Arvada Press February 15, 2024 by Colorado Community Media

VOLUME 19 | ISSUE 33

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 15, 2024

FREE

A CHOCOLATE AFFAIR SWEETENS OLDE TOWN P2

Over 15 businesses—such as Rheinlander Bakery—participated, allowing attendees to come in and sample a sweet treat PHOTO BY LILLIAN FUGLEI as they walked around Olde Town.

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February 15, 2024Fe

A Chocolate Affair sweetens Olde Town Arvadans braved the snow in search of chocolate BY LILLIAN FUGLEI SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

Slush and sweet treats filled the streets of Olde Town for this year’s A Chocolate Affair event. Nearly 150 Arvadans braved the cold on Feb. 3 in search of chocolate as they attended the annual fundraiser for Ralston House — an organization that helps victims of child abuse. All proceeds from tickets to the event supported Ralston House’s general fund. With over 15 participating businesses, Arvadans were able to walk around Olde Town, picking up samples along the way. At each stop, participants swapped purchased tickets for chocolatey treats such as peppermint bark, hot chocolate, chocolate chip pancakes and more. A Chocolate Affair has

been hosted in the historic district for over 20 years, with the last 10 years being organized by Ralston House. Though the event was rain or shine — so snow had no impact on whether it was held or not — the weather did impact attendance. This year’s Chocolate Affair saw around a third of last year’s attendance, according to Jennifer Kemps, Ralston House’s special events associate. “It’s so funny,” Kemps said. “For the last few years, this time of February has always been really nice. People are usually thrilled to get outside.” Still, the event sold 2,700 tickets — a little under half of what the event was able to sell last year. Kemps said most of those tickets sold during the pre-sale. Lamp Post Hearts were also on display throughout Olde Town. Purchased by Arvadans, each heart features a short message to loved ones. Hearts were assembled and hung by Ralston House volunteers, bringing the Valentine’s Day spirit to Arvada.

School House served a chocolate bark with walnuts and whiskey carmel during A Chocolate affair.

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For attendees who hadn’t had enough cold, Scrumptious served a “Black N White” PHOTOS BY LILLIAN FUGLEI ice cream.

Arvada Press 3

February 15, 2024 ADVERTISEMENT

Here’s an Innovative Approach to the Off-Site (aka Modular) Construction Industry

Every day I receive email newsletters about real estate, and one of my favorite is “Construct Utopia,” published by Pro Builder magazine. This week is not the first time I have written a column based on or inspired by an article in that newsletter. A common subject these days is modular or off-site construction. The latest Construct Utopia newsletter has an article about Cuby Technologies, a startup which devised a solution for customizable mass-produced prefab homes — mobile micro factories. Instead of constructing big factories that ship new home modules, Cuby produces micro factories that are set up near the construction site, such as in a field or on a rented parking lot. Modular construction is typically off site, but bringing the factory to or near the worksite is an interesting twist — perhaps call it “on-site (or close-by) offsite construction.” But the factory could also serve other build sites, functioning as a traditional off-site modular factory but one that is much closer. The micro-factory is shipped in about 10 containers, and it is set up inside an

inflatable tent that covers 30,000 to 40,000 square feet of interior space for creating the modules to be assembled on a nearby construction site. The idea is to eliminate one of the major costs of modular construction, which is shipping the modules great distances to the work site. I’ve been a fan of the idea of modular construction ever since I purchased what I thought was a stick-built home in the Mesa Meadows subdivision in north Golden. I bought the home in 1997. After moving in, a neighbor told me he had watched my home go up in one day, delivered from Ft. Morgan on flatbed trailers for installation on a prepared foundation. The interior work was then completed by Pat Foss, a local builder. The advantages of building the home in a factory, I was told at the time, was better quality control, including better insulation. The exterior walls were all built with 2x6 instead of 2x4 studs, to better survive flatbed transportation from Ft. Morgan. Above is an artist’s rendering of one

Colorado Environmental Film Festival Is Next Week! Every February, Golden Real Estate is delighted to co-sponsor the Colorado Environmental Film Festival (CEFF). It’s the only film festival of its kind, and you can attend in person Feb. 22-25, or you can buy a virtual ticket (which I’ll do this year, since I’m on a cruise) that allows you to stream most of the films for 7 days, starting Monday, Feb. 26th. This year's festival features 66 inspiring world-class environmental films, including screenings of feature-length and short films from foreign, Colorado and young filmmakers. Fifteen of the films are world premieres. Another 25 have never been seen in Colorado. From films like “Rhino Man” which tells the heroic story of South African rangers who risk their lives to protect rhinos from poachers, to informational shorts like “Fight Food Waste,” you’re bound to find several that will inform and inspire you. I’m looking forward to such films as “Silent Skies—The First Electric Plane Flyover,” “Single Use Planet,” a film about plastic bags and other single-use products, and “Atomic Bamboozle: The False Promise of a Nuclear Renaissance.” Previously, the festival has been hosted by the American Mountaineering Center at 10th Street and Washington Avenue in downtown Golden. This year it moves to the Green Center, a bigger venue on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines, a few blocks to the southwest. The Green

of Cuby’s micro factories. It reminds me of how Elon Musk built a tent for assembling the Model 3 next to the Fremont factory rather than wait for a brick-and-mortar building to be permitted and built. Neighbors of construction sites would probably appreciate having the construction of a new building or subdivision taking place largely indoors, even if it is just a tent, reducing the noise and dust of on-site construction. Construction in a tent has other advantages including protection from the elements, whether it be rain or snow or simply cold weather. Productivity would be greatly enhanced. Workers will appreciate working a predictable number of days and hours as well as being warm during the winter months. Making working conditions better could also address one of the biggest problems facing the home construction industry: attracting and hiring enough workers.

By completing the major structural panels indoors, the subsequent on-site finishing work can be made more attractive thanks to being able to “weather in” the building quickly. This too improves working conditions and recruitment. “Inside the dome,” according to the company, “machines and conveyor belts produce and prep all the elements of the home — windows, wall panels, plumbing pipes, drywall, HVAC systems, and so on — then package them into kits.” The enclosed environment also contributes to less waste and better waste management and recycling. Although Cuby promotes its micro factories for home building, it’s not a home builder. It sells the micro factories for $10 –15 million. Their customers are typically developers, builders, general contractors and private equity groups, whose customers might be midsize home builders. Cuby claims that it can lower the cost of new construction from $150 per square foot to $100 per square foot. Cuby is a startup that began in Belarus. Cofounder Aleksandr Gampel says the first micro factory is being delivered to Detroit shortly. Within the next decade he expects to produce 275 micro factories that will build 200,000 homes and create 300,000 jobs, removing approximately 750,000 tons of waste from the construction process.

This & That: Smaller Topics Not Worth Full Articles Renewable Energy Is Being Banned in More and More U.S. Counties Center offers more auditoriums, including the biggest one in Jeffco, allowing CEFF to showcase more of the world’s best environmental films. For a list of all 66 films go to https:// ceff2024.eventive.org/films?mode=list. The films are divided into nine “collections” of 4 to 5 films each. Collections cost $12 each to view, or you can buy an All-Access Pass for $90, which includes the Online Encore Pass, which costs $60 by itself. (That’s for the 7-day online access I mentioned above.) Tickets are not sold for individual films. There’s an “Eco Expo” with table displays throughout the festival, featuring environmental non-profits, government agencies, and vendors involved in all aspects of environmental sustainability. We may have a booth there ourselves, as we have in prior years. Consistent with CEFF’s mission to “inspire, educate and motivate,” it provides teachers of 4th to 12th grades with free inclassroom virtual access to festival films from March 1st through May 31st.

I have a link to the full USA Today article at http://RealEstateToday.Substack.com.

This is according to a Feb. 4 article on USA Today’s website. Here’s an excerpt: “In the past decade, about 180 counties got their first commercial wind-power projects. But in the same period, more than twice as many blocked wind development. And while solar power has found more broad acceptance, 2023 was the first year to see almost as many individual counties block new solar projects as the ones adding their first projects. “The result: Some of the areas with the nation's best sources of wind and solar power have now been boxed out.”

Beware of Scammers Pretending to Be Alerting You to a Scam

Fox 31 reported last week about a Golden couple that was scammed out of more than $137,000. It began with a phone call purporting to be from the Chase fraud department. Question every phone call, text message or email you receive. If that Golden resident had said, “Thank you,” then hung up and called Chase’s customer service number to see if there was a fraud alert on his account, he could have avoided being the victim of that scam. I have posted a link to that story on my Substack blog (link above).

Jim Smith

Broker/Owner, 303-525-1851 Jim@GoldenRealEstate.com 1214 Washington Ave., Golden 80401 Broker Associates: JIM SWANSON, 303-929-2727 CHUCK BROWN, 303-885-7855 DAVID DLUGASCH, 303-908-4835 GREG KRAFT, 720-353-1922 AUSTIN POTTORFF, 970-281-9071 KATHY JONKE, 303-990-7428

“Concentrate on giving and the getting will take care of itself.” —Anonymous

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My Name Is… Pastor Jarrod Irwin Following Pastor Stephen Byer’s retirement, a fresh face arrives to lead The Rising/Mission Arvada BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

After a months-long search that began last March, The Rising Church and its homeless ministry, Mission Arvada, have brought in Jarrod Irwin to lead the congregation as its new pastor. Irwin’s appointment follows the retirement of the Rising’s longtime pastor, Stephen Byer. Mission Arvada Director Karen Cowling said the process began with 72 applicants, from which staff nar-

rowed down to eight finalists. Multiple interviews with the pastoral search committee followed — along with a church picnic in freezing temperatures — before Irwin was chosen for the job. His first day preaching as The Rising’s new pastor was Feb. 4. Irwin shared details about his path to The Rising with the Arvada Press. His story and goals for the ministry are in his own words below. I’ve been in pastoral ministry for 10 years in downtown Denver, working for a church called Open Door Fellowship, which has a ministry nonprofit called Open Door Ministries. It’s a pretty big ministry, similar to what Mission Arvada does, but it includes some other things like transitional housing, employment readiness, kids’ ministry, preschool and after-school programs for kids

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IRWIN FROM PAGE 4

To sum up the 20 years in between, I went to college, studied philosophy and psychology, and then went to seminary and got my masters in Christian studies with a focus on biblical studies. I have a wife and four kids. With Open Door Ministries, I was in a variety of different roles. Some of it was organization, some of it was teaching, some of it was working with people one-on-one. Coming to The Rising started with a dream. I believe God speaks through dreams. And this dream wasn’t particularly notable — it didn’t say “Go to Arvada and apply for this job” or anything. But when I was praying about the dream, I just felt like God might be asking me to look for a second ministry

position. I’m actually doing another ministry still in Denver. I applied for a few different positions, but this was the only one that seemed to be the right fit. I remember sitting with the search committee in a group interview and just feeling this strong sense of love for them, even though they were all strangers. One of my values is team cooperation; for everyone to have a place and an opportunity to be involved and participate. I want to look for ways for more people to get involved and help people find where they fit in, and then how to be successful in those places. In terms of helping people get back on their feet again, it all comes down to relationship with God. I believe that I don’t really have anything of myself to help anyone; my method is to focus on asking God for help and then listening to his response.

I think sometimes prayer can just be, “Ask god for things and see what happens.” But I see it more ideally as, “Ask God and then listen to what he says, and then follow his instructions.” Whether that’s comforting someone who is going through a hard time, I’ll ask God for their comfort and I’ll also be listening for how he wants to supply that comfort and try to follow that. For people who are experiencing homelessness, we are going to try to help them find access to housing. That might include connecting them to where that help is or looking at how we may be able to initiate some of those things in terms of transitional housing. One of the things that I learned from previous experience is that housing is an extremely necessary part of the process — or at least important. I didn’t have that, and I wish I did.

Some of those transitional housing programs that I’ve worked with have two-year programs and a lot of them are highly structured. I think, statistically, there’s a much higher success rate with some of those kinds of programs. With addiction recovery, the 30 to 90-day type of treatment doesn’t help as much as something like a two-year program. In terms of leading the congregation, I view one’s relationship with God as much more interactive. I value the idea of a Christian community that’s a little bit more of a 24/7 experience rather than just an hour and a half on Sunday morning kind of experience. I want to provide spiritual community, especially through education. It’s not a once-a-week learning experience, but more of a full life learning experience through community and groups and building relationships with individuals.

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February 15, 2024Fe

Arvada Crime Briefs: Father of two dead after crash, suspect in custody on suspicion of DUI Other news: Bus driver punched by student; robbery committed by thief from Louisiana BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A father of two is dead after a fatal crash in Arvada involving multiple

vehicles and producing several injuries. The crash occurred around 3:40 p.m. on Feb. 5 when a silver GMC pickup truck — allegedly driven by suspect Juan Ortega Torres Jr., 23 — was traveling eastbound on 64th Avenue and failed to stop at the red light at the Lamar Street intersection. The truck collided with a maroon Toyota sedan driving north on Lamar Street, sending the sedan into the front yard and home on the

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northwest corner of the intersection. Kresten Wolff Thomsen — the driver of the sedan — was pronounced dead at the scene following the crash. His two children, also in the car, were transported to a local hospital. One of the children has “severe injuries,” according to Arvada Police. Thomsen was 44. The truck allegedly driven by Torres continued eastward and collided with a Ford Bronco traveling the opposite direction as well. The driver of the Bronco was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Torres was also transported to the hospital and is in custody pending the official filing of charges. Arvada Police said they believe alcohol and speed are factors in the crash.

1:45 p.m. Jan. 29 on Arvada High School grounds. After two students were asked to exit the bus, one of the students began a verbal altercation with the bus driver which turned physical. The student, a minor, was cited for assault and criminal mischief. Armed robbery suspect skipped parole in Louisiana

During the snowstorm on Feb. 3, a man demanded cash from a business on the 9600 block of 58th Avenue by holding the employees at gunpoint. APD officers interviewed witnesses and were able to find the suspect’s footprints in the snow, at which point a K9 began tracking the suspect through inclement weather. The tracks led police to the apartment of Wilson Batiste, 41. Batiste was taken into custody without incident and jailed for aggravated robbery and possession of weapons by a previous offender — he is out on parole for a robbery committed in Louisiana that he is suspected of committing and therefore is likely not supposed to have left that state.

Arvada High School student cited for assault

A student at Arvada High School repeatedly punched a bus driver in the face, causing minor injuries and breaking the bus driver’s glasses, after the bus driver asked the student to exit the bus for disrespectful behavior. The incident occurred around

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Arvada Press 7

February 15, 2024

Echter’s wins 2023 Business of the Year at 99th Annual Chamber of Commerce Dinner Nonprofit of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year also named

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Staff of Echter’s Nursery and Garden Center accept the 2023 Business of the Year Award.

opened last year and is now fully occupied. Nick and Amie Costanzo, owners of Marco’s Pizza in Five Parks and founders of Freedom Street Social, a food hall in Candelas that opened in 2022, were awarded the entrepreneurship award for their work in Arvada’s west side of town. Other award winners at the dinner include Chris Adams, who won the Chamber Champion Award, and Colorado Succeeds, who took home the Behind the Scenes Award. The dinner was held at Social Capitol on Feb. 2 and precedes the Chamber’s Annual Awards gala, which is set for May 9 and will see this year’s Marco’s Pizza owners Nick and Amie Man and Woman of the Year, Young Costanzo were named Entrepreneurs of the Professional of the Year, Rising Star of Year for opening Freedom Street Social. the Year and Image Award unfurled. COURTESY ARVADA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO BY SCOTT LEBARON

TELL US ABOUT YOUR MEDICAL DEBT Have you been forced into debt because of a medical or dental bill? Have you had to make any changes in your life because of such debt? Have you been pursued by debt collectors for a medical bill? Or have you found a way to resolve or ease the burden of medical debt? We

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BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Local horticultural favorite Echter’s Nursery and Garden Center was named the 2023 Business of the Year at the Arvada Chamber of Commerce’s 99th Annual Dinner, which also saw awards for Nonprofit of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year handed out. Echter’s was founded in 1958 and has been an Arvada mainstay ever since. The nursery was recognized specifically for its work to support underprivileged members of the community, which it does through events like Gal’s Night Out, which benefits nonprofits Hope House and Ralston House and the Christmas tree giveaway — which saw 125 trees given away this year. Echter’s Manager Julie Echter, a granddaughter of the nursery’s founders, said in a prerecorded video that it meant a lot to be recognized for the business’s service to the community. “We try to be really involved in the community; we do a lot of charity events to give back,” Echter said. “We also provide a lot of free opportunities for people in the community, like free classes and free events…It’s really meaningful to get recognized for a lot of those efforts that we put forward to a lot of people that really need a little bit of extra help.” In the aforementioned nonprofit category, Foothills Regional Housing and CASA of Jefferson/Gilpin Counties were awarded for their work to bring AVi Olde Town — an affordable housing complex with 100 units — to fruition. The housing complex

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want to hear about it. KFF Health News and Colorado newsrooms, including Colorado Community Media’s local papers, are examining medical debt in Colorado – what causes it and how it’s upending people’s lives. Your stories will help us bring this problem

to light. Diagnosis: Debt Colorado is part of KFF Health News’ award-winning investigation into medical debt in the United States. We won’t publish any information without checking with you. To participate, visit: https:// kffhealthnews.org/diagnosis-debt/

LINDSAY NICOLETTI Operations/ Circulation Manager lnicoletti@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Columnists & Guest Commentaries Columnist opinions are not necessarily those of the Press. We welcome letters to the editor. Please include your full name, address and the best number to reach you by telephone. Email letters to lkfiore@coloradocommunitymedia.com Deadline Tues. for the following week’s paper.

Arvada press A legal newspaper of general circulation in Jefferson County, Colorado, the Arvada Press is published weekly on Thursday by Colorado Community Media, 27972 Meadow Dr. Suite 320, Evergreen CO, 80439. POSTMASTER: Send address change to: Arvada Press, 750 W. Hampden Ave., Suite 225, Englewood, CO 80110

8 Arvada Press

February 15, 2024Fe

Colorado deadlier for pedestrians and cyclists

A pair of cyclists use the recreational pathway along the frozen surface of Dillon Reservoir in May 2023. BY OLIVIA PRENTZEL THE COLORADO SUN

The number of pedestrians killed on Colorado streets reached an all-

time high last year, painting a grim picture of traffic safety, a year after the state recorded the largest number of road deaths in more than four decades.

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While traffic deaths saw a slight dip last year, the picture isn’t getting any brighter for those traveling by foot or bike. Data from the Colorado Department of Transportation shows the number of cyclist deaths jumped by 33% last year to 20, up from 15 in 2022, and the number of pedestrians killed on Colorado’s streets reached a new high. Colorado saw a significant uptick in pedestrian deaths in 2020 when 93 people were killed while walking along or across the state’s streets compared with 76 in 2019, and the number has continued to rise. Last year, at least 131 pedestrians were

killed — an overwhelming majority of them at night. “A lot of people die just moving from point A to point B,” said Pete Piccolo, executive director of the advocacy group Bicycle Colorado. “And it seems as though unless you’re impacted by traffic violence, it’s almost normalized.” “The fact that 12,982 people died in Colorado (since 2002) going to school, going to work, going to the grocery store, it is really an unbelievable thing that we cannot figure out how to move around our communities without killing each other,” Piccolo said. SEE CRASHES, P10

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February 15, 2024Fe

CRASHES FROM PAGE 8

Preliminary data shows that last year, 712 people were killed on Colorado’s roads, including 20 cyclists, 134 motorcyclists and scooter riders and more than 300 drivers. In 2022, 764 people were killed in traffic crashes. The causes aren’t easy to identify and there are several theories to explain how driver and pedestrian behaviors, road design and vehicle size all fit together. While rising pedestrian deaths match a nationwide trend, it isn’t one that has occurred in other countries of comparable wealth, where pedestrian and cyclist deaths have generally been declining, not rising. The number of pedestrians killed by drivers in the U.S. has been climbing for more than a decade and in 2022, they reached a 40-year high when more than 7,500 pedestrians were killed. The Colorado Sun parsed last year’s data on traffic deaths and spoke to experts about the numbers. Here’s what we found: More than 2 in 3 pedestrians were

killed last year between sunset and sunrise. In Colorado last year, 67% of pedestrians died while walking across or along the road in the dark, data from CDOT shows. The data shows that of the people who died at night, 65 were in areas with streetlights and 16 were in areas that had no lights at all. “A lot of times you’ll have street lights, but not necessarily a really visible crosswalk,” said Annelies Van Vonno, CDOT’s bicycle and pedestrian planning coordinator. Since crash data from 2023 is still being evaluated, final data could vary. Officials expect the year’s total number of traffic crashes to represent a 5% decrease from 2022, a spokesman said. The pedestrians who were killed included three people age 10 and younger and eight people between the ages of 11 and 20. More than three-quarters of the pedestrians killed were male and all but one of the cyclists killed on Colorado’s roads were male, preliminary data shows. “(Men) are overwhelmingly represented as both victims and offenders in traffic crashes,” said Sam Cole, CDOT’s safety communica-

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tions manager. “They tend to be young. And what do we know about young men? They tend to be risktakers.” Research also shows that more men tend to bike compared to women and men could have the tendency to walk more often at night compared to women, Van Vonno said. Cycling deaths are on the rise After three consecutive years without an increase in cyclist deaths, the number of people killed while riding a bike in Colorado jumped to 20 last year. Among the bicyclists killed in 2023 were 13-year-old Liam Stewart, who was struck by a car while riding his bike to his middle school in Littleton, and 17-year-old Magnus White, who was training for the upcoming world championships in Scotland when he was struck near Boulder by a driver who fell asleep and drifted from her lane. Colorado’s growing population could be contributing to the rise in traffic deaths with more people on foot, bike, electric scooters and vehicles sharing the road, said Piccolo, with Bicycle Colorado. Five times the number of cyclists died in 2023 compared with 2003, when three cyclists were killed. The state’s population has also soared in the past two decades with census data swelling to 5.8 million in 2023 from 4.5 million in 2003. “We’ve got a lot more cars, a lot more people on bikes, a lot more people on foot and one-wheeled scooters, within this essentially the same built environment,” Piccolo said. Generally, data shows that more deaths happen in urban areas, with more cars and bikes on the roads and more people walking or biking to public transportation, and a higher number of commuters are killed compared to recreational riders, Piccolo said. But in the end, the deaths don’t discriminate. “It is everyone,” Piccolo said of the demographics. “At the end of the day, it is young and old. It is rural and urban, it is a commuter and recreational rider. It has impacted everyone now.” Lawmakers this year are considering two bills intended to make Colorado’s roads safer for cyclists. It’s currently illegal in Colorado to text and drive. But Senate Bill 65, also known as the “hands-free bill,”

would ban all cellphone use while driving, unless drivers are using a hands-free device. Current law only prohibits drivers under the age of 18 from using a cellphone while driving. Senate Bill 36 would provide transportation funding for bike lanes, pedestrian walkways and crosswalk lighting, among other safety improvements, by imposing a small fee for each driver during registration in Colorado’s 12 most populous counties —calculated based on a vehicle’s weight. Senate Bill 65 has been introduced in prior years and failed to pass, Piccolo said. “This is one public health crisis where we know what the solutions are,” he said. “So the challenge isn’t figuring out what to do, the challenge is finding the will to implement them.” The highest number of pedestrian deaths happened in urban, more populated areas Denver saw the highest number of pedestrian fatalities with 24, followed by 15 in Adams County, and 14 in El Paso County, data shows. Urban arterial roads are overwhelmingly the most dangerous for pedestrians because of the high speed of cars and the extended exposure for pedestrians before reaching the other side, Van Vonno said. “When you have to cross six or eight lanes of traffic, it just takes a longer time,” she said. Arterial roads are designed similarly to highways, but with more cross streets, and often have a limited number of crosswalks. “If it’s gonna take you a quartermile, half a mile to walk to the nearest crosswalk, you might just take your chances in traffic and try to dash across the road,” Van Vonno said. While it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what causes each crash, distracted driving is a growing concern, Colorado State Patrol Master Trooper Gary Cutler said. A recent report from The Schiller Kessler Group, a Florida-based law group, which used data from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, shows that Colorado has the highest number of pedestrian deaths occurring at intersections in the country. SEE CRASHES, P11

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February 15, 2024

CRASHES FROM PAGE 8

Of the 433 pedestrian deaths recorded in Colorado between 2017 and 2021, 138 were at intersections, accounting for nearly 32% of pedestrian deaths, data shows. Nationwide, pedestrian deaths occur at intersections 17% of the time, according to NHTSA data. Last year, Colorado State Patrol recorded 36 pedestrians or bikers who were struck, but not necessarily killed. Twenty-five of those crashes were a result of a driver failing to yield to a pedestrian at a crosswalk and three collisions happened at a crosswalk where there were flashing lights, Cutler said. Three bikers were hit when a driver failed to yield to a cyclist in a bike lane. “I believe we’re just getting as a society that we’re trying to push the limits of what we should be doing on the roadways and trying to get there faster and quicker and it’s not safe to do that,” Cutler said. Smartphones and the distractions they offer both drivers and pedestrians could be playing a huge factor in traffic fatalities, especially in the U.S. where the ubiquity of automatic transmissions frees up a driver’s hands for other uses. A CDOT survey in 2022 found that more than half of drivers in Colorado use their phone while driving. The New York Times reported that Americans spend nearly three times as much time interacting with their phones while driving compared to drivers in Britain, according to data collected by Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a company that tracks dangerous driving. The data showed that distracted driving in the U.S. — detected when phones are tapped or in motion in vehicles traveling faster than 9 mph — typically peaks in the evening hours, the Times reported. Experts say bigger cars on the road could also play a factor, though car sales haven’t dramatically changed in the last few years. “As cars have gotten bigger, longer, taller, heavier, they’re hitting pedestrians and bicyclists with more force,” Van Vonno said. “The heavier a car is, the longer it

takes to stop that car. Brakes are slower when you have a heavier vehicle and you have a lot of vehicles nowadays that have a very tall hood and instead of hitting a person at the leg or knee level, it’s hitting people in the chest.” In 2023, the most registered car in Colorado was a Ford F-150, followed by the Chevrolet Silverado, two massive trucks with high front ends, according to data from the Division of Motor Vehicles. The best-selling car nationwide in 1990 was a Honda Accord, a much smaller sedan. “At the end of the day, when a car and a bike come into conflict, it’s the pedestrian who’s going to lose,” she said. “A person in a car might be safe, but you might kill somebody and I don’t think anyone wants to be responsible for that.” 226 people were killed in an impairment-related crash Impairment-related crashes were down last year compared with 2022, but still 226 people lost their lives. “There’s not a soul in the U.S. that doesn’t know if you get behind the wheel (while impaired) that you could end up killing somebody. So getting behind the wheel, knowing that information, is selfish, it’s careless and reckless,” Cutler said. A variety of factors could contribute to the dip in traffic fatalities in 2023, Cutler said, including increased technology in newer cars that reminds drivers to fasten their seatbelts. Enforcement is also up, with a team of state troopers stationed in parts of the state to target impaired driving and various campaigns to warn against dangerous driving behaviors, including aggressive driving, he said. For safer roads, drivers need to stop thinking about pedestrians and cyclists as an afterthought, Cole with CDOT said. “We need a wholesale shift in the way drivers think about safety and sharing the road,” Cole said. “Too many people drive without a consideration to the increasing number of roadway users out there.” This story was printed through a news sharing agreement with The Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned nonprofit based in Denver that covers the state.

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12 Arvada Press

LOCAL

February 15, 2024F

VOICES A privileged life

rom climbing trees to heights to hitchhiking, risk-taking was part of my growing years. By the standards of my immigrant grandparents though, my derring-dos were hardly perilous. Nevertheless, I inherited that gene from them. Like they did, I migrated from the place of my birth in search of a better life. I found it in Colorado despite there being no guarantees I would. I had a vague dream, a gut feeling and an itch that needed to be scratched. Living with risk was a regular part of daily life for my grandparents from the day they launched themselves from nineteenth-century Eastern Europe. Believing in the promise of America, they flocked to America in search of opportunities denied them in their native lands. Instead of amber waves of grain however, the men found themselves eking out a subsistent existence as they burrowed into coal mines or baked in the steel mills of Western Pennsylvania. The women valiantly toiled 24/7 in the squalor, scrubbing, cooking, sewing and raising the children. My family’s story is one of thousands differentiated only by the particulars, one that is being reenacted today by others coming in search of better lives for themselves

and their families. I remain in awe of their courage, forsaking all they’ve known and risking their lives so to get the blessings of liberty the Preamble speaks of for themselves and their children. It is through that Columnist grandson-of-immigrants perspective I view much of what is unfolding today. It is through the lens of a child of a blue collar, skilled craftsman and a mother who, like her mother had, clawed out a borderline existence for her children after her husband and the family’s breadwinner — my father — died tragically while she was carrying her thirteenth child. It is why I find substantive literary characters, real ones like Joe Rantz in “The Boys in the Boat” and fictional like Sethe in “Beloved” and Tom Joad in “The Grapes of Wrath,” heroic and dismissive of shallow, well-to-do characters, like Daisy and Tom Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby,” who don’t know what hard work is, have never sweated, baked or froze trying to make a living, have never had their hands coars-

JERRY FABYANIC

ened with blisters and calluses, and haven’t experienced hunger, wondering if they could make rent, pay for their utilities, and buy groceries to feed their children, yet flaunt their wealth so to win the affectations of the masses in an attempt to give substance and meaning to their vacuous lives. It is through the remembrance of brothers who fought for their country in Vietnam and carried scars from the war the rest of their lives, one of them eaten up by cancer I’m convinced was initiated by Agent Orange. And it is from learning at an early age the physical, psychological, and emotional value of hard work and how to have fun sometimes with little more than a can to kick. It’s the reason I feel sad for youth encumbered in ways I wasn’t that prevent them from escaping and rising above their plight, for children who don’t frolic in snow, splash barefoot through mud puddles, or get dirty and bruised while playing in carefree, outdoor disorganized activities, and for the myopic ones who cope with their boredom by scrolling through phone apps, checking out social media, and obsessively playing video games. Those and other life experiences are among the reasons I offer grati-

tude for the privileged life I’ve have had. In “America,” Neil Diamond belts out a tribute to all those who have and continue to do what my — and possibly your — ancestors did. The music pulses with an energy that conveys a sense for me what it might’ve felt like for my grandfather, Ignac, when at age twenty-one he first saw the shores of America from the rails of a ship and stepped ashore knowing he made it but not knowing that fourteen years later he would die by having his skull crushed in a grimy factory, leaving behind a wife and six children. Thanks to my intrepid immigrant grandparents and my steely, imperturbable parents, I was given a head start in life. And once I struck out on my own, I didn’t — couldn’t have — done it alone. Like everyone else, I had guides, mentors, and plenty of helping hands along the way. I haven’t lived a privileged life in the highbrow socio-economic sense. Far from it. But I have led one in a more meaningful way. It’s merely a matter of perspective. Jerry Fabyanic is the author of “Sisyphus Wins” and “Food for Thought: Essays on Mind and Spirit.” He lives in Georgetown.

‘You Got Older’ tackles grief, forgiveness

rief is an especially difficult emotion to deal with. There’s no such thing as a right way to move through it — each person has their own journey. Even when we think we see it coming, that often doesn’t help. Such is the case in “You Got Older,” which is making its regional premiere as the Benchmark Theatre’s first production of the 2024 season. The show delves into grief and loss in a way that is both funny and tender while remaining achingly human. “It’s a really lovely script and very Benchmark,” said director and ar-

tistic director Neil The show follows Mae (Courtney home.” COMING Truglio. “Because Esser), a young woman who has There’s a resonance and relatabilATTRACTIONS it is so human, it recently lost her job and boyfriend ity to the show that makes it particu-

delves into some really complicated corners of human intimacy.” Written by Clare Barron, “You Got Older,” runs at the theater, 1560 Teller St. in Lakewood, Clarke Reader from Friday, Feb. 23 through Saturday, March 16. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

and is returning home to take care of her father (Marc Stith), as he goes through treatment for cancer. Along the way, ideas about family, illness and the escape of fantasy all go under the microscope, as the characters attempt to find steady footing in an ever-changing world. “It’s a very millennial story about a millennial woman at the crossroads of her life,” Truglio said. “She’s trying to remap where her life is going and she just happens to be doing this at the most awkward place — back

larly powerful. The themes of illness and anticipating grief are universal ones all people wrestle with. “All of us are dealing with something like this on some level. We all know somebody who is sick,” Truglio said. “It’s natural to think about that loss and how it will affect us. So, we’re grieving a bit for someone who is still alive.” The kind of searching humanity that exudes from the story is what SEE READER, P13

Arvada Press 13

February 15, 2024

READER FROM PAGE 12

makes it the perfect fit for the theater and while grief may not be something most like to think about, the hope is audiences come away with a more empathetic perspective on the topic. “We all have so little control over the emotion and we tend to not be kind to ourselves and others while we’re grieving,” Truglio said. “I hope audiences really consider the idea of grief and practice some selfforgiveness and forgiveness of others.” For information and tickets, visit www.benchmarktheatre.com. 18th annual CEFF Returns to Golden

With each passing year, it becomes increasingly crucial to immerse ourselves in the best ways available to protect our planet. So, what better way to do so then by attending the 18th annual Colorado Environmental Film Festival, held from Thursday, Feb. 22 through Sunday, the 25th? The festival will be held at the Green Center at the Colorado School of Mines, 924 16th St. in Golden. The festival curates world-class environmental films, including screenings of feature-length and short films from foreign, Colorado and young filmmakers, according to provided information. There will also be discussions with filmmakers, panels and an Eco-EXPO. For those unable to attend in person, there will be an on-demand online encore available from Monday, Feb. 26 through Sunday, March 3. For information and tickets, visit https://ceff.net.

Stories on Stage and the Lighthouse Writers Workshop are two Colorado organizations that are truly, truly dedicated to celebrating the power of the written word. So, it makes a lot of sense that they would team up for “Lighthouse Presents: A Colorado Collection,” held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 18 at Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center, 721 Santa Fe Drive in Denver. According to the provided information, the event will feature stories written by local authors William Henry Lewis, Amanda Rea and Nick Arvin being performed by actors Lavour Addison, Kate Gleason and Marco Robinson. There will even be a meet and greet with the actors and authors after the show. Visit www.storiesonstage.org for information and tickets.

Mary Lorene Carvallo was born on February 21, 1953 to Audrey and Albert Carvallo, at Rose Memorial Hospital in Denver. She lived in the Denver Area, including in Arvada and Northglenn, for most of her life. She graduated from Mapleton High School in 1971 and went on to train as a Master Gardener. She worked for golf courses and private clients as a free-lance designer and gardener for several decades. She created diverse, beautiful landscapes for a variety of clients throughout the Denver Metro Area.

Clarke’s Concert of the Week — Sarah Jarosz at the Gothic Theatre

Velma Ruth Nelson (Belcher) passed away on January 24, 2024 in Arvada, Colorado.

Texas’ Sarah Jarosz makes the kind of Americana that effortlessly blends folk, country and pop, resulting in music that is warm and welcoming to all listeners. Over the course of her seven albums, she’s continued to enhance her writing, and she just released one of her best efforts yet, “Polaroid Lovers.” In support of the record, Jarosz will be performing at the Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway in Englewood, at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16. She’ll be joined by openers The Ballroom Thieves for an evening of immaculately performed music. Get tickets at www.ticketmaster. com. Clarke Reader’s column on culture appears on a weekly basis. He can be reached at Clarke.Reader@hotmail.com.

ABOUT LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Colorado Community Media welcomes letters to the editor. Please note the following rules: • Email your letter to kfiore@coloradocommunitymedia.com. Do not send via postal mail. Put the words “letter to the editor” in the email subject line. • Submit your letter by 5 p.m. on Wednesday in order to have it considered for publication in the following week’s newspaper. • Letters must be no longer than 400 words. • Letters should be exclusively submitted to Colorado Community

OBITUARIES

Colorado Words and Voices Take to Su Teatro

Media and should not submitted to other outlets or previously posted on websites or social media. Submitted letters become the property of CCM and should not be republished elsewhere. • Letters advocating for a political candidate should focus on that candidate’s qualifications for office. We cannot publish letters that contain unverified negative information about a candidate’s opponent. Letters advocating for or against a political candidate or ballot issue will not be published within 12 days of an election.

CARVALLO

Mary Lorene Carvallo

February 21, 1953 - January 29, 2024

Mary passed away on January 29, 2024 NELSON

at Collier Hospice in Wheat Ridge with her sister Laura and brotherin-law Keith Padgett at her side. She is survived by another sister, Barbara Carvallo, and several nieces and nephews. She will be missed by dozens of clients and friends as well as family members who loved her and were loved by her. Mary requested her body be donated for research. A memorial service will be in summer 2024. In lieu of flowers, please send donations, in Mary’s name, to Collier Hospice or the National Audubon Society.

Velma Ruth Nelson

February 15, 1935 - January 24, 2024

Velma was born on February 15, 1935 in Colorado Springs, Colorado to parents Kenneth and Lela Belcher. She attended Arvada High School and graduated in 1953. Velma married Richard Nelson on August 20, 1954. Velma has 2 children Gary, Kari, 2 grandchildren and 1 great SUGIURA

grandchild. Velma is survived by her husband Richard, son Gary, daughter Kari (Lee) Fisher, grandchildren and great grandchild. Memorial Service will be held at Aspen Mortuaries Arvada Chapel on March 4, 2024 at 10:00 am. Aspen Mortuaries is located at 6370 Union St, Arvada, Colorado 80004

Ken “Kenbo” Sugiura

April 30, 1954 - January 26, 2024

Ken Sugiura, 71, of Arvada, CO died peacefully on Friday, January 26, 2024 at Harmony Pointe Nursing Home. A Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, February 25 from 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM at Indian Tree Golf Course located at 7555 Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada, CO 80003. Appetizers and a buffet lunch will be available. Please RSVP at 303-588-8571

with the number of people who will attend. Preceded in death by his parents, Kiyoto and Dorothy, and nephew Scott Noguchi. He is survived by his son, Christopher, brother Shuny (Betsy Olofson), sisters Naomi (Ange ) DiBona, and Arlene (Ray) Macdonald. Burial services will be held at Ft. Logan Cemetery.

Place an Obituary for Your Loved One. 303-566-4100 obituaries@coloradocommunitymedia.com Self placement available online at coloradocommunitymedia.com/arvada-press

14 Arvada Press

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

n the back of your mind, you might recall fond memories of your parents taking you to the park — or school programs busing you to faraway nature scenes. And in the bustle of adulthood, getting outdoors may have become less of a priority in your daily schedule. But the benefits of viewing and spending time in nature go deeper than the proverbial “getting some air.” In fact, it can lower blood pressure and is linked with lowering levels of stress, depression and anxiety, according to the National Park Service. One easy way to capture those benefits is hiking, a word that conjures images of mountains and rugged dirt trails. And in Colorado, chances are you’ve met someone with a “hiker” persona:

February 15, 2024F

lots of gear, often heading out on weekends, probably driving a Subaru. But hiking doesn’t have to be so extreme. It doesn’t even have to involve big hills. In the purest sense, it’s just a long walk for pleasure or exercise. And if you live in any of the counties around Denver, the good news is you’re never far from a hiking spot. That includes places with breathtaking views in Douglas County. “Most Douglas County staffers will tell you that the open space that they like best is the last one they got to hike,” said Dan Dertz, director of Douglas County’s open space office. From Georgetown in the mountains to the plains of Elbert County, here’s a look at hiking spots for beginners and seasoned veterans alike — and some tips if you’re new to the activity. Douglas County

If you’re just starting out, one of the easiest

hiking trails in Douglas County is Bluffs Regional Park, Dertz says. Just a few miles from Park Meadows mall, Bluffs Regional Park offers sweeping views of the mountains and the Denver metro area. It’s a short drive south of Yosemite Street and Lincoln Avenue near Lone Tree. If you’re seeking high elevation and more of a challenge, try Spruce Mountain Open Space Trail. That’s off Spruce Mountain Road south of Noe Road, west of Interstate 25. There are no costs for parking or access at those hiking spots. Jefferson County

For an easy and flat hike not far from downtown Denver, try Crown Hill Park off 26th Avenue in the Wheat Ridge area. Its trailways offer lakeside views. SEE TAKE A HIKE, P15

February 15, 2024

Arvada Press 15

TAKE A HIKE FROM PAGE 14

One of the higher-elevation spots in Jefferson County for a hike is Elk Meadow Park in the Evergreen area. There, you can brave a 2,100-foot elevation gain from the Stagecoach Boulevard trailhead to the 9,708-foot Bergen Peak, according to Jefferson County Open Space. All Jeffco Open Space parks are free to access and open to the public one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset, according to the county. For information on park closures, see the county’s alerts and closures webpage. Clear Creek County

Asked about lesser-known spots for hiking in Clear Creek County, Jon Butcher, a county staffer, said: “The Silver Creek Trail is probably the coolest but hard to get to.” “It is a wagon road built in the mid-to-late 1800s that is flat once you get there,” said Butcher, the county’s recreation facilities manager. For easiest access, park at Georgetown Lake and take the part of Tom Benhoff trail on the south side of the lake, then head uphill on Purdy or Dunbar- A trail meanders through Columbine Open Space in Douglas County. COURTESY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY ton trails to get to Silver Creek Trail. Once there, head east for about 4 miles one way or 8 miles out fields, and trail access is at the northwest corner of Chris Barker, a county spokesperson. “Visitors and back. the parking area. that provide information on wildlife interactions In a mountain county, trails are better suited to All trails in Elbert County mentioned above are play a critical role as stewards and partners in experienced hikers. open to pedestrians, bikes and horses and closed managing wildlife.” “As far as ‘easy trails’ lacking too much elevation to motorized vehicles, according to the district. All reports are anonymous. You can report wildchange, I would suggest Alvarado, Georgetown Free parking is available near all trail access life sightings, encounters or incidents at jeffco. Lake, Meadow Loop at Floyd Hill or any of the points. us/3620/Human-Wildlife-Interactions. Greenway Trails,” Butcher said. The trails are accessible for free. Staying safe Navigating snowy season For beginners, here are some tips for hiking For hiking amid snow this winter and early Elbert County from Jefferson County Open Space, especially for spring, here are some tips from Jefferson and In the plains of Elbert County — east of Douglas challenging routes: Clear Creek counties for staying safe in challengCounty and southeast of Aurora — wide-open ru• Pick up a physical map near a trail parking ing environments: ral views are the norm. area, or use a mapping app like COTREX. (You • Bring traction devices for your shoes or boots, But for a trail maintained for the public, look to can download offline maps to navigate trails for or trekking poles, for snow-packed or icy trails. the Elizabeth area. when you don’t have cellular service.) • If heading to parks alone, let someone know One trail runs for 1.3 miles with access at Run• Bring a compass if you know how to use one. where you’re going and your anticipated return ning Creek Elementary School on the south and • Dress in layers or have extra layers for warmth time just in case. Evans Park on the north, said Eric Larson, an El- or rain protection. • Check online for park or trail closures in case bert County staffer. • Use sunscreen, hats and long sleeves for sun snowy conditions begin to thaw and create mud(Flooding last summer washed out the trail at protection. dy trails that are closed. Colorado Highway 86. Repairs are slated for this • Bring extra food and plenty of water for your• Know what layers to bring: Synthetic fabric or summer, intended to return the path to its full self and your pets. wool are best as they tend to provide some insulalength and useability.) • Have a flashlight in case you get caught out af- tion even when wet. Avoid cotton. Once in Evans Park, the town trail connects with ter dark. • Bring a map. Remember: Many trails in lessa small trail that loops through a wooded section • Bring a first-aid kit. populated regions go outside phone coverage arof the park. • Bring matches in case of an emergency. (Gen- eas. Have a full phone battery and keep it warm. “The most significant, and perhaps only other erally, Jeffco Open Space does not allow fire or • Bring a flashlight or headlamp with spare batpublicly accessible, trail in the county is located open flame in its parks.) teries. in Casey Jones Park at 4189 Highway 86” in the • Have emergency shelter, such as a tent or tarp. • The snow off trails can be deep. If going off Elizabeth area, said Michael Barney, director of Be on the lookout for wildlife. Jeffco Open Space trail, bring gaiters and skis or snow shoes. Elizabeth Park and Recreation District. That park tracks human-wildlife interactions in parks and • Do not enter avalanche terrain unless you is next to Evans Park. surrounding neighborhoods. have the needed training and equipment. The trail is roughly 1.4 miles and passes through “We strive to balance the protection and preser“Know the limits of your fitness and clothing,” the northern wooded section of the 103-acre park. vation of wildlife and their habitat while promot- Butcher said. “Turn around if either of them are It’s best reached by parking north of the baseball ing a safe and positive visitor experience,” said failing to keep you comfortable.” Left: A group stands as the sun goes down at Bluffs Regional Park in the Lone Tree area of Douglas County.

COURTESY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY

16 Arvada Press

February 15, 2024Fe

SeaQuest Littleton aquarium closed BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

SeaQuest Littleton, an interactive aquarium that faced allegations of poor animal treatment for years, has closed its doors. The business, located in Southwest Plaza in unincorporated Jefferson County, announced the closure recently. “SeaQuest continues its strength as a company and will still operate in states that support our interactive business model,” the company wrote in a Facebook post. “We believe this is such a value to the community, and we are thrilled that we can create a magical and unforgettable experience for every guest by connecting them with amazing animals from all over the planet.” SeaQuest has eight locations across the U.S. Visitors can snorkel with stingrays and meet non-aquatic creatures, like sugar gliders. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, also known as PETA, has criticized the company for several years. The aquarium closed after the first weekend in February. A company’s statement on Facebook did not say specifically why the aquarium is closing, but said it will continue operation in “states that support (its) interactive business model.”

SeaQuest Littleton offered interactive experiences with animals in an aquarium setSHUTTERSTOCK IMAGE ting.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife, a state oversight agency, announced in 2019 that it filed a notice of suspension with the aquarium. “SeaQuest opened its facility in the Southwest Plaza Mall in the summer of 2018,” CPW said in a release at the time. “Since that time, the facility has had numerous violation episodes and failed to adhere to several of the conditions of their state licensure. SeaQuest was noticed to a CPW suspension hearing in March 2019.” The hearing resulted in a twoyear CPW licensing suspension that would have ended in 2021.

After the suspension, the aquarium did not apply for a license, a CPW spokesperson said. As a result, SeaQuest Littleton has not held a CPW license since 2019, the spokesperson said. Several recent inspection reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed “critical” non-compliant issues at the aquarium. A July 2023 report documented an incident in which a sugar glider named Luna was found with her tail entangled in an item in her enclosure. Approximately half of her tail had to be amputated due to the injury, the report states.

A year prior, a Savannah cat bit a visitor, a report states. The report states that inadequate handling or control of animals during public interactions puts both the public and the animals at risk. “Animals involved in injuring the public could be at risk of euthanasia,” the report states. “The facility must ensure that animals are handled so there is minimal risk of harm to the animal and to the public.” Other reports outline enclosure disrepair, insufficient sanitation, unsupervised public interaction with animals and failure to document medication delivery. The reports do not include responses from Seaquest Littleton. In response to request for comment, staff members at SeaQuest Littleton directed the Littleton Independent to a frequently asked questions page on their website. This page did not include information about the closure. The Littleton Independent also reached out to the business’ press contact and did not hear back by the time of publication. SeaQuest Littleton said it will be safely relocating its animals as it closes. “Their care and well-being remain an utmost priority for SeaQuest,” the company wrote on Facebook.

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February 15, 2024Fe

DEA confiscated 2.6 million pills in Colorado BY OLIVIA PRENTZEL THE COLORADO SUN

Roughly 3.4 million fentanyl pills were seized across Colorado, Utah, Montana and Wyoming last year, federal officials said, marking a 79% increase across the region from 2022 and the highest number of fentanyl pills ever seized in a calendar year. The Rocky Mountain Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration announced the record-breaking numbers as fentanyl remains the deadliest drug threat facing the country and is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. As many as 7 in 10 counterfeit pills tested last year contained a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, or roughly the amount that fits on

the tips of a pencil, national DEA laboratory testing showed. That’s an increase from 4 in 10 pills in 2021 and 6 in 10 pills in 2022, the DEA said. In Colorado, investigators seized nearly 940 pounds of fentanyl last year, or about 2.61 million pills, the DEA said. The amount seized across the four-state region in 2023 was more than a 500% increase from amounts confiscated in 2021. The increase in fentanyl seizures across the Rocky Mountain region highlights the extent to which cartels are bringing fentanyl into the country, David Olesky, Acting Special Agent in Charge for DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division said in a news release. Most of the pills entering Colorado were manufactured in Mexico

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education comes after parents of five young adults who died from fentanyl poisoning questioned by state universities had not done more to warn students, especially when local authorities knew that a particularly deadly batch of counterfeit oxycodone or Xanax containing fentanyl was circulating. In 2023, 948 people in Colorado died from a fentanyl overdose, up from 920 in 2022, according to preliminary state health department data. Officials expect the total fentanyl overdose deaths from last year to increase due to a roughly three-month lag in the data. Nationally, the DEA seized more than 77 million fentanyl pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder last year, officials said. This story was printed through a news sharing agreement with The Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned nonprofit based in Denver that covers the state.

Plan protects future oil leasing on Colorado lands

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with chemicals shipped there from China. “As we begin the new year, DEA is committed to staying laser-focused on investigating the two cartels most responsible for trafficking fentanyl into the United States, as well as bringing greater public awareness to the dangers of fentanyl,” Olesky said in the release. While there is far more information on the dangers of fentanyl now than when the state first started seeing a spike in overdose deaths in 2017, families who have lost loved ones to the drug say there is still a lot more work to do. Several universities and community colleges have agreed to a list of requests by parents, including joining a real-time overdose map, that would quickly alert school leaders about fentanyl deaths in their cities and on campus, and naloxone training for students. The push for more warnings and

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The Bureau of Land Management has released its final Eastern Colorado Resource Management Plan, which will guide the use and management of over 658,000 acres of public lands for decades to come. Conservation geographer Alison Gallensky with Rocky Mountain Wild said the plan does a good job of increasing protections for some 300,000 currently undeveloped acres, mostly along the Arkansas River between Salida and Canon City. “By setting aside several hundred thousand acres,” said Gallensky, “to stay the way they are now, for wildlife, for the headwaters for the different tributaries into the Arkansas River.” In addition to protecting areas for hiking, mountain biking, fishing, and hunting - which bring over $54 million into local economies - Gallensky said these lands support healthy ecosystems that can help species

survive in a changing climate. Some environmental groups criticized the BLM’s plan for keeping most acres open to oil and gas leasing, but the Western Energy Alliance defended the agency for balancing development with conservation. The plan paves the way for future oil and gas production on BLMmanaged lands in northeastern Colorado, where current production has been linked to a rise in harmful ground-level ozone pollution and the state’s failure to meet Environmental Protection Agency clean air standards. Gallensky said the plan, which has been in the works for nearly a decade, includes old analysis on the true risks of drilling. “There’s been a lot of new information learned about the impacts of oil and gas development and how to transition to cleaner forms of energy,” said Gallensky. “And that wasn’t as well integrated into the plan as it could have been.” SEE OIL, P20

Arvada Press 19

February 15, 2024

Colorado hits Suncor with $10.5m settlement BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

Colorado has issued a $10.5 million penalty on the Suncor refinery in Commerce City over three years of air pollution violations, calling it the largest-ever action against a single facility, and also settled a suit resulting in a doubling of fenceline monitoring at the troubled fuel plant. The agreement surpasses a $9 million deal in 2020 for similar releases. Colorado director of public health Jill Hunsaker Ryan called it a “historic enforcement package” to “demonstrate our unwavering commitment to environmental protection and the health of our residents.” “We will continue to use every tool available to prevent Suncor from having future violations,” Hunsaker

Suncor Energy’s Commerce City plant on Feb. 17, 2023. PHOTO BY OLIVIA SUN THE COLORADO SUN VIA REPORT FOR AMERICA

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Ryan said. The $5 million in required plant improvements in the 2020 settlement have made a measurable difference in Suncor violations since then, and the new settlement requires $8 million more in plant changes, she said. The new $10.5 million settlement includes a $2.5 million cash fine, which will be split between environmental justice grants and the general fund. The violations lasted through June 2021. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment investigates Suncor violations on a two-year cycle, and is still probing air pollution releases from the past two and a half years, said Michael Ogletree, director of the department’s Air Pollution Control Division. SEE SETTLEMENT, P20

20 Arvada Press

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FROM PAGE 19

With Canada-based Suncor reporting $2 billion in profits from the third quarter of 2023 alone, “it’s a really good question” whether a $2.5 million fine is enough to change Suncor’s behavior, Hunsaker Ryan said. “What I would say is, we are limited in the penalties that we can assess by law,” she said. It’s also important for the state to protect the community by reaching a reasonable settlement “that’s not going to drag out a long time, but get some meaningful action,” she said. The settlement is not part of Suncor’s application for a renewed air pollution permit for part of the sprawling Commerce City refinery, which is still pending revisions at the state health department. State officials said the violations from July 2019 through June 2021 often involved power disruptions. Violations cited include: - Exceeding EPA and state emissions limits on sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. - Exceeding hydrogen sulfide concentration caps. - Exceeding opacity and visible emissions standards. - Violations from causes other than power outages. Suncor, the only vehicle and airplane fuel refinery in Colorado and one of the few in the West, has long been a target for environmental and community groups, as well as state regulators, for both local pollution violations and greenhouse gas emissions. Suncor has responded that it has made continual improvements to both refining and monitoring equipment to better protect the community, and that the plant is an important economic engine for the

OIL FROM PAGE 18

The plan takes thousands of acres off the table for drilling, but those acres are considered to have very low potential for tapping oil and gas. Advocates say they will ask the Colorado BLM to address the threats of

neighborhood and Colorado. A fire at the refinery in December 2022 disrupted operations for months, and may have contributed to an increase in fuel prices for Colorado drivers. Some environmental advocates have called for an outright denial of future permits for Suncor and a closure of the refinery, but state officials have never endorsed those calls. The latest settlement also include a deal for more intensive fenceline monitoring and community alerts about air pollution releases in Commerce City. A 2021 state law required Suncor and three other large facilities to implement fenceline monitoring of certain toxins and sharing data with the public. Suncor had sued the state in 2022 over how Colorado was applying monitoring regulations to the refinery. The deal will have Suncor doubling the number of monitors from its latest proposal to the state, officials said. Suncor will also expand the number of toxins monitored from the minimum list in the 2021 law. Colorado had required covered facilities to monitor and alert for hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulfide and benzene. Suncor has agreed to also monitor toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes, state officials said. Suncor will also alert the public sooner than previously required when certain pollution thresholds are crossed, Ogletree said. For some compounds, alerts were triggered when releases hit the EPA’s more stringent one-hour thresholds for certain toxins. By the end of 2024, when the monitoring equipment is fully in place, those compounds will trigger alerts after reaching the lower four-hour thresholds. This story was printed through a news sharing agreement with The Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned nonprofit based in Denver that covers the state.

continued fossil fuel development, the primary driver of climate change, by strengthening their Big Game Resource Management Plan Amendment, which is currently accepting public comments. Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts. This story runs via The Associated Press’ Storyshare, of which Colorado Community Media is a member.

Arvada Press 21

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LOCAL

February 15, 2024F

SPORTS

D’Evelyn girls basketball clinches back-to-back 5A/4A Jeffco titles BY DENNIS PLEUSS JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

LAKEWOOD — D’Evelyn girls basketball had to put in a little overtime Friday night to wrap up its second straight Class 5A/4A Jeffco League title. The Jaguars — No. 2 in this week’s Class 4A girls basketball Colorado Preps coaches and media poll — escaped Green Mountain High School with a 42-37 overtime victory. The win clinched D’Evelyn (182, 10-0 in 5A/4A Jeffco) winning back-to-back conference titles. “It feels amazing. We couldn’t have done it without Coach (Olson). He has taught us through everything,” D’Evelyn senior Peyton Marvel said. “I think this is going to teach us a lot in the playoffs having this kind of big win.” D’Evelyn trailed Green Mountain 33-26 early in the fourth quarter. The Rams — No. 7 in the 5A Colorado Preps rankings — looked primed to score the upset and grab the league title. However, Marvel came to the Jaguars’ rescue in the final quarter and overtime. Marvel drained a huge 3-pointer with 1:37 left in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 35-35. Green Mountain couldn’t buy a basket in the final six minutes and had to go to overtime. “They are a handful,” D’Evelyn coach Chris Olson said of Green Mountain. “They drive hard to the basket on offense. Defensively, they are so strong and tough to score against. We struggle offensively.” Green Mountain senior Peyton Bennett scored the first basket in overtime to give the Rams the lead, but D’Evelyn would go on a 7-0 run in the final three minutes of overtime to grab the victory. Marvel had a huge 3-point play after she stole the ball and drove to the basket. “That is Peyton in a nutshell. She

D’Evelyn girls basketball team and fans got their hands on back-to-back Class 5A/4A Jeffco League titles Friday, Feb. 9, at Green PHOTO BY DENNIS PLEUSS / JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS Mountain High School. The Jaguars took a 42-37 overtime victory against the Rams.

gets a steal, looks out-of-control, finishes at the rim with contact,” Olson said of the huge 3-point play in overtime. “I’m so proud of her because she has been struggling with free throws. To hit some of those in big moments late was great.” Green Mountain’s defense didn’t give Marvel any easy looks the whole night. The Jaguars’ leading scorer had to do it at the free-throw line and ended up gong 8-for-11 from the charity stripe. “It gave us that momentum and I couldn’t have done it without my

team,” Marvel said of the 3-point play with 2:28 left in overtime to give the Jaguars the lead for good. “I wanted to finish that for my team because I know how hard we’ve worked all year and in this game.” Marvel finished with a game-high 17 points. Senior Macy Scheer was bottled up for most of the night offensively, but had three big points in overtime to finish with 10 points. “That is what you have a senior class for, so you can rely on them and trust them,” Olson said. “Once they (seniors) settled down they

made plays. We finally made some plays.” Junior Ellie McMann finished with 10 points for the Jaguars. McMann’s pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter allowed D’Evelyn to hold a slim 20-19 lead at halftime. The Jaguars have now won 28 straight league games dating back to the 2021-22 season. D’Evelyn last conference lost was more than two years ago on Jan. 19, 2022 when Green Mountain defeated D’Evelyn SEE BASKETBALL, P23

Arvada Press 23

February 15, 2024

Forest Service seeking comments on old-growth logging restrictions BY ERIC GALATAS PUBLIC NEWS SERVIC

The timber industry is pushing back against the Biden administration’s proposal to limit commercial logging in the nation’s last oldgrowth forests. The move announced last month would put restrictions on harvesting within a small fraction of lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Josh Hicks, conservation director for The Wilderness Society, sees the proposal as an important step to conserve the remaining 8% of oldgrowth forests so they can do what they do best: store carbon and stabilize ecosystems. “After centuries of logging, and

now more recently climate-driven impacts from severe wildfire and drought, there’s not a lot of old growth left in the country or in Colorado,” Hicks pointed out. “It’s just a fraction of what it used to be.” Forests absorb carbon pollution directly from the air, and are seen as an important tool for mitigating climate change. But industry groups worry the proposal will prompt lawsuits aiming to block logging projects, including those seen as necessary to reduce the scale of wildfires. Some environmental groups say protections should be extended to mature forests currently managed for timber production. Hicks acknowledged the new proposal, which is open to public

comment through Feb. 2, will need industry to help clear out heavy fuel loads which can lead to bigger and more powerful wildfires. But he noted economics will no longer be the driving factor in some forest management decisions. Managers would prioritize ecological concerns involving old growth conservation. “The younger trees that come out of the forest to reduce the fuel loads, the companies that pick up these contracts can still find economic value for this,” Hicks contended. “This is not to remove industry, and in fact I feel like industry is part of the solution here.” Old-growth forests are home to an abundance of diverse plant and

animal species, and Hicks argued keeping the ecosystems intact can help preserve biodiversity as the fallout from climate change takes hold. He added the new policy would not only conserve the last stands of old growth, it will also foster the creation of more old-growth forests for future generations. “We are facing an extinction crisis,” Hicks stressed. “Given that these old-growth forests are more resilient to these climate stressors, they will become increasingly important for the survival of many species. “ This story comes via The Associated Press’ Storyshare, of which Colorado Community Media is a member.

BASKETBALL

son run. Green Mountain was No. 8 in the 5A girls basketball CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index and will host a first-round playoff game Tuesday, Feb. 20. With Green Mountain finishing second in the conference, the Rams were set to host a game in the minitournament on Monday and could get another shot at D’Evelyn on Thursday, Feb. 15, if the Rams and Jaguars both win Monday. Dennis Pleuss is the sports information director for Jeffco Public Schools. For more Jeffco coverage, go to ColoradoPreps.com and CHSAANow.com.

FROM PAGE 22

Green Mountain senior Peyton Bennett (12) blocks the shot of D’Evelyn senior Abby Paulson (21) during the first half Friday, Feb. 9, at Green Mountain High School. The Rams nearly ended D’Evelyn 27-game conference winning streak, but D’Evelyn rallied in the fourth quarter to force overtime and win 42-37 in the extra session. PHOTO BY DENNIS PLEUSS / JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

on the way to the Rams completing a 3-peat of 4A Jeffco League titles (2020, 2021 and 2022). “That is what is great about this league,” Olson said of teams taking turns at dominating the conference over the last two decades. “When I started 18 years ago, Valor was winning and going to the state championship. They we (D’Evelyn) did it for a couple of years. Then Evergreen came up and won two state titles. Green Mountain had it turn. That is what I love about our league.” D’Evelyn still does have one more conference game remaining. The Jaguars have a quick turnaround facing Golden in the Demons’ gym at 10 a.m. Saturday. There will be two more regularseason games for D’Evelyn before starting the 32-team Class 4A state tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 20. The Jaguars will play in the 5A/4A Jeffco League mini-tournament with games on Monday and Thursday next week. Green Mountain (15-6, 9-2) might of fallen a bit short of its goal to win the league title, but the Rams still have a path for a strong postsea-

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The property is 2,300 square feet with a 560 sq. foot ADU with 2 car garage and space for RV parking—the unit has solar.

Any buyer who does not take the 2-1 buydown and does give a full price offer will get a custom package for $20,000.00. The upgrades could include and of these: Private garden, custom front porch, hottub, man cave in the garage or custom tile and paint throughout the home, RV parking or off street parking for the ADU.

The property is best as an investment property with the main unit renting out as a Short Term Rental for around $5000/month. The ADU will rent out $4000/month for a total of $9K/month. There are so many individuals and families that want to come to Colorado for an adventure and see Red Rocks Parks, Garden of the Gods, The Air Force Academy and of course check out our great skiing and beer. We will list the property on Air BNB and or VRBO for no charge and run the rental for 90 days at no charge and hand over to you turnkey.

FOR SALE Inside eye level cript for sale at Crown Hill. Located inside front mausoleum facing Wadsworth. Worth $16,000 selling for $10,972. Call 303-480-0320 or 720-620-2731.

Cemetery Plots Golden Cemetery Plots 12 choice plots at bargain price. $2000 or best offer. dstruck9@comcast.net

Please call Alan Davis at 303-378-7537 or alandavis@ levelengineering.com

Real Estate Brokers

The property has an amazing open space kitchen with a large master bed room, large walk in closet and wow ensuite bathroom. The property is superb for entertaining with a large deck and breakfast nook. The 2nd buyer is a young couple that would live in one unit and rent out the other to cover their payment. We are offering a 2-1 buydown for a full price offer. The interest rate will be around 5% in year one and 6% in year 2. The 3rd buyer is a family care situation where one will support the other but do not want to be too close.

Classifieds

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February 15, 2024Fe

MARKETPLACE Autos for Sale

Antiques & Collectibles

Safe Step. North America’s #1 Walk-in tub. Comprehensive lifetime warranty. Top-of-the-line installation and service. Now featuring our free shower package & $1600 off - limited time! Financing available. 1-855-417-1306 Old Crows Antiques featuring The Root Beer Bar An Antique destination in Littleton Colorado Join us on Memory Lane. Something for everyone. Visit us for store info Instagram: @oldcrowsantiques www.facebook.com/ oldcrowsantiques www.oldcrows antiques.com 303-973-8648 10081 W. Bowles Ave. Littleton, CO 80127

Miscellaneous HughesNet – Finally, super-fast internet no matter where you live. 25 Mbps just $59.99/mo! Unlimited Data is Here. Stream Video. Bundle TV & Internet. Free Installation. Call 866-499-0141

!!OLD GUITARS WANTED!! GIBSON, FENDER, MARTIN, Etc. 1930’s to 1980’s. TOP DOLLAR PAID. CALL TOLL FREE 1-866433-8277

1959 Ford Thunderbird. $20,000 Call 303-431-1412 Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

Replace your roof w/the best looking & longest lasting material steel from Erie Metal Roofs! 3 styles & multiple colors available. Guaranteed to last a lifetime! Limited Time Offer up to 50% off install + Additional 10% off install (military, health & 1st responders.) 1-833-370-1234

Wesley Financial Group, LLC Timeshare Cancellation Experts Over $50,000,000 in timeshare debt & fees cancelled in 2019. Get free info package & learn how to get rid of your timeshare! Free consultations. Over 450 positive reviews. Call 833-308-1971

DIRECTV Stream - Carries the most local MLB Games! Choice Package $89.99/ mo for 12 mos Stream on 20 devices at once. HBO Max included for 3 mos (w/ Choice Package or higher.) No contract or hidden fees! Some restrictions apply. Call IVS 1-866-859-0405

Colorado Statewide

Miscellaneous

Become a published author. We want to read your book! Dorrance Publishing trusted since 1920. Consultation, production, promotion & distribution. Call for free author`s guide 1-877-7294998 or visit dorranceinfo. com/ads BATH & SHOWER UPDATES in as little as ONE DAY! Affordable prices - No payments for 18 months! Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Senior & Military Discounts available. Call: 855-761-1725

Pets Dogs

Network To place a 25-word COSCAN Network ad in 91 Colorado newspapers for only $300, contact your local newspaper or email Colorado Press Association Network at rtoledo@colopress.net DIRECTV

PORTABLE OXYGEN Portable Oxygen Concentrator. May be Covered by Medicare! Reclaim independece and mobility with the compact design and long-lasting battery of Inogen One. Free Information Kit! Call: 844-823-0293

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FREE HIGH SPEED INTERNET

AMERIGLIDE Don't let the stairs limit your mobility! Discover the ideal solution for anyone who struggles on the stairs, is concerned about a fall or wants to regain access to their entire home. Call AmeriGlide today! 1-877-418-1883

Free High Speed Internet for those that qualify. Goverment program for recipients of select programs incl. Medicaid, SNAP, Housing Assistance, WIC, Veterans Pension, Survivor Benefit, Lifeline, Tribal. 15GB Internet service. Bonus offer: Android tablet FREE with onetime $20 copay. Free Shipping & Handling. Call MaxsipTelecom Today: 1-866-654-9429

Transportation

Wanted Donate Your Car to Veterans Today! Help and Support our Veterans. Fast - FREE pick up. 100% tax deductible. Call 1-800-245-0398

Doodle Puppies

Golden Doodles and Bernedoodles Home-Raised Heath Tested and Guaranteed Standard and Mini Size available Schedule a visit today! (970)215-6860 www.puppylovedoodles.com

Wanted

Chunky’s Towing

Cash for all Vehicles!

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Any condition • Running or not No title OK • Free towing • Under $850

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Cell: (303)918-2185 for texting Bestcashforcarsco.com

720-560-6763

SERVICE DIRECTORY Air Conditioning

Blinds

METALBUILDING

Serving the Front Range since 1955 Furnaces • Boilers • Water Heaters Rooftop HVAC • Mobile Furnaces Commercial • Residential Install • Repair • Replace

AC, Furnace and Boiler Specials

OUTLET CORP.

LOCAL BUILDINGS FOR 30+ YEARS!

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WINTER FURNACE SPECIALS 720-327-9214

Buildings, Metal

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CALL TODAY! 303-467-7969 6040 W. 59TH AVE, UNIT F • ARVADA, CO 80003 QUESTIONS@BLINDSMITH.COM WWW.BLINDSMITHCOLORADO.COM

· SHOPS & GARAGES · EQUIPMENT STORAGE · SELF STORAGE · BARNS & AGRICULTURAL BUILDINGS · EQUESTRIAN FACILITIES · COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS · AND MORE...

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METALBUILDINGOUTLET.COM

Service Directory

Continues Next Page

Arvada Press 27

February 15, 2024

SERVICE DIRECTORY

WOOD

Handyman

Estate Planning

Carpet/Flooring

BOB’S HOME REPAIRS

Great Floors. Great Impressions.

. ,

All types of repairs. Reasonable rates. 30yrs Exp.

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rs. Impressions.

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floors BACKSPLASHES & LAMINATES

day for a free estimate!

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WILLS AND TRUSTS Kurt E. Walberg, P.C. Esq.

Cleaning

Call now to schedule a no cost appointment 720.772.7565 • dawn@kewpclaw.com

PROMAID CLEANING

Handyman

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Weekly • Bi-Weekly • Monthly Move-In • Move-Out

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Michael’s Handyman Services Michael’s Handyman Services Michael’s Handyman Services

Hauling Service

HAULING

Home Beautification • Home Beautifi cation •• Home Beautification •• •Home Home Repair & Interior Painting$$ Reasonable Rates On: $$ Home Repair & Interior Painting Repair & Interior Painting

Trash Cleanup • Old Furniture • Mattresses • Appliances • Dirt 303-301-4420 303-301-4420 Old fencing • Branches • Concrete • Asphalt • Old Sod • Brick

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Licensed with excellent references Concrete/Paving

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Repairs • Install Fixtures, Appliance • Plumbing Electrical • Expert Tile • Kitchen/ Bath Remodel • Decks 35 yrs. experience • Licensed, Insured • References

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MINOR HOME REPAIRS MinorHOME Home Repairs MINOR REPAIRS

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• Driveways • Anything • Curb & Gutter Concrete • Walls

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Professional and Reliable Year Round Service

Professional and Reliable EPA Certified Painter, Interior/Exterior Year Round ServiceRubin (720)434-8042 | Kerwin (720) 519-5559 Demolition • Insured Rubin (720)434-8042 7+ Years Experience! Kerwin (720) 519-5559

Home Improvement Room Builders LLC.

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Toll Free 866-552-6987 Cell: 646-825-1716 • Benjamin Moore Paints • Labor and Materials Warranty • Free Estimates • Color Consultation Included • Kind/Highly Communicative Staff

• Home Renovation and Remodel • 30 Years Experience • Insured • Satisfaction Guaranteed Highly rated & screened contractor by Home Advisor & Angies list

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A & H DRYWALL, LLC Call for FREE Estimate 24/7 Any Drywall Needs... Hang • Tape • Texture • Painting Match any texture, remove popcorn Armando 720.448.3716 • Fully Insured

Painting

REPAIRS & REMODELING HOMEHOME REPAIRS & REMODELING

• Drywall • Painting • Tile • Trim • Drywall • Painting••Doors Tile •• Trim • Doors • Painting • Decks • Bath Remodel Painting • Decks • Bath Remodel • Kitchen Remodels MuchMore! More! • Kitchen Remodels••Basements Basements &&Much Mark Up Materialsyou 25%-35% We Never MarkWe UpNever Materials • Saving Saving you•25%-35% All Work Guaranteed A+ BBB Rated All Work Guaranteed • A+ BBB Rated

Helpful Ace Hardware Pro Painters is a residential painting company which specializes in exterior and interior painting. Our core values are honesty, integrity, service, quality and beauty and our focus is on delivering an outstanding customer experience. We currently include a full color consult, test pints and a detailed walkthrough with all of our paint jobs.

Give us a call to set up a free estimate! (720) 432-6125 helpfulacehardwarepropainters.com

Call Today for a FREE ESTIMATE: 303-427-2955 Call Today for a FREE ESTIMATE 303-427-2955

Service Directory

Continues Next Page

28 Arvada Press

February 15, 2024F

SERVICE DIRECTORY Painting

DANIEL’S PAINTING

exterior • interior • residential repaints Re-caulk all home complete prime all caulked areas / replace any damaged boards / popcorn removal drywall and texture repair / fences and decks / insured and bonded

720-301-0442

BOB’S PAINTING, REPAIRS & HOME IMPROVEMENTS

Snow Removal

Roofing

Snow Removal

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www.ValorRoofandSolar.com

Mark: 303.432.3503 Solar

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Roofing/Gutters

Have a Hail Damaged Roof? Plumbing

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Front Range Plumbing 303.451.1971

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I am a Master Plumber that has 15 years of experience, licensed and insured, and trying to get my own business up and going. I would be grateful for the opportunity to earn your business, to help a Colorado Native business grow. Mountain Men Plumbing has been around for almost two years now!

www.MountainMenPlumbing.com Or give a call to (720) 328-8440!

Siding & Windows

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Siding

Siding Repairs · Insulated Vinyl and Steel Siding

Fair Pricing and Free Estimates Call Sam 720.731.8789

Tree Service

Majestic Tree Service 720-231-5954 Tree & Shrub Trimming, Tree Removal • Stump Grinding Free Estimates/Consultations Licensed and Insured

Arvada Press 29

February 15, 2024

P R EC ISE R EPAI R, GENUI NE C AR E

BEFORE

AFTER

Keep your home safe with concrete repair Worrying about your uneven or cracked concrete can make owning a home very stressful. By investing in concrete repair, you can fix your driveway, walkways, patio, and more in one easy lift.

GET A FREE ESTIMATE

877-734-1105

30 Arvada Press

February 15, 2024Fe

Anywhere. Anytime.

Visit us online for news on the go.

Arvada Press 31

February 15, 2024

Homeowners can delay property tax payments BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORACOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

If you’re staring at your property tax bill and having a meltdown, a Colorado program might offer you relief. The state’s Property Tax Deferral Program allows homeowners to push their property tax payment down the road, potentially for years — depending on eligibility. “Anytime we can keep folks in their homes and help them find tax relief at the same time is a win for Coloradans,” Colorado State Treasurer Dave Young said in a prepared statement. Homeowners can delay, or “defer,” tax payment for as long as they own their home. The program charges interest — or a slow yearly increase — in the amount of taxes you owe. Here’s how the program works. Who is eligible

Colorado’s deferral program has traditionally helped seniors and active military personnel, but it was expanded last year to provide relief to

homeowners affected by increased property taxes for the tax years including and between 2020 to 2023. (2023 property taxes are what you’re billed for this year.) The application period closes on April 1. Homeowners who aren’t seniors or active military can apply under different criteria — they’re eligible if their property taxes increased above what the program calls a “growth cap.” The tax-growth cap is met when the current year’s property tax amount has increased 4% or more compared to the average of the two preceding tax years’ amounts. Given the headline-grabbing spikes in property values — as calculated for tax purposes — last year in the Front Range and other parts of the state, many homeowners will likely qualify for the program because of how much their home’s property tax bill has increased. Ins and outs

The program does not exempt homeowners from paying taxes but, rather, serves as a loan that a home-

owner pays later. Seniors and active military can defer for as long as they own their home and they reapply for deferral each year. Others applying under the tax growth-based eligibility can defer for as long as they own their home and reapply each year — as long as the amount being deferred does not exceed $10,000. For example, if you applied last year and were granted a $6,000 deferral and then apply again this year, only $4,000 more could be deferred. Under the program, homeowners don’t have to pay any portion of their deferred tax amount — including interest — so long as they continue to reapply, according to the Colorado Department of the Treasury. “As long as the homeowner reapplies each year, they don’t have to pay until they don’t apply,” said Sheena Kadi, spokesperson for the department. The current deferral interest rate is 4.125%. That means after a year, the deferred tax amount will have grown by that percentage.

Other criteria

Other eligibility criteria include: • The property claiming the deferral must be owner occupied, meaning the taxpayer must, by themselves or with another person, reside at the property • All property taxes for years before 2024 must be paid • For the growth cap-based deferrals, the property must not be income producing, meaning the property is not used for financial gain. To apply

Homeowners can learn more by calling 833-634-2513 toll free or emailing cotreasproptax@state.co.us People in some areas may need to wait for their county to upload data before they’re able to apply, Kadi said on Feb. 8. Looking for tax exemptions?

For information on property tax exemption for qualifying disabled veterans and gold star spouses orfor senior citizens, email dola_dpt_frontdesk@ state.co.us or call 303-864-7777 or 303-864-7758.

www.ColoradoCommunityMedia.com/Notices

PUBLIC NOTICES

Public Notices call Sheree 303.566.4088 Legals City and County PUBLIC NOTICE The following ordinance was adopted by the City Council of the City of Arvada on second reading following the public hearing held on February 12, 2024: Ordinance #4867 An Ordinance Amending Various Provisions of Arvada's Land Development Code Pertaining to Floodplain Regulation Legal Notice No. 418022 First Publication: February 15, 2024 Last Publication: February 15, 2024 Publisher: Jeffco Transcript Public Notice NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT at the meeting of the Arvada City Council to be held on MONDAY, March 4, 2024, at 6:15 p.m. at the Municipal Building, 8101 Ralston Road, Arvada CO, City Council will hold a public hearing on the following proposed ordinance and thereafter will consider it for final passage and adoption. For the full text version in electronic form go to www.arvada.org/legal-notices, and click on Current and recent Legal Notices to access legal notices. The full text version is also available in printed form in the City Clerk’s office. Contact 720.898.7550 if you have questions. The full text version is also available in printed form in the City Clerk’s office. Contact 720.898.7550 if you have questions. CB24-003, An Ordinance Adding Article VII, Prohibition of Lead Drinking Water Service Lines and Establishment of Arvada’s Lead Service Line Replacement Program, to Chapter 102, Utilities, of the Arvada City Code Legal Notice No. 418021 First Publication: February 15, 2024 Last Publication: February 15, 2024 Publisher: Jeffco Transcript

legals@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Summons and Sheriff Sale Public Notice DISTRICT COURT, JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO 100 Jefferson County Pkwy Golden, CO 80401 Plaintiffs: BECKY JEAN HASSELL AND JOEL GERARD HASSELL v. Defendants: CITY OF ARVADA, Colorado, a municipal corporation, the OBERON WATER COMPANY, a Colorado Corporation, and ALL UNKNOWN PARTIES WHO MAY CLAIM AN INTEREST IN THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS ACTION Attorney for Defendant City of Arvada: CITY OF ARVADA OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY Kylie T. Justus, #49862 8101 Ralston Road Arvada, CO 80002 720-898-7180

kjustus@arvada.org Case No. 2024CV30001 DISTRICT COURT CIVIL SUMMONS [BY PUBLICATION] TO THE ABOVE NAMED DEFENDANT: THE PEOPLE OF COLORADO YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED and required to file with the Clerk of this Court an answer or other response to the Counterclaim filed in this action. You are required to file your answer or other response within 35 days after such service of this summons is made upon you. Service of this summons shall be complete on the date of the last publication. A copy of the Counterclaim and Complaint may be obtained from the clerk of the court. If you fail to file your answer or other response to the Counterclaim in writing within the 35 days after the date of the last publication, the Court may enter judgment by default against you for the relief demanded in the Counterclaim without further notice.

Defendants in and to the real property situated in Jefferson County, Colorado, more particularly described on Exhibit A, attached hereto and by this reference made a part hereof. Exhibit A All that portion of the Northeast One-Quarter of the Southwest One-Quarter of said Section 3 lying north and west of Hubbel’s Range View subdivision, as recorded in Plat Book 62, page 56, AND lying north and east of the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way, EXCEPTING therefrom any portion lying with West 68th Avenue right of way. Dated this 31st day of January, 2024. Legal Notice No. 4180120 First Publication: February 15, 2024 Last Publication: March 14, 2024 Published in the Arvada Press Jeffco Transcript Golden Transcript

###

This is an action to quiet the title of the Plaintiff and

Arvada Legals February 15, 2024 * 1

32 Arvada Press

February 15, 2024Fe

THANK YOU

FROM OUR COMMUNITY TO YOURS We hit over $30,000 in contributions for Local News, and it’s all thanks to YOU! Local news is the heartbeat of our community. It keeps us connected and informed. Your contributions ensure that we keep bringing you the news that hits close to home.

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