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VOLUME 15, NUMBER 12
LYONS, COLORADO
RESIDENT / OCCUPANT PRSRT STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID LYONS, CO PERMIT No 2053 $.50
JANUARY 14 / FEBRUARY 18, 2015
B •R •I •E •F •S Town Hall closure LYONS – Town Hall will be closed on Monday, January 19, in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Code enforcement LYONS – The Town is pleased to introduce Lonnie Jones as its new Code Enforcement Officer. The code enforcement officer will monitor the community for code violations involving zoning, weeds, flood plain regulations, snow removal, nuisances, signs, and other issues. For more information on Town regulations and code enforcement, visit the new page on the Town's website: townoflyons.com/codeenforcement
Special election dates LYONS – The first special election, which will include the citizens’ initiative to ban all retail marijuana businesses and hash oil productions, as well as the usage of five to seven acres of Bohn Park for flood replacement housing, will be held on March 24, 2015. The second special election, which will address the citizen initiative requiring a public vote for any change in use of Town-owned property zoned parks or open space will be April 21, 2015. These dates have since changed from the Board of Trustee's decision on January 5. 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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OPTIONS
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CONTRAST
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CONTEXT
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INSIGHT
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A&E
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CLIMATE
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FOUNDATION
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CULTURE
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CONCEPTS
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CONNECTIONS
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NATURE
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Carol Devenir captured this avian argument between a female Red-shafted flicker and a Western Scrub-Jay over who had dibs on the suet feeder. The flicker won. Carol writes this month on the Great Backyard Bird Count. Her story appears on page 4.
Difficult times create difficult choices for Lyons Town Board By Susan de Castro McCann Redstone Review LYONS – After looking at all the options, the Lyons Town Board at a board meeting in early January voted to use five to seven acres in Bohn Park, which is 25 acres, to create flood replacement housing (60 +/– 10 units). Several board members said that they were hoping that another site would prove viable but only the Bohn Park site could meet the very tight time frame the board faced to apply for Round 2 Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Relief (CDBG – DR) federal funding. The Board of Trustees (BOT) has been scrambling to meet a March deadline to apply for $4 million CDBG-DR funding that has been ear-marked for replacement housing in Lyons. If Lyons fails to meet the deadline, the funding will go to other communities to use for housing. The ordinance passed by the BOT to use park land for replacement housing now goes to a vote of the people in a special election held on March 24 with a mail-in ballot where voters will also have the opportunity to vote on whether retail marijuana should be sold in Lyons or not. The state mandates that if park land bought with public funding is going to be used for purposes other than park land it has to go to a vote of the people. A second election will be held on April 21 to satisfy a citizen initiative. This will be a second vote on using park land for any purposes other than park land. This election will relate to using park land for other purposes after the decision is made at the March 24 election for replacement housing. The board felt that his was fair because
everyone gets to vote on using park land for replacement housing on March 24 and if the issue is approved then the BOT will move forward with replacement housing. If the issue is voted down then the issue of the town building any replacement housing is pretty much dead because the opportunity to use the $4 million CDBG – DR funding will be lost. If the people vote for housing in the park in March but against it in April, then the housing will go forward as a one-time only measure. No matter what voters decide in March and April elections, the state still requires a vote of the people any time park land is designated to be sold, leased or disposed. People from the community spoke both for and against building replacement housing in the park. Some people argued that Lyons C
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did not need the CDBG – DR funding and that the town could find other means of funding replacement housing on other sites. Some wanted the town to stay as it is now. Others spoke about this funding as a rare opportunity for the town to replace the lost housing and some told the board how hard it is to find affordable housing in Lyons. Trustee Connie Sullivan said, “We ran for this job to put ourselves out there. We are the ones with all the facts; we are closest to all the information, so we have to make the decision. The first thing is to choose the best site. There is a risk that Bohn Park won’t make it out of the gate, but we have to choose the site that has the best chance.” She also said that she did not want to use Continue Town on Page 15
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To honor Charlie Hebdo, Je Suis Charlie LYONS – After Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine, was attacked by homegrown terrorists on Wednesday Jan. 8, killing 12 members of the staff, the magazine and the remaining 25 staff members became unwitting heroes and the symbol of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. In the spirit of their fearless tradition, their new edition has the prophet Mohammed on the cover holding a sign saying “Je Suis Charlie” under a sign saying, “All is forgiven.” France has a long, long history of freedom of speech and the written word; a longer history than the U.S. The form of democracy that we have in the U.S. was modeled after the French democracy. When terrorists attack the press and free speech, they attack the heart of democracy, because without a free press there is no democracy. If people cannot speak freely, criticize their leaders, publish what politicians don’t want the public to hear, inform the public what goes on behind the scenes in war, what chemicals are accidentally spilled into food, what diseases have entered the country, how a company has stolen employees’ pension funds, then democracy does not exist and leaders can wreck havoc with impunity. Continue Charlie on Page 6