It didn’t take much time during the Idaho Springs city council meeting April 8 for councilors to unanimously approve $1,000 in funding for the annual event that draws hundreds to the town each year, and approve onsite camping.
Festival organizers, brother and sister Mark and Sarah Morris, announced this year’s festival will take place Aug. 2-3 at the Shelly Quinn ball elds in east Idaho Springs. e annual festival draws musicians and bands from across the country and around the world to Idaho Springs. Bluegrass fans also ock to the small town from every corner of Colorado and beyond, according to the Morris family. is year’s line up already includes nearly a dozen bluegrass bands including e Jake Jolli Band, Cabi-
net Trio and e Fretliners with more to be added to the list, according to advertisements.
“I applaud the rec district (Clear Creek Metropolitan Recreation District ) for doing this so well. I know people come from all over, and locals alike, to experience it,” Idaho Springs Mayor Chuck Harmon said. “I couldn’t be happier that we have a venue that works very well for this. It always has gone o so well, everybody has been respectful and really enjoyed themselves and I just think
it’s a fun event.”
e annual event is also a showcase for Idaho Springs, an opportunity to show o what a unique community it is in this mountain valley, Harmon added.
“People will come from even farung locations and they will go back they’ll tell their friends,” Harmon said. “It’s di cult to quantify, but I think it does pay big dividends down the road for the city, plus it’s a fun thing for everyone in the community.”
The number of sellers opting to sell without a listing agent was surprisingly low even before the NAR settlement, which will have the effect of cutting in half the commission charged by listing agents thanks to the removal of a co-op commission for buyers’ agents, .
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has reported that only 7% of homes sold during 2023 were sold without the services of a listing agent. Another 4% of sellers began without an agent but ultimately changed their minds and decided to hire a listing agent.
mission cannot include the offer of compensation to a buyer’s agent, so listing commissions will henceforth be 2.5% to 2.8%, seriously reducing the appeal of trying to sell one’s house without professional assistance.
The main argument for going FSBO (for-sale-by-owner) has been to avoid paying the typical 5 to 6 percent listing commission. But that commission included the 2.5 to 3 percent commission shared with the agent representing the buyer. Under the NAR settlement (if approved by the courts), the listing com-
The Colorado Environmental Film Festival is celebrating Earth Day with two films: The Engine Inside (about bicycling) tonight, April 18; and Deep Rising (about seabed mining) on April 21. Ticket info is at https://ceff.net/earth-day.
In my real estate classes as a new agent at Coldwell Banker back in 2002, it was drummed into us that “listors last,” so we should focus on working with sellers instead of buyers. The NAR settlement has struck a serious blow to anyone who specializes in working with buyers.
In light of this, NAR is offering its Realtor members a free “Accredited Buyer’s Representative” (ABR) course, and, even though Golden Real Estate specializes in working with sellers, all of us have signed up for this course so we can receive the advice which it will offer when representing buyers in the changed landscape of real estate transactions.
Of course, I will share with you what I learn from that course, which I’m taking on June 17th. Hopefully, the court will have confirmed or rejected the NAR settlement by then, so we’ll know for sure what lies ahead.
As I wrote last week, the inevitable
I can’t take credit for this idea. Last year Pro Builder magazine had an article in its May/June issue about new ideas in kitchen design, and one in particular caught my attention: adding a “back/ messy” kitchen.
Nowadays, especially with open floor plans, the kitchen has become a center of entertaining. Guests gather around the host or hostess as they prepare and deliver various courses of food.
A back kitchen allows for dirty dishes to be out of sight immediately. This keeps the kitchen area clean and attractive — and quiet — throughout the evening. There could even be a second dishwasher in the back kitchen.
The back kitchen could also be where prepared courses are staged for bringing out during the party. Think of it as a “butler’s pantry” that is off the kitchen instead of between the kitchen and the dining room.
Most people nowadays have both a walk-in pantry and what’s being called a “Costco closet” for those bulk purchases so many of us are making these days. A larger pantry big enough to satisfy both needs could be attached to the back kitchen instead of the main kitchen, cleaning and simplifying the main kitchen design. Another feature which makes a lot of sense is to have seating on two sides
(adjoining, not opposite) of the kitchen island instead of just one. This facilitates guests talking to each other, while still including whoever is at work on the business side of the island.
Open floor plans typically show the kitchen open to the family room, but not the formal dining room. How about an Lshaped open floor plan in which the dining room is open to the kitchen on the side, with the family room open to it at a 90degree angle?
Here’s a floor plan from Pro Builder showing this concept, in which ‘A’ is the island with 2-sided seating, ‘B’ is the pantry/Costco closet, ‘C’ is the back kitchen, and ‘D’ is a barn door for closing off the back kitchen/pantry.
effect of the NAR settlement will be that many or even most buyers will call listing agents directly instead of hiring an agent to represent them as a buyer. Only time will tell how that process will shake out.
If I worked solely as a buyer’s agent, I would be very nervous about what the future holds for me.
Buyer agents will still be able to earn a commission by selling new homes. Because the new home market is so competitive, builders are unlikely to reduce the commissions they currently offer to agents. Most builders, I have found, offer a 3% commission to agents who bring them a buyer, although that commission is applied to the base price,
not to the price after adding upgrades of flooring, appliances, counters, etc.
The challenge for real estate agents has always been getting buyers to call them before registering at a builder’s sales office, because most builders will not pay agents who did not register along with their buyer. We tell buyers to visit as many new home communities as they wish but not give their names until they are serious and want us to represent them. Then we can go with them on a return visit where they and we register together. That way, the buyer has the advantage of professional representation, and we are compensated for being their agent.
This column and the ’Back Kitchen’ article appeared in last Thursday’s Denver Post.
For most of 2023, the number of closed transactions fell while the number of active listings surged until some of them either expired or were taken off the market for the holidays. Starting in January there was a marked increase in sales, combined with more sellers putting their homes on the market.
The charts at right are from Denver’s MLS and cover the 15-month period from January 2023 through March 2024 for REcolorado listings only, limited to a 20mile radius of downtown Denver.
The second chart shows how sharply the median days a listing was active on the MLS rose through most of last year, peaking at over 30 days in January but plummeting, just like last year, in February and March. Meanwhile, the median sold price, which had been slumping slightly during the last half of 2023, turned sharply upward in January, February and March.
From studying current MLS data, this trend is continuing in April.
Of course, the real estate market varies greatly from city to city and from neighborhood to neighborhood. If you’d like to monitor the market in your city or your specific subdivision, any of our broker associates or I could create what we call a “Neighborhood Alert” for you. You define the area you want to monitor, and we pro-
Active Listings
Closed Listings
(Limited to 20-mile radius of Downtown Denver)
Source: REcolorado
Median Sold Price
Median Days in MLS
gram the MLS to send you an email notification every time a home in that area is listed, goes under contract, sells or expires. With our help, you’ll be the neighborhood expert where you live — or perhaps in a neighborhood where you want to buy. Call us; our phone numbers are below.
Andrew Buen stands before a jury on charges including second-degree murder
BY CHRIS KOEBERL CKOEBERL@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COMAs many as 1,500 summonses were sent to Clear Creek County
residents to find a jury of 12 impartial people to sit as jurors in a trial over the death of Christian Glass.
Selected county residents began reporting for jury duty April 8 at the Clear Creek County courthouse.
Final questions, or “voir dire,” to jurors from attorneys and the judge were a major order of business for the lengthy trial in Fifth Circuit Judge Catherine Cheroutes’ courtroom.
After jury selection, attorneys for the prosecution and defense for former Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Buen, who faces multiple charges, including murder in the second degree, were slated to make opening statements, highlighting the arguments they were to make before jurors. Glass died on the night of June 10-11, 2022, when he was stranded in his car near Silver Plume. He had called 911 for help, saying he was trapped and, when officers ar-
rived, they asked Glass to leave his car. He refused in what turned into a long standoff that ended when officers broke Glass’ car window and used a Taser on him. Buen shot Glass five times, killing him, according to an indictment.
The criminal trial is expected to take as many as three weeks, according to the Clear Creek County court schedule.
Updates on the trial will be available online at the Clear Creek Courant.
Moving fundraising to taverns taps into a more generous audience
BY JANE REUTER JREUTER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COMe Evergreen Ice Melt barrel fell into the lake April 4 at 9:23:35 p.m. –a time right in line with past years. e annual event, sponsored by Mountain Foothills Rotary, lets community members bet on the time a barrel will fall through the ice, signaling the end of another winter and the return of warmer temperatures.
Fundraising this year was far above the norm — an increase Rotarians credit to new businesses that allowed them to sell tickets on-site and an uptick in volunteer ticket sellers.
“We sold over $9,000 worth of tickets, and typically sell about $5,000,” said Jim Rohrer, the club’s administrative chair. “We’re going to be able to write some nice checks to the charities we support with this. at’s why we do it.”
Rohrer attributes the increased sales in part to moving away from the club’s traditional grocery store sales sites to venues including Tuscany Tavern, Lariat Lodge, Lakeside Café, Revival Brews and El Rancho.
“We found people coming into
a bar are in a lot better mood than people coming into a grocery store — especially with food prices as they are today,” he said. “Not only did they put up with us, they did things like buy dinner for people that were soliciting and donating funds. All of these places went out of their way to help us.”
“It was pretty average as far as date and time,” said Keith Dragon, president-elect of the Rotary club. “Most of them have occurred in late March or early April.”
About 30 volunteers from Evergreen Park & Recreation District’s INSPIRE program, Resilience1220 and Evergreen Christian Outreach sold tickets along with Rotary mem-
bers. e three organizations, along with Denver-based Crutches4Africa, are bene ciaries of Ice Melt ticket sales.
“It was a community e ort,” Rohrer said. “Our charities and our restaurants helped us have a record year.” In addition to ticket sales, sponsor contributions typically add another $6,000 to $7,000 to the event’s total fundraising, Rohrer said.
e contest features four prizes, with the top prize at $1,000, second of $500, third of $250 and fourth of $125.
Members of Evergreen Fire/Rescue used a pontoon shing boat to retrieve the barrel April 6.
Weeks before the moon blocked light from the sun over Idaho Springs, Kate Foy’s kindergarten class prepared by making solar-eclipse models to predict what they were going to see.
“We’re using an event in nature to try and draw in the student engagement and make the learning more memorable for them,” Foy said.
During the April 8 eclipse, kindergartner Demetrius Metoxen seemed fascinated as he held paper glasses tightly around his eyes, so he could gaze and focus on the event in the sky above.
e Clear Creek School District has been moving to an expeditionary school model for several years, according to Foy, and the eclipse was the perfect learning environment.
“We are trying to use more memorable experiences out in nature and the community,” Foy said. “ e more engaged they are, the more likely they are to remember it later and attach those skills that they practice and learn with it.”
Meghan Phillips’ third graders sat in the playground wearing paper glasses and stared at the sun as the shadow of the moon partially and distinctly covered the bright circle.
“Being able to provide them with experiences that are outside the classroom is phenomenal and to be able to guide them with that as an educator is really special,” Phillips said during the eclipse.
Standing among the students, you could constantly hear children’s voices rise up: “Whoa, can you see that?” “Look, look!” “ is is so cool.” “ ey are a unique group, and they have so much curiosity, so it’s nice to be there with them,” Phillips said.
As a former high school and college history teacher, John Carson loved to see the reactions when he made his entrance into the plaza at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site on horseback.
With authentic looking clothes and moccasins evoking the persona of an 1830s hunter-trapper, Carson for 14 years researched and play-acted living history of the era as a park ranger and interpreter, igniting in visitors — kids especially — a keen interest in the region’s past.
has been known as a dang good living history site, where folks could visit and get an idea of what life would’ve been like here in the middle of nowhere in the 1830s and ’40s,” says Carson, 67 and retired from reenactments. “ e place would come alive.”
Now, under a new superintendent only months into the job, Bent’s Old Fort has become the ashpoint of local controversy over potential changes brought on by the site’s badly aging infrastructure, by reconsideration of the role of livestock and, perhaps most pointedly, by shifting perception of the value — and limitations — of living history practices that have enticed participation by many volunteers.
tant’s report that recommended new and more e cient ways to tell the fort’s story, especially regarding the use of living history.
Superintendent Eric Leonard, who began overseeing Bent’s Old Fort as well as Colorado’s Sand Creek Massacre and Amache national historic sites last summer, says he understands the connection many folks — mostly volunteer participants — feel with the park’s living history element.
“But I think the nuanced realization here is we’re at a point now where relying on it as the only tool is not really sustainable,” he says. “It has a lot of built in costs, and it doesn’t reach as many people as we really have an obligation to.
Change proves painful as site faces challenges SEE
“From the very rst day, Bent’s Fort
Public concern has intensi ed as word of changes at the site spread in the wake of an independent consul-
“Bent’s Old Fort is an extraordinary American story,” he adds. “And I think what everyone in these con-
versations has in common is that people are passionate about it, and they want to tell the story. ey want the park to succeed.”
Trimmed-back winter hours and reduced access to parts of the fort already had raised concerns. Talk of reducing the living history aspect has generated more calls, letters and social media chatter — and even moved some public o cials to stress the importance of living history and ask the Park Service to reconsider any changes.
For instance, State House Rep. Ty Winter and Sen. Rod Pelton wrote a letter to the National Park Service expressing concerns shared by constituents that have “stirred unease among those who hold the Fort dear.”
It added that removing living history elements “may compromise the immersive experience that has set Bent’s Old Fort apart.”
For Carson, whose great-grandfather, the frontiersman Kit Carson, frequently visited the fort as a hunter employed by the Bent brothers, the pushback underscores the strong connection many in southeastern Colorado feel to the historic site.
“Quite frankly, I won’t walk on the place as it’s being run today,” Carson says. “A lot of folks still associate me with Bent’s and it’s embarrassing to be associated with the place as it’s run now. e attitude would de nitely have to make a 180 before I’d even think about going back up there.”
Backlash over changes to the park comes amid a broader reconsideration of museums, landscapes and public spaces as vehicles for employing living history, with new attention paid to perspectives that have previously been underrepresented, and sometimes represented by white actors playing other racial roles.
And while there’s common ground on issues like improving representation among all cultural groups, the uncertainty and concern many locals feel about the direction of the fort comes from connections dating back to childhood.
Linda Bourne, 74, grew up with the fort. She was in seventh grade when she rst visited the site, which at that point was “nothing but a eld with a foundation.” Over time, she saw the fort’s reconstruction, which further spurred her interest and eventually led her to invest time in training to become part of living history events — learning the speech patterns of the period, the dress, every detail to portray rst a laborer and later a cook.
“I’ve always wanted to know what was in the past,” Bourne says. “So to me that just brought it to life. And I wanted to share it, because it is an important part of who we are.”
Leonard understands the ties that bind so many to the site and says there will always be a place for living history. e question is just the best and most sustainable way to present it.
“A broad observation about living history is that the people most interested in how it functions are the people that participate in it,” Leonard says. “ e general public will come as an audience member, but the sausage making around it is not necessarily something
that they’re particularly interested in.”
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site sits just north of U.S. 50 east of La Junta, marking the structure rst built in 1833 as a nexus for commerce along the Santa Fe Trail by brothers Charles and WIlliam Bent and Ceran St. Vrain. It stood as an isolated permanent settlement not under control of Mexico or Native Americans, and did brisk trade with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, largely in bu alo hides.
“It’s a borderland where, often for historic purposes, we try to draw hard lines,” Leonard says. “ ose lines were very fuzzy at the time. During the period of its operation, this was a very uid landscape of culture, sovereignty and commerce.”
It also served as a staging area for explorers and U.S. Army detachments before a cholera epidemic prompted William Bent to move his operations, eventually to the location known as Bent’s New Fort near the current town of Lamar.
Although the original fort was destroyed in 1849, the site came under National Park Service control in 1963. Eventually, the fort was reconstructed with the aid of historical depictions and diaries — a project that aligned with the nation’s bicentennial in 1976, as well as Colorado’s centennial celebration.
Leonard notes that at the time of the reconstruction, living history was relatively new and “cutting edge,” and was mentioned in the fort’s 1975 master plan. By the 1980s, he adds, the fort embraced living history as the primary tool in the site’s storytelling toolbox.
But as the gatherings of reenactors evolved into social events that produced what he describes as “legendary stories” around alcohol use and weapons, the program adopted some stringent standards. For instance, the participant manual for a 1987 event covered 125 pages of policy, procedure, logistics and historical background.
Challenges remained, particularly around the recruitment of non-white people to ll critical roles re ecting the cultures that converged at the fort. Issues also emerged on a national scale. At Antietam National Battle eld in Maryland, Leonard notes, a federal court case over a female volunteer who was denied participation as a Civil War soldier in a re-enactment changed the dynamics of living history. She took the NPS to court and won.
is story was printed through a news sharing agreement with e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned nonpro t based in Denver that covers the state.
“Where’s Columbine High School?” my dad in Indiana asked, suddenly changing the direction of a nothing-in-particular phone call.
“Four or five miles southwest of here — why?” I asked from our west-facing back porch in Denver’s south suburbs on a beautiful spring day in 1999.
My hyperactive dad, who had been watching a cable news channel while we talked, replied: “Somebody is shooting kids there.”
Within seconds, two air ambulance helicopters thundered low and fast directly over our house and streaked southwest. I was a copy editor at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and as I watched the helicopters race toward Columbine, I knew that I should expect to be called in early for my night shift at the newspaper. I wanted to see our young sons before getting ready for work, so I got off the phone and trotted the block and a half to their elementary school.
In those pre-smartphone, lesswired days, the staff at our sons’ school didn’t yet know about the attack a few miles away. I walked past the open door of the teachers’ lounge, where a teacher I liked was finishing his lunch break.
50 years of Courant headlines not to be confused with news
BY TEDDY JACOBSENRecount in Georgetown tells same story – April 17
Incumbent Kerry Ann McHugh requested a recount in her defeat for the mayoral election in Georgetown. Craig Abrahamson was declared the winner again over McHugh, by the same vote total:
THE COPY EDITOR Scott Gilbert
“What brings you here?” he asked. When I told him the little I knew about what was happening at Columbine, he responded, “That will definitely be on Channel 9 tonight.”
Word of the attack reached the school administrators about that same moment, and a lockout began. I was a familiar volunteer at the school, and I was allowed to stop by our sons’ classrooms to see them for a few minutes before I returned home to prepare for work.
I wanted to listen to breaking news about Columbine while getting ready for work, so instead of showering, I filled the bathtub and placed a radio on the bathroom floor so I could hear updates. I was sitting in the tub when the Jefferson County sheriff confirmed that several kids had been murdered, and I broke into a series of uncontrollable sobs.
Work that first night was frantic, with fluid news stories changing as reporters and editors tried to distill reliable information from the
deluge of impressions, sights and interviews, plus the gut-punching images from our photographers. The ensuing nights at the newspaper were a slog through the bad non-dream of Columbine, including a night when I worked the “makeup” editing shift in the composing room, making sure through multiple editions that yearbook photos of the children who had been killed were paired with the right captions: Cassie Bernall is the girl with the wide smile and hair parted on the side; Corey DePooter is the boy with the pronounced straight eyebrows; Rachel Scott is the girl who looks like my sister as a kid ...
That was the night I ate a mayonnaise-heavy sandwich that had sat atop my warm computer terminal for hours before I was able to take a break, and the resulting case of brutal food poisoning felt bizarrely welcome because I needed so badly to puke my guts out.
All that was 25 years ago. Now, low-flying helicopters still flash me right back to the moment just after my dad told me about the attack in progress. These days, I still can’t talk about the Columbine attack for more than a few seconds before my voice breaks. Our little suburb has its mark-
ers of the tragedy — the trauma center where the most grievously wounded children were flown, the pawnshop where a paralyzed girl’s mother asked to see a revolver and then hurriedly inserted a bullet that she used to kill herself at the counter — and I see those places many times each week and remember.
But I got off light. I got off easy. I’m an outgoing person who is always getting to know more people, and here in Denver’s south suburbs, that means I’ve gotten to know many people who were hit intimately by the Columbine attack, people who were there, people who helped save terribly wounded children, people who tried to save children who died, people who lost dear ones, people whose dear ones survived but were damaged in ways that can’t be undone. Every year I know more people with lifetime memberships in that undesired club. People I trust tell me good things have been forged from the pain of that horrible day. I want to believe they’re right.
Scott Gilbert is an editor in our newsroom who worked for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver at the time of the Columbine attack.
200 to 97. “I did not see any reason that that was necessary,” Abrahamson said.
Mine jobs terminated in Empire – April 20, 1994
A spokesman for Cyprus Amax Minerals Co. said that the jobs of 112 employees at the Henderson Mine and Mill were being terminated. The staff cuts were being made because the company had enough ore stockpiled.
Clear Creek National Bank wants to open branch in Idaho Springs –April 19, 1989
The Clear Creek National Bank applied to the Office of the Comptroller of Currency for permission to open a branch in Idaho Springs. Bank president Steve Brandom said they wanted the bank to be located at the former First National Bank building.
New Georgetown gallery opens –April 19, 1974
A group of eight Denver-based artists banded together to form the new Georgetown Gallery, located upstairs in Taos Square where Georgetown Imports used to be. The artists said they were tired of
paying 40% commissions to other galleries to display their works. Artist Mary Lou Hanson said the art in the gallery will include a wide range of mediums from photography to pottery.
The Clear Creek Courant was created in August of 1973. These items come from Courant’s historic archives. As it turns out, previous Courant writers had the same idea for the paper’s 25th anniversary. Their section was dubbed, “Olds: Not to be confused with news.” It lives on for an entire year to celebrate the paper’s 50th birthday.
In today’s busy and stressful world, it’s easy for women to neglect caring for themselves due to career, family and societal demands. It’s crucial to remember that self-care is essential for self-preservation. By making their wellbeing a priority, women can enhance their lives and become the best versions of themselves.
Only 32% of women take time to practice self-care, which is a smaller percentage than men. Yet, self-care is crucial for managing stress, and lower stress levels means higher life satisfaction and happiness, according to the National Institute of Health. High stress levels can lead to depression, heart disease, high blood pressure, weight gain and more. Furthermore, according to a Yale study, stress reduces your lifespan. However, regulating your emotions through self-care can manage stress’ impact.
So, what exactly counts as selfcare? It is any act of looking out for your own physical, mental or emotional well-being. Self-care requires checking in on how you are doing daily. It is more than expensive beauty treatments or vacations and anyone, even with limited time, can practice. Self-care is having regular doctor visits, exercising and eating healthy foods. Here are some ideas from Foothills Urogynecology: Learn to say “no” to reduce your stress Take a hot bath Get a massage Spend time in nature Medi-
Dr. Terry Dunn
tate Bake something healthy Take time to read or color Take a break from social media Get plenty of sleep
Keep a gratitude journal Take a nap
Relax and watch a movie Attend therapy as needed
Achieving a healthy work-life balance is an act of self-care. Make sure to set boundaries to protect personal time and take breaks throughout the day. Vacation time is important, even staycations can make a difference.
Financial self-care is another important component of self-care. According to Bankrate, about 46% of women feel stressed when faced with expenses. This highlights the importance of budgeting and smart money management. A good rule of thumb is the 50-30-20 rule, with 50% of earnings going to needs, 30% to wants and 20% to savings, according to the United Nations Federal Credit Union.
With the harmful effects of stress, self-care isn’t a luxury but a necessity for women. The majority of women who don’t practice self-care need to start prioritizing themselves to live their best lives.
Dr. Terry Dunn is the owner of Foothills Urogynecology, a Denver-based practice specializing in women’s health. To learn more, visit www.urogyns.com.
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• Email your letter to kfiore@coloradocommunitymedia.com. Do not send via postal mail. Put the words “letter to the editor” in the email subject line.
• Submit your letter by 5 p.m. on Wednesday in order to have it considered for publication in the following week’s newspaper.
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BY MICHAEL DE YOANNA EDITOR IN CHIEF
Twenty- ve years have passed since that April day that etched sorrow into the hearts of Columbine High School. Two armed students took the lives of 12 of their peers and a cherished teacher and then their own lives. e reverberations of that tragic day have rippled through the years, leaving a sad narrative of killers and victims often repeated in the mainstream media.
But what that narrative misses is Columbine’s story of recovery, resilience and triumph.
It is in the school’s very fabric, where the emphasis is that every individual, from the principal to the rst-day freshman, matters.
As Columbine sophomore Madison Price told us, “It’s just the kind of thing that you can feel.”
It’s kind of a soft nding for a newsroom that spent months parsing through stories of grief and perseverance in our interviews with survivors, past and present school o cials, teachers, security experts
and even media critics.
Our newsroom sought the answer to a simple question: How has the 1999 Columbine shooting changed the school over the years — and everything else?
On one hand, nothing has changed. Gun violence is rampant in the United States. Take, for instance, the stunning tally of deaths and injuries provided by the Atlas of American Gun Violence, tracking incidents across the country down to the neighborhood level. Such an atlas is only necessary because of the almost-daily barrage of headlines chronicling shootings. Yet some are so large and horri c that everyone knows them by name, like Sandy Hook, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.
e specter of violence is woven into the lives of children in schools at an early age.
And schools across the country have increased security measures in the years since the Columbine shooting, which took the lives of students Cassie Bernall, Steven Curnow, Corey DePooter, Kelly
Fleming, Matthew Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Daniel Rohrbough,Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend and Kyle Velasquez, and teacher William “Dave” Sanders.
e Je erson County School District, which oversees the high school, points to classroom doors that lock from the inside. ere are single-point entry systems at schools that ensure students, sta and visitors pass through controlled checkpoints. Add to that security cameras, once a rarity, metal detectors and scanners.
Much of the changes are meant to ferret out people carrying guns. Yet our reporting did not take us to the raging debates over guns, like whether background checks are enough or if teachers should be armed.
Instead, we explored how chaos among rescuers during the Columbine incident led to improved coordination today, working to bridge gaps to make all schools safer.
And we looked at the media’s role during and after the shooting. One harsh takeaway from University of
Our series will run this week and next week.
This week, we focus on the stories of those closest to Columbine High School — the survivors and students and teachers. Next week, our series will look at how security has changed and the lessons learned from how the media covered events.
To read our entire series, go to www.ColoradoCommunityMedia .com.
Colorado Boulder professor Elizabeth Skewes was that news coverage of shootings can desensitize Americans and even be harmful to survivors. Knowing that helps explain the goals of Je erson County schools at the district’s recent media day for press organizations looking to report on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy.
Reporters who went to that event heard many of the same things we learned in our reporting, which often involved initially-reluctant sources opening up to trust our reporters and editors with their stories. ey wanted us, and our readers, to know that the shooting doesn’t de ne Columbine. Instead, what de nes it is a kind of indomitable spirit that emerged and evolved with intentionality since 1999. It plays out for many every April 20, the anniversary of the shooting, in the school’s Day of Service, now in its eighth year.
“We have turned that day into something so positive,” teacher Mandy Cooke told us. “And that is what I am most proud of — is making sure that our current students know how to be better humans in the world, instead of this awful, tragic thing that happened to us.”
And Cooke knows. She was a student at the school in 1999 and is among three survivors we interviewed who returned to the school to help it turn the page of the adversity to a brighter chapter.
In the days following the shooting at Columbine High School, its principal, Frank DeAngelis, started leaving his shoes untied. e loss of his students and a teacher, who was also a friend, left him feeling he had no control over his life.
“People would say, ‘Tie your shoe!’ and I said, ‘ at’s the only thing I have control over,’” he said. But piece by piece, and with the help of his community, DeAngelis started his journey toward healing. It was just like tying his shoes, one lace over the other.
He still thinks of the tragedy every day — reciting the names of the victims who were killed before he gets out of bed. But his journey to heal hasn’t been lonely. In the years following the tragedy, he has leaned on his community and channeled his energy to help others — and still does, even in retirement.
DeAngelis started working at Columbine in 1979, right after he graduated from college. Before he became the principal, DeAngelis had been a history teacher, football coach and baseball coach there.
He worked closely with students, and enjoyed that his role gave him the chance to get to know so many of them — in the cafeteria, on their sports teams and on the stage.
On the day of the shooting, like so many others, he said, his life changed forever.
After the tragedy, he led the school until every student in the area who was in class on April 20, 1999 — down to the preschoolers — graduated.
“Because they were impacted by it,” he said. “Even though they were not there, they saw everything.”
His leadership in those years is a common theme among students and sta connected to the school.
ey say DeAngelis helped the community to heal, and they call his leadership a model for how to live. ey consider him a bedrock for the community and say he brought people together in the wake of tragedy.
One Je erson County School District sta member said the community would not have recovered without DeAngelis — and that his impact goes far beyond Columbine.
We found a community guided by those who became united in shared pain with a fierce determination to heal.
In that regard, no name came up more often than former Principal Frank DeAngelis, who led
the school, its staff and generations of students out of the shadows of tragedy.
“People said that Columbine really needed me — I needed them,” he said.
For many, he is a beacon of hope, even in his retirement, as he aids others affected by similar hardships.
Now, as it has been for decades, Columbine is just anoth-
er high school. People look forward to football games. They’re studying for tests. Students are discovering who they are and who they might be when they become adults.
To Cris Welsh, a student at the time of the shooting who is now a teacher at Columbine, it’s all very ordinary, except for one thing.
“We exist to extend the notion
that one can recover,” he said. “That the awful things that happened to us are outside of our control, but how we respond to those awful things is totally within our control.”
Columbine is a symbol of hope, he said, not only to itself but well beyond.
“If you are determined to overcome the things that happen to you, you can do it,” he said.
On a mild Monday afternoon, Mandy Cooke was walking on a path near the high school where she teaches social studies. Nearby, a few students were warming up for track and eld practice. e team’s coach spotted his colleague and shouted, “ ere’s Mrs. Cooke!” and the students waved.
It was like any high school in America. e school’s colors — navy and white — accented the track as teens ran, stretched and laughed. Behind them, the word “Rebels” was painted on a shed near the eld. A coach blew a whistle and the kids came into a huddle, as others walked through the nearby parking lot with backpacks on.
But unlike other high schools in America, this scene happened close to a memorial with the names of 12 students and a teacher who were killed in a mass shooting on April 20, 1999.
Cooke sometimes gets concerned reactions when she tells people she works at Columbine High School.
“I still have teacher friends who are like, ‘I don’t know how you walk into that building,’” Cooke said.
She probably gets asked this question more than some other teachers, as Cooke is a survivor of the shooting. She was a sophomore at Columbine in 1999.
Twenty- ve years later, she works alongside several other survivors, hoping to support and care for students in the same way teachers and sta supported and cared for them in the wake of the tragedy.
Cooke works with friends she grew up with, including fellow teacher Cris Welsh and Noel Sudano, a school counselor.
Cooke and Welsh went to preschool together, and Cooke took piano lessons from Sudano’s
mom. ey all attended Dutch Creek Elementary School and then graduated together from Columbine in 2001. All three now live in the same neighborhood, where they are raising their own kids.
A similar call led them all back to their high school.
For Welsh, who teaches social studies, there was no other choice.
“I wanted to be there for my students in the same way that teachers had been there for me — I wanted to kind of pay that forward,” Welsh said.
In a time of “total, complete chaos,” he said, the teachers at Columbine represented stability. He drew a lot of strength from his relationships with his teachers in the months and years that followed the tragedy.
“ ey had gone through exactly what we had gone through,” he said. “ ey showed us kindness,
and consideration and compassion at a moment where so much of that seemed to be lacking in the world … I think, in each of us, there was a desire to extend that to another generation in what, regrettably, seems like an increasingly unstable world.”
Sudano said the adults at school were willing to show students their humanity, which was healing for her. One teacher, who was usually rather intimidating, gave her a hug a few days after the shooting.
“I just remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this helps me understand the magnitude of what we went through,’” she said. “And, it also helped me feel that safety of like — even this authority gure, we’re all in the same situation, and we can all depend on each other.”
ese connections, the trio said, were a critical part of the healing journey for not just them, but
many of the Columbine survivors.
“Our generation grew up where we could only process through genuine communication with each other,” Welsh said. “And I think it made a big di erence.”
He said he wonders if social media — with its inherent social pressures and opportunities for criticism and damaging words — has prevented some victims of school shootings from processing their experiences e ectively.
“I would not want to have posted my opinions and ideas and emotions online for the world to see” after the shooting, he said. “I wanted friends, not the world.”
Because of the closeness and familiarity of being among people who understood what she had gone through, Cooke said she remembers never wanting to leave the Littleton area after she graduated.
“I was so comfortable because we bonded and came together, and I knew I was protected there,” she said. “And then, I knew going to school in Fort Collins, I wasn’t.”
Cooke started college at Colorado State University. She said the rst page of her psychology textbook was about the Columbine shooting.
“Going out of that bubble was very di cult for me,” she said.
Sudano had a similar experience as an undergraduate student at DePauw University in Indiana, where she learned “very quickly how just saying the word ‘Columbine’ triggered all sorts of reactions.”
Cooke, Welsh and Sudano said the students who attend Columbine are generally aware of the history, but mostly don’t think about it unless adults mention it. For them, Columbine is just their school. Going there is “not something that seems abnormal to
them until people around them tell them that it is abnormal,” Sudano said.
“I think their rst thought is not the shooting,” Welsh said. “ eir rst thought is, you know, the history test that I just made them take.”
So, for all three, working at Columbine is not strange. In the decades since the tragedy, they have come to know it as a tight-knit, service-oriented — and otherwise completely regular — high school.
“It was a high school, it always has been,” Welsh said. “If there is any special nature to Columbine, it has been the family or community atmosphere that we have created. It’s been the desire to aid and support and service others. If there is a di erence between us and other high schools, that’s it.”
Welsh said Columbine has been portrayed in many negative ways by the media. He, Cooke and Sudano said they want people to see Columbine as a wonderful place instead of the site of a national tragedy.
e Columbine community re-
members and honors the victims, but they do it in a way that is forward-thinking and hopeful, they said.
Sudano said she wants people to know that Columbine is “a school that’s thriving.” e employees say they don’t let the shooting de ne their experience there.
“It is such a hub in our community for everybody, kids and adults,” Cooke said. “( ey) go to basketball games, go to football games. It’s just such a rallying point for me, that I don’t think of the shooting every single day.”
“We have a job to do,” Welsh added. “I can’t be thinking about my students and getting ready for the AP test or whatever it is we’re focused on at the moment if I’m constantly obsessing about the past. I’m not saying it’s not there, to a certain extent, but you don’t walk in and immediately have ashbacks to April 20.”
Cooke said the employees are in a place where they are ready to never forget, but still move on with their lives. She is a mother and wants to spend her time and
energy focusing on her kids.
“I’m in a really good place in my life,” she said. “I don’t want to be sad.”
Her kids — who are in fth and seventh grade — look forward to going to Columbine someday.
It’s a place where students study for history tests and do chemistry experiments. ey laugh in the hallways and are late to class. Students change in the locker rooms for practice after school and look forward to things like football games and prom.
Columbine is like any high school in America, only it is stronger than it was before 1999. To Welsh, the school is a symbol of hope.
“We exist to extend the notion that one can recover,” he said. “ at the awful things that happened to us are outside of our control, but how we respond to those awful things is totally within our control … If you are determined to overcome the things that happen to you, you can do it. ere are people out there who have done it, and you need to look to them.”
In her home in Parker, Cindy Woodman gazed at trinkets that people sent to her daughter, Crystal Woodman Miller, following the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School. On the walls and a large wooden bookshelf — surrounding the ornaments, small sculptures and decorative boxes — paintings showcase columbine owers.
When Cindy looks at the knick knacks in her “Columbine Room,” named for both her favorite ora and the high school, they sometimes remind her of the day that would change their lives forever.
“Just to walk through there every single day is just a quick reminder, but it’s not that it puts me in pain or agony — it’s a happy reminder that I still have Crystal,” Cindy said.
Although the interview with Columbine survivor Crystal was conducted through FaceTime, her emotion was felt as she nodded in agreement with her mother and delved into the intricacies of how her life was in uenced after she went to school on April 20, 1999.
“I am so much of who I am today because of what I went through,” Crystal said. “ ough I am not de ned by Columbine, I am more of the woman, the mom, the wife, the friend, the philanthropist, the speaker, the author that I am today because of what happened that day.”
After the tragedy, Crystal had a decision to make: Fall apart or forge ahead. She chose the latter, and embarked on a journey that has spanned decades, where she helps the “survivors community.”
At the beginning of her journey, following the shooting, Crystal started sharing her story and eventually found her voice.
source for others,” Crystal said. “My work has been toward that e ort for almost 25 years, and so I want to continue to walk with this community and link arms with them and let them know that they’re not alone.”
Over the last several years, she’s been a speaker at schools and communities impacted by shootings. In addition, she’s assisted in opening a therapy retreat for survivors of mass shootings.
Additionally, Crystal has written three books: “Marked for Life,” which is about her journey, and two children’s books: “A Kids Book About School Shootings” and “A Kids Book About School Shootings: For Survivors.” Her children’s books o er tools and advice for both students who survived a shooting or other trauma and parents and other adults to help them talk with children.
Crystal said among other things in her life, her experience at Columbine has impacted her perspective as a mother.
“Because of my perspective on life and how I view each day as a gift, I love being a mom and I love that I am given the opportunity in life to be able to raise and shape these young people to go far beyond anywhere I’ve been,” Crystal said.
As a mother, Crystal said she takes on the joy and responsibility to teach her children “what it looks like to live courageously in a crazy world.”
“I know what it’s like to have fear so rip your life that you can become paralyzed, and I want my kids to not have to walk through that,” Crystal said.
Crystal was thinking of her children and her perspective as a teenager in 1999 when writing her books. She wanted to re ect how she would address things with her children and how issues were addressed when she was younger.
“As school shootings and mass shootings became more commonplace, I saw myself really
starting to respond and just be there for others and to just be a re-
“We want to make sure kids are talking about the hard things and we’re giving them the language and the space to do so,” Crystal said. “We want to give them tools when they face their little fears and anxiety and we want to empower them to use their voice.”
Crystal said she has shared pieces of her story with her children and will continue to do so until they’re ready to hear it completely.
Cindy’s perspective
Cindy said the weeks and months following the shooting were hard for Crystal and their family, but over time, she saw Crystal overcome.
“I went through my tough times after that, but Crystal was always strong. She would amaze me,” Cindy said.
the screen, with tears in her eyes.
Like Crystal, Cindy said the Columbine shooting in uenced a lot of elements in her life.
“I am a di erent person today than I would’ve been had I not gone through that, and I think overall I am a better person because of that,” Cindy said. “I think one of the biggest things I mostly just learned is that I need to give myself grace.”
More to know
Crystal listened to Cindy’s words through Facetime during the interview happening at her home.
“I thank God that we still have her,” Cindy said while looking at her daughter, on the other side of
As a survivor of the Columbine shooting, Crystal said she has been “asked every question under the sun” about that day.
“I think the thing that I like to tell of (is) the hope and the goodness,” Crystal said. “I like to tell of the stories of resilience and the stories who’ve gone on to be impacted greatly, but have gone on to make an impact greatly.”
“He’s the reason today that schools all over this country are able to move forward after tragedy,” said John McDonald, who was the executive director of school safety for Je co Public Schools from 2008 to 2022.
DeAngelis recognizes that his community leaned on him for hope and survival, but said this relationship went two ways.
Crystal believes various elements have led to this point including families, culture, the media, guns and mental health.
“Just talking about one facet isn’t the end date of a much deeper, much greater conversation,” she said. “So, we really need to come to the table not screaming and yelling at each other because I think we’re closer on the issues than we are apart.”
For Crystal, it’s hard to visit communities and see that these tragedies keep happening.
“It’s so heartbreaking that this continues to be an epidemic that has swept the world,” Crystal said. “ at there’s countless … people who’ve had to now experience this — people who know the pain, who know the heartache.”
“People said that Columbine really needed me — I needed them,” he said. “If I would have gone somewhere else, I would always be concerned about them.”
Since retiring in 2014, DeAngelis has dedicated his life and career to helping others face tragedy in their own lives. He is a member of the Principal Recovery Network, a group of “current and former school leaders who have experi-
During her senior year, following the shooting, Crystal said she felt the community really come together.
Crystal now lives in Edmond, Oklahoma and she explained that the teachers, administrators and faculty of Columbine High School created a camaraderie and closeness that continues to reign in the hallways of the school today.
enced gun violence tragedies in their buildings” across the country.
“You can’t determine what happens to you, but you can determine your response,” DeAngelis said. “No one would ever wish that a Columbine (would) happen, but it did. And, so, how can I go out and help others?”
In the 25 years since the shooting at Columbine, mass shootings at schools have become tragically common.
DeAngelis has reached out to other school leaders in the wake of some of those tragedies, sharing advice on things that helped him — like going to counseling, nding a support system and taking care of one’s family and spouse.
umbine’ echoes in the halls of our school and in our hearts forever.”
Cindy said to this day, people will ask her how she and Crystal are doing and she’s grateful for the thoughtfulness of the community.
“ at just says how wonderful the community is,” Cindy said. “ at they still remember and they still have a heart for it all and still feel the pain and joy of it.”
“Our kids were on trajectory to go there,” Crystal said. “ ey were in the Columbine school district and there was a lot of pride even in my kids, sporting their Columbine sweatshirts and T-shirts, going to the football games and still showing up at Columbine because we love Columbine. ‘We are Col-
“I just talk about my journey and taking care of yourself,” he said. “(I talk) about where we were and lessons learned, but then also the recovery piece.”
Crystal said it’s important to remember that not all stories are “bright and cheery and happy.” “ ere’s a lot of pain and people are still hurting deeply so we can’t forget those who are still thinking about it every single day,” Crystal said.
Crystal encourages people, especially in the Columbine community, to continue to reach out and support each other.
“Don’t do it alone, and know there are still people ghting on their behalf, love them and are here for them,” Crystal said. “We don’t forget the 13 beautiful lives that were lost. We don’t forget their families. We don’t forget to remember them because we carry them with us every single day. We carry their stories. We carry their legacies.”
the school for so many years, and what still drives his work in supporting and educating others today.
DeAngelis lives by his own advice. He still goes to counseling to take care of his well-being. Getting help and leaning on others are the main pieces of advice he gives to people recovering after tragedies.
“You’re not in the journey alone,” he said.
He said his remembrance of the 13 victims each morning helps drive him forward.
“ ey give me a reason to do what I’m doing,” he said.
He is also part of the Je Co/ DeAngelis Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting school and community safety. DeAngelis travels around the country, sharing wisdom with rst responders, administrators and students.
Part of the foundation, the Frank DeAngelis Center for Community Safety, trains law enforcement and school safety o cials to respond to emergencies in a real school environment. e center conducts about 200 training sessions a year, he said.
DeAngelis said his Catholic faith is a large part of what drives his work. He said there is no clear reason why his life was spared, but he believes God has a plan for it. at’s what drove him to stay at
He laments the world’s obsession with returning to the topic of the shooting at the school. DeAngelis said Columbine and the community that surrounds it, including its alumni, are focused on helping others, moving forward and working to make the world better.
Although he is not the principal anymore, DeAngelis is still intimately involved with the school and its community.
“I can assure you, 25 years later, our community is stronger than what it was,” he said. “Because that’s what happens when families go through troubled times or tragedy — they come together.”
We’d like to know about events or activities of interest to the community. Visit www.clearcreekcourant.com/calendar/ <http://www. clearcreekcourant.com/calendar/> and post your event online for free. Email ckoeberl@coloradocommunitymedia.com to get items in the newspaper. Items will appear in print on a space-available basis.
Devil’s Gate History Club meeting: Devil’s Gate History Club presents “Bears’ Ears: Landscape of Refuge and Resistance” by Andrew Gulliford at the Georgetown Community Center, at 7 p.m. Friday, April 19. Entry is free, but donations are accepted.
Earth Day Clean-up at Lucky Ranch: Come out to Lucky Ranch for Earth Day and help get ready
for the foraging season. e ranch will be cleaning up slash for re mitigation from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 21 and 22. You do not have to be strong to help. e ranch needs help cleaning up trash and cutting up the branches that are removed.
A Perfect Pairing: Easterseals
Rocky Mountain Village in Empire is hosting the 11th annual A Perfect Pairing to bene t the organization at 4 p.m. April 27 at the RMV, 2644 Alvarado Road, Empire. A Perfect Pairing directly supports helping campers attend a lifechanging week at RMV. Tickets are $100 and available at https://www. easterseals.com/ <https://www. easterseals.com/co/programsand-services/play/rocky-mountain-village-camp/>.
Basic Bike Maintenance Class:
e Clear Creek Metropolitan Recreation District is o ering a basic bike maintenance class either from 6-7:30 p.m. ursday, May 2, or from 10-11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 4, at the rec center in Idaho Springs. Cost is $15. Bring your bike. Register at clearcreekrecreation.com
Loaves & Fishes Wing Crawl: e event starts at noon on Saturday, May 4 at Citizens Park (located at the corner of Miner Street and 16th Avenue in Idaho Springs). Participants will visit eight Idaho Springs restaurants to sample two wings at each location.
Floyd Hill Gridlock Volleyball Classic: Saturday, May 11, is the inaugural Floyd Hill Gridlock Volleyball Classic at Clear Creek High School in Evergreen. Get ready to bump, set, and spike your way
through an exhilarating day of volleyball action. Games start at 8 a.m. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Clear Creek Metropolitan Recreation District Summer Camp supporting youth enrichment programs in our area. Help CCMRD reach its goal of $1,000 by participating in the event and contributing to the cause.
Wander Women Project: Beginner whitewater rafting instruction on Clear Creek at 8 a.m. May 15. Beginners can enjoy a whitewater rafting trip on Clear Creek with this guided tour. All instruction and equipment — wetsuits, paddles, life vests and personal drybags — are provided. is tour is suitable for those who have no experience and is also perfect for families with
children. 409 Park Ave. in Empire.
Canine on the Creek: May 18 is the Canine on the Creek 5K/1-mile fun run. Proceeds bene t Charlie’s Place, the Gilpin and Clear Creek animal shelter. ere will be an after-party featuring Smokin’ Yards BBQ, TKB craft brews and cocktails, dog caricatures, dog costume contest, agility course and pet-themed vendors.
CASA of the Continental Divide seeks volunteers: CASACD promotes and protects the best interests of abused and neglected children involved in court proceedings through the advocacy e orts of trained CASA volunteers. Be the Di erence, and advocate for the youth in our community. O ce: (970) 513-9390.
Test sirens scheduled: In an effort to notify people in the town of Georgetown of potential ooding due to the unlikely event of a dam failure at Xcel Energy’s Cabin Creek or Georgetown hydroelectric plants, Clear Creek County would like to provide notice to the residents of Georgetown ahead of the test sirens expected to take place on the rst Wednesday of every month.
Clear Creek EMS/Evergreen Fire Rescue Launch Mugs for Rugs Campaign: Bring an old throw rug and you’ll leave with an awesome bright green mug! You can bring them to Station 1A in Dumont, 3400 Stanley Road, or you can email captains@clearcreekems.com and CCEMS will come to you to make the trade. Have elderly neighbors? Bring them and their throw rugs with you. Clear Creek EMS also offers Fall-Risk Assessments. EMS will also bring someone from the re department to make sure smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are working properly. To request a visit, ll out the form: www.clearcreekcounty.us/1388/CommunityOutreach.
Clear Creek Democrats: e Clear Creek Democrats meet from 5-7 p.m. the third ursday of the month at the Vintage Moose in Idaho Springs. Join them for conversation and social time.
Blue Spruce Habitat volunteers needed: Blue Spruce Habitat for Humanity is looking for volunteers. A variety of opportunities and exible schedules are available on new construction sites as well as for exterior minor home repairs. No previous construction experience needed. Contact volunteer@ bluesprucehabitat.org for information.
Walk-in vaccine clinics: Walk-in vaccine clinics for adults and children needing u and other vaccines are available from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesdays at the Clear Creek Health and Wellness Center, 1969 Miner St., Idaho Springs. No appointments required for the vaccines, though you can pre-register by calling 303-670-7528.
Resilience1220 counseling: Young people 12 to 20 can get free counseling through an Evergreenbased organization called Resilience1220. Composed of licensed therapists, Resilience1220 serves individuals and groups in the foothills including Clear Creek County. ey also facilitate school and community groups to build life skills in wellness and resilience among youth. For more information or to schedule a counseling session, visit R1220.org, email Resilience1220@ gmail.com or call 720-282-1164.
Dental clinics: Cleanings, X-rays, dentures, tooth extractions and more. Most insurances are accepted including Medicaid. Sliding scale/ low-cost options are also available. No appointment necessary. is is a mobile dentist that comes once a month. Call program manager Lauralee at 720-205-4449 for questions.
Clear Creek Rotary 2000 meetings: Clear Creek Rotary 2000 meets at 7:30 a.m. Wednesdays at Marion’s of the Rockies. 2805 Colorado Blvd., Idaho Springs. For more information, email loe er806@comcast. net.
Support After Suicide Loss: A safe place to share and learn after losing a loved one to suicide. is group meets every fourth Wednesday of the month from 5:30-7:30 p.m. via Zoom or in person at the Resilience1220 o ce. For ages 14 and up. Suggested donation for this group is $15. Register at resilience1220.org/groups <http://resilience1220.org/groups>.
Colorado Community Media is hiring an Operations Assistant to work with managers and staff to ensure tasks are completed as needed.
We believe that a creative, learning environment staffed with talented people who want to grow and utilize the newest and best tools will result in a dynamic and successful culture that has a positive impact on our clients’ businesses and our community.
Our brand is one of the most trusted in the communities we serve. We’ve built this reputation by providing award-winning news coverage and top-notch customer service, and by being engaged in our communities at all levels.
The ideal candidate will possess the following:
• Be an excellent multi-tasker working on several projects simultaneously.
• Be deadline oriented.
• Possess an understanding of all Microsoft Office products.
• Perform administrative tasks i.e. updating reports, delivering items as needed and more.
• Excellent customer service and communication skills.
Join our team, working from our Englewood office and remote. This position offers competitive pay starting at $17.50/per hour and a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision. Life and paid holiday, vacation, sick and personal time.
We’re committed to building an inclusive organization that represents the people and communities we serve. We encourage members of traditionally underrepresented community to apply, including people of color, veterans, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.
Interested applicants can submit a resume and cover letter with references to VP of Sales and Advertising Erin Addenbrooke at
eaddenbrooke@coloradocommunitymedia.com
Cougars’ winning culture sparks sustainable success
BY JOHN RENFROW JRENFROW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COMIn the young spring sports season, Evergreen knows the chase starts early for its third girls soccer 4A Je co League title in the last four years.
e Cougars won back-to-back league titles in 2021 (13-1 overall record) and 2022 (15-2-1) without losing a single Je co League game (9-0 in both seasons). Last season, Evergreen nished 12-6 and 5-3 (third) in league play.
After starting 2024 at a rocky 1-3, Evergreen bounced back to sit at 4-5 and 2-1 in the league with wins over rivals Green Mountain and
Littleton. e Cougars dropped a league game to Golden.
Head Coach Peter Jeans is the gardener of this winning program and is con dent his 2024 crop can replicate the Cougars’ recent success. But it’s all about improving as the season evolves.
“It’s a really good group and a very competitive group,” Jeans said. “We also schedule really tough games and so a lot of that (earlyseason) record re ects that. I think we have gotten better every game we’ve played and that’s what you’re hoping for. I think it’s been a very good start.”
e Cougars lost a handful of seniors from last year’s squad. But as usual, Evergreen reloaded and is bringing back some key pieces, including 4A Second-Team All-State sophomore Nadia Leunig and All-
State honorable mentions Gianna Weiner and Nuala Hart.
Plus, senior veterans Mary Cox, Gretchen Lynch, Mallory Ellington and Brooke Gimbel will carry heavy loads as well.
“All four of those seniors will play a big role this year,” Jeans said. “We’re always working on chemistry and culture, and just having a togetherness about ourselves. Resilience and ght and discipline.
ose are all big items that we’re working on more than anything.”
A focus is keeping balls out of the air to prevent goals being scored on the Cougars, Jeans said. Executing and nishing in the box needs some work as well, he added. But the season is young and the ship is straightening at the right time; league play just started.
Despite the Cougars constantly
being in the running to win the league and make a deep push in the postseason, Jeans isn’t ready to slap a tangible goal on the board. It’s not how he operates.
“I’ve been coaching for a long time here (since 2010), and I think I’ve gotten away from speci c goals that are end-point goals,” Jeans said. “For me, it’s, ‘Can we improve with every practice, can we improve with every game.’ I know if we’re doing that, we’re di cult to beat. We hope to win the conference or compete at the highest level at the state. But I think our main goal, to me, is always are we getting better today?”
is story was published ahead of certain soccer matchups. For more information, visit MaxPreps.com for updated records, the Cougars’ remaining schedule, stats and more.
Mines football wraps up spring season with annual intrasquad game
BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLOROADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COMe Colorado School of Mines football team is going to look di erent this fall.
e Orediggers lost about 30 seniors, including their star quarterback, several key linebackers and safeties, and veteran o ensive and defensive linemen.
With so many of those well-known Game Day names gone, the Orediggers will have to rebuild in some capacity. But, as the players and coaches posited, the process won’t take as long as some fans might think.
“We’ve already done our rebuilding — that was this spring,” outside linebacker JJ Lee said. “ at’s what we’ve done for the last two, three months. … We’re going to be ready to hit the ground running (for fall camp) on Aug. 12.”
On March 5, the Orediggers kicked o their spring season and have been practicing about three times a week since then. ey’ll close out their spring practices with their annual intrasquad scrimmage at 1 p.m. April 13. e game is free and open to the public.
Because of a unique scoring system that awards points for major plays or stops, the defense won 5324 last year thanks in part to four turnovers.
e o ense receives points for touchdowns, plays that go 20-plus yards, fourth-down conversions and more. Meanwhile, the defense receives points for three-and-out sequences, fourth-down stops, turnovers, etc.
Both the o ense and defense start with their rst- and second-string players in the rst half, and thirdand fourth-string players typically take over in the second half.
Lee, who will be a redshirt junior in the fall, felt the scoring system was fairly even and motivated players on both sides to “play just as hard as we would in a game.”
Evan Foster, a redshirt senior who’s set to succeed John Matocha as starting quarterback, enjoyed how unique and fun the spring game is. It’s the perfect time for up-and-coming players to showcase what they’ll do for the Orediggers in the fall, he said.
“It just shows how much of a complete team you are when both sides of the ball can get after it,” Foster continued.
e two players and Coach Pete Sterbick all thought the spring season’s been a crucial team to incorporate new players into the starting lineup, get them reps, and evaluate how the 2024 team will look by the Sept. 5 home opener versus West Texas A&M.
Lee described the process as “soulsearching,” but said the team’s made immense progress this spring, especially the last two weeks.
Sterbick commented: “People are probably looking at a lot of question marks, (and) we feel like we’ve got the answers in our program. … I think we’re as talented as we’ve ever been, just younger.”
Foster felt similarly, describing how the Orediggers have a deep rotation with “a lot of guys who are going to make a big step and surprise some people.”
Big cleats to fill
e 2024 Orediggers are facing Rocky Mountain-high expectations.
Mines has won ve consecutive RMAC titles, made three straight NCAA Division II semi nal appearances, and taken home the last two National Runner-Up trophies. e 2023 team also went 14-1 and became the winningest Orediggers in program history.
But, while Mines lost several key players after the 2023 national championship game, Sterbick said the returning Orediggers have substantial knowledge and experience, especially in big-time games.
Foster, for instance, redshirted in 2019 and then gained an extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19. So, he and other fth- and sixth-year seniors are ready to lead younger play-
ers like Lee, who are eager to showcase everything they’ve learned.
“We’ve had a lot of young guys who’ve been able to pay attention and take advice from those older guys that we lost last year,” Lee said. “ ey’ve been able to step forward this spring and really show that they have the ability to perform like (last year’s) defense did.” e Orediggers’ goal is the same as ever: win the program’s rst national championship.
Foster and Lee believed Mines has built a winning culture and set high standards that will remain constant regardless of who’s on the eld.
“New faces, same standards, but better expectations,” Lee said, referring to winning a national title.
Sterbick believed the 2024 team can replicate the recent teams’ successes, but “it’s early … and we’ve got a lot of work to do.” He emphasized how the Orediggers need to focus on whichever game is next, as that’s part of the “blueprint” they’ve used to make ve-straight NCAA playo appearances.
“We have to prove that we’re truly a program and not just a team that was good the last couple years, making it as far as we did,” he continued. “Our whole goal is to nd out how good we can be.”
Both Sterbick and Foster said they wanted people to underestimate this year’s team, because the new rst- and second-string players are hungry to prove themselves.
“Tune in on Saturdays in the fall,” Foster said. “I’ve had an interesting career here so far, and … I’m superexcited to prove people wrong and lean on my teammates and have a ton of fun.”
to do?
Check out the calendar of events!
Owner aims to ‘bring a piece of Europe to Evergreen’
BY JANE REUTER JREUTER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COMEvergreen resident Olga Wojciak was tired of getting all dressed up with nowhere to go, and she suspected other foothills residents were, too. So she opened a business to ll that need.
Judging by the response to Evermore Wine Bar & Café, Wojciak’s suspicions were dead on.
“It’s been overwhelming but so appreciated,” Wojciak said. “I didn’t imagine there would be this big of a rush right away. We already have clients who’ve returned three times. I think that’s the best compliment.”
As Wojciak o ers a tour of the wine café, a passerby steps in. She stops, gazes around the space and says, “ is is beautiful.”
at, Wojciak said, happens frequently, adding it is something she will not grow tired of hearing.
A two-year Evergreen resident and native of Poland, Wojciak is also a sommelier with a degree in merchandising and fashion design. She and her husband Robert have 26 years of
food-industry experience, owning supermarkets in Chicago and restaurants in Mexico.
All of that plays into the creation of Evermore, which she describes as a typical wine bar cafe.
“I wanted to bring a piece of Europe to Evergreen,” she said. “Everything right now that is being built in the mountains or around Denver is modern rustic. To me, ambience is an integral part of having a restaurant. If you are in a pretty place, a place that tickles your senses, it’s part of the experience.”
Evermore is in the space previously occupied by Menchie’s Frotzen Yogurt and HearthFire Books and Treats in Bergen Village, and it is designed to appeal to co ee and wine lovers who may only want a drink in a nice atmosphere.
“I couldn’t nd a place to go for a nice glass of wine without being committed to dinner,” Wojciak said. “ is is easy going. Just come for co ee, a glass of wine.
“I wouldn’t say we are a culinary experience. e menu is limited, and we have one menu throughout the day.”
at menu includes co ee, tea, pastries, soups, salads, paninis, atbreads and charcuterie. It also features cocktails, mocktails and a se-
lection of more than 100 wines, all selected by Wojciak.
“We have over 100 bottles, and at least three-quarters of our wines are 90 points and over (on Wine Specta-
tor’s 100-point scale),” she said. “We add little touches as well. Co ee is served in a ceramic cup. It’s nicely done and makes you feel special.”
Wojciak hired Denver designer Agatha Strompolos to create the space she had in mind.
“I wanted old-world charm with a fresh twist,” she said. “I had a vision of Victorian glam, and she made it bet-
ter.”
e café is awash in color, decorated in shades of green and blue in the main area, and reds in the more private party space — divided from the rest of the café by a large brick replace. Chandeliers, oor-length curtains, claw-footed round tables, dimmable table lamps, wallpaper depicting peacocks and owers, and a
ceiling with wood beams and tin tiles are among the many artistic touches throughout the space.
“I hope this will ll a gap in the community,” Wojciak said. “I’m a people pleaser. I wanted people to have a place to be happy, an escape from their busy lifestyles. I want this to be their little haven of relaxation. Just exhale, indulge and enjoy the beauty.”
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF GEORGETOWN
812 Taos St., Georgetown • 303-569-2360
Serving the community since 1874.
Sunday worship 10:00 am. Please join us!
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF IDAHO SPRINGS
100 Colorado Blvd., P.O. Box 840, Idaho Springs, CO 80452
Family worship Sundays at 10 a.m.
1. MOVIES: Which dramatic lm features the character “V”?
2. GEOGRAPHY: Luzon belongs to which island nation?
3. LANGUAGE: What is the Latin phrase for “before the war”?
4. U.S. STATES: Which state has the most national parks?
5. LITERATURE: Which 1950s novel includes the line, “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”
6. CHEMISTRY: What kind of gas makes a drink bubbly?
7. TELEVISION: Which sitcom features a mom named Debra Barone?
8. MUSIC: What was the former name of the English band Muse?
9. SCIENCE: What are the gaps between nerve cells called?
10. THEATER: Who wrote the play “ e Crucible”?
Answers
1. “V for Vendetta” (2005).
2. e Philippines.
3. Antebellum.
4. California, with nine.
5. “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac.
6. Carbon dioxide.
7. “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
8. Rocket Baby Dolls.
9. Synapses.
10. Arthur Miller.
(c) 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.
1. Which group had a hit with “Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay”?
2. How much did the Beatles earn for their appearances on “ e Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964?
3. Which artist was literally a one-man band?
4. Who sang the theme song in the lm “What’s New Pussycat”?
5. Name the song that contains this lyric: “I don’t know what he does to make you cry, But I’ll be there to make you smile.”
Answers
1. Danny & the Juniors, in 1958. ey were originally known as the Juvenaires, until DJ Dick Clark suggested a name change.
2. ey earned $2,400 for each of three performances. at’s worth about $24,000 today.
3. Trent Reznor. He could play all the instruments but would temporarily hire other musicians while on tour to play with him under the name Nine Inch Nails. He must be doing
something right because he’s netted 13 Grammy nominations.
4. Tom Jones, in 1965. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1966 for Best Original Song.
5. “All I Have to Give,” by the Backstreet Boys in 1998. e song reached Top Ten charts around the globe, topping charts in Spain, Hungary and Zimbabwe, of all places. It only reached No. 5 in the U.S.
(c) 2024 King Features Syndicate
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particularly described and illustrated on the Annexation Map attached hereto and incorporated herein as Exhibit A (the “Property”); and
WHEREAS, by Resolution No. 6, Series 2024, the Idaho Springs City Council (“Council”) found that said annexation petition substantially complies with statutory requirements, as set forth under the Colorado Municipal Annexation Act of 1965, C.R.S., 31, 12-101 et seq.; and
WHEREAS, after due and proper notice, a public hearing on the proposed annexation was conducted in accordance with Sections 31-12-108 and 109, C.R.S., and after due consideration, the Council finds that the Property is eligible for annexation in that all relevant conditions and requirements set forth in Sections 31 12 104 and 31-12-105, C.R.S., exist or have been met; that no election is required under Section 31-12-107(2), C.R.S.; and that no additional terms and conditions are to be imposed, other than those specified in this Ordinance; and
WHEREAS, the Council further finds and declares that the owner of one hundred percent (100%) of the area to be annexed has petitioned for this annexation; and
WHEREAS, the Council therefore finds that it is desirable to annex the Property into the City.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED by the City Council of the City of Idaho Springs, Colorado, as follows:
Section 1 The above and foregoing recitals are incorporated herein by reference and adopted as findings and determinations of the Council.
Section 2. The Council finds that the Property is eligible for annexation in that all relevant conditions and requirements set forth in Sections 31 12 104 and 31-12-105, C.R.S., exist or have been met; that no election is required under Section 31-12-107(2), C.R.S.; that no additional terms and conditions are to be imposed; that the owner of one hundred percent (100%) of the area to be annexed has petitioned for this annexation.
Section 3 The Property is hereby annexed to and shall be included within the corporate boundaries of the City of Idaho Springs. Said annexation shall be complete and effective from the effective date of this Ordinance for all purposes.
Section 4. Promptly following the effective date of this Ordinance, the City Clerk shall complete all filings required
Diane Breece, City Clerk
I, Diane Breece, City Clerk of the City of Idaho Springs, do hereby certify that the above and foregoing is a true and complete copy of an Ordinance duly adopted and finally-approved by the City Council of the said City at a regular meeting held on April 29, 2024.
Diane Breece, City Clerk EXHIBIT A
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a public hearing will be held in accordance with Chapter 21 of the Idaho Springs Municipal Code commencing at 7:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard on the 13th day of May 2024 before the City Council to consider an Annexation of approximately 100.63 acres of Interstate 70 Right-of-Way into the City of Idaho Springs. This hearing will be held at the Idaho Springs City Hall, located at 1711 Miner Street, Idaho Springs, Colorado 80452.
Dated this 11th day of April 2024. Dylan Graves, Community Development Planner
Notice No. CCC847
THE TOWN’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE CLEAR CREEK FIRE AUTHORITY, AND SHALL THE TOWN BE PERMITTED TO COLLECT, RETAIN, AND EXPEND THE REVENUES FROM THE ADJUSTED
WITHOUT REGARD
cannot occur until the City receives confirmation that Fire Authority authorization has been provided.
5. All campsite locations shall be numbered and a map of the site, showing all campsites labeled, shall be provided to the City prior to operation and posted at the site.
6. Trash and recycling must be picked up weekly at minimum.
7. Adequate portable toilets will be provided onsite and will be pumped monthly at a minimum or as needed.
8. Prior to occupancy of the property, the applicant shall work with the City to assign an address to the property for the purposes of emergency response.
9. The applicant is required to provide to City Administration and the Police Department two (2)authorized contacts (a primary contact and backup contact) for the property who can physically respond to the site within sixty (60) minutes or less.
10. Parking spaces shall meet minimum parking standards,, shall be delineated on-site to the City’s satisfaction, and shall include spaces for at least 38 vehicles (including 10 campervan spaces). A parking plan showing the layout of spaces shall be provided prior to occupation of the property. No parking associated with this use shall be permitted off site.
WHEREAS, the City Council and Planning Commission have authority pursuant to the laws of the State of Colorado and the Idaho Springs Zoning Ordinance to grant Conditional Uses within zone districts for property within the City; and
WHEREAS, Duke Bradford (the “Applicant”) applied to the City for a Conditional Use to permit a trial run of temporary seasonal employee camping during the 2024 rafting season upon property located directly west of the Shelly/Quinn Ball Fields Park, south Exit 241 of Interstate 70, that was annexed into the City as part of the Silver Spruce Annexation of 1974, further described in Exhibit A, attached hereto and incorporated herein by this reference (the “Property”); and
WHEREAS, the Planning Commission reviewed all facts and circumstances relevant to the aforementioned application (the “Application”) on April 3, 2024 and forwarded its recommendation to the City Council; and
WHEREAS, the Application was scheduled for public hearing before the City Council on April 29, 2024, and due notice thereof was given by publication, mailing and posting of the Property, all as required by the laws of the State of Colorado and the Zoning Ordinance of the City; and
WHEREAS, the public hearing was conducted on April 29, 2024, at which time all interested parties were afforded an opportunity to be heard; and
WHEREAS, as of the date of said public hearing, no written protests to the proposed Conditional Use had been received; and
WHEREAS, after reviewing all of the relevant evidence and testimony, the City Council has determined that the proposed Conditional Use conforms to the relevant requirements of the Idaho Springs Municipal Code (“ISMC”), is generally in conformity with the City’s comprehensive plan, and will not impact adjacent properties in a manner that is significantly different than the impacts caused by uses that are permitted by right in the area, only upon the imposition of certain conditions, as further set forth herein.
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED by the City Council of the City of Idaho Springs, Colorado, as follows:
Section 1. The above and foregoing Recitals are incorporated herein by reference and are adopted as findings and determinations of the City Council.
Section 2. The Property is allowed a Conditional Use for temporary seasonal employee camping during the 2024 rafting season only with the following conditions and limitations:
1.Approval will expire on October 1, 2024.
2. The Handbook and Lease (Attachment 1 to the Staff Report from Dylan Graves, Idaho Springs Community Development Planner) and the Map of the site (Attachment 2 to the same) are both expressly incorporated as conditions of approval.
3. Potable water must be available on-site at all times.
4. The Clear Creek Fire Authority shall sign off on the location of campsites, fire pits, and cooking areas prior to operation. Occupancy of the site
THE LAND REFERRED TO IN TITLE COMMITMENT NO. CC2003-7925 AND DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS:
A PARCEL OF LAND IN THE SOUTHWEST QUARTER OF SECTION 31, TOWNSHIP 3 SOUTH, RANGE 72 WEST OF THE 6TH P.M., FURTHER DESCRIBED AS:
11. Public access across the property along the existing paved path shall be maintained and not blocked.
12. City Staff shall perform a site walk-through once all improvements proposed are established on-site to confirm compliance with the above conditions of approval.
13. The City Council may revoke this CUP at any time in accordance with the ISMC.
14.No natural (wood) fires are permitted on-site. Gas fires, including camp stoves, may be permitted on-site with Fire Authority authorization.
15. Signage shall be installed at the entrance to the trail underpass to I-70 at Edwards St. stating that no motorized vehicles are permitted. Signage stating that no motorized vehicles are permitted shall also be placed on the trail directly west of the proposed campsite to designate the end of access road sharing the trail.
16. “Share the Road” and speed limit signage similar to the signs installed on Riverside Drive and the Clear Creek Greenway Trail shall be installed both directions on the access road between the Shelly-Quinn Ballfields entrance and the entrance to the campground where pedestrians and vehicles may interact.
17. The Handbook and Lease Agreement shall be updated to state that up to ten (10) camper vans may be permitted on-site for overnight occupancy and specific campervan spaces shall be delineated prior to occupancy.
Nothing herein constitutes approval of any use of any type not specified by this Ordinance. Any such additional use would require its own distinct Conditional Use approval, if so required by the Code.
Section 3. Any and all Ordinances or parts thereof in conflict or inconsistent herewith are, to the extent of such conflict or inconsistency, hereby repealed; provided, however, that the repeal of any such Ordinance or part thereof shall not revive any other section or part of any Ordinance heretofore repealed or superseded.
Section 4. Should any one or more sections or provisions of this Ordinance be judicially determined invalid or unenforceable, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remaining provisions of this Ordinance, the intention being that the various provisions are severable.
INTRODUCED, READ AND ORDERED PUBLISHED, on April 8, 2024, at a Regular Meeting of the City Council of the City of Idaho Springs, Colorado.
Chuck Harmon, Mayor
ATTESTED AND CERTIFIED:
Diane Breece, City Clerk
PASSED, ADOPTED AND APPROVED, after publication and public hearing, at a special meeting of the City Council of the City of Idaho Springs, Colorado, held on April 29, 2024.
Chuck Harmon, Mayor
ATTESTED AND CERTIFIED:
Diane Breece, City Clerk
EXHIBIT A
Legal description of property
BEGINNING AT THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF SAID SECTION 31; THENCE N86’04’30”E, 1262.58 FEET TO A POINT MARKED BY A STEEL PIN, WHICH POINT IS THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF THE SOUTHWEST QUARTER OF THE SOUTHWEST QUARTER OF SAID SECTION 31; THENCE N0’43’30”W, 838.80 FEET TO A STEEL PIN ON THE SOUTH BOUNDARY LINE OF U.S. HIGHWAY 6 AND 40 AS LOCATED ON JANUARY 28, 1993 (INTERSTATE HIGHWAY 70); THENCE SOUTHWESTERLY ALONG THE SOUTH BOUNDARY OF SAID U.S. HIGHWAY 6 AND 40 A DISTANCE OF 1332.40 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO AN INTERSECTION WITH THE WEST LINE OF SAID SECTION 31; THENCE S0-13’30”E, 522.02 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF SAID SECTION 31, THE TRUE POINT OF BEGINNING, KNOWN AS SILVER SPRUCE ADDITION TO THE CITY OF IDAHO SPRINGS, COUNTY OF CLEAR CREEK, STATE OF COLORADO.
Legal Notice No. CCC864
First Publication:
LEAP provides energy assistance to lower home heating costs.
LEAP proporciona asistencia de energìa para bajar los gastos de calefaccòn.
LEAP helps eligible Coloradans pay a portion of their winter home heating costs.
LEAP ayuda a los residentes elegibles de Colorado a pagar una parte de sus gastos de calefacciòn de invierno.
