Fort Lupton Press April 18, 2024

High Plainz Strains comes to Fort Lupton

Dispensary opens with new building, four-lane drive-thru

BY

WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

High Plainz Strains, a new cannabis dispensary, opened its shop in Fort Lupton April 2 with something a little di erent: a four-lane drive-thru where you can stop and order without leaving your vehicle.

“Our goal is to provide a convenient, safe, and enjoyable shopping experience for all our customers while continuing to uphold the highest standards of product quality and compliance,” said Tucker Eldridge, director of operations.

It’s been a growing process for Eldridge and owner John Rotherham to plant the seed for their concept and get the City of Fort Lupton to put it on the ballot. It’s been ve years of planning, permits and physical labor to make it happen.

“It passed in 2019, to let us open a dispensary in Fort Lupton. I’ve been working on building out this dispensary for the last three years. We ripped down the old building ourselves using sledgehammers,” Eldridge said.

e dispensary is open at 1330 Factory Circle in Fort Lupton. e drive-thru lanes feature banking-style vacuum tubes to handle most transactions – from transferring ID, products, cash payments, and debit cards. e budtenders sit inside with a terminal and speaker to communicate with the customers.

On the customer side, each bay has

a credit card terminal and PIN pad. “We’re working with a company right now to bring that technology

the terminal, and then we will send everything right back to you,” Eldridge said.

Greg Harris, marketing manager for the company, said work on the drive-thru section is not nished. ey will add more advertising space, banners, and bollard covers in more colors. e company tested its rst drive-through shop in Garden City in eastern Weld County. at’s how they knew they needed four lanes.

here, where you’ll be able to send your debit card to us, and then we will scan it. You type in your PIN on

“When we did our rst drive-thru in Garden City, it was a single lane on the side of the building, and we had 350 people drive through,” Harris said. “So normally, customers will come into the store and see what we have rst so they get an idea of what kind of products we have, and then they will start coming through the drive-thru a little more often.”

e company has two more High Plainz Strains dispensaries in Northern Colorado – in Greeley and Sedgwick.

Rotherham said they have another dispensary business, Natures Herbs and Wellness of Colorado, which has dispensaries in Milliken, Greeley, Fort Morgan and Sedgwick. e Milliken dispensary was built from scratch as a modern, state-of-the-art dispensary.

“It has a glass oor looking down into the extraction kitchen where they make the gummies and a lot of the products,” he said.

High Plainz Strains sells a variety of quality top-shelf ower cannabis, edibles and concentrates. e company will celebrate in April with the Fort Lupton grand opening, exclusive promotions, giveaways, and entertainment.

The new High Plainz Strains dispensary located at 1330 Factory Circle at 14th Street in Fort Lupton.

COURTESY PHOTO

High Plainz Strains Director of Operations Tucker Eldridge demonstrates the drivethru vacuum tubes used for transactions. Customers can put their money in and have their purchases delivered right to their car.

PHOTO BY BELEN WARD

How Does the Idea of ‘For-Sale-By-Owner’ Change Under the NAR Settlement?

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-

CEFF Offers 2 Earth Day Films

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

Renovating? Consider Adding a ‘Back Kitchen’

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.

Real Estate Activity Has Surged Since Jan. 1st

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

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.

Drunk driving re-enactment aims to save lives

Fort Lupton police, firefighters work with funeral home to promote safe prom nights

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Fort Lupton High Fire Protection District, Emergency Medical Services, medical teams, and Tabor Rice Funeral home in Brighton Rice performed a reenactment of a drunk driving accident with injuries and casualties in front of the Fort Lupton High School on April 3.

“It’s about helping high school students make better choices about drunk driving and doing drugs,” said Shanonn Quayle, vice president and interim desk president of Rocky Mountain Every 15 Minutes. That group is part of a national effort that aims to prevent impaired driving.

Fort Lupton High School students lined up to watch the reenactment, taking photos and video of the very realistic and dramatic scene.

Sydney Kibodeaux, a high school junior, did some acting for the event. He played a drunk driver who injured and killed the passengers – also students acting in the scene.

“It’s really important to promote

this program to stop drunk driving. We do this event right before prom because so many people will drink and then drive home and may not make it home alive,” Kibodeaux said.

Fort Lupton police officer Anna Marie Cuney helped organize the every 15-minute event. Cuney said the program was brought to Colorado two years ago. Local police are involved in this behind-thescenes work, working with the fire department, Emergency Medical Services, medical team, and Tabor Rice funeral home in Brighton.

“We are working with different agencies such as Hudson, Fort Lupton and Adams County. It’s a very big collaboration with many different units that come together, plan it,” Cuney said.

Cuney said it’s an education program teaching the kids at the high school the importance of not drinking or driving while distracted. It’s an important program that the students understand the ramifications that could happen.

“It is a two-and-a-half day program where we also do a court proceeding. We actually take all the kids to the courthouse and they sit in front of a judge to understand the whole idea of the process and how important it is to not drink and drive, smoke marijuana and drive distracted,” Cuney said. “It’s the whole purpose of this event, right before prom so it’s fresh in their minds.”

The angel of death, right, watches as a drunk driving victim is loaded into a van to be delivered to the mortuary April 3, part of a drunk driving reenactment hoping to educate Fort Lupton students about the dangers of drunk driving. PHOTOS BY BELEN WARD

An Angel of death watches a person loaded into an ambulance April 3 during a drunk driving reenactment scenario in Fort Lupton.

Northglenn adapts sex o ender distance rules

Move is a response to state’s decision to put two group homes close to Stukey Elementary

BY MONTE WHALEY MWHALEY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Northglenn City Council Monday night voted unanimously to lengthen the distance from where convicted sex o enders can live from schools.

e council voted 8-0 at their Apri 8 meeting for an emergency ordinance amending the city’s current ordinance that states sex o enders my reside within 750 feet of schools. e amendment stretches the restricted space to 1,000 feet.

City o cials said the change was to block convicted sex o enders from moving into two state-run group homes at 11255 and 11275 Grant Drive in Northglenn. e distance of the proposed two facilities is 815.9 feet from Stukey Elementary School, according to a sta report to the city council.

e ordinance went into e ect Monday night. So far, the city said, no one has moved into the two Grant Drive facilities.

Council members said the ordinance change was just about the only hand they could play after the Colorado Department of Human Services decided, with little or no notice, to open the two facilities for out-patients from mental health facilities in the city.

e two homes would have 32 beds and could house four sex offenders. Residents have loudly pro-

tested that the sex o enders pose a danger to neighborhood children, especially at Stukey Elementary.

“We don’t like the way this has been done,” said councilmember Katherine Go . “Hopefully, this outcome will make us feel safer.”

e state is seeking to open Mental Health Transition Facilities across the state to house 125 patient beds.

Not retroactive

City Attorney Corey Ho man said that any registered sex o ender who currently lives more than 750 feet

but less than 1,000 feet from a school will not be required to move. eir residency was established before the amended distance requirements went into e ect, Ho man said.

Ho man told the council the state might preempt the new requirement. However, Northglenn Police Chief James May has indicated that the state may adhere to local residency restrictions.

“So, the opportunity is there” for a new ordinance, Ho man said.

Mayor Pro Tem Shannon Lukeman-Hiromasa said that Mayor Mer-

edith Leighty has been in touch with Gov. Jared Polis’s o ce but a meeting to talk about the state’s move into Northglenn has not been scheduled.

Council members said the ght against the two facilities has quickly galvanized the community, a heartening consequence of the state’s decision.

“I am proud of our residents and their peaceful protests,” said councilmember Jay Jaramillo at Monday’s meeting. “ is was a good example of how we are coming together as a community.”

A Google Maps view of Northglenn showing Grant Drive from Muriel Drive north to Malley Drive. Northglenn’s Stukey Elementary is in the bottom right and the planned state mental health transitional homes at 11255 and 11275 Grant Drive have a red pin by them in the top left of the image. COURTESY GOOGLE MAPS

Weld County Animal Control temporary closure

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Sta ng shortages in the Weld County Sheri ’s Department will temporarily close Animal Control Services, Sheri Steve Reams announced March 18.

With a continuing sta ng shortage across the Sheri ’s Department, the county will temporarily close Animal Control services and transfer employees in current positions to the jail.

“ e Weld County Sheri ’s O ce has been struggling with sta ng for over two years,” Sheri Reams said. “We have nally reached a point where a shift is required to give employees at the jail relief. I am disappointed we nd ourselves here.”

According to o cials, reported calls will be assessed and handled case-by-case, depending on sta ng. e patrol division will service them by phone and the online reporting system.

e Sheri ’s o ce would take service calls depending on severe crime reports and available resources. ey will continue to update the commu-

nity with any changes.

Once the Weld County Sheri ’s Ofce gets adequate sta ng, the current employees could be transferred back to job assignments of their interest, Reams said in a written statement.

Reams said Weld County jail operations are his department’s responsibility. Other agencies are secondary to his department.

According to o cials, other factors for the sta ng storage are changes to state laws about law enforcement, the national negativity against law enforcement, people not wanting to work in law enforcement, which causes a workforce shortage, and lack of competitive funding for hiring and retaining Sheri ’s o ce employees. e Board of County Commissioners funds the Weld County Sheri ’s O ce. Sheri Reams has been working with the board for a while to solve the problem and make the changes; according to o cials, funding decisions are the policy of the Board of County Commissioners.

on a mid-year supplemental to the Sheri ’s O ce budget for its most critical needs of the agency. Still, sta reallocation to another area is expected in the future.

According to the Board of County Commissioners, they are working

“ is decision to change our operations and how we serve our community is not something the administrative sta took lightly. It is a sincere desire for the Sheri ’s Ofce administration to return to normal operations as soon as the Weld County jail is fully sta ed,” said Me-

lissa Chesmore in the press release

Weld County Sheri Department public relations o ce.

“During this change, our administrative sta will continue to strive to get our departments and employees back into the roles they signed up for so they can serve our community in ways that are signi cant and meaningful to them,” Reams said in the statement. “ e Sheri ’s o ce aims to provide successful law enforcement services to our community.”

Weld County Animal Control will close temporarily due to sta ng shortages, with sta transferred to the jail. COURTESY PHOTO

New tool for sexual assault survivors

Brighton, Commerce City Police introduce online service to help get help, report crimes

A new online tool meant to help sexual assault survivors get information about medical care and counseling and to help provide discrete information to police is being o ered in Brighton and Commerce City.

“By providing various options to reporting, survivors have broader access to justice and healing,” Brighton Police Chief Matt Domenico said. “Most sexual assault victims never

report the crime to law enforcement, and those who do face signi cant barriers when engaging with the criminal justice system.”

e app Seek en Speak is a free online tool developed by End Violence Against Women International.  e Brighton and Commerce City police departments share a Sexual Assault Task Force and victim services unit that takes a victim-centered, o ender-focused approach to investigating sexual assaults in both cities.

“Our hope with the implementation of this tool is that it will empower survivors with the information and resources they need in order to begin to move forward in a way they feel most comfortable with,” said Commerce City Police Chief Darrel Guadnola.

The Brighton and Commerce City police departments are o ering access to an online tool meant to help sexual assault survivors get information about medical care and counseling and to help provide discrete information to police.

Seek en Speak is a free online tool developed by End Violence Against Women International. It is available at https://seekthenspeak.app/ on the internet.

It provides sexual assault survivors and those supporting them with a way to privately gather information and explore options for medical care, supportive services, and reporting to law enforcement.

It also gives survivors a detailed, self-guided interview that can be completed at their own pace, including much detail as they are comfortable giving.

If a survivor begins reporting, the tool can create a PDF document that can be saved, and emailed to law enforcement, printed or provided to employers or a sexual assault advocacy center to submit to police on their behalf.

A link to the online tool is available on the Brighton and Commerce City websites.

Brighton: 75 S. 13th Avenue

Obituaries, Arrangements and Resources Online at taborfuneralhome.com

In Loving

CUMMINGS

Raymond T. Cummings

October 17, 1941 - April 1, 2024

Osage City, KS - Raymond Terry Cummings, 82, passed away on Monday, April 1, 2024, at the Brookside Retirement Community in Overbrook, Kansas. He was born on October 17, 1941, in Topeka, Kansas, the son of Francis and Lucile (Rich) Cummings.

Ray grew up near Lyndon and graduated from Lyndon High School. He had lived in the Ft. Lupton, Colorado area for 35 years and then moved back to Osage City, where he has lived since.

Ray was a truck driver most of his career, driving for several companies and then owned his own trucking business. He also served as a sheri ’s deputy in Osage County, Kansas. Ray served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1964 to 1970. He was a member of the Eagles and the American Legion. Growing up on a farm, Ray kept his passion and love for tractors.

Ray was united in marriage to Nancy Williamson on August 15, 1968, in Osage City.

Ray was preceded in death by his wife, Nancy on December 14, 2020; by his parents, Francis and Lucile; by a stepson, Mark Smothers in June of 2011; and a

grandson, Daniel Lira.

Ray is survived by his son, Steven Cummings of Osage City; his two stepdaughters, Sally Smothers and Brenda Smothers, both of Osage City; his three brothers, Randy (Sharon) Cummings of Olathe, Roger Cummings of Olympia, Washington and Rex (Brenda) Cummings of Gardner; his ve grandchildren, Danea (David) Dedig, Tara (Paul) Peters, Jesse Grimmett, Luke (Shanon) Grimmett and Hayley Smothers; his ten greatgrandchildren, Daniel Jones, Brycen Peters, Corbin Peters, Dorothy Dedig, Natalie Grimmett, Lincoln Grimmett, Penelope Grimmett, Dade Dedig, Hannah Densing and Abigail Densing; and Ray’s closest companion, his dog, Charlie.

A double graveside memorial service and inurnment for Ray and Nancy will be held at 2:00pm on Saturday, April 13 at the Alpine Cemetery on the north side of Melvern Lake. Memorial contributions in memory of Ray may be made to the American Diabetes Association, sent in care of Feltner Funeral Home, 818 Topeka Avenue, Lyndon, KS 66451. Online condolences for Ray may be left at feltnerfuneralhome.com.

STOCK PHOTO COURTESY VLADA KARPOVICH

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A publication of Spaghetti Dinner school supply fundraiser

A Fort Lupton fundraiser for Weld Re8 schools celebrates more than 17 years of helping local students April 24 at the Fort Lupton Recreation Center.

e Spaghetti Dinner is a very special fundraising event where 100% of the proceeds from this dinner go directly to purchase everything from backpacks to modeling clay to notebooks to laptops for graduating seniors moving on to higher education for our local Weld Re-8 School District schools, K- 12. e event raised more than $4,000 for local students in 2023.

For more information, go to https:// www.fortluptonco.gov/968/Spaghetti-Dinner.

Severe Weather Soliciting and Scams

Fort Lupton o cials are warning that severe weather and natural disasters attract out-of-town contractors and solicitors. Not all “storm chaser” contractors are scammers but some may be.

e City of Fort Lupton does require solicitors to obtain a license before they go out and engage in sales.

More information and the application for a solicitors/peddlers license can be viewed here: https://www.fortluptonco.gov/552/ Mobile-Food-Vending-LicenseSolicitorsPe?fbclid=IwAR2miHGz65HnRzy0zgs-mXikm3bANJ056VP5qgK4WZFBEfAk-T8G-dGrCk

Contact your insurance company and ask about your policy coverage and ling requirements.

nual Community Art Show is open and available to local community artists ages 16 and up. Each artist may submit up to two eligible pieces. View submission guidelines and register on the city’s website today: https://www. fortluptonco.gov/971/Annual-Community-Art-Show.

Welcome Wednesday on May 15

Fort Lupton’s Community Development sta will host an open house on the third Wednesday morning of each month to provide residents, businesses, and development professionals the opportunity to meet with sta in a casual setting.

Welcome Wednesdays will be held at the Community Development Ofce, 1200 Dexter St., Unit W13, from 7:30- 9 a.m. Participants will have the opportunity to ask general questions and learn about a variety of topics, including Building permits, business resources, water conservation, the city’s planning commission, the Fort Lupton Urban Renewal Authority and historic board and get updates on the city’s Comprehensive Plan and other plan updates.

Do your research: Find businesses you can trust and preferably local. Resist high-pressure sales. Some storm chasers use tactics such as the “good deal” you’ll get only if you hire the contractor on the spot.

Plants and pastries at Mt. Calvary Mt. Calvary Church, 650 So. Park Ave. in Fort Lupton is hosting its annual plant and bake sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 11.

ere will be Mother’s Day baskets, potted plants, annuals, perennials and vegetable plants to purchase.

ere will also be baked goods, some single servings to sell as well as popcorn.

Proceeds from the sale will bene t the church’s youth group for the national convention.

Community Art Show registration is open Registration for Fort Lupton’s an-

Donation time

e Fort Lupton Food & Clothing Bank is asking for donations of canned fruits and nuts, varieties of dry pasta and pasta dinners, peanut butter and canned meat such as tuna (including the pouches).

Other potential donations could include chicken, Vienna sausages, spam and salmon. e bank also needs personal items, such as toiletries and baby needs.

Drop o donations at the food and clothing bank’s back door, 421 Denver Ave., on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Call 303-857-1096.

Drop-in child care

e Fort Lupton Recreation Center o ers drop-in child care from 9 to 11 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesdays and ursdays. ere is $3/hour/child for a drop-in, however there is no fee for members with a monthly or annual pass. ere is a one-hour maximum/per day.

Volunteers needed

Quali ed Listeners needs volunteers to drive veterans to and from appointments, run errands for veterans who cannot get out, handyman services, help administer veteran and family resource guide inventory in local libraries and veterans to be trained to become quali ed listeners. Visit quali edlisteners.org/volunteerapp and ll out the form or call 720-600-0860.

Blessings in a Bag

Fort Lupton’s Backpack Program helps school children in need with a backpack of healthy food. It’s an allvolunteer program and is in need of volunteers. If interested in volunteering or donating, call 303-718-4440. Mail donations to Blessings in a Bag, 306 Park Ave., Fort Lupton 80621.

Volunteers needed

Quali ed Listeners needs volunteers to drive veterans to and from appointments, run errands for veterans who cannot get out, handyman services, help administer veteran and family resource guide inventory in local libraries and veterans to be trained to become quali ed listeners.

Visit quali edlisteners.org/volunteerapp and ll out the form or call 720-600-0860.

Call 303-857-4200 for more information.

Fort Lupton senior lunches

Senior lunches are available at noon Mondays at the Fort Lupton Recreation Center, 203 S. Harrison Ave. Sign up by noon the previous ursday. Call 303-857-4200, ext. 6166.

Silver Sneakers

Silver Sneaker Yoga is available three times per week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 to 9:45 a.m. and from 10 to 10:45 a.m. at the Fort Lupton Recreation Center, 203 S. Harrison Ave.

Water aerobics

e city’s water aerobics class meets from 6 to 6:45 p.m. Tuesdays and ursdays at the Fort Lupton Recreation Center, 203 S. Harrison Ave. Call 303-857-4200.

Co ee group

Fort Lupton’s weekly co ee group sessions are at 8 a.m. Wednesdays. Call 303-857-4200.

Free short-term radon test kits

Weld County residents can receive a free radon test kit (one per household, while supplies last). Test kits can be requested online at www.drhomeair. com/weld, according to a statement. Call the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment at (970) 400-2226 or visit: www.weldgov. com/go/radon.

Thu 4/18

Bird Houses! @ 9am / Free Bird Conservancy's Environmen‐tal Learning Center, 14500 Lark Bunting Lane, Brighton. 303-6594348 ext. 53

Amazing Athletes @ 7pm

Apr 18th - Apr 25th

Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760

Colorado Avalanche vs. Edmonton Oilers @ 7:30pm / $82-$1150 Ball Arena, Denver

Korey Foss: Rock Candy @ Hoffbrau @ 9pm

Hoffbrau, 9110 Wadsworth Pkwy, Westminster

Fri 4/19

Cookie Decorating for Beginners with The Sugared Canvas @ 12:30am

Apr 19th - Apr 18th

Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760

Leah Crose @ 5pm

The Stillery, 10633 Westminster Blvd #900, Westminster

Colorado Rockies vs. Seattle Mariners @ 6:40pm / $9-$310 Coors Field, Denver

Sat 4/20

Colorado Rockies vs. Seattle Mariners @ 6:10pm / $10-$310 Coors Field, Denver

Colorado Rapids vs. FC Dallas @ 7:30pm / $24-$1000

Mike Ippolito Duo Live at Park Center Lounge @ 5pm

Park Center Lounge Karaoke Bar & Grill, 12011 N Pecos St, West‐minster

Eric Golden @ 8:30pm

The Stillery, 10633 Westminster Blvd #900, Westminster

Sun 4/21

Franco Rojas @ 3:30pm

Mon 4/22

Imperium event center, 3051 W 74th AVE, Westminster Gallery on the Go - Paint Party @ 4pm

Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760

Wed 4/24

Painted Tree Boutiques @ 4pm

Fort Lupton Recreation & Parks De‐partment, 203 S Harrison, Fort Lupton. 303-857-4200

Colorado Rockies vs. San Diego Padres @ 6:40pm / $6-$310

Coors Field, Denver

Presidents History Documentary 4/24 @ 7pm

Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 E. Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

Nelson Rangell @ 7:30pm

Nissi's Entertainment Venue & Event Cen‐ter, 1455 Coal Creek Dr unit t, Lafayette

Country Line Dance for Active Adults @ 8pm

Apr 24th - May 29th

Fort Lupton Recreation & Parks De‐partment, 203 S Harrison, Fort Lupton. 303-857-4200

Thu 4/25

Nerf War @ 12am

Apr 25th - Apr 24th

Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760

DICK'S Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City

Colorado Rockies vs. San Diego Padres @ 1:10pm / $6-$310

Colorado Rockies vs. San Diego Padres @ 6:40pm / $6-$310 Coors Field, Denver

Coors Field, Denver

VOICES

For editor, Columbine attack still reverberates through years

In the middle of a nothing-inparticular phone call, my dad in Indiana suddenly asked me: “Where is Columbine High School?”

“Four or ve miles southwest of here — why?” I said from our westfacing 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 o the phone and trotted the block and a half to their elementary school.

In those pre-smartphone, lesswired days, the sta 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

STAFF COLUMN

nishing his lunch break.

In the dynamic world of sales, assertiveness reigns supreme as a de ning trait that separates the good from the great. However, assertiveness alone is not enough. Successful sales professionals embody a diverse array of traits that elevate their performance and foster lasting relationships with clients. Among these, professionalism, industry knowledge and expertise, follow-up, empathy, customercentricity, and equal business stature stand out as pillars of success.

First, professionalism lays the foundation for trust and credibility in sales interactions. Salespeople who exude professionalism convey

“What brings you here?” he asked. When I told him the little I knew about what was happening at Columbine, he responded, “ at will de nitely 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 lled the bathtub and placed a radio on the bathroom oor so I could hear updates. I was sitting in the tub when the Je erson County sheri con rmed that several kids had been murdered, and I broke into a series of uncontrollable sobs.

Work that rst night was frantic, with uid 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. e ensuing nights at the newspaper were a slog through the bad nondream 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 ... at 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- ying helicopters still ash me right back to the moment just after my dad told me about the attack in progress. ese 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 markers of the tragedy — the trauma center where the most grievously wounded children were own, 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 o light. I got o 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.

Professionalism, assertiveness and aggression in sales

WINNING WORDS

reliability, integrity, and competence, thereby instilling con dence in prospective clients. ey understand the importance of punctuality, proper communication, and ethical conduct.

Michael Norton

Coupled with professionalism is industry knowledge and expertise, indispensable assets that empower salespeople to navigate complex landscapes with nesse. By staying

abreast of industry trends, market dynamics, and product developments, sales professionals position themselves as trusted advisors.

Follow-up emerges as another crucial trait in the arsenal of successful salespeople. Beyond the initial pitch or meeting, diligent follow-up demonstrates commitment, responsiveness, and dedication to customer satisfaction.

Empathy, often hailed as the cornerstone of e ective communication, holds immense sway in sales interactions. Sales professionals who empathize with clients’ challenges, aspirations, and preferences forge deeper connections and

foster genuine rapport.

Customer-centricity lies at the heart of successful sales endeavors. Sales professionals who prioritize customer needs over quota-driven agendas cultivate loyalty, advocacy, and repeat business. By placing clients’ interests at the forefront and delivering value-driven solutions, salespeople not only secure deals but also build enduring partnerships grounded in mutual respect and bene t.

Embracing the concept of equal business stature empowers sales professionals to engage with cli-

Scott Gilbert

A ordable Connectivity Program is ending soon

Colorado is working on alternatives to a discount internet program

BY TAMARA CHUANG THE COLORADO SUN

An extra $30 a month may not mean much to most people, but to Kathryn Beerline, a Lakewood resident, the monthly federal subsidy that has paid for her internet service has helped her save money to buy a 15-year-old used car for herself so she could give her even older vehicle to her son.

e subsidy ends in May when funding for the A ordable Connectivity Program is expected to run out. While supporters, including the White House, are scrambling to get Congress to extend the program, internet providers and ACP customers have to nd alternatives. Beerline said she switched this week to Comcast’s least expensive service, at $9.99 a month for 50 Mbps down, which is half the speed she’d received under ACP but one-third the price, which she’ll now pay. She’s grateful for the extra assistance.

“ACP has been paying my $29.99 bill every month and it has been a tremendous boost as I am a single mom,” Beerline said in an email when she rst learned that ACP was ending in February. e $30 means a lot to someone like herself “who

NORTON

FROM PAGE 10

ents as strategic partners rather than mere vendors. By demonstrating respect, con dence, and a collaborative mindset, salespeople elevate discussions to a peer-to-peer level, fostering mutual trust and transparency.

In the realm of sales, the line between success and failure often hinges on the approach taken by salespeople. While assertiveness is celebrated as a key trait, it’s essential to di erentiate between professionalism, assertiveness, and the stereotypical aggression often associated with salespeople.

chooses not to ever eat out, get a Starbucks and only treat myself and my son to seeing a movie at a theater maybe two to three times/year so I can put the only extra (money) left after paying bills into savings.”

Beerline is one of the estimated 251,506 Colorado households enrolled in the program. at’s 1 in 9 households in the state and 23 million households nationwide, according to the Federal Communications Commission. While a proposal in Congress has gained momentum to use $7 billion to extend ACP funding through the end of the year, the bipartisan bill doesn’t have enough support yet.

“Nearly half of the households that are in ACP are military families. About a quarter of them are seniors. And because of the programs, so many of those folks are able to pay a small reasonable, a ordable price for internet and for people who are low income, a lot of them are able to access it for free. at’s a big deal and it is something that we ought to make sure is maintained,” said Jon Donenberg, a deputy director on President Biden’s National Economic Council.

Colorado searches for alternative Colorado o cials have been scrambling to nd an alternative should ACP end. In January, when it awarded $113.5 million to 27 mostly rural projects to build better berbased broadband, the Colorado Broadband O ce required internet

Assertive salespeople learn to strike a balance between condence and respect in their approach. Assertiveness involves advocating for one’s o erings and recommendations while still acknowledging and respecting the autonomy and preferences of the client. Assertive salespeople are adept at articulating their value proposition, overcoming objections, and guiding clients through the decision-making process. ey exude con dence without resorting to manipulative tactics or pressure.

In contrast, the stereotypical aggressive salesperson employs highpressure tactics, coercion, and manipulation to close deals at any cost. Aggression is characterized by a win-at-all-costs mentality, dis-

providers to include a low-cost option equivalent to or better than the ACP.

An even larger amount — the previously announced $826.5 million that Colorado is getting from the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program — is set to be doled out later this year. State o cials have been working with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to gure out if they could add a lowincome requirement. at nally appears to be moving forward, said Lauren Francis, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Broadband O ce.

“After working on several drafts with NTIA, we intend to go with the requirement that providers o er a low-cost broadband service rate not to exceed $50, if the ACP subsidy is no longer o ered by the federal government,” she said.

She added that the NTIA hasn’t approved Colorado’s proposal yet. And it is unlikely there will be a state solution by May, when ACP funding runs out.

“ e loss of this program will denitely have impact,” Francis said.  ACP grew out of federal COVID-19 relief aid to help low-income households pay for internet service during the pandemic, which decimated school attendance and made remote learning a challenge for students with limited or internet access. Initially, the amount was $50 a month as part of the Emergency Broadband Bene t. ACP replaced EBB in Janu-

regard for client boundaries, and a transactional approach to sales. Aggressive salespeople prioritize short-term gains over long-term relationships, often leaving a trail of disgruntled clients in their wake.

Ultimately, the key di erence between professional, assertive, and aggressive salespeople lies in their approach to client interactions and relationship-building. While professionalism and assertiveness foster trust, collaboration, and mutual respect, aggression erodes trust and undermines the foundation of sustainable business relationships. By embodying professionalism and assertiveness, salespeople can navigate the sales landscape with integrity, con dence, and empathy. We have all had some level of in-

ary 2022 and cut the amount to $30 a month. Households on tribal lands received $75 a month.

Both programs were open to residents already eligible for other government-assistance programs, such as Medicaid, food stamps or free and reduced school lunch.

But neither broadband program ever attracted the majority of eligible users. Early on, internet providers criticized the challenges of getting customers enrolled while digital divide advocates said there was no funding for outreach. ose issues were addressed in the ACP rollout, which still had mixed results. Only about one-third of Colorado’s eligible 761,000 households are enrolled in ACP. Some potential customers worried about what happens when the money runs out. But ultimately, more than 250,000 enrolled in Colorado.

In Colorado, ACP enrollees are largely outside the Denver area, which has the second highest number of participants, according to FCC data. e state’s 3rd Congressional District has the highest, with more than 51,292 households enrolled and 18% of the community, according to FCC data.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who represents CD3, said she doesn’t support additional spending.

“We are approaching $35 trillion in debt and the federal government ruins nearly everything,” she said. “I

teraction with salespeople, and we all probably have horror stories from our awful experiences with the less than professional salesperson. As always, I would love to hear your stories and experiences at gotonorton@gmail.com. And if we nd ourselves in sales or working with salespeople, when professionalism coupled with the right amount of assertiveness is present, it really will create a better than good purchasing experience for everyone.

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.

How Columbine changed us

25 years later, the tragedy is a study of recovery, resilience and triumph

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.

Frank DeAngelis, a rehabilitation advocate and past principal of Columbine High School, stands in Clement Park at the Columbine Memorial near Littleton on April 8, 2024.

PHOTO BY BEAR GUTIERREZ

Frank DeAngelis’ shoelaces and support

A principal’s journey of healing and leadership

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

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 erce determination to heal.

In that regard, no name came up more often than former Principal Frank DeAngelis, who led the

school, its sta 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 a ected by similar hardships.

Now, as it has been for decades, Columbine is just another 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 THE COVER: Photos taken by Colorado Community Media sta and Bear Gutierrez show former Columbine High School Principal Frank DeAngelis, current teacher Mandy Cooke, crosses honoring 13 shooting victims at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens, and Columbine keepsakes. Historical photos from the 1999 Columbine High School attack were taken by Rocky Mountain News sta , courtesy of Denver Public Library.

Crosses at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in Centennial honor the 12 Columbine High School students and teacher who were slain.

PHOTO BY HALEY LENA

Just like any other high school

Three Columbine employees and survivors reflect

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

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.

From left, Columbine High School employees Noel Sudano, Cris Welsh and Mandy Cooke stand in Clement Park, adjacent to the school. All three of them were sophomores at the school when the shooting happened in 1999. PHOTO BY ELISABETH SLAY

HIGH SCHOOL

“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.”

FROM PAGE 14

Columbine High School teacher Mandy Cooke reflects in the Columbine Memorial in Clement Park.

PHOTO BY NINA JOSS

Columbine and columbines

Mother, daughter reflect on impact of April 20, 1999

BY ELISABETH SLAY

ESLAY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

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.”

Crystal’s perspective

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-

Crystal Woodman-Miller is a survivor of April 20, 1999, and has dedicated her life to helping the “survivors’ community.” Woodman-Miller is a mother of three and currently lives in Edmond, Oklahoma.

COURTESY PHOTO

Cindy Woodman, mother of Columbine survivor Crystal Woodman-Miller, stands in front of a well-known painting that honors the lives lost on April 20, 1999. The painting hangs in her “Columbine room,” which serves as a constant reminder that she still has her daughter.

PHOTO BY ELISABETH SLAY

COLUMBINE

“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

DEANGELIS

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-

‘We are Columbine’

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.”

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Colorado pumps $21 million into fast EV charger expansion

Grants will create 46 sites with a total of 290 ports

BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

Colorado will spend $21 million to expand fast charging networks for electric vehicles throughout the state, with new grants awarded for 46 sites encompassing 290 charging ports, state o cials announced. e expansion will boost Colorado’s existing public fast chargers by nearly 30%.

Private companies and governments will build the fast chargers to ll gaps federal o cials identied along alternative fuel corridors considered keys to smooth transportation ow. Direct-current fast chargers can give EVs a signi cant mileage boost within 15 to 45 minutes of plugging in, depending on electrical service and how many other cars are plugged in at the same time.

State and federal EV boosters are scrambling to assure consumers about “range anxiety” — fear of running out of battery charge before nding a convenient charging station — and vehicle pricing. EV sales have stagnated after climbing quickly in some states, with observers citing continuing high prices despite federal and state tax credits, and

consumers reluctant to learn new fueling systems and locations.

More than 100,000 EVs are now registered in Colorado, the Colorado Energy O ce said, and with “the pace of adoption growing, the expansion of the charging network is necessary to meet consumer demand.”

“Colorado is building one of the most comprehensive EV charging networks in the country,” Colorado Department of Transportation Executive Director Shoshana Lew said, in the release announcing the grants.

“We believe that nearly every Coloradan will have access to DC fastcharging within a matter of years.”  e new charging stations will be funded jointly by federal money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the state Community Access Enterprise. Future rounds of grant funding will continue to build out the public charging network, with an emphasis on guaranteeing charging access in communities disproportionately impacted by historic air pollution.

Most of the charging stations should be online by the end of 2025, state o cials said.

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.

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A set of DC fast electric chargers on the east side of Limon adds some much-needed firepower to Colorado’s I-70 charging network, but the actual charging speeds experienced vary widely.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

Amid influx of students new to the country, English development teachers in Colorado feel overwhelmed

BY YESENIA ROBLES CHALKBEAT COLORADO

is school year has been overwhelming for teachers like Joel Mollman.

As an English language development teacher at Hamilton Middle School in Denver, Mollman has had to take on more work to keep up with the growing number of students who need help learning English.

In previous years, for example, his school might have only received three students a month who needed to be screened for English uency. is year, he screens at least three new students each week — a process that takes one to two hours per stu-

dent.

“It could quickly take up two of my mornings where I could be in classrooms,” Mollman said.

Across the state, English language development teachers describe similar scenarios.

As many schools have experienced an in ux of new students with limited English skills all year, their roles have been changing.

Traditionally, these teachers are tasked with screening new students, teaching English as a second language, administering English uency tests, and coaching other classroom teachers.

Now they must also support many students who are new to the country

in much larger classes than typical.

As of the end of February, seven of Colorado’s districts — Denver, Aurora, Cherry Creek, Greeley, Adams 12, Je co and Mapleton — told Chalkbeat they had enrolled more than 5,600 students new to the country after October count.

Some schools, in particular ones where there haven’t traditionally been large numbers of English learners, have relied on their English language development teachers to be the main support for children new to the country. Some of the teachers describe helping students and their families navigate a new country, and even taking in a child whose family was living in a car, during a bout of

chickenpox.

Often, they say, certain parts of their job have fallen to the wayside, and state advocates say that in small districts, even screening students to identify their English needs, a crucial step, gets skipped.

Cynthia Trinidad-Sheahan, president of the Colorado Association for Bilingual Education, said districts don’t have the manpower, and often don’t know what to do.

“ e expertise is lacking with some of the districts,” Trinidad-Sheahan said. “How do we get training to the teachers that are in these rural districts? And it’s not just on the para-

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LANGUAGE

educators and teachers. e administrators leading these buildings do not have a clear understanding of language acquisition.”

Teachers start by testing for English fluency

When a student who is suspected of not being uent in English is enrolled in school, the district is required to screen them to identify their language level and needs for services.

at screening is supposed to happen within two weeks of enrollment.

In a typical year, that occupies time in the beginning of the school year for English language development teachers. is year, with some schools receiving new students every week, that process has taken up a lot more time.

At Hamilton Middle, where Mollman is also team lead for the school’s multilingual team, he’s taken on the role of screening all students this semester. O cial state numbers show 40% of Hamilton’s 700 students have been identi ed as English learners.

In addition to administering the tests, Mollman has to block o a few hours per week to do the paperwork for the district. at requires entering scores and other information into the computer, and three school sta members to sign o .

Last semester, another English language development teacher on his team was sharing the load, but with so many new students, that teacher had to take on another class, giving up one of her free periods. Mollman now does all the screening.

Each Monday, he starts his week preparing for testing, double-checking the schedules given to new students to make sure they’re in the right classes, tracking down Chromebooks if they haven’t received them, and sometimes making calls as he tries to gure out what pro ciency the new students have in their native language.

Kayli Brooks, a teacher at Tollgate Elementary in Aurora, said screening new students didn’t consume her job only because her school was able to get help from Aurora district leaders who stepped in to do that work.

to measure their progress in English uency. ose students had to take both tests within days or weeks.

“Every o ce or room was lled with testing,” Brooks said. She said it was heartbreaking to pull students and have them realize they had to take yet another English test they wouldn’t be able to do well on.

It’s hard to find time to help more students

Both Brooks and Mollman said that in their schools, giving students a block of English language instruction — a legally required practice — has not stopped.

But other help for students and sta has.

Brooks, for instance, said she used to pull groups of students such as those new to the country out of class for extra English instruction where she would let them practice speaking. She used to cater those sessions to phrases and vocabulary the students might encounter in other content classrooms such as science or social studies so they might feel more able to participate.

“All of that stopped,” Brooks said. “It came to an absolute screeching halt.”

In recent weeks, as the number of new students has slowed, she started back on a rhythm of reconvening some small groups of students.

“ ey are so happy,” Brooks said. “ ey want to learn. I taught them last week some basic advocacy: I need water. I need the bathroom. I need food.”

Still, she isn’t doing as much as she would like. And she hasn’t been able to help other classroom teachers in her school. At Tollgate, she said, about 60% to 75% of students are considered level 1 English learners, which means they don’t have any English uency.

“We have a little over half of every classroom lled with students who don’t speak English, so half of their students are understanding what they say,” Brooks said. “Our team wants to — and should be — supporting teachers and having professional development around this. It’s just been such an overwhelming time that it’s not something that’s happening.”

Trinidad-Sheahan said districts need to allow English language development teachers to coach other teachers so the responsibilities for teaching students gets shared. FROM PAGE

But she recalls how many of the students arrived just before the annual testing window for ACCESS tests, the tests English learners take each year

LANGUAGE

At the schools seeing an in ux of emerging bilingual students, she said, instructional coaches should be teachers with experience in teaching English learners.

Mollman said at his Denver school, his team is trying to help other content teachers, but “we’re still trying to gure out the best way to do this.”

In other years, at his school teachers may have paired new students with other students who also speak the same language. But with so many new students, including some who speak Spanish and others who speak Arabic, it’s not always possible. He’s also trying to get teachers to adapt how they grade students who don’t yet speak English. But it’s all a challenge.

“Some teachers are very good at adapting,” Mollman said. “Some have

really struggled with it and we haven’t quite found the solution.”

Teachers feel unprepared for student needs

Even teachers who have experience working with students learning English as a new language say they’ve felt unprepared at times this year.

Dakota Prosch, is an English language teacher at Academia Ana Marie Sandoval in Denver, where she teaches fourth, fth, and sixth grade students at the dual language Montessori school. In a typical year, her students are already close to fully bilingual. Because of the school model, and being a magnet school, most students by fourth grade have been in the school since kindergarten.

But this year, because of the large numbers of migrant students in Denver, the school has had to accept new students. It means Prosch is now working with students who have just arrived in the country and speak no English.

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“We don’t have any materials for students who don’t speak English,” she said.

In February, the district provided some materials used at newcomer centers, but Prosch wishes she had gotten those resources sooner. For at least 30 minutes a day, she pulls aside the new students to work with them on some English development.

“ ere’s essentially two classes in one,” Prosch said. “I cannot deliver the same instruction.”

Most of her students are usually analyzing text. She tries to have her new students do that too, but many are just trying to learn what a sentence is and “how to put their tongue between their teeth” to learn the sounds di erent letter combinations make.

Still, Prosch said, “they’re really awesome kids and I’m really glad to have them.” It’s a sentiment echoed by other teachers.

Lawmakers are discussing a plan that would give some school districts additional funding for the students

new to the country who have enrolled after October count when school funding is set.

Mollman agrees that more resources would help.

Right now, he said, schools like his are making tough decisions, such as choosing between bringing in a second English language development teacher or another science teacher. At his school, this year, they added a new ELD teacher to relieve a class that had more than 40 students.

“It was a pretty easy decision this year, but that then impacted one of our teams more severely than others,” Mollman said.

But, even without funding, teachers say their roles have to adapt to meet the needs of students.

“ e goal is to ensure all of our students are successful regardless if they’re language learners or not,” Mollman said.

Chalkbeat is a nonpro t news site covering educational change in public schools.

don’t think that more federal subsidies towards projects like that are what’s our necessity right now.”

Donenberg, who advises Biden on economic policy, said the president’s hope is that there is a permanent program and this could buy Congress more time to gure out what that could be.

“ e president has indicated in his budget for this year that we would like to see a long-term, sustainable

funding solution here for maintaining the program, because I think what we learned during the pandemic was that access to a ordable and reliable high speed internet wasn’t just a pandemic problem, it is an American problem,” he said. “ is is a requirement really for participation in the economy and for effective participation in the society.”

Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish contributed to this story.

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.

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PUBLIC NOTICES

date of its adoption.

and County

NO. 2024-43 RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF BRIGHTON, COLORADO FINDING SUBSTAN TIAL COMPLIANCE OF AN ANNEXATION PETITION, AND SETTING PUBLIC HEARING FOR MAY 21, 2024, TO DETERMINE IF THE PROPOSED APPROXIMATE 4.918 ACRES OF PROPERTY, TO BE KNOWN AS THE OTTEN ANNEXATION, COMPLIES WITH STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCH ANNEXATION.

WHEREAS, pursuant to the laws of the State of Colorado, a Petition for Annexation to the City of Brighton (the “Petition”), was presented to the City of Brighton; and

WHEREAS, the Petition requests the annexation of approximately 4.918 acres of contiguous unincorporated territory, situated, lying, and being in the County of Adams, State of Colorado, as more particularly described in EXHIBIT A, attached and shown in EXHIBIT B, attached, hereto (the “Property”), into the City of Brighton; and

WHEREAS, Thomas Otten (the “Applicant”), submitted the Petition, attached hereto as EXHIBIT C, on behalf of the Donald M. Otten Revocable Trust, owner of 100% of the Property (the “Owner”); and

WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Brighton, Colorado, has reviewed the Petition, as presented by the Applicant, and has determined that the Petition is in substantial compliance with the applicable laws of the State of Colorado and with the City of Brighton’s requirements for a Petition; and

WHEREAS, the City Council desires to adopt, by resolution, its findings in regard to such Petition and to set a public hearing in regard to such petition.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the City Council of the City of Brighton, Colorado, as follows:

Section 1. T e it ouncil ereb finds t at the Petition, attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference as EXHIBIT C, substantially complies with the applicable requirements of C.R.S. § 31-12-107.

Section 2. The City Council of the City of Brighton, Colorado will hold a public hearing for the purpose of determining if the proposed annexation complies with Colorado Revised Statutes, Sections 31-12-104 and 31-12-105, as amended, at the following time, date, and place:

Tuesday, May 21, 2024, 6:00 p.m.

City Council Chambers 500 South 4th Avenue Brighton, Colorado 80601

Any person may appear at such hearing and present evidence relative to the proposed annexation.

Section 3. Upon completion of the hearing, the City Council of the City of Brighton, Colorado shall set fort b resolution its findin s of fact and its conclusion based thereon with reference to the eligibility of the proposed annexation, whether the statutory requirements of the proposed annexation have been met, and whether an election for the annexation is required.

Section 4. This Resolution is effective as of the

FURTHER, NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a proposed amended budget has been submitted to t e istrict for t e fiscal ear of . A co of t e ro osed a ended bud et as been filed in t e office of lifton arsonAllen E Crescent Parkway, Suite 300, Greenwood Village, CO 80111, where the same is open for public inspection. During the Board Meeting, the Board will conduct a public hearing to consider objections of the District’s electors prior to considering the adoption of such proposed amended budget. Any interested elector within the District may inspect the proposed budget amendment and file or re ister an ob ections at an ti e rior to t e final ado tion of t e bud et amendment.

notice.

Dated at , Colorado, this day of , 2024.

CLERK OF THE COURT

By: Deputy Clerk

This summons is issued pursuant to Rule 304(e), Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure. This form should not be used where personal service is desired.

WARNING: ALL FEES ARE NON-REFUND ABLE. IN SOME CASES, REQUEST FOR JURY TRIAL MAY BE DENIED PURSUANT TO LAW EVEN THOUGH JURY FEE HAS BEEN PAID.

Legal Notice No. BSB3047

First Publication: March 21, 2024

Last Publication: April 18, 2024

Publisher: Brighton Standard Blade Public Notice

INITIAL COMBINED NOTICE OF SHERIFF’S SALE OF REAL PROPERTY AND RIGHT TO CURE AND REDEEM

Plaintiff, Box Elder Creek Ranch Water Company

v.

Defendants, Juan Hinojos, Cinnia Elda Urquidi

Herrera and Martha E. Urquidi Almonte

Regarding: LOT 70, BOX ELDER CREEK RANCH, FILING NO. 3, COUNTY OF ADAMS, STATE OF COLORADO.

Also known as: 16390 Rayburn Street, Hudson, CO 80642

may have an interest in the real property being affected, or have certain rights or suffer certain liabilities or loss of your interest in the subject property as a result of said foreclosure. You may have the right to redeem the real property or you may have the right to cure a default under the instrument being foreclosed. Any Notice of Intent to ure ust be filed no later t an fifteen calendar days prior to the date of the foreclosure sale. otice of i te t to c re file rs a t to sectio 10 s all e file it t e officer at least fiftee 1 cale

Public Notices

Further, you are advised that the parties liable thereon, the owner of the property described above, or those with an interest in the subject property, may take appropriate and timely action under Colorado statutes, certain sections of which are attached hereto.

In order to be entitled to take advantage of any rights provided for under Colorado law, you must strictly comply and adhere to the provisions of the law. Further, you are advised that the attached Colorado statutes merely set forth the applicable portions of Colorado statutory law relating to curative and redemption rights; therefore, you should read and review all the applicable statutes and laws in order to determine the requisite procedures and provisions which control your rights in the subject property.

DATED in Colorado this 14th day of February 2024.

Sheriff of Adams County, Colorado

Gene R. Claps

By: Kathy Grosshans, Deputy

Sheriff

ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF: DAVID ANDERSON LAW, LLC

355 Eastman Park Drive, #200 Windsor, CO 80550

Statutes attached: §§38-37-108, 38-38-103, 3838-104, 38-38-301, 38-38-304, 38-38-305, and 38-38-306, C.R.S., as amended.

Legal Notice No. BSB3077

Plaintiff(s): CITY OF WESTMINSTER, a Municipal Corporation v. Defendant(s): BETTY L. DOYLE; FIDELITY HOMESTEAD ASSOCIATES, LLC, and ALEXANDER L. VILLAGRAN or his successors, solely in is official ca acit as

• IF THE SALE DATE IS CONTINUED TO A LATER DATE, THE DEADLINE TO FILE A NOTICE OF INTENT TO CURE BY THOSE PARTIES ENTITLED TO CURE MAY ALSO BE EXTENDED.

All telephone inquiries for information should be directed to t e office of t e undersi

and Recorder, Adams County, Colorado; and

WHEREAS, the Deed of Trust was insured by the nited tates ecretar of ousin and rban Development (the Secretary) pursuant to the National Housing Act for the purpose of providing single family housing; and

A beneficial interest in t e eed of Trust is now owned by the Secretary, pursuant to an assignment dated March 9, 2018, and recorded on March 13, 2018, as Reception Number in t e office of t e lerk and Recorder, Adams County, Colorado; and

WHEREAS, a default has been made in the covenants and conditions of the Deed of Trust in that the payment due on April 17, 2021, was not made and remains wholly unpaid as of the date of this notice, and no payment has been made sufficient to restore t e loan to currenc and

WHEREAS, the entire amount delinquent as of March 19, 2024, is $176 765.04; and

WHEREAS, by virtue of this default, the Secretary has declared the entire amount of the indebtedness secured by the Deed of Trust to be immediately due and payable;

NOW THEREFORE, pursuant to powers vested in me by the Single Family Mortgage Foreclosure Act of . . . et seq. b CFR part 27, subpart B, and by the Secretary’s designation of me as Foreclosure Commissioner, recorded on August 29, 2023, as Reception Number 2023000049254, notice is hereby given that on MAY 8, 2024, at 11:00 A.M. local time, all real and personal property at or used in connection with the following described premises (“Property”) will be sold at public auction to the highest bidder:

LOTS 7 AND 8, BLOCK 2, HOME ADDITION TO TO O T O A A TAT OF COLORADO*

*CORRECTED BY CORRECTIVE AFFIDAVIT O O A T ATTION NO. 2007000077114

Commonly known as:

The sale will be held at 68 North 7th Avenue, Brighton, CO 80601

T e ecretar of ousin and rban eveloment will bid $176 765.04.

proceeding may result in the loss of property in which you have an interest and may create a personal debt against you. You may wish to seek the advice of your own private attorney concerning your rights in relation to this foreclosure proceeding.

There will be no proration of taxes, rents or other income or liabilities, except that the purchaser will pay, at or before closing, his prorata share of any real estate taxes that have been paid by the Secretary to the date of the foreclosure sale.

When making their bids, all bidders except the Secretary must submit a deposit totaling $17 676.50 [10% of the Secretary’s bid] in the form of a certified c eck or cas ier s c eck ade out to t e ecretar of . A de osit need not accompany each oral bid. If the successful bid is oral, a deposit of $17 676.50 must be presented before the bidding is closed. The deposit is nonrefundable. The remainder of the purchase price must be delivered within 30 days of the sale or at such other time as the Secretary may determine for good cause shown, time being of the essence. This amount, like the bid deposits, ust be delivered in t e for of a certified or cashier’s check. If the Secretary is the highest bidder, he need not pay the bid amount in cash. The successful bidder will pay all conveying fees, all real estate and other taxes that are due on or after the delivery date of the remainder of the payment and all other costs associated with the transfer of title. At the conclusion of the sale, the deposits of the unsuccessful bidders will be returned to them.

The Secretary may grant an extension of time within which to deliver the remainder of the payment. All extensions will be for 15-day increments for a fee of $500.00, paid in advance. The extension fee shall be in the form of a certified or cas ier s c eck ade a able to t e ecretar of . f t e i bidder closes the sale prior to the expiration of any extension period, the unused portion of the extension fee shall be applied toward the amount due.

If the high bidder is unable to close the sale within the required period, or within any extensions of time granted by the Secretary, the high bidder may be required to forfeit the cash deposit or, at the election of the foreclosure co issioner after consultation wit t e re resentative will be liable to for an costs incurred as a result of such failure. The

o issioner a at t e direction of t e representative, offer the property to the second highest bidder for an amount equal to the highest price offered by that bidder.

There is no right of redemption, or right of possession based upon a right of redemption, in the mortgagor or others subsequent to a foreclosure completed pursuant to the Act. Therefore, the Foreclosure Commissioner will issue a Deed to the purchaser(s) upon receipt of the entire purchase price in accordance with the terms of the sale as rovided erein. does not uarantee that the property will be vacant.

The scheduled foreclosure sale shall be cancelled or adjourned if it is established, by documented written application of the mortgagor to the Foreclosure Commissioner not less than 3 days before the date of sale, or otherwise, that the default or defaults upon which the foreclosure is based did not exist at the time of service of this notice of default and foreclosure sale, or all amounts due under the mortgage agreement are tendered to the Foreclosure Comissioner in t e for of a certified or cas ier s c eck a able to t e ecretar of before public auction of the property is completed.

Tender of a ent b certified or cas ier s c eck or application for cancellation of the foreclosure sale shall be submitted to the address of the Foreclosure Commissioner provided below.

Date: 3/21/2024

Foreclosure Commissioner IDEA Law Group, LLC

Jennifer C. Rogers 4530 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. 10 Las Vegas, NV 89119 877-353-2146 Legal Notice No.

Public Notices

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Adams County, Colorado on or before August 11, 2024, or the claims may be forever barred. Clayton Vincent Popick Personal Representative

w ic ti e the Petitioner must prove by clear and convincin evidence t at: T at t e c ild ren was adjudicated dependent or neglected; 2) That an appropriate treatment plan has not reasonably been co lied wit b t e arent or as not been successful T at t e arents are unfit T at the conduct or condition of the parent or parents is unlikel to c an e wit in a reasonable ti e no less drastic alternative to ter ination exists and 6) That it is in the best interests of the child(ren)

t at t e arent c ild le al relations i w ic exists between t e c ild ren and t e res ondent s be terminated and severed.

OR 1) That the child(ren) has been abandoned by parent or parents in that the parent or parents have surrendered physical custody for a period of six ont s and durin t is eriod ave not manifested to the child(ren), the court or to the erson avin sical custod a fir intention to assume or obtain physical custody or to make permanent legal arrangements for the care of the child(ren); and 2) That it is in the best interests of the child(ren) that the parentc ild le al relations w ic exists between t e child(ren) and the respondent(s) be terminated and severed.

OR 1) That the child(ren) has been abandoned by parent or parents in that the identity of the arent of t e c ild is unknown and as been unknown for t ree ont s or ore and t at reasonable efforts to identify and locate the arent in accordance wit section ave failed; and 2) That it is in the best interests of the child(ren) that the parent-child legal relationship w ic exists between t e c ild ren and t e respondent(s) be terminated and severed.

If a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother, or sister of the child is requesting guardianship or legal custod of t e c ild suc request ust be filed wit in twent da s of t e filin of t is otion.

YOU ARE FURTHER ADVISED that you have the right to have legal counsel represent you in all atters connected wit t e otion to Ter inate the Parent-Child Legal Relationship. If you cannot afford to pay the fees of legal counsel, ou are advised t at t e ourt will a oint le al counsel to represent you at no cost to you upon our request and u on our s owin of an inability to pay.

If you have any questions concerning the foregoing advisement, you should immediately contact either your legal counsel or the Court.

Done and signed on: April 4, 2024

BY THE COURT: District Court Judge/Magistrate

YOU ARE HEREBY ADVISED that the Petitioner, as filed a otion to Ter inate t e

ild e al elations i w ic now exists between ou and t e above na ed child(ren);

YOU ARE FURTHER ADVISED that the Motion has been set for hearing in Division D of the District Court in and for the County of Adams, Adams County Justice Center, 1100 Judicial Center Drive, Brighton, Colorado, on the 30th day of April, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., at w ic ti e the Petitioner must prove by clear and convincin evidence t at: T at t e c ild ren was adjudicated dependent or neglected; 2) That an appropriate treatment plan has not reasonably been co lied wit b t e arent or as not been successful T at t e arents are unfit T at the conduct or condition of the parent or parents is unlikel to c an e wit in a reasonable ti e no less drastic alternative to ter ination exists and 6) That it is in the best interests of the child(ren) t at t e arent c ild le al relations w ic exists between t e c ild ren and t e res ondent s be terminated and severed.

OR 1) That the child(ren) has been abandoned by parent or parents in that the parent or parents have surrendered physical custody for a period of six ont s and durin t is eriod ave not manifested to the child(ren), the court or to the erson avin sical custod a fir intention to assume or obtain physical custody or to make permanent legal arrangements for the care of the child(ren); and 2) That it is in the best interests of the child(ren) that the parent-child le al relations i w ic exists between t e child(ren) and the respondent(s) be terminated and severed.

OR 1) That the child(ren) has been abandoned by parent or parents in that the identity of the arent of t e c ild is unknown and as been unknown for t ree ont s or ore and t at reasonable efforts to identify and locate the arent in accordance wit section ave failed; and 2) That it is in the best interests of the child(ren) that the parent-child legal relationship w ic exists between t e c ild ren and t e respondent(s) be terminated and severed.

If a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother, or sister of the child is requesting guardianship or legal custod of t e c ild suc request ust be filed wit in twent da s of t e filin of t is otion.

YOU ARE FURTHER ADVISED that you have the right to have legal counsel represent you in all atters connected wit t e otion to Ter inate the Parent-Child Legal Relationship. If you cannot afford to pay the fees of legal counsel, ou are advised t at t e ourt will a oint le al counsel to represent you at no cost to you upon our request and u on our s owin of an inability to pay.

If you have any questions concerning the foregoing advisement, you should immediately contact either your legal counsel or the Court.

Done and signed on: April 10, 2024

Parents may qualify for grocery money

Summer EBT program to o er up $120 per child

BY ANN SCHIMKE CHALKBEAT COLORADO

Starting in June, hundreds of thousands of low-income Colorado families will get $120 per child to pay for groceries during summer break. e program, called Summer EBT, aims to help parents of children who attend preschool through 12th grade in public schools pay for food when free school meals are unavailable or harder to access. State o cials expect families of more than 300,000 children to bene t.

A Colorado law passed during a special legislative session in November enabled the state to join the new program, which is mostly funded by the federal government with a small contribution from the state. Nearly three dozen states are o ering the program this year.

In recent years, Colorado has tak-

en several steps to reduce the number of children who go hungry in the state. Starting this school year, the vast majority of Colorado students

can get free school meals regardless of family income because of a universal meal program approved by voters in 2022. A program similar

to Summer EBT was in place during the pandemic, but it expired last summer.

Colorado families are eligible for Summer EBT cards if they receive public bene ts such as SNAP, Medicaid, or Colorado Works, or if their children qualify for free or reducedprice school meals.

Most families will automatically receive a letter in May for each child eligible for Summer EBT, with preloaded cards arriving in the mail shortly after. To access the money on the card, families must set up a personal identi cation number. ey can do this by calling 888-328-2656, entering the card number, and following the prompts.

Families who believe their child is eligible for Summer EBT, but who didn’t receive an eligibility letter can contact the Summer EBT Support Center at 800-536-5298 (text 720741-0550) or email cdhs_sebt_supportcenter@state.co.us.

Chalkbeat is a nonpro t news site covering educational change in public schools.

www. fortluptonco.gov.

The Summer EBT program will provide thousands of low-income Colorado families with grocery cards preloaded with $120 per school-age child.

PHOTO COURTESY OF EYECRAVE PRODUCTIONS/GETTY IMAGES

Denver to Istanbul flights on Turkish Airlines begin June 11

More international routes are in the hopper

BY JESSE PAUL THE COLORADO SUN

Turkish Airlines has announced that it will begin ying from Denver to Istanbul on June 11.

At 6,130 miles, or between roughly 12 and 13 hours in the air, the ight will be the longest scheduled passenger route to and from the Mile High City, eclipsing the 5,788-mile ight between Denver and Tokyo’s Narita International Airport operated by United Airlines.

Turkish Airlines is a Star Alliance partner airline, like United. at means passengers will be able to transfer to United Airlines ights

once they arrive in Denver.

In Istanbul, passengers from Denver will be able to connect to destinations through Europe, Africa and Asia.

e ight will be operated three times weekly — Tuesdays, ursdays and Fridays — on an Airbus A350900 aircraft. A fourth frequency, on Sunday, will begin on July 9.

e announcement comes as international ight options from Denver International Airport have proliferated in recent years. Flights to Paris, Dublin and Zurich have all been added recently, and United Airlines and Lufthansa have added frequencies to London, Munich and Frankfurt.

Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington said that the airport is trying to land ights to Amsterdam, Ethiopia’s Bole Addis Aba-

ba International Airport and other parts of Japan.

“We are being very, very ambitious in terms of trying to increase our global connections around the world,” he said.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said the new route will lead to 350 new jobs in Denver and have a $20 million economic impact.

A view of Istanbul’s skyline, Friday, May 6, 2016. AP PHOTO LEFTERIS PITARAKIS