Redstone May/June 2024

25, NUMBER 4

Program to allow people to age in place offered to local residents

LYONS – CAPABLE (Community Aging in Place-Advancing Better Living for Elders) is a program of the Colorado Visiting Nurses Association. Which is now available locally. Its Goal is to increase mobility, function and empower individuals to age in place. Services includes home visits from an Occupational Therapist (OT), Registered Nurse and handy worker (minor home modifications coordination with the OT to address safety needs). Qualifications include being 18 years old and older (Health First/Colorado Medicaid member), 60 years and older for other funding, have difficulty performing at least one activity of daily living such as dressing, bathing, hygiene or difficulty with 2 or more instrumental activities of daily living such as housework, medication management, meal preparation, financial management, ability to problem solve. The contact for information or to see if you qualify, go to CAPABLE@vnacolorado.org or call 303-698-6302. Kay Sparks is the chair of Housing and Human Services, HHS.

Lyons Diversion Day

LYONS – The Town of Lyons is partnering with Eco-cycle, CHaRM, Boulder County and Galvanize Recycling to host a Spring Diversion Day Event on Saturday, May 18 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Public Works Facility, 4687 Ute Highway for Town of Lyons Residents only This event is by appointment only with limited slots. For more information, call Town Hall at 303-823-6622.

Spring garden reparations are underway

LYONS – April showers bring May flowers. The localized spring clean up of LaVern Johnson Park and Bohn Park will begin the week of May 13. Main St and High St flower planters will also be cleaned up and new flowers added for the summer.

R • E • V • I • E • W

Spirit Guides: Fantastical Creatures from the Workshop of Jacobo and María Ángeles. These joyful, fanciful and distinctively patterned sculptures can be found throughout the living galleries of the Denver Botanic Gardens, now through September 8. Created by the workshop of Mexican artists Jacobo and María Ángeles, these brightly colored and richly patterned sculptures depict imaginary hybrid animals that act as both spirit guides and astrological embodiments of human character. Jacobo and María Ángeles are a married artist team based in San Martín Tilcajete in Oaxaca, Mexico. With increasing demand for their works, the artists employ more than 100 artisans in a workshop that also acts as an art school. Go to https://www.botanicgardens.org for more information

Lyons Board will raise fines on traffic violations, drop utility deposits and get tough on tree limb pickups

By Susan de Castro Redstone Review

LYONS – At a recent Lyons Town Board meeting in April, the Lyons Town board passed Ordinance 1160 on first reading, to repeal a section of the municipal code that requires new utility account owners pay a $100 deposit on their utility bills. The deposit issue became complicated when the state required interest to be paid on deposits. After one year the deposit is applied to the customer’s bill and removed. Town staff pointed out that bookkeeping had become increasingly complicated with the addition of figuring the interest into the equation, and asked to have the deposit requirement removed. Staff pointed out that most municipalities in the state have removed the deposit requirement. The board members agreed.

The board also passed Ordinance 1159 on first reading, to adopt the 2024 model traffic code within the town. Sergeant Cody Sears, Lyons substation supervisor with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Dept., recommended the 2024 updated model traffic code, pointing out that the former traffic code was outdated.

Sears told the board that the cost of conducting business with the Boulder County Sheriff’s office has steadily risen and contin-

ues to go up. The new code will adjust the fine schedule for civil traffic infractions, which he said is essential. “These adjustments will assist the town in mitigating the escalating expenses, while also bringing our fines in line with those of neighboring municipalities, Boulder County, and state traffic infraction penalties,” he said in a report to the town.

Sears added in his report, “The average fine per point for traffic infractions in nearby municipalities, Boulder County, and state traffic infractions is between $30 and $50 per point. Our town’s fine schedule is currently set at $30 per point. To align with regional standards, I propose increasing the fine schedule for traffic infractions from $30 per point to $35 per point.

“Ticket surcharges: The town currently only assesses a $25 surcharge on animal ordinance violation tickets. I recommend adding a $35 surcharge to every case charged into the Municipal Court that results in a conviction, reflecting the rising costs of managing tickets entered into the court.

“Accident fine: Currently, the court assesses a $30 accident fee for all accidents as part of the defendant's court costs. I propose increasing this fee to $50, reflecting the rising costs of managing traffic accidents.”

The board agreed and now those who speed

through Lyons will be hit with higher fines as soon as the ordinance passes a second reading.

Several items were discussed under general business. The first item was a request by Spirit Hound Distillers LLC, 4196 Ute Hwy. to delay the modification date of their leased storage building. The storage building is actually located behind the former Clark’s Hardware store owned by Lon Clark. Clark sold the building to Spirit Hound in June, 2023.

The building that Spirit Hound is leasing from the town is located partially on the pathway that the town plans to use for the construction of the St. Vrain Trail. So the building needs to be modified or partially torn down before the trail construction can begin.

Neil Sullivan, who is one of the owners and spokesperson for Spirit Hound, wants more time for the reconstruction, because the building, he said, needs to be cut in half to accommodate the proposed St. Vrain Trail. Sullivan said that the contractors they are working with need a structural engineering plan and that may take more time to initiate.

Town staff member Tracy Sanders, who is working on the project for the town, told the board that the town must meet the environmental requirements to protect the Preble’s

PHOTO BY CATHY RIVERS

LYONS

Hello,

Yesterday, Cemex submitted its response to Boulder County regarding the notice of termination of nonconforming use issued in April. Please attribute the following statement to Cemex in your coverage of this update.

On May 9, 2024, Cemex submitted its response to the Boulder County Community Planning and Permitting Department’s April 10, 2024, Notification of Determination Regarding Termination of Nonconforming Use. Cemex is disappointed by the Department’s assertion that a continuation in historical truck traffic should result in a loss of Cemex’s long-standing and unrefuted right to continue operation of its Lyons cement plant. The Department’s determination is not only factually and legally incorrect but threatens the livelihoods of Cemex’s local workforce and their families and would set a concerning precedent for any business operating as a legal, non-conforming use.

As part of the recent proceedings on Cemex’s application to extend the life of the Dowe Flats quarry across the highway from the cement plant, Cemex offered Boulder County an opportunity to agree on a future cessation of operations at the Lyons cement plant, which would have limited the permissible truck traffic that is now being used in an attempt to terminate the cement plant operations.

The Department’s conclusion did not take into account the historical trucking of material to and from the Lyons cement plant, relying instead on a study Cemex voluntarily undertook for the Colorado Department of Transportation for a different purpose and that considered only three days of traffic data in each of two consecutive years. The determination also failed to apply applicable precedent that a nonconforming use does not terminate when traffic occurring off-site changes.

The attempt to shut down our plant, one of only three cement plants in Colorado, has statewide implications:

making it more expensive to build a home during an unprecedented housing crisis. Ninety-five percent of the cement made by Cemex in Lyons stays in Colorado. Cement is a vital component of concrete, giving it strength and durability. Concrete literally is the foundation for the tens of thousands of single- and multi-family homes that Colorado so desperately needs. When the cost of building materials goes up, all Coloradans are hurt, to say nothing of the loss of 100 good-paying blue-collar jobs.

Cemex looks forward to providing the Department further information and analysis confirming the determination should be reversed.”

Please feel free to reach out to me at any time with further inquiries.

Best regards,

Maryssa Silva External Communications Manager

CEMEX 713-650-6200

cemexusacommunications@cemex.com

To the Editor

CEMEX is asserting that Boulder County made an error and did not correctly apply the applicable law and facts. In short, CEMEX has submitted an appeal to the Director of Community Permitting and Planning, that will require his response, prior to submitting an actual appeal to the Board of Boulder County Commissioners.

Good Neighbors of Lyons’ (non-legal) interpretation of CEMEX’s response is that they’ve implied their strongest legal argument is that the trucking increase isn’t really an increase at all. They’re arguing that the traffic study that they commissioned and provided to CDOT in August 2023 isn’t accurate, despite not having previously raised any concerns regarding its accuracy.

If you take the public data on the tonnage of raw material processed at the plant, and then calculate the number of trucks required to transport that material, it does align

with the traffic study results submitted to CDOT. The truck traffic increases documented in the CDOT study far exceed the limits set in the County’s Land Use Code, indicating a substantial increase in road hazards.

CEMEX’s second argument appears to loosely be that even if the traffic study was accurate, the County has no rights to terminate their right to operate based on an increase of trucking. The Boulder County Land Use Code clearly states that the County has the authority to terminate nonconforming uses that pose hazards or nuisances on or off the property. We obviously agree with the County’s assertion that 230 new trips per day, by 35-ton trucks, creates both a hazard and a nuisance to our community.

Last, CEMEX equates this termination to a “taking” because they offered a deal for 15 more years of mining in exchange for the voluntary closure of the plant, which the County did not accept. Good Neighbors of Lyons and the Town of Lyons advocated for a more balanced five-year extension with a compromise that would have allowed all stakeholders in the community to benefit.

CEMEX chose not to engage or entertain a compromise. It is disingenuous to suggest that the community, and by extension, Boulder County, has not tried to negotiate solutions that consider both environmental safety and job security for CEMEX employees. Further, CEMEX had opportunities to submit a new mining application with the necessary environmental impact studies, or to appeal the Boulder County Commissioners’ decision to deny their mining extension. They opted against these actions, despite their public acknowledgement of the safety risks their alterations and enlargements would bring to the local community should their mine close.

We are awaiting Boulder County’s response and have contacted them in an effort to gain clarity on what next steps and the associated timeline might look like. We will share more as we learn more.

Sarah Lorang Good Neighbors of Lyons

At deadline for Cemex response to Boulder County termination, Cemex says ignore a traffic study it paid for

By Michael Booth, Reprinted from the Colorado Sun Redstone Review

LYONS – When Boulder County told high-polluting Cemex it had to shut down a month ago for violating its land use permits, it cited a study by Cemex showing truck traffic more than doubled in the past year.

Cemex’s response at the 30-day deadline for appeal? Don’t use our study!

While CDOT engineers praised the Cemex study for its frankness in emails to Cemex and Boulder County, Cemex is now saying its study is misleading and shouldn’t be used against them because it only accounted for a few days of observation.

CDOT’s conclusion, relied upon by Boulder County land use regulators in canceling Cemex’s ability to operate, “did not take into account the historical trucking of material to and from the Lyons cement plant, relying instead on a study Cemex voluntarily undertook for the Colorado Department of Transportation for a different purpose and that considered only three days of traffic data in each of two consecutive years,” Cemex spokesperson Maryssa Silva said in an email late Thursday.

A month ago, Boulder County said increased truck traffic was a violation of Cemex’s nonconforming use permit to conduct industrial operations in an agricultural zone, and the company had 30 days to refute the contentions, shut down or formally appeal.

“The determination also failed to apply applicable precedent that a nonconforming use does not terminate when traffic oc-

curring off-site changes,” Cemex said. The cement producer argues it was forced to truck in more materials from offsite after Boulder County in 2022 refused to renew a mining permit for materials at Cemex’s onsite Dowe Flats quarry.

Neighborhood activists opposing Cemex point to the company’s own study as the best proof that truck traffic has increased to dangerous and detrimental levels, alongside continuing state-cited air pollution violations from the Cemex kiln and dust from operations.

The growth in traffic joins with the company’s periodic violations and fines with the state Air Pollution Control Division to show a “pattern of negligence,” plant opponent Sarah Lorang said. Cemex opinion pieces published in local media claiming a commitment to public safety “contrasts with Cemex’s inaction, such as failing to implement CDOT’s safety-enhancing traffic pattern changes, as well as the plant’s decades-long problems with highly toxic fugitive dust emissions that remain unresolved today,” Lorang said.

“Cemex has consistently chosen to not implement measures to prevent regulatory violations,” Lorang said.

Truck traffic bringing in outside materials to Cemex at Lyons increased greatly in 2023, after county officials refused to keep a nearby mine open. But Cemex says its own study is not reliable in this case. (Cemex site traffic study)

Cemex said it has filed the required response to Boulder County’s 30-day termination notice, but did not respond to a request to share it. Boulder County officials forwarded the Cemex response to some of the neighborhood opponents.

The Cemex-commissioned traffic study turned over to CDOT and county officials

showed that daily truck trips attributed to the company on and near Highway 66 reached about 1,300 in 2023. Those levels were about 600 a day in 2022, when Cemex was still bringing in cement-making materials from just next door at the Dowe Flats mine.

In its Thursday response to the Boulder County termination notice, Cemex said records show truck traffic has fluctuated greatly for years while the Dowe Flats mine was still open, and that the county erred in

for the conclusion that increased offsite traffic ‘intensifies the use of the land,’” the Cemex response says.

“A Boulder County spokesperson said, “Cemex is exercising its option of providing evidence to the director that the director’s determination was in error. The director will review that additional evidence and issue an additional determination. If that determination is adverse to Cemex, they will have the option of appealing it to the Board of County Commissioners. The board does not comment on quasi-judicial matters prior to a proceeding.”

To recap the last two years of events surrounding Cemex at Lyons: Cemex has long operated one of only

citing a large increase for the termination.

“The volume of traffic following the closure of Dowe Flats is no different than the historical volume of traffic supplying materials to the operations on the property prior to and even during the use of Dowe Flats,” Cemex’s nine-page response said. “Thus, a fundamental premise of the determination – an increase in traffic – is incorrect.”

“Even if Boulder County determines there has been an increase, though it shouldn’t, Cemex argues, county land use laws do not allow a change in traffic alone to be declared an “impermissible enlargement or alteration of use.”

“The determination sets forth no basis

three cement kilns in Colorado at the location surrounded by Boulder County and Lyons open space. The plant is a big target of environmental groups for pumping out about 300,000 tons of greenhouse gases a year, one of the largest single sources in the state, and for repeatedly violating state rules on controlling dust and other local pollutants from the site.

Cemex offered Boulder County officials a deal in 2022: If the county approved an extension for the mine operating permit, the company would donate about 1,000 acres of open space for local parks and agree to close the mine and the kiln itself

Continue Cemex on Page 15

Booth

PHOTO BY HUGH CAREY, THE COLORADO SUN

State Legislature passes bills consequential to Lyons

By Hollie Rogin, Mayor of Lyons Redstone Review

LYONS – The 2024 legislative session has ended. The legislature passed consequential bills related to land use and housing, and some of them will have a direct effect on Lyons. Because part of my role as Mayor is to advocate for our town at the state level, I spent significant effort opposing legislation that would remove our control over local land use decisions.

I communicated with our State Representative and State Senator, testified during committee hearings, and collaborated with the Colorado Municipal League (CML), Metro Mayors Caucus, and regional colleagues. Ultimately, the legislature passed bills (some already signed and some headed to the Governor for signature) that do remove local control. Town Staff will be carefully analyzing this legislation to present the Board of Trustees with more specific information regarding how these new laws will affect us, as will CML.

HB24-1007, Occupancy Limits, removes the ability of the Town of Lyons to enforce occupancy limits based on familial relationships except to conform with health and safety regulations. It appears that HOAs may still be able to enforce their own regulations regarding occupancy limits.

ernment cannot deny an ADU to be permitted and built except for certain narrow circumstances in historic districts. A local government can require owner occupancy of the primary residence when the ADU is permitted, but not after it is built. Nor can we apply what are considered “restrictive design standards” to ADUs. We can require one parking space, and our short-term rental regulations will still apply.

In the better news category, HB- 1175 gives local governments a new “right of first refusal” to buy publicly sub-

HB24-1152, ADUs, makes ADUs a by-right use in every zoning district (including HOAs) and supersedes the ADU ordinances that Lyons enacted and has been refining for the last ten years. If signed as expected, it goes into effect in July of 2025. Essentially, a local gov-

sidized affordable housing properties when their rental restrictions expire. This also requires landlords to notify the town if they plan to sell their complexes. We would have the right to then make a first offer on the property

to turn it into affordable housing. However, Lyons does not have a housing authority and so this is highly unlikely (though not impossible).

And in the right-timing category, SB24-174 requires local governments with a population of over 1,000 people to assess community housing needs, with technical assistance provided by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA). Lyons completed and is in the process of amending a Housing Needs Assessment this year. There is also a requirement to update DOLA every three years, and provide updated assessments every six years.

Whether you are or are not in support of these laws, you can probably see why having state legislators who understand our community and our needs is so important. Our State Senator is Janice Marchman, elected in 2022 and serving a four-year term. She’s a strong partner with and advocate for Lyons. Our current House Representative Judy Amabile is leaving the House and campaigning for a Senate seat outside of our district this November.

Our House seat will then be open and filled by the winner in November. There is a primary election this June. I know many of us may be suffering from election fatigue after our April election, and thinking about November can be daunting, but I encourage you to familiarize yourselves with your options for the June primary. And if you happen to run across a candidate making a stop in Lyons or have the opportunity to meet them elsewhere, consider asking them what their stance is on local control of land use decision-making.

Hollie Rogin was sworn in as Mayor of Lyons on April 18, 2022. Before that she was elected to serve on the Board of Trustees for the term of 2020 to 2022. She was re-elected mayor in the April 2024 election. In 2015, Rogin created the foundation for what is now the City of Boulder’s Commercial Affordability program on a pro bono basis. While serving as a Trustee, she was the Board liaison to the Economic Vitality Commission and the Historic Preservation Commission.

May is National Small Business Month and local businesses need your support

By Kristin Frances Redstone Review

LYONS – Given that “shop local” and “support small business” are widelyused slogans, I thought I’d share a little bit about what this means and why it’s important for Lyons-area residents to give this some thought and a lot of action.

A recent article published by Shift Workspaces asked, “Does it Really Matter if We Buy Local?” (spoiler – the answer is 100 percent yes.) One of the first pieces of data provided by the author was that local retailers return approximately “52 percent of their revenue back to their local economy,” versus the mere 14 percent reported for national chain retailers.

What does this look like? The article used an example of a local farmer selling produce to a nearby local restaurant. The farmer pays its local employees, the restaurant prepares the food and sells it to local customers. The revenue earned by the restaurant can then be used to purchase

supplies or incidentals from another local business. And in a certain sweet and beautiful little small town, you might find many of those locals walking or driving their golf carts to their favorite place. How lucky are they?

Speaking of farmers and produce, did you know that Moxie Lyons will host a Farmer’s Market every other Friday from 12 to 4 p.m.? These will run from May 17 through October 18. From their flier: you’ll find “local produce, live music, flowers, baked goods, butter, honey, regeneratively raised meat, local artisans and more.” Mark your calendars.

Another statement in the article really stood out: “Local ownership also means that community members take part in making important decisions that will affect the community.” Our most recent general Lyons Chamber of Commerce meeting on May 3 had a beautiful mix of creative, solution-oriented participants. During that meeting, we decided to form a smaller committee tasked with one thing: work together to create and implement a unique Lyons “thing” that will occur monthly and

all year long. Our goal is to bring in Lyons residents and have this become popular for visitors too. If you are interested in contributing your time and creative, solutionoriented brainpower, please reach out to me at admin@lyonschamber.org or text/call 720-310-8724.

By the way, our general chamber meetings, held 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. on the first Friday of every month, are open to any community members, non-profits, business owners and individuals who share a love for Lyons and a desire to seek solutions that help our town thrive.

A December 2023 article from Gitnux provided several “shop local statistics” that are worth mentioning as well. Here are a few:

• 68 percent of consumers prefer to discover products in-store;

• 48 percent of consumers say they prefer to shop at local businesses even if prices are somewhat higher;

• Around 50 percent of small businesses contribute towards charity;

• Small businesses donate 250 percent more to non-profit organizations than

larger businesses.

If you’ve done any fundraising in town lately or participated in a silent auction, raffle or other event, think about all of the local businesses who donated those items. Full stop.

You happen to be holding in your hands the product of another local Lyons business that, although it doesn’t have a storefront, reaches approximately 3,000 households every month. Costs to produce the (free) Redstone Review newspaper have increased substantially. Enough so, that National Small Business Month is the perfect time to ask you to consider how you might financially support this local business. At this time, you can write a check for ANY amount at ANY time. In the future, you might see a request for a very modest volunteer subscription (think CPR, the Colorado Sun.) Please reach out to me if you have any questions.

Kristin Frances is the executive director of the Lyons Area Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at 720-310-8724 or admin@lyonschamber.org.

Rogin

Frances

Our State Senator is Janice Marchman, elected in 2022 and serving a four-year term. She’s a strong partner with and advocate for Lyons.

Upcycling radiators: a win-win opportunity for Redstone Museum

By Monique Sawyer-Lang Redstone Review

LYONS – Decades ago, the steam radiators at the Lyons Redstone Museum were traded out for a forced air heating system. As a result, about a dozen radiators were put in the second floor storage room where they have sat ever since, taking up space and putting physical stress on the infrastructure of the second floor. For some time the museum has tried to find a new home for the radiators, but to no avail. That is until museum board member Priscilla Cohan reached out to CU Denver Auraria art instructor, Rian Kerrane, who wanted to repurpose the radiators by melting them down for art sculpture projects.

The museum set aside four radiators to keep for the collection. The first task was to figure out how to get the radiators down from the second floor of the museum. They weighed a ton and some were about six feet long. We have no idea how staff even got some of those radiators up the stairs in the first place. YouTube helped the Radiator Removal Crew of Jerry Johnson, Emily Walker, Rolf Hertenstein, and project lead Dave Brininstool figure out how to break them apart. In the end, only one actually had to be sawed into pieces. It took these four

people 36 hours over three days to dismantle the radiators, get them down the stairs, and move them out of the building. The second task was to get them to Denver.

tially a furnace). Molten iron, which can reach temperatures of 2,300 degrees, collects at the bottom where it was “tapped” and poured into molds.

We are grateful that Kerrane came to Lyons with a truck and some students to pick them up.

On March 12, 2024, the Radiator Removal Crew consisting of myself, Monique SawyerLang, and my husband Steve Lang who volunteered to help, traveled to the Auraria campus for the “Iron Pour.”

The objective was to create art by casting molten iron into prepared molds. This was a multiple step, day-long process which began with the busting up of the radiators into small fist size pieces, no small feat. The pieces of scrap iron were then combined with industrial coke and limestone and dropped into the top of an Irish Luck Cupola (essen-

Our state grass has strong “roots” in Colorado

Price Sawyer-Lang

By Deborah Huth Price Redstone Review

LYONS – When you think of Colorado state emblems, grass is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. However, Blue Grama grass (Bouteloua gracilis) is indeed worthy of admiration. Blue Grama was a major component of the grasslands that once dominated the vast prairies of the American West.

Adopted as the state grass in 1987 by the Colorado General Assembly, this beautiful grass with its eyelashshaped flower spike once covered more than a third of the state of Colorado.

As one of the most common grasses in the state, it is found on both sides of the continental divide, from the prairie to the foothills as well as intermountain parks, from about 3,500 to 7,000 feet in elevation. A dominant grass of the shortgrass prairie, it usually averages about six to 24 inches tall, with a majority of the plant (60 to 80 percent) underground.

This underground portion of the plant “supports an unimaginable array of organisms including bacteria, fungi, and animals including nematodes (over 100,000 per plant) which all help produce healthy prairie soil that keeps the plants and other organisms fed with nutrients and protected from disease,” according to Ellen Wohl in her 2009 publication Island of Grass

Blue Grama evolved on the Great Plains and therefore is highly drought resistant, and well adapted to grazing animals, wind, and fire due to its ability to store water and nutrients on or below the surface. In addition, its dense root system is important for erosion control.

“Blue Grama supports a wide variety of native species including butterflies, moths, birds, and mammals,” said

Pam Smith, Colorado Natural Heritage Botanist, adding that, “If we knew in the 1800s what we know now, I believe we would have kept these grasslands instead of replacing them with non-native grasses that require more water, are less fire and drought adapted, and most impor-

tantly less nutritious for wildlife and livestock.”

While Blue Grama is thought of as a prairie species, it can also be used as a lawn or landscape grass. Blue Grama plugs can be purchased from local garden stores or nurseries, since the plant typically reproduces vegetatively and not by seed, and it is adaptive to almost any type of soil. Smith says that once established, Blue Grama may not need mowing or water, depending on moisture levels. When buying Blue Grama plugs, Smith says to make sure you are getting the native species as the cultivated hybrids grow much taller and are used as ornaments. Unlike other lawn grasses, Blue Grama greens up in mid-summer when other grasses start to brown. As a warm season grass, its main growing season is between July and September, and actually does better during the hottest months.

To our surprise and delight, the art department kindly created a “Lyons Redstone Museum” sign from the molten iron radiators. It will arrive at the museum sometime this summer. Finding a second life for the inoperable and unused radiators was Priscilla Cohan’s last project for the Redstone Museum. She passed away October 16, 2023.

Monique Sawyer Lang is the Collections Manager of the Lyons Redstone Museum. She is also a volunteer with the Lyons Food Pantry and a former member / chair of the Lyons Community Foundation Board. She lives in Spring Gulch.

Blue Grama grows well mixed with other native Colorado grasses such as Buffalograss (Bouteloua dactyloides), Needle-and-thread (Hesperostipa comata), Western Wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii), and Green Needlegrass (Nassella viridula) in mixed mid-grass to short grass prairies and foothill meadows, according to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Blue Grama is also recognized as the state grass of New Mexico, and while traveling recently, I discovered that Texas is represented by another native prairie species— Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), a close relative of Blue Grama.

Planting native species is always a good way to ensure the healthiest environment that supports a wider variety of both plants and animals, including important pollinators such as butterflies and moths that require Blue Grama as a host plant.

Blue Grama grass is not only our state grass, but also a native resident of the prairie that knows its roots.

Deborah Huth Price is an environmental educator living in Pinewood Springs. You can visit her blog at www.walk-thewild-side.blog or contact her at debhprice@gmail.com.

All radiators outside and ready to roll to the Iron Pour at CU Auraria in Denver.

Art students of Rian Kerrane, CU Denver Auraria art instructor, break the radiators into small pieces.

The art department created a Lyons Redstone Museum sign from the molten iron radiators. PHOTOS BY STEVE LANG

Sawing up radiators inside the museum.

Hauling the pieces down the museum stairs.

Fourth Annual Mountain Blooms Garden Tour coming in June

By Sandy Spellman Redstone Review

LYONS – As our abundantly rainy and snowy spring settles in, the perennial flowers are blooming and the fruit trees are in their blossoming glory. Typically mid-May marks the end of our frost season, though we’ve been hit with freezes in late May in the past. Barring a late frost, this could be a bumper crop year for the apples, plums, pears, peaches, cherries and apricots that grow around Lyons – including in the new community orchard. Mid-May is the time to get your peas, spinach, lettuces and other cool weather crops planted into your garden.

In another month, mid-June, early summer gardens of flowers and vegetables will be thriving and it will be time for the fourth annual Mountain Blooms Garden Tour, presented by the Lyons Garden Club. Gardeners always come from far and wide to see what Lyons has to show. The Mountain Blooms Garden Tour has earned a first-rate reputation as a Lyons event not

to be missed. This year’s tour features eight gardens plus the Clarifier – a local treasure – and will take place rain or shine on Saturday, June 15 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Tickets and maps are available online at LyonsGardenClub.com or can be picked up on the day of the tour starting at 8 a.m. at Sandstone and 4th Avenue. There is no cost to attend although donations to the Lyons Garden Club are appreciated.

Sponsors are still being sought – see LyonsGardenClub.com for details on how to become a sponsor. This year’s current sponsors include: Bent Heirlooms, Lyons Parks and Recreation, G. Bhan Photography, Cemex, St. Vrain Market, Tucker Group Real Estate, Boulder CPA Group, McCann Real Estate, Hatrock Excavating, Lyons Physical Therapy, Simply Bee Conservation, Chris Meline and Jane CarloughMeline, and the Batts Jennings Family.

The garden tour is an excellent opportunity to see what our local gardeners are growing, to get tips and answers to your gardening questions as well as inspiration.

If you are growing your own flowers and/or vegetables, or if you would just enjoy a day of beauty, you are invited to attend the Mountain Blooms Fourth An-

Colorado water diversions are fatal to an untold number of trout

By Greg Lowell Redstone Review

LYONS – What if I told you that each year potentially millions of trout are lost along Colorado’s rivers and streams? And then told you that the options for doing anything about it are very limited?

Colorado has more than 105,000 irrigation structures on rivers and streams, according to Colorado Department of Water Resources. These diversions direct the flow of water from the rivers into canals and pipelines through headgates that are opened and closed according to the water rights and needs of farmers and municipalities throughout the state.

When the diversion gates are open, fish are pulled into the diversion and down the ditch or pipe. Fish moving downstream will also instinctively follow the current into the headgate. Fish then either die when they are swept into fields or are trapped when the headgates are closed and the water dries up in the ditches.

The number of fish lost to diversions is unquantified, but a recent study of one major diversion in Colorado showed an average of 20,000 fish entrained annually. Given the 105,000 diversions, it’s easy to see that the number of lost fish could be very high.

“Entrainment” is the loss of fish whenever streams or rivers are diverted for irrigation and other uses. It’s one of the major causes of fish loss in Western states. “It’s a large and complicated issue, and one that may have negative effects on sport fish populations,” said Dan Kowalski, aquatic research scien-

tist with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

If other impacts like pollution or chemical spills killed the same number of fish, there would be public outrage and the state could seek redress for those losses, as in the 2021 gas tanker spill on the North St. Vrain River.

But because Colorado has long-established water rights, and the construction of diversions to satisfy those rights emphasizes moving water to grow crops, there is very little oversight of irrigation compa-

nies. Many diversion structures are more than 75 years old, constructed at a time when water was the priority and loss of fish was not considered. The gates generally use technology that raises a barrier from the bottom up, creating a powerful draw that sucks fish into the irrigation canal.

“When most diversions were constructed, the priority was agriculture; recreational interests in the state, like fishing, are a newer phenomenon,” said Kowalski. The problem of fish entrainment is not well studied and not governed by any specific laws or regulations, said Kowalski. CPW is “very concerned about fish entrainment,” said Kowalski, and regional fish biologists work closely with local irrigation companies and farmers on solutions or to rescue trapped fish.

He points out that this is different from places like the Pacific Northwest where endangered species like steelhead and salmon have federal protection and there are legal mechanisms to prevent loss of these fish. Entrainment prevention is more common and there is federal funding to pay for it.

In Colorado, regulatory mechanisms are few and generally only come into play when a federally listed endangered fish species, like Colorado Pikeminnow, are present in the waters being diverted, in which case the Endangered Species Act prevents the “take” of listed species.

Researchers, however, are working with ditch companies on techniques to prevent fish from entering diversions. Kowalski and his team studied an electric fish barrier that was installed by the local electrical cooperative and irrigators at the entrance to the South Canal, a major diversion on the Gunnison River. The high voltage field deters smaller fish from following the current into the canal. It’s not fool-proof, however; larger fish will swim right through the electrical field.

Other fish deterrent systems being experimented with include physical barriers, like screens and netting, and non-physical guidance barriers, like strobe lights and acoustic deterrents, to influence fish behavior to divert them from unwanted areas. The use of any deterrent system requires both the cooperation of ditch companies and money, neither of which are

nual Garden Tour on Saturday, June 15.

Sandy Spellman is a member of the Lyons Garden Club.

Statement from Left Hand and St. Vrain Water Conservancy Districts Redstone Review

LONGMONT – A St. Vrain trans-basin diversion, which has been a cornerstone of Colorado’s water rights history for over 140 years while simultaneously drawing environmental concern because of impacts to the South St. Vrain Creek, is making history again.

The South St. Vrain Diversion was at the center of the controversial 1882 Colorado Supreme Court water rights case Coffin v. Left Hand Ditch Company that set the precedent for water rights across the western United States for establishing the “first in time, first in right” doctrine. Now the diversion structure is the first in the St. Vrain basin to employ remote operations of the diversion.

A collaboration between the Left Hand Ditch Company, the Left Hand Water District and the St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District authorized the installation of new technology last year that directs more precise stream flows and provides better monitoring and metering.

The ability to operate this diversion remotely through a mobile phone app enables rejuvenating flows into South St. Vrain Creek. The upcoming summer months may be among the first to see water flow down South St. Vrain Creek for the first time in over a century.

Previously, operating this diversion required a three-hour drive from Niwot to above the Peak-to-Peak Highway when the mountain access point was accessible and then required manual operation of a centuryold diversion wheel. In winter, the only option of reaching the diversion was often via snowshoes. The new diversion operations equipment is charged by solar and controlled by cellular data. Flows as low as five cubic feet per second (CFS) can make a big difference to the health of the stream.

“The collaboration between the three entities represents trust, partnership, and environmental dedication,” said Sean Cronin, Executive Director at the St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District. “This project underscores our unwavering commitment to preserving Colorado’s waterways while ensuring sustainable agricultural practices.”

“As the primary water manager on Left Hand Creek, we use this water and want to contribute to its success,” said Christopher Smith, General Manager of Left-Hand Water District.

Grace Farrell releases a trout, one of many she and her father rescued from a residual pool in the Supply Ditch.

PHOTO BY DAN FARRELL

Lowell

PHOTO BY GAUTAM BHAN

OPPORTUNITY

Expansive vistas and new horizons beckon at Rabbit Mountain

By Peter Butler Redstone Review

LYONS – It’s been about a year since the authorities stopped us dog-lovers from visiting Button Rock Dam. I went there until the very last day but have never been back since. I miss it and so does my dog.

As a creature of habit, I was forced to explore new vistas and I started frequenting the Ron Stewart Preserve at Rabbit Mountain every week instead. That must mean that I have been there 52 times. Rabbit Mountain is one of our local treasures, and many people are aware of that judging from all the vehicles at the trailhead. There are several trails and dirt roads to hike or run, and each of them is distinctively different from Button Rock Dam.

The trails at the dam tend to be winding and enclosed by pine trees, so that you never have a long sight line before the next curve approaches offering a change of view. This makes the dam trails intimate and cozy. But Rabbit Mountain is different and reveals its beauty more starkly. It thrusts you at the sky and swirls your eyes to the horizon with a bleak exposure that makes the world seem endless.

Being a solitary sort, I love being alone in the wilderness. When I say alone, that includes my border collie Tal. Opportunities for personal isolation are in inverse correlation to fine weather. If the sun is high in a dark blue sky one can expect to encounter other parties and hear voices yapping a quarter mile away. So that draws me to inclement weather. John Muir said something along the lines of, “When you go outside, don’t take the inside with you.” What he meant was that colors and views are not the only experience. There are a myriad of tactile intimacies to immerse your body in as well. The wind on your

knees, rain on your cheeks and snowflakes that land on your nose and eyelashes. And those impingements are not always gentle. Sleet grinding into your eyes can be a challenge. Muir was implying that you shouldn’t wrap up so snugly that you shut out every discomfort.

Rabbit Mountain is happy to help you revel in these sensations. On an overcast gray day, with wind and precipitation, the parking lot is empty and you can burst out into the weather with all your nerves tingling and plenty of skin exposed. When you get up the first slope to the area at the top, where most of the alternate trails diverge, the wind is there to greet you with blustering enthusiasm. And no wonder, because there is nothing to stop it. This is big sky.

Squint your eyes to the distance and it seems like the horizon is 50 miles away in every direction with nary a twig to slow the air currents. It’s a view that makes you realize

how many million rods and cones are in your retinas. Muir would have approved – you can feel raw and wild. Yes your skin is sort of screaming but wow – you know you are alive. Another distinctive difference from the dam, and most of the other local trails, is that the wildlife seems to know that it is wilder and safer here.

There is a pair of northern harriers that patrol the prairie in a different way from the wheeling hawks. They strafe the surface of the grassland and hug the contours of the bumps and dips in their search for an inattentive rodent. There are meadowlarks, and at this time of year they are starting to practice their jazz improvisation. Their song is a single sinuous phrase in three parts: a high trill to begin followed by a Mozartian gruppetto and a final spondee. Pee wee diddly-widdly dooo dooo. Every few hundred feet there is a new resident proclaiming his sexiness from the top of a dead mullein stalk. As I proceed in my slightly trancelike state, their arias speak to me in surreal sentences. “Peter recidivist dolphin” “Rapido go too quickly.” Each repeat of their trilling morphs slightly with each issuance. “Feeble affiliation trifle.” All for free with no streaming fees: a distraction while you imagine who is behind the window that is glinting in the sun 10 miles away.

Prairie dogs abound and will chide you with a double squeak to leave the vicinity forthwith. I insist to them that their scolding is unnecessary but they persist in throwing up their arms like miniature cheerleaders. “Go hikers.”

Peter Butler was born in India and lived in a house facing a giant kapok tree. Growing up in England there were trees but never quite enough. After qualifying as biochemist there was a gradual evolution into being a graphic designer. He and his wife Deirdre moved to the States in 1997 and to Lyons in 2000. Finally there are enough trees.

LCF logs record year for scholarship applications and awards

By Kate Schnepel Redstone Review

LYONS – Lyons Middle Senior High School celebrated the accomplishments of graduating seniors at an awards ceremony on May 8. Eleven local students were awarded a total of 14 scholarships by the Lyons Community Foundation. All of the students who received scholarships have shown extraordinary leadership and meaningful work in the local community, in addition to their impressive academic and extracurricular achievements.

This year, LCF received a record number of scholarship applications. In all, 86 applications were received, more than a 100 percent increase over last year. Accordingly, our all-volunteer scholarship review committee was kept quite busy reading essays and evaluating applications. We are very grateful for the time and devotion these community members gave to the process.

We are also grateful for the generous donations given by our financial supporters, who made it possible for us to award $36,800 in scholarships for 2024, more than ever before awarded in a single year.

The scholarships program was given a significant boost this year by the creation of two new scholarships: one created and funded by Planet Bluegrass, and one created and funded by the family of Zoe Chase. If you or your company or organization are interested in exploring the creation of a scholarship to benefit local students, please reach out to us at info@lyonscf.org.

Cory Pierce, co-chair of LCF and chair of the Scholarship Committee, was ebullient in his praise for this year’s awardees: “Congratulations to all of the students who were awarded scholarships this year,” he said.

“All of us on the Scholarship Committee were truly impressed by the academic and service-oriented achievements of this year’s applicants. We have no doubt you’ll go far, and we hope you feel the support of the entire community behind you as you head off to your next adventure.”

The Lyons Community Foundation Mission Scholarships were awarded to Marley Chase, Keenan Young, Lulu Fuster,

Marley Chase. Honoring the memory of businessman Louis Winkler, this $2,000 scholarship is intended for a student who plans on majoring in business or finance.

LCF’s Community in Harmony Scholarship, sponsored by Planet Bluegrass, was awarded to Camden Paznokas. New this year, this $5,000 scholarship is awarded to a local student planning to attend either a four-year college or a trade school.

School, with an interest in helping people and a passion for education.

The CEMEX Environmental Stewardship Scholarship was awarded to Jack Johann. This $2,000 scholarship is open to students with a planned field of study in natural resources, engineering, wildlife biology or geology.

The Lyons Garden Club Scholarship was awarded to Camden Paznokas. This $3,000 scholarship is open to students who intend to study horticulture, agriculture, landscaping, botany, plant

Madison Shackelford, Matt Hunter, and Josie Gaines. These $2,800 scholarships recognize students from the greater Lyons area who embody LCF’s mission of improving the quality of life, building a culture of giving, and encouraging positive change for the greater Lyons area.

The Lyons Community Foundation two-year Study Scholarships were awarded to Gabe Kelty and Tobi Lisse. These $2,000 scholarships recognize students who plan to attend a two-year program at college/university, trade school or other technical/vocational training, as well as embody LCF’s mission.

The Uncle Louis “Bud” Winkler Memorial Scholarship was awarded to

The Gerald Boland Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Emma Johnson. This $2,000 scholarship was created to honor the memory of Gerald Boland, a 54year resident of Lyons who taught in Lyons Schools for 31 years. Boland was a coach, Boy Scout Leader, and mentor who had a passion for learning and the outdoors. This scholarship is awarded to a graduating senior who shares these passions.

The Zoe Chase Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Emma Johnson. New for the 2024 school year, this $2,000 scholarship honors the memory of lifelong Lyons resident Zoe Claire Chase. The recipient of this scholarship must be a graduating senior from Lyons Senior High

ecology, forestry, plant pathology, or any field of study involving plants.

Student scholarships have been an area of focus for LCF since its inception in 2006, and in that time nearly $150,000 has been awarded to Lyons-area students. If you are interested in learning more about these scholarships, or in contributing, please visit http://www.lyonscf.org.

Kate Schnepel is the Marketing and Communications Associate for Lyons Community Foundation. She moved to Lyons in 2019 with her husband and daughter, and spent nearly three years as a member of LCF’s Advisory Board before moving into her current consulting role.

Butler

Schnepel

Left to right: Tobias Lisse, Gabriel Kelty, Marley Chase, Keenan Young, Lulu Fuster, Madison Shackelford, Mathew Hunter, Josie Gaines, Camden Paznokas, Jack Johann, and Emma Johnson.

Talking heads have gone silent

By John Gierach Redstone Review

LYONS – A few days of fly-fishing with friends has a way of clearing the air. There’s something about trying to work out what trout want and then give it to them wrapped in fur and feathers that takes all your attention and leaves no room for anything else to intrude.

It also helps that fish camp – even when it’s just a handful of motel rooms near the river – is an unofficial media-free zone. That means no newspapers, TV news or newsfeeds, although you can get dispensation to check stream flows and weather because both affect the fishing. And if, in the privacy of your room, you want to turn on CNN briefly, okay, as long as you keep what you learn to yourself.

On this last trip, I was among those who kept the faith, so when I got home I could honestly ask Susan if there was anything new in the news and get the answer I expected: “Not really, just more of the same.”

Of course, “the news” now means the 24/7 Donald Trump Show featuring his trials and antics, with brief sidebars on the current war (Israel and Gaza) and the natural disaster du jour (tornadoes in the south.)

It’s true that Trump has a talent – not to mention a pathological need – for sucking the air out of any room he enters, but in some ways, this is just the nature of TV news now. Once there was half an hour of national evening news preceded or followed by a half hour of local crime, weather and sports, and when the Watergate hearings preempted game shows and soap operas, it was unheard of. Those were the days when the pioneers of TV news were still on the air – think Walter Cronkite – and the power and influence were still with newspapers. It was a time when newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst could say, “Don’t screw around with a guy who buys ink by the barrel” and everyone would nod in agreement.

Then Ted Turner came up with 24-hour news on the Cable News Network, a.k.a. CNN. Some thought it was a dumb idea that was doomed to fail and others, including me, thought that finally journalists would be able to kick back and cover the so-called lesser stories and deep background that might shed more light on im-

portant events that had heretofore seemed inexplicable.

Both were wrong. It was actually a great idea, commercially at least, but they hammered the same handful of stories hour after hour in agonizing detail, but not much depth, so we didn’t get any better coverage than we had before, only now it was more tedious and it never stopped. CNN and the other non-stop news networks it spawned seemed tailor made for big public spaces like airports where the news would repeat endlessly like the pattern on wallpaper while viewers came and went.

The Watergate hearings established the model for the Big Story you couldn’t get away from. Other examples included the O.J. Simpson trial and the death of Michael Jackson. Maybe they believed it or maybe it was hyperbole when reporters said that the whole world was watching the Simpson trial, when in fact plenty of people quickly tired of it and turned it off. Likewise, the whole world was said to be mourning Michael Jackson, even though plenty of people either didn’t know who he was or had heard the name, but thought he was a basketball player.

It was that kind of wall-to-wall coverage that gave Trump his political career. He was an easy story: a ridiculous loudmouth buffoon who said the quiet part out loud for everyone to hear, a wannabe dictator, a shock jock, you name it. Once he would have been a mildly amusing crackpot who’d soon be forgotten, but he was easy to cover and reporters had 24 hours to fill with copy. News channels sometimes covered entire Trump rallies as free freak shows, while mentioning that, oh yeah, and his opponent Hillary Clinton also held a rally that day where she said something about inclusiveness, or was it equality...

And then somewhere in there we began to get “advocacy journalism,” which is defined as news presented from a specific point of view. Where opinion was once clearly labeled – an editorial page in a newspaper; a few minutes at the end of a broadcast – now we get continuous opinion. At its best, it consists of objective, verifiable facts seen through the lens of a political position. At its worst, it’s lies and propaganda: the journalist as provocateur, with the viewer left to decide who’s who.

The current episode of the Trump Show centers mostly on the so-called Hush Money Trial, which is no less important

for being every bit as tawdry and low rent as it sounds. I understand that we’re supposed to hang on every new development because, as we’re constantly told, this is all historic and unprecedented, but frankly, I’m having trouble staying interested because the fix is clearly in.

It started when Attorney General Garland enthusiastically went after the helpless saps who stormed the capitol on January 6, but left Trump and the other ring leaders alone. And then once he was forced to act by public and political pressure, he slow-walked it until – as we’ll see – nothing would happen until the next election. In other cases, it’s been Trump and his lawyers who’ve engineered the delays, but the courts have gone along with it, so the results are the same, and of course

Books and Brews Bookfair at Main Stage Brewing May 29, Lit Fest June 8, wild bird migrations and more at the library

By Kara Bauman Redstone Review

LYONS – Spring has finally bloomed in Lyons and with it comes a bouquet of library-related delights at your Lyons Community Library. From stimulating book discussions to hands-on workshops, there’s something for everyone to enjoy; check out what’s in store: Literary Pursuits

Pints and Pages Book Club returns on Sunday, May 19 at 5 p.m. at the Rock Garden at A-Lodge. Sip on a frosty beverage and indulge in an evening of camaraderie and captivating discussion as we delve into Lisa See’s The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. Register by visiting the library’s

events calendar and vote for June’s selection while there. Pints and Pages will be held at the Rock Garden every third Sunday through October.

Do you ever miss those amazing Scholastic book fairs you had at school as a kid? Well, here’s your chance to experience the magic again at the Books and Brews Bookfair and Fundraiser at Mainstage Brewing. Join us on Wednesday, May 29 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. for a nostalgic bookfair with a grown-up twist. Enjoy delicious food, sample some literary-themed cocktails/mocktails, and peruse the fantastic book selection provided by independent bookstore Second Star to the Right. The best part? A portion of all

sales from the evening will benefit the Friends of the Library. Kick off your summer reading goals and treat yourself to a book (or two). And don’t forget to invite

your friends. Maybe they’ll buy you a smelly eraser or slap bracelet.

Mark your calendars for the first annual Lyons Lit Fest on June 8 at the Lyons Community Library. Readers, writers, and book-lovers of all ages are invited to discover the magic of stories during this free,

Trump always has the Supreme Court in his back pocket, just in case.

If anything good has come of all this, it’s that all those sanctimonious talking heads who kept saying that no one is above the law have finally gone quiet and their silence rings like a bell.

John Gierach is an outdoor and fly fishing writer who writes books and columns for magazines including a regular column for Trout Magazine. His books include Trout Bum, Sex Death and Fly fishing, and Still Life with Brook Trout. He has won seven first place awards from the Colorado Press Association for his columns in the Redstone Review. His latest book, All the Time in the World, was released in March 2023 and is available at book stores and fly fishing shops everywhere.

day-long festival. Renowned authors and illustrators from around the state will delight attendees with keynote addresses, book signings, interactive workshops, author coffee chats, book-themed crafts, and more. Visit the official festival webpage for details and updates, and don’t miss this exciting literary extravaganza.

Catching Flight

Embark on a journey into the fascinating world of bird migrations with volunteer naturalists from Boulder County Parks and Open Space on Tuesday, May 28 at 6:30 p.m. Discover the secrets behind seasonal flight paths and unravel the mystery of avian navigation.

Summer Reading Adventure

Our Summer Reading program kicks off at the end of the month. Beginning on May 28 and running through August 2, we are celebrating summer with this year's theme: Adventure Begins at Your Library. As usual, we will have reading logs and enriching events for all ages. In addition to

Continue Library on Page 15

Gierach

Bauman

LHS GRADUATING SENIORS 2024

MARLEY CHASE CECILIA

JASON CURTON

MILES DUMBAULD

JOSEPHINE GAINES

JADEN

EDEN IRVIN

JACK JOHANN EMMA JOHNSON HENRY JOHNSON

JULIA LISSE

ARYA PATEL CAMDEN PAZNOKAS MICHAEL PING GEMMA POWELL EMMA ROONEY

JORDAN ROTH LANCE SCHWEIGER

MADISON SHACKELFORD

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

By the Smallest Thread: The Beginnings of Alcoholics Anonymous

By Sally King Redstone Review

A creative moment in time

A collaboration of two

A release from suffering

It was only by the thinnest thread

That Alcoholics Anonymous came into being.

A newly sober Bill Wilson

Was away from home on business,

And he wanted a drink. “Things hadn’t gone well that day.”

There was a bar in the lobby and a telephone.

He really wanted the bar.

But he picked up the phone

Calling someone with the Oxford Group, He reached a young women named Henrietta

Saying “I need another drunk to talk to, can you find me one?”

It was May 11, 1935 in Akron Ohio

When Bill Wilson held onto his sobriety

By getting to tell his story to a local doctor,

Who performed surgeries with a trembling hand.

“I’ll give him ten minutes,” the doctor had told his wife

But they talked into the night as

Bill Wilson revealed his experience,

“Drinking to the point of near death.

His body, allergic, alcohol, a death sentence”

Something released in Doctor Bob

Who was moved to share

His own difficult journey with the disease

Something he had never done.

The missing piece,

Someone who actually knew first hand

The misery that life had become,

Begins the change, adds acceptance or softness,

Something necessary.

Vital connections hold our feet to the fire

Adding enough warmth to the still wounded Self

That it might begin to heal.

Inspired by Not God, A History of Alcoholics Anonymous by Ernest Kurtz

There is an ACA –Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families – 12 step meeting in Longmont Fridays at 9.

Sally King is a local artist who believes it's imperative that each of us pops our head up out of the collective trance, to bring through our creative gifts. You can find her on her blog and website, hersoupot.net and sallywhiteking.com or email sallywhiteking@live.com.

Los Bohemios will perform Salsa, Latin rock and more at the library on June 5

By Donna Guest with Rudy Pucel and Pam Browning Redstone Review

LYONS – “Book It On Down” to the Lyons Library for another free concert. Are you ready for some live music to liven up a spring evening?

On June 5 Los Bohemios (Son Cubano, Salsa, Bossa Nova, Latin Rock, and more) will perform from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Lyons Community Library, 451 4th Ave. Doors open at 6 p.m. The concert will be held in the Library Community Room. There will be appetizers and lots of dancing. Get there early to get a spot on the dance floor. Donations to the Friends of the Library will be appreciated. Friends of the Library are sponsoring the event. Garage doors will be open depending on the weather.

Los Bohemios is an acoustic ensemble performing Cuban Son, Salsa, and Boleros, Bossa Nova, Latin Rock, Latin Jazz, and a Mexican Mariachi repertoire. The group features Ricardo Peña on vocals and guitar or requinto, Amy Biondo on vocals and hand percussion, Miguel Sol-

devila on guitar and vocals, Mark Diamond on upright bass, and Dean Kielian on congas and bongos.

The band offers beautiful three-part harmony, Spanish guitars, acoustic bass and Latin percussion to create dance-

LYONS SENIORS GRADUATING FROM OTHER AREA HIGH SCHOOLS

Raphaelle Daty Niwot High School

Tatum LaGault Silver Creek High School

Cole Rogers Silver Creek High School.

Desta Soma Niwot High School

able salsa rhythms in the style of Buena Vista Social Club or Gloria Estefan, and romantic ballads in the style of Los Panchos, a band that started in the 1940s and went on to became one of the leading exporters of the bolero and the romantic ballad in Latin America.

On Wednesday, May 1, the Friends of the Library was honored to host the Dexter Payne Quintet to kick off our Spring Concert Series. Thank you to all who could join us to hear this incredibly talented group of musicians. The setting, in the Lyons Community Room, complete with lamps and creative lighting, provided a “coffee café” vibe that was a pleasant backdrop to their music – Brazilian choro, a tradition with roots in the 19th century, which inspired and influenced the birth of samba and bossa nova. If you missed this concert, please look for upcoming performances of the Dexter Payne Quintet dexterpayne.com/dexter-paynequintet .

We hope to see you along with your family and friends @ the Lyons Community Library for a fun, memorable and culturally rich musical experience.

Donna Guest is a member of Friends of the Library.

Thank you, Lyons Garden Club for helping plant hens 'n chicks in between the boulders around the Clarifier, which will be on the Garden Tour this year, June 15.

Travels with Redstone

From left: Gail Frankfort, Susan de Castro, Kim Freymiller, and Barb Kuffs are at the VinPearl Land amusement park/shopping center on HonTre Island, which is part of the city of Nha Trang in south Vietman. They took a long tram ride on a gondola out into Nha Trang Bay to reach the island. The amusement park had just opened less than a week before they arrived and was already a huge hit with the public.

Take the Redstone with you on your next trip and send us your photos showing where the Redstone has traveled. Send your photos to redstarnews5@gmail.com

Thank you to Mayama Movement

for

Arabesco

80

and 26

Arabesco by Reno Carollo is now installed in front of Mayama Movement Studio. Artist Carollo and Jasmine Lok of Mayama are also pictured.

Studio

the generous sponsorship.

measures

inches tall

inches wide. She is constructed of aluminum and carbon fiber and enhanced with automotive paint.

COLE ROGERS DESTA SOMA

TATUM LAGAULT

RAPHAELLE DATY

CASTING SPELLS BY SALLY KING

INTEREST

Lyons’ rich and complex history reveals both tragedy and triumph

By Kristen Bruckner Redstone Review

LYONS

– As we note May as National Historic Preservation Month, we also recognize our town matriarch, LaVern M. Johnson, who certainly thought history was important. She spent a tremendous amount of her time working to preserve and protect Lyons’ collective history.

Her dedication to the Redstone Museum as well as to other historic and natural landmarks around town was tireless and profound. It is through her crusading work including saving the historic train depot and preserving our parks (appropriately noted in the dedication of LaVern M. Johnson Park) that led her to save Lyons Middle/High School from closing in the 1970s.

Johnson was recently honored by having the new Lyons Middle/Senior High School Auditorium named after her. Later this summer, a sculpture of Johnson will be installed in the corner overlooking LaVern M. Johnson Park, the historic Lyons Depot and Lyons Town Hall. These are three examples of her mantra, “lead or get out of the way,” personified.

There are many interesting pieces of Lyons history to discover around the area. There is an historic walking tour walking tour with 15 sandstone buildings, all listed on the National Register for Historic Places. The free, self-guided, walking tour can be found on a downloadable app found at https://theclio.com/tour/910.

One stop on the tour, the McAllister Saloon, is today’s Main Stage Brewery. According to Catherine Holder Spude’s book Brothels and Saloons: An Archeology of Gender in the American West, the saloon pro-

vided a social gathering spot for men working long days in the area quarries.

Additional efforts by the Historic Preservation Commission for the Town of Lyons are underway to start a local historic designation program that would include private/residential applications. The intent is that by providing tax and other incentives, citizens would be motivated to preserve the authenticity and character of historic homes.

For residents interested in Lyons history there are lots of avenues to explore. The Historic Preservation Commission is seeking new members, open to any resident with a desire to contribute. More information can be found using this link: www.townoflyons.com/180/Boards-Commissions.

Of course, an accurate account of Lyons history involves some dark and unfortunate circumstances. Native Americans, including the Núuchiu (Ute), Hinono’eino (Arapaho), and Tsétsehéstahese (Cheyenne) nations, had traveled through

and settled in the region long before colonization. In the 1800s the U.S. government and resident tribes signed treaties intending to protect Native rights and their existing claims to this land, but ultimately these treaties were not honored. Native tribes were driven from the land and forced to relocate to reservations across present-day Colorado, Montana, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming.

The Lyons Arts and Humanities Commission recently led efforts to have a sculpture commissioned and created by native artist Orland C. Joe, Sr. and installed in LMJ Park. The Trail of Treaties sculpture marks the approximate location of one of the numerous exodus trails and sits upon a plinth donated by Blue Mountain Stone. Efforts are also underway to create an interpretive sign that will tell the story of this land. History Colorado is supporting town efforts to create the sign through grant funding.

Although we cannot change history, we can recognize it. The town is working to honor the past, present, and future Native peoples of the region. The town has been making a deliberate effort to acknowledge the history of the land we occupy. All Town of Lyons official meetings now begin with a land acknowledgment read aloud.

The Redstone Museum is also gearing up for the summer tourist season. The museum will be open on the weekends throughout the month of May and then daily during the summer. Each year the museum features new exhibits and curated collections of many aspects of Lyons history. If you’ve never visited, it’s worth a trip. You can view class photos and yearbooks from Lyons high school dating back to the first class in 1927. One of this summer’s new curations features a compelling look at the sandstone industry, examining its history and impact in Lyons.

LEAF responds to questions on privacy guarantees

By Cherie Maureaux Redstone Review

LYONS – Recently, Lyons Emergency & Assistance Fund (LEAF) deployed a Community Needs Assessment to engage our community members in co-creating opportunities, programs, and potential solutions for addressing suicide and other mental health issues relevant to our unique town.

We received some questions in the survey results regarding confidentiality and privacy when accessing therapeutic services locally.

In a small population zone like the greater Lyons area, therapy clients have specific concerns about confidentiality due to the close-knit nature of our community. The fear of being labeled, feelings of shame around being seen as “needy or deficient,” being afraid of retaliation from others, and “not wanting anyone to know my business” are all reasons people might avoid utilizing local therapy services. Trust, legal and ethical protections, and client/therapist boundaries are central to the goal of creating safe spaces, without any inhibitions around confidentiality.

A licensed counselor may not break confidentiality of private sessions, unless there are exigent circumstances (such as knowing that a person is going to imminently hurt themselves or another, or if a child, elderly, or disabled person is in danger and needs protection). Just as a doctor or attorney is required to keep records private, so is a therapist. The laws about this are articulated by state and federal statutes, and a myriad of ethical protocols are defined by the American Counseling Association and the American Psychological Association.

LEAF staff members are educated and trained in these laws and ethics, and follow confidentiality protocols strictly. We care deeply about this and it is at the heart of our mental health services. We are happy to share our licensure requirements, complaint procedures, and any other information related to legal and ethical regulations. We encourage open communication about any concerns, and we learn from your feedback.

Physical safe spaces are just as important as emotional ones. LEAF has learned through our survey and in-person feedback that “being seen” can be a barrier to accessing therapy services. A person may not wish to be seen entering or exiting a therapist’s office, or interacting with a recognized therapist around town. Again, we hear our community members, and we respond by putting forward solutions.

For example, we recently secured a few offsite locations for group therapy and in appropriate circumstances, we can offer home visits. The RiverBend venue donates a private area for addiction recovery groups, and some other

local patrons offer private meeting locations. LEAF will continue to create individual safe spaces in each way that we can, and especially as we move into our new community headquarters this fall.

With more open hours and days, operations at our new home will include volunteer opportunities, art classes, teen lunches, gardening, and other offerings. Our new building will be abuzz with activity as we continue to serve more community members than ever.

Another solution-focused idea addresses client/therapist interactions in public, which requires certain healthy boundaries. When I outline confidentiality practices to anyone who engages with me in service, I explain that if I see them at a social event or at the grocery store, I will not approach to speak to them. This guideline allows the client to say hello first if they so choose, with no judgment or expectation of interaction on my part. The importance of client privacy and safety cannot be over-emphasized.

Licensed counselors are required to provide a professional disclosure statement to each client, no matter how short or long the service may be. This statement outlines the therapist’s education and qualifications, expectations

Kristen Bruckner is Coordinator for Arts and Cultural Services for the Town of Lyons. She has lived in Lyons for 20 years. She may be reached at Kbruckner@townoflyons.com.

of the client and therapist, and all client rights.

Also in response to our Community Needs Assessment questionnaire, LEAF is answering the call for a more diverse selection of counselors by engaging additional parttime therapists at this time. We’ll let the community know when our new team members are ready to begin providing services.

The Needs Assessment is still up on our website, and we’d love to hear from you if you haven’t already completed it.

As a LEAF therapist, I consider it a sacred privilege to walk alongside persons who are looking to better their lives, heal, and grow. LEAF vows to be consistent in our values and to provide an environment of free expression, without fear of judgment or breach of privacy. You will be honored, valued, and protected. Thank you for your ongoing confidence as LEAF continues to grow and adapt to better serve our special community.

Visit LEAF’s website at leaflyons.org for more information, or feel free to ask any questions by emailing mentalwellness@leaflyons.org.

Cherie Maureaux, LPC, LAC is LEAF’s Mental Wellness and Addiction Recovery Program Director. She lives with her family in Lyons.

Maureaux

Sculptor Christine Knapp stands beside her life size clay sculpture of LaVern M. Johnson. This clay model will be used to cast the final bronze statue to be placed in the town park that bears LaVern’s name.

The McAllister Saloon, home of today’s Main Stage Brewery, once housed The Fork Restaurant.

SEASONS

Simple tips to help migratory birds

By Cindy Leikam Redstone Review

LONGMONT – Spring has sprung and migratory birds are on the move. For many birds, it is a long and perilous journey. This article highlights three of the most common migratory songbirds seen in Colorado, some of the hazards they face during their migration, and provides a few, simple tips to help them along the way.

miles off-course, and sometimes die from exhaustion.

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Help eradicate Myrtle Spurge a noxious weed

winged ants, spiders, and millipedes.

Yellow Warblers (Setophaga petechia) are long-distance migrants, flying thousands of miles from their winter grounds in the thick, mangrove forests of Central and South America to breeding areas in North America. Their summer range includes temperate forests and shrublands, from the Arctic Circle to Mexico. These bright beauties feast on insects, so enticing them to a backyard feeder is difficult, if not impossible. Instead, find them in thick willows near streams and rivers.

Spotted Towhees (Pipilo maculatus) return from their wintering grounds in the Great Plains and Atlantic Coast. This New World sparrow can be spotted hanging out along shrubby edges in suburban yards and parks. To attract towhees to your yard, sprinkle seeds on the ground, where they prefer to forage for food.

Sadly, half of all bird populations worldwide are in decline. In North America, nearly 3 billion birds have been lost since 1970. There are many factors that have contributed to this sharp decline, but the top three are loss of natural habitat, competition with invasive species, and collisions with buildings.

Say’s Phoebes (Sayornis saya) spend the cold months in Mexico and the Southwest. This fly-catching passerine returns to Colorado’s dry scrub and grasslands to mate and raise their young. Avoid using insecticides and pesticides to attract this gutsy bug hunter to your yard because their diet is all about insects. They are not shy to take on native bees, beetles, wasps, moths, grasshoppers,

Loss of habitat occurs when natural areas are converted to farmland, urban or suburban areas. Migrating birds rely on native ecosystems as rest-stops to refuel for their long journeys, breeding, and/or shelter from extreme weather. They often return to the same spot each year, and when that area is developed, birds often cannot find adequate food, water, shelter, or appropriate conditions to reproduce and raise successful offspring.

Invasive, non-native plant and animal species can have negative impacts on migratory bird species. As noxious, invasive plants overtake natural areas, they choke out the native trees, shrubs, and grasses, which native birds rely on for food, water, and shelter.

Collisions with buildings and skyscrapers can cause large-scale die-offs when migrating birds (most of which fly at night) strike their reflective windows. Additionally, the bright lights of urban centers can confuse and disorient, causing birds to fly

Taking a few simple steps in your own neighborhood can have a huge impact on native, migratory songbirds. Set up bird feeders and baths, and keep them full and clean. Not all bird seed is created equal. Check the label to see which species will be attracted to the seeds. For example, finches prefer small seeds like thistles, while woodpeckers prefer to peck around for protein-packed insects. Also provide high-calorie suet feed, berries, nuts, and mealworms during the peak migration to help fuel those longdistance flyers.

Planting native shrubs, trees, and grasses provide food and shelter to native birds, insects, and other wildlife. Don’t have a yard? Encourage local leaders, schools, HOAs, churches, parks, and businesses to add pollinator gardens, fruit and nut trees, water features, and native landscaping to provide habitat for wildlife, use less water, and keep weeds at bay.

Window collisions can occur any time of year, but during peak migration, thousands of birds fly into windows at night. This can easily be prevented. Simply turning out lights between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. during peak migration can help birds safely navigate the dark skies. If you live in a major urban area, support and participate in Lights Out Initiatives and encourage the owners and residents of tall buildings and skyscrapers to dim or turn off their lights, too. To prevent daytime collisions, apply UV decals to the outside of the window, and keep curtains and blinds closed during the day to create a visible barrier to birds.

Protect migratory bird populations with a few simple steps to ensure that future generations can enjoy this wonder of nature.

Cindy Leikam is an intern at Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, on Colorado Hwy. 66 east of Lyons.

LYONS – It appears the Myrtle Spurge is having a very good spring and property owners are going to have some extra yard work to do. The town will be focused on its elimination this spring and will be giving notice to properties that contain this Class A Noxious Weed that the state requires be removed. Property owners will be given 15 days to remove the Spurge or the first fine will be $75. Let’s all do our part to eradicate myrtle spurge.

Bustang service to Estes Park

LYONS – Bustang bus service via Lyons, from Denver to Estes Park announces summer 2024 service. The service will run weekends during the Summer beginning on May 25 Tickets are officially for sale. Individuals can learn more about the service and buy tickets on the Bustang website. The Bustang departs from Lyons at 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. on weekends during the summer. As a reminder, for the first two weekends of service (5/255/27 and 6/1-6/2), riders can get 25 percent off tickets with code ESTES25. For more information call Town Hall at 303-823-6622.

Town of Lyons IGA Taskforce application

LYONS – The Board of the Trustees of the Town of Lyons passed Resolution 2024-35 on Monday, April 1, 2024. The resolution estab-

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SPOTTED TOWHEE

YELLOW WARBLER

SAY’S PHOEBE

CHOICES

Yellow Barn Farm is an incubator for cultural and agricultural experiments

By Parker Yamasaki

First published in the Colorado Sun Redstone Review

LYONS – On the hillside behind the yellow barn at Yellow Barn Farm there’s a blackened, shattered forest. The tree remnants mark the Cal-Wood fire, which started October 17, 2020, six miles due west of the farm, and tore off in all directions, reaching the farm’s edge by that evening.

Just two days prior, Azuraye Wycoff, who grew up on the farm, had packed all of her belongings and moved back from Boston at her mother’s insistence. As the story goes, Wycoff’s mother kept messaging her daughter, telling her that she needed to move home by October 15.

“It is pretty typical for my mom,” Wycoff said. “Not so much having a specific date, but she gets really good intuitive hits that something is coming, and she can be pretty predictive. But she really clearly had a message about that timing.”

The Wycoffs had been trying to sell the Yellow Barn Farm for seven years before Azuraye moved back. Both daughters had moved away – Azuraye to Boston and her younger sister, Devon, to New Zealand. But a life-altering motorcycle crash in 2019 brought Devon home to Boulder County, while a mother’s premonition –and a bit of longing on her own part –brought Azuraye back. With all three women on the farm by the end of 2020, the sisters hatched a new plan.

Yellow Barn Farm is hard to describe in a sentence, so here are three: It’s a regenerative farming site where they research soil restoration in partnership with Drylands Agroecology Research. It’s a small business collective, where a dozen businesses rent space to work on products, take meetings and sell batches of their goods. And it’s an event space for creative community workshops, classes and festivals, like the inaugural Yellow Barn Film Festival which took place late last year.

They tried to host art-centered projects during Azuraye’s first full year running the farm, but didn’t have a stable economic model. “We had such a beautiful concept,

but the structure wasn’t there,” Azuraye said of a 2021 event. “We didn’t have the agreements in place, and feelings got hurt and bridges got burned.”

They have since stabilized their revenue – in large part through the fees that businesses pay to use the space – and learned how to write contracts.

“Yes, the land’s important, the food is

acting career. When the pandemic hit New York, McManus moved back to Colorado, where she’d grown up.

“It was like a 48-hour period of everything that I’d spent six years building in New York City – getting an agent, having a good apartment, finding a job, finally auditioning, getting my degree, working through debt –just gone, like that,” McManus said.

The Yellow Barn Farm’s namesake barn stored hay for decades when the farm served as an equestrian center. Since 2021 sisters Azuraye and Devon Wycoff have worked to convert it into an event space.

PHOTO BY DEVON WYCOFF

important, but if we don’t really allow people to express their ideas and share a different vision for a future, then you know, that’s kind of the glue I think that’s currently missing. But we’re going to create it,” Azuraye said. That glue is gathering people in the namesake yellow barn for events, like the Yellow Barn Film Festival.

Getting their hands dirty

The film festival is the brainchild of Devon and her longtime friend from film school, Katie McManus. Devon and McManus have crossed paths throughout the years since they graduated from the University of Colorado. Both moved to New York City at different points after graduation. Devon worked as a dresser in Broadway shows while McManus started her

the crash, the pandemic – but what those events set in motion had been building, in one way or another, for years.

“I was in absolutely no position to move home,” Azuraye said, when asked about how she felt when her mom’s messages started coming through. Azuraye’s background is in international affairs and she had started a moving business in Boston that she wasn’t ready to walk away from.

But both experiences have proven useful with this new project. The entrepreneurial skills she learned running a business have translated into running farm operations, and the international diplomacy skills have helped her bring various interests together on this one plot of land.

“We have so many different organizations that are operating here, and individuals, so a lot of what I do is basically a translation of: ‘What are you actually trying to say? What are your needs?’” Azuraye said.

Bringing it home

Regenerative agriculture is not just about working in tandem with nature, but also about bringing community together with common purpose. It’s easy to see how the Wycoffs have worked – and are still working – those ideals into their model for the Yellow Barn Farm. As Azuraye put it, they’re “looking for circularity.”

She resumed life in Colorado, unsure when she’d get back to acting. In 2021, Devon called and asked McManus if she could help with Yellow Barn Farm’s “Art and Eat” event, part of the farm’s first slate of cultural events. “It was the first time I felt inspired again,” McManus said. McManus said, “Devon will say we had the idea last year. But I feel subconsciously this moment, this festival, and hopefully bigger, broader arts and culture programming here, has been building for years.”

(In a separate interview, Devon did indeed say that the seed of the film festival was planted in November 2022.)

That’s kind of a theme on the Yellow Barn Farm. All three women can tell you the dates of catalyzing events – the fire,

Both in the agricultural systems, like planting silvopastures and using grazing animals to till the land, and in the economic systems, by asking how many times they can get a dollar to circulate through the farm’s microeconomy, Azuraye explained.

Yellow Barn Farm is an example of regenerative possibilities. The Cal-wood fire in 2020 burned over 10,000 acres and is the largest fire in Boulder County’s history. It reached the edge of the Yellow Barn Farm property, but a shift in the wind caused the fire to change direction at the last second. “Insurance can cover a certain amount of trees to be replanted, but it’s just kind of what happens,” McManus said. “Nature is a cycle of creation and destruction.

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported nonprofit news outlet. To learn more and subscribe to newsletters, go to coloradosun.com.

WHAT’S COOKIN’

An Asparagus Tart for unpredictable times

By Barbara Shark Redstone Review

LYONS – When have we had predictable spring weather here in Colorado?

Each year I am surprised with early warmth and late snow, sunny days and cold rainy nights. It’s hard to know when to plant the garden. We do the Colorado shuffle – plants out, then in, out then in. Mount Audubon is cloaked in snow, a grand white beauty, and our lawn needs weekly mowing. I guess the unpredictable is the norm for us who live in the foothills of the Rockies. What to cook in such changeable weather?

To celebrate asparagus season we’ve had asparagus frittatas, roasted asparagus, and asparagus with orzo. I took this special asparagus tart to friends and it looked and smelled so good I made it again for our lunch. I’ve written about the simple pastry before but here is a reminder of the easy recipe, from cookbook writer Patricia Wells.

Olive Oil

Pastry

Combine one cup unbleached flour, two tablespoons wheat germ (optional,) a pinch of salt. Stir in one quarter cup olive oil and one quarter cup water. Press the dough

into an 8- or 9-inch pie plate or tart tin. It will cover the pan, just keep gently pressing from the center and up the sides. Prick the bottom with a fork. Chill in the fridge. I prebake the chilled shell. Preheat oven to 375° and bake the pastry for 20 minutes. No need to weight the bottom as this pastry does not shrink.

Asparagus Filling

Toss a pound of asparagus, tough ends broken off, in a little olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Roast on a parchmentlined baking sheet at 375° for five to seven minutes. I do this in the toaster oven. Or steam the asparagus until barely tender. Chop all but six stalks into halfinch pieces. In a bowl combine three large eggs, one half cup of half-andhalf or milk, two to three ounces grated gruyere, comté or cheddar, one half cup freshly grated parmesan, three green onions (scallions) cut across into half inch pieces. Use the whole onion, white bulb and green tops. Mix in the asparagus pieces and pour it all into the tart shell. Top with the six whole asparagus stalks arranged in a pinwheel. Bake at 375° for 30 to 35 minutes until set. Let sit for five minutes before slicing into wedges.

Barbara Shark is an artist and author of How I Learned to Cook, an Artist’s Life. She lives near Lyons, Colorado. For more recipes, read her blog at www.howilearnedtocookanartistslife.blog.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Soup: a smoothie-like dessert

By Catherine Metsger Redstone Review

SAN MIGUEL COUNTY – Casting an eye into the back garden may reveal tender young rhubarb, among the first nourishments to spring up, ready to be cooked and eaten. And the perfect accompaniment to rhubarb is the strawberry – scented and sweet and grown in California, these gemlike fruits are now arriving at a grocery store near you.

When you are making plans for those abundant rhubarb stalks (remember, the leaves are poisonous) and would like to try

something lighter than the usual pies and cobblers, strawberry-rhubarb soup is simple to make, delicious and refreshing. What’s more, you can control the calories by substituting low-fat/no-fat yogurt and omitting the butter and replacing it with water. This recipe is taken from The French Culinary Institute’s Salute to Healthy Cooking from America’s Foremost French Chefs. You will be surprised at the subtle sweetness and tangy finish.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Soup

Serves 4; Preparation time is 25 minutes; cook time is seven minutes; refrigeration time is one hour.

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

3 stalks rhubarb, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks

2 cups strawberries, washed, hulled and cut into chunks 1/2 cup fresh orange juice

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup vanilla yogurt

4 leaves of fresh mint

• Melt the butter in a medium, nonstick pan over medium high heat. Add the rhubarb and sauté for 1 minute, then re-

duce the heat to medium, cover, and cook for 7 minutes or until the rhubarb is tender and has released all its liquid. Uncover and allow to cool slightly.

• Transfer to a blender or a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the strawberries, orange juice, sugar, and 1/2 cup of the yogurt. Process until smooth.

• Pour into a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or until the soup is well chilled.

• Pour the chilled soup into 4 small bowls. Place 1 tablespoon of the remaining yogurt in the center of each bowl. Place a mint leaf into the yogurt and serve.

Catherine Ripley Metzger has been cooking professionally and privately since 1979. She was a French cuisine journeyman at the celebrated Henri d’Afrique restaurant in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Today she is the proprietor of the food blog www.foodfortheages.com and cooks with curiosity from the ground up in her log cabin home on the Western Slope of Colorado.

lished the Boulder County Development Plan Inter Governmental Agreement Task Force, as an ad hoc advisory committee of the Town of Lyons consisting of seven members. If you are interested in serving on the taskforce, the BOT of the Town of Lyons invites you to apply. For more information on the taskforce and members, please see the approved resolution on the Town of Lyons website.

For a link to the online application to serve, please see the direct link to the IGA Taskforce Application Form on the town’s website. Applications are due by Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 4:30 p.m. Thank you for your involvement.

Applications for BoCo wildfire mitigation programs

LYONS – Applications for the Boulder County’s Wildfire Partners Wildfire Mitiga-

tion Tax Funded Community Chipping Events are now open. This service is free to residents of the Town of Lyons and in unincorporated Boulder County, using the wildfire mitigation tax approved by voters in 2022. Boulder County Wildfire Partners encourages residents to learn more and sign up today.

• Free county chipping program is available to all county residents

• Program supports residents with managing the high-risk vegetation on their properties

• Learn more and apply to the chipping program at boco.org/chipping

The program requires one person or household to assume the role of Chipping Event Host for their community chipping event.

The Host is responsible for completing an application for their residence and at least 4 neighbors, coordinating a chipping date with a County approved contractor and participating neighbors, and educating others on slash pile requirements. Learn more and apply today.

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Shark

CONTACT

Lyons Fire invites all to its Fire Fund Silent Auction

By Johanna Zeh Redstone Review

LYONS – Now that spring and the annual start-up of full tourist season days are here, fire season is just around the corner. Lyons Fire Fund once again asks for your participation and ongoing support in 2024.

The Lyons Fire Protection District’s Annual Pancake Breakfast along with the Lyons Fire Fund’s Silent Auction fundraiser is scheduled for Saturday, June 29, from 8 to 11 a.m. at Fire Station #1, 251 Broadway, in Lyons.

Last year’s silent auction raised over $4,000, thanks to many local businesses and individual contributors.

We want to exceed that total this year, and get to $4,500 or more, in order to have solid available new community funds for matching grants requirements to fund the Lyons Fire Protection District. Raising a total of $5,000 at this year’s Silent Auc-

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Boulder County Wildfire Partners is a resource for what you can do to minimize wildfire risk at your home. Awareness, preparation, home assessment, community assessments, chipping programs and much more.

Sandstone Summer Concerts

LYONS – The Sandstone Summer Concert Series kicks off on Wednesday, June 12 The annual Sandstone Summer Concert Series returns on Wednesday evenings this summer. The series will be Wednesday, June 12 through Wednesday, August 7. The Denver Municipal Jazz Band will kick off the series on the Raul Vasquez Stage in Lyons Sandstone Park. Did you know they are the oldest continuous playing professional concert band in the USA? View the poster and website with all of the bands for this summer. You can find the summer concert schedule on the Town of Lyons Website.

tion would be simply great, which is the Lyons Fire Fund’s goal.

Donating just $5 to $10 helps. Small amounts add up. Whether you’re a local business that can offer a gift certificate or mate rial donation to the silent auction, or if you can put some money into the Lyons Fire Fund’s dona tion boot, it would all con tribute to our goal.

In 2023, we had donated items from local businesses for peo ple to bid on – a variety of items, including a miniature bonsai tree, a bicycle shop’s repair and tune-up gift certifi cate, John Gierach’s books of essays on fishing, various art glass and mosaic items, our local vet clinic’s overflowing basket of pet food/toys, and gift certificates There were patriotic photos of 9/11 firefighters

and the Vietnam Vet’s Wall that were given by a local realtor, our local quilt shop’s gift certificate for brand new arts and crafts materials, new sports equipment, and a local store’s donated bottles of rum and rye. And some people donated money, and stuffed the boot with cash and checks.

If anyone is willing to donate an item for the silent auction, please contact us. You can email us on the contact form on: www.lyonsfirefund.org. You can call or email directly to one of the four Lyons Fire Fund members and by reaching out to: Johanna Zeh, at jzeh@lyonsfire.org, or at jzeh610@msn.com, or 303-823-2488. You

can mail donations to P.O.Box 695, Lyons, CO 80540.

And if you prefer, simply contact the Fire Station’s main office, give your contact info to the staff on duty, who’ll get it to us, and we’ll get back to you to discuss what’s helpful, to arrange for pickup. We’ll take it from there.

Come in person down to the June 29 Pancake Breakfast, share a meal, a cup of coffee or tea, it’s good food, see the crew members and tour the station and fire trucks and browse the silent auction items.

The silent auction tables again will be set up at Fire Station #1, 251 Broadway, during the upcoming, community wide LFPD Pancake Breakfast, Saturday, June 29, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Meet your friends from the Lyons Fire Fund – Dave Roth, Maureen Davidovich, Bill Sassani, Johanna Zeh

Johanna Zeh is a member of the Lyons Fire Fund, which is the fundraising organization for the Lyons Fire Protection District.

Trout Continued from Page 5

high on the priority list when the primary consideration is diverting water.

Locally, organizations like the St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District are leading efforts to provide funding and seek cooperative arrangements. In 2020, voters in the district passed a tax increase that among other things, is targeted for maintaining healthy rivers.

“Part of having healthy rivers is being stewards of aquatic life,” said Sean Cronin, executive director. “We identify ecosystem and aquatic life needs, then collaborate with ditch owners on ways to enhance and protect fish.”

Cronin said they have successfully funded two fish passage projects and two stream restoration projects following the voter-approved tax increase. “We’re currently working on a pilot program that will salvage entrained fish,” he said, adding that the pilot will be in place this coming fall.

Absent any fish-saving devices on local ditches, some Lyons residents take matters

into their hands. Dan Farrell and his daughter Grace recently found a large number of trout stranded in the Supply Ditch canal, and armed with a long-handled net, rescued around 20 trout and returned them to the St. Vrain River. The trout were stranded in a small pool after being entrained when the diversion gate was shut.

But the trout’s rescue might only be temporary. Between Lyons and Longmont there is a gauntlet of at least a half-dozen more diversion structures.

If so many fish are lost to diversions, how then is Colorado trout fishing so good?

As Kowalski explained, the overall health of Colorado’s rivers and fish populations gives hope that this problem is not as widespread or as bad as it appears. Colorado has hundreds of miles of excellent wild trout waters and Gold Medal trout waters, most of which have some kind of diversions on them.

“Fish entrainment is a problem that needs more study across the West,” said Kowalski, “The best solutions will be

driven only by more statewide data on the issue and close cooperation between CPW, anglers and the irrigators and municipalities that use the state’s water.”

Greg Lowell is a current Lyons Town Board Trustee. He was elected in April, 2024 to a two-year term. He is also the liaison to the Ecology Advisory Board.

GOLDEN EAGLE – PHOTO BY CRYSTAL WHITE

within 15 years. After months of public comment and deliberation, the county commissioners declined to renew the mining permit, and Dowe Flats shut down, while the kiln increased trucked materials from outside the area.

Since then, state air pollution officials have announced two consent agreements with Cemex to settle ongoing violations of its air pollution permits, with the latest fine hitting $1.3 million. Neighborhood activists joined with some local officials in continuing to oppose the

Library Continued from Page 7

kiln’s operation and permit. Boulder County land use officials apparently agreed, announcing the termination notice April 10 and demanding a response from Cemex, or a shutdown.

The Cemex-commissioned report by Stantec traffic engineers that the county is relying on now, Cemex said, “is based on extremely limited and select data related to traffic not on the Cemex plant premises.”

Cemex noted its original deal on donating open space was negotiated with county open space officials and the county attorney. Terminating plant operations is both a violation of Cemex due process rights

encouraging reading throughout the summer, we are highlighting all the resources and materials Lyons Library offers the community. Explore nature with a State Parks Pass or trail cam, visit a local museum with one of our Cultural Passes or relax with a board game or film on Kanopy. Stop by at the end of the month to pick up your Reading Log and events calendar. Happy Reading.

Adventure Begins at Your Library programs in early

jumping mouse. She said that they have to begin mowing the grass to keep the mouse from nesting starting August 1, and they have certain deadlines to meet.

Administrator Victoria Simonsen said that the town has received two extensions on the grant the town will receive for the project from DrCOG (Denver Regional Council of Governments) and now DrCOG said that this is the final deadline or Lyons loses the grant. She also added that the bids for the trail construction

and an illegal taking of assets by the government, without compensation.

Michael Booth is The Sun’s environment writer, and co-author of The Sun’s weekly climate and health newsletter The Temperature. He and John Ingold host the weekly SunUp podcast on The Temperature topics every Thursday. Language(s) in addition to English: Is northern Minnesota English an option?

He is co-author with Jennifer Brown of the Colorado Book Award-winning food safety investigation Eating Dangerously. Booth was part of teams that won two Pulitzer Prizes for breaking news. He also writes frequently

June include a fairy garden crafting workshop, a preschool throwback afternoon geared towards tweens and teens (think Play-Doh and finger painting), the return of Nintendo Switch Fridays, and an exploration of Mars with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Your Lyons Community Library opens at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday. We close at 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5 p.m. on Fridays, and 2 p.m. on Saturdays. Our online catalog is available 24/7 at lyons.colibraries.org and we’re always open for digital downloads on the Libby,

need to be out by July 1. In the end the board settled on demolition and removal of the building to be completed by Septber 1 and the remodel done by October 31, which is sooner than Sullivan wanted to have it done, but the board felt that this was the latest workable date.

In other news there was a lengthy discussion on tree limb pickup in town, with Administrator Simonsen saying that she does not think it is fair that some neighborhoods do not get the free limb pickup and other neighborhoods do. The board decided to go ahead with the current limb pickup plan for

Whiskey is a sweet-natured three-and-ahalf-year-old who is playful and happy. His favorite pastime is playing fetch, tail wagging and always ready for another round. His ideal home would be one that can match his energy and provide him with plenty of love. Adopt Whiskey, and bring home a loyal friend who will shower you with unconditional love and deliver lots of happiness.

To see all our adoptable animals visit longmonthumane.org. Or stop in at the shelter, 9595 Nelson Road.

about inexplicable obsessions that include tamarisk, black-footed ferrets and tire fires. Booth also serves as the underpaid driver for four children, and plans to eventually hike every inch of Colorado.

The Colorado Sun is an award-winning news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state and our community can better understand itself. The Colorado Sun is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. EIN: 36-5082144. This column is based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

CloudLibrary, and Kanopy apps. Give us a call at 303-8235165 or email info@lyonslibrary.com with any questions. Please see the calendar of events on our website for additional programs, program information, and registration instructions.

Kara Bauman is the Director of the Lyons Community Library and holds an MLIS from the University of Kentucky. She’s an avid fly angler, enjoys craft beer, and in non-COVID times travels extensively to see her favorite band, Widespread Panic.

the time being, but more discussions will be held. The board wants there to be strict rules as to the size of the limbs and that they will not accept whole trees, stumps, etc.

An agenda item on Addendum to Housing Futures Plan was discussed by Trustee Mark Browning, who suggested that he and another board member, possibly the mayor or someone else, meet with staff and come up with an amendment to take before the board and then the entire board could discuss the Housing Futures Plan Addendum in depth.

The Housing Futures Plan was accepted on January 16, 2024. The plan described a

It’s cicada-geddon, a dual cicada brood emergence in Illinois this spring. The 13-year Brood XIX and the 17-year Brood XIII cicadas will coemerge in Illinois for the first time since 1803. It is a chance to see all seven periodical cicada species as adults in one year, which will not happen again until 2037. Hundreds of trillions, or even quadrillions, of cicadas are expected. That’s an average of 1 million cicadas per acre over millions of acres.

forecast for population growth, available building sites, historical trends, effects of buildout, etc. in Lyons. It was suggested that Lyons might grow by 733 people and 342 households through 2050. However, that was during a period when Lyons had more lots available. Now, 2024, Lyons has only ten vacant lots remaining. At 2.5 persons per residence, that would add only 25 people through 100 percent buildout if all those lots are built on. The board has talked about forming a committee to discuss annexing land from the county. Those discussions are forthcoming.

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