7 4 13 villager

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Volume 31 • Number 32 • July 4, 2013

What’s Inside Page 2

Greenwood Village Police Department built on character

Pages 18-19 Page 26

Bill Raey speaks on the role of public art

Don’t Miss:

died by self-inflicted • Fey gunshot wound Page 2 FASB Fitness Festival Patron • Party a newsy reception

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event raises $300,000 to • TAPS help military families

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Index Pages 5-6.............................Opinion Pages 11-18........................Fleurish Pages 20-24..........................Legals Pages 25-27..............................digs

TheVillagerNewspaper @VillagerDenver

303-773-8313 • Published every Thursday

Sharing bikes in the suburbs

By Peter Jones

King Soopers reopens Englewood store to neighbors delight

www.villagerpublishing.com

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Bicycle activist pushes for B-cycle in Arapahoe County

hen Joel Phillips talks about bike sharing, it’s a story of

life and death. A few years ago, the 377-pound man was in the fast lane to suicide, but his fatal flaw – or lifesaver, as it turned out – was his mode of transportation to get there. “I actually took my bike on a road to do the deed, and it was on that bike ride that I got a breath of life again,” he said. Before long, Phillips was riding his bicycle on a daily basis, enjoying the trip and traveling the road not – previously – taken. “I started noticing changes in my body that I had never experienced before,” he said. “It really opened up a world of possibility for me and gave me a sense of confidence and empowerment – and a desire to make this available to more people.” Flash forward several years: The now slimmer 279-pound Phillips is now an instructor at About Time Fitness in Englewood. He has also become a certified riding teacher and was tapped as a board member for the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce. Meanwhile, Denver has become the first U.S. city to start an organized public bike-sharing program: B-cycle, a still-growing enterprise that boasts 83 bike stations and more than 1,000 available bikes around the city. Designed for short trips, Bcycle members can pick up a bike at any station and then return it to any station when their journey is complete. Memberships can be Continued on page 4

Englewood Mayor Randy Penn, left, goes for a ride with Arapahoe B-cycle Executive Director Joel Phillips, Englewood City Manager Gary Sears and Brian Hart, owner of Englewood’s Frame de Art. Phillips is working to bring the popular B-cycle bike-sharing program to Englewood and the rest of Arapahoe County. Photo courtesy of Joel Phillips

DA mulls run for governor

By Peter Jones Add George Brauchler to the growing list of “maybes” in the race for governor. Last week, the district attorney in the 18th Judicial District said he was “seriously considering” a run for the Republican nomination in 2014. Brauchler joins Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler and state Sen. Greg Brophy of Wray in a group of Republicans who say they are mulling a challenge to Gov. John Hickenlooper. So far, former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo is the highest-profile Republican to file paperwork and officially announce his candidacy. Brauchler says he has been encouraged to run by a range of

DA George Brauchler party activists in the weeks since Hickenlooper granted a temporary reprieve from the death penalty to convicted murderer Nathan Dunlap. The decision prompted a

pointed rebuke from Brauchler, whose office prosecuted Dunlap for the 1993 murders in an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese restaurant and oversaw an arduous appeals process. Hickenlooper’s executive options had included commuting Dunlap’s sentence to life in prison without parole and allowing the execution to go forward, but he took the middle ground, granting a tenuous reprieve that could be overturned by his successor. Enter would-be Gov. Brauchler. “The governor shrugged,” the Republican told a press conference on the state Capitol steps shortly after Hickenlooper’s May 22 announcement. As Brauchler moves closer to

Brauchler at odds with Hickenlooper on Dunlap decision

a resolution, The Villager asked the district attorney for a peak into his decision-making process. Villager: Should we be surprised that you would consider another elected position after only six months as district attorney? Brauchler: That is probably one of three things I have to take into consideration. The first is my family. I’ve got to get to the point where I feel like my wife and my four small kids aren’t going to suffer unduly by a decision to take on a statewide race. But I’ve also committed myself to this office. The other issue is this [Aurora theater shooter James] Holmes case. It may be the biggest case Continued on page 4


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