Arvada Press April 11, 2024

Shakespeare in the Parking Lot set for Olde Town; Arvada Kite Festival returns

The pair of events, set for April 13th and 14th, respectively, promise a fun weekend

BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

“ e course of true love never did come true,” Lysander proclaims on a makeshift stage in the middle of Olde Town Arvada. Such will be the scene when Shakespeare in the Parking Lot performs ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in Olde Town Square.

Some of the most talented stage actors in the area will come together for an abridged performance of one of the Bard’s most popular works to the historic district at noon on April 13.

Produced by the Denver Center for Performing Arts, Shakespeare in the Parking Lot is a program that has produced over 700 shows thus far. e production is an abridged version of the play followed by a Q and A session with actors and directors and is free to the public.

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The Arvada Kite Festival is set for April 14.

ROCK THROWING UPDATE P4 CITY

FESTIVAL

ment Manager Rick Mireles said 45-minute abridged performance that the DCPA drives to your community parking lot.”

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space, and they become part of the show for a moment,” Walvoord

Actor Shannon Altner said that performing in front of non-traditional audiences and settings helps her grow as a performer.

While the shows are usually held in parking lots, Olde Town Square will be the site of Arvada’s production.

Mireles said the program is now in its 10th season.

“ e program itself started in schools and just started its 10th season this April, it has since expanded to our Community Saturday performance,” Mireles said. “At our Community Performances we partner with local communities to bring this wonderful program to counties surrounding Denver.

“Community performances are followed by a brief community talkback led by the Community Engagement department where the audience can ask the artists questions regarding themes, artistic journey, rehearsal process, characters, etc.,” Mireles continued.

Program Manager Justin Walvoord said the performances are meant to be part of the landscape they take place in — which sometimes leads to unexpected moments.

“Somebody can unintentionally walk through the performance

“Taking audience reactions and what’s going on in the environment in stride helps me focus on my acting, which I think also shows our audience what it means to perform,” Altner said.

Walvoord echoed her sentiments.

“ e trick is to take what’s going on in the environment and integrate it into the story, though there are de nitely more challenging moments than others,” Walvoord said.

Arvada Kite Festival

If you’re looking for a free, family-friendly double feature on the weekend, the Arvada Kite Festival is making its return on April 14 at the Stenger Sports Complex. e 19th iteration of the event will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“ e Kite Festival is our most popular event, and it continues to grow each year. It’s such a fun tradition within our community,” Adelle Burton, Arvada’s Special Events and Public Arts Manager said. “Be sure to head to the east elds at Stenger to check out kite ying demonstrations by the Rocky Mountain Kite Association.”

FROM PAGE 1

Shakespeare in the Parking lot will come to Olde Town Arvada on April 13.

COURTESY OF DCPA

Here’s How I See the NAR Settlement Affecting Buyers, Sellers and Their Agents

Two weeks ago I focused on how the media has covered the settlement between the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and sellers regarding the payment of buyer agent commissions. At the end of that article I directed readers to my blog to read my further thoughts about how the settlement would affect buyers, sellers and their agents.

Since not all readers visited that website (or it might have crashed), I’ll share those insights in this week’s column.

create a website for each listing can mention co-op compensation there, and ads (like the one below) can include that information too, drawing buyers to show your listing over other listings.

Note: This column was published last Thursday in the Denver Post but not in the weekly newspapers.

I’m convinced that sellers will still want to offer some amount of compensation to buyers’ agents as an incentive to show their homes. Because co-op commissions will no longer be published in the MLS, listing agents will come up with off-MLS ways of providing that information. Failing that, they should expect buyers’ agents to call them before an offer is submitted to find out what compensation, if any, can be inserted in the purchase contract.

Buyers’ agents who didn’t get their buyer to agree to pay them a commission can be expected to call listing agents about compensation before they even show the listing. If more than one agent asks the listing agent that question and then fails to set a showing, the listing agent might get his seller to offer a coop commission.

Note: Although co-op compensation will not appear on the MLS, listing agents (like Golden Real Estate’s) who

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Here are some practical changes that can be expected.

First, the Colorado Real Estate Commission (CREC) will tweak the Exclusive Right to Sell (listing) contract to remove the offer of co-op compensation from Sec. 7.1.1. Instead of entering, for example, 5% to 6% as the commission, the contract will likely show 2.5% to 3% as the commission.

If the seller agrees to the idea of incentivizing buyers’ agents, it could be expressed in a newly created section of the listing agreement or under Additional Provisions like this: “If a buyer’s agent requests compensation, Broker is authorized to offer x% commission to be paid by Seller at closing.”

Beware, however: Not offering the exact same commission to every inquiring agent could constitute a Fair Housing violation. It would be best to publish that amount, such as on a listing flyer and/or listing website.

I have always advocated for buyers to have professional representation, so I welcome the settlement’s requirement to have a signed buyer agency agreement before showing listings This can be a 1day or 1-week agreement, to allow the buyer time to decide if he/she wants a formal exclusive relationship with that agent. However, buyers will likely be reluctant to sign anything just to see a home, so they will likely call listing agents instead.

When a listing agent shows his or her own listing, the buyer isn’t required to sign anything, although the listing agent is required to present the buyer with a

“Brokerage Disclosure to Buyer” that he/ she represents the seller and that the buyer is a “customer.” (Buyer can decline to sign that disclosure.)

Are listing agents prepared for that onslaught? Listing agents who are used to putting a listing in the MLS and waiting for other agents to sell it won’t like buyers asking for showings — especially once they aren’t able to get sellers to sign a 5% to 6% listing agreement.

The rules will disproportionately hurt buyers who can barely afford a downpayment, unless lenders allow a buyer commission to be included in the loan amount, and those buyers won’t be able to come up with thousands in cash to pay their agents. Those buyers will surely go to listing agents directly.

Meanwhile, listing agents are used to their paycheck doubling when they don’t have to share their 5 to 6 percent commission with a buyer’s agent. That’s going to go away unless listing agents convince their sellers to put a provision in their contract that if no commission is owed to a buyer’s agent, then the listing commission is increased by x%.

The CREC’s Exclusive Right to Buy contract has long had two sections which say the buyer’s broker will request payment from the seller but, failing that, buyer agrees to pay a stated fee for representation. Here are those sections:

the seller pays (if anything) and what’s in their buyer agency agreement.

Buyers can be expected to resist almost any percentage, since they have never paid a commission in the past. Because of this, more buyers can be expected to call listing agents to see homes instead of hiring a buyer’s agent, although I’ll continue to advocate for buyers to hire an agent to represent them.

Justifying the listing commission will be an easier sell, but only if the listing agent offers the kind of value we do at Golden Real Estate. It will be a harder sell for listing agents who provide minimal value to their sellers.

Here’s a partial list of the value Golden Real Estate agents provide to our sellers:

 A free staging consultation

 Free use of our box truck, free moving boxes, and free packing materials, including bubble wrap

 Magazine quality still photos, HD narrated video tour, and aerial photos and video

 Custom websites for each listing and custom URLs (e.g., yourhome.com)

 Advertising your home next to this real estate column in the Denver Post and 23 weekly newspapers

 Discount on the listing commission

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These will become the default sections in the buyer agency contract. Agents working with a buyer will seek to insert 2.5% to 3% in their buyer agency agreement in case a seller doesn’t agree to that much (or any) compensation for the buyer’s agent. Percentages like that will be a hard sell, because the buyer would be on the hook for the difference between what

when we don’t have to pay a buyer’s agent and/or when we earn a commission selling you a replacement home. The NAR settlement still allows the MLS to include offers of monetary concessions for buyers, such as paying for buyers’ closing costs or subsidizing a buydown of buyer’s mortgage loan rate, something that is increasingly common.

Rock-throwing suspects in Alexa Bartell murder plead not guilty

Trio of teen suspects will face separate trials this summer

BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

e trio of teenagers accused of committing the rock-throwing spree that led to the death of 20-year-old Arvada resident Alexa Bartell have entered not-guilty pleas and will face trial separately this summer.

e three 18-year-old defendants pleaded not guilty on April 1 and will be tried separately, according to multiple motions for severance led by each defendant’s legal team on Nov. 3, 2023

obtained by the Arvada Press. e motions seem to suggest that the defendants each plan to accuse another defendant of throwing the rock that killed Bartell.

Additionally, on April 1, defendant Joseph Koenig was charged with four additional counts — two of attempted murder and two of attempted assault — involving incidents with previously unidenti ed victims, both of whom are alive.

Koenig’s trial is set to begin on July 19. Fellow defendants Zachary Kwak and Nicholas Carol-Chik have trials that will start on June 24 and June 7, respectively.

Besides the new charges against Koenig, the trio faces the same 13 charges, all related to the events of April 19, 2023 which led to Bartell’s death and other incidents of

landscaping rocks being hurled at driving motorists.

e charges include one count of murder in the rst degree, six counts of criminal attempt to commit murder in the rst degree, three counts of assault in the second degree and three counts of criminal attempt to commit assault in the rst degree.

Events of April 19, 2023, according to police a davits

Karol-Chik’s statement says that he and Kwak both collected landscaping rocks from the Walmart on 72nd Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard on April 19, 2023, loading them into the bed of KarolChik’s pickup, a Chevrolet Silverado 1500.

Alexa Bartell was killed when a rock was thrown through her windshield.

COURTESY ARVADA POLICE

SUSPECTS

A fourth man said he was with the trio at the Walmart, but asked to be taken home when he suspected the group might be preparing for trouble. e fourth man said the group was loading up “as much (rocks) as they could carry” into the vehicle, and said Koenig frequently participates in disruptive behavior because he likes to cause “chaos.”

Investigators used cell phone data and crime reports to determine that the rock that killed Bartell was one of seven incidents of landscaping rocks being thrown at cars in a large, semi-circular area stretching from Highway 72 in the south, Highway 93 in the east, Highway 128 in the north and Indiana Street in the west. Kwak’s statement claims that while the trio was traveling around,

Koenig was driving the vehicle, Karol-Chik was riding in the front passenger seat, and Kwak was in the back row behind Karol-Chik.

Kwak said Karol-Chik was using “marine terms” as the rocks were thrown, such as “contact left” before Koenig would throw a rock at a car to the left of theirs.

Kwak said Koenig threw the rock

that killed Bartell.

Kwak said that Koenig sped up as the group’s vehicle approached Bartell, then threw a rock out the window that made a loud sound, like a “rail gun” shooting a block of concrete. Afterward, Kwak noticed that Bartell’s vehicle had left the roadway. ey reached the next intersection and turned around to

return to where it left the road, according to the a davit.

As they passed Bartell’s vehicle, Kwak took a picture of Bartell’s vehicle. He told investigators that he thought Karol-Chik or Koenig would want it as a memento.

Karol-Chik said all three suspects threw rocks at cars. He claimed that Kwak threw the rock that killed Bartell, and corroborated Kwak’s account that the trio turned back toward Bartell’s car so that Kwak could take a photo. Karol-Chik said that at this point in the night, he felt “a hint of guilt.”

Kwak said that after circling back to Bartell’s car, Koenig took him home. He told investigators that Koenig and Karol-Chik discussed now being “blood brothers” and stated that they could never speak of the incident. Kwak also said that Koenig came to his house the next day to get their stories straight, speci cally to deny any involvement in the events of the previous night.

The three teenagers charged with murdering Alexa Bartell (20) are (from left) Joseph Koenig, Nicholas Karol-Chik, Zachary Kwak. COURTESY ARVADA POLICE

Arvada Center unveils Summer Concert Series lineup featuring Melissa Ethridge, Corrine Bailey Rae

Colorado Symphony and other Centennial State favorites round out this year’s shows

BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Big things are coming to Arvada this summer — including Billboard chart-toppers, acclaimed classical acts and homegrown Colorado talent — for the Arvada Center’s 2024 Summer Concert Series.

is year’s slate of shows is set to kick o in June and run through September. Included in the lineup are Melissa Ethridge, Corrine Bailey Rae and the Colorado Symphony — the latter of which has two unique performances scheduled. Other acts featured are ‘90s hitmakers Spin Doctors and Cracker,

funk favs Tower of Power, and bluegrass mainstays Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky under along with locals Big Richard.

e Colorado four-piece Big Richard was founded in 2021 by Bonnie Sims, Joy Adams, Hazel Royer and Eve Panning and are known for their virtuosic instrumentation on mandolin, cello, upright bass and ddle, respectively.

e Arvada Center’s Director of Marketing and Communications

Sarah Kolb said she was excited that the performing arts complex would be highlighting female musicians this year.

“To me, summer is on the horizon when we start thinking about kicking back to incredible live music and perfect Colorado evenings,” Kolb said. “ is year, we’re featuring such a diverse and exciting lineup in our Outdoor Amphitheatre. I’m particularly excited to be featuring so many acts fronted by women — everyone from Colorado bluegrass quartet Big Richard to the iconic Melissa Etheridge.”

e full schedule for this year’s summer concert series is:

3rd Law Dance

June 1;Main Stage eatre

Denver Gay Men’s Chorus

June 13;Main Stage eatre

Spin Doctors with Cracker

June 21; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Orquesta Akokán with Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen

June 23; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Denver Brass

June 29; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Colorado Symphony — ‘Mozart Under Moonlight’

July 6; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Melissa Ethridge

July 7; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky under

July 9; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra

July 13; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Colorado Symphony — ‘A Tribune to Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops’

July 26; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Tower of Power

July 28; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Cleo Parker Robinson Dance

Aug. 2; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Corrine Bailey Rae

Aug. 9; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Aug. 25; Outdoor Amphitheatre

e High Kings and Gaelic Storm

Aug. 28; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Big Richard

Sept. 7; Outdoor Amphitheatre

Tickets for all shows can be purchased online at arvadacenter.org or by calling the box o ce at 720898-7200.

This year’s slate of summer shows is highlighted by Melissa Ethridge and Corrine Bailey Rae. COURTESY ARVADA CENTER

Arvada City Council renews cable contract with TDS BAJA Broadband for one year

Company has provided cable to west Arvada since 2014; councilmembers raise concerns

BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Arvada’s city council agreed to a one-year extension on the city’s Cable Television Franchise agreement with TDS BAJA Broadband to provide cable to Arvadans west of Indiana Street.

e extension expires on July 31, 2025 and will allow the city to “complete its negotiation with both BAJA and Comcast on a new franchise agreement at the same time,” Arvada Engineer Jenny Wolfschlag said. Comcast provides cable for Arvadans east of Indiana.

Arvada initially entered into a franchise agreement with BAJA in 2014 for a term of ten years, though concerns about the company’s services — lack of pay-per-view and DVR functionality were two major ones — have popped up over the years.

Brian Archer (left) was appointed to the position of Director of the Je erson Parkway Authority at the April 1 Arvada City Council Meeting.

On thin ice: Local ice climbers adapt to a warming world

While the popularity of the sport increases, so do the climate-associated risks faced by climbers

BY MERYL PHAIR SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

On the rock crags of Clear Creek Canyon, water ows harden into ice as solid as the rocks beneath them.

As temperatures drop across Colorado’s Front Range during the winter, a dynamic balance between cold

nights that freeze ice and warmer days that thaw it enough for the water beneath to ow, keeps the ice consistently thick.

Secret Waterfall, Mickey’s Big

Mouth and Coors Light have become reliable routes for ice climbers just outside of Golden. While adapting to changes on the ice is as necessary to a climber as ice axes and crampons, climbers say that in recent years, the ice ows have been shifting.

“It’s de nitely changing,” said Ben Coryell, who leads ice climbs throughout the Front Range with his company Golden Mountain Guides. “ e ice comes in later in the season

or doesn’t come in at all.”

He recalled in 2015 and prior years, the ows would come in by December and stick around until midMarch. Some ows have stopped coming in entirely since and in the last couple of years, except this year, popular ows haven’t even come in until March.

“ ere’s not enough moisture and cold,” said Coryell. “In terms of the ice and the weather, things have been funky.”

ings are getting funky beyond Clear Creek Canyon. Mountain guides and climbers around the world whose sports and businesses rely on the consistency of ice are noticing the changes. Even as ice climbing has grown dramatically in popularity and accessibility, the future of the sport may be on thin ice due to warming temperatures.

e American Alpine Club, a climbing advocacy nonpro t head-

quartered in Golden, began to notice an increased level of awareness about environmental change within the guiding community.

Working with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, the group surveyed the American climbing public and found climbers were more concerned about the issue of climate change than the general American public.

To quantify this sentiment, in 2019 the AAC organized a team of researchers to conduct a study on the impact of climate change on ice climbing.

Using the Mount Washington valley in New Hampshire as a case study, the study looked at climate models, an extensive photo archive of the ows over time, and the knowledge of local guides to assess future impacts.

An ice climber with Golden Mountain Guides makes his way up an ice fall.

ICOURTESY OF BEN CORYELL GOLDEN MOUNTAIN GUIDES

Taxpayer refunds could squeeze state budget

Forecasts leave legislators short of what they expected

BY BRIAN EASON THE COLORADO SUN

Colorado budget writers may be headed back to the drawing board. Slower population growth and rising fee revenue could trigger upwards of $300 million more state taxpayer refunds than expected in the current budget year, under economic forecasts presented to the Joint Budget Committee in midMarch.

e latest forecasts leave top lawmakers well short of what they expected to be able to spend in next year’s budget, with less than a week left to nalize the 2024-25 spending plan before it has to be submitted to the General Assembly for consideration.

Under Colorado Legislative Council Sta estimates, the budget committee could need to cut as much as $267 million in spending requests to balance the budget for next scal year. Even under a scenario presented by the governor’s O ce of State Planning and Budgeting, lawmakers could face $150 million gap without major budget-balancing maneuvers.

State economists present revenue forecasts to the legislature every three months. But the March update takes on special importance, because the estimates determine how much the legislature has to work with when it adopts the annual budget, known as the long bill.

A return to normal could be even more challenging than expected — but not because of any economic

Instead, the budget will be squeezed primarily by two seemingly minor factors.

One, U.S. Census estimates now say the state’s population grew by less than the state’s demographer had anticipated. at means the state revenue cap under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which tracks in ation and population growth, can only increase by 5.8% this budget year rather than the 6.1% legislative forecasters were expecting.

Two, the state is now expected to collect $185 million more in road usage fees and retail delivery charges this year than last, under the legislative sta estimates.

Taken together, the two forecast changes mean state lawmakers could have to issue larger than expected TABOR refunds to Coloradans next year, leaving the state with fewer General Fund tax dollars to spend on public services.Under the legislative sta forecast, Colorado would have a $1.8 billion TABOR surplus this budget year, while the governor’s o ce expects $2 billion in excess revenue. at would translate to a nearly $400 refund for the average single- ler in 2025 under the current refund formula, which is tiered based on income.

is year, all single- lers received $800.

is story was printed through a news sharing agreement with e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned nonpro t based in Denver that covers the state.

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The Colorado State Capitol Building. PHOTO BY ERICA BREUNLIN/THE COLORADO SUN

THIN ICE

e climate models prepared by the AAC researchers predicted a decline in the length of the winter climbing season in both a highemission scenario (if nothing is done to lower carbon emissions) and a moderate emission scenario (if steps are taken to lower emissions). e results revealed that by 2100 in a high-emission scenario, the season length for ice climbing could be as short as 30 days.

“We tapped into a reality that a lot of people were experiencing, but not necessarily quantifying or doing enough to talk about,” said Taylor Luneau, the AAC policy director at the time of the study. Luneau said the research not only showed how the ice would be a ected but also what it might mean for local economies and the individuals who rely

on ice for their livelihood.

Environmental stresses to ice ows are also combined with the growing popularity of the sport.

ree million Americans ice climb yearly, a signi cant increase from the 50,000 participants that took to ice falls in the early 2000s. At Clear Creek, Coryell said that besides this season, Coors Light and Mickey’s never formed so there have been even more climbers at Secret Waterfall.

“One of our big goals as a company is to facilitate a great mountain experience,” Coryell said. “We’ve started doing a lot more of our ice work in less crowded places, to give a better experience and it’s easier to manage the overall risk. If you have 20 people climbing on a tiny ow, it’s going to be a bowling alley if that ice comes down on you.”

e guiding out t climbs across the front range, including locations that are much further than the easy twenty-minute drive from Denver to Golden and the fteen up to Clear Creek Canyon. Due to the unpredictability of the ice, Coryell said even though more people want to climb closer to Denver, they’ve been steering clients to their Mount Lincoln and Lake City climbs as the overall experience will be better.

“Clear Creek is so close and accessible to a big market of both tourists and people fully into the sport,” Coryell said. “When that option isn’t there, you lose out on a lot of equity in terms of folks that can go out and climb. From a business standpoint, it’s been tricky to adjust, because you can’t run the same type of programming anymore without going higher up into the mountains.”

While the ice further up in the mountains is more insulated, the impacts of warming temperatures have been noticeable up there as well. At Mount Lincoln, warmer days combined with colder nights have caused the ice to grow much thicker than before.  e economic impacts of a changing climate and the value of ice climbing to a community are hard to quantify but as the ice recedes, so does the access to outdoor recreation and the quality of life that leads so many people to choose to live in front range communities.

As businesses adapt to the changing times, some places such as Colorado’s Ouray Ice Park divert water to form their annual ice ows and ice farmers maintain the ice throughout the season. at water comes down from snow melt in the San

Juan Mountains, through the Uncompahgre Gorge, and collects in a storage container for the County of Ouray before being poured over the park’s cli s to form the ows.

“If it’s a low snowfall year, and there’s less water to go around, what happens to the ice farm,” Luneau said. “Do they still get the same amount of water needed to open or does the water get allocated back?”

Less snowfall and less ice due to warming temperatures lead to critical questions about water resource management in a state that already faces challenges in water supply. A drier system overall can also increase the risks of wild res and droughts.

“ e experience of being on the ice and seeing these changes allows us to step into a much bigger, more drastic conversation,” said Luneau. “We’re very privileged to be able to do this sport and it’s not just about maintaining climbing days. It’s about the downstream e ect.”

As ice climbers have begun to be louder advocates for the impacts of our changing climate, they are joined by organizations like Protect Our Winters who have been raising awareness of the impact of climate change on all recreational winter sports. ese organizations are making strong calls for mitigation measures, and the study by the AAC was combined with a policy position about changes that need to be made going forward.

In Clear Creek Canyon, water flows harden into ice solid enough for climbers.

COURTESY OF BEN CORYELL GOLDEN MOUNTAIN GUIDES

ell. “It’s something all of our guides focus on with clients and we do spend a fair bit of time talking with people and guides about how different it’s becoming.”

Luneau said one of the major ways the climbing community can address the issue is through land conservation and supporting initiatives like 30x30, which aims to conserve 30% of land and water by 2030, as an interim measure of reaching 50% by 2050.

In Golden, the changes ice climbers see on the ice are becoming a bigger part of the conversation. Coryell said that many guiding out ts are getting together across the Front Range to debrief the ice season, see what worked well and how they can provide the best experiences in the upcoming year.

“It’s an ever-changing medium, and what may be here today might not be there tomorrow,” said Cory-

Despite the challenges, ice climbers and guides will have to adapt. On a recent climb in Washington, Luneau had been out on the ice at the same time as another group of climbers. Temperatures had been warming throughout the day and the wind picked up, sending a rock tumbling down the hill right into a climber’s face. e climber was injured but thankfully ultimately OK, Luneau said.

“It was a good reminder that these are dynamic systems and what has been predictable in the past isn’t necessarily going to be safe in the future,” said Luneau. “ at shift is going to require a lot of attention from climbers as things continue to warm.”

Even as ice climbing has become more popular, shifting weather patterns and warming weather are changing the conditions of once reliable routes.

COURTESY OF BEN CORYELL GOLDEN MOUNTAIN GUIDES

Some types of genre storytelling are destined to be with us forever. I think it’s safe to say at this point that murder mysteries are one of the top examples of such evergreen storytelling. People just can’t seem to get enough. And with classics like Agatha Christie’s “ e Mousetrap” still being staged, who am I to argue?

’The Mousetrap’ is set at Lone Tree Arts Center COMING

e show is running at the Lone Tree Arts Center, 10075 Commons St., from ursday, April 11 through Sunday, April 21. We interviewed director Sam Gregory about the show, what makes it so much fun and more.

Interview edited for brevity and clarity.

Tell me about ‘ e Mousetrap’ and what it’s about?

“ e Mousetrap” is an Agatha Christie murder mystery. Mollie and Giles Ralston have just converted Monkswell Manor house into an inn. On the inn’s rst night, a blizzard traps the guests in the old house. One of the guests is murdered and everyone is a suspect. Agatha Christie asks us to consider if we can ever truly know anyone, even those closest to us. It is the classic murder mystery. What drew you to direct the show?

I love the characters in this play. ey are quirky and mysterious and sometimes pretty funny. I love a good murder mystery and this play is one of the best.

TATTRACTIONS

Are there any particular challenges to directing such a wellknown show?

You might think the most challenging aspect of the show would be keeping the secret of “who done it” till the end. But the reverse is true. We are working very hard to make sure that the audience can follow all the facts they need to know to solve the case. If you haven’t seen the play already, I’m pretty sure that even the most accomplished armchair detectives will be challenged to gure it out.

What is your favorite thing about the show?

is show is just a lot of fun. It is certainly fun to do and I know it will be fun to see. It’s equal parts mystery and comedy. e combination of suspense and humor is what makes this play special.

What do you hope audiences come away with?

I hope we entertain everyone who comes. If you’ve never seen the show, you’ll be fully surprised by the twists and turns of the story. And if you’ve seen it many times before and know “who done it” (By the way, shhh, don’t give it away!), you’ll enjoy revisiting these classic, memorable, characters.

Information on showtimes and

tickets can be found at www.lonetreeartscenter.org/whats-on/themousetrap.

Get ready for Water Garden Season

e Colorado Water Garden Society and Denver Botanic Gardens are teaming up for “Get Wet — Water Gardening Fun in 2024,” which will be hosted from 6 to 8 p.m. on ursday, April 18, at Gates Hall in the Boettcher Memorial Center at the Botanic gardens, 1007 York St. in Denver.

e free event will feature a presentation from Tamara Kilbane, Curator of the Aquatic Collection at the Botanic gardens. Information about upcoming water gardening events will also be shared, and some water gardening-related door prizes will be given away.

For more information, contact Kilbane at 720-865-3556 or tamara. kilbane@botanicgardens.org.

The Hits of the 60s and 70s Come to Lakewood

e Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra’s presentation of Hitmakers of the 60s & 70s featuring the Music of Carole King, James Taylor & Friends is coming to the Lakewood Cultural Center, 470 S. Allison Parkway, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 14.

e show will feature some of King and Taylor’s most famous tunes, as well as music from some of their legendary peers, like Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and Simon & Garfun-

kel. e show will be performed by a small band ensemble featuring vocalist, arranger, and concert curator, Marion Powers.

e CJRO doesn’t do many smaller shows like this, so get tickets at www.coloradojazz.org/concerts.

Clarke’s Concert of the Week — The Mountain Goats at the Gothic Theatre e Mountain Goats are one of those indie rock bands that have fans, man. And I mean fans – the kind of people who study lead songwriter John Darnielle’s every line and turn of phrase. And the band earns this kind of dedication – they tend to release innovative concept albums, inspired by everything from wrestling to Dungeons & Dragons. Last year’s “Jenny From ebes” is a rock opera based on a character who showed up in one of their 2002 records. eir catalog goes that deep.

In support of the album, e Mountain Goats will play two nights at the Gothic eatre, 3263 S. Broadway in Englewood. ey’ll take to the stage at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16, and Wednesday, April 17. Audiences will be treated both nights to an opening performance by celebrated alt-rock singer-songwriter Katy Kirby. Get tickets at www.axs.com.

Clarke Reader’s column on culture appears on a weekly basis. He can be reached at Clarke.Reader@hotmail. com.

Gas rabies: The cause and the cure

he story unfolds before us far too often — bits of scattered plastic and glass, emergency vehicles with lights ashing red, the shaken driver standing near a crumpled car and an animal who paid the ultimate price for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Whether the concern is the risk of injury to the occupants of the vehicle, property damage or the su ering of animals, crashes involving wildlife are a pervasive,

INSIDE THE OUTDOORS

signi cant, and tragic risk when driving in the mountain foothills.

Je erson County has earned the unwelcome distinction of having the secondhighest number of wildlife-vehicle collisions of all

counties in the state. Colorado State Patrol crash data recorded 646 wildlife-vehicle collisions on Je erson County roads between 2015-2019. In 2023, the Colorado Department of Transportation reported 17 elk, 15 deer, one mountain lion, one raccoon, one fox and three unknown animals as roadkill on Highway 74 alone.

With a year-round elk herd of 250 animals, a four-lane state highway with speed limits up to 55 mph and

high tra c counts, Evergreen is a hot spot of elk-vehicle collisions. With golf courses, ponds and lakes, meadows and backyards, Evergreen is a haven of easy living, providing endless and dependable food and water, safe areas for calving and breeding, and relative safety from hunting and predation. Why indeed would a doe choose to give birth to her fawn under the deck of a home,

Clarke Reader of

Christie Greene

surrounded by humans, pets, cars and noise?

What can be done?

Distracted driving is a factor in collision frequency. Tom Vanderbilt, in his insightful book, “Tra c,” describes tra c as “an in-between time in which we are more likely to think about where we are going than where we are at the moment.” In one study, almost 80% of crashes involved drivers who were not paying attention to tra c for up to 3 seconds before the event. In addition to cell phone distractions, drivers adjusted their radios 7.4 times per hour and searched for something inside their cars 10.8 times per hour.

A simple reduction in speed limit seems intuitive. But as Vanderbilt states, “ e road itself tells us far more than signs do. If you build a road that’s wide, has a lot of sight distance, and has a large median, large shoulders and the driver feels safe, they‘re going to go fast.” He continues, “It doesn’t matter what speed limit or sign you have. In fact, the engineers who built that road seduced the driver to go that fast.”

property on one side or the other along Highway 74, there is nowhere for a structure to be built.

In other words, our transportation planners have given us the green light to develop a serious case of gas rabies, a term coined by Ben Goldfarb in his 2023 book, “Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of our Planet.” Gas rabies a ictions appear to be highly contagious with unappealing side effects — an increased risk of injury, death and emotional trauma.

With incredible success rates of over 90% reductions of wildlifevehicle collisions, wildlife underpasses and overpasses are being built with greater frequency than ever due to support of state and federal legislation. A new underpass on I-70 near Genesee will open in spring of 2024, and funding has been approved for overpasses and underpasses on I-25, I-70 and Highway 40 near Empire.

Why, then, is Evergreen’s Highway 74 not being chosen for such a structure? Evergreen missed the opportunity to be approved for a wildlife crossing structure on its state highway years ago when the last parcel of land adjoining Highway 74 was developed. With private

Instead, CDOT approved Highway 74 for a series of temporary Variable Message Signs that were placed intermittently on Highway 74 throughout 2020, 2021 and 2022. In February 2024, a permanent VMS was installed on northbound 74 near Safeway, still waiting to be activated.

According to CDOT sta , “CDOT received frequent requests to deploy temporary VMS signs to alert the traveling public to periods of higher wildlife crossing activity along SH 74-(new permanent signs) will be used to continue messaging this to the traveling public as well as inform them of other important events in the corridor (they won’t be dedicated solely to wildlife messaging).”

Slower speed limits and more signs will not prevent gas rabies. e uncomfortable truth is that it is we, the drivers, who must slow the rate of wildlife-vehicle collisions in our community. Getting comfortable with driving at the speed limit, quickly reacting to oncoming vehicles’ ashing lights and slowing or stopping when other drivers are doing so (what do they see that you can’t?), and waiting in place while elk herds cross the road are behaviors we must cultivate.

You’ll be relieved to know that gas rabies has a cure. Just look in a mirror.

Carol Hans

July 31, 1944 - March 20, 2024

Carol Hans née Snow, age 79, passed away peacefully on March 20, in her home in Arvada. Burial services were March 29, 2024 at the Arvada Cemetery. For more information, please visit thenaturalfuneral.com/obituaries.

Steve Shelton

January 26, 1950 - March 19, 2024

Steve Shelton, life-long resident of Arvada, Colorado, died peacefully surrounded by loved ones after a valiant battle with cancer on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. He is survived by his two daughters Ashlie and Holly, their husbands Mike and Dan, his granddaughters Alanna (9) and Harlow (2), his brother and sister in-law Butch and Diana Shelton, and sister and brother in-law Diane and Bill Zimmerman. Steve touched the lives of so many throughout his 74 years. He will be remembered for so much, but most of all for his relentless sense of humor and his amazingly generous spirit.

Mountains, to the Denver Broncos, to the weather that can turn on a dime, he never felt more alive than when watching a blue & orange sunset, leaves change, or seeing a columbine bloom. He was spiritual and believed that we are all energy.

Steve grew up playing in the mud. When his Mom would tell him to get a clean shirt he would turn it inside out. He provided comedic entertainment to his siblings and parents and never missed a punchline. He spent countless weekends at Lakeside Speedway cheering on his idol Don Wilson (#19). Racing was a life-long love and he would travel far and wide to see Sprints, Midgets, or dirt tracks whenever he could.

Steve was an incredible athlete, leaving no record unturned while playing Varsity Football and Baseball at Arvada West High School. His hustle, courage, and school spirit were admired by his teammates and coaches (see yearbook, Claw ’68).

Steve loved everything that there is about Colorado, the Centennial State. From the

Steve was an incredible dad and grandpa, one who instilled a work ethic beyond compare. So many weekends were spent on the soccer eld, softball diamond, basketball games, gymnastics meets, musicals, and watching recitals. “Funny Grandpa” was always the rst to chase or tease anyone who would let him. His generosity with his time and energy will be core memories for his children and grandchildren.

Steve loved the outdoors including hiking, shing, and camping. His support for Pomona football, collegiate sport, or his adult children’s softball and kickball leagues were outlets for his competitive spirit. Many have referred to him as “Dad” and will keep him alive in their memories.

Steve’s mantra was “Plant Flowers, not Weeds” to encourage those who he loved to embrace the power of positive thinking.

A “Celebration of Life” will be held on April 17, 2024 from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm at the Arvada Villa Italian Restaurant. In lieu of owers or other gestures, the family asks for your consideration in donating to the American Cancer Society in Steve’s name.

COURTESY PHOTOL

BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLOROADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

The elementary school students making paper parachutes and homemade kaleidoscopes now will — in about 10 years or so — be studying aerospace engineering and nuclear ssion.

at’s the hope behind programs like Colorado School of Mines’ third annual Girls Are SMART event, which recently hosted 130 girls from elementary schools across the Denver area.

Girls Are SMART — Studious, Mighty, Amazing, Resilient and Talented — had the participants rotate through a variety of science, tech-

nology, engineering and math-focused activities.

ey spent the morning on March 9 making their own Newton’s cradles, rainsticks, elephant toothpaste, stomp rockets and more, with Mines students explaining the mechanics behind each station’s activity.

e participants described afterward how they had a great time making new friends and learning about science, and several said they wanted to come back next year.

The short-term goal behind Girls Are SMART, as the event’s organizers from Mines’ Society of Women Engineers chapter explained, was to bolster the participants’ knowledge of basic scientific principles like air resistance, pres-

sure and gravity.

But, the larger objective was to encourage the students’ love of learning, especially in STEM, and “inspire girls to go into any eld they want,” as organizer Mary Nimey said.

Nimey, a Mines senior studying mining engineering, noted how SWE hosts similar events for middle school and high school students, although they’re more technical and involved based on the age group. For the older students, Nimey said these programs also encourage participants to explore whichever topics or specialties within engineering interest them.

A Girls Are SMART participant looks through a handmade kaleidoscope crafted during the March 9 event on the Colorado School of Mines campus. The Mines’ Society of Women Engineers chapter hosted the third annual event, where elementary school students rotated through several science-focused stations. PHOTO BY CORINNE WESTEMAN

ENGINEERING

According to Colorado School of Mines enrollment data, women accounted for a third of all 7,608 enrolled students in fall 2023. Additionally, the SWE chapter’s webpage states it has about 800 members, and is the largest SWE college chapter in the United States and the largest professional student organization on the Mines campus.

Nimey hoped to see both SWE membership and women’s enrollment at Mines increase in the coming years, thanks in part to Girls Are SMART and similar programs throughout the country.

If so, today’s participants will be tomorrow’s organizers and volunteers, helping to encourage the next generation of scientists just as Golden’s Eva Christianson now is.

Christianson, a Mines junior studying mechanical engineering, recalled attending similar events when she went to Golden High

School. ese events were crucial in solidifying her interest in studying engineering, she said.

Northglenn’s Jessica Tomshack, a fellow junior and mechanical engineering major, emphasized how crucial it is to get girls involved and help them feel encouraged to study STEM at a young age, and to “show them what the options are” as far as future careers, she added.

Students today; leaders tomorrow

For the Girls Are SMART participants, the March 9 event was simply a fun opportunity to make new friends and learn new things.

First-grader Hannah Woolley said her favorite station was making cotton-ball shooters. Meanwhile, second-graders Amelia Zeller and Lyla Premschak said they enjoyed the elephant toothpaste the most, as they liked watching the substances react and the colorful foam rise out of the bottle.

Lyla and her family said several of her Castle Rock schoolmates signed up for the event after their elementary school sent out information. Lyla appreciated how all the Oredigger vol-

unteers were “nice and helpful,” and enjoyed making a new friend.

Although Lyla’s dad is an engineer and Mines alumnus, mom Bre Premschak signed her up because “it shows the opportunities (in engineering) for girls too.” Plus, Lyla is an advanced learning student, so Bre believed the Girls Are SMART activities would “add onto those experiences” at school.

Similarly, ornton’s Zeller family signed Amelia up after hearing about it from a local teacher. Because Amelia’s shown an interest in environmental studies, her parents said it was important for her to be “surrounded by likeminded women” in her fellow participants and their Mines mentors.

e Woolleys, who live in Highlands Ranch, also heard about Girls Are SMART from a previous participant, and thought it’d be perfect for Hannah as she loves math and science. Plus, the event was special because it was for girls, her mom Maggie Woolley said.

“Anything we can do to encourage it,” dad Mike Woolley said of Hannah’s love for math and science.

Participants at the Girls Are SMART event look at a hand diagram they made at the March 9 event on the Colorado School of Mines campus. About 130 elementary school students from across the Denver area participated in the third annual event, hosted by Mines’ Society of Women Engineers chapter.

PHOTO BY CORINNE WESTEMAN

State lets some migrant students skip tests

Colorado Department of Education issues guidance

BY YESENIA ROBLES CHALKBEAT COLORADO

Some students who are new to the U.S. and enrolled in Colorado schools after the o cial October count will not have to take any standardized tests this spring.

at’s according to new guidance issued recently by the Colorado Department of Education.

e department changed the guidance as school districts are seeing unprecedented numbers of new students who are new to the country. Teachers have described various challenges they’ve faced trying to educate migrant students, and the students are unlikely to do well on standardized state tests given in English. As of February, the Denver, Aurora, Cherry Creek, Greeley, Adams 12, Je co, and Mapleton districts told Chalkbeat they had enrolled more than 5,600 newcomer students after October count.

Denver Public School leaders told their school board this week that in their case, the majority of students new to the country will fall into that category to be exempt from testing. Colorado students who are iden-

ti ed as new to the country and have no or limited pro ciency in English already are exempt from taking standardized English reading and writing tests for at least their rst year of school. Before the new guidance, they were expected to take standardized math and science tests with accommodations. is spring, if students are new to the country, have no or little English uency, enrolled after October count, and had limited or interrupted schooling before arriving, they can also skip the math and science tests.

Limited or interrupted schooling includes not attending school for six consecutive school calendar months prior to Colorado enrollment or having two or more years of missed schooling compared to similarly aged students in the U.S. Students who had limited school options in their home country because of war, civil unrest, or needing to travel a long distance to an available school could also qualify for that designation.

Students who have not had interrupted schooling will still be expected to take math and science tests with accommodations. eir participation will count toward overall participation rates, but their scores will not be factored into school ratings for state or fed-

eral accountability systems.

Colorado tests students in third through 11th grades. CMAS English and math tests are given to students in third through eighth grade. Science tests are only given to students in fth, eighth, and 11th grades. In high school, students take the PSAT in ninth and tenth grades, and the SAT in 11th

grade.

Families can always opt students out of tests.

In Colorado, this year’s spring testing window begins April 8, after most districts come back from spring break.

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

Some students who are new to the U.S. and enrolled in Colorado schools after the o cial October count will not have to take any standardized tests this spring.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHALKBEAT COLORADO

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Volunteers scramble to help migrant families in Denver

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BY JENNIFER BROWN THE COLORADO SUN

Volunteers were rescuing Venezuelan families with young children from sleeping outside as Denver has scaled back migrant services and the time people were allotted to stay in city-funded hotel rooms expired.

e city, in response to complaints from volunteers that children were ending up outside, decided on a March afternoon to reopen a city building in Civic Center park to house migrant families with nowhere to sleep.

Denver Human Services o cials said they were rushing to reactivate the McNichols Building on Colfax Avenue, including sending sta and ordering meals.

e re-opening of the congregate shelter in a civic building meant for arts and culture was not part of the plan as the city scales down migrant services that have already cost $61 million. But Mayor Mike Jonhston and his sta have said multiple times that they would prevent kids from ending up on Denver streets.

funded hotel rooms is now about 940, down from more than 4,500 in January. Hundreds of families have left hotels in the past month, and many have moved into apartments with nancial help from nonpro ts.

Multiple families were stranded throughout Denver as they had to vacate hotel rooms.

e families sat in hotel lobbies, hoping that nonpro ts or Denver Human Services outreach workers would tell them where they could go. Hours passed, and the families began to panic, in some cases sending requests for help on Facebook pages created by grassroots volunteers.

Lydia Flynn runs a Facebook group to help migrants in northeastern Denver. She had 40 followers when she started it in October. Now, she has 1,400.

Flynn found a volunteer to pick up two of the families in di erent hotels, then drive them and their belongings to a McDonald’s, where she met them and bought them dinner.

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“Nobody ever said this was going to be easy,” said Jon Ewing, spokesperson for Denver Human Services. “You are going to have families who haven’t gured it out yet. ere are a lot of factors competing against them. It’s not a problem of their own making.”

e city is in the process of decreasing the number of hotels it has used to house migrants to three from seven, closing about one each week for four weeks. e third one closed as a city shelter in March.

And after a pause on hotel room time limits, the city is sticking to the policy of allowing adults to stay 14 days in city-funded hotel rooms while families have 42 days.

e number of migrants in city-

“We are talking about 9 p.m.,” she said. “It’s late. It’s cold. ese kids haven’t eaten.”

One family includes a 7-year-old and a pregnant woman. e other is a couple with a 3-year-old, and the father was just released from the hospital and his leg has an infection, Flynn said.

With no help from nonpro ts or the city, Flynn ended up paying for two hotel rooms. “I am eating spaghetti for the rest of the week,” she said. Flynn was advised by one local organization to take the families to an encampment, but she refused.

“I am not putting a pregnant mom in a tent,” she said. “I’m not putting kids in a tent.”

An encampment filled with migrants lines a sidewalk at Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park on March 21, 2024. City outreach workers are trying to move the camp before the amusement park opens next month.

PHOTO BY OLIVIA SUN / THE COLORADO SUN VIA REPORT FOR AMERICA

SEE SCRAMBLE, P20

Pharmaceutical company Amgen sues state over price-setting

BY JOHN INGOLD THE COLORADO SUN

Amgen, the multinational pharmaceutical company that makes the blockbuster arthritis drug Enbrel, has sued Colorado over a state board’s e orts to possibly cap the price of the drug.

In a lawsuit led in U.S. District Court in Denver, Amgen argues that the actions of Colorado’s Prescription Drug A ordability Board are unconstitutional because they conict with federal laws and because they violate rights to due process. e company is seeking not just to overturn the board’s recent decisions about Enbrel but also to strike down major parts of the law creating the board.

“We have signi cant concerns with the Colorado Prescription

Drug A ordability Board’s decision to move forward with its awed policy and process,” Amgen said in a statement. “ ere is no legal basis for the Board’s actions or haphazard process throughout the review period.”

A spokesperson for the Colorado Division of Insurance, which houses the a ordability board, said they could not comment on pending litigation.

Colorado lawmakers, backed by Gov. Jared Polis, created the Prescription Drug A ordability Board, or PDAB, in 2021 with the goal of lowering prescription costs. e board has the ability after extensive review to set so-called upper payment limits — basically, price caps — on drugs it deems una ordable. Its rst reviews of prescription drugs brought outcries from pa-

tient groups worried that price caps would cause their needed drugs to be pulled from the market in Colorado. But, last month, the board voted unanimously to declare Enbrel una ordable, setting in motion a roughly six-month process to weigh whether to become the rst state to place a price cap on a prescription medication.

Enbrel is an injectable drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions. According to Amgen, its list price is $1,762.34 per 50 mg dose, meaning a full year of treatment for some patients could stretch over $90,000. But Amgen’s patient-assistance programs mean almost no patients pay the list price out-of-pocket. Insurance companies pick up a large majority of the bill, even for patients who don’t receive nancial help.

Amgen reported making about $3.7 billion from Enbrel sales worldwide in the 2023 scal year, down 10% from the year before.

In its lawsuit, Amgen argues that Colorado’s PDAB law violates the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause by seeking to override federal patent laws.

“To incentivize the immense risk-taking and investment necessary to discover and develop new medical treatments, Congress has established a carefully calibrated intellectual property regime that rewards pharmaceutical innovation with a period of market exclusivity and the ability to charge prices that allow for further investment and innovation during that period,” the lawsuit states.

SCRAMBLE

e only bright spot is that the families became fast friends and are now hoping to nd an apartment or a basement to rent together. What they want most are work permits, so they

PRICING

Amgen says the law also potentially interferes with Medicare’s ability to control its pricing decisions. And the company also argues that the law seeks to regulate transactions that occur outside of Colorado in violation of the Constitution’s commerce clause.

BROADBAND

“TDS BAJA has done a lot of disservice to our community,” Councilmember Bob Fifer said. “Are we going to get a readout of what they haven’t performed on? I’m disappointed we waited until after it expired to renegotiate — we probably should have been more aware of this

can legally nd jobs in Denver, Flynn said.

While Flynn was helping those two families, a city outreach worker was working late into the evening to nd temporary shelter for seven other families.

e city occasionally uses the McNichols Building as an emergency shelter for the chronically homeless

Lastly, Amgen argues that Colorado’s law is too vague and leaves too many of the ne-print details up to the PDAB to decide, creating due process violations. is “fails to provide drug manufacturers with a meaningful opportunity to be heard and fails to protect them against erroneous deprivations of their property,” the lawsuit states.

e lawsuit has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang, who was appointed to the

situation earlier.”

e previous contract with BAJA expired on March 31.

City Manager Lorie Gillis said BAJA has been working to address some complaints from Arvadans.

“We do have a record of what the issues were and many of them have been addressed,” Gillis said. “I remember a tour when we went to their facility when we had those discussions. I know they rose to the occasion on many of the issues in front

population, including last week when Denver received about a foot of snow.

e city also used the building as a shelter when it cleaned up a giant migrant encampment near Speer Boulevard and Zuni Street in January, o ering people in tents to hop on buses for a ride to the congregate shelter.

In late March, city outreach workers were trying to move about 50-60 peo-

bench by President Joe Biden in 2022. Amgen is asking Wang to strike down PDAB’s authority as it relates to patented drugs, federal health care programs and out-of-state transactions. It is also seeking an order barring the PDAB from enforcing its decisions on Enbrel.

Priya Telang, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, which supported the PDAB’s creation, called the lawsuit “unfortunately expected.”

of them. We still have some issues to address, we will let you know what they are.”

Councilmember John Marriott said he felt like BAJA’s service had improved over the years.

“It seems like TDS (BAJA) has gotten their act together, as I don’t get anywhere near the number of calls and concerns about it as I used to,” Marriott said. “I’ll also note that we’re not giving these out as exclusive franchises as we once did — when they

ple out of a migrant encampment in a parking lot at Elitch Gardens. Tents are lined up in the shadow of a roller coaster, and the amusement park is scheduled to open in April.

is story was printed through a news sharing agreement with e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned nonpro t based in Denver that covers the state.

“It’s a well-known practice that pharmaceutical companies sue to protect pro ts and excessive prices,” Telang wrote in an email. “In this case, it’s just another example of them putting pro ts over patients, regardless of the harmful impact highcost drugs have on those patients.” is story was printed through a news sharing agreement with e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned nonpro t based in Denver that covers the state.

were exclusive, we had a duty to provide reasonable service to residents.

“Nowadays, with the choices the market brings, between Comcast expanding west of Indiana as well as all of the over-the-air streaming that you can do, to me it’s just not as concerning as it was,” Marriott continued.

e motion to approve the franchise agreement extension was approved unanimously with a 7-0 vote at the April 1 business meeting.

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Monarch baseball blows past Ralston Valley

BY DENNIS PLEUSS JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Fittingly, Monarch pitcher Landon Resch’s ball cap blew o his head and started rolling into left eld after the junior struck out Ralston Valley sophomore Cole Pfeifer for the nal out April 6.

With constant 40 mph winds and gusts in the 60s, the Coyotes and Mustangs battled the elements and each other in the non-league game at Ralston Valley High School.

Monarch (3-5, 1-1 in Class 5A Front Range League) came away

with a 3-run home run o of Ralston Valley junior pitcher Liam McGrew who had come in relief for Belcher.

e blast by Tucker gave Monarch a 9-2 lead.

with a 9-2 victory. e Coyotes put the game on ice with a 5-run top of the fth inning.

Ralston Valley junior pitcher Grant Belcher got two quick outs to start the fth in the tight 4-2 game. However, the Coyotes mounted a 2-out rally.

Senior Ryan Lewison started the rally with a walk. Seniors Clay Hafner and Nathan Rutledge had backto-back hits to keep things going.

Junior Zander Belland walked to set the table for Monarch’s No. 9-hole hitter. Senior Row Tucker delivered

Monarch starting pitcher — junior Max Webb — threw a solid ve innings. He gave up two runs on ve hits while striking out six. Resch pitched the nal two innings for the Coyotes. He gave up just one hit and struck out four.

e Coyotes get back into league play when they host Rocky Mountain (4-2-1, 0-1-1) on Tuesday, April 9.

Ralston Valley (4-4) had its 3-game win streak come to an end.

e Mustangs scored their lone two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Senior Marshall Strange and

Logan Madden drove in the Ralston Valley runs.

Logan and fellow senior Laird Jones both had two hits, but it wasn’t enough as the Mustangs managed just two hits in the nal four innings.

Ralston Valley will try to get back on the win column when the Mustangs host underRidge (2-8) on Tuesday, April 9. e Grizzlies are actually coached by former Pomona baseball coach E.J. Mapps, who guided Pomona to the 5A state title in 2003. Mapps is in his rst year coaching at underRidge.

Dennis Pleuss is the Sports Information Director for Je co Public Schools. For more Je co coverage, go to ColoradoPreps.com and CHSAANow.com.

Ralston Valley senior Laird Jones takes a cut at a high pitch during the Mustangs’ non-league game against Monarch on Saturday, April 6. Jones had a pair of hits, but Ralston Valley lost 9-2 against the Coyotes. PHOTOS BY DENNIS PLEUSS / JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Monarch catcher Finn Gardner has the ball get away from him as Ralston Valley senior Nick Albert slides into home plate during the second inning Saturday, April 6, at Nate Jurney Field at Ralston Valley High School. Monarch took a 9-2 road victory to end the Mustangs’ 3-game winning streak.

Standley Lake stays undefeated with shutout of Bear Creek

BY DENNIS PLEUSS JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

LAKEWOOD — Standley Lake’s girls soccer team has already matched its win total from last season and Class 4A Je co League play hasn’t even begun for the Gators (50-1 record).

First-year coach Stephen Tallman has Standley Lake on a 5-game winning streak after a 4-0 shutout victory over Bear Creek on Friday night at Lakewood Memorial Field. Tallman said he is surprised that the Gators only won ve games last season.

“ e chemistry is good,” Tallman said about his team that’s only blemish is a 1-1 tie against Denver South in Standley Lake’s season opener. “ e girls really care about each other and play for each other.”

Standley Lake already has four shutout victories and have outscored its opponents 28 to 2 in six games. Standley Lake scored twice in the rst and second half Friday night to grab the shutout victory. Junior Macy Palmer, who has majority played goalie for the Gators this season, got the scoring going with a header in the 5th minute to put Standley Lake up 1-0.

“ is was a game that we wanted to get everyone on the eld,” Palmer said. “We wanted to get everyone involved.”

Junior Corynn Kjederquist gave the Gators a 2-0 lead with a goal in the 16th minute against Bear Creek (1-4-1). A nice shot from senior Jillian Bundgaard pushed the lead to 3-0 in the 44th minute.

Senior Jocelyn Beeson nished out the scoring with a goal in the 77th minute. Senior Victoria Herrera got the shutout victory in net for the Gators.

“I think we can carry this momentum into league,” Palmer said. “I think we can qualify for state too.”

Tallman admitted the competition will get tougher when Standley Lake begins conference play next week. Keeping the winning streak going will be key.

Standley Lake opens league play Monday, April 8, at the North Area Athletic Complex against Conifer (2-3, 0-1). e Gators face defending 4A state champion Dakota Ridge on April 11 at NAAC.

Tallman

“We’ve shown we can compete,”

next level

Bear Creek dives into 5A Je

League play next week. e Bears face Chat eld (1-3-1) on Tuesday, April 9, at Lakewood Memorial Field. Dennis Pleuss is the Sports Information Director for Je co Public Schools. For more Je co coverage, go ColoradoPreps.com and CHSAANow.com.

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The ball skips out of a group of Standley Lake and Bear Creek players during the non-league game Friday, April 5, at Lakewood Memorial Field. Standley Lake took a 4-0 victory to keep the Gators undefeated on the season.

Standley Lake senior Vanessa Butler, left and Bear Creek junior Sara Kessler (4) battle for the ball during the first half Friday, April 5, at Lakewood Memorial Field.

Standley Lake came away with a 4-0 victory.

PHOTOS BY DENNIS PLEUSS / JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

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Denver Public Schools District 1 seeks the following positions in Denver, CO - Job duties for below positions: Follow

• ELA-S Elementary Teacher *multiple positions available* Reqs: Bachelor’s degree (or foreign equivalent) in any field. Must possess a valid Colorado Department of Education Teacher’s License with appropriate endorsement in Elementary Education (K-6), Spanish (K-12), or ability to obtain. Ability to speak, read, and write both in English and Spanish. Salary: $52,130 with Standard Benefits. Ref 0696.

• World Languages Teacher: Spanish Secondary Teacher *multiple positions available* Reqs: Bachelor’s degree (or foreign equivalent) in Education, Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages, English or related. Must possess a valid Colorado Department of Education Teacher’s License with endorsement in English Language Arts (7-12), Spanish (K12), or ability to obtain. Ability to speak, read, and write both in English and Spanish. Salary: $50,130 with Standard Benefits. Ref 0586.

• Science Secondary Teacher *multiple positions available*Reqs: Bachelor’s degree (or foreign equivalent) in Education, Biological Sciences, or related. Must possess valid Colorado Department of Education Teacher’s License with appropriate endorsement in Science Education (7-12), or ability to obtain. Salary: $50,130 with Standard Benefits. Ref 0618.

• Senior Team Lead, ELA-S Elementary Teacher Reqs: Bachelor’s degree (or foreign equivalent) in Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages, Education, or related. Must possess a valid Colorado Department of Education Teacher’s License with appropriate endorsement in Elementary Education (K-6) or ability to obtain. Ability to speak, read, and write both in English and Spanish. Salary: $52,130 with Standard Benefits. Ref 1308.

• Special Education Teacher Reqs: Bachelor’s degree (or foreign equivalent) in Education, Special Education, or a closely related field. Must possess a Valid state of Colorado Department of Education Teacher’s license with an appropriate endorsement in Special Education Generalist (5-21) or ability to obtain. Salary: $50,130 /yr with Standard Benefits. Ref 0588.

• Social Studies ELA-S Secondary Teacher Reqs: Bachelor’s degree (or foreign equivalent) in Education, Social Sciences, or related. Must possess a current Colorado Department of Education Teacher’s License in Social Studies Education (7-12), or ability to obtain. Ability to speak, read, and write and both English and Spanish. Salary: $52,130 with Standard Benefits. Ref 0585.

• ELD ELA-S Secondary Teacher Reqs: Bachelor’s (or foreign equivalent) in Education, English as a Second Language, Curriculum and Instruction, or related. Must possess a valid Colorado Department of Education Teacher’s License with appropriate endorsement in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education (K-12) or ability to obtain. Ability to speak, read, and write and both English and Spanish. Salary: $52,130 with Standard Benefits. Ref 1315.

Application deadline 5/30/2024. To apply, email resume to Fatima Puelles with ref number: Fatima_puelles@dpsk12.net.

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