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
Page 11
event raises $300,000 to • TAPS help military families
Page 17
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