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RESIDENT / OCCUPANT PRSRT STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID LYONS, CO PERMIT No 2053
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VOLUME 16, NUMBER 9
LYONS, COLORADO
$.50
OCTOBER 14 / NOVEMBER 18, 2015
B •R •I •E •F •S Halloween extravaganza LYONS – Lyons Spooktacular Halloween Parade, Trick-orTreat, costume contest, pumpkin carving and loads of other events will take place on Saturday October 24 beginning at 4:30 p.m. The parade begins at 6 p.m. Parade route lineup will start at 5:45 p.m. on Third Avenue between Main St. and Broadway, east of the Bank of the West, and will proceed westbound from Third Avenue on Main Street past Fourth Avenue, turning north on Fifth Avenue, east on High Street, and south on Fourth Avenue, stopping at Fourth Avenue and Main Street and ending on Main Street. Downtown Trick-or-Treat with the downtown businesses and local merchants will be from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Merchants will hand out candy to kids around the downtown area including High Street. Other Halloween events include a hula hoop contest, a pumpkin carving contest, face painting, mask / crown making, Bongo the Balloon Man, live music, lots of food and much more. Don’t miss one of Lyons’ favorite holidays. Continue Briefs on Page 4
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I •N •D •E •X LYONS
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MAYOR’S CORNER
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LOCAL
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OPTIONS
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CONCEPTS
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INSIGHT
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LEAF
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A&E
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FOUNDATION
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CONNECTION
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NATURE
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CONTEXT
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INTENTION
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Bode and Petra Bodam, ages 8 and 5, shop for Halloween gourds and pumpkins at Loukonen farm. PHOTO BY CATHY RIVERS
BOT looks at a possible solution for affordable housing, and sales tax increase goes to a vote By Susan de Castro McCann Redstone Review LYONS – The big excitement around Lyons these days is the competition that Lyons has entered under the state of Colorado’s application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for $419 million for disaster relief funding. Colorado is hoping to get a share of the $1 billion pot of money that HUD and the Rockefeller Foundation are offering in a National Disaster Resiliency Competition (NDRC). The competition is designated for areas that have suffered major disasters; the qualifications are to create sustainable, resilient and self-sufficient solutions for rebuilding or creating new models for the damaged areas. About 40 states and municipalities are competing for portions of the funding.
Colorado has made it to stage 2 of the competition. Lyons is asking for $6.75 million to use for a large mixed-use development at the east end of Lyons along Colorado Highway 66, known as the eastern corridor. The mixed-use development would include a wide variety of business uses as well as housing. The town has been planning to develop this area for many years as a business park. Part of the original plan was and still is for Lyons to purchase the two decommissioned water treatment plants currently owned by Longmont Public Works Department on Colorado Highway 66 just east of Lyons on each side of the highway. The town applied for separate funding, not NDRC funding, for the water treatment plants, but has not heard back on that yet. Cody Humphrey, Lyons Housing Recovery Coordinator, made presentations on the NDRC at the Lyons Board of
Trustees meeting in October and at a Board of Trustees (BOT) workshop on the competition at the Lyons fire station on October 14. The proposal submitted by Lyons as part of the entire state’s package would include affordable housing, up to 60 units, along with space for mobile homes, Habitat for Humanity housing and market-rate housing, so that affordable housing would not be segregated in one section of town. There would be many other amenities in the eastern corridor as well including hiking trails. The housing would not only be energy efficient but also energy sustainable with batteries during a power outage. Town Administrator Victoria Simonsen said that Colorado and Lyons stood a good chance of getting some of the funding because they met all the criteria. Colorado has been in the news numerous times over the last several years due to the fires and floods ram-
paging through the state. The second proposal for part of the NDRC funding the town submitted was a Swiftwater Rescue Training Channel designed by S2O Design and Engineering, located in Lyons. Scott Shipley, principal with S2O, gave a presentation to the BOT on Oct. 12. The training channel would be built at McConnell Pond adjacent to the St. Vrain River near the new wastewater treatment plant. The training channel would consist of large cement blocks creating various levels of water with large water pumps pushing the water through the channel to simulate flood conditions. A car or even an airplane hull could be secured in the channel and then the rescue teams could practice rescuing people from the vehicles. The water would be pumped in from the river and drained out back into the river after the training. Some environmental concerns exist with the fish in the river, which Shipley said he would address. Continue Town on Page 15