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November 5, 2020
ADAMS & JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
WestminsterWindow.com
VOLUME 76 | ISSUE 2
In Westminster recall, counting begins
THE BALLOTS ARE CAST
Petition group files recall effort against Mayor, three City Councilors BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Leaders of an effort to recall four members of the Westminster City Council finished their summer project Oct. 30, wheeling four boxes of petitions and signatures challenge four City Council seats into Westminster City Hall just after noon. Once the City Clerk gets through vetting the petitions and confirming the signatures all come from registered Westminster votes, the city will know if they’ll have an election “It’s been a long, long week,” Organizer Debbie Teter said. “We got most of them right at the beginning and then it really picked up at the end.” Organizers began collecting signatures across the city, going door-todoor as well as setting up tables in Westminster grocery store parking lots, in parks and near the Adams County ballot box locations. “The ballot was a really big draw,“
A trio of voters cast ballots for the 2020 General Election Oct. 30 at the Adams County Voter Service and Polling Center at Thornton’s Trail Winds Recreation Center. For results of the Nov. 3 election, visit our website. PHOTO BY STEFAN BRODSKY
Atchison
Seitz
Skulley
Teter said. “We were 100 feet from the ballot boxes so we could get them when they voted. The other one was the parks. We had huge, huge success
at the parks.” City Clerk Michelle Parker said her office has 15 days to review the signatures and verify that they are from registered Westminster voters once they have been submitted. That work began Saturday, Oct. 31, with clerk employees reviewing each name and address to make sure they are registered Westminster voters. The recall group has 15 days after that to “cure“ the petition if there is a problem. The clerk then has another five days to review the petition
signatures and declare the petition sufficient or not. That puts a final decision on the recall effort’s success in triggering an election into December. Water Rates Councilors voted in 2018 to increase residential water rates for 2020 by roughly 10% and commercial rates by between 6% and 10% to pay for repairs and maintain the city’s aging system SEE RECALL, P4
Snow helped slow forest fires, not stop them Metro North wildlands fire team back home after multiple deployments BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Metro North Lieutenant Mike Anderson said the impact the snow that closed out October had on the
fires plaguing Colorado was quick and obvious. “Across the board it helps,” he said. Anderson and the wildland team from Metro North Fire and Rescue has spent several weeks this summer, fighting the fires that spread across the forests in the Western United States. He and his team were sent to help fight the Pine Gulch Fire North of Grand Junction back in August. Next, they were sent to Northern California
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to help battle the Red Salmon Complex fire, Northeast of Eureka, California. They spent a month there, two rotations fighting that blaze before returning to Colorado. Back in Colorado they were deployed to fight the Calwood Fire North of Boulder and finally the East Troublesome Fire West of Estes Park. That’s one of two fires threatening that community. The Cameron Peak fire is currently listed as partially under control after burning
208,000 acres. Anderson said he and his crew were in Estes Park during the Front Range’s snow storm, and it helped tamp down on the open flames. But Anderson said the problems from an unprecedented wildland fire season are not past the state yet. It takes more than a single snowstorm to solve the problem. “Unless you get the entire winter’s SEE FIRES, P2
SHRINKING CUT
Sports apps eating into state’s tax revenues
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