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EASTERN UKRAINE CLAIMS INDEPENDENCE PAGE B1
TUESDAY
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May 13, 2014
www.coloradoan.com
Flower Power pot licenses get OK Larimer County commissioners approve licenses allowing the store to grow and sell recreational marijuana.
By Kevin Duggan KevinDuggan@coloradoan.com
FLOOD RECOVERY
The sale of city-owned land for a multimillion-dollar wellness center has rankled some residents.
ESTES PARK VOTES FOR
ECONOMIC WELLNESS
By Ryan Maye Handy RyanHandy@coloradoan.com
Months after the September floods devastated the mountain town of Estes Park, residents approved two ballot measures in April that some say could transform the community. A temporary1percent sales tax hike and the controversial sale of an empty lot near the town’s famed Stanley Hotel are both expected to boost an Estes Park business scene that saw its reliance on tourism dollars exposed last fall. The town saw its links to important tourist dollars destroyed by the flood only weeks before a federal government shutdown shuttered Rocky Mountain National Park, the area’s main draw. After taking a dive in September and October, sales tax collections in the town have been consistently up from the prior year since November. The $438,863 collected this March was 10.35 percent
more than the town collected in March 2013, state figures show. But much still rides on the months of June through September, when monthly collections can crest the $1 million mark. Passage of the two measures on the April 1 ballot — one to increase sales tax and the other to turn the empty lot into a large wellness center — were less about a vote for a short-term economic boost than they were about a cultural shift, town administrators say. Sales tax money could generate an additional $20 million to fund road repair, a public trail system and a much-desired community center. The vacant Lot 4, on the other hand, is destined to become an Anschutz Wellness Training Center that could transform Estes Park into an international fitness hub — at least that’s what Mayor Bill Pinkham hopes. “I think we can say a big ‘yay’ for the election results for both the sales tax as well as the sale for
Lot 4 of the Stanley Hotel property in Estes Park is the proposed site of a new wellness center. V. RICHARD HARO/THE
ESTES PARK SALES TAX COLLECTIONS
Sales tax collections since August 2013. Month Tax Change collected from prior the Anschutz Wellness Center,” year COLORADOAN
said Pinkham. “Wellness is actually going to help generate a yearround economy for this town. I look at this as really the turning point — and something that will really be looked at in the years ahead as a big turning point for the economy.” The April vote allowed the town to sell Lot 4 to the Stanley, but several more pieces must fall into place before the wellness center can open for business. The project, a joint venture with the Stanley Hotel, Estes Park Medical Center and the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center in Aurora, needs millions of dollars to get off the ground. See ESTES, Page A8
August 2013
$935,211
-9.99 percent
September 2013
$675,862
-34.32 percent
October 2013
$492,592
-18.21 percent
November 2013
$443,621
3.59 percent
December 2013
$463,326
5.3 percent
January
$357,742
12.09 percent
February
$360,788
13.21 percent
March
$438,863
10.35 percent
Source: State of Colorado
See MARIJUANA, Page A5
Consultants gain feedback but leave many questions unanswered on CSU stadium By Kelly Lyell KellyLyell@coloradoan.com
Opponents of CSU’s plan to build an on-campus stadium clearly were disappointed Monday night after a public update and “listening session” on the project. There were no answers to many of the questions they had for consultants, who have been hired to work on the stadium and compete studies on the impact it will have on the surrounding neighborhoods and city as a whole. That wasn’t the point of the session, said Roger Sherman, the facilitator of the Community Design Development Advisory Committee. The purpose, he said, was to give
community members a chance to share their concerns with consultants working on the stadium design and those conducting studies on traffic and parking, noise and lighting so that they can incorporate those questions and concerns into their studies before they’re completed. About 160 residents attended the session at the Lincoln Center. The advisory committee, Sherman said, will hold a similar session after the various studies are completed in mid- to late July. Colorado State University’s Board of Governors has given conditional approval to move forward on the stadium project while giving university President Tony Frank
two years to raise at least half the estimated cost through private donations. The fundraising deadline is this October. “I wanted to ask questions that hopefully will be addressed down the road,” said Mike Knowles, a CSU alumnus and basketball season ticket holder who lives in a neighborhood just north of campus. “It will be interesting to see at the July meeting how they’ve incorporated these issues into what they’re doing.” Knowles and Sherman believed it was a constructive session. “I rotated around, and I saw instances of questions that since I have been involved in the process have not come up yet, so that’s ex-
Objections to a second recreational marijuana store in Larimer County drifted away Monday. The Larimer County commissioners approved granting licenses to grow and sell recreational pot to Flower Power Botanicals, 1308 Duff Drive. The business is already one of two medical marijuana outlets in the unincorporated area of the county. In the process of granting the licenses, the commissioners waived a requirement that retail marijuana stores be located at least 500 feet from a place of “amusement or recreation.” The commissioners said they were comfortable with how Flower Power and owner Peter Verchick conduct business. The medical marijuana side of the business has operated without incident for more than three years. Flower Power and Choice Organics, the other licensed recreational marijuana business in the county, have closely followed regulations, said Commission Steve Johnson. “We do have a track record with those folks that’s really pretty good,” Johnson said. The commissioners have said they will allow only two licenses for each aspect of recreational marijuana regulated by the state: cultivation, retail sales, infusedproduct manufacturing and testing. With grow and sales licenses granted to Flower Power, no other recreational marijuana stores will be allowed in Larimer County outside city limits. Following the hearing, Verchick said he expects to open the recreational side of the business
cellent; that’s what we want to do,” Sherman said. “... There were some new things here, and we’ll document it all and keep working through it.” Others, on both sides of the issue, weren’t so sure it was worthwhile, with the same objections to the proposed $254 million stadium that have been voiced since it was first proposed dominating many of the breakout sessions. “They’re not asking questions; they’re dominating and giving answers,” stadium supporter Jan Woods said. Bob Vangermeersch, who heads up the anti-stadium Save Our StadiSee STADIUM, Page A5
Center Partners sold to Qualfon
BUSINESS » The impact on Center Partners’ Fort Collins call center, which handles customer calls for several different firms, is unknown. Center Partners has about 2,500 employees in six contact centers in Washington, Idaho and Colorado. » Page A6
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