WHAT COMES FIRST?
Aurora changes course in addressing homelessness by moving toward ‘work-first’ program that precludes the city from having to give expelled campers notice or offer them shelter
ARAPAHOE COUNTY
The Arapahoe County Mayors and Commissioners Youth Awards recognizes teenagers who have overcome adversity and risen to challenges. Scholarships are awarded to graduating seniors who wish to pursue post-secondary educational opportunities at vocational schools, two- or four-year colleges, or trade and certification programs. Teachers, counselors, and school admins can nominate exceptional seniors through March 7 at arapahoeco.gov/youthawards.
We are thrilled to announce the 2025 lineup of community events at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds. There’s an event for every season, from a spring wine and chalk art festival to the 119th annual Arapahoe County Fair, Treat Street, and a winter holiday fun day. Learn more at www.arapahoecountyeventcenter.com
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City
council is not a spectator sport.
Lawmakers
have to listen— in public.
It’s open season on the City of Aurora’s open government meetings.
After months of being berated and barraged with accusations and insults from public commenters at bi-weekly city council meetings, lawmakers have moved to keep the public quiet, or at least some of them.
Aurora City Council meetings have frequently been anything but tame. Aurora city lawmakers and residents are a vocal and boisterous lot.
There were the 1970s and 1980s days of Aurora Mayor Dennis Champine, who was renowned for being loudly frank with the public and fellow city officials. He once took a swing at the city attorney in 1979.
Mayor Paul Tauer was famously heavy-handed with the gavel and his public-school math-teacher “knock if off” barking baritone, regularly inflicted on the public during city council meetings.
Once furiously angry with Sentinel reporting when his son, Ed Tauer, applied for a council vacancy, Tauer leaned toward me at study session when I approached him, trembling and red when I asked for further comment. He said, “Get away from me now,” with a clenched fist.
I returned to my seat next to Ricky Bennett, the police chief at the time, who leaned over to me and said he was unclear what he was going to do in the awkward situation where the mayor punched a reporter.
Irked Aurora residents are equally not shy about their public criticism.
Protesters have shut down Interstate 225 to make a statement about the wrongful and tragic killing of Elijah McClain.
Inside council chambers, both liberal and conservative lawmakers alike have drawn loud, unruly and often profane verbal attacks from residents behind the council lectern.
Residents angry about water restrictions, curfews, heavy-handed homeless intervention, lackadaisical homeless intervention, and just about every issue that comes before the city council have filled their ears with the public’s displeasure.
Former Mayor Bob LeGare was tormented almost weekly by protesters angry about the direction the city council had taken in handling mobile home parks being shut down by owners. One protester angrily called LeGare “Mayor F***boy” and even wrote it on a sheet cake placed in the council lobby at the end of a meeting, serving slices to meeting participants.
City Councilmember Alison Coombs last week told fellow lawmakers that when she was first elected to city council about five years ago, she was regularly verbally pummeled at council meetings by residents infuriated by her progressive votes and commentary from the dais.
She’s among the few on the dais pushing back against city council efforts to stop a group of regularly appearing critics and protesters, focused primarily on the Aurora police shooting death of Kilyn Lewis last May.
Lewis was fatally shot while being arrested in Aurora in connection with allegations that he shot and injured a homeless man in Denver. During the planned SWAT arrest in an apartment parking lot, Lewis was putting his hands above his head with his cell phone in one hand when he was fatally shot by SWAT officer Michael Dieck.
Former Arapahoe County District Attorney John Kellner said he determined that Dieck broke no laws in the shooting death, and Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said Dieck did not violate any police policies.
The group, often led by former Denver School Board director and activist Auon’tai Anderson, has disrupted city council meetings for months, sometimes pushing the city council to recess and even scurrying to a private room to finish meetings.
The group insists the city council should intervene in the shooting, despite
lawmakers from both sides of the issue making it clear the city council is precluded from doing that.
The comments are often heartbreaking, with Lewis’s family members lamenting the loss of their son and brother. They are just as often profane, alarming, repetitive and seemingly endless.
Exasperated by the constant, lengthy revilements, council members Stephanie Hancock and Danielle Jurinsky sponsored a bill that sought to end public comments before the meeting, push them to the back of the council meetings, which could mean 10 p.m. or even later. The measure would allow the city council and police to stop disrupted meetings if they felt like it, allowing lawmakers to finish them virtually, and even clear city council chambers, arresting those who don’t hustle out fast enough.
Aurora’s not alone in having crowds of angry and persistent frequent fliers essentially grab the wheel of government meetings. In 2022, the Institute for Local Government released a report and best practices about how to handle angry mobs overtaking public meetings.
Other than appealing to the public to be on their best behavior, and respect the rules regarding brevity and disruptive behavior, all that’s left is shutting down meetings and finishing them behind closed doors, a bad option that sets a bad precedence for governments often looking for a way around transparency.
Open meetings means open meetings.
As for closing down city council chambers during meetings and threatening arrests, that’s unacceptable.
While chanting protesters are absolutely disruptive and unruly, they’re not “terrorists,” which Hancock called them after scurrying into a closed meeting one-night last summer. She denies she said it, but her comments are on city council video recordings and are unequivocal.
Councilmember Crystal Murillo pointed out that much of the problem with the lack of civility and decorum from council critics in the audience comes from the dire lack of those qualities among city lawmakers themselves. If council representatives can conjure up endless indignities from the dais, why shouldn’t the public be able to do the same from the lectern?
“If y’all have been watching long enough, you know that this council is not about respect,” Murillo said at the city council meeting last week. “If you’re not in the majority, this council has been vicious; personal attacks that don’t get decorum called on, straight-up lies to the media about what’s happening in our city. There’s no concern for the truth or respect.”
It’s a valid point, and one that the local government Institute says is often a big part of the problem and should be corrected.
It’s unclear why city council members simply don’t hold a public hearing regarding Lewis’s death. After that, if the regular protests continue, put the matter on the agenda each week, with limited public hearing time, automatically precluding the matter from being broached by the public during “Public Invited to be Heard” segments.
As for Lewis protesters, I once had an editor who listened patiently as I described everything I was doing to get stubborn, bullying sources to come clean on story details while I inflicted a long list of heavy-handed tactics — and got nothing.
“How’s that working for you?” my editor asked. The point was well taken.
Lewis’ death at the hands of Dieck is absolutely linked to the larger problem that has put Aurora police under the thumb of the Colorado state attorney general’s office. Whether Dieck was justified, or at least understandably wrong, in shooting Lewis is now a matter for the courts to decide, not the city council.
Whether Aurora police’s SWAT team bungled the arrest in the first place, something that could have prevented the shooting if it was carried out differently, is for internal and independent forces to decide, not the city council.
Even if the Lewis protesters persist, pushing the entire city of residents out of city hall and restricting their already limited ability to make their concerns public, just like city lawmakers do, is bad business. It’s bad for the city and for the city council.
Champine, in talking with the Sentinel years after he retired, had good advice for impatient Aurora lawmakers when it comes to taking time to hear the public.
“Toward the end (of Champine’s tenure) things started to repeat themselves. I was sitting up at city council one night and somebody was talking. I found myself thinking, ‘Come on, come on, I’ve heard this so many times before.’ Then I caught myself, and said, ‘You may have heard it so many times before but you didn’t hear it from him. And if you’re not listening anymore, you need to move on.’ That was in 1986, and that’s when I decided not to run for mayor again.”
Listening is as much a part of the job of being a government representative as is talking. Suck it up.
Follow@EditorDavePerryonBlueSky,Threads,Mastodon,TwitterandFacebookorreachhimat303-750-7555 ordperry@SentinelColorado.com
DAVE PERRY Editor
Councilmember Stephanie Hancock speaks to a member of the audience after he was critical of her move to limit public comment. SENTINEL SCREEN GRAB
AURORA LEADERS SEEK PUBLIC INPUT ON $700M CAPITAL NEEDS; TAX HIKE QUESTION POSSIBLE
Aurora city leaders suggested Jan. 14 that a potential ballot question and tax hike are likely needed to fund the bulk of at least $700 million in essential city capital improvement needs identified by a grassroots effort.
“We have a lot of needs,” Councilmember Curtis Gardner said. “I think our staff has done a good job of winnowing that down to the most critical needs, which that number alone is nearly a billion dollars.”
City officials, speaking at a press conference Tuesday, did not detail the list, but they said it includes public roads improvements and repairs, recreation and parks improvements, safety, accessibility and other city infrastructure needs. The list was compiled by city staff and city council members.
Officials said the priority is “based on a number of factors, including in part, significant need, the condition of the asset and readiness for construction,” according to a statement.
“The initial list was identified by staff and City Council based on a number of factors, including in part, significant need, the condition of the asset and readiness for construction,” city spokesperson Julie Patterson said in a statement.
The list of projects is divided into three tiers. The categories were prioritized based on inquiries by the council and community, existing plans, geographic distribution, asset condition, initial feedback from a poll completed in December 2021, project status and how fast they could be completed.
• Tier One includes $24 million for a traffic management center, $18 million for Americans with Disabilities Act sidewalk compliance, $21 million for Fire Station 8 replacement and $54 million for a new police evidence storage warehouse.
• Tier Two includes $35 million for bridge widening of Alameda Avenue over I-225 and $42 million for Utah Pool/Recreation Center improvements.
• Tier Three includes $50 million for a new park on Alameda Avenue and Airport Road, $47 million for the City of Aurora Public Safety Training Center expansion and $17 million for a pickleball court in Ward V.
“We’re looking for monies through grants and everything to supplement, but that’s never enough.” Councilmember Bergan said. “We’ve talked about this the whole time I’ve been on council, about going out for a ballot initiative, and then we’ve never made it happen because it takes a lot of education to get to that point.”
Councilmembers Gardner and Bergan said Tuesday they plan to engage the public to focus on crucial needs and find the best ways to fund upgrades and new developments.
Bergan mentioned the possibility of “De-Brucing” for potential funding as well.
The term refers to voters creating an exception to the state’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights constitutional amendment. The so-called TABOR measure requires voters to approve all tax increases. In addition, the law caps government revenues based on what was collected in previous years. The measure was promoted by Douglas Bruce, at Colorado Springs tax-protester, hence the reference to “Bruce.”
Aurora voters agreed to “De-Bruce” sales and use tax revenues in the early 2000s, according to Greg Hayes, Aurora’s budget officer. It essentially lifted a cap on how much sales and use tax can be collected each year.
“We are not De-Bruced for property tax,” Patterson said in a statement. She said the city could gain about $17 million a year in new revenue if voters were to “de-Bruce” those levies.
How much the city could borrow through a bond issue for capital improvements could be a chore for the new task force to help determine.
Aurora has notoriously been a difficult place to persuade voters to raise taxes, and Republicans, which dominate the city council, have traditionally been loath to ask for tax hikes.
“We’re really trying to involve the residents in Aurora and go through a long deliberative process,” Gardner said. “It’s been 25 years since Aurora voters have approved a tax increase. And you know, we think going through this process will get buy-in from our residents, but it will also allow us to hear from them what projects they would like to see.”
The city and Aurora leaders say they are taking a grassroots approach in order to gain public trust and support whatever funding options are offered during the process.
City officials avoided specifics but said it could mean a ballot measure and tax increase or something else entirely, depending on public input. Instead of dictating a way forward, city officials said they are focused on “transparency” and “collaboration” with city residents. Under state law, the city can raise money for capital projects through property taxes, sales taxes or fees.
Gardner also reflected on past failures, emphasizing the importance of including residents in decision-making.
“In the past, it was the city saying, ‘This is what you need.’ We’re doing this differently,” he said. “Residents will be part of the process.”
In 2024, the Aurora City Council formed the Infrastructure Task Force to develop a 10-year strategic plan for infrastructure investment. The committee’s responsibilities include crafting phased strategic plans for short-, mid, and long-term improvement needs, establishing criteria prioritizing projects, promoting collaboration with stakeholders, engaging residents and exploring funding options.
Task force members include Ray Barnes, former Aurora Fire Rescue chief; Joel Boyd,
Town Center at Aurora mall manager; Steve Coffin, Steve Coffin Strategies; Naomi Colwell, Aurora Chamber of Commerce CEO; Rita Connerly, Fairfield and Wood, P.C.; Bruce Dalton Visit Aurora CEO; Ryan Frazier, Frazier Global; Jeff Knight, Hispanic Contractors of Colorado and Wendy Mitchell, Aurora Economic Development Council CEO.
With Aurora experiencing nearly 40% population growth over the past two decades, the demand for roads and services has intensified, according to a statement. This has impacted the city’s economic stability and residents’ quality of life.
“The high cost of capital needs, which increases daily, will continue to skyrocket,” Councilmember Françoise Bergan said, saying need continues to far outpace city resources. “People think property taxes fund everything, but the city receives only about 10% of those taxes.”
The other funding comes from the local sales tax of 3.75%. Bergan listed everything the city has to pay for with tax funding, including police, fire, libraries, recreation centers, city roads and more.
Some parks have been left unfinished for almost 20 years, Bergan said.
To ensure public involvement, the city plans to host forums, town halls and online engagement sessions to prioritize projects and work toward buy-in for a potential bond issue election.
“We promise to put the money where it’s needed, and it won’t go into a black hole,” Bergan said.
Both council members said they hope a transparent, community-driven approach will foster trust and result in success.
“We’re excited about what this means for our community,” Gardner said. “This is about ensuring a better future for every resident of Aurora.”
This graphic offers an option for a long-planned widening of the Alameda Avenue bridge over Interstate 225. Courtesy City of Aurora
BY CASSANDRA BALLARD, Sentinel Staff Writer
‘Tis the season. Flu, COVID-19 and RSV cases aring in Aurora and across the state
HERE’S HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM WINTER AILMENTS
BY
In the winter months, it seems few are safe from some kind of illness — flu, COVID-19, norovirus, colds. While many of the germs that cause this misery can circulate throughout the year, scientists think that the winter surge of flu and cold activity may be because we spend more time indoors and the cold, dry air may weaken our defenses.
But knowing what these bugs are and how they spread can help. While it may be difficult to make it through the season totally unscathed, there are some things you can do to protect yourself from these respiratory and stomach viruses.
How do I know whether I have the cold, the flu, COVID-19 or something else?
Some symptoms are hard to distinguish among illnesses, especially with respiratory viruses. Others are unmistakable.
• Norovirus is a foodborne illness that can spread through water and contaminated surfaces and can cause vomiting, diarrhea, nausea and stomach pain for about one to three days.
• The common cold can be caused by several different types of viruses and can cause a runny nose, congestion, cough, sneezing, sore throat, headaches, body aches or low fever for less than a week.
• The flu, caused by influenza viruses that are always changing, leads to fever, chills, cough, sore throat, runny nose, body aches, headaches and feeling tired. Flu symptoms tend to hit more quickly than cold symptoms, and can last anywhere from a few days to two weeks.
• COVID-19 can cause fever, chills, cough, short of breath, sore throat, congestion, loss of smell or taste, fatigue, aches, headache, nausea, or vomiting for several days.
• RSV can cause a runny nose, congestion, coughing, sneezing, wheezing, fever and a loss of appetite for a week or two.
One way to protect yourself from all viruses: Wash your hands
Seriously. Rigorous and frequent handwashing — with soap! — is crucial to reduce the spread of norovirus, colds, flu and COVID-19.
This is especially true after using the bathroom and eating or preparing food, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Don’t speed through it, either. Count to 20, slowly, while you scrub away.
If you don’t have access to soap and water, try a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol — though that isn’t enough to wipe out norovirus.
Cleaning surfaces can wipe out viruses
If norovirus has found you, you’ll want to immediately clean surfaces that came in contact with contaminated food or bodily fluids. The CDC recommends disinfecting things with a chlorine bleach solution or one of the products listed on this Environmental Protection Agency website.
Don’t forget to wash any clothing that came in contact with vomit or feces — use hot water and detergent. Then, wash your hands. Again. With colds and flu, it’s best to regularly
clean surfaces that you come into a lot of contact with. Think doorknobs, light switches, countertops, beloved toys, cellphones.
Use household cleaning products that contain soap or detergent, and follow it up with a sanitizer. The CDC has more tips on how to clean.
COVID-19 generally spreads through the air from droplets and particles, and the CDC says the risk of getting the virus from a contaminated surface is low.
Keeping your hands off your face can keep viruses out
Viruses can spread through talking, coughing and sneezing, so cover your mouth with a tissue if you feel a tickle in your throat or your nose. Then, wash your hands. Again. Also, even if you’re not sick, consider masking in crowded areas with an N95 or medical-grade mask to protect yourself from respiratory viruses.
Don’t touch your face: If you have a germ or virus on your unwashed hands — respiratory or norovirus — and touch your face, eyes or nose, it can get into your mucus membranes and, voila!, you’re sick!
Consider a vaccine (if there is one)
Updated COVID-19 vaccines are available, as well as annual flu shots for people 6 months and older. For those 60 and older or for people who are pregnant, you may want to get the RSV vaccine. But there is no vaccine for norovirus or the common cold.
Another way to keep your defenses against viruses up: Rest
Your immune system may not work as well if you’re sleep-deprived, stressed out or dehydrated. So don’t grind yourself into the ground if you can help it. Rest. Sleep. Drink water.
If
you
are sick, stay at home
If you do get sick, prompt testing can help determine whether you have COVID-19 or influenza. That’s important to see if you need one of the medicines that can help prevent severe illness: Paxlovid for COVID-19 and Tamiflu for flu.
Above all, if you’re symptomatic, stay at home to keep from getting others sick. To treat a cold, flu or COVID-19, rest and drink fluids. You can take pain relievers to lower a fever or help with an achy body. Humidifiers can help with symptoms, too.
There’s no medication for norovirus. Instead, you’ll need to rehydrate as much as possible with water and other liquids. Seek help if you are dehydrated and notice you have a dry mouth and throat, aren’t urinating as much or feel dizzy when you’re standing up.
AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson and theColoradoDepartmentofHealthcontributedtothisreport.
First-grade students wash their hands before lunch at the South Loop Elementary School, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007, in Chicago. Legislation sponsored by Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, was passed Thursday at the Illinois Capitol that will require Chicago schools to make students wash their hands with antiseptic soap before eating. AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast
hide from those closest to us,” Vintage officials said. “Through a blend of comedy, action, and heart, “She Kills Monsters” reminds us that sometimes the greatest quests are the ones that lead us home.”
“It will slash and shapeshift its way into your heart,” a New York Times critic said.
scene & herd
The Beauty Queen of Leenane — dark Comedy lights up Aurora’s The People’s Building
Get ready for a night of humor and dark intrigue as The Beauty Queen of Leenane, a play by playwright Martin McDonagh, takes the stage. This riveting dark comedy explores the tense, dysfunctional relationship between Mag, an overbearing mother, and Maureen, her unmarried daughter. When Maureen’s chance at love threatens their delicate status quo, Mag goes to extreme lengths to intervene, leading to a gripping mix of psychological drama and biting humor.
Recommended for audiences aged 15 and older, this show promises to be entertaining and unsettling in equal measures.
IF YOU GO
Performances through Jan. 25
Where: The People’s Building, 9995 E. Colfax Ave.
Tickets and details: $26 at www. thepeoplesbuilding.com
Trivia Tuesdays at
Cerebral Brewing
Meet up with a crew of nerds at Cerebral. Just about any member of the Cerebral team has a number of topics that they’re particularly passionate about – from sports, reality TV or of course, beer. They’ve got so much to nerd out about that they host trivia every Tuesday at 6 pm. All questions are created in house every week. Get your team together and join us to test your knowledge and win prizes — you never know what you might learn next.
IF YOU GO
When: 6 p.m. Tuesdays
Where: Cerebral Brewing 1477 Monroe St.
Details: cerebralbrewing.com
She Kills Monsters, in Aurora
Action-packed board-game theater production? Critics say yes to “She Kills Monsters” opening this weekend at the Vintage Theatre in Aurora. Based on a episode of Dungeon’s and Dragons, “Qui Nguyen’s clever drama-comedy weaves together spectacular adventure with genuine emotional depth, using the framework of tabletop gaming to explore love, loss, and the parts of ourselves we
IF YOU GO
She Kills Monsters runs weekends through Feb. 23
Tickets: $20-$36
At the Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St, inside at the Bond-Trimble Theatre
Details and sales: www.vintagetheatre.org
The Life and Art of Tokio Ueyama
The Life and Art of Tokio Ueyama features more than 40 paintings loaned to the museum by the Japanese American National Museum and Ueyama’s family, whose combined efforts to preserve his work have allowed the story of this accomplished and cosmopolitan artist to be told at the Denver Art Museum for the first time.
Born in Japan, Tokio Ueyama moved to the United States in 1908 at age 18, where he made a home until his death in 1954. This exhibition tells the story of Ueyama’s life, including his early days as an art student in San Francisco, Southern California, and Philadelphia; his travels abroad in Europe and Mexico; his role as artist and community member in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles; and his unconstitutional incarceration during World War II at the Granada Relocation Center, now the Amache National Historic Site, in southeast Colorado.
IF YOU GO:
Through June 1
Where: Denver Art Museum, 100 W 14th Ave Pkwy Tickets: Included in general admission, which is free for members and for all visitors 18 and under.
Details: www.denverartmuseum. org
Cursive Live in Englewood
Indie rock pioneer Cursive takes the stage at the Gothic in Englewood to showcase their latest album, Devourer, along with favorites from their iconic career. Known for blurring the lines between indie rock and post-hardcore, Cursive’s thought-provoking lyrics and bold experimentation have made them a touchstone in modern music. Expect a night of dynamic performances, from the raw introspection of Domestica to the thematic depth of their newest work, Devourer, which explores themes of consumption, anxiety, and the human condition. Featuring Tim Kasher, Matt Maginn, Ted Stevens, and an expanded lineup.
IF YOU GO:
When: 9 PM Jan. 31
Where: Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway
Details and tickets: $42.48 at gothictheatre.com
Breaking Boundaries: New Art Exhibition Explores Creativity in Aurora
Downtown Aurora Visual Arts (DAVA) invites art enthusiasts to experience “Breaking Boundaries: The Future of Creativity,” a group exhibition curated by Alyssa Williams. The show shines a spotlight on the collaboration between emerging artists and their mentors, offering a glimpse into the future of creative expression.
The exhibition features a lineup of creators working across a wide range of mediums. Ceramic artistry by Prisila Vazquez-Nava, Joey Kerlin, Jessica Gerome, and Bambi Hernandez brings a tactile exploration of form and texture. Alternative material experimentation by Erica Rawson, Kayli Cottonwood, and Jasmine Maldonado Dillavou challenges traditional art-making methods. Meanwhile, drawing, painting, and two-dimensional works by Sunny Zheng-Herb, Raymond Gabriel, Faith Williams Dyrsten, Mike Hanson, and Tim Ulrich deliver vivid reflections of personal and societal narratives.
The show also includes innovative approaches to jewelry and metalwork by Xtina Nelson, Madeleine Adair, and Dianna Miguez, alongside Macey Boren’s integration of technology and art, which blurs the boundaries between physical and digital mediums.
“Breaking Boundaries celebrates the transformative role of collaboration between educators and emerging artists,” said Williams, a curatorial intern at DAVA and a student at Metropolitan State University of Denver. “It’s about innovation, pushing the limits of materials, and rethinking traditional approaches to art.”
DAVA, a cornerstone of Aurora’s art scene, is dedicated to engaging diverse youth in arts education that fosters creativity, opportunity, and community strength. The exhibition exemplifies this mission by encouraging dialogue and exploration among artists, educators, and audiences.
IF YOU GO
When: Gallery is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays. The show is on exhibit through Feb. 24
Where: DAVA 1405 Florence St.
Tickets: The show and gallery are free
Details: www.davarts.org and 303-367-5886
Lunar New Year close to home
The biggest planned Asian New Year celebration this year is Aurora’s iconic country western bar, the Stampede.
Created by Havana area business association, On Havana. the celebration this year is set for Jan. 26 and offers a full menu of traditional and localized events.
IF YOU GO
What: Lunar New Year Celebration at the Stampede
Where: Stampede, 2430 S. Havana St.
When: 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. Jan. 26
Main Stage Schedule
All Day: MC – Sean Choi –3456 Tea Owner
12:30 PM – Miki Saito: Japanese Flutist
Filipino Hip Hop Artist
3:20PM – Guiding Mountain: Dragon & Lion Dance Perfomers
4 PM – Firecrackers Celebration
Inside and Outside
• DJ Sets throughout day by DJ Innaseoul and DJ Done
• A variety of performances and cultural entertainment
• All Day: Face Painting, Balloon Artist, Old Soul Henna, Bubble Machines, and Other Craft Activities
• Kid’s Corner – Arts & Crafts –Make and Take – 296 Paper Dragons (limited, while supplies last) + Color Station with Lunar New Year themed Coloring Pages
• Aurora Police Department Family Friendly Activities
• Korea Town Aurora hosting Cultural Attire Hanbok Try On with Photo Opportunity + Korean Calligraphy
Eat up Festival organizers are offering a wide range of Asian and global food and drink choices.
Icons for a New West at Gallery 1261
“Icons for the New West” looks at the Western art trope by exploring icons. Artists invited to show work were selected for their current and contemporary view of the Western United States.
Western art is a more expansive genre than most art patrons believe it to be. The gallery invited artists delving into contemporary themes and unusual media in this show. In some cases, the work for the show is experimental; these pieces signal a new direction for these artists with their work and vision. This work is always exciting because it signals that the artist is pushing boundaries in their work and for their audience. Making art that takes risks is vital to the artist’s growth. Other artists’ work pushes boundaries in subjects, and so these artists present the West through a different lens. These works are wonderfully fun for patrons because they challenge them to see through the artist’s eyes and experience the world in a fresh, new way. In this respect, artists are looking at Western “icons” and reimagining them or simply shedding the nostalgia so many genre paintings embrace.
Artists in this exhibition include Don Stinson, Maeve Eichelberger, Daniel Sprick, Tim Cherry, Corey Pickett, Terry Gardner, Dan Young, Tony Hochstetler, William Matthews, David Carmack Lewis, Susie Hyer, Ulrich Gleiter, Stephanie Hartshorn, Linda Prokop, Billyo O’Donnell, Jen Starling, Reen Axtell, Kate Breakey, Andy Evansen, Michael Vacchiano and Johanna Mueller.
IF YOU GO
Show: Icons for a New West
When: Through Jan. 28
Where: Rose Fredrick Project Space at Gallery 1261, 1261 Delaware St., Suite 1, Denver https://buff.ly/4fHdURk
Rough and roses
This Valentine’s season, the Symphony of the Rockies, formerly the Arapahoe Philharmonic, invites you to embark on a musical journey at “Epic Love: From Shakespeare to Superheroes.” The concert seeks to capture the essence of love in its most dramatic and heroic forms.
homa” by Rodgers & Hammerstein. Operatic voices soprano Dawna Rae Warren and tenor Miguel Ángel Ortega Bañales are on tap for the performance.
The Arapahoe Philharmonic, now Symphony of the Rockies, has been a cornerstone of the metro arts scene for more than seven decades.
IF YOU GO
One show only: Feb 8 with curtain at 7:30pm Tickets: $10-$50
Venue: Lone Tree Arts Center, 10075 Commons St. in Lone Tree Details: lonetreeartscenter.org and 720-509-1000
Art Inspired by Frida Kahlo: Visions of the Self
The artworks featured in this show draw inspiration from Kahlo’s distinctive style and subject matter, reinterpreted through a diverse range of mediums and artistic approaches. From surreal self-portraits to colorful celebrations of Mexican culture, the pieces pay homage to Kahlo’s enduring legacy while offering fresh, contemporary perspectives. In their exploration of the self, the body and the intersection of the personal and political, the artists in this exhibition capture the raw emotional power and unapologetic authenticity that defined Kahlo’s artistic voice. Their works invite viewers to peer into the artist’s inner world, confront their own experiences and find connection in the universal truths that Kahlo’s art poignantly reveals. This Chicano Humanities and Arts Council exhibition is a testament to Frida Kahlo’s continued influence and the enduring relevance of her artistic vision. Through its diverse interpretations, viewers are reminded of art’s transformative potential to illuminate the human condition and celebrate the beauty in shared struggles.
IF YOU GO
Show: Art Inspired by Frida Kahlo: Visions of the Self
When: 5 p.m. - 9 p.m., through Feb. 14
Where: Chicano Humanities and Arts Council at 40 West, 7060 W. 16th Ave.
Tickets: Free and open to the public www.chacgallery.org
“Where The Wild Things Are” Package
In collaboration with Denver Art Museum’s brand-new “Where The Wild Things Are” exhibit, honoring the cherished children’s book, The ART Hotel Denver, has launched a Wild Things package. The package will include a hardcover edition of “Where the Wild Things Are” book. Two tickets to the “Wild Things” exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, truffles and a personalized note from the book’s main character, Max.
IF YOU GO Through Feb. 17
The ART Hotel Denver 1201 Broadway, Denver Free www.thearthotel.com/special-offers/wild-things
The Pond Ice Rink
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• GreatBurgers
• GreatBurgers
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• GreatCheesesteaks
• GreatCheesesteaks
• 20 TV’s
• 20 TV’s
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• Open St age EveryThursday
• Open St age EveryThursday
• Saturdays:11:30AM-3PM FreeDomesticBeeror
• Saturdays:11:30AM-3PM FreeDomesticBeeror
Give us a call for entertainment questions
Soda With SandwichOrder
1 PM – Denver Taiko: Japanese Taiko Drumming
2:15 PM – Meta Sarmiento: Filipino Hip Hop Artist
3 PM – Guiding Mountain: Dragon & Lion Dance Performers
4 PM – KPop Rockstar: Sean Choi coordinating performances from winners of his competition
5 PM – KonnectPop: Kpop Dance Showcase and also live performances from David Park & Jay.
Outside in Parking Lot of Stampede
1:45 PM – Denver Taiko: Japanese Taiko Drumming
2 PM – Firecrackers Celebration
2:45 PM – Meta Sarmiento:
Under the direction of conductor Devin Patrick Hughes, the orchestra will bring to life a program that spans centuries and genres. Tchaikovsky’s lush and emotional Romeo & Juliet Suite anchors the evening with its depiction of Shakespeare’s classic tale. From there, the music leaps into the 20th and 21st centuries with John Williams’ iconic Superman Love Theme and Michael Giacchino’s exhilarating Thor: Love & Thunder – Mama’s Got a Brand New Hammer, showcasing how love continues to inspire even the most modern of stories.
Opera lovers are treated, too, in highlights from Verdi’s La Traviata and Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, as well as the musical theater classic “Okla-
Southlands’ popular ice rink, The Pond, reopens on Nov. 8, kicking off the holiday and winter season. Advance tickets for skating sessions will be available soon. Group rates are also offered; contact (303) 928-7536 for details and reservations or email southlands@icerinkevents.com.
IF YOU GO
The Pond is open Southlands, 6155 S. Main St. $14 Family-friendly shopsouthlands.com/
AROUND AURORA
Aurora council sets new rules for public comments, can now shut down meetings
After months of heated council meetings with outbursts and lack of decorum from members of the public, Aurora City Council have imposed new restrictions for public comment.
Two city council members, Stephanie Hancock and Danielle Jurinsky, were successful Jan. 13 in limiting open comment from the public, even allowing the city council to shut down meetings and make them virtual.
“We’re not trying to eliminate public invited to be heard,” Hancock said. “What we’re asking is for respect and decorum, which continually is violated here.”
For months, much of the meetings have been dominated by, and even taken over by, regular protesters and commenters regarding the police-shooting death of Kilyn Lewis in May. The city council, however, has been berated on occasion regarding the Gaza War, the city’s homelessness policies, crime crackdowns policies on immigration.
Commenting public has sometimes been profane, launching ad hominem attacks and refusing to give up the microphone after allotted time at the mike has lapsed.
The initial proposal from Hancock was to allow public comment only at the end of meetings to prevent disruption. She also proposed that the Council be allowed to close meetings to the public and go virtual if attendees are deemed to be lacking decorum.
If the meeting were shut down, the original proposal also gave members of the public only ten minutes to vacate city hall before facing arrest.
One member of the public who spoke against the resolution, Aaron Futrell, said it was ridiculous that the council would consider arresting members of the public for not leaving within 10 minutes.
“Trying to shut up the public and telling us that we’re going to be arrested because we’ve peaceably assembled and are protecting our First Amendment right, I’m laughing at that,” he said.
Councilmember Crystal Murillo said it is difficult to ask the public for decorum when council members cannot be civil with each other.
“If y’all have been watching long enough, you know that this council is not about respect,” Murillo said. “If you’re not in the majority, this council has been vicious; personal attacks that don’t get decorum called on, straightup lies to the media about what’s happening in our city. There’s no concern for the truth or respect.”
Murillo said she saw the move as a progressive slide toward excluding the public from the city legislative process.
“We keep removing you all’s opportunity to say and to speak to our elected officials,” she said. “I’m not OK with that.”
Murillo said she also had concerns about the move being made too cumbersome and turning the public away. To be able to address the city council, Hancock’s proposal required identification to prove residency, and a time limit to sign up sometimes hours before the meeting started, in order to be allowed to speak.
Murillo proposed an amendment to allow the public to sign up online with a 1 p.m. deadline that City Clerk Kadee Rodriguez agreed to design and implement.
Councilmember Alison Coombs agreed with Murillo, reminding the rest of the council members that when she started, public comment was unlimited and could last hours. She thinks it should be the public’s right to voice opinions to their elected officials. With amendments, the resolution passed and will direct the city manager to close the meetings to the public if disruptions jeopardize the council’s
ability to conduct business, and then meeting will go virtual. The time limit to vacate was taken out since circumstances could always vary, according to City Attorney Pete Schulte. Still, the measure would allow city officials to force the public out of the building.
Councilmember Françoise Bergan amended part of the resolution that proposed moving all of the public comment to the end of the meeting.
She instead proposed 30 minutes for Aurora residents only at the beginning and 30 minutes at the end of meetings for all public comment. She also proposed reducing the time to speak from three minutes to two minutes.
Bergan and Murillo’s amendments were approved, and the resolution passed, allowing the 30-minute times before and after, with two minutes to speak, and the public will now be able to sign up online until 1 p.m. the day of the meeting. The deadline to sign up in person will stay the same, allowing people to sign up until right before the meeting.
The measure does not affect public hearings associated with legislation.
— Cassandra Ballard, Sentinel Staff
Aurora mayor dismisses criticism after heated exchange with ex-Denver school board member
A former Denver school board member who frequently chastises Aurora lawmakers at their council meetings wants Aurora’s mayor to apologize for a verbal dust-up Jan. 13.
Mayor Mike Coffman dismissed the allegations by former Denver Public Schools board vice-president Auon’tai Anderson as melodramatics.
Anderson said Coffman confronted him at the end of Monday’s Aurora City Council meeting as they and dozens of other people in the audience were walking out of council chambers. Anderson has circulated a curated video depicting the heated verbal exchange between himself and Coffman.
In Anderson’s curated video, and in an apparently unedited version posted on SentinelColorado.com, Coffman can be heard spontaneously shouting at Anderson about the 2023 death of a Denver high school student.
“The mayor utilized his position of power to intimidate and attack me to the point where another council member had to forcefully remove the mayor from my face,” Anderson said.
While the video shows Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky apparently guiding Coffman away from the altercation, he did not appear to resist her, and her actions did not appear “forceful.”
The conflict happened shortly after a series of heated public comments from a group of people who regularly attend the city council meetings to offer criticism about the police-shooting death of Kilyn Lewis. Lewis was fatally shot by Aurora police SWAT officer Michael Diek during Lewis’ arrest last May. The group, often led by Anderson, has held city council protests, has for months regularly been fiercely critical of the city council in regards to Lewis’ death, sometimes protesting and making emotional, sometimes profane and personal comments. On more than one occasion, city council meetings were suspended when the mayor could not force the crowd to relent.
As people were leaving the council chamber Monday, the mayor walked through the crowd and, from the perspective of the video, walked directly to Anderson, shouting the name “Austin Lyle.”
“Austin Lyle,” Coffman said. “Say his name. You killed him.”
“Say his name” is a common refrain by Black rights activists invoked during criticism of lethal police brutality.
Lyle, a student at East High School, fatally shot himself in 2023 after shooting two administrators at East High. At the time, Anderson was the vice president of the Denver Public
Schools Board. He had lobbied hard to remove School Resource Officers from all schools, insisting that police in schools too often harass and arrest students of color. After the Lyle shooting and another student-shooting incident at the school in 2024, the noSRO policy in DPS schools came under fierce criticism, and was eventually reversed. Numerous critics blamed the lack of police at East High for the shootings and other school violence.
For months, however, Anderson and other Lewis protesters have inferred or outright said that city lawmakers in Aurora are responsible for the death of Lewis because of errant city police and a lack of reform, they blame on the Aurora City Council.
On Jan. 13, after Coffman’s shout at Anderson, someone stepped in between the two as Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky appeared to pull the mayor away toward the door. Coffman then walked to the elevator with an officer following him as Coffman kept shouting, “You killed him. You killed that young Black man.”
It’s unclear what provoked the mayor to confront Anderson since they have never publicly spoken oneon-one or seemed to have any significant personal issues, Anderson said.
After almost a full hour of public comment toward the end of the threehour meeting on Monday, a speaker took to the dais and harshly shouted at the city council, at times profanely. It seemed to provoke the mayor to adjourn the meeting immediately when the speaker finished.
It was initially unclear what provoked the mayor to confront Anderson since they had never spoken one-onone or seemed to have any significant personal issues, Anderson said.
On Jan. 16, Coffman posted on Facebook that he had used his “outdoor voice” to address Anderson and linked Lyle’s death to a lack of officers on school campuses. Coffman said Anderson moved to Aurora to “start over,” possibly politically, a claim Anderson denied, stating he isn’t running for any office in Aurora. The mayor announced he would hold “a moment of silence for Lyle” at the next council meeting, which Anderson criticized, noting no similar gesture was made for Kilyn Lewis.
Multiple people said Coffman ended the meeting prematurely. City officials said after that was not the case. Public comments are limited to one hour, according to city council rules. The profane speaker finished at the end of the hour. Seven speakers were remaining signed up to address the city council, according to city officials.
Although the last person to speak is part of the same group of people who attended with Anderson, there didn’t seem to be any other connection to him.
The public comment portion of council meetings often becomes aggressive and hostile with profanities and personal attacks aimed at members of city council. Monday night appeared less hostile than usual, besides the fact that public comment was moved to the end of the meeting instead of the beginning, which clearly frustrated members of the group.
Anderson said on Tuesday that of all the many and frequent speeches he usually gives to city council, this one was more “lackluster.”
“I literally started with that negro spiritual,” Anderson said. “I gave some stats, and I said, we’re tired of moving the goalpost. And that was the end of my remarks, and I left singing.”
The Monday council meeting immediately followed a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in the lobby outside of council chambers, where attendees, including Anderson, sang “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” which inspired Anderson to sing it during his speech.
On Tuesday, Coffman dismissed Anderson’s video as curated and said in a statement that he “does not forfeit his ability to express his opinion just because he is an elected leader.”
The mayor’s statement said that his position is that Anderson is at-
tempting to make a “mountain out of a molehill.”
“He was expressing an opinion about Mr. Anderson’s past actions on the Denver school board,” the statement said. “Mayor Coffman also said he is not going to spend any more time on this manufactured non-issue.”
Jurinsky agreed with the statement and said Coffman did not “attack” anyone.
Anderson insists that he did take it as an attack. He said the fact that the mayor forced him into closed-quarters shouting put him and the rest of the public in danger. He said the exchange could easily have escalated among the crowd had he chosen to engage with Coffman.
“The mayor’s actions were reckless,” Anderson said. “They made me fear for my safety, and any citizen should now be afraid about what the mayor of Aurora could potentially be doing when he has a difference of opinion with him and how he’s going to utilize his power and position around law enforcement to express his own political views to those who he has differencing opinions with. And that’s just scary.”
He said that with how quickly an Aurora police officer shot Kilyn Lewis for grabbing his cell phone, it’s impossible to know what would have happened if Anderson had grabbed his own cell phone to record the exchange on Monday. Lewis was being pursued by police for an attempted homicide in Denver and was fatally shot by an Aurora officer May 23 while reaching for his phone in his back pocket. The officer who shot Lewis said he thought the phone was a gun.
Anderson insists the incident warrants an apology from the mayor. He also wants the mayor to be censured by the city council, and he asks that the mayor is no longer allowed to attend Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations in Aurora.
— Cassandra Ballard, Sentinel Staff
After testy dispute, Aurora lawmakers signal support for immigrant community
After a heated city council meeting discussion Jan. 13, the Aurora City Council ultimately passed a resolution reaffirming the city’s support for its documented immigrant community.
The resolution comes on the eve of a new Trump administration after months of threats by the president-elect to begin mass-deportations — starting with Aurora — when he takes office Jan. 20.
The resolution passed 9-1 with Councilmember Stephanie Hancock objecting. Councilmember Curtis Gardner was absent.
Councilmember Alison Coombs, the sponsor of the resolution, emphasized the importance of the measure,
“In light of the amount of fear and concern that has happened in our community, for immigrants in our community, and concerns about potential deportation, as well as rhetoric that does not fully value the contributions of all of our immigrants in the city of Aurora, we do affirm, as a city, our valuing and supporting of those members of our community and their contributions to the community.”
Of greatest concern for Coombs and other supporters are threats by Trump and some congressional Republicans to revoke a host of temporary immigration statuses affecting tens of thousands of immigrants in Aurora.
El Salvador immigrants approved for Temporary Protective Status and so-called “DACA DREAMers” — children of immigrants not born in the United States but who have lived here for much or most of their lives — could be at risk.
A bevy of immigrants, including Venezuela, enjoy some variation of temporary status, according to state and local immigration officials.
Last week, President Joe Biden by executive order extended such pro-
tective statuses for Venezuelan and El Salvador immigrants. It’s unclear whether Trump could, or would, reverse the 18-month extensions when he takes office.
The city council debate featured sharp disagreements over the resolution’s potential impact, and its potential mis-alignment with Trump’s threatened federal immigration enforcement.
Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky criticized the resolution, saying it was just “virtue signaling” and has no real impact.
Mayor Michael Coffman pushed back, saying the resolution will tell documented immigrants that the city stands behind ensuring that temporary statuses, enjoyed by tens of thousands of local immigrants, are not reversed.
Jurinsky said she supports only the deportation of criminal immigrants. Jurinsky has found herself at the center of national controversy, appearing numerous times on right-wing TV shows promoting “Operation Aurora,” Trump’s name for mass deportations. She has repeated claims that areas of Aurora are “overrun” by Venezuelan gang members, a claim repeated frequently by Trump.
Council members Jurinsky and Françoise Bergan also raised legal concerns about potential federal law requiring local authorities to cooperate with immigration enforcement. Bergan questioned whether supporting the resolution might put council members at risk of arrest by federal officials for interfering with deportations.
“No,” Aurora City Attorney Pete Schulte said.
Coombs said, however, that the resolution was an important statement of support for the city’s immigrant residents who are fearful of the imminent Trump administration’s new policies.
She emphasized that the words and actions of city leaders matter to those facing uncertainty.
”There are a lot of people who are scared and who are worried and for whom saying yes, we support and value you is worth something, and the words that we say as leaders matter,” she said.
After a couple of amendments — including one ensuring that the resolution is not an attempt to defy federal officials — the council ultimately passed the measure. The approved version included language stating that the city will “not interfere with federal immigration law” and will cooperate with federal immigration authorities as permitted by state and federal statutes.
State law prohibits local law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal immigration officials in efforts to arrest or detain immigrants suspected of being undocumented.
— Cassandra Ballard, Sentinel Staff Writer
SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION
Internet security breach delays Aurora Public Schools, raises safety concerns
Citing a districtwide, week-long internet security attack, Aurora Public Schools officials delayed schools started later on Jan. 16 and Jan. 17 as technicians worked to restore phones and internet access.
“While this has been extremely frustrating for our community, these measures were necessary to protect our technology infrastructure,” APS spokesperson Corey Christiansen said in a statement. “At this time, we continue to respond to the outage and investigate the cause of the suspicious activity.”
District computer and phone network employees noticed “suspicious activity within our network early Monday morning,” and the network system was immediately shut down, Chris›› See METRO, 19
AURORA BREAKS CAMP
BY CASSANDRA BALLARD, Sentinel Staff Writer
The Aurora City Council is pushing forward changes to its homeless camping laws, aligning it with a recent Supreme Court decision that allows cities to oust campers without notice or providing shelter.
Aurora’s current homeless laws require the city to provide at least 72 hours notice before clearing encampments, and expulsions can only be carried out if there is emergency shelter space available.
The city’s legal advisors said the 2024 Johnson v Grants Pass Supreme Court ruling permits the changes in Aurora, and across the country.
“We will continue to provide shelter options,” said Jessica Prosser, director of Housing and Community Services.
The proposed change follows a comprehensive reworking of the city’s homeless program, which boasts a $67 million Navigation Center, expected to open in late 2025.
Aurora is moving toward what Mayor Mike Coffman refers to as a “work-first” approach to offering services. While the city will offer long-term housing options to homeless people, they must enter work, job-training and addiction recovery programs to qualify. Details of what constitutes compliance for services have not yet been decided, according to city officials.
Some council critics insist that “housing first” programs are more effective at reducing homelessness,
pointing to recent government studies indicating that.
Changes proposed by city lawmakers this week focus on how Aurora will be permitted to clear homeless campers from public property.
Councilmember Steve Sundberg said expelling campers, and even threatening arrest, makes more sense because the city has regularly offered shelter to homeless people, who refuse it.
“We want those people on the streets to accept services and shelter,” Sundberg said. “We want people to accept help, but we are finding that in most cases, they refuse.”
The proposal has sparked debate about homelessness, public safety and the humane treatment of vulnerable populations.
Councilmember Alison Coombs was critical about removing requirements for providing shelter and offering 72-hour notice before expelling campers on public property.
The proposed change in law can make camping on public property and refusing to move a trespassing violation. Coombs said. “Our general penalty clause could result in up to 364 days in jail and a maximum fine — this creates a very different impact on those affected.”
“The majority of homeless people have jobs,” Coombs said. “We’re not going to get them into a work-first situation if they lose their job because we’re putting them in jail.”
City Attorney Pete Schulte said he agreed with Coombs that it subjects
people who refuse to leave to be arrested for criminal trespass.
“I don’t know if anybody is getting anywhere close to 364 days on a trespass case,” Schulte said. “But I’ll tell you, under the Supreme Court case, they consider any misdemeanor level OK. Under Grants Pass, anything under 365 days is considered a misdemeanor.”
Homelessness activists say it’s unclear how many homeless people are incarcerated in the metro area.
Cathay Alderman, chief communications officer for the Colorado Coalition of the Homeless, said that they don’t track homeless people who are incarcerated.
“There was a time when Denver University was tracking that data (see report here), but I don’t know that they have done anything since 2018-2019,” Alderman said in an email.
Homelessness activists and homeless people themselves say they do not like to go to aggregate shelters because of safety and sanitation issues, along with many other reasons.
“We do see some people accept services, especially when we have high-quality shelter options,” Prosser said. “People love going to the pallet shelter.”
Although Aurora’s pallet shelters recently closed, the city has been working on temporary services and housing until the Regional Navigation Center opens in late 2025. The Aurora Day Center is currently operating but does not offer overnight services.
Beginning Jan. 21, Prosser said the
city will temporarily use the Regional Navigation Campus — the city’s onestop shop for homelessness — for overnight shelter options until spring. The center itself, however, is still under construction, but the city has been offering bus transit in and out of the campus during periods of extreme cold weather.
During the meeting, Councilmember Crystal Murillo also questioned whether lending more police “capacity” for homelessness while there are other, more serious crimes to focus on.
“We are constantly hearing that we have a shortage of police officers in the department,” Murillo said.
Aurora’s chief of police, Todd Chamberlain, said that as of November, the city had conducted 106 abatements, housed 43 people and made four arrests linked to camping violations.
“We’re navigating the staffing challenges well and adding two more homeless outreach officers this spring,” Chamberlain said in response to Murillo.
The Aurora Police Department is adding homeless outreach officers to their Police Area Representative units (PAR). Sydney Edwards, Public Information Officer, said they expect to have them start in April.
“We currently have two officers that work specifically as Homeless Outreach Officers, so by April, we will have four, Edwards said in an email. “Our PAR units also respond to homeless situations and we have roughly six
officers per district assigned to PAR.”
Councilmember Angela Lawson said her constituents have been urging the city to clear homeless camps faster, describing drug use, violence and other safety issues near encampments near the I-225 and Parker Road area.
Prosser also said that not requiring 72-hour notice for expelling campers would provide the city with flexibility in addressing encampments, particularly in high-complaint areas.
Despite objections from council members Coombs, Murillo and Ruben Medina, the city council approved moving the ordinance changes to the council floor for a final decision at a future meeting.
Helping Aurora’s homeless goes centralized
In September, Aurora-based nonprofit-group Advance was chosen by the Aurora City Council to operate the city’s new centralized homeless services city, tabbed the “Navigation Center.”
Advance also took over operation of the Aurora Day Resource Center from Mile High Behavioral Healthcare on the Fitzsimons campus as part of a consolidation in city homeless services.
The group was chosen over metro-area veteran programs Salvation Army and Comitis Crisis Center despite being in operation for only two years. Advance officials said even though the agency is relatively new, Advance leaders and service providers have years of experience.
“The $2 million operations agreement, funded by Aurora’s general fund and marijuana tax revenue, covers shelter and case management services, among other services for the unhoused in the region,” city officials said in a statement. “Advance will also be responsible for securing additional public and private funding to sustain campus services.”
Earlier this year, Aurora negotiated a purchase price cap of $26.5 million for the 13-acre property, which it closed on over the summer. According to previous Sentinel reporting, the rest of the approximately $40 million investment — including money controlled by the city, overlapping counties, and the state — will be used to renovate the hotel.
“We are excited to partner with the city of Aurora to operate the navigation campus and to reach our goal of reducing homelessness in Aurora by 50%,” Jim Goebelbecker, Advance’s Executive Director, said in a statement.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the metro area has seen a growing homeless population.
After trying a variety of approaches to address homeless in the city, like encampment sweeps and transitional pallet housing, Aurora will now leverage federal, state, and regional funding to create a large, all-encompassing Aurora Regional Navigation Campus.
“One stop for those in great need,” Goebelbecker said.
The campus sits on 13 acres surrounding the old Crowne Plaza Hotel, 15500 E 40th Ave., in the northeast corner of the city. It will utilize the hotel’s 255 rooms, as well as the commercial kitchen and laundry facilities.
The multimillion-dollar campus is based on a “work first” approach for housing, according to Goebelbecker. Participants must seek and gain employment before qualifying for transitional housing at the center.
New mission for Comitis
Comitis Crisis Center, run by Mile High Behavioral Health, closed its singles floor at the end of October to refashion the center to provide more family-only space. Starting Dec. 1, the Comitis will reopen the floor to families only.
Comitis is one of the oldest housing crisis services in Colorado.
Miller said the change would provide additional space for Veterans Affairs and Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families services. Comitis worked with the Aurora Day Resource Center to rehouse the singles who had to leave, Miller said.
The floors with the families and substance abuse treatment were not moved. Comitis only closed the floor the singles were staying on to convert them for family accommodations.
“None of our families that we were serving were disrupted,” said Anna Miller, director of business development and public relations for Comitis. “Any emergency families—through weather activation— we’ve been able to accommodate through the remodel.”
Coombs, who is on the board of directors for the Mile High Behavioral Healthcare/Comitis Crisis Center, said that some individuals who receive treatment sometimes belong to the families being sheltered at Comitis.
Miller said they do not define a family at Comitis, which could mean an uncle with his niece and nephew.
The recovery unit is an intensive recovery program separate from the rest of the facility, with individual staff, case workers and security. People being treated are required to be sober and do not have a violent background.
“We’ve always served families and children, and we’ve always had an outpatient recovery unit, so there’s never been an issue or a problem,” Miller said. “It has an 87% success rate of people staying sober a year after they receive services. So it’s a very successful program, and we’ve never had an interaction issue.”
Non-Navigation Center
Grant Funding Allocation for Homeless Services in Aurora in 2025
Aurora Housing Authority
Total Amount Recommended:
$300,000
Source: Marijuana Tax Revenue Use: Rapid Rehousing and Homelessness Prevention (case management, housing navigation)
Aurora Housing Authority
Total Amount Recommended:
$200,000
Source: HUD HOME Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) Use: Rental Assistance and Security Deposit Assistance
Aurora Mental Health Care
Total Amount Recommended:
$25,000
Source: Public Safety
Use: Aurora Cold Weather Outreach Team (ACOT)
Mile High Behavioral Healthcare (Comitis)
Total Amount Recommended:
$138,219
Source: Emergency Solutions Grant (HUD)
Use: Family Shelter (operations)
Bridge House – Ready to Work Program
Total Amount Recommended:
$74,870
Source: Emergency Solutions Grant (HUD)
Use: Rapid Rehousing and Homelessness Prevention
Family Tree
Total Amount Recommended:
$100,000
Source: Marijuana Tax Revenue
Use: Family Shelter (case management and operations)
Gateway Domestic Violence
• Use: Shelter (case management, housing navigation, supplies)
• Total Amount Recommended:
$150,000
• Source: Marijuana Tax Revenue
Buckley Space Force Base
Restoration Advisory Board Meeting
The Air Force Civil Engineer Center is holding a virtual Restoration Advisory Board meeting for Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado. Space Force officials will provide an update on Environmental Restoration Program Sites and the investigations related to per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Restoration Advisory Board Meeting
January 23, 2025, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. MT
RAB attendance is required for RAB members and is open to the public.
The RAB meeting will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams. To access the virtual meeting, please use the meeting link below or scan the QR code
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetupjoin/19%3ameeting_MDk0MDdkYjktZDMwMS00NjYxLWE3NWItMDAxOG MyOWJkMTVj%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%223061117b4a0d-4f05-adf6-a8dff08626ef%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22399c1c71-6f8b4fd4-8946-c507cbdeb8b2%22%7d
For additional information, please contact Scott Wilson, Buckley SFB Restoration Program Manager, via email at: scott.wilson.7@spaceforce.mil
With no heat in its pool, the Rangeview girls swim team will call Hinkley home for its final home meet of the season.
The Raiders performed with ultimate comfort at the venue Jan. 18, as they swept first place in all 12 events on their way to yet another victory at the Aurora Public Schools Championship meet.
Seniors Hailey McDonald and Shemiah Turner and junior Daveah Archibeque won two events apiece in addition to a relay sweep for coach Robin Allen’s team, which scored 538 points to claim the title at the annual meet for the 21st consecutive time.
Two other wins went to Turner, who achieved the sprint freestyle sweep for a second straight season and departs with three consecutive APS crowns in the 100 freestyle.
She captured the 50 freestyle title in 28.98 seconds, which was just a shade off her best time of 28.09. Turner (a Pickens Tech student) posted a winning time of 1:05.03 in the 100 trailed her season best time of 1:02.71, while she anchored the winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
“I feel like it’s important for us to keep this going,” she said of Rangeview’s continued excellence in the meet. “I’m excited to see what everybody is going to do for the rest of the season.”
City leaders
BY COURTNEY OAKES Sports Editor
“It’s been a hard season with the pool breaking and everything; it’s been strange, but they’ve been trying to keep on top,” Allen said. “Our upperclassmen have stayed strong and been a very valuable resource for the younger swimmers.”
Nine impactful senior swimmers and two team managers will be celebrated at Rangeview’s Jan. 22 meet against Northfield at Hinkley and their banners hung above the pool during their last city meet, which they’ve excelled at for their entire careers.
The senior group posted seven individual wins to help the Raiders sweep firsts in every event for the second consecutive season and keep alive a streak of 35 event wins at the meet dating back to the 200 yard medley relay (taken by Aurora Central) in the opening event of the 2023 meet.
Senior Bella Gonzalez won the 100 breaststroke for a third straight season (with a time of 1:30.07), while senior Kayla Allen (who missed last season’s meet) won the 200 individual medley, which she also won in 2023, and senior Kate Gomez repeated in the 100 backstroke.
The only non-senior APS champion for Rangeview was Daveah Archibeque, a junior at Vista PEAK Prep who swept the 200 and 500 freestyles for the second consecutive season. Sophomores Ava Harris, Gabi Hollingsworth and Scarlett Tambunan and freshman Anna Arana posted at least one runner-up event finish as well (Harris had two) to show some promise for the future.
For full 2025 APS meet results, visit sentinelcolorado. com/preps
Two of those wins went to McDonald, who achieved the same diving-swimming double she had a year ago. The Vista PEAK Prep student landed her fourth consecutive APS 1-meter diving championship and repeated in the 100 yard butterfly as well.
The swimming win pleased her as she has put more concentration into her diving this season, which has helped her earn her way into the Class 5A state meet Feb. 6 at the Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center. McDonald will be Rangeview’s first state diving competitor since Sarah Mortenson, who placed 13th in 2019.
“I’ve been super pleased that I found consistency this year, because I didn’t have it last year,” McDonald said.
“I’m losing a team that can fill the lineup in all 12 events,” Allen said. “Senior night is going to be super sad, but they are trying to help the underclassmen so we can keep this going.”
Hinkley earned second place again and did so with 208 points, which was 41 more than a year ago.
Coach Beth Himes’ Thunder got its highest finish in the pool from senior Ana Campos, who was third in the 500 freestyle as well as fourth in the 200, while freshman Rylee Mansanares took fifth in the 100 backstroke.
Aurora Central — now under the direction of coach Jess Collins — accrued 126 points to surge from fourth in 2024 to a comfortable third with 126 points. The Trojans swam in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle and both teams — comprised of Samantha Reyes Puentes, Berenice Guerrero Cuarenta, Lizzett Mireles and Myia Young — captured third place.
Gateway scored 47 points to finish fourth, as coach Lizzie Novak’s group was led by Sophie Curry, who took sixth in the 100 breaststroke as well as seventh in the 500 freestyle.
GIRLS SWIMMING
TOP: Rangeview girls swim coach Robin Allen, left, leaps off the diving board as team members jump into the diving pool to celebrate the Raiders’ victory at the 35th annual Aurora Public Schools Championship girls swim meet Jan. 18 at Hinkley High School ABOVE (TOP): Rangeview senior Hailey McDonald, center, poses with Hinkley’s Dakota Scott, left, and Rangeview’s Kathy Nguyen on the medal podium for 1-meter diving. McDonald won the event at the meet for the fourth straight season. ABOVE (MIDDLE): Rangeview senior Shemiah Turner takes a breath during her victory in the 100 yard freestyle at the APS Championship meet. ABOVE (BOTTOM): Rangeview junior Daveah Archibeque smiles as she approaches the medal podium after she won the 500 yard freestyle. (Photos by Courtney Oakes/Aurora Sentinel)
WEEK PAST
The week past in Aurora prep sports
MONDAY, JAN. 20: Only one game was on the schedule due to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with schools closed. ... SATURDAY, JAN. 18 : The Overland boys basketball team earned a 62-56 non-league road win at Fossil Ridge that included double-digit scoring efforts from three different players. Siraaj Ali paced the Trailblazers with 16 points, while Isreal Littleton added 15 and Mehki McNeal 14. ...The Cherokee Trail boys basketball team won for the third time in its past games with a 61-56 road victory against Northfield. ... Sienna Betts scored 11 of her 31 points in overtime to help lift the Grandview girls basketball team to a 60-53 overtime win over Legend in a showdown of Class 6A basketball powers. The Wolves outscored the Titans by a combined total of 29-14 in the fourth quarter and overtime. ...The Grandview boys wrestling team racked up 202.5 points to finish only behind Pomona at the top of the standings among 34 scoring teams at the annual Top of the Rockies Invitational at Centaurus High School. The Wolves had one champion in Leland Day , who earned a 1-0 victory over Mullen’s Champion Dyes to take the 285 pound crown, while they also had runners-up at 113 pounds ( JR Ortega ) and 175 pounds ( Charlie Herting ) plus third-place winners at 144 ( Braxton Widrikis ), 150 ( Jonathan Montes Gonzales ), 190 ( Ryder Hoffschneider ) and 215 ( Oz Nowick ) among eight top-five placers. ...The Eaglecrest and Regis Jesuit boys wrestling teams finished sixth and 11th, respectively, at the Northglenn Norse Invitational. Six Raptors placed in the top five of their respective weights and two of them — Alijah Gabaldon (125 pounds) and Dane Sims (132) — advanced to championship matches. Gabaldon finished as the runner-up to Broomfield’s Asher Diamond due to medical forfeit, while Sims lost by fall to Broomfield’s August Soto. The Raiders had three top-six placers and two of them ( Richard Avila at 113 pounds and Lafe Sarjeant ) wrestled in the finals of their respective weight classes. A 17-12 decision over Pueblo County’s Israel Trujillo landed Avila a championship, while Sarjeant lost by fall to Windsor’s Walker Percy to place second. ...The
TOP: Rangeview sophomore Yasin Sekue (1) pulls down a one-handed defensive rebound during a City League boys basketball game at Denver South on Jan. 17. Sekue and the Raiders earned a 78-61
Cherokee Trail boys wrestling team finished in ninth place out of 42 scoring teams from multiple states at the Flowing Wells Invitational in Tucson, Arizona. The Cougars had a finalist in Cooper Mathews , who took second place at 120 pounds with a 7-1 loss to an undefeated wrestler from Orting, Arizona, while Chance Mathews (138) and Mateo Garreffa (190) each placed third and Elijah Van Horn (106) sixth. ... The Eaglecrest girls wrestling team finished in third place (in a tight race with winner Central G.J. and runner-up Brighton) among 40 teams that competed in the Tiara Challenge at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, while Vista PEAK Prep took seventh, Overland tied for 17th, Regis Jesuit came in 19th and Smoky Hill 37th. Sydney Babi came through in the
clutch in the semifinals and finals at 110 pounds and came away with the title with a 12-10 win over Central G.J,’s Abby Vroman, while Bailee Mestas went 4-1 and placed second at 130 pounds with a loss by fall to Columbine’s Makena Heston. The Bison had a runner-up finisher at 125 pounds in Amelia Bacon , who suffered her first loss of the season with a 5-1 decision at the hands of Pomona’s Alora Martinez as part of a contingent of four topfour finishers, while Remington Zimmerer won the 120 pound title for Regis Jesuit with two wins by fall and three by technical fall (including a 20-4 defeat of Douglas County’s Jylian Cabral in the final). Ruth Worknhe finished fifth at 235 pounds to
get the Trailblazers on the medal podium. ... FRIDAY, JAN. 17: The Rangeview boys basketball team paid a visit to Denver South in a City League showdown and came away with a 78-61 victory. The Raiders remained undefeated as they finally shook off the Ravens’ challenge with a 15-4 advantage in the third quarter. LaDavian King led the way for Rangeview with 18 points, while Marceles Duncan added 14 and Kenny Black-Knox and Archie Weatherspoon V contributed 11 apiece. ...The Regis Jesuit boys basketball team extended its winning streak to seven games with a 74-52 victory at Douglas County in its Continental League opener. ...The Vista PEAK Prep boys bas-
ketball team challenged Denver East in a City League visit before falling 65-60. ...The Overland girls basketball team raced out to a 27-2 lead after one quarter and went on to a 75-21 non-league home win over Aurora Central. Emma Davis scored 15 points to lead the way for the Trailblazers, who also got 13 from Cayla Clark , 12 from Malia Relford and 10 from Sasha Davis ...The Regis Jesuit girls basketball team rolled to a 60-28 home win over Douglas County to open Continental League play. ...The Smoky Hill girls basketball team rode 15 points from Sophia Allen and 11 more from Poli Fifita on its way to a 44-23 home non-league victory over Northglenn. ... Harry Sorensen, Alexander Warot and Nolan Wil-
Raptor Rally: Eaglecrest senior Garrett Barger (12) yells in celebration in the closing seconds of the Raptors’ come-from-behind 69-66 non-league home boys basketball win over Mountain Vista on Jan. 14. (Photo by Courtney Oakes/Aurora Sentinel)
PREPS
liams scored goals for the Regis Jesuit ice hockey team , which wasn’t quite enough in a 4-3 loss to Heritage. Parker Brinner, Avery Osgood and Beau Paton picked up assists for the Raiders. ...Goalie Linkin Alasasis made 18 saves for the Grandview ice hockey team in a 10-0 loss to Valor Christian.
THURSDAY, JAN. 16: The Aurora Central boys basketball team picked up a 67-51 Colorado League road victory at district rival Gateway in a game fueled by 28 points from Alex Flores Deon Davis Jr added nine points, while Kapano Mailo and Christ Tah had eight apiece. ...The Aurora Central girls basketball team defended its home floor against district rival Gateway in a 44-21 Colorado League victory. Jamaea Johnson-Gonzalez finished with 27 points to lead the way for the Trojans, who got six more from Anabella Lumba and five from Andena Torres . ...The Aurora Central boys wrestling team got wins by fall from 157-pounder Felix Morales and Andrew Pelenkahu at 190 pounds, but fell to Highlands Ranch 41-36 in a tight non-league dual match. ...The Vista PEAK Prep girls wrestling team swept a home tri-dual meet with a 48-30 win over Regis Jesuit , which followed a 5430 victory over Mountain Vista. The Bison got two wins in two matches from Khloe Yizar at 235 pounds (both via pin), while Amelia Bacon picked up a win by pin and another on injury time at 125 pounds. Marisol Shukie (135 pounds) earned wins by fall in two matches for Regis Jesuit, which also defeated Mountain Vista 30-24. Remington Zimmerer (120 pounds) and Anai Vera (145) each won a match by fall and received a victory by forfeit. ...The Regis Jesuit girls swim team earned a 113-57 Continental League road win over Heritage. Lexi Stramel (200 and 500 yard freestyles) and Natalie Daum (200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke) won two events apiece, while, Elsa Osborne and Ava Terella had wins to go with a relay sweep for the Raiders. ...The Smoky Hill girls swim team celebrated its group of seniors and also collected a 103-83 Centennial League dual win over Cherokee Trail in a matchup of local programs that saw each other a few days earlier at the Smoky Hill Invitational. The Buffaloes were fueled by two wins apiece from Caroline Kaiser (50 yard freestyle and 100 yard backstroke), Mya Noffsinger (100 and 200 yard freestyles) and Cameryn Walkup (200 individual medley and 100 butterfly) as well as victories from Sophie Noffsinger and diver Lyla Bailey plus a relay sweep. The Cougars’ lone event win came in the 100 yard breaststroke from Ella Drakulich . ...The Grandview girls swim team held the celebration of its seniors during a Centennial League home dual that ended in a 93-93 tie with Arapahoe.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 15: The Aurora West College Prep Academy boys basketball team — just over a week removed from a surprise visit from Denver Nuggets star Jamal Murray — picked up its first win of the season with a 63-51 defeat of Poudre Communitiy Academy. ... The Aurora West College Prep Academy girls basketball team also won for the first time with a 49-23 victory over Poudre Community Academy. ...The Smoky Hill boys wrestling team earned a 5030 dual win over Prairie View as part of a tri-dual as Dashawn Jenkins picked up a win by fall at 113 pounds, while Tagg Charity (120) and Jovani Galvan (126) also were victorious. ...The Eaglecrest girls wrestling team picked up a pin-filled 52-21 home win over Broomfield. Bianca Salas Ramirez, Sydney Babi, Jayden Schwabauer, Lily Homant, Jordan Heibult, Bailee Mestas, Alaysia Ornelas and Addison
Lawrenc e all won by fall for the Raptors. ... TUESDAY, JAN. 14: Th e Eaglecrest boys basketball team closed with a flourish on its way to a 69-66 home win over Mountain Vista in a matchup of top Class 6A programs. Garrett Barger , who finished with 20 points, caught a court length pass from La’Quince York and scored for the go-ahead points, while Anthony Nettles heavily contributed to the rally and scored 23 points. ...The Rangeview boys basketball team fell behind visiting Northfield by double figures early in the opening quarter, but roared back for a 74-68 City League home win. LaDavian King and Archie Weatherspoon V had matching 23-point outputs for the Raiders, while Marceles Duncan added 17.
...The Grandview girls basketball team outscored rival Regis Jesuit 16-6 after one quarter and held on for a 44-33 non-league home victory. Sienna Betts had nearly half of the Wolves’ points with 20, while Ava Chang added 10 and Maya Smith chipped in eight. Alice Lynett, Mallory Neff, Tiana Rogers and Jane Rumpf had six points apiece for the Raiders. ... Amirah Pena scored 20 points to pace four Vista PEAK Prep girls basketball players in double figures in a 60-53 City League win over Denver South. Jade Hibbler added 14 points, while Knakai Starks had 11 and Eianna Jackson 10. ...The Rangeview girls basketball team dropped a tight 54-49 City League contest against Northfield. ...The Regis Jesuit girls
swim team finished with a 127-58 Continental League dual meet win over Ponderosa at the Missy Franklin pool. The Raiders swept the three relay events in addition to individual first places for Ava Terella (100 yard butterfly), Natalie Daum (100 freestyle), Elsa Osborne (100 backstroke) and Bailey Engle in the diving competition.
WEEK AHEAD
The week ahead in Aurora prep sports
THURSDAY, JAN. 23: Two of the top girls wrestling teams in Aurora get together at 6 p.m. when Eaglecrest plays host to Vista PEAK Prep in a dual meet held in conjunction with the boys at 7 p.m. ... FRIDAY, JAN. 24: A strong slate of boys
basketball includes Rangeview’s 7 p.m. home game with Denver East, while Vista PEAK Prep plays host to George Washington at the same time. ...The second meeting between the Cherry Creek and Regis Jesuit ice hockey teams is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Family Sports Center. ... SATURDAY, JAN. 25: The Centennial League slate in begins with a trio of 1-2:30 p.m. girls-boys basketball doubleheaders at Grandview (Cherokee Trail), Overland (Cherry Creek) and Smoky Hill (Eaglecrest). ...The Centennial League boys and girls wrestling tournaments take place at Arapahoe High School beginning at 9 a.m. ...Various “B” League championship girls swim meets begin with “A” Leagues the following week.
TOP: Aurora Central junior Alex Flores lets fly a 3-pointer during the second half of a Colorado League boys basketball game at Gateway Jan. 16. Flores scored a game-high 28 points to
help the Trojans to a 67-51 win over the Olys. ABOVE: Seniors on the Smoky Hill girls swim team pose with a cardboard cutout of musician Justin Bieber during the Senior Night celebration during the Buffaloes’ 103-83 win over Cherokee Trail Feb. 16 at Smoky Hill High School. (Photos by Courtney Oakes/Aurora Sentinel)
WEEK PAST
The week past in Aurora prep sports
MONDAY, JAN. 20: Only one game was on the schedule due to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with schools closed. ... SATURDAY, JAN. 18 : The Overland boys basketball team earned a 62-56 non-league road win at Fossil Ridge that included double-digit scoring efforts from three different players. Siraaj Ali paced the Trailblazers with 16 points, while Isreal Littleton added 15 and Mehki McNeal 14. ...The Cherokee Trail boys basketball team won for the third time in its past games with a 61-56 road victory against Northfield. ... Sienna Betts scored 11 of her 31 points in overtime to help lift the Grandview girls basketball team to a 60-53 overtime win over Legend in a showdown of Class 6A basketball powers. The Wolves outscored the Titans by a combined total of 29-14 in the fourth quarter and overtime. ...The Grandview boys wrestling team racked up 202.5 points to finish only behind Pomona at the top of the standings among 34 scoring teams at the annual Top of the Rockies Invitational at Centaurus High School. The Wolves had one champion in Leland Day , who earned a 1-0 victory over Mullen’s Champion Dyes to take the 285 pound crown, while they also had runners-up at 113 pounds ( JR Ortega ) and 175 pounds ( Charlie Herting ) plus third-place winners at 144 ( Braxton Widrikis ), 150 ( Jonathan Montes Gonzales ), 190 ( Ryder Hoffschneider ) and 215 ( Oz Nowick ) among eight top-five placers. ...The Eaglecrest and Regis Jesuit boys wrestling teams finished sixth and 11th, respectively, at the Northglenn Norse Invitational. Six Raptors placed in the top five of their respective weights and two of them — Alijah Gabaldon (125 pounds) and Dane Sims (132) — advanced to championship matches. Gabaldon finished as the runner-up to Broomfield’s Asher Diamond due to medical forfeit, while Sims lost by fall to Broomfield’s August Soto. The Raiders had three top-six placers and two of them ( Richard Avila at 113 pounds and Lafe Sarjeant ) wrestled in the finals of their respective weight classes. A 17-12 decision over Pueblo County’s Israel Trujillo landed Avila a championship, while Sarjeant lost by fall to Windsor’s Walker Percy to place second. ...The
TOP: Rangeview sophomore Yasin Sekue (1) pulls down a one-handed defensive rebound during a City League boys basketball game at Denver South on Jan. 17. Sekue and the Raiders earned a 78-61
Cherokee Trail boys wrestling team finished in ninth place out of 42 scoring teams from multiple states at the Flowing Wells Invitational in Tucson, Arizona. The Cougars had a finalist in Cooper Mathews , who took second place at 120 pounds with a 7-1 loss to an undefeated wrestler from Orting, Arizona, while Chance Mathews (138) and Mateo Garreffa (190) each placed third and Elijah Van Horn (106) sixth. ... The Eaglecrest girls wrestling team finished in third place (in a tight race with winner Central G.J. and runner-up Brighton) among 40 teams that competed in the Tiara Challenge at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, while Vista PEAK Prep took seventh, Overland tied for 17th, Regis Jesuit came in 19th and Smoky Hill 37th. Sydney Babi came through in the
clutch in the semifinals and finals at 110 pounds and came away with the title with a 12-10 win over Central G.J,’s Abby Vroman, while Bailee Mestas went 4-1 and placed second at 130 pounds with a loss by fall to Columbine’s Makena Heston. The Bison had a runner-up finisher at 125 pounds in Amelia Bacon , who suffered her first loss of the season with a 5-1 decision at the hands of Pomona’s Alora Martinez as part of a contingent of four topfour finishers, while Remington Zimmerer won the 120 pound title for Regis Jesuit with two wins by fall and three by technical fall (including a 20-4 defeat of Douglas County’s Jylian Cabral in the final). Ruth Worknhe finished fifth at 235 pounds to
get the Trailblazers on the medal podium. ... FRIDAY, JAN. 17: The Rangeview boys basketball team paid a visit to Denver South in a City League showdown and came away with a 78-61 victory. The Raiders remained undefeated as they finally shook off the Ravens’ challenge with a 15-4 advantage in the third quarter. LaDavian King led the way for Rangeview with 18 points, while Marceles Duncan added 14 and Kenny Black-Knox and Archie Weatherspoon V contributed 11 apiece. ...The Regis Jesuit boys basketball team extended its winning streak to seven games with a 74-52 victory at Douglas County in its Continental League opener. ...The Vista PEAK Prep boys bas-
ketball team challenged Denver East in a City League visit before falling 65-60. ...The Overland girls basketball team raced out to a 27-2 lead after one quarter and went on to a 75-21 non-league home win over Aurora Central. Emma Davis scored 15 points to lead the way for the Trailblazers, who also got 13 from Cayla Clark , 12 from Malia Relford and 10 from Sasha Davis ...The Regis Jesuit girls basketball team rolled to a 60-28 home win over Douglas County to open Continental League play. ...The Smoky Hill girls basketball team rode 15 points from Sophia Allen and 11 more from Poli Fifita on its way to a 44-23 home non-league victory over Northglenn. ... Harry Sorensen, Alexander Warot and Nolan Wil-
Raptor Rally: Eaglecrest senior Garrett Barger (12) yells in celebration in the closing seconds of the Raptors’ come-from-behind 69-66 non-league home boys basketball win over Mountain Vista on Jan. 14. (Photo by Courtney Oakes/Aurora Sentinel)
PREPS
liams scored goals for the Regis Jesuit ice hockey team , which wasn’t quite enough in a 4-3 loss to Heritage. Parker Brinner, Avery Osgood and Beau Paton picked up assists for the Raiders. ...Goalie Linkin Alasasis made 18 saves for the Grandview ice hockey team in a 10-0 loss to Valor Christian.
THURSDAY, JAN. 16: The Aurora Central boys basketball team picked up a 67-51 Colorado League road victory at district rival Gateway in a game fueled by 28 points from Alex Flores Deon Davis Jr added nine points, while Kapano Mailo and Christ Tah had eight apiece. ...The Aurora Central girls basketball team defended its home floor against district rival Gateway in a 44-21 Colorado League victory. Jamaea Johnson-Gonzalez finished with 27 points to lead the way for the Trojans, who got six more from Anabella Lumba and five from Andena Torres . ...The Aurora Central boys wrestling team got wins by fall from 157-pounder Felix Morales and Andrew Pelenkahu at 190 pounds, but fell to Highlands Ranch 41-36 in a tight non-league dual match. ...The Vista PEAK Prep girls wrestling team swept a home tri-dual meet with a 48-30 win over Regis Jesuit , which followed a 5430 victory over Mountain Vista. The Bison got two wins in two matches from Khloe Yizar at 235 pounds (both via pin), while Amelia Bacon picked up a win by pin and another on injury time at 125 pounds. Marisol Shukie (135 pounds) earned wins by fall in two matches for Regis Jesuit, which also defeated Mountain Vista 30-24. Remington Zimmerer (120 pounds) and Anai Vera (145) each won a match by fall and received a victory by forfeit. ...The Regis Jesuit girls swim team earned a 113-57 Continental League road win over Heritage. Lexi Stramel (200 and 500 yard freestyles) and Natalie Daum (200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke) won two events apiece, while, Elsa Osborne and Ava Terella had wins to go with a relay sweep for the Raiders. ...The Smoky Hill girls swim team celebrated its group of seniors and also collected a 103-83 Centennial League dual win over Cherokee Trail in a matchup of local programs that saw each other a few days earlier at the Smoky Hill Invitational. The Buffaloes were fueled by two wins apiece from Caroline Kaiser (50 yard freestyle and 100 yard backstroke), Mya Noffsinger (100 and 200 yard freestyles) and Cameryn Walkup (200 individual medley and 100 butterfly) as well as victories from Sophie Noffsinger and diver Lyla Bailey plus a relay sweep. The Cougars’ lone event win came in the 100 yard breaststroke from Ella Drakulich . ...The Grandview girls swim team held the celebration of its seniors during a Centennial League home dual that ended in a 93-93 tie with Arapahoe.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 15: The Aurora West College Prep Academy boys basketball team — just over a week removed from a surprise visit from Denver Nuggets star Jamal Murray — picked up its first win of the season with a 63-51 defeat of Poudre Communitiy Academy. ... The Aurora West College Prep Academy girls basketball team also won for the first time with a 49-23 victory over Poudre Community Academy. ...The Smoky Hill boys wrestling team earned a 5030 dual win over Prairie View as part of a tri-dual as Dashawn Jenkins picked up a win by fall at 113 pounds, while Tagg Charity (120) and Jovani Galvan (126) also were victorious. ...The Eaglecrest girls wrestling team picked up a pin-filled 52-21 home win over Broomfield. Bianca Salas Ramirez, Sydney Babi, Jayden Schwabauer, Lily Homant, Jordan Heibult, Bailee Mestas, Alaysia Ornelas and Addison
Lawrenc e all won by fall for the Raptors. ... TUESDAY, JAN. 14: Th e Eaglecrest boys basketball team closed with a flourish on its way to a 69-66 home win over Mountain Vista in a matchup of top Class 6A programs. Garrett Barger , who finished with 20 points, caught a court length pass from La’Quince York and scored for the go-ahead points, while Anthony Nettles heavily contributed to the rally and scored 23 points. ...The Rangeview boys basketball team fell behind visiting Northfield by double figures early in the opening quarter, but roared back for a 74-68 City League home win. LaDavian King and Archie Weatherspoon V had matching 23-point outputs for the Raiders, while Marceles Duncan added 17.
...The Grandview girls basketball team outscored rival Regis Jesuit 16-6 after one quarter and held on for a 44-33 non-league home victory. Sienna Betts had nearly half of the Wolves’ points with 20, while Ava Chang added 10 and Maya Smith chipped in eight. Alice Lynett, Mallory Neff, Tiana Rogers and Jane Rumpf had six points apiece for the Raiders. ... Amirah Pena scored 20 points to pace four Vista PEAK Prep girls basketball players in double figures in a 60-53 City League win over Denver South. Jade Hibbler added 14 points, while Knakai Starks had 11 and Eianna Jackson 10. ...The Rangeview girls basketball team dropped a tight 54-49 City League contest against Northfield. ...The Regis Jesuit girls
swim team finished with a 127-58 Continental League dual meet win over Ponderosa at the Missy Franklin pool. The Raiders swept the three relay events in addition to individual first places for Ava Terella (100 yard butterfly), Natalie Daum (100 freestyle), Elsa Osborne (100 backstroke) and Bailey Engle in the diving competition.
WEEK AHEAD
The week ahead in Aurora prep sports
THURSDAY, JAN. 23: Two of the top girls wrestling teams in Aurora get together at 6 p.m. when Eaglecrest plays host to Vista PEAK Prep in a dual meet held in conjunction with the boys at 7 p.m. ... FRIDAY, JAN. 24: A strong slate of boys
basketball includes Rangeview’s 7 p.m. home game with Denver East, while Vista PEAK Prep plays host to George Washington at the same time. ...The second meeting between the Cherry Creek and Regis Jesuit ice hockey teams is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Family Sports Center. ... SATURDAY, JAN. 25: The Centennial League slate in begins with a trio of 1-2:30 p.m. girls-boys basketball doubleheaders at Grandview (Cherokee Trail), Overland (Cherry Creek) and Smoky Hill (Eaglecrest). ...The Centennial League boys and girls wrestling tournaments take place at Arapahoe High School beginning at 9 a.m. ...Various “B” League championship girls swim meets begin with “A” Leagues the following week.
TOP: Aurora Central junior Alex Flores lets fly a 3-pointer during the second half of a Colorado League boys basketball game at Gateway Jan. 16. Flores scored a game-high 28 points to
help the Trojans to a 67-51 win over the Olys. ABOVE: Seniors on the Smoky Hill girls swim team pose with a cardboard cutout of musician Justin Bieber during the Senior Night celebration during the Bu aloes’ 103-83 win over Cherokee Trail Feb. 16 at Smoky Hill High School. (Photos by Courtney Oakes/Aurora Sentinel)
The need for new taxes to pay for critical city capital
projects
is clear. City leaders need to be equally clear with voters.
Kudos to city officials, city lawmakers and engaged residents pushing the city’s growing capital improvement needs into the path of what’s certain to be an apathetic or grumpy electorate.
Aurora civic leaders, business leaders, city lawmakers and city officials held a press conference last week to point out that for more than two years, Aurora officials have been making a list of things that need to be fixed, replaced, refurbished or even built from scratch.
The list of things the city needs and wants badly is quickly approaching the $1 billion price tag. The list of revenue streams Aurora can divert toward making all those improvements?
Pretty much zip.
Aurora, like so many cities, regularly finds that everything the city needs or wants is far, far more expensive than what it can afford. Like so many Aurora residents have learned firsthand, the lack of cash often prevents needed improvements and repairs.
It’s unclear whether Aurora is at the point that long-postponed “car repairs” will leave the community stranded someplace. There are a lot of things that are unclear about the city’s capital improvement plan. It was, however, clear from the city event last week that city officials are at best hesitant and some apparently petrified to say, “tax hike.”
It’s completely understandable.
First, this is a city notorious for voters saying “no” and even “hell no” when asked to raise taxes for just about anything. Aurora voters famously voted down big road improvement packages in the early 2000s that would have greatly improved everyone’s commute and more — even though the ballot question did not raise anyone’s taxes. The measure would have re-issued bonds without raising taxes and let the city continue using existing levies to pay for new loans.
Also making this process painful for this
city council is the fact that it’s dominated by Republicans and conservatives whose mantra is generally that the only good tax increase is a defeated tax increase.
The Sentinel salutes conservatives like council members Curtis Gardner and Francoise Bergan for stepping out of their comfort zone to try and convey to the public that it critically needs to fix things, and there’s just not enough money in the city till to pay for it.
They, and other proponents of asking voters for money, do themselves and the cause no benefit by not being forthright and coming straight out to announce what is clearly making this group of people queasy: “Aurora is creating a bond issue exploratory committee.”
That’s what this is, and what it should be.
While dozens of people over a great deal of time have scrutinized the list of projects, some raise questions, eyebrows and probably “no votes” right off. It doesn’t mean these projects are worthy or critical, but on the surface, they set off dashboard warning lights on the road to a “yes” vote for borrowing money.
On the city’s list of “Tier One” projects, the city lists a whopping $54 million to build a new police “evidence storage warehouse.” That’s a lot of money for a project that clearly needs a lot of explaining. On the same list, are numerous street and road improvements the city has postponed for years, some for decades, that don’t come cheap. Aurora is tentatively proposing issuing $35 million in “Certificates of Participation” to repair streets citywide. The COPs are essentially loans using “existing” city revenues and are an end-run around state laws mandating voter approval for new debt. The scheme has been used widely in Aurora, with both conservatives and liberals alternately backing the method and others being extremely critical of it.
On the “Tier Two” list of projects is a request for $35 million to widen the Alameda
Unknown civil rights hero John Dobbs paved the way for MLK
TOM PURCELL, CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST
Ican’t believe Denzel Washington hasn’t played one particular early civil rights hero in a movie yet.
I also can’t believe how few people know about this unknown hero’s incredible accomplishments — achievements that paved the way for Martin Luther King Jr. and others to dismantle Jim Crow, the South’s legalized system of racial injustice.
So respected was this great American that MLK Jr. delivered the invocation at his funeral, and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall served as a pallbearer.
His name is John Wesley Dobbs.
Though his amazing life is documented in two low-selling history books and the New Georgia Encyclopedia, Dobbs has received no attention from the national media and remains largely unknown to the general public.
Born into poverty in 1882 in rural Kennesaw, Georgia, Dobbs’ parents were former slaves — his mother’s biological father was a slaveowner.
Smart and driven, Dobbs educated himself by reading constantly. Though he attended college briefly, he had to drop out to care for his ill mother, and never earned a college degree.
In his early 20s he passed the federal civil service exam and became a railway clerk for the U.S. Post Office.
For 32 years, he sorted mail overnight on trains from Atlanta, armed with a pistol. Rising to the position of supervisor — a remarkable feat for a black man in the Jim Crow era — he earned enough to support his family of six daughters as he gained respect in Atlanta’s African American community.
A gifted orator who memorized hundreds of poems and Shakespearean lines, Dobbs believed the best way to end Jim Crow was through the ballot box.
He tirelessly worked to register thousands of black voters in Atlanta and used his growing influence with the white Democratic power structure to get the city to hire its first black policemen.
It was in 1948 — at age 66 — that Dobbs risked his life to bring national media attention to the injustice 10 million
Avenue bridge over I-225. Few public improvements in Aurora are as exasperating as that bridge and interchange. Aurora lost several battles to have the state build the interchange in the 1990s, and Aurora had to fund the project itself, using a special tax district.
The arguments then were solid that not only is I-225 an interstate and critical state regional highway, it was an oversight that the interchange was not included in original designs. It’s an insult to injury that Aurora taxpayers must now spend another $35 million on what should be a project funded by all or partial state funds. The slap to Aurora taxpayers smarts, especially after Denver drained state highway improvement funds a few years ago building dubious soccer parks and other features on I-70 from Colorado Boulevard to the I-25.
Equally galling is the recent dismissal of the city’s longstanding $2 per employee “head” tax charged monthly to employers and employees, which raised tax money to pay for all the things that it takes to allow all kinds of businesses to operate in Aurora.
The tax was relatively small and mostly annoying, but it raised $6 million a year that Aurora no longer receives, since the tax was sunset Jan. 1 at the behest, and after the dramatic demands, of Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky.
Using municipal accounting guidelines that highlight cities like Aurora, which enjoys a AA+ bond rating because of the solid fiscal management, that $2 a month head tax shut down by city lawmakers last year would allow Aurora to borrow about $95 million in capital improvement money over 30 years.
And as the city continues to explore how it might fashion a bond-issue election, it’s already hovering over an increase in property taxes, pretty much a non-starter given the expensive debacle already dumped in the laps of homeowners in Aurora because of skyrocketing property values and a ham-handed attempt by state lawmakers
blacks were suffering daily under Jim Crow.
Up North, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette named Ray Sprigle decided to go undercover as a light-skinned black man in the Jim Crow South for a month.
Teamed up with Sprigle by the NAACP, Dobbs guided and protected Sprigle during their 3,000-mile car journey. He introduced Sprigle to sharecroppers, lynching victims’ families and local leaders. They visited segregated schools and stayed in the homes of black farmers and doctors.
Sprigle, deeply moved and angered by what he saw and experienced, said he was ashamed to be an American.
As Bill Steigerwald details in “30 Days a black Man,” his powerful 2017 book about Sprigle’s mission, Sprigle’s powerful newspaper series shocked white readers in the North. Time magazine praised Sprigle’s series. So did national black leaders and Eleanor Roosevelt. It was syndicated to about a dozen major newspapers from New York to Seattle — but nowhere in the South.
To protect Dobbs, Sprigle never mentioned him by name. The general public never found out about what Dobbs did until Steigerwald wrote about his story for the Post-Gazette in 1998.
Dobbs died in 1961 — the same week that Atlanta’s public schools were integrated. By that time all six of his daughters had graduated from Spelman College and gone on to become college professors, educators and community leaders. One of them, Mattiwilda, became a famous opera singer in Europe.
But Dobbs’ legacy extended even further: In 1974 his grandson, Maynard Jackson Jr., became the first black mayor of Atlanta.
It’s a shame few people are aware of the incredible accomplishments of this civil rights pioneer.
Like I said, I can’t believe Denzel Washington hasn’t played John Wesley Dobbs in a movie yet.
and local governments to soften the blow. Some exploratory committee documents and rhetoric point toward “De-Brucing” property taxes, which would allow the city to keep “excess” property taxes rather than refund them as a reduction in tax levies. Here’s where anything other than frank honesty and transparency will sink an attempt to sway voters to approve a big borrowing measure. Because of the way property taxes are levied under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, a “De-Brucing” measure would result in an actual net increase in property taxes, and residents need to understand that if the city decides to travel that path.
That pretty much leaves sales taxes as the only realistically available revenue source that voters would most likely agree to hike. The city’s 3.75% sales tax hasn’t been increased in more than 30 years.
But sales taxes fluctuate, making them less desirable to city finance experts and bond houses. In addition, Amazon and other internet delivery providers of goods continue to eat away at “brick-and-mortar” retailers that fuel the city’s tax coffers. Finally, while voters may see a small sales-tax hike as acceptable, local businesses generally push against it, saying it affects the sales of “big ticket” items that are cheaper outside of municipalities.
It’s all a complicated journey to navigate, but the facts are indisputable that forestalling some, possibly many, of these projects only increases their final costs to taxpayers, and they are inevitable.
There’s little doubt in analyzing most of these expensive projects that they are necessary and even critical to public health, safety and livability. City officials need to be frank and honest about that moving forward, because nothing else will make this all possible.
Puzzles
Open,as a deadlock 11) "Cops" sound
Costa del Sol attraction
Jewish holiday meal 22) Mess up 23) City in Oklahoma 24) Examine (with "over") 26) Dead Sea kingdom
27) Good thing to have when competing 28) The wee hours,to the Bard
"_ a beautiful morning" (Rascals lyric) 32) Symphony parts
Hard seed covering
Relinquish
Started a golf hole 38) Muse holding a lyre 39) "Man" in "The Wizard of Oz"
Herbert Lee Conley
January 5, 1946 - January 14, 2025
Herb was born in Washington County, Ohio in 1946. He migrated to Colorado in the 1960s, where he met and married Mary Ellen Mosier. During his life, Herb was a member of the teamsters, a truck driver, dock worker, and shop foreman. What he loved most was being a husband and Dad to his 5 children, family was everything. He was a die-hard Denver Broncos fan and loved cheering them on. Afternoons were spent on the back deck looking out over the pasture, watching the hawks and starting trouble with his best friend Nick.
Herb was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years Mary Ellen, his sons Michael Todd and Christopher Brent. His siblings, Effie, Connie, Mary, and Delphia. He is survived by his son David (Victoria), daughters Natalie and Nicole. Grandchildren Nick, Jacob, Connor, and Tatiana. Great-grandchildren Willow and Elizabeth. His siblings Buddy Lee, Ruby, and Jerry. Numerous nieces and nephews, all who loved him deeply.
tiansen said.
“As a precaution, we worked quickly to protect our systems, and at this time, we continue to work to bring back our systems and restore our technology infrastructure,” Christiansen said.
The district uses a Voice Over Internet Phone system, officials said. Employees are able to access voice mail and other services through mobile phone apps issued to teachers and employees.
Officials said all schools will delay the start of school on Thursday and Friday by two hours. The move is made to accommodate teachers and staff requests, Christiansen said.
“AM preschool is canceled for Thursday due to the delayed start,” he said “PM preschool will be held as scheduled on Thursday. There are no preschool classes held on Fridays.”
All schools were closed Jan. 20, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he said.
“While we are making progress in addressing the issue, additional time is needed to fully restore our internet and phone service and ensure a smooth transition back to regular operations,” he said. “We anticipate being able to restore internet and phone service by the time we return to school after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Tuesday.”
Officials said the schools remain safe for students and staff, despite the lack of phone and internet service.
The “Public address (Intercom) systems continue to remain fully operational at all schools for on-site communication,” Christiansen said. “In addition, school staff are able to receive family calls and respond to family emails.”
He said school security officers and dispatchers are inside schools as well.
“While our security camera system is not fully functional, we do have camera access for critical spots in buildings,” Christiansen said. “Emergency response systems, secure doors, staff presence, security dispatch, campus security officers and school resource officers are all critical preventative safety measures which are currently in place.”
— Sentinel Staff
POLICE AND COURTS
9 charged in kidnapping and extortion ring at infamous apartment in Aurora
Aurora police said Jan 14 that charges have been filed against nine Venezuelan immigrants accused of taking part in an extortion ring at a notorious northwest Aurora apartment and violently kidnapping two residents in December.
The alleged brutal attack on immigrants at The Edge of Lowry complex led to a Dec. 19 raid and roundup of 19 people, prompting immigrant rights groups to question the legality of police working with ICE and immigration agencies.
The complex at East 12th Avenue and Dallas Street has drawn national attention for months after a viral video, gang involvement, crime and negligence from the property management company kept making headlines.
Property owners were slated to be in city court Monday afternoon to answer to a request that the court allow the city to shutter the complex right away because of ongoing crime and dangerous living conditions.
Charged last week in Arapahoe County District Court were: Andres Alexander Liendo-Padilla, 26, Javier Alexander Alvarado Parada, 24, Jesus Alberto Alejos Escalona, 22, Junior Reyes-Barrios, 28, Barbara Sivle Medina-Arcaya, 29, Donarkys Teresa Suarez-Quesada, 31, Luigi Javier Soto-Sucre, 26, Niefred Jose Serpa-Acosta, 20 and Jengrinso Elias Loreto-Petit, 26.
Charges included second-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault, aggravated robbery, second-degree burglary, extortion and menacing, according to a statement issued by Aurora police.
Police said they have asked for arrest warrants for three additional suspects, not named.
Three people interviewed by police and ICE officials were eventually released, police said. Seven others are in ICE custody, and their names and legal status were not released.
The raid and kidnapping allegations followed a violent attack early on Dec. 17, during which a couple was abducted, bound and tortured in a vacant apartment, according to police.
The attack was part of a broader pattern of criminal activity that included extortion, robbery and intimidation of residents within the complex, police said.
A police investigation revealed that the attack was a violent revenge episode linked to a recent fight and recording among building tenants.
Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain and ICE officials say the suspects are linked to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang with members in the United States and metro area.
“Without question, it is gang crime,” Chamberlain said, adding that while it’s challenging to identify all suspects as members of a specific gang, in his opinion, they are likely affiliated with TdA.
The December kidnapping is linked to an event Nov. 30, when a resident used a mobile phone to record a fight between two women at the complex and shared the video with her friend, who posted it on social media, police said.
“The friend immediately became threatened by the fact that this videotape was now on the air, which showed these individuals, these two women, fighting in this courtyard area, and that person immediately left and went to another state based upon the intimidation factor of what our victims had to deal with after the video was posted online,” Chamberlain said at a news conference in December.
The video then led to threats by the women and others linked to them against the resident and eventually escalated to the Dec. 17 abduction.
The victim and her husband were ambushed in the courtyard of 1268 Dallas St. and taken to a vacant unit, where they were assaulted, bound and robbed. Their attackers stole jewelry, cell phones and financial information, demanding the deletion of the incriminating video, police said.
“The whole goal of this seemed to be based on the fact that these suspects wanted the camera or the cell phone that was used by our victim to take this video,” Chamberlain said.
He said they wanted the video removed because it showed the women fighting, along with other individuals involved in criminal activity.
Beyond the violence, the suspects were accused of running an extortion scheme, demanding $500 every two weeks from some residents on top of regular rent payments.
“This wasn’t just about these victims,” Chamberlain said. “We are uncovering a broader pattern of extortion affecting multiple residents in the complex.”
The allegation of “rent extortion” isn’t new. Such allegations were made public in July. Former Aurora interim police chief Heather Morris released a police video specifically addressing allegations that gangs were running amok at the complex.
“I’m not saying that there’s not gang members that… live in this community,” Morris said. “But what we’re learning out here is that gang members have not taken over this complex.”
Current police administrators have previously reiterated those sentiments.
Police in December did not make clear how long the extortion ring has been operating, and much of the building has been emptied as city officials continue efforts to close the complex down, citing critical health and safety issues.
— Sentinel Staff
›› METRO, from 9
