Fairmount Fire merger with Arvada Fire takes e ect
BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
e Arvada Fire Protection District got quite a bit bigger on the rst of the year as its merger with the Fairmount Fire district went into e ect, meaning the departments will exist under the Arvada Fire moniker.
e merger was the result of three ballot measures that Fairmount district residents passed in 2024. e area includes the unincorporated community of Fairmount, the northern part of Wheat Ridge and other portions of Je erson County. e ballot measures passed with roughly 70% of the vote.
Under the old maps for the districts, the two shared an 11mile border stretching from Interstate 70 to North Table Mountain to Colorado Highway 93. e merger means Ar-
vada Fire now has more than 200 employees, 120 square miles of coverage and approximately 165,000 residents.
Fairmount Fire Board President Jack Major said the merger “makes sense” for a variety of reasons.
“Our department’s work and mirror each other very well,” Major said. “It really made sense for us to combine forces. Over the years, the smaller district has faced increasing operational challenges. At the same time, it would often rely on and work with the larger Arvada District.”
Among the services that folks in the former Fairmount Fire Protection District’s boundaries will no longer have to worry about are 24/7 re-based EMS and 24/7 ambulance services, both of which will be provided now.
District Chief Jamie Denison said the transition has already
begun and former Fairmount employees are working handin-hand with Arvada re ghters.
“It’ll be a smooth transition,” Denison said. “It de nitely helps that we have spent the last year working together and meshing all of our response plans. We’ve already blended all the crews. We have what were Fairmount employees, now Arvada employees, on Arvada rigs, and Arvada re ghters on Fairmount rigs.”
As a result of the merger, some restructuring has been in order.
Several new positions have been created, including three district chiefs who will supervise the three on-duty shifts, Safety and Medical o cers who will provide additional medical supervision and response to each on-duty shift, and the creation of a captain within the Community Risk Reduction Division.
Arvada Police becomes first department in state to implement O enderWatch
BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
e Arvada Police Department has become the rst in Colorado to implement the O enderWatch sex o ender tracking system and app — and hopes that other departments in the state will follow its lead.
APD announced its participation in the program, which will see the department utilize the sex o ender registration and noti cation tool, along with the company’s Family Safety app, on Jan. 2. O enderWatch is a Louisiana-based company with 4,000 law enforcement department partners.
APD Public Information O cer Chase Amos explained the bene ts of the O enderWatch system.
“In the simplest terms, O enderWatch is a sex o ender registration tool and community noti cation system,” Amos said. “Community members will bene t by being able to more easily search for registered sex o enders near their homes and sign up for email alerts regarding newly registered o enders in their area.
ere is also now su cient sta to create an additional 24/7 Advanced Life Support Ambulance, which will be housed at a station in the former Fairmount Fire Protection District.
Activations like this are expected to improve response times, according to Tyler Beck, Arvada Fire’s Captain of Community Risk Reduction.
“ e faster that you can get emergency personnel and people seen for life-threatening injuries, the better chances you have for a successful outcome,” Denison said.
Beck added that the department is looking forward to what’s to come.
“We are excited at what lies ahead for our newly merged re district as we continue to serve our growing community with dedication, integrity, compassion, courage and respect,” he said.
“Another huge bene t for residents is the O enderWatch app,” Amos continued. “ rough the app, parents can track a child’s location and be alerted if their kid is near an o ender’s house for a signi cant period of time. e app also sends alerts to parents of any communication from registered sex o enders through call, email or text.”
Prior to the adoption of O enderWatch, Amos said a sex o ender had to manually complete a lengthy form for their initial registration and every time they were required to re-register, which will now become automated with O enderWatch’s integration. Registered sex o enders also no longer have to call an APD detective to report life activities, such as getting a new phone number, vehicle or email address, which are required to be reported under state law. Now, sex o enders can make those changes to their O enderWatch pro le online.
The Arvada Fire Protection District has merged with the Fairmount Fire, meaning the departments will exist under the Arvada Fire moniker.FILE PHOTO
The former Fairmount Fire Protection District’s residents voted to join the Arvada Fire district in 2024
Funding for Marshall Pointe Apartments, Arvada Housing Advisory Committee Bylaws fail and more
BY LILLIAN FUGLEI
SPECIAL TO THE ARVADA PRESS
Arvada City Council kicked o 2025 with a busy meeting, jump starting the year by addressing housing concerns and annexing a small parcel of land near the Canyon Pines development.
Marshall Pointe Apartments
e Marshall Pointe Apartments are an a ordable housing complex that will be located at 5190 Marshall St. e complex — which is set to have 260 rental units — is intended to address housing gaps in Arvada by providing a ordable housing. Units in the complex will be rented to residents making between 30% and 70% of the area’s median income.
e complex will also have 13 supportive housing units set aside for people experiencing homelessness. Support services, including economic, medical, mental health and general supportive service, will be provided by Family Tree.
In order to help fund the project, Arvada will provide a $2,000,000 grant to pay for a portion of Marshall Pointe Apartments’s connection fees such as sewer and water impact fees associated with construction. Arvada applied for— and was awarded—a grant of $2,000,000 from Colorado Department of Local Affairs’ Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance Program in order to help fund the Marshall Pointe Apartments. is means that the grant for the project was entirely funded by DOLA, at no cost to the city.
During the Jan. 6 meeting, the grant funding — through an intergovernmental agreement between Arvada and DOLA — passed 6-0, with councilmember Shawna Ambrose absent.
Arvada Housing Advisory Committee Bylaws
Council then turned towards another of the city’s e orts to combat homelessness – the Arvada Housing Advisory Committee. e committee has been in the works since May 4, 2022 — when it was decided during a council study session that a Housing Advisory Committee should be established in order to further the city’s goal of increasing a ordable housing. e committee was designed to provide recommendations to city council regarding housing in Arvada and to facilitate community engagement and education of housing initiatives, programs and strategies in the city.
On Nov. 7, 2022, council adopted a resolution to create the committee; this resolution also included all of the bylaws for the committee. On Jan. 6, council looked at changes to those bylaws, which were designed to allow for e cient planning and scheduling of meetings. However, during the meeting, council members brought up concerns regarding the language of the bylaws—speci cally the inclusion of “a ordable housing” in the bylaws. Several council members questioned whether the inclusion of the word a ordable would limit the committee to only weigh in on a ordable housing, instead of being able to address housing in the city as a whole.
Arvada City Council briefs
“I think these bylaws would be great if you took out the word a ordable,” said councilmember John Marriott. “I would prefer to see a committee like this be advising the council and setting visions and policies for all housing in Arvada, not just subsidized housing or one type of housing.”
City sta members said the inclusion of the word a ordable would limit the scope of the Arvada Housing Advisory Committee. e revised bylaws failed 4-2, with Mayor Lauren Simpson, as well as councilmembers Bob Fifer, Sharon Davis, and Marriott voting against the bylaws. Councilmembers Randy Moorman and Brad Rupert voted for the bylaws and Ambrose was absent.
Marriott then proposed another vote on the bylaws, making a motion for the same bylaws with the word a ordable removed completely. City Attorney Rachel Morris said she was unsure of what impact this removal would have on the bylaws, and recommended allowing time for the city team to re-write the bylaws with this removal.
Marriott rescinded his motion, meaning that the bylaws will be re-written and voted on in a future meeting.
CDOT Annex
In a public hearing during the meeting, Arvada City Council voted to approve a Comprehensive Plan Amendment, annexation and rezoning for a parcel of land owned by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). e land— which was bought by CDOT in 1968 and is located on the south side of State Highway 72 between Canyon Pines Drive and Plainview Road—is currently home to a two-bay snowplow storage facility.
CDOT plans to construct a new building — a four-bay snowplow storage facility — to house its current eet of four plows at this location. As a part of this construction, CDOT wants to abandon the facility’s existing septic system and connect to the city’s sewer system. e
land is eligible for annexation, which is required to connect to the city’s sewer system.
Council voted 5-0 — with Ambrose absent and Fifer recused, due to his
employment by CDOT—to approve the Comprehensive Plan Amendment, annexation and rezoning, making the property a part of Arvada and eligible to connect to the city sewer system.
Shrine of St. Anne’s to hold 87th
Annual Spaghetti Dinner
Join the Shrine of St. Anne parish in Arvada for the church’s 87th annual spaghetti dinner from noon to 6 p.m. Feb. 2 in the Shrine of St. Anne’s Parish Center. Everyone is welcome. Dinner includes homemade spa-
ghetti and meatballs or a meatball sandwich with salad, bread, dessert, wine and other drinks. e dinner is $12 per adult and $7 for children under 9. Payment will be accepted in the form of cash or a check.
A map of the land annexed by city council owned by CDOT.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF ARVADA
Arvada City Council’s first meeting of the year was a busy one, with council addressing housing concerns in the city.
FILE PHOTO BY LILLIAN FUGLEI
I’ll Say It Again:
The Mill Levy Should Be a Required Field on MLS Listings
The dollar amount of property taxes has always been a data field on the MLS, because buyers need to know how much they should expect to pay if they purchase a listing. But that number does not provide context to the home buyer. In other words, how do the taxes for this home compare with the taxes for a home of the same value nearby, across town, or elsewhere in the metro area? The answer is in the mill levy.
A few years ago, REcolorado (the Denver MLS) and other MLSs added a “yes/no” field for metropolitan tax district, but how much does that tax district add to the property taxes for that listing? MLS listings don’t currently have a data field for mill levy.
some counties, including Denver, just give the total mill levy and don’t, as far as I could tell, indicate how much of that mill levy is from a metro tax district.
valuing the home. That cost is literally hidden from the buyer of a home in any metropolitan tax district.
Some metro districts have a zero mill levy, but some metro tax districts have mill levies so high that they double the tax bill for a home compared to a comparable one nearby that is not in that tax district.
A good broker should let a buyer know the premium he or she is paying to buy a home in such a district, but that broker cannot currently get that information from the MLS listing. The broker would have to go to the assessor’s web page for that listing in the county where that home is located and look at the breakdown of mill levies for that house.
Jefferson County provides the breakdown of mill levies by each taxing jurisdiction, but
An example of how much taxes can vary can be found in two Jeffco homes that sold in the last few months. One house in the Mesa Meadows section of Golden which sold for $1,500,000 has a mill levy of 91, like all homes in the City of Golden, which has no metro tax districts. The tax bill for that home is $6,761. Meanwhile, a house three miles to the north in a metro tax district which sold for $972,500 has a mill levy of 165, resulting in a 2024 tax bill of $10,105, a $3,344 difference.
A metropolitan tax district is created to fund the infrastructure (roads, gutters, sewers, water lines, sidewalks, etc.) for a new subdivision. Instead of the developer paying those costs, a bond issue provides the funds for that purpose, and home buyers in that subdivision will be paying an extra mill levy for two or more decades to pay off those bonds.
In the above example, the metro tax district’s mill levy is 70 mills. The owner of that home will pay $100,000 or more over time for the infrastructure costs. In Golden, those costs were paid for by the developer or the city. Yet, an appraiser or real estate broker would not factor that long-term expense when
Does a Seller Say They Won’t Repair Anything?
Every buyer should hire a professional inspector, even if a home is sold “as-is.” That’s a bogus term intended to convey that the seller won’t correct any defects uncovered by the buyer’s inspector. I call it “bogus,” however, because the contract does or should contain an inspection termination deadline, and, even if it doesn’t, the buyer always retains the right to inspect the property.
If your inspector finds a serious issue, you can threaten to terminate because of it, and it’s likely the seller will agree to deal with it rather than lose the contract and start over, in which case he must disclose the newly found issue to the next buyer.
That being said, the seller could still call the buyer’s bluff, especially if the buyer’s agent has given the listing agent the impression that the buyer loves the house and would
not let a few thousand dollars in repairs stand in the way of getting a house they love.
That was the situation with a listing of mine. I had been told that the buyer lost out on a prior listing, and their offer had a clause saying they would beat any competing offer by $5,000. That won them the contract, but my seller (who met the buyers a couple times during showings and inspection) knew how much the buyer loved the property and wouldn’t want to lose it.
Therefore, when the inspection objection included a demand for a 5-figure concession to fix a major health and safety problem that any other seller would have agreed to fix, my seller refused, and the demand was withdrawn.
Remember: getting under contract is only the beginning; inspection is a negotiation, too.
When an appraiser or real estate broker values a home, they look at square footage, lot size, garage, bedrooms/bathrooms — in other words, everything but the tax rate (and the HOA dues) when doing an appraisal or comparative market analysis. Yet, the bottom line cost of owning homes in a metropolitan tax district can be dramatically higher.
That is why I have argued for over a decade that REcolorado should include the mill levy for each listing and not just the dollar amount of the property taxes.
Some counties make it easier than others to find the mill levy. In Jefferson County, the assessor’s website breaks down the mill levy from every taxing jurisdiction. A link provides the dollar subtotals and total.
You can, however, calculate the tax bill from the assessor’s website by multiplying the mill levy by the assessed valuation of the property. The assessed valuation for residential real estate statewide is currently 7.15% of the “full valuation” which the assessor as-
When you purchase a home that is within a homeowner’s association, state law requires that you receive a wide array of documents, financial and otherwise, about that association.
These include, for example, the covenants, the rules and regulations, financial statements, bylaws, budget, reserve study, the minutes of the last six months of board meetings, and the minutes of the most recent annual membership meeting.
The contract to buy and sell a home in Colorado provides deadlines for providing these association documents, objecting to them, and resolving any objections. A buyer can terminate a contract and get the earnest money deposit refunded if he or she is unhappy with what those documents reveal.
For example, the reserves of the association may be insufficient, suggesting that a special assessment is likely. The minutes might reveal issues which are upsetting to some members, or legal action which the association is undertaking, at some expense, to enforce its rules against one or more members. These and other reasons could exist that might cause the buyer to terminate the contract.
Very few listing brokers make those documents available to prospective buyers in ad-
signs to each parcel. Thus, if your home has a full valuation of $1,000,000, the assessed valuation would be $71,500. That’s the number against which the mill levy is calculated. A mill levy of 100 would compute to a property tax bill of $7,150. It’s called a “mill” levy (from the Latin word for thousand) because it is levied against each thousand dollars of value. Thus, 100 mills x 71.5 = $7,150.
The math becomes complicated when the state legislature says, as it did last year, that $55,000 should be subtracted from the full valuation before calculating the assessed valuation. How much did that reduce taxes? $55,000 of reduced full valuation is worth $3,932.50 in reduced assessed valuation. At 100 mills, that’s worth about $393.25 off the home’s tax bill.
Although giving the total mill levy for each MLS listing would be a great improvement, the best way to inform buyers of the effect of a metropolitan tax district would be to say that there is such a tax district, and to add a separate field to enter the number of mills for that tax district.
vance of going under contract, but why not?
Recently, at an open house, a visitor told our broker associate that in California the questions he was asking about the HOA (such as why the HOA dues are so high) would be readily ascertainable in advance rather than only after going under contract.
When we have been on the buyer side, we have rarely found that a listing agent already has the HOA documents — and answers to important HOA questions — to provide us.
That got us thinking, and the answer came last week when Pam Giarratano, our sales rep at First Integrity Title, brought to our office meeting Julietta Voronaov from Rexera. For a reasonable fee, Rexera provides all those required HOA documents prior to going on the MLS, so we can provide them to interested buyers and their agents.
Currently Rexera’s service is only available through our preferred title company, First Integrity Title. After Julietta’s presentation, our broker associates and I agreed that from now on, when we list a property that is located in an HOA, we will use First Integrity and order the pre-listing package from Rexera. We look forward to providing complete HOA information in advance from now on for all our listings that are located in a homeowner’s association.
Arvada City Council will now meet on Tuesdays instead of Mondays, nixes hybrid participation
BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Arvada’s City Council will be gathering on a new day beginning in March, as the city announced the switch from Mondays to Tuesdays for council’s weekly meetings, which include business meetings and workshops. e city will also discontinue Zoom participation in meetings.
Councilmembers, presenters and residents making public comments have been able to participate in council via Zoom since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 — now, that functionality will not be available for anyone, besides those protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
e city announced the change, which is e ective the week of March 3, on Jan. 7. In a press release, Arvada’s Director of Communications and Engagement Ra-
chael Kuroiwa said that hybrid meetings “played a critical role during the COVID-19 pandemic,” but are “now primarily used for convenience, if at all.” She added that it takes multiple sta members to facilitate Zoom participation and that maintaining that infrastructure is not cost-e ective.
“(Zoom participation is) not used very frequently, and it takes a lot of sta time behind the scenes during the meeting to run Zoom,” Kuroiwa said. “It’s not cost effective… It’s used really sporadically. Even when there’s topics of great interest, most people tend to come in person anyways.”
Kuroiwa added that people who require accommodations under the ADA can work with Arvada’s ADA Coordinator, Ann Foster, to be accommodated, which could include Zoom commenting. Kuroiwa recommended contacting Foster via email at arvadaADA@arvada.org.
As a result of the change in meeting day
— which Kuroiwa said was changed, in part to account for the city council meetings that have to be cancelled due to Monday holidays such as Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Indigenous People’s Day — Arvada’s Planning Commission will need to pick a new day to meet.
e city’s Planning Commission is an advisory body to City Council that currently meets on Tuesdays; their new meeting day will be decided in February.
Arvada Mayor Lauren Simpson encouraged residents to continue to submit comments via email or online if they do not want to attend meetings.
“We’ve decided to make these adjustments in the interest of a more consistent process and more e cient use of our taxpayer and sta resources,” Simpson said. “Residents should be assured that all comments we receive online or via email are
shared with the Council as well as included in the o cial meeting record, so even when someone can’t make a meeting in person their voice is still heard and counted.
“Residents have multiple ways to stay informed and share their thoughts with us,” Simpson continued.
Kuriowa said that Zoom may still be used to “accommodate for extenuating circumstances,” which would be weighed on a case by case basis by the city council and city clerk.
“We aren’t going to use it for conveniency,” Kuroiwa said. “If someone would rather be at home and not come in, (Zoom is) not available… but if it’s a ‘must-go-now (agenda item)’ and we need to make an accommodation, we can do that, it’s just not going to be available as a matter of course and convenience.”
More information about the switch can be found at Arvadaco.gov.
Colorado inflation was less than U.S. overall
using prices in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metropolitan area.
Colorado reported lower than average year-over-year change in prices in 2024, according to a new report from the state’s Legislative Council Sta .
While the national average at the end of 2024 was 2.7% in ation, Colorado’s was 2%. Colorado in ation was measured
Housing was the biggest reason for the di erence in national and state in ation numbers. While nationally housing made up 1.8% of the contribution to ination, in Colorado it made up just 0.4%. at is down signi cantly from the peak in housing in ation in 2022, when overall in ation also peaked in Colorado
at almost 10% year-over-year. at could partly be due to a decrease in home prices in Denver in 2024, down 3% from 2022.
Still, Coloradans are seeing a signicant overall rise in costs.
According to a report from the U.S. Senate’s Joint Economic Committee, Colorado ranked number one in the nation for increased costs compared to 2021.
ginning to tick up, both nationally and in Colorado, the state’s report found. Down from the pandemic’s 12%, Colorado’s unemployment rate is currently 4.1%.
Government jobs had one of the highest gains year-over-year in 2024 from 2023, with a 4.1% increase. e only other tracked sectors that ranked higher were “mining and logging” and “other services.”
“ e average household in Colorado is paying $1,332 more per month to purchase the same basket of goods and services as in January 2021,” stated the report. “Cumulatively, the average Colorado household has spent $42,079 more due to in ation since January 2021.”
Overall, unemployment rates are be-
OFFENDERWATCH
Amos said the automation of that, and alerts that O enderWatch provides APD when a sex o ender is arrested or released from custody, will both save detectives time and increase o ender compliance.
e program also allows APD to be connected to a multi-state network that includes all of Colorado’s bordering states and encompasses over 900,000 registrants, allowing the department to better collaborate across jurisdictions.
“For us, O enderWatch allows us to access a nationwide database of over 900,000 registrants, allowing us to better collaborate in investigations across state lines and more easily transfer registration information to and from other jurisdictions when an o ender moves from or to Arvada,” Amos said.
“Additionally, O enderWatch is an easy-to-use platform that will make us more e cient during the o ender registration process,” Amos continued.
Real personal income growth in Colorado (2.5%) was above the state’s historical average of 1.7%, but lower than the national average of 2.8%.
Republished from e Center Square, a national news service that is the project of the nonpro t Franklin News Foundation, headquartered in Chicago.
Amos said that while APD is the rst department in Colorado to adopt OffenderWatch, he hopes other local agencies will follow.
“We are the rst agency in Colorado to implement O enderWatch, but it is used in all of our bordering states so we think/ hope we’ll see other Colorado agencies
The Arvada Police Department became the first in the state to implement the O enderWatch sexual o ender monitoring system.
Je co school board grapples with fallout from chief of schools investigation amid grief and shock
BY SUZIE GLASSMAN SGLASSMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
e Je erson County School Board convened a special meeting on Jan. 7 to address the aftermath of the investigation into and apparent suicide of former Chief of Schools David Weiss, who was accused of possessing child pornography by the Je erson County Sheri ’s Ofce.
Board member Paula Reed opened the meeting by explaining that the need to meet face-to-face had become undeniable in the wake of the crisis.
“It was becoming clear that we needed some time to meet face-to-face,” Reed said. “We wanted to have time to make a timely and uni ed response. It’s been impossible to do that given the constraints we’ve had.”
Reed emphasized the importance of transparency, saying the meeting was held publicly to demonstrate the board’s commitment to addressing the situation and fostering trust within the community.
Board President Mary Parker echoed these sentiments, sharing how the crisis had weighed on her both personally and professionally.
“First of all, I am so happy that we are together and we are public-facing,” Parker said. “ e biggest frustration I’ve had in the last few weeks is that, as board president, I felt a great responsibility to be a voice for the board... I wanted very much for our community members to know that the board is paying attention.
We care about it. We take it seriously.”
Parker explained how constraints on communication left her unable to provide even a basic response to the public. “ e most basic, simple sentence — ‘the board takes this seriously, we are shocked, we will communicate with law enforcement, and we will get to the bottom of it’ — was not possible to get out as a board because I couldn’t do it on my own,” Parker said.
Processing grief, shock and criticism
For many board members, the crisis has been a deeply personal and emotional experience, compounded by accusations from some in the community who have accused the board of not prioritizing children’s safety.
“I have felt very defensive,” Reed said. “When I hear the implication that somehow we don’t care about kids, my rst impulse is to say, you know, every month, six women sit on that dais. Four of them have children in our schools. One of them has grandchildren in our schools... e notion that we would not care about the safety of children is appalling.”
Reed re ected on how such accusations stem from fear and uncertainty, sentiments she understands given the gravity of the situation.
“When people are afraid, they desperately want answers and understanding. ey want a narrative they can wrap their head around as quickly as possible,” she said. “What I’m going to promise is that we’re going to look hard at what hap-
pened, and we are going to gure out everything we could have done if there are things we could have done.”
Others expressed deep shock and hor-
ror that someone they knew could have potentially been a child predator.
REVERSE MORTGAGES MADE
Je co school board members, John DeStefano, Frank DeAngelis and Tracy Dorland meet to discuss the aftermath of the investigation into the district’s former Chief of Schools.
PHOTO BY SUZIE GLASSMAN
State might have your money — here’s how to get it back
The Great Colorado Payback has been operating since 1987
is new year, Coloradans have an opportunity to reunite with their missing, lost, or forgotten valuables being held for them by the state.
FALL OUT
“ is is really hard,” board member Michelle Applegate said. “As a parent, at all levels, the feelings — they are really strong. It’s all the things: the shock, the horror, the fear. Knowing that our entire community is reeling…it’s been very emotional, it’s been very scary, it’s been very sad.” Board member Erin Kenworthy said she called Weiss a friend and spoke about her complex emotions.
“I considered our former Chief of Schools a friend and a colleague, and so I’m grieving the loss of a version of a person I thought I knew,” Kenworthy said. “ ere are good days and there are bad days...My heart is broken for that family and for anybody who’s been impacted or victimized by any adult in our community who crosses boundaries with kids.”
Reed, re ecting on her time as a teacher at Columbine High School when the shooting occurred, shared how the cur-
Also known as e Great Colorado Payback, the state’s Unclaimed Property fund was created in 1987 as a consumer protection program to keep both intangible things, like savings accounts and unpaid wages, as well as tangible items — like gift cards — safe in perpetuity, al-
rent crisis echoes past experiences of community trauma.
“What I learned that day is that you never know anyone and that you move through the world with people you think you know well and trust, and any one of them is capable of doing horrible things,” Reed said.
Learning from the past
Reed said she invited John Stefano, Jeffco school board president at the time of the Columbine shooting, and Frank DeAngelis, former principal of Columbine High School, to share their experience handling a major crisis that had a signi cant impact on the educational environment.
“Great tragedy a ects many people and is something you can’t control or x,” Stefano said. “Your job is to lead by example... people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
DeAngelis emphasized the importance of keeping students rst.
“Our No. 1 priority is our students, and we already have the foundation in
lowing people to claim their items without time limits.
e physical vault located in the back of the state treasurer’s o ce holds everything from war medals to baseball cards with an active list of more than 7.6 million owners.
e state sends notices of unclaimed property in the mail, but you can also search your name at the website colo-
place. What we have to do is continue to build upon that foundation,” DeAngelis said. “When families go through di cult things, they nd ways to come together, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to help each other, whatever that will take.”
Stefano and DeAngelis also provided speci c guidance on crisis management. Stefano advised the board to prioritize transparency while avoiding unnecessary chaos.
“ e media will run its natural cycle, and you have to let it,” Stefano said. “Focus on your community’s concerns because their needs are di erent and more immediate than the media’s narrative.”
“Tragedies reveal what we can improve and where we can strengthen our systems,” Stefano added. “Use this moment to ensure better protections for students and stronger relationships with the community.”
Looking ahead e meeting also focused on tangible steps the board can take to improve com-
rado. ndyourunclaimedproperty.com, to learn if there’s something of value that you’ve forgotten or lost.
e treasurer says the fund has reunited Coloradans with more than $750 million in lost property as of 2024. is story is from CPR News, a nonpro t public broadcaster serving Colorado. Used by permission. For more, and to support Colorado Public Radio, visit cpr.org.
munication and crisis response. Board members discussed revising policies, establishing clearer communication protocols and partnering with experts to ensure the district is prepared for future challenges.
“We cannot change the past, but we can do better in the future, and we will,” Parker said.
Kenworthy underscored the importance of confronting the situation headon.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced,” she said, quoting James Baldwin. “We can’t x this, but we can face it together.”
As the investigation continues, board members acknowledged the importance of balancing transparency with maintaining the integrity of law enforcement efforts.
“ e only way forward is as a united team,” Applegate said.
e board plans to revisit its policies in the coming weeks, focusing on student safety and crisis preparedness.
NEW YEAR, NEW PLAYS
The Su ragette’s Murder By Sandy Rustin
Directed by Margot Bordelon
Je co school support workers’ report to school board
BY SUZIE GLASSMAN SGLASSMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Leaders from the Je co Educational Support Professionals Association met with the district’s school board in December, urging the board to prioritize competitive wages and bene ts for support sta while acknowledging the district’s nancial challenges. e conversation, which was at times tense, underscored lingering frustrations from last year’s negotiations and highlighted both sides’ calls for improved collaboration and trust in the future.
“Without communication, there is no relationship,” said JESPA President Zander Kaschub, who called for open dialogue to support workers and students.
“I want to make it clear that we remain committed to ghting for students and our community,” Kaschub said. “ is might be a di cult conversation today, but we’re here, and we want to have it.”
Amid the friction, both sides expressed a willingness to rebuild trust and focus on shared goals, signaling a cautious step toward collaboration.
A strained relationship
Tensions from last year’s contentious negotiations surfaced throughout the December meeting. Kaschub criticized the district’s decision to hire a “union-busting” lawyer early in the negotiation process, calling it a betrayal of worker trust.
“After a mere three hours of negotiating, the district hired an anti-union lawyer,” Kaschub said. “We supported board members who ran on pro-worker platforms, so the lack of communication was confusing and hurtful.”
Fellow JESPA member Sarah McClintock agreed.
“When the district hired a lawyer who made more in a few sessions than I earn in a year, it felt like a slap in the face,” McClintock said. Kaschub also described reaching out to individual board members last year to address process concerns but only received a response from one, fueling further frustrations. “ e concern is that we could potentially get to a point this year where we need to communicate with you and we want transparency,” Kaschub said. “Again, the issue is, if we do run into any problems, we want access to the
leaders that we’ve elected into Je co.”
Board member Paula Reed expressed a willingness to nd ways to improve communication in the future but explained the reasoning behind not meeting individually with union members.
“No individual board member has any power without the others. We all have to work together, and if we’re all getting the same message at the same time, that’s better,” she said.
Reed said the board must adhere to Colorado’s sunshine law, which requires collective decision-making and prohibits individual board members from negotiating outside ofcial channels.
Financial hurdles and shared goals
JESPA leaders acknowledged the district’s nancial constraints but urged the board to prioritize competitive wages and bene ts for support sta .
Reed reiterated that there’s little wiggle room in the district’s budget.
“Colorado funds its schools $2,000 to $3,000 less per student than the national average,” Reed noted, adding that 87% of the district’s budget is already allocated to salaries and compensation.
“You deserve more….If we had the means to do it, we would. So we continue to nagle and massage and try to gure out how to get every penny we can for compensation out of our budget, but that is our biggest obstacle, in my opinion, funding,” Reed continued.
Board member Danielle Varda agreed and emphasized the board’s commitment to addressing worker concerns within the district’s nancial limitations.
“I guarantee these are the ve people who will work hardest to meet your requests,” she said.
Superintendent Tracy Dorland added that she’s worked with many di erent boards over her career and that this one is one of the most uni ed regarding raises and its concern and care for employees.
Varda called for a commitment to mutual trust and emphasized that the board is focused on achieving the best outcomes for students and sta .
McClintock said that mutual trust goes both ways.
for collaboration during bargaining processes and communications because we are on the same team. I want us to remember that you might not always agree with what we’re doing, but we’re coming from a good place,” McClintock said.
Calls for a facilitator
Discussions also revolved around the potential use of a facilitator in negotiations.
JESPA leaders questioned the need for a third party, with McClintock emphasizing the importance of direct dialogue.
“We don’t always have to agree, but we should be able to collaborate and communicate,” McClintock said.
She argued that fostering open communication should remain the primary goal.
Board member Erin Kenworthy likened a facilitator’s role to couples’ therapy, suggesting it could provide impartial support in navigating complex discussions.
“Sometimes, relationships need impartial help,” Kenworthy explained.
JESPA representatives, however, expressed skepticism, citing concerns about the district’s previous use of a lawyer instead of a jointly selected facilitator.
“It’s hard to trust the process when decisions feel one-sided,” McClintock said.
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Focusing on toning the mind
When I began teaching freshman English, I knew I faced a challenge. Years of teaching eighth graders had taught me girls would read pretty much whatever I put before them. Boys, though, were a di erent story. By their early teens, they had been conditioned — programmed — to believe reading and writing were for girls and math and science were “masculine.” And if there is one thing most adolescent boys want to prove, it’s that they’re “real men.”
Fortunately for me such a man serendipitously provided the answer: George Lucas. His “Star Wars” trilogy would become my hook. I felt con dent it would work because frosh boys, despite their puerile need to prove their masculinity, had not yet become jaded. at process would begin in a year or two.
When I told them on our rst day that we would watch “Star Wars,” they were elated. But after the cheering subsided, I made it clear: ey would know “Star Wars.” I’d teach it in conjunction with “ e Odyssey, and it would become my vehicle for teaching other literary works and developing concepts like the epic hero. Decades later, I like to think they’re citing Yoda’s maxims such as “Do or do not, there is no try,” “Size matters not,” and “ at is why you fail” to their chil-
JERRY FABYANIC
In the weeks surrounding my diagnosis with Multiple Sclerosis, I began noticing a slight weakness in my right shoulder. It mostly showed up when I was brushing my hair. I would nish with a comb and my shoulder would be tired.
Over the course of 15 years, that little weakness became much more signicant. Today, lifting my arm above my head is di cult, and honestly, some days I can’t do it. e weakness has extended throughout my right arm and down to my hand. I have stretches I do every day to keep my ngers from curling in toward my wrist and it is a chore to grab things using my right arm and hand. Tasks: writing, brushing my teeth, shaving, picking up a utensil and using it to eat, have become increasingly more di cult, sometimes impossible.
A physical therapy appointment where they measured the strength of my grip in both hands scored my right hand at a 12 on a scale of 100. A low score like that, a treasure if I were playing golf, was, in this situation, a cold splash of water in my face. For decades I was right-hand dominant, only using my left hand to support what I was doing with my right. As these issues have progressed, that way of operating has become impossible.
When my perspective focused on the limits of function in my right arm, the list of things I could not do was long, and the loss was bleak, insurmountable and devastating. I spent three years viewing my situation from that perspective. It was not a happy time.
I was able to move out of that dicult spot and into a better space when
dren or students. If I had simply tried to impress those notions on my students via lecture, my words would’ve fallen at and gone in one ear and out the other. But Yoda said them, so they listened. Which gets at a fundamental aspect of literature: Even though characters might be ctional, their words can have far more impact and bearing on the human psyche than those coming from the mouths of parents, teachers, or preachers. Wise parents, teachers, and preachers know that. So too do the not-so-wise, and it scares the hell out of them.
In his New York Times essay “ e Plot Escapes Me,” James Collins, the author of “Beginner’s Greek,” explained how the sum of our entire literary experiences remains ever in memory. He described how Professor Maryanne Wolf, a trained neuroscientist, told him they become encoded by creating “pathways in the brain, [thereby] strengthening di erent mental processes.”
at poses an interesting equation. For if our intellectual acumen, acquired wisdom, and philosophical outlook are in
large part the sum of our reading experiences, logically it must mean the more we read, the greater is that sum. But it also must mean if one’s total of reading is sparse or zilch, the resulting sum is close to if not zero. After all, 0 + 0 = 0.
Reading, however, is not solely an intellectual endeavor. It is, or should be, a pleasurable experience, an escape from the grind of daily life or an excursion, a journey to or foray into another dimension. As the Queen makes clear to her chief attendant in “ e Uncommon Reader,” books are not about passing the time but instead about other lives and worlds. If one wanted to do that, she suggests, one could y to New Zealand. Or Mazatlán. Or play a video game. Or watch sports.
Books, though, are not the only repository of great thoughts. e breadth of quality, worthwhile texts ranges wide, from essays and op-eds to full-blown novels. Yoda’s aphorism aptly states it: “Size matters not.” What matters is utilizing one of your greatest gifts: your ability to read.
In the end, reading ought to be about opening and expanding the mind. Unfortunately, many read only texts that rea rm what they already hold to be true and refuse to allow anything that might challenge their worldview to enter — to
Resilience: Acknowledging your limits and finding new options
WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT
pollute — their mind. Such readers remind me of those who see education as a process of “drilling and killing.” Drilling a rigidity of thought — an ideology — into the minds of young people with the intent of killing any sense of curiosity and willingness to question.
My goal as an English teacher wasn’t limited to the immediate concerns of my classroom and curriculum. I wanted also to foster a love of reading, of story, and of complex thinking so my students would not just be lifelong readers, but lifelong learners. I encouraged them to revisit in their adult years the novels we read to see if they’d glean more from them given their more mature minds. Like quoting Yoda’s aphorisms in their middle age, I sure hope they do.
With regard to my frosh boys, I was delighted to see my strategy working. ey were hooked, so much so that when reading “Romeo and Juliet” and other advanced works they would eagerly volunteer to read challenging roles, ask thoughtful questions, and o er insights that showed in-depth, critical thinking. ey had a blast and, most importantly, they learned. Imagine that.
Jerry Fabyanic is the author of “Sisyphus Wins” and “Food for ought: Essays on Mind and Spirit.” He lives in Georgetown.
I acknowledged my options. I have two hands and only one is impacted. When I left behind my belief that I was only able to do things with my right hand, I could see the strength in my left arm. With practice and perseverance, I learned to eat, shave, brush my teeth and hair and even button a shirt with my left hand. More than learning new skills, my lefthanded lessons have transformed my life, teaching me about resilience.
I have learned that resilience is not about ignoring things or pretending they are not there; in fact, it is quite the opposite. Resilience is about acknowledging your limits and nding options. It is about learning new things and seeing possibilities in complicated situations. Being resilient will not always nd you solutions that are easier, but it will nd you solutions; that is the real goal.
Let me give you an example, while typing has never been my strong suit, it is exponentially more di cult when you can only use your right hand about 50% of the time to support the key strike. Without resilience, I would be left trying to type with one hand, focused on how much slower my typing is because of my MS. When I step outside my narrow views focused on “ e way I always do it.” I see I live in a time with wonderful technology and that a dictation application on my computer allows me to type
faster than ever.
e two most di cult hurdles to nding resilience are opening yourself up to the idea that there are di erent ways of doing things and seeing people as ready to help you. Workarounds, when we are not in a resilient mindset, can seem to accentuate loss or feel like a cop-out. at type of stuck thinking is never helpful. When we open ourselves up to seeing other ways to do things, and we accept the challenge of trying those new ways, we nd boundless options, huge opportunities, and loving support. is is where resilience lives.
You have an incredible capacity for resilience. No matter the hurdle, seek out ways to do things di erently and learn about the depth of your resilience.
You’ve got this.
I hope that you will nd inspiration in my words and share those words of encouragement with those who need it. ank you to all who have shared stories with me so far, I love hearing from you as you nd helpful morsels in these columns and nd ways to encourage those around you. I can be contacted at jim. roome@gmail.com
Jim Roome lives in Arvada with his wife Beth. He spent 34 years in public education. Lessons learned from the one two punch of being diagnosed with MS shortly before his best friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer led him into a new pursuit as a freelance writer and speaker. He uses his life experiences and love of stories to inspire, educate and encourage local, national and international audiences.
A comedic ode to Chekhov at Town Hall Center
Even the casual theater fan has probably come up against the name Anton Chekhov a time or two in their lives. He’s right up there with Shakespeare as one of the towering gures in the form.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
But his revered status doesn’t mean a little fun can’t be had at his ex-
Clarke Reader
For their rst production of 2025, Town Hall , 2450 Main St. in Littleton, is staging “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” an absurdist comedy by Christopher Durang inspired by the works of Chekhov. But as Matthew Kepler, Town Hall’s artistic director explains, you don’t need to know anything about Chekhov’s works to have a good time.
“You may nd some deeper connection and humor in some of the situations and jokes if you are a Chekhov scholar,” he said. “But it’s certainly not necessary to understand the plot or the jokes.”
“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” runs at the center from Friday, Jan. 17 through Sunday, Feb. 9. Most performances are at 7:30 p.m. ursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.
According to the provided information, the show follows Vanya and his adopted sister Sonia, who live a simple life at their childhood home, where they spend their
Columnist
Jim Roome
READER
time reminiscing about days gone by and wondering what could’ve been. When their movie star sister, Masha, arrives unannounced and with plans to attend a very elite costume party with her young plaything, Spike, Vanya and Sonia’s peace is challenged in hilarious ways.
“ e great thing about Durang, and this play in particular, is that the setting is so much in our real world, but the things that happen within that reality are so absurd,” Kepler said. “ e juxtaposition of those two entities colliding keeps you surprised and laughing out loud.”
Comedy is always challenging to get right, but there’s an extra layer to this show because there are some dramatic scenes that collide with the hilarity. But this kind of challenging production is just the thing that drew Kepler and Town Hall to the show.
“ ough we’re mostly known for producing musicals, we do like to do a play for our patrons from time to time as many of our patrons enjoy plays as much as musicals,” he said. “ is play is very popular amongst theatre enthusiasts, so it’s a perfect t. It was the darling of the 2013 awards season on Broadway and won the Tony Award for Best Play.”
As is always the case, the main goal is to entertain audiences, and no matter your familiarity with Russian theatrical legends, you’ll come away with a new perspective on your own family and some laughs to boot.
“Maybe there’s some insight to be had on their own familial relationships. Maybe any problems they have with their own family members will pale by comparison to what our characters are dealing with,” Kepler said. “And nothing makes us feel better than to laugh — regardless of our personal or societal struggles. It really gives us a vacation from our worries for a couple of hours and allows us to just live in the joy of laughter.”
For information and tickets, visit https://townhallartscenter.org/event/ vanya-and-sonia-and-masha-andspike/.
‘Perseverance’ for the Year Ahead at Curtis Center e beginning of the year is a great time to stockpile an important quality, one everybody needs: perseverance. “Perseverance” is also the name of the rst show of the year at the Curtis Center for the Arts, 2349 E. Orchard Road in Greenwood Village. e exhibition features the work of Alicia Bailey, Catherine Chauvin, Melinda Laz and Sharon Strasburg. According to provided information, they’re four longtime friends who are “looking back at what once was, looking forward into uncertainty and Find the details at www.greenwoodvillage.com/2687/Curtis-Center-for-theArts.
Meet Lyle the Crocodile at the Arvada Center e Arvada Center welcomes the new year with a delightful children’s theater o ering, one certain to delight fans of a great story: “Lyle the Crocodile,” based on the beloved series by Bernard Waber. e production runs at the center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., from Tuesday, Jan. 21 through Friday, Feb. 28. Adapted for the stage by Kevin Kling, the eatre For Young Audiences production is a musical recommended for grades K-5. Information and tickets are available at https://arvadacenter.org/events/lylethe-crocodile.
Clarke’s Concert of the Week — Tank and the Bangas at the Bluebird Theater Music in New Orleans is in the very air people breathe. e group Tank and the Bangas gather all that music — everything from soul and rap to R&B and jazz — together into a form that is both entrancing and di cult to name. ere are elements of spoken word mixed with the music, but whatever you want to call it, the end result is impossible to forget. In support of their 2024 album, “ e Heart, e Mind, e Soul,” Tank and the Bangas are coming to the Bluebird eater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver, at 8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 17. ey’ll be joined by Austin Brown + BLVK CVSTLE for a night of music that is bound to be invigorating and uplifting.
Clarke Reader’s column on culture appears on a weekly basis. He can be reached at Clarke.Reader@hotmail.com.
Icing on the skate
Local outdoor rinks’ unique features, settings o er something for everyone
BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Winter sports reign supreme along the Front Range. While the mountains and foothills o er plenty of places to ski, snowboard, snowshoe and spike-hike, the Denver metro area has opportunities galore to ice-skate and play hockey.
During the winter holidays, several local cities like Denver and Arvada host outdoor skating rinks in shopping centers or town squares. Some are only open through local schools’ winter break, but others remain open through January or February, depending on conditions.
Hours and prices vary, but most rinks o er rental skates or people can bring their own for lower-priced admission.
Although there are plenty of indoor skating options, many skaters prefer outdoor rinks’ atmospheres and open-air conditions. ey enjoy soaking up the sunshine or embracing the cold, depending on the weather.
Lakewood’s Greg Daniels and his three teenage children said skating outdoors is “more fun, more festive.” Also, indoor rinks tend to host more intense skaters, while outdoor ones like e Rink at Belmar are more casual, they said.
Leesa Stone, a former Parker resident, felt likewise. She liked the atmosphere at Parker’s Ice Trail at Discovery Park, with its holiday lights around the perimeter and its open replaces for people to warm themselves.
Plus, at places like Evergreen Lake, people come just to enjoy the views and skate on a real lake.
“We love the beautiful surroundings, being nestled here in the mountains,” Commerce City’s Michael Scanlon said of Evergreen Lake. “It adds to the ambiance.”
Whether they were experts or new to the sport, the skaters said local rinks o er something for people of all ages and experience levels.
“Everyone should try it,” Denver’s Marie Duran said.
And, as her 7-year-old Charlotte added, even if people don’t like skating, most rinks are in locations where people can easily nd other activities, like walking, sledding or shopping.
The Rink at Belmar
e Durans rst visited e Rink at Belmar last year and had fun. So, when Charlotte started asking to go skating this winter, the family returned to Belmar Jan. 2.
e rink, which is presented by Quantum Fiber and made of real ice, is in the middle of Lakewood’s Belmar Shopping District.
sphere and holiday lights. Maddi Harris and Kian Larson, students at Evergreen High School, were visiting Belmar for a date night and decided to rent skates before their movie. e two had also been skating at Evergreen Lake before. While it has its advantages, they liked Belmar’s festive atmosphere with all the holiday lights and the decorated evergreen tree near the rink.
“I prefer the holiday spirit here,” Larson said.
Evergreen Lake
Lara De Beer was visiting the area from Belgium, and for her last day in town, Evergreen’s Colin Saunder decided they should go skating at Evergreen Lake. De Beer had never skated on a lake before, and Saunder hadn’t been out on Evergreen’s in a while, so Jan. 2 seemed like the perfect time to try out the ice. While the lake is several acres in size, skating is only allowed on a portion of it. e maintained section near the Evergreen Lake House has a large perimeter that skaters can take laps around, as well as about a dozen small rinks people can use to play hockey, practice their skating technique and more.
People can buy tickets ahead of time or purchase walk-up tickets on a rstcome, rst-served basis. Private bookings and skating lessons can also be booked online.
Charlotte, who’s a big roller-skating fan, has enjoyed learning to ice skate. Her mom said the smaller rink is ideal for people like Charlotte who are learning to skate.
Duran also felt that e Rink at Belmar was reasonably priced, wellmaintained and “fun for all ages.”
Daniels estimated he and his family have been coming to the Belmar rink for about 10 years. ey tried to go skating before Christmas, but it was very busy. So, they opted to do their annual skating night Jan. 2 instead.
e family frequently shops at Belmar, and liked how close and convenient the rink was for them and other Lakewood residents.
e Daniels have been to other rinks in the area, like the one at Evergreen Lake, but the Belmar one’s atmo-
Because it is a lake, the dates and hours it’s open is weather-dependent. It was scheduled to be open through at least Jan. 25, when it would host the Pond Hockey Championships, but anyone wanting to visit should call the hotline at 720-8801391.
De Beer and Saunder both enjoyed the pleasant weather and mountain scenery from the lake, with Saunder describing how unique and special it is compared to other rinks around Denver.
“ ere’s no place like it,” he said.
Small outdoor rinks like the one in downtown Denver tend to be crowded, but Evergreen Lake has plenty of space for everyone, he added.
Michael Scanlon and his children, Alex and Isabel, felt likewise, describing how they’ve been visiting Evergreen Lake annually since the late ‘90s. Michael said they love the excitement and energy that seems to be inherent among outdoor skating rinks.
However, he added, he felt like the lake’s seasons were getting shorter as the lake doesn’t freeze over as early in the winter as it used to. It’s also grown so popular that parking can be di cult, he said.
People skate at Evergreen Lake Jan. 2., amid Je erson County’s scenic foothills. Several skaters said the scenery is one of the reasons they enjoy skating at Evergreen Lake. PHOTO BY CORINNE WESTEMAN
ICE SKATING
He recommended that anyone wanting to visit Evergreen Lake “should get here right when it opens,” because it’s usually less crowded and the ice is in the best condition.
e Martinez family from Colorado Springs also went skating during a day trip to Evergreen.
Lauren Martinez said she appreciated how the rink had plenty of pushable skating aids for children. Her family also enjoyed the nearby sledding hill. Overall, she said, they would be open to visiting it again.
Parker Ice Trail at Discovery Park
Parker’s Josh Blaha and his family had planned to go skating in Denver during the evening Jan. 2. But that rink closed earlier in the evening, so they opted to visit the Parker Ice Trail at Discovery Park instead. It was right down the street and open later, he described.
“It’s nice to have something like this in our backyard,” he said of the ice trail.
Unlike a traditional rink, the Parker Ice Trail at Discovery Park is an ice-covered loop trail that’s about 450 feet around. It’s also not a perfect oval with some sharper corners to keep skaters on their toes.
In the summer, it’s a concrete walkway; but in the winter, sta members cover it with ice that they maintain with a Zamboni. It’s scheduled to be open for the season through Feb. 28.
While his family has been to other outdoor rinks, Blaha said they’re much farther away. Additionally, he thought the ice trail was a good size and didn’t feel too crowded.
Leesa Stone, who lived in Parker for more than 20 years before moving to Utah, was happy that Parker had an outdoor rink of its own.
She’s been skating before at e Pond Ice Rink at Southlands, saying that while she liked the lights at e Pond Ice Rink better, she overall liked the Parker Ice Trail more. She said it felt bigger and like that it was one-way only. Plus, the open replaces and overhead heater at the admissions booth are nice touches, she added.
Avery Jones and her family said the shape was also unique. ey thought it motivated some people to skate faster than they would at a regular rink, while others might go slower.
Like the Blaha family, Avery and Zach Jones said they appreciated having an outdoor skating feature so close to home. ey added that it was the perfect thing to do over the holidays, as it’s a very approachable activity for families.
So, whether it’s a family outing, date night, a casual jaunt to soak up the sun or a serious training session, skaters agree the Denver area is the place to be.
Denver’s Marie Duran, left, skates at The Rink at Belmar Jan. 2. Duran and her daughter wanted to come back after visiting the rink for the first time last year. PHOTOS BY CORINNE WESTEMAN
Lara De Beer, far left, and Evergreen’s Colin Saunder skate around Evergreen Lake Jan. 2. De Beer was visiting from Belgium, and Saunder thought skating at Evergreen Lake would be a fun activity for her last day visiting.
Parker’s Avery Jones helps her 5-year-old Rylee as she learns to skate Jan. 2 at the Parker Ice Trail at Discovery Park. The feature, which is a concrete walkway in the summer and is iced down in the winter, is scheduled to be open through Feb. 28.
An employee drives the Zamboni around The Rink at Belmar Jan. 2. The rink, which is scheduled to be open through Jan. 26, is in the middle of the Belmar Shopping District.
Je co superintendent cancels State of the District talk following executive’s death
BY SUZIE GLASSMAN SGLASSMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Je erson County Superintendent Tracy Dorland has canceled the district’s planned State of the District address on Jan. 9 following the death of the district’s former Chief of Schools, David Weiss, and revelations of an investigation alleging his possession of child pornography materials.
Weiss died earlier this month from an apparent gunshot wound that evidence suggests was self-in icted while visiting family in Washington County, Maryland, according to the Washington County Sheri ’s O ce.
“Right now, we are putting additional time and attention on providing support where it is needed most as we face this challenge head-on, together with our school and district leaders,” Dorland said. “For that reason, the State of the District event is no longer happening on January 9.”
Instead, Dorland said the district will host a series of digital updates later this month.
e decision comes as the community grapples with the shocking news of the investigation and its implications.
“Educating students and providing safe environments in which they can succeed and thrive is my life’s work. I want to be clear that any crime against a child is indefensible,” Dorland said. “What is most important, and always prioritized by Jeffco, is student safety. Right now, that in-
“While I know this timeline is challenging, it is important that we give investigators the time they need to thoroughly examine any evidence.”
Tracy Dorland, Je erson County Superintendent
cludes a law enforcement investigation that leads to justice.”
e Je erson County Sheri ’s O ce con rmed the ongoing investigation but stated that the matter does not appear to involve any individuals within the district.
“ e district has not been given any information to date on whether the personal activities of the former Chief of Schools involved anyone in Je co. What is known is that the investigation is focused solely on this former employee,” Dorland noted.
In the two weeks since the investigation began, the district has faced a mix of support and frustration from families and sta .
“Over the course of the past two weeks,
I have received messages of support and messages of frustration regarding the sudden and shocking news,” Dorland said, adding that the district is working with law enforcement to release information as it becomes available.
She also emphasized the importance of allowing investigators to work thoroughly.
“While I know this timeline is challenging, it is important that we give investigators the time they need to thoroughly examine any evidence,” she said. Details on the upcoming digital updates will be announced in the coming weeks. e district has pledged to keep the community informed as the JCSO investigation progresses.
Je erson County Superintendent Tracy Dorland canceled the district’s planned State of the District address in the wake of the death of the district’s former Chief of Schools, David Weiss, and revelations of an investigation alleging his possession of child pornography materials.
PHOTO BY DOLLY DEHERRERA
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Incredible range
Golden Concert Choir members reflect on high, low notes of last 5 years
BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Almost ve years ago, the 45-50 members of the Golden Concert Choir went home and, as with everyone else in the world, their de nition of “normal” changed very quickly.
Rehearsals were now over Zoom; the usual May concert was recorded and spliced together; and more than half the participants didn’t participate virtually and didn’t return when in-person rehearsals resumed.
At its lowest point, the choir had about a dozen members in fall 2020 and spring 2021.
Now, though, choir membership has nally returned to pre-pandemic levels, President Sally Berger said.
e Golden Concert Choir had 47 members for its fall 2024 season. It was nalizing its roster at its rst spring rehearsal Jan. 6, but Berger expected similar numbers.
As 12-year member Jan Kachenko summarized, “It has been a slow return.”
e nonpro t choir, which was founded in 2000 and had about 60 members at one point in its early years, rehearses weekly at Calvary Church, and hosts performances in December and May.
Kachenko and other members who were active during the pandemic were thankful that the Golden Concert Choir is not only still around, but has added new members to its roster and has become more integrated into the larger Golden community.
Jim Banks, the former president, and
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Berger said the choir was mostly seniors at one point. us, they were happy that so many younger people have joined the choir over the last two years.
e Golden Concert Choir’s most recent performance on Dec. 7 had a record 160 attendees, which Banks and Berger attributed to the growing membership and welcoming community.
Accompanist Kris Wittry described how the choir members have always impressed her with their passion for and dedication to music. Many of them don’t work in music professionally, she said, but they still spend a great deal of time and money perfecting their art.
“ ey humble me with their dedication,” she continued.
Five years later…
While March 2020 was a strange time for everyone, choirs took a major hit early on.
One of the rst recorded superspreader events in the United States was a March 10 choir practice in Skagit County, Washington. Of the 60 choir members who attended, 53 later contracted COVID-19, at least three were hospitalized, and two died, according to articles by the Seattle Times and the Los Angeles Times.
In a March 29, 2020 article, the Los Angeles Times reported: “Experts said the choir outbreak is consistent with a growing body of evidence that the virus can be transmitted through aerosols — particles smaller than 5 micrometers that can oat in the air for minutes or longer.”
us, the incident was later regarded as “one of the most pivotal transmission episodes in understanding the virus,” the Seattle Times described in March 2021.
Banks recalled hearing about that practice in March 2020, around the same time the state implemented the initial wave of COVID-19 restrictions.
e choir then started meeting via Zoom.
Of the 45-50 members who were in the choir that semester, about 20 transitioned to Zoom, Banks and Berger said.
Here to stay
“We lost a lot of people who couldn’t do online (rehearsals),” Berger said.
While it was a very rough few years for the choir and its members, Kachenko and Berger said some good things came out of the whole experience.
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While the remaining members tried to continue socializing online, Kachenko said she missed the camaraderie.
e Golden Concert Choir had also been developing a chamber choir before everything shut down in March 2020, and wasn’t revived when in-person singing resumed. As a member, Kachenko was disappointed when it was dissolved and said she’d like to revisit the idea now that the choir has returned to its pre-pandemic membership levels.
at spring, the Golden Concert Choir’s traditional concert was unusual. Each member recorded themselves singing and their director spliced everyone’s audio together. Kachenko said it was an especially weird experience, as it was hard singing chorale pieces alone.
Even when members resumed in-person rehearsals, the experience wasn’t quite the same. Membership was down signi cantly, and the choir had at least two concerts with no audience because of COVID-19 precautions.
In summer 2023, it hosted a membership drive and grew its membership from 20-25 to about 35 for its fall 2023 season. Berger and Banks said the choir couldn’t have kept going without Calvary Church’s support, as well as the broader community’s.
Technology was the biggest one, as attending rehearsals virtually became a permanent component of the choir. Berger said members can still Zoom in even if they’re sick or out of town. One member even lives out of state but joins the choir virtually every week.
Kachenko explained how, due to an injury, she attended a month of rehearsals virtually ahead of the Dec. 7 concert. Prepandemic, missing that many rehearsals would’ve meant she couldn’t sing in the Dec. 7 concert. However, she said it wasn’t an issue because of the virtual rehearsals.
Overall, Kachenko said, the last ve years have been “quite interesting” for the choir and its members, with plenty of challenges and changes to navigate. However, she added, she appreciated how the choir still feels like a community, and especially loved the big crowd at the Dec. 7 concert and “singing Christmas carols from around the world.”
e Golden Concert Choir’s next performance is at 4 p.m. May 3 at Calvary Church. e choir will be singing classical-style pieces from various requiem masses. Berger said it will also double as a fundraising event.
For more information, visit goldenconcertchoir.org.
Members of the Golden Concert Choir rehearse Jan. 6 at Calvary Church. In the five years since the initial COVID-19 shutdowns, the choir has navigated several changes such as low membership, virtual rehearsals and concerts with no audience. PHOTOS BY CORINNE WESTEMAN
Altos and sopranos in the Golden Concert Choir rehearse Jan. 6 at Calvary Church. The choir will host its annual spring concert May 3 at Calvary Church.
RoughRiders claim Pee-Wee honors
Boulder Hockey Club 12AA, with players from Boulder, Arvada, south Denver and more, head to Quebec tournament
BY JOHN RENFROW JRENFROW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A ragtag team of 12-year-olds from Boulder and surrounding areas, including Arvada and even south Denver, will be heading to Canada next month to represent the Colorado Avalanche in an international hockey tournament.
After a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the Littleton Hawks (another local powerhouse) in the Avalanche International Quali er in November, the Boulder Hockey Club 12AA (tier two) team punched its ticket to the 65th Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament set for Feb. 12-23.
e tournament is dubbed by many as the “Little League World Series of hockey,” and the Boulder RoughRiders team will represent the Junior Avs on the international stage. e Colorado Avalanche will cover the team’s expenses for two weeks.
“I knew we’d be OK at the beginning of the year after tryouts,” said Neil Runbeck, the team’s head coach and Boulder Hockey Club director. “We had some skilled hockey players and I knew we would be a competitive hockey team. As far as … what level, I just wasn’t sure. And Littleton always puts together kind of an all-star team. I think we’ve only lost ve games or something all season, and three of them have been to Littleton.” e RoughRiders would weather the storm to get revenge in the championship nal of the quali er. It certainly didn’t come easy; Littleton once again brought its A-game.
the stage for what was on the line.”
e players responded and dug deep to punch their ticket past their rivals.
Team parent Megan Gilhooly was in the nosebleeds but was still locked in on the edge of her seat.
“I watched the game from 30,000 feet, literally,” she said. “I was with my other three kids on a plane to Brazil watching the stream online. I hope I didn’t wake any of the sleeping passengers up as I reacted to the highs and lows of this rollercoaster game … e Quebec Quali er championship game was the pee-wee game of the year in Colorado. More important than Silver Sticks. More important than state. e team gave it everything they had, and it paid o . I’m so proud of this BHC team.”
Overcoming a two-goal de cit twice, the Riders scored two goals in the last 1:53 to tie the game at four and send the match into overtime. At 3:45 of the second overtime, Boulder forward Sieger Gilhooly charged the net and scored the game-winning goal, sealing the victory for Boulder and sending the team to Quebec.
“Coach Neil did a very cool thing,” Megan Gilhooly said. “He had players from the team he coached 10 years ago (who also were underdogs in the championship and won) send videos about what the Quebec experience meant to them. e players who sent videos had gone on to play juniors and/or college hockey. ese videos inspired the team and set
“It meant a ton (to get the win),” Runbeck said. “We had a bunch of kids and coaches and parents that all bought into everything that we’ve been kind of building up to at that point.”
It’s a lot of traveling, ice training, games and practices, he said. It takes a village to keep a club team together and operate at a high level through the ups and downs of a season.
To nally break through and beat their Goliath, it meant the world.
“It was a lot of, you know, validation for the kids and the parents and the other coaches that all that hard work paid o ,” he said. “You don’t know that it’s going to work out, but just hoping it’s developing some good habits with kids, and you just kind of let the chips fall where they may. But yeah, I would say that moment of winning was exhilarating.”
Runbeck credited players Brandon Guyette and Elijah Gold for their defense and tenacity, Josh Rioux for being “a stud” as a leader and understanding the team’s dynamics and Gilhooly for being a “beast” and o ensive anchor for the team, scoring close to four goals per game.
en there are the goalies, Braden Smith and Ben Collins.
“I mean, I’ll tell them sometimes, like, ‘Hey, Ben, you’re starting.’ And he’s like, ‘No, it’s Braden’s turn,’” Runbeck said. “ ey’ve totally taken over the ownership of being the goalies and splitting time and cheering each other on.”
e RoughRiders still have a handful of league games left on their schedule as well as the Rocky Mountain Hockey Federation playo s in early February.
“As a hockey mom, I always want what’s best for my boys, but I also am a big believer in advancing Colorado hockey … is season and last season have shown that more than one team can lead the hockey scene here in Colorado, and that’s good for every player. Having many strong programs in the state raises the bar and encourages better development at all levels.
e key here is that when more than one Colorado team can vie for great opportunities like this, the kids playing hockey in Colorado win.”
positions to help develop a better understanding of every player’s goals and perspectives on the ice.
“And then (there’s) just the mental side of just being a good athlete and being a good human being,” he said.
A big focus down the nal stretch is continuing to get stronger and faster, Runbeck said.
Players have at-home workout programs that include planks, push-ups and pull-ups. But also the coaches are moving the players around in practice. at means certain positions will play other
“Because obviously, we are representing the Avalanche, and we want to represent them in the best way possible. And so it’s a lot of characterbuilding stu that we’re doing. ose are the three main things: bigger, stronger, faster on the physical side, better decisionmaking, and then just being a good human being.”
For more information on the Boulder Hockey Club, including following the 12AA team on its way to Quebec, visit www.boulderhockeyclub.com.
The Boulder Hockey Club 12AA team poses for a victory photo after defeating the Littleton Hawks in the championship qualifier in November. With the win, the RoughRiders will represent the Colorado Avalanche in the 65th Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament in February. COURTESY PHOTO
The Boulder Hockey Club has several teams across a range of age groups for both boys and girls. The teams play high-level hockey against
Finding Beth Miller
Cold case in 1983 disappearance of Idaho Springs girl getting
new attention from local police
BY CHRIS KOEBERL CKOEBERL@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Idaho Springs police are re-examining every piece of evidence, witness accounts and timelines to answer one question: “What happened to Beth Miller in 1983?”
Sgt. Ryan Frost of the Idaho Springs Police Department has spent hundreds of hours, by his own account, digging through records and evidence to explain why Idaho Springs resident Beth Miller went for a jog in the morning of Aug. 16, 1983 and never came back.
As the Idaho Springs Police department approaches full sta ng, Police Chief Nathan Buseck said he saw an opportunity and Frost’s passion to dedicate time to the endless questions still circulating around Miller’s disappearance.
Buseck added that the Idaho Springs police investigation, undertaken early in 2024, has been kept “close to vest” for more than six months as investigators tried to recreate an unbiased timeline of events leading to Miller’s disappearance.
“We wanted to get it to a point, where I think we are now, where it’s organized enough that now I need the public’s help,” Frost said.
Miller was eventually reported missing to police by family members at 9 p.m. Aug. 16, according to records.
Investigators say her parents were concerned when she wasn’t home for din-
ner and asked her brothers and sisters to look for her as she often worked as a babysitter for neighborhood families.
Reports describe Miller as a “loving and outgoing person who liked to go to dances and was very well-liked in the community.”
Almost immediately, Idaho Springs police at the time considered the disappearance to be a “nefarious act,” Frost said.
When Miller left for her jog she was wearing only a T-shirt, jogging shorts and shoes. She left $107 of babysitting money behind, according to Frost.
According to Frost, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation maintained at least 17 boxes of investigational material collected in the initial and ongoing investigation into the disappearance.
Frost said he is sifting through every page, in every box, looking for that “one thing” that may have been overlooked, disregarded or never mentioned by witnesses, friends or family.
“I try to nd the little thing, maybe something somebody missed, maybe wasn’t investigated thoroughly enough,” Frost said.
Recently the Idaho Springs police department has taken to social media in an e ort to nd “that needle in the haystack” from someone who knows, heard or thought their information would be “irrelevant,” Frost said.
SEE
MILLER, P23
14-year-old Idaho Springs resident Elisabeth Ann Miller went for a jog in August of 1983 and hasn’t been seen since. Police are asking the public for help. FILE PHOTO
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Je co clerk launches campaign for secretary of state
Gonzalez aims to expand voting rights
BY SUZIE GLASSMAN SGLASSMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Je erson County Clerk and Recorder
Amanda Gonzalez o cially launched her campaign for the o ce of Colorado Secretary of State this week, pledging to prioritize voter access and election security if elected. Gonzalez, the rst Latina to serve as Je co Clerk, aims to make history again as Colorado’s rst Latina secretary of state.
“It is a privilege to announce that I am running to become Colorado’s next Secretary of State,” Gonzalez said. “Voting is the way we express hope. e way we show love for our community. e way we make our voices heard. I promise to safeguard Coloradans’ access to the ballot box and to ght for secure elections that work for every Colorado voter.”
Elected to a four-year term in 2022, Gonzalez oversees one of the most public-facing o ces in Colorado government, overseeing safe and secure elections, running the county’s ve motor vehicle o ces, providing marriage licenses and keeping the county’s public real estate records.
Previously, as executive director of Colorado Common Cause, Gonzalez helped create Colorado’s independent redistricting commission and expand ballot access for historically underrepresented communities.
MILLER
“If people think the insigni cant stu doesn’t matter, it does,” he said. “All I need is just one little thing to help me.”
An original runaway/missing person report obtained by the Clear Creek Courant details the minimal facts recorded by investigators in the case. e report states Miller was last seen at 10 a.m. Aug. 16 by her sister when “Beth,” as she was commonly known, asked if she wanted to go for a jog.
According to detectives, Miller was training to join the Clear Creek High School basketball team when she entered the ninth grade later that month. Investigators say subsequent information indicates Miller was seen one more time by a couple of her friends at the former convenience shop, 7-11, at 23rd and Colorado Boulevard at 10:30 a.m.
After that day and time, Miller became a ghost of speculation, rumors
One of those initiatives included advocating for a 2024 law mandating that county clerks and sheri s establish at least one day of in-person voting at jails and detention centers for eligible incarcerated voters.
Gonzalez played a key role in implementing the law locally, enabling people like Jesus Gonzalez, a Je erson County inmate, to vote for the rst time.
“ is is just one more example of how our democracy should work for everyone. If you are eligible to vote, you should be able to vote. And I hope that we see this throughout the country,” Gonzalez said at the time.
The role of secretary of state
Colorado’s secretary of state oversees elections, voter registration and campaign nance compliance, making the position critical to maintaining the integrity of the state’s democratic processes. e o ce also collaborates with county clerks to address election challenges.
Gonzalez’s background includes roles as a policy analyst, sta attorney, small business CEO, nonpro t leader and adjunct election law and Chicano studies professor. She says her experience prepares her for the role.
Gonzalez’s campaign comes amid growing attention to nationwide voting access and election integrity. If elected, Gonzalez said she pledges to build on Colorado’s reputation as a leader in secure, transparent and accessible elections.
“Our democracy is strongest when every Coloradan’s voice is heard,” Gonzalez said in her announcement.
and perpetual innuendo, according to Idaho Springs police.
“ e hard thing with this case is there is no evidence. e only evidence I have are the people who saw her,” Frost said.
Investigators say they’ve spent hundreds of hours trying to separate the trivial from questionable and possibly overlooked tips and information in the thousands of investigation records.
Frost said the CBI o ered to scan and record available information as a custodian of the case and le them digitally for the Idaho Springs Police Department. e les include detailed maps of areas of interest and scouting areas.
To this date, Buseck said, the department is conducting preliminary scouting of a few areas to identify locations for more extensive searches.
Despite 42 years since Miller’s vanishing, Buseck said the expediency of time is a factor moving forward.
“My fear is 10 years from now, 15-20 years, it becomes exponentially more di cult because you start to lose your witnesses,” Buseck said.
Referencing, cross-checking and repeating is how investigators say this cold case will be resolved.
“Someone knows something,” Buseck said. “I think over time there are instances where people may have information… they’re unsure if they should reach out to law enforcement and I think that publicizing this case is a nal push to see if that one person has that information.”
According to investigators, several persons of interest in the disappearance were brought before a Grand-Jury in 2008, but no one was ever indicted.
“Closure” is a word with multiple de nitions, explanations and platitudes, according to criminal investigators interviewed through the years by this reporter. is case is personal, based on the tone of local police.
“ at’s our No. 1 goal: Beth needs to have a proper burial,” Frost said. “I say she needs to come home because what happened to her, she didn’t deserve.”
Any information or tips can be sent to rfrost@idahospringsco.com or by calling 303-567-4291.
REBUILD
Expanding the conversation
JESPA leaders also raised broader issues impacting the community, such as food insecurity and mental health resources for students. Kaschub highlighted the importance of viewing these challenges holistically.
“Our role as support sta goes beyond job descriptions; we are a lifeline for many families,” he said.
Board members acknowledged these points and expressed interest in further collaboration to address systemic issues.
“We know the challenges are complex, but we believe in working together to nd solutions,” Kenworthy said.
Both sides agreed to prioritize transparency and regular communication to avoid the pitfalls of previous negotiations.
Kaschub acknowledged that this year is already going better than last.
Still, Kaschub continued, “I want to know and trust that if this breaks down again that we can come to you and talk to you. at’s what we want.”
Je co Clerk and Recorder Amanda Gonzalez
FROM PAGE 7
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
