas County. A map from a University of Colorado study on CRED’s website of the distribution of 2012 property tax revenue from oil and natural gas activity shows Douglas County School District received no funds. School districts in Arapahoe and Elbert counties received $490,000 and $180,000 respectively. Additional funding for education is provided indirectly to school districts from the oil and gas taxes that go into the state general fund, and are redistributed into state education funds. Still another source of school funding is from federal mineral leases, according to the study. DCSD received about $9,600 in funds distributed from those federal mineral leases in 2014. Parent Heather Ertl questions Silverthorn’s involvement in Fracking continues on Page 23