“The Little Newspaper with the Big Influence”
Since 1982
Volume 31 • Number 7 • January 10, 2013 www.villagerpublishing.com 303-773-8313 • Published every Thursday
What’s Inside
Page 4
Littleton taps Feldman as top judge
Page 6
Joint Police and Fire facility to open in Cherry Hills Jan. 12
Page 16
Frame de Art to donate Manning jerseys every month for charity
Don’t Miss:
Village addresses • Greenwood mobile food permits, marijuana
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Page 4 Cherry Hills Village debates coyote management plan Page 6 Englewood charter school readies for round 2 Page 7
Index
Page 5..............................................Opinion Page 9...............................Service Directory Pages 11-18....................................Fleurish Pages 19-26......................................Legals Page 27..................................School/Sports
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Susan Beckman reflects on 15 years Outgoing official made mark in intergovernmental partnerships
By Peter Jones n 1997, Susan Beckman was a 36-year-old mom with a mission. “I was mad about Santa Fe Drive,” she said. “It was the only road I could drive when I did carpooling. We’d had all those fatalities and it was very treacherous.” The stay-at-home mother of two children eventually took her case to the Littleton City Council, but city officials told her they were powerless to do anything about the plagued state highway that had become known as the “ribbon of death.” “I didn’t understand – state, federal – it didn’t matter to me. It was a road going through our community,” Beckman said. Rather than let Littleton pass the proverbial buck, Beckman grabbed it herself and was soon a dark horse hopeful making a grassroots run for City Council in a tough race with three other candidates more tied to the civic community. After eking out a surprise victory, Beckman called the news media and began forging what was then an unusual partnership with Arapahoe County. She figured that if the two governments were to join forces, maybe … just maybe the “ribbon of death” could be tied up a little higher on the metro area’s 20-year priority list and perhaps a few lives would be saved. Within 18 months of taking
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Commissioner Susan Beckman presents a donated scooter from the Arapahoe County Fair to a young girl at a local childcare center in 2007. The cars were part of the Toddler Driving School, and as part of the agreement with the vendor, the cars were donated to childcare centers.
Photo courtesy of Arapahoe County
Landmark developer indicted by grand jury On-the-lam Davidson accused of embezzlement
By Tom Barry A grand jury in the 18th Judicial District has indicted Zachary Davidson, developer of the trendy Landmark development in Greenwood Village. The 28-page indictment includes 20 charges, including seven counts of theft, seven counts of forgery and six counts of embezzlement of public property. Last week, an arrest warrant was issued for Davidson, a highprofile developer who is accused of bilking large sums of money from the Marin Metropolitan District. Davidson had previously filed for personal and business bankruptcies. Hypo Bank’s real estate division in Germany had already repossessed the retail and resi-
The Landmark development features two posh high-rise residential condo units. The Greenwood Village development is near Belleview Avenue and I-25. Photos by Tom Barry dential complex, which is in receivership. In 2009, Hypo had sued Davidson on his $90 million guarantee.
Desperate people do desperate things
The Landmark had been mov-
ing along well, selling many of the posh residential units in the first tower when Davidson decided to erect a second high-end residential tower called The Meridian. When the economy took a downward spiral, so did the sales of the second tower condo units.
Zach Davidson, The Landmark developer, has been indicted by a grand jury in the 18th Judicial District.
File photo
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