– A memorial celebration will be held for John Gierach, who died on Oct. 3, 2024. The memorial will be held on May 3, at 1 p.m., at the Lyons Farmette, 4121 Ute Hwy. It will be held outside if the weather permits.
John Gierach was a fly fisherman and an outdoor writer who wrote 22 books on flyfishing and outdoor life. He wrote a monthly column for the Redstone Review for 25 years. He was above all a story teller, who loved to be outdoors, hiking, flyfishing, hunting, camping, or just sitting on a rock contemplating nature.
He is the only flyfishing/outdoor writer to have 20 of his books continuously in print with Simon and Schuster, one of the five largest English language publishing houses in the world. His books are also published in French in Paris.
He won many awards including the Arnold Gingrich Angling Heritage Award, the Federation of Fly Fishers Roderick Haig-Brown Award, the PEN New England Cerulli Award for Excellence in Sports Writing, and the National Outdoor Book Award for Outdoor Literature. He was inducted into Catskills Flyfishing Hall of Fame in 2015. The parking lot at the Farmette has very limited space, so it would be wise to carpool or where your walking shoes. If possible you can RSVP to the Lyons Farmette, 303-746-6266.
Jeep for sale
LYONS – A 2000 Jeep Wrangler/sport is for sale. The Jeep was owned by flyfishing writer, John Gierach. It has 127,310 miles on it, and a 4.0L 6-cylinder engine. He purchased the Jeep on 2/23/2012 and used it mainly for access to Front Range small streams. It has a folder with all the service records. He purchased the Jeep with about 108,000 miles on it. It runs well. For more information, call 303823-2250.
Continue Briefs on Page 8
your vote at
Lyons and other cities examine the effects of executive orders, and a trail in Rocky Flats
By Susan de Castro Redstone Review Editor
LYONS – At a recent Lyons Town Board Meeting, Town Administrator Victoria Simonsen told the board that she and Mayor Hollie Rogin joined a phone meeting with almost 500 participants from all over Colorado to discuss and express concern over all the latest executive orders coming from the federal government.
The meeting included representatives from cities, towns, counties, the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), Colorado Municipal League (CML) and many other agencies around the state. “We are paying attention to and staying on top of the executive orders that we hear about and it does appear that the biggest concern is, what is going to happen to our Forest Service and who is going to regulate them and what impact they (executive orders) may have?” Simonsen said.
Simonsen added that the participants were asking how they were going to prevent wildfires and what happens when they need the federal government to respond to the wildfires. “That came up many, many times, especially in the south and west parts of the state. The metro areas are concerned about what’s going to happen to the non-profit services for feeding families and child care and those sorts of things,” she said.
The Mayor and Administrator attended two sessions where attendees discussed congressionally directed spending, and were told they should anticipate that funding requests will continue since that part is controlled by Congress and is not part of the executive branch. Simonsen said that they were told to submit their requests for funding by March 24 and to prep their 2026 requests to have them ready. She said that there is some interest by some of the state legislators to focus on water quality issues. She added that last year they submit-
ted all their issues with the wastewater plant, and staff is interested in resubmitting that for 2025. “And then our next priority would be the storm water projects if those are eligible under storm water quality,” she added. Moving along, the board listened to a presentation by Chris Allred, an environmental advocate, who asked the board for support for his proposal to stop the Rocky Mountain Greenway Trail from going through the Rocky Flats Wildlife area.
Rocky Flats was built in the early 1950s to make nuclear weapons using plutonium, and was located just outside of Denver. Everyone back East thought at that time that Denver was out in the sticks and no one would care about a little plutonium floating around out there in the Rockies.
The facility’s primary mission was the fabrication of plutonium pits, the fissionable part of a bomb that produces a nuclear explosion.
Congratulations to the Denver Zoo on the birth of a new male giraffe! He’s already hanging out in his enclosure, enjoying his new home. Help name the new giraffe calf by casting
LETTER • TO • THE • EDITOR
Keeping Lyons safe: A mill levy is essential for ACLS ambulance and fire service
Dear Editor,
In life-threatening situations such as heart attacks, strokes, allergic reactions, or severe trauma, every second counts. For the residents of Lyons, the presence of an Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) ambulance service has drastically improved emergency response times, saving lives before patients even reach the hospital. However, maintaining this essential service requires funding. A proposed mill levy, costing residents approximately $1.00 more per day, is the most effective and sustainable way to ensure that Lyons continues to have access to high-quality, lifesaving emergency care.
Emergency medical services are divided into two primary levels: Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). BLS ambulances are staffed with emergency medical technicians (EMTs) trained to provide essential interventions such as CPR, AED use, and basic airway management. While BLS care is critical, it is often not enough in severe emergencies.
ACLS providers, on the other hand, have the advanced training necessary to manage complex medical crises. They can administer emergency medications, establish advanced airways, perform cardiac resuscitation using specialized protocols, and provide immediate life-saving interventions before a patient reaches the hospital. In critical cases, having ACLS-trained responders on the scene within minutes can mean the difference between life and death.
Prior to the establishment of ACLS ambulance service in Lyons, residents had to rely on AMR (American Medical Response) for advanced emergency care, often facing wait times of up to 35 minutes or more. For someone experiencing a heart attack or stroke, that delay could lead to irreversible damage or even death. Thanks to the
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Lyons Fire Protection District’s ACLS ambulance service, response times have been cut to approximately six minutes. This means that residents in medical distress receive timely, high-quality care long before they reach a hospital. Maintaining this level of service ensures that everyone in Lyons has access to the urgent care they need, when they need it most.
To sustain ACLS ambulance services in Lyons, additional funding is required. The proposed mill levy would cost residents roughly $1.00 more per day – an amount that pales in comparison to the value of a life saved. Without this funding, Lyons risks losing its ACLS ambulance service, forcing the community to once again rely on distant emergency providers with dangerously long wait times.
As an emergency room nurse, I know firsthand that in an emergency, minutes can make all the difference. The ACLS ambulance service in Lyons has already proven to be a vital resource, significantly reducing response times and saving lives. However, without funding, this service may disappear, leaving residents vulnerable to delayed emergency care. The proposed mill levy is a responsible and necessary solution, providing long-term financial support to maintain this life-saving service.
Investing in emergency medical services is an investment in the safety, health, and well-being of every person in our town. By approving the mill levy, residents ensure that skilled paramedics and EMTs remain available to respond quickly and effectively in times of crisis.
For about $1.00 more a day, we can protect our families, friends, and neighbors by ensuring that Lyons continues to have the emergency care it needs. When the time comes to vote, choosing to support the mill levy is choosing to safeguard the health and safety of our community. I know that my family, friends, and community are worth this investment.
Sarah Boccolucci, Lyons resident
Learn about disaster preparedness
By Kay Sparks Redstone Review
LYONS – How do you find out if a disaster is happening? What do you do then? Find out this and more on April 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. when the Lyons Regional Library hosts Boulder County Disaster Management Department’s Disaster Preparedness Basics. Starting with the different notification routes, the different types of disasters, the basics of preparation for evacuating and for sheltering-in-place through creating your own plan, you will leave with a good beginning for being prepared. To register, go to Boulder County Disaster Preparedness Department at www.boulderodm/preparedness/events-workshops. For support with registering call 303-441-3647.
The Housing and Human Services Commission will be distributing Go-Bags/Backpacks to seniors and those in need at this presentation.
Safe Battery Disposal
Batteries and small electronics like cell phones, tablets and vape devices can ignite fires at waste and recycling facilities. Do not place them in your trash or curbside recycling. Dispose of them for free at the Hazardous Materials Management Facility at 1901c 63rd St., Boulder on Wednesday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 720-564-2251 for more information.
Kay Sparks is the chairwoman of the Housing and Human Services Commission.
Nicholas Angelo May 14, 1948 – February 19, 2025
Nicholas Angelo, an institution of the Boulder and Lyons communities for over half a century, passed away on February 19, 2025, at the age of 76. Born on May 14, 1948, Nicholas spent his formative years growing up in New York City and then in Denver, graduating from East High School.
He would go on to establish himself as a prominent dealer of guitars and later fine art, a career that reflected his profound appreciation for beauty and culture. Additionally, he served three terms as the Mayor of Lyons in addition to his service with the Lyons Board of Trustees.
Nicholas was a man of indomitable spirit and intellect, known for both his compassionate and competitive nature. His inquisitive mind was evident throughout his pursuits; he was an avid gardener, musician, and bibliophile, always seeking to learn and experience more with fearless vigor.
Family was the cornerstone of Nicholas’ life. He leaves behind his spouse, Candace Shepard, and children, Alyssa Angelo, Stephen Swenson (wife Kari), Georgia Angelo (husband Josh), Charles Angelo, his brother Dennis (wife Elaine), sister Suzy, and six beloved grandchildren. Nicholas was preceded in death by his father, George Angelo, mother, Helen Kokenias, and nephew PJ. Nicholas’s life will be celebrated in a service planned for the spring, with details to follow. In honoring his memory, the family suggests donations be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center (https://tinyurl.com/8c5mtdrr), reflecting his lifelong commitment to justice and equality.
Nicholas Angelo will be remembered not only for his professional achievements but also for his role as a steadfast family man and a passionate advocate for his local community and human rights. His legacy will undoubtedly endure through the many lives he touched.
A TRIBUTE TO A FORMER MAYOR
In Memoriam: Remembering former Mayor Nick Angelo
By Mark Browning Redstone Review
LYONS – Reviewing Nick Angelo’s many years of service to Lyons would be a Herculean task, requiring considerable research and a long time to document.
So, I won’t try a comprehensive review, but I do think it’s appropriate to share some things gleaned from working with Nick in town government. We can all learn from the experience of those who have spent years (decades, in Nick’s case) serving the town. Institutional memory is valuable, and Nick was a Lyons institution.
Nick twice served as Lyons mayor, most recently from 2020-22. He also spent years on the Board of Trustees and Planning and Community Development Commission.
But those are just positions Nick held. More important was the person who held them. Nick was unique, a man of strong opinions and firmly held principles. It’s worth looking at both those things.
As to principles, in these times when “Does Truth Matter?” has somehow become a debatable topic, Nick first and foremost sought the truth. While he could accommodate differing viewpoints (including mine when I sometimes disagreed with him), he was a stickler for the truth. When he decided someone had lied to him or withheld important information, his reaction was visceral. When he said, “Don’t lie to me,” he meant it.
Keep that in mind as a rule for government officials. At any level of government.
I first served with Nick on the Planning and Community Development Commission (PCDC) in 2017-18, where we helped craft some important policies, including incentivizing Accessory Dwelling Units to help address post-flood housing needs, and setting rules for Short Term Vacation Rentals, areas where Lyons was years ahead of the State and other municipalities.
Nick resigned from the PCDC, firmly convinced a town staff member had provided false information about a matter. As I said, he put a premium on truth in government.
Affordable
By Kay Sparks Redstone Review
We later served on the Board of Trustees together, as Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem, during the strange, online-meeting-only Covid years. We mostly communicated by email and phone, trying to manage a tough period for the town and its residents. It was difficult, but some important things got done: finalizing an affordable housing project that had been a town priority since the flood, replacing flood-damaged Second Avenue and Fourth Avenue bridges, approving a hotel as an economic driver for downtown Lyons (something Nick strongly supported), and starting a Streets Fund to address infrastructure needs.
Nick had years of accomplishments before then. He was proud of playing a lead role in negotiations with Boulder County and private landowners to add acreage to Bohn Park. He was a strong backer of the “Five Acre Rule” giving Lyons voters control over annexations and growth. He believed voters would make wise decisions and fiercely defended their right to make them, including supporting the recent amendment requiring voter approval to annex “carve-outs” of less than 5 acres.
was codified justified raising it higher. That wasn’t popular, with many citizens speaking out against it. The BOT got an earful, and voted 6-1 to keep the Blue Line as it was (and still is). Nick Angelo was the one.
He didn’t always get his way, though. In researching the history of Lyons’ Blue Line, above which utilities for development are not allowed without special review, I came across details of a jam-packed 1999 BOT meeting where raising the Blue Line was discussed.
Engineers had determined that upgrades to the town water system since the Blue Line
Not that Nick favored development in the hills. He didn’t, and made that clear in 2024 when he strongly opposed a draft Inter-Governmental Agreement with Boulder County that would have classified properties in Upper Steamboat Valley as potentially annexable and developable. But in 1999, Nick thought the Blue Line just didn’t square with the hard facts presented by the engineers, so he voted to do what he thought was right, even if that meant casting an unpopular sole dissenting vote. Nick also tried hard to get at least some Lyons Valley Townhomes housing units set aside for lower-income residents. He didn’t succeed at that, either, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. The project’s economics (requirements for tax credits and private sector loans) just wouldn’t allow for 40-percent Area Median Income units. Recognizing economic reality, Nick did finally support the project, but his fear some potential residents wouldn’t qualify to live there proved prescient.
Other things Nick strongly supported:
• Requiring industrial dischargers into the town wastewater system to be regularly tested and to pretreat or side stream their discharges instead of expecting other ratepayers to cover treatment costs.
• Making sure any developments getting Urban Renewal Authority financing
contribute sales tax to the General Fund instead of keeping it for themselves.
• Prioritizing town infrastructure, especially reliable utility services.
One thing of particular focus for Nick was using some marijuana tax money to fund mental health and drug abuse counseling services in Lyons. He viewed that as being required by the ballot language approving local marijuana taxes. Others (including me) considered that language more discretionary, but Nick was adamant it was required. Required or not, the 2025 town budget for the first time includes funds (administered through the Lyons Community Foundation) for mental health and drug abuse counseling services. That decision was, in part, a tribute to Nick Angelo’s persistent advocacy.
When I visited him for the last time in a rehab hospital, after his auto accident, and told him his program had been budgeted for, he was overjoyed. It was his last gift to Lyons, one of many in decades of serving the community he loved.
Nick was more than a town government stalwart, though. He was also a friend to many and a devoted family man.
In preparing to write this column, I searched through emails I’d received from Nick over the years about town business. There were a lot of them. But there was also this one, written last fall, and I think it serves as a fitting reminder of what Nick Angelo treasured most – the types of things he’d say we all should treasure. Here’s what he said:
“Considering the health scares in my life, getting to hear my grandson knock his piano recital out of the ballpark last week and knowing my 7-year-old granddaughter can climb the rope to the ceiling to of the gym, and oh yeah finally seeing August drive to the hoop for a perfect lay-up, what more could their Papou ask for? I give thanks everyday for what I do have, my family being the most important factor in my life.”
Agree or disagree with Nick Angelo about Town issues (and I did both at times), it can’t be said he didn’t keep things in proper perspective.
Mark Browning serves as a Trustee on the Lyons Town Board and he is active with the Lyons Volunteers and Lyons Elevating All Fund, (LEAF). He is a Lyons resident and retired attorney.
and workforce housing available in Longmont and Lafayette
BOULDER – Boulder County Housing Authority has housing available in three properties: Casa de la Esperanza property in Longmont, Willoughby Corner neighborhood in Lafayette and at The Spoke on Coffman in Longmont.
Casa de la Esperanza (1520 South Emery St., Longmont) has three- and
four-bedroom units (900-1073 sq. ft.) previously reserved for agricultural workers, but no offered to all qualifying low-income households. Eligibility Requirements: the head of the household must be a U.S. citizen or qualified alien; household income must not exceed 80 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI); household monthly income should be at least twice the unit rent. Current rents: three-bedroom $720 (three to seven people); four-bedroom $845
(four to nine people). Apply using this link: https://www.waitlistcheck.com/CO30242725. For more information, visit www. bouldercountyhousing.org. If assistance is needed in applying, please get contact hhsbchawaitlist@bouldercounty.gov or 720-8273133.
Willoughby Corner in Lafayette has one-bedroom affordable homes available: ten 55-and-over one-bedroom homes are available at 60 percent AMI and many of the multi-family one-bedroom homes are available at 50 to 60 percent AMI. Please see the English language Willoughby Corner brochure or the Spanish language brochure and visit www.WilloughbyCorner.org for additional information and to apply. The Spoke on Coffman in Longmont has six affordable homes available at 60 percent AMI. See the English language Spoke on Coffman brochure or the Spanish language brochure and visit www.TheSpokeOnCoffman.org for additional information and to apply.
Housing and Human Services Commission – two vacancies Interested in learning more about needs
in our community and the resources to address those needs? Want to be the first to learn about new resources and housing available in Boulder County and Lyons? An investment of less than two hours a month gets you started. The Housing and Human Services Commission meets the second Monday of each month from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Lyons Regional library. Plus, there’s always cookies.
Kay Sparks is the chairwoman for the Housing and Human Services Commission.
Learn about Lyons Area History: Quarries/ Quarry Town, Lyons Pioneers, Lyons 1900s, Isabella Bird, Welch Resort, E S Lyon, Billings Family, Blue Mountain Old Stone
Lyons Area & Flood Books For Sale! from the Lyons Redstone Museum
Browning
Nick Angelo dedicated decades to Lyons with unwavering principles and a deep commitment to his community, always prioritizing family above all.
New donations to the Redstone Museum Collection
By Monique Sawyer-Lang Redstone Review
LYONS – Spring is in the air and the Lyons Redstone Museum is looking forward to its 46th year of operation. Although we’re closed for the winter, much is happening behind the scenes as we prepare for another year of welcoming travelers and members of the Lyons community into the museum.
The Lyons Elementary School 4th Grade Museum Stewards are hard at work on this year’s project. Since the program’s inception four years ago the Museum Stewards have created: a digital timeline of Lyons history, a scavenger hunt for children, and oral history narratives complete with sound effects on selected artifacts within the museum. This year’s Stewards are creating a “Museum A-Z” activity for their kindergarten buddies and other young visitors. We look forward to the unveiling of this fun project in May.
In the meantime you are invited to view our temporary exhibit of historic photographs of Lyons at the Lyons Library.
Located in the Effie Banta room, the photographs will be on display until mid-April.
The photographs are a fun glimpse into early 1900s Lyons and include the 1901 4th of July parade, the Arcade Saloon, and the 1929-1930 4th grade class at Lyons School.
Although we are barely into the year the museum has accepted several noteworthy donations from local residents to add to our collection.
Chrystal and David Decoster donated a beautiful cast iron and wood book floor stand, a wood tabletop book stand, and the poetry book POESIS by local author Aaron William Perry. The iron book stand, which
nesses. Dating from 1943 and 1945, the unused calendars were from the Lyons Feed and Service Station owned by Dave Goranson and Henry’s Service Station, which sold CONOCO products. The museum looks forward to displaying the calendars in a future exhibit.
Deb Anthony, a long-time Lyons town employee, donated a framed collection of Lyons Police badges, patches, and a collar pin. This collection, from when Lyons had its own police force, will be displayed in the museum’s existing Police exhibit.
Ron Gosnell donated two photographs of Buck Martin and Grace Tumbleson Martin. Grace is the daughter of John and Mary Tumbleson who started the Tumbleson subdivision on the old South St. Vrain Road. Grace and Buck’s son, Bud, married Gladys Johnson, sister of Mr. LaVerne, Johnson.
has a patent date of December 10, 1895, is designed to hold oversized books such as dictionaries and encyclopedias. It will be a wonderful addition to our school exhibit. The tabletop book stand will be a useful addition to exhibits or events and Perry’s poetry book now resides in the local author section of the museum’s reference library.
Kim Boxrud, whose family owned the Montgomery Farm just east of Lyons, donated two lithograph promotional calendars from Lyons’ busi-
The photographs came with the house located on South St. Vrain road when they purchased it. The photographs are unique in that not only are the backgrounds hand tinted with color but they are famed in what were commonly called bubble glass frames. This popular technique from the 1880s to about 1940 means both the photograph and the glass are curved.
The museum will open for the 2025 season on weekends in May. In the mean time you can explore more of Lyons history through our historic district walking
Expert appraisal: Looking for undiscovered treasure
Butler Sawyer-Lang
By Peter Butler Redstone Review
LYONS – We don’t go to Boulder very much, but when we do, we always head to our favorite thrift store, the Salvation Army on 33rd Street just off Arapahoe. It’s a strange sensation, 15 minutes of browsing and then you walk out with a giant armful of T-shirts, feeling like a thief, even after you rounded up your change at the register. A bundle you can barely carry for about $25.
I like to have a quick look at the art and the china to see if there might be a bargain Rookwood jug waiting to be discovered. Antiques Roadshow, on PBS, has changed the way all of us visit a thrift store. Buy the right lampshade and you might be spending some time with Arlie Sulka as she unveils a lavishly detailed story of how Louis Comfort Tiffany designed a finial, or used some special glass. She has a sparkle in her eye that proves she’s not just reciting an auction catalogue; this is pure joy.
Most people think of Antiques Roadshow as a celebration of the joy of discovery of a precious find for a dollar at a yard sale, a bit like winning the lottery. But I have a different feeling about the show. It’s a feeling of love. When Kevin Zavian looks into the eyes of a woman displaying a ring or a brooch you can feel decades of expertise, cherishing the craft, being endowed on the lucky visitor like a sacrament. Not only is he the sexiest man alive, but, as he describes maybe the sapphire (does it come from Burma or Kashmir?) he makes the wearer feel like they are wearing the crown jewels. Most people are waiting to see what the money is, but I think the best part is seeing these experts bestow the gift of knowledge, of not only what the object is, but where it came from and how it came to be created in the first
place. You can see this when Ken Gloss is leafing through an old book or Lark Mason is describing a Chinese vase. Not only are they walking encyclopedias, they also relish every little morsel of storytelling and transform a lump of stuff into a living thing with its own narrative and place in history.
Nicholas Lowry is the prints and posters guru. You might
tour and our four virtual exhibits. You can access all of these from our website www.lyonsredstonemuseum.com. We rely entirely on grants and donations to fund our operations and your support is greatly appreciated. You can donate through our website or by mail to Lyons Historical Society, PO Box 9, Lyons CO. 80540.
Sawyer Lang is the Collections Manager of the
think a poster is just a pretty picture on the wall. But when the guy with the slicked back hair and the outrageous, but strangely appealing plaid suit starts talking about designers, printers and advertising campaigns, you can’t look away. It’s totally compelling. This is someone who is full of love, and who loves to share their love of a lovely thing.
And then there are the twins, the Keno twins, Leslie and Leigh, the furniture guys. There was some sort of pricing scandal a few years ago and they went quiet for a while. But they have returned with their gushing enthusiasm unrestrained. I read their book a few years ago, about how, when they were barely teenagers, they would hunt down old stoneware pots and make a profit at local markets.
But they moved their focus to furniture, especially Northeastern, from Philadelphia and Rhode Island. They seem to know what was happening during every week from 1750 onwards, in every town and every workshop, and details of every mahogany board arriving from Cuba. When they are talking about, say, a card table, they are just about exploding with
Continue Treasure on Page 14
Monique
Lyons Redstone Museum. She is also a volunteer with the Lyons Food Pantry and a former member/chair of the Lyons Community Foundation Board. She lives in Spring Gulch.
Vintage 1940s-era calendars from local Lyons businesses – a glimpse into the past.
Historical Museum Bubble photographs of Buck and Grace Martinca.
An 1895 bookstand from the Museum, showcasing a piece of Lyons’ rich history.
A collection of vintage Lyons Police Department badges.
LFPD needs to raise their mill levy to hire more fire fighters
By Susan de Castro Gierach Redstone Review Editor
LYONS – I would find it hard to believe that there is anyone in the greater Lyons area who is not concerned, let alone terrified about the fire danger in the Lyons wildfire/ urban interface area.
Unless you moved here yesterday, most of us live with the awareness of fire every day. We look for signs of smoke, we keep our pet carriers within easy access, and we keep our crates of important things, like papers, photos, and keepsakes that we will have to move quickly, at close hand.
In an important mail-in ballot election set for May 6, 2025, the Lyons Fire Protection District (LFPD) will be asking for a mill levy increase. The current mill levy is 16.43 mills. “This number has to be lowered to meet some of the limitations (growth caps, Tabor, Bruce, Gallagher laws) that are imposed on the department,” according to LFPD Chief Rob Stumph.
The new proposed mill levy would be 22 mills.
a huge fire exploded in the hills above Jamestown. That was the Calwood Fire on Oct. 17, 2020, which burned 7,000 acres.
“It just exploded,” said former Commander of the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office Mike Wagner of the late-season wildfire.
Also close by, a fast-moving new fire ignited on a dry, windy day that saw continued growth of the two-monthold Cameron Peak fire in Larimer County – the largest wildfire in Colorado’s recorded history. And then there was the East Troublesome fire in Grand County.
A number of years ago there wasn’t any wildfire interface area. There was a fire season, which ended around the end of September. Some people even cancelled their fire insurance during the winter. Then
Who
Colorado’s giant wildfires that year came amid a changing climate, with record temperatures, low relative humidity and a statewide drought that combined to fuel explosive fire growth. The state’s ten largest recorded wildfires all burned in the last 20 years. One fire insurance company has decided not to insure homes in this area at all.
Now the fire season is 12 months of the year; we all, in the Lyons area, live in a fire zone and our main defense against fire, along with doing all the mitigation we can, is our fire fighters and our fire department. This is our last and best hope we have for evacuating and saving our houses.
Now they need our help. The LFPD wants to raise the
wins? The tortoise or the hare?
By Deborah Huth Price Redstone Review
LYONS – Is it the Tortoise and the Hare, or the Turtle and the Hare? You may have wondered about the use of these two terms but Aesop was actually right. Tortoises are a type of turtle, but they are usually land dwelling, have more domed and thicker shells, and often have claws on their sturdy feet. Non-tortoises usually are seen living near water, like lakes, ponds, and along rivers.
Several years ago, we visited the Galapagos
Islands and got to see the Galapagos Tortoises. It was so exciting to see these large creatures on Santa Cruz Island. They can measure up to six feet long and weigh over 500 pounds. One hundred years is not a big deal to them so if you are lucky enough to see a baby Galapagos tortoise, it will probably outlive you. In contrast to their water-dwelling turtle cousins, Galapagos tortoises are herbivores, dining on all sorts of vegetation while they roam across the land. Turtles in general have an interesting anatomy. Their shells are part of their spine, so
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mill levy from 16.43 mills to 22 mills so they can hire three new fulltime firefighters.
Currently the department has six fulltime firefighters, which includes some EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians). The increase in funding would bring the total number of fulltime firefighters up to nine. Along with that there are around eight fully trained/certified volunteers, but another 14 are in various stages of training, according to Chief Rob Stumph. Only six of the fire fighters reside in the district.
To break down what the mill levy would mean to the home owner, based on the taxes on a $500,000 home, the additional tax for one year would be $188.38 or $15.69 per month or $0.51 per day.
In the last ten years 911 calls have increased by 43 percent. Because of the complexity of the calls, the department has had to move to more full-time paid staff. Fewer people are volunteering now, according to Chief Stumpf.
He added that six to nine responders are needed for a small wildfire response and 16 responders are needed for a residential structure fire. EMT calls require four-plus responders. The cost of equipment, trucks, fire proof suits, radios, monitors, cardiac equipment, etc. has also gone up astronomically.
The closest hospital to Lyons is 9.5 miles. Before May 2024, ambulances came from Boulder took, on average, 35 minutes to reach a patient in Lyons. In May 2024, Lyons was able to have its own emergency ambulance service. In the summer of 2024, LFPD responded to a rattlesnake bite. From the time of the 911 call to delivery at the hospital was 22 minutes. This response can save lives.
We at Redstone encourage everyone to vote Yes for the proposed mill levy increase for LFPD. Please make sure to mail in your ballot for the election by Tuesday, May, 6.
regardless of what you thought as a kid, they can’t take their shells off. Their ribs, vertebrae, and clavicles are fused with their bony shell.
Having a “gender reveal” party is also hard to do with turtles, since the sex of the turtle is determined after fertilization,
brown and tan fur for the warmer months. Jackrabbits (which are really hares and not rabbits) can also be found in parts of Colorado at much lower elevations.
So who would win the race between the tortoise and the hare? The hare can definitely bolt away at high speeds, but the tortoise seems to have commitment to where it wants to go. Rabbits and hares also tend to dart about when running – a good strategy to avoid predators. In either case, cars and traffic may be the biggest obstacle and menace to any animal race.
and depends on temperature of the nest. The cooler the temperature, the hatchlings are male; the warmer, they’re female. If the temperature is in-between, you get a mix of both genders.
If we take a look at the tortoise’s competition in Aesop’s fable, hares seem to be winners in the fast category – they can run up to speeds of at least 45 miles per hour. Hares are in the same family as rabbits but have some differences. Hares are usually larger and have longer ears and feet. They also bear young that are fully-furred with eyes open and ready to go (called precocial). Rabbits, on the other hand, burrow underground with babies that are hairless and blind at birth, requiring more care (altricial).
So, if you see a turtle crossing the road, be patient. If you are afraid for the life of the turtle and have to help it cross, advice from experts says to pick it up gently by the back portion of the shell
and move it in the direction it was going, or scoot it onto a board or sheet to help pull it across (never pick it up by the tail). Slow and steady wins the race, and turtles have been at it for a long time.
Snowshoe hares have the clever adaptation of growing white fur in winter to blend in with their environment, and growing
Deborah Huth Price is an environmental educator living in Pinewood Springs. Visit her blog at www.walk-the-wild-side.blog or email her at debhprice@gmail.com.
Ensuring safety in a wildfire-prone area: Vote Yes for the proposed mill levy increase to support the LFPD and help protect our community.
LOOKING UP
Alone, but not forgotten
Lowell
By Greg Lowell Redstone Review
The landscape of Colorado is littered with old homesteads, like the silo and sandstone foundation at Heil Valley Ranch. They are traces of those who came before us to settle on the land and who left. The woods of New England similarly contain these sites, but the dense boreal forest there better conceals the old homesteads. The recollection here is of one such discovery in those woods that haunts me to this day.
LYONS – The flat stones are upright and in a ragged row in the thick grove of pines. Only the top halves show above decades of accumulated forest duff. They’re spotted with lichen and painted with green moss.
It’s dark and close on this hillside where sunlight seldom reaches and I’m on all fours trying to understand exactly what I’m seeing. Then I see the writing. The inscription is crude, irregular and clearly homemade, hammered into the thick stone. Letters are revealed as I rub off the mold. On my knees, as someone in an earlier time was when they mourned the person buried beneath, I make out the words “ . . . day of Aprel (sic), Aged 30.”
It’s a burial ground, long forgotten and unmarked. It’s on the north-facing side of the hill, where the light is weak and few flowers bloom. If I hadn’t pursued the grouse I flushed that glided into these pines, I would never have found it.
them by chance.
Who were these people? Their marks on the surrounding land revealed only that they were among the thousands who cleared the forest and tilled the soil of hundreds of other places like this in New England, who called these forgotten places home and then were gone.
There’s a cellar hole on the opposite side of the hill some distance away. In the center of it a maple grows that was at least 50 years old when I first came upon it in the 1970s. The disappearing dirt road that fronts the cellar hole is flanked by larger maples and stone walls built with impossibly large granite stones. The road goes nowhere, dead-ended in water on either end of this peninsula by a reservoir that flooded the area in the late 1950s. But this farm was
would want the life these people had: long treks to town for supplies or worship, neighbors far away, a drafty house that required many cords of wood to ward off the winter, water to be drawn from a well, gas lamps for light and an outhouse for their business. Crops had to be tended in a soil more rock than dirt, and livestock demanded constant attention. But the clues in the abandoned landscape show that they thrived and made a home here.
I know the clinical history of the demise of New England farming: how the wool market collapsed and how the promise of western land lured farmers away. But was the graveyard itself the clue to the dissolution of this homestead, if at the end of chiseling the epitaphs on the stones and burying their loved ones, had the surviving family had enough pain and simply walked away? Locals who would have known the answer are long since gone to their own graves so I am left to contemplate.
Of the four gravestones, all inscribed, only the one of the 30-year-old was legible. After much rubbing I was at last able to make out the surname, which is an uncommon but local name.
The poverty of this burying ground saddened me. I had walked the woods of New Hampshire long enough so that the discovery of cellar holes and stone walls in the forest no longer surprised me.
Now here in the dark pines lay four forgotten people whose graves would never be tended, whose head stones in time would be obscured by the creep of the forest and who would be remembered only by someone who stumbles on
abandoned long before then, likely around the turn of the 20th century.
They chose well. It’s a beautiful spot: a high, south-facing hillside running down to the road and beyond the road to a river, free-flowing back then. On the back side of the hill beyond the graves the remnants of an orchard still have apples that keep the deer interested. The hillside is divided into two fields full of foot-grabbing juniper and bounded with crumbling stone walls. The birch and poplar are now a plague, each year eating up more of the once torturously cleared land. In time, the hardwoods will follow and the reclamation will be complete.
On that bright October day, it was easy to imagine an idyllic life here, but the reality was that few of us today
There should be more of a remembrance than these crumbling head stones in a dark copse. By their wellmade walls and cellar and their fields, I can see that someone raised crops and a family here, bundled against the winter, reveled in the summer and died or moved on. But this final resting place seems known only to me.
Forty years have passed since I last visited there, and I know the leaves have piled higher around the stones. Moss will again obscure the writing. The frost and roots will gain an advantage and topple the stones. They’ll lay flat and slowly disappear beneath another century of detritus.
After the discovery, I considered blindly contacting someone of the same name in the area. Do they know of this hillside homestead and the forgotten graveyard? I hope they’d care enough to listen to me and then visit this spot to reflect as I have on their ancestors. I hope they would pass the remembrance on to their children and their children later to their own. Maybe they’d clear the ground and beat back the forest and mark the graves with new stones.
But what if they aren’t the descendants or if they question the eccentricity of a stranger who seems to care too much about old graves and crumbling homesteads? Maybe it’s best to think that someday a woods rambler like me will stumble upon these rude graves and that their contemplation of it and those who lie there and who carved a life in these woods will be remembrance enough.
Lyons resident Greg Lowell is a Lyons Town Board Trustee and serves as a liaison to the Ecology Advisory Board.
The Doctor is In and new medical services are now at LEAF
By Cherie Maureaux Redstone Review
LYONS – Join in to Welcome New Medical Services at LEAF (Lyons Elevates All Fund). From the genesis of the Lyons Emergency Assistance Fund (LEAF) years ago, community members, volunteers, families, and LEAF staff and friends have served our community with great intent, heart, and passion. The impact of this care and love is undeniably interwoven into our community’s very being.
LEAF’s evolution has brought us into a new age where we now offer comprehensive community-based wellness from a centralized community hub. We are settling in nicely at 304 2nd Ave. and the building is often abuzz with activities. As part of the ongoing Fireplace wellness series, we have activities nearly every day of the week, including equine personal development, qi gong mindfulness and movement, youth and teen programs, and a men’s group, to name a few.
Today’s LEAF, as Lyons Elevating All Fund, would like to introduce a new facet to our wraparound services – a physician who will offer mental, physical, and medication-assisted treatment to the people we serve.
Doctor Robert Fierer is an internist with decades of expe-
rience and many specializations who practices in medical-assisted therapy related to substance abuse issues. He has already begun helping several LEAF clients, and we are formally introducing him to the community the first week of April. Join us at the LEAF community headquarters on Thursday, April 3, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. to meet the doctor, enjoy light refreshments, ask questions, and take a tour of our new medical office and exam room.
A few fun facts about Dr. Fierer: he hails from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has orchestrated several intensive medical excursions to provide humanitarian assistance in Honduras, Ecuador, and Peru, and serves as the Medical Director for Alaska Mountain Guides where he develops protocols for remote, high altitude expeditions. Dr. Fierer lives in Boulder with his wife Nancy, enjoys spending time with his four children and grandkids, and takes pleasure in all outdoor activities.
The opening of LEAF’s new brick-and-mortar community-based hub reflects and runs parallel to LEAF’s core belief that community connection creates positive outcomes for mental and physical wellness. LEAF’s first community connection wellness series, the Front Porch, and now the ongoing Fireplace, have been well attended, affirming our belief that community connection is an overwhelmingly positive influence. We’ll continue offering community wellness programs like these that promote having fun, learning, and becoming healthier and better individuals – all while supporting and lifting each other up.
Our Fireplace wellness series runs till May, offering 13 different programs. So far, over 150 community members have signed up for these free classes and groups. It’s not too late to join in nearly all of these activities. Go to www.leaflyons. org and click on Fireplace Offerings to check it out. And, please share with your friends, family, and neighbors. Here is what is happening at LEAF’s Fireplace now:
•Someone You Love – a confidential group for those who care about someone experiencing addiction;
•Equine-Assisted Personal Development – stress reduction and mindfulness with horses;
•Lyons Brotherhood – our men’s group discusses men’s issues;
•Sleep Hygiene and Seasonal Affective Disorder – learn to plan for better sleep patterns and mitigate symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder;
•Adult Art Workshops – awaken creative energies with themed projects;
•Kids camp and Teen Art Workshops – kids learn emotional skills while having fun with art;
•Mindful Action in Divisive Times – learn skills to navigate dealing with others in polarized environments;
•Aging Masterfully – cultivate health and longevity with topic specific classes;
•�Qi Gong Movement, Mindfulness, Intention – movement and mindfulness combine to promote health and mental benefits;
�• Strengthening Families – dinner is provided, and families learn skills to become stronger;
�• Recovery; Sobriety Support – confidential groups for those seeking or engaging in recovery;
• Sparks of Beauty, Seeds of Wonder – a small, self-actualization group that seeks to awaken joy and wonder in the
Maureaux
Dr. Robert Fierer and his wife Nancy, bringing new hope and care to the LEAF community.
Will Lyons lose its soul to high housing costs?
Mercer-Daty
By Tanya Mercer-Daty Redstone Review
LYONS – After spending the last three years serving on the Board of Trustees and as liaison to the Housing and Human Services Commission, I have developed quite a passion for providing affordable housing solutions for our residents. Luckily, both the current and the previous Board of Trustees have named housing as one of their top priorities. As the price of homes on the Front Range continues to increase, more and more people are feeling squeezed out of the community they have come to love.
Sometimes I wonder whether Lyons will lose its soul to high housing costs. Some of my biggest concerns since the 2013 flood are that Lyons would become the next Aspen or that we would become a bedroom community of Boulder. As I hear of more and more stories of single moms having to leave Lyons to raise their children or families who have not
been able to return to Lyons post-flood due to the increased cost of housing, I worry what kind of community we will become.
How will we keep our economic diversity if our essential workers and artists cannot afford to live here? How will our first responders be able to respond quickly to an emergency if they live more than 30 minutes away? How will our town be able to hire municipal employees if they have to drive from 20 to 30 miles away like some of them do now? How will our restaurants stay open if cooks and/or servers cannot find housing in town? How will we hire more teachers if they cannot afford to live close to the school where they teach? How can we foster collaboration between artists if they cannot afford to live here?
And do we, as a community, not want our teachers, artists, town employees, and emergency responders to be a part of our community rather than apart from it? I, personally, know people who have been unable to find affordable housing in each of these situations. I feel as though every time the Board of Trustees finds
a creative solution to help address our housing crisis, we are met with fierce opposition from neighbors who do not want anything built “in their backyard.” There seems to be a general consensus to build in the Eastern Corridor. However, the town does not own any land on which to build in the Eastern Corridor. My hope is that if the Tebo property (near Hwy. 36/66) is annexed into the town of Lyons, we will be able to focus on the lot behind the frontage road, which would be suitable for a small housing development. There are pockets of Lyons with small lots that can be redeveloped into something like the Evans Street project. This public/private partnership is a great model to follow. Seven one-bedroom and two three-bedroom homes were developed on 1/3 of an acre. After the Summit housing information sessions (held in Spring 2023), I realized just how much Lyons desperately needs more one-bedroom apartments. Of the 100 people who attended the sessions, one-third of them were single family households, mostly elderly. Unfortunately, none of the Lyons Valley townhomes offer one-bedroom options.
Seeing how the housing crisis is also a statewide issue, the Colorado legislature passed a bill, which Governor Polis signed into law (HB 24-1152), to help increase the supply of affordable housing.
“It can improve your quality of life if it’s for a teenager or an aging parent. It can provide additional income for you
New Mental Health and Wellness Fund will support community well-being
By Rachel Pickarski Redstone Review
LYONS – In a significant step toward addressing mental health and wellness in the community, the Town of Lyons has established the Lyons Mental Health and Wellness Fund with an initial contribution of $32,447.45. This fund, managed through Community Foundation Boulder County (CFBC), aims to support critical mental health initiatives, including counseling, substance abuse prevention, and suicide prevention efforts. Earlier this month, members of the Lyons Community Foundation (LCF), the Town of Lyons Board of Trustees, and Mayor Hollie Rogin gathered to celebrate this milestone (see photo) from check signing at the last Board of Trustees meeting. The fund will be sustained through a portion of the local marijuana tax, ensuring continued investment in the well-being of Lyons residents for
years to come.
A Community-Driven Initiative
The establishment of this fund reflects a growing commitment in Lyons to prioritize mental health as a key pillar of community resilience. Mental health challenges, including isolation, anxiety, and substance use, have become increasingly prevalent nationwide, and small towns like Lyons are no exception to this. The Mental Health and Wellness Fund seeks to provide tangible support for those in need, reducing financial barriers to accessing care.
LCF is proud to steward this initiative in partnership with CFBC, ensuring that mental health remains a community priority.
The LCF Fund Advisory Board will help guide funding decisions, ensuring that grants align with community needs.
Community Support in Action
The Oskar Blues Nonprofit Night last month raised $250 for LCF, and we are incredibly grateful for their support of the non-profit world in our community. Every dollar helps us continue funding initiatives that make Lyons a better
place to live.
The next Oskar Blues Nonprofit Day will be on March 27, supporting Lyons Elementary School. We encourage everyone to show up, enjoy a meal or a drink, and support this important cause. Stay tuned for the announcement of the next LCF Nonprofit day at Oskar Blues – we hope to see you there.
Get Involved: Volunteer with LCF
As we look ahead to the year, LCF is still gathering volunteers for our events and initiatives. If you’d like to give back and get involved in making a difference, please reach out to Pete Hinzy at pete.hinzy@gmail. com. We will be in touch with upcoming
volunteer opportunities and ways to contribute to our community efforts.
What’s Next?
LCF and CFBC are currently finalizing guidelines for grant distribution from the Lyons Mental Health and Wellness Fund. More information will be available in the coming months regarding how nonprofits can apply for dollars from this fund during our grant cycle.
For more information and future updates, visit lyonscf.org.
Rachel Pickarski is the Marketing and Communications Consultant for the Lyons Community Foundation.
Pickarski
Lyons Board of Trustees, LCF members and Mayor Hollie Rogin pictured here with a check from the town for the Lyons Mental Health and Wellness Fund.
Front row from left to right: Grace Simonsen, LCF Board Member, Gil Sparks, LCF Board Chair, Rachel Pickarski, LCF Marketing and Communications Consultant, Dr. Helena Yardley, LCF Board Member
Back row, the Lyons Board of Trustees from left to right: Glen Delman, Mark Browning, Paula Williams, Mayor Hollie Rogin, Greg Lowell, Tanya Daty, and on the far right David Hamrick.
CONSENSUS
Wild Rumpus, a fierce play, comes to Lyons
By Staff Reports Redstone Review
LYONS – It could be called creative magic. Wild Rumpus, a fierce play, will be held on March 14, 15 and 16 at Mayama Dance Studio 625 4th Ave., Lyons.
Wild Rumpus is an imaginative journey to awaken the wild and conjure the rumpus that needs expressing at this moment in our country and in our lives.
This is a fierce play workshop. Inspired by Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, this fierce play creative immersion (specifically for adults age 18 and up) seeks to conjure the wild and mythic beings born of land, home and the unspoken murmurings of the adult subconscious.
These beings may manifest as deities, monsters, tricksters, beasties, shapeshifters, fools . . . All are welcome to join the Wild Rumpus. We will call them forth through dance, voice and hands-on making. Rumpus-makers will explore physical theater, sonic explorations, story building, collaboration, and gritty puppet-craft. What is fierce play? Theater? Dance? Art? Sound? Story? Yes. An energetic, full-bodied, multi-sensory journey, fierce
play is a dynamic practice for creatives interested in artistic agility and exploration.
Created by Ensemble Theater Director Amy Sass, this holistic method is based in physical theater and interweaves dance, story building, site-informed art and puppetry. Each session will find us up and moving, utilizing our bodies as a storytelling devices, a kinetic sculpture, a musical instrument, tapping into sound with our voices. This joy-based practice cultivates a deep physical awareness, expands imaginative capacity, and conjures a spirit of play. For the creatively curious, fierce play can be a form of self and social activism and offers a unique approach to awaken the creative magic.
On day one, March 14 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. we will be invoking the wild, body and voice. On day two, March 15 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. bring a snack and experience creature emergence, building the wild thing, (story and hands-on making things). On day three, March 16 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. bring your own lunch and experience creating the rumpus.
For more information and exciting details call Mayama Dance Studio at 720-556-4027 or info@mayamastudio.
Lyons Library invites all to science, nature and technology events
Kara Bauman Redstone Review
LYONS – As the days get longer and spring is in the air, your Lyons Community Library is buzzing with opportunities to explore new ideas, learn practical skills, and engage with your community. Whether you’re looking to navigate the great outdoors, dive into space, or fine-tune your college applications, we have something for you.
The adventure begins on Tuesday, March 25, at 5:30 p.m., with Our Solar System Neighborhood . This all-ages interactive demonstration will bring our solar system to life, helping you visualize planetary distances and orbits while uncovering fun facts about the celestial bodies that share our cosmic backyard.
For those who prefer to explore closer to home, our Winter Clinic Series: Navigation Basics will be held on Friday, March 28, at 6:30 p.m. Whether you’re a seasoned hiker or just getting started, this session – offered in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Conservancy – will cover reading maps, using a compass, and experimenting with GPS mapping tools. Bring a smartphone or laptop capable of downloading apps, and register through RMC’s event page.
On Monday, March 31, at 6 p.m., we invite you to Navigating Information in the Digital Age: How to Spot Misinformation and Become a Savvy News Consumer. In today’s fast-moving world, it can be difficult to determine what’s credible, misleading, or outright false. This workshop will introduce essential media literacy skills, including fact-checking techniques and strategies
for analyzing online content. We’ll also explore the influence of AI-generated fakes, corporate media control, and the responsibility we all have in sharing information.
High school students thinking ahead to college won’t want to miss College Application Strategies on Monday, April 1, at 4 p.m. Led by Professor Emerita Manette Ansay, an Independent Education Consultant and
in shaping our country, and on Thursday, April 3, at 6:30 p.m., we are thrilled to host an advance screening of Free for All: The Public Library, a documentary that explores how libraries remain sanctuaries for millions of Americans. From the early days of the “Free Library Movement” to today’s librarians navigating challenges like book bans and closures, this film sheds light on the resil-
former faculty member at Cornell, Vanderbilt, Marquette, and the University of Miami, this session will cover how to craft compelling applications, select the right schools, and make the most of academic and extracurricular experiences. Space is limited to ten families, and registration is required.
Libraries have played a fundamental role
triangle, 3rd and Main. We welcome those who’d like to join us.
ience and importance of these institutions. Following the screening, a panel discussion featuring Kara Bauman (Library Director), Cristy Moran (librarian to librarians), and Courtney Russell (entrepreneur and social activist) will explore the future of libraries and their impact on civic life. Free for All will premiere on PBS on April 29. For those who love a good book club with
a side of lively conversation and perhaps an adult beverage, Pints & Pages returns to MainStage Brewing on Tuesday, April 9, at 6 p.m. This month’s pick is Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez, a novel that offers a sharp, thought-provoking critique of the art world, exploring themes of privilege, legacy, and the power of storytelling. Grab a drink, settle in, and join the discussion in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.
As we look ahead to National Library Week from April 7 to 13, we invite you to celebrate with us. This year’s theme, Drawn to the Library, highlights the many ways libraries inspire creativity, learning, and connection. Stop by throughout the week for special surprises and discover all the ways the library supports your curiosity and community engagement.
Whether you’re looking to expand your knowledge, explore new interests, or just connect with others, we hope to see you at the library this spring. Your Lyons Community Library opens at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday. We close at 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5 p.m. on Fridays, and 2 p.m. on Saturdays. Our online catalog is available 24/7 at lyons.colibraries.org and we’re always open for digital downloads on the Libby, CloudLibrary, and Kanopy apps. Give us a call at 303-823-5165 or email info@lyonslibrary.com with any questions. Please see the calendar of events on our website for additional programs, program information, and registration instructions.
Kara Bauman is the Director of the Lyons Community Library and holds an MLIS from the University of Kentucky. She’s an avid fly angler, enjoys craft beer, and travels extensively to see her favorite band, Widespread Panic.
mation on fire mitigation at their website.
Library hosts a Bread and Poetry Slam/ Jam
LYONS – On April 17 the Lyons Regional Library, 451 4th Ave., will celebrate National Poetry Month with Bread and Poetry Slam/Jam. The poetry jam will be hosted by Elizabeth Marglin. All ages are welcome. The Bread and Poetry Slam/Jam will be held at the library from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information, call 303-832-5165.
Protecting your home from wildfire
LYONS – Living in the wildland-urban interface, as we do in Colorado, where homes and other structures intermingle with wildland vegetation, there is a risk of being affected by wildfire. Planning ahead and taking action can increase the likelihood your home survives when a wildfire occurs. Learn more from the Colorado State Forest Service on how to protect your home better and create defensible space. Also contact the Lyons Regional Fire District to get more infor-
Join Mayor Hollie Rogin for Mondays meet and greet
LYONS – Mondays with the Mayor will continue on the second and fourth Monday of each month, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Moxie Mercantile, 442 High St. in Lyons. Join Mayor Hollie Rogin for her next Monday with the Mayor.
Town of Lyons utility billing customers
LYONS – In an effort to reduce billing costs and to move forward with sustainability goals, the town is converting to paperless billing. A one-time $5 credit will be issued to customers who enroll with paperless billing through March 31, 2025. If you are already enrolled and receive your bill online, thank you. There will not be a retroactive credit.
The move to online billing will take effect April 1, 2025. Effective April 1, 2025 there will be a $2 monthly charge for
Bauman
Join Lyons Neighbors4Democracy! Lyons Neighbors 4 Democracy gathers every Saturday, from noon to 1 p.m., to advocate in support of our democracy, constitution, and the rule of law. Meet at the
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SHOWCASE
Lyons Elementary VEX Robotics Team shines in 2024/25 season
By Yelena Hughes Redstone Review
LYONS – The 2024/25 Lyons Elementary School VEX Robotics Team has had an exciting season under the leadership of coaches Ryan Hughes, Justin Spencer, Todd Gibson, and me, Yelena Hughes.
With the support of the St. Vrain Valley School District’s after-school robotics program, the team embarked on their journey in October, beginning with team-building challenges like building the tallest tower, sturdiest bridge and steepest ramp, before progressing to designing and constructing competition-ready robots.
This year’s challenge required students to
Dog wisdom now
build robots capable of picking up a ball and shooting it into a hoop. The teams worked through trial and error, using the Design Process, refining their designs and programming to maximize efficiency and accuracy. The St. Vrain Valley School District’s elementary VEX competitions included a variety of events such as individual skills challenges, group skills challenges – where two teams had to collaborate to score points – and notebook presentations with an interview.
“I’m really proud of my team for getting to the state championships and earning our awards. One thing that was hard was that we had to speak to the judges by ourselves, we couldn’t ask out coaches to do it for us,” said Forrest Hughes, who is in fourth grade
The Lyons Elementary robotics team showcased remarkable talent and determination, earning multiple awards throughout the season.
In addition to their strong performances, Lyons teams earned several prestigious awards earning them a chance to compete in the state competition on March 1 where they competed against the very best 35 teams in the state.
Here are the awards earned during the league tournaments that earned them a chance to compete in state:
By Sally King Redstone Review
FogDog died and Ann really misses him
He was her companion
Sitting by her side: you need a buddy.
Mr. Banks gets us out on a walk, Regulars at Pella Pond but yesterday on our walk
We were warned by two concerned ladies
About an aggressive dog.
I held Banks in my arms
Feeling compassion for the woman with a child
And her out of control dog.
But it was intense (like now.)
But because of a shared situation ( like now)
We had the feeling of a connective community. Many people got involved
Experiencing the miracle (like now)
That if any of us are in danger
There will be a caring hand.
Community exists in our veins.
So don’t succumb to the rhetoric of separation (like now)
Our opinions are only skin deep.
The heart wins.
It’s the deeper truth.
Sally King is a local artist who believes it’s imperative that each of us pop our head up out of the collective trace, to bring through our creative gifts. You can find her on her blog and website, hersoupot.net and sallywhiteking.com or e mail sallywhiteking@live.com.
all teams involved. Each team came ready with a working autonomous code, a game strategy and great attitudes. The long day presented itself with challenges both on and off the playing fields and the Lyons’ Vex teams showed great sportsmanship and tolerance for adversity earning them high rankings of 11th, 13th and 34th among a huge range of competitors.
•Skills Award for Most Points Scored Fire Alarms (Forrest Hughes, Cassidy Kearns, Sean Gibson) and Chez Burgers (Davyn Smith, Westin Boccolucci, August Swanger)
•Teamwork Award for scoring the most points with another team Fire Alarms and Black Cat Crusaders (Liam Podgemiller, Will Edwards, Talon Longtin, Greyson Lorang) and Chez Burgers (Davyn Smith, Westin Boccolucci, August Swanger)
•Judges Award for excellent interviews and sportsmanship Chez Burgers (Davyn Smith, Westin Boccolucci, August Swanger).
The state competition was successful for
The Lyons VEX team also received a generous grant from the Lyons Community Foundation, which allowed the program to purchase additional Generation 2 “Brains” that use code written by students to make the robot perform its tasks. These new resources have been instrumental in making the robotics program accessible to more students, enabling hands-on learning and innovation across all participating teams.
Through dedication, creativity, and teamwork, the Lyons Elementary robotics teams not only demonstrated technical excellence but also embodied the spirit of collaboration and innovation. At the State Competition on March 1 at Trail Ridge Middle School, Vex teams built upon their successes, making Lyons Elementary proud. Congratulations to all the teams for their hard work and achievements. We look forward to seeing what they accomplish next.
Yelena Hughes is a coach for one of the Lyons Elementary VEX Robotics Teams.
Lyons celebrates visual arts and poetry in April
By Kim Mitchell Redstone Review
LYONS – Lyons is gearing up for a vibrant spring of creative expression, with two exciting events showcasing our fabulous local talent. On Wednesday, April 23, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., two special art shows will open their doors for an evening of visual delight. The Tandem Art Opening Reception will be held at both Town Hall at 432 5th Ave. and the Lyons Regional Library, 451 4th Ave.
The library will feature the show Local Abstractions , showcasing the paintings of both Erin Donnelly and Magali Fournier.
Erin Donnelly’s style blends abstract expression seamlessly with the figurative. Objects appear and disappear – some scratched out, some painted over, and others left as fragments or fleeting glimpses. Her artistic approach is deeply rooted in anthropology, archaeology, fine art, and creative literature, drawing from each discipline to create a rich, layered narrative in every piece.
Meanwhile, across the street, the Town Hall Art Show will present a collection of works from multiple Lyons based artists, inspired by the theme of Fermentation. Local artists, ranging from newcomers to seasoned professionals, may feature up to five pieces each for this display.
Artists who have works to show in this collaborative exhibition, should bring their art to display to Town Hall on Friday, April 18, which will be open from 5 to 7 p.m. for artist drop-off. Both shows will be available for viewing from April 23 through mid-July.
For artist Magali Fournier, painting is all about the journey. She doesn’t go into it with a specific outcome in mind, and that’s just how she likes it. “I never really know what I’m going to do next,” she said. “And I enjoy that. I let the moment guide the work.” The result is a vibrant collection of abstract art that feels full of life and movement.
A Lyons High School Jazz Trio will provide light musical entertainment. There will also be small culinary samples from Indian Bites and a donation-based cash bar.
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those customers who do not convert to paperless billing and continue to receive a paper bill. Payment may still be made with check, cash, direct checking account transfers as well as credit and debit cards. The online system also provides the ability to set automatic monthly payments, if desired, as well as access to the monthly billing history of your utility account. Customers may sign up at: townoflyons.com/ onlinebilling.
Customers eligible for low-income utility services, may request an exemption of the $2 per month fee by contacting the Town directly at 303-823-6622.
Boulder County Area Agency on aging
LYONS – The Lyons Regional Library has partnered with the Boulder County Area Agency on Aging to bring you weekly drop-in office hours. Stop by Wednesday mornings from 10 to 11:30 a.m. to chat with our local resource specialist Amy Shoffner. If you are 60+ or caring for a senior, come learn about available services and supports. No appointment is needed.
Sign up today for Smart911
LYONS – The Town of Lyons and Boulder County Sher-
Don’t miss out on celebrating National Poetry Month with a unique event on Thursday, April 17. The Bread and Poetry Slam/Jam, hosted by Elizabeth Marglin, invites people of all ages to participate in an evening of poetic expression. This fun and inclusive event will take place at the Lyons Regional Library from 6 to 8 pm.
Whether you’re an art lover or a poetry enthusiast, both locally curated events promise to be engaging highlights in our arts-centric community. Bring a few friends and make it an evening out by grabbing dinner after the tandem art opening. A very special thanks to the Town of Lyons, Chrystal DeCoster with Western Stars Gallery and the Lyons Arts and Humanities Commission for their support of local art in Lyons.
Kim Mitchell is Director of Communications and Community Relations for the Town of Lyons, and has called Lyons home since 2009.
iff’s Office encourage all residents to sign up for Smart911, a free service that helps emergency responders to better assist you during emergencies. Creating a safety profile with important details such as medical information, household members, pets, and property details gives 911 dispatchers and first responders the information they need to provide quicker and more effective help. You can also receive emergency alerts and notifications for severe weather, traffic, and other local emergencies.
In an emergency, having your Smart911 profile on file can save valuable time and ensure that responders are aware of your specific needs. Whether it’s a medical condition, mobility issues, or details about your home, the information you provide is only accessible to dispatchers when you call 911. How to sign up:
1. Visit www.smart911.com or download the Smart911 app.
2. Create your secure profile with as much or as little information as you like.
3. Rest easy knowing you’re giving first responders the tools they need to keep you and your family safe. There are two short videos about Smart911 on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enoowY8AnXc, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pgpJzK4d9U.
Talon Longtin observes the performance of his design at the Eagle Crest Vex Competition.
PHOTO YELENA HUGHES
B
Chloe Meckle , Tayen Rydholm, Wren Polidoro compete in the Team Building Activities: Strongest bridge challenge. PHOTO YELENA HUGHES
TALK OF THE TOWN
Preventing the spread of Bird Flu: Key strategies to protect wildlife, pets and humans
By Cindy Leikam Redstone Review
LONGMONT – Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center may be most known for providing compassionate, individualized care to orphaned, injured, and sick wildlife. But behind the scenes, our team is working on the front lines of zoonotic diseases that affect not just wildlife, but also domestic pets, farm animals, and people. Through our participation in the One Health approach, we help identify health risks in wildlife populations and the environment before they become a threat to humans.
Bird flu, H5N1, or avian flu are all names for the worldwide disease that is all over the news right now. In recent weeks, there has been a startling surge in calls to our facility from concerned residents about sick geese in their yards,
on the road, and in local parks. This “bird flu” is just one of the infectious diseases that Greenwood routinely tests for through our participation in the One Health approach.
One Health is a local, national, and global view of human, animal and environmental health as interconnected, and each has equal effect and influence on the other. It is a voluntary effort across many disciplines to understand, detect, and prevent diseases in the environment and domes -
tic and wild animals, and to reduce the risks they pose to human health. As a wildlife rehabilitation center, our role is to help identify prevalent diseases, and monitor disease levels in wildlife populations. Other agencies that may be involved include veterinary clinics, universities, hospitals, local health departments, zoos and aquariums, and more.
Our participation consists of regular testing for patients exhibiting signs of disease, utilizing quarantines to prevent spread, and vaccinating animals before releasing them back into the environment. When tests show higher levels of infectious disease in the animals we admit, then we can infer that there are higher levels circulating in the general population, potentially posing a higher risk to humans or their companion animals.
Early identification of increased prevalence of a disease, like the bird flu, can provide the community with information and tools to protect themselves and their pets.
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is a disease that was discovered in wild bird populations in the U.S. in 2022, although different strains have been around for an unknown amount of time, slowly mutating and evolving with its host. This latest outbreak has waxed and waned with seasonal migration patterns, but is currently on the rise locally.
Initially, birds were the species most affected by it, especially waterfowl and migratory birds. The virus has since mutated and has been found in a wider range of species, including skunks, raccoons, foxes, bears, wild and domestic cats, herds of dairy cows, backyard flocks of chickens and ducks, and even humans that had direct contact with infected animals. Currently the risk to humans is low and there have been no confirmed cases of human-to-human spread. Following a few simple guidelines can help keep people, pets, and livestock safe and curb the spread of HPAI.
The virus has been found to spread through fecal matter and ingesting infected animals. Keep pets away from wildlife and their scat. Leash dogs when outdoors, and don’t allow them to eat goose droppings. Keep cats indoors, or protect them with a fully enclosed outdoor area, like a catio. Killing and consuming birds or rodents that are infected could put your furry friends at risk.
Protect children by keeping them away from wildlife and the areas where they are commonly found. Educate them about the risk and how to protect themselves.
and Wildlife.
If you must handle sick animals, wear appropriate protection such as gloves, long sleeves, eye protection, and face mask. Thoroughly wash hands, face, and clothes that may have been exposed to infected animals. Keep surfaces clean and remove shoes before entering indoor areas if possible. When cleaning, first remove dirt and grime using soap and water. Follow up with a strong disinfectant such as a bleach solution to kill the virus and disinfect hard surfaces.
Practice strict biosecurity to protect pet birds or backyard flocks of ducks, geese, or chickens. Limit entry into coops
Report deceased animals to professionals. Fewer diseased bodies left for scavengers can decrease the spread. Avoid handling carcasses. Instead, report them to local health departments, animal control officers, or Colorado Parks
Tech neck and beyond: How a physical therapist can relieve neck, shoulder and arm pain
By Bronwyn Muldoon Redstone Review
LYONS – Neck pain is a common issue that many individuals experience. What some don’t realize is pain/tingling/numbness in your shoulder arm, hand or back can often be a variety of secondary symptoms stemming from your neck.
Medically, seeing a physical therapist should be the first step any of these symptoms, as physical therapists are trained specifically to assess musculoskeletal issues and identify whether neck pain is the root cause of arm pain, such as in cases of nerve compression from a herniated disc or cervical radiculopathy. By addressing the source of the pain early on, a physical therapist can help you avoid unnecessary treatments and provide a more effective, non-invasive solution for your discomfort.
der pain neck pain, numbness/tingling down their arm, or into their shoulder blades, and problems sleeping.
A physical therapist will use various diagnostic techniques to assess your condition, including manual therapy, postural correction, and strengthening exercises. Their primary goal is to alleviate pain and improve mobility by directly addressing the muscles, joints, and nerves involved. They also provide the benefit of personalized, hands-on care aimed at long-term relief and prevention The majority of Tech Neck problems can be successfully addressed by a PT. If needed, PT’s can also order the appropriate imaging (X-rays or MRIs).
Though technology has advanced us in many ways, it has done the opposite to our bodies. Not only do we sit more as a society, but even when we are walking, many of us are looking at a screen. Whether we are on a computer or a phone, we tend to have our heads in a downward tilt, which takes the spine out of its neutral position. This position elongates the muscles in the back of our neck and shortens the one in front, creating an unequal balance on muscles that typically work in tandem to hold our head in neutral. In the medical world, this has created a new injury known as Tech Neck. It might sound funny, but people who suffer from this complain of various issues like headaches, shoul-
In conclusion, seeking a physical therapist first for neck pain, particularly when it extends beyond the neck is a medically sound decision. Physical therapists are experts in musculoskeletal health and can provide an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan that targets the root cause of your pain, offering long-term solutions. By addressing the issue early and non-invasively, you not only alleviate discomfort but also improve your overall quality of life, often avoiding the need for medication or surgical interventions.
Bronwyn Muldoon, Ph.D. and licensed physical therapist, owns Lyons Physical Therapy, 435 High St. in Lyons. Some of the things addressed at her clinic include but are not limited to: acute and chronic spinal pain (back and neck pain), postural dysfunction alignment, sports and performance-related injuries, repetitive/overuse-related injuries, post-surgical rehabilitation, muscles strains and sprains, and physical rehabilitation of all kinds. For more information, call 303-823-8813.
to just one or two caretakers, and wear a dedicated pair of “coop shoes” to avoid tracking the virus via footwear. Ensure runs are covered and secure so that wild birds cannot commingle with your flock. Temporarily discontinue feeding wild birds if you keep backyard chickens or ducks, or have a pet bird in the house.
From the early days of the HPAI pandemic, our consistent testing has helped identify populations and locations experiencing high levels of HPAI. Early detection is critical to reduce or prevent spread to humans and livestock.
For more information about HPAI, there are several websites providing up-to-date information, including American Medical Association, Center for Disease Control, and USDA.
Cindy Leikam is the Greenwood Wildlife intern who also writes the monthly column for Redstone Review
Muldoon
Springing into action: Lyons’ Annual Report shows how your tax dollars are used
Kim Mitchell Redstone Review
LYONS – For the past few years, Trustee
Greg Lowell, along with the Board of Trustees and town staff, have led the effort to create an annual report that covers the previous year. This report gives a clear picture of our town’s financial health, key achievements, challenges, and plans for the upcoming year.
For a small town like Lyons, this report is essential in promoting transparency, accountability, and trust within the community. It breaks down how our tax dollars are being spent, so everyone can see where the money goes.
The annual report is also a great way for the local government to keep residents in the loop. It shares updates on community
projects, new initiatives, and future goals, helping people stay informed and engaged. Plus, it gives local organizations, nonprofits, the library, and the fire district a chance to highlight their recent work.
For Lyons, with its limited resources, the annual report is an important way to show the impact of our collective efforts. It highlights the hard work of local officials, volunteers, nonprofits, and staff, and features current and
upcoming initiatives. Our hope is that this report encourages a more informed and engaged communi-
There are two versions of the report: a detailed 114-page document with links to the 2025 town budget, and a shorter 12-page summary with infographics, charts, photos, and key highlights. We encourage everyone to check out one version or both online at the Town’s website: https:// www.townoflyons.com/ annualreport.
Volunteering is a great way to make a positive difference, learn more about how the town runs, and meet new people. Wheth-
contracted in utero.
The Afghan refugee experience
By Marcia Moore Redstone Review
LYONS – A couple of years ago, Hopelight Clinic partnered with the Colorado Refugee Services Program to provide medical care to refugees resettling in the U.S. Since then, I have had the privilege of caring for individuals from a variety of countries, with many of my patients coming from Afghanistan.
Most of these families gained refugee status because the father worked as an interpreter for U.S. forces before the chaotic withdrawal in 2021. Since then, the Taliban’s swift reclamation of control has pushed Afghanistan into a devastating period of political regression, food insecurity, and profound fear.
As a pediatric provider, I primarily see the children of Afghan refugees. These children often undergo basic medical exams in Qatar before arriving in the U.S., but some are flagged for serious medical concerns. I’ve seen several children with untreated conditions, as Afghanistan’s healthcare sys-
tem has been rudimentary at best for years.
One case that stands out is that of a 4-yearold boy with severe cataracts and an ocular deformity. His father had sought help in Afghanistan shortly after the boy was born, but doctors dismissed his concerns. When I referred this child to Children’s Hospital
in Denver, he was diagnosed with blindness and other neurologic issues, likely a result of a rare untreated toxoplasmosis infection
In addition to these complex medical conditions, many children I see are malnourished, with families sharing heartbreaking stories of food shortages under Taliban control. One family I saw had three children, two of whom displayed developmental and behavioral delays. Constantly on the move to avoid detection by the Taliban, he told me that the children were only allowed outside to play at night, and that they suffered from severe food insecurity.
During routine screenings, I found dangerously high levels of lead in several children, which can cause anemia, developmental delays, and neurological problems. The source of the lead exposure was tied to both old plumbing and traditional cooking practices, but one father explained that another key contributor was the use of “kohl,” a mineral-based eyeliner that is high in lead. In Afghanistan, many parents use kohl as part of a cultural belief that it pro-
er it’s helping with local nonprofits, community clean-ups, town events, or sharing your expertise on a town advisory board or commission, there are plenty of ways to get involved.
Lastly, with spring on the horizon, we know the weather will be unpredictable with snow, then melting, then snow again. We’ll see weeds start growing, and windows
tects a baby from the “evil eye” or negative energy. Unknowingly, this practice exposed their children to lead, putting their health at risk.
In Colorado, most Afghan refugees are resettled in the Northglenn/Thornton area to help them integrate into a supportive community. While some families have embraced Western values, including supporting their daughters’ education, others continue to hold more traditional views, with women often wearing head coverings and remaining mostly silent in public spaces. What touches me most about the Afghan community is the strength of their family bonds. At my clinic, I’m fortunate to bring my 12-year-old daughter to volunteer, where she comforts children while I speak with their parents. Many Afghan families have thanked me for including her, as it brings a sense of familiarity and warmth to their experience. For my daughter, it’s a powerful reminder that, no matter where they come from, children everywhere share similar experiences and emotions.
Unfortunately, many Afghan refugees faced significant barriers when trying to come to the U.S. after January 20, follow-
Continue Afghan on Page 14
If you’re looking for a loving, playful, and smart companion, Bo is your perfect match!
To see all our adoptable animals or get more details visit longmonthumane. org. Or stop in at the shelter at 9595 Nelson Rd.
Desirable Wolf Creek Neighborhood 1280 Monarch Drive, Longmont
Meet Bo, the sweetest 2.5-year-old cuddle expert! He loves snuggling up in your lap but is also full of energy and playfulness. Bo’s favorite activities? Carrying toys on walks and chasing a flirt pole with pure joy. Friendly and social, he makes friends wherever he goes and is eager to learn new tricks.
WHAT’S COOKIN’
Banana cake for days of political turmoil
By Barbara Shark Redstone Review
LYONS – In these gloomy days of political turmoil we need a treat. My sister Mimi recommended a banana cake recipe from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce, a baking cookbook introducing whole grains like amaranth, millet and buckwheat. This recipe includes quinoa flour and is a winner. My new favorite banana cake. At Mimi’s suggestion I ground whole quinoa seeds in my spice grinder, a dedicated coffee grinder, rather than buying expensive flour.
Banana Walnut Cake
Toast two cups of walnuts until fragrant. Watch them so them don’t burn! Grind one cup in the Cuisinart and coarsely chop the second cup. Grind 1/2 cup of quinoa
seeds into flour. (Use a spice or coffee grinder.) Or use 1/2 cup quinoa flour.
Cream together four ounces (one stick) of unsalted butter with 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar. Add three ripe bananas, then two eggs. Stir in 1/3 cup sour cream or yogurt and one teaspoon vanilla.
Fold in the quinoa flour, the ground walnuts, one cup unbleached flour, one tablespoon baking powder and one teaspoon kosher salt. Scrape batter into a buttered nineinch springform or round cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan. Remove from pan and glaze with 1/2 cup powdered sugar mixed with enough lemon juice to make a thin glaze. Top with the chopped walnuts.
Barbara Shark is an artist and author of How I Learned to Cook, an Artist’s Life. She lives near Lyons, Colorado. For more recipes, read her blog at www.howilearnedtocookanartistslife.blog.
Spectacular squash – making the most of it
By Catherine Metzger Redstone Review
LYONS – Once in a while, an oversized squash comes into your life. It has become a more common occurrence in August when my Hubbard squash ripen, and these giants start making their way into my kitchen. I harvest them and place them in a cool area on the floor and let them mellow out for a few months. Now that it’s March, I am opening one every month and roasting it to make several tasty recipes all in the same day. Whatever is not eaten that day is packaged and frozen for future use.
These three recipes from the Country Life Vlog come tested and highly recommended. They will bring fresh flavors to your squash preparation that you’ll want to repeat. The first is a dessert squash, roasted with cloves and oranges. The second is filo stuffed with grated squash, onions, walnuts and pomegranate seeds. Third is a roasted squash soup rubbed with copious amounts of garlic, coriander and honey.
First, open the squash using a rubber mallet and a cleaver. Using your hands, clean out the seeds. Save some seeds to plant in your garden next year, if desired.
Cut about two pounds, in one-and-a half inch slices from the opening of the squash. Set aside.
Before handling the remaining squash with garlic for roasting, make your dessert and stuffed-pastry squash as shown below.
Dessert Squash with Cloves and Oranges Serves four, preparation and cooking time is 35 minutes.
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds uncooked, peeled squash
(butternut or Hubbard work well)
1/2 cup cane sugar
5 whole cloves
1 orange, zest removed and sliced finely
Sour cream
Chopped walnuts
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. On a baking sheet, lay cut slices of squash and sprinkle them with sugar, cloves and orange peel. Bake until tender. Squeeze juice from the orange over caramelized sugar while the baking sheet is hot. Serve warm or cold with a dollop of sour cream and chopped walnuts on top.
Pastry Stuffed with Squash, Onions, Walnuts and Pomegranate Seeds
Makes six; preparation and cooking time is 40 minutes.
Ingredients
1/2 pounds of uncooked, peeled squash, grated (butternut or Hubbard work well)
1/2 onion, chopped
6 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
1/2 teaspoon sumac
12 sheets filo dough
Directions
Sauté onions in three tablespoons of butter until transparent. Add grated squash and cook until tender, about ten minutes. Stir in half the sumac, the walnuts and pomegranate seeds. Melt the remaining butter and set aside with a pastry brush. Spread a layer of filo horizontally on table or counter. Brush with melted butter.
Repeat so that you have two layers.
Place two tablespoons of filling in the center, about 1 1/2 inches in from the left end. Pick up the top lefthand corner and bring it over 2 inches to the right to meet the bottom edge and form a triangle. Fold over at the straight edge in the center from left to right. Pick up the lefthand bottom corner and bring it over 2 inches to the top edge.
Fold over in the center, from left to right.
Continue until all the strip of filo is used. (You can first practice with a paper napkin and this will become very clear to you.)
Brush stuffed pastry with melted butter, sprinkle with sumac and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 350°F. for 45 minutes.
Squash Soup with Garlic, Coriander and Honey Serves 12+; preparation and cooking time is 40 minutes.
Ingredients
6 cloves garlic, chopped 1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon ground coriander 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 large onion, chopped 4 tablespoons butter
One 32-ounce box of chicken or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon, Chicken or Vegetable 1/2 cup heavy cream
Directions Mix all ingredients except the onion in a small bowl. Place whole, de-seeded pumpkin, open side up on a baking sheet and rub interior with garlic/honey mixture. Bake until tender in a 375 degrees F. oven until tender. Remove from oven and cool. Blend until smooth. Sauté onions in butter until transparent. Add squash and cook with a lid on medium-low heat for another ten minutes. Add broth and bouillon and cook another ten minutes. Add cream and remove from heat before the soup reaches a boil. Adjust seasonings to taste.
Since cooking for room and board at a Scottish estate in 1978, then as a French cuisine journeyman at the celebrated Henri d’Afrique restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia, Catherine Ripley Metzger has been honing her culinary skills. Today, as proprietor of the blog, www. FoodForTheAges.com, she sources locally, gardens intentionally and cooks with curiosity from the ground up in her log cabin home on Colorado’s Western Slope. For more practical, how-to recipes, go to www.foodfortheages.com.
ice sheet stability.
Antarctic
research foretells how fast the seas will rise
Jayme DeLoss Redstone Review
FORT COLLINS – It may seem counterintuitive to look to the rock beneath the ice of Antarctica to calculate how much ice will melt and how fast sea levels will rise due to climate change, but for the first time, scientists have completed a detailed study of this important interaction among land, ice and sea.
The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest ice mass on Earth, and understanding how it responds to climate change is key to predicting future sea levels.
Researchers, including Colorado State University Professor Rick Aster, found that solid Earth uplift – caused by land rising as heavy glaciers melt away – would limit Antarctica’s contribution to sea-level rise by up to 40 percent under low-warming scenarios but amplify it under high-warming scenarios.
“With nearly 700 million people living in coastal areas and the potential cost of sea-level rise reaching trillions of dollars by the end of the century, understanding the domino effect of Antarctic ice melt is crucial,” Natalya Gomez, lead author of the study published in Science Advances and an associate professor at McGill University, said in a statement.
Scientists, including Aster, spent more than 15 years collecting new seismological and uplift data in Antarctica to produce a state-of-the-art computational model for predicting land, ice and global sea-level interactions at unprecedented detail and complexity. It is the first model to incorporate Earth structure to forecast Antarctic ice melt, and it estimates how quickly – and differently – sea levels will rise across the world’s coastlines.
allow Earth uplift to partially stabilize the Antarctic ice sheet and prevent some future sea-level rise.
“Our findings show that while some sea-level rise is inevitable, swift and substantive action to lower emissions could prevent some of the most destructive impacts of climate change, particularly for coastal communities,” Gomez said.
Earth and ice dynamics
Little was known about the Earth structure underlying Antarctica until scientists launched a project called POLENET, the
causes the ice moving from the grounded inland ice sheet to the ocean to slow and get stuck on the bedrock topography.
POLENET scientists found that Earth’s crust and underlying mantle vary greatly across the Antarctic continent. The viscosity of the Earth’s mantle, or how easily it flows, along with the thickness of the lithosphere – the elastic layer that makes up the tectonic plates – determine how quickly the land rebounds. A warmer and softer mantle and thinner lithosphere increase how much and how quickly the planet rebounds.
Polar Earth Observing Network, more than 15 years ago. They scanned the Earth beneath the frozen continent to depths of hundreds of kilometers using highly sensitive seismographs, which measure how fast seismic waves travel through the Earth. They also recorded how the land surface was rising with specialized GPS receivers.
Authors used the model to simulate future ice sheet and sea-level outcomes under various amounts of warming. Results show that reducing greenhouse gas emissions could slow melting Antarctic ice enough to
Knowing the shape and composition of the solid Earth beneath the Antarctic ice sheet is important because it influences how the ice flows to the ocean. As an ice sheet melts, the underlying Earth decompresses, flows and rises, and this uplift
Researchers found that West Antarctica has very low mantle viscosity, and the land is rebounding very quickly in response to melting ice, while East Antarctica, with a thick elastic layer and high mantle viscosity, responds much more slowly.
Aster, a seismologist and professor of geophysics in the Warner College of Natural Resources, likens the process to the way a foam mattress slowly springs back to its original shape after weight is removed. The same thing happens with the planet but on scales of decades to millennia, depending on the properties of the underlying Earth.
“Remarkably, we found that West Antarctica is one of the fastest uplifting places on the planet, because the mantle viscosity there is quite low,” Aster said, “so uplift turns out to be an important factor in understanding and modeling the system and how fast it’s going to potentially collapse and raise global sea level under the influences of climate change.”
Antarctica is largely isolated from plate tectonic boundaries and forces, so the observed uplift rates are mainly caused by ice mass loss. In some places, the coast of West Antarctica is uplifting by up to 4 centimeters, or about 1.5 inches, per year, Aster said. This process, called glacial isostatic adjustment, is an important factor for
Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is particularly susceptible to collapse, where warming ocean water is melting the ice shelf from below. Thwaites Glacier is so massive that if it were to melt completely, global sea levels would rise approximately 60 centimeters, or about two feet, submerging many coastal communities, which is why it has earned the nickname “Doomsday Glacier.”
“If the ice sheet melts like it is today but the melting doesn’t accelerate, then the uplift of the solid Earth is rapid enough to slow the loss of ice, and slow global sea-level rise that will affect hundreds of millions of people around the world,” Aster said.
However, high greenhouse gas emissions would cause the ice sheet to melt so quickly that the land would not sufficiently rebound to slow ice flow to the ocean, he added. In fact, bedrock uplift beneath the ocean with no ice atop it would eventually expel water from near Antarctica and cause additional sea-level rise across the rest of the world.
The gravity of the situation
The immense Antarctic ice sheet’s gravitational attraction draws water toward the continent, but as the ice sheet loses mass as it melts, that attraction will lessen, exacerbating sea-level rise elsewhere.
Because of gravity and Earth structure and rotation, some areas of the world will experience greater sea-level rise than others. The simulations showed that small-island developing nations near the equator will see the most dramatic sea-level rise under all future scenarios.
“If the entire West Antarctic ice sheet collapsed, as it did prior to the last Ice Age, then we’re contemplating eventual sea-level rise globally on average of around 3.5 meters (about 11.5 feet) from just this sector of Antarctica, and that’s truly world changing,” Aster said.
Sea-level rise combined with storm surges makes a bad situation worse for low-lying communities, which is why it’s important to understand all the processes affecting the future of Earth’s coasts, coastal populations and ecosystems.
“With this study, we incorporate all of the important components of the Earth system and begin to quantify how much greenhouse gas drawdown will be necessary for the Earth uplift restraining mechanism to benefit humanity in terms of sea-level rise,” Aster said.
The study was a collaboration among researchers at CSU, McGill, Pennsylvania State, Cambridge, Columbia, Ohio State, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Washington and the Union of Concerned Scientists. It was funded by the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Canada Research Chairs program.
Jayme DeLoss works in the Media Department at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Lyons Fire Fund purchases a second ambulance for LFPD
By Johanna Zeh, with Dave Roth, Maureen Davidovich and Bill Sassani Redstone Review
LYONS – We want to share some good news about where we’ve spent a large portion of all the incoming donations people made last fall and winter.
The Lyons Fire Fund paid for a new (used) ambulance, purchased for $40,000 by the Lyons Fire Protection District. Dubbed LFPD 4022, it’s a fully equipped Advanced Life Support transport that’s equal to #4021, but can also be put in service for a second call or an incident with multiple patients.
In case anyone’s wondering, the red LFPD ambulance is still fully functional and in service. Both ambulances now are fully equipped and operational (pending staffing) advanced life support vehicles.
Where did the $40,000 in Lyons Fire Fund’s accumulated donations come from? Our smallest donation last year was a $1 bill, dropped in the boot by a young girl, who asked her dad for money after she’d toured the red ambulance at Bohn Park on Earth Day. Larger donations arrived after the Stone Canyon Fire. Impromptu local fundraisers raised money. A Moxie pop-up concert, Lyons Garden Club’s chili cookoff, an artist’s donated sale proceeds, and the Pancake Breakfasts silent auction all helped.
We got small, medium, and sizeable checks from LFPD
The plant operated from 1952 to 1992 and was operated by private contractors such as Dow Chemical and Rockwell International. Plutonium production was halted in 1989 after an FBI raid. The facility was shut down in 1992. It became a Super Fund site. Now a portion of the site is Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge owned by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Allred presented documents from Dr. Michael Ketterer offering proof of plutonium particles in samples collected in the air filters at Rocky Flats. The Greenway Trail was the proposal of several cities and counties including Boulder, Boulder County, Westminster, Broomfield, Superior and Arvada. Since the presentations by Ketterer, several cities and counties have dropped out of the project.
Trustee Greg Lowell ask Allred what this project had to do with Lyons.
Allred said that the trail will run right through Lyons and up to Estes Park. The board decided to ask staff to draw up a resolution to oppose building the Rocky Mountain Greenway Trail through Rocky Flats. Moving on, the board voted unanimously to approve Resolution 2025-11. This resolution approves a grant agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for a Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant for 3rd Avenue storm water improvements design. This would give the board funding for creating a design for mitigating the water and drainage issues on 3rd Avenue.
Trustee Mark Browing took issue that 2nd Avenue was not part of the resolution. He pointed out that 2nd Avenue had much worse drainage problems than 3rd Avenue. But several other board members were anxious to move forward with any storm water improvement project even in the design phase, so the resolution was approved.
After that discussion, the board moved on to discuss amending the Longmont water rights Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA). Longmont provides the water that Lyons uses and as part of the payment, Lyons turns over some of its water (Colorado Big Thompson, CBT shares and some shares in the Ralph Price Reservoir behind the Button Rock Dam). Representatives from Lyons approached the subject of selling some of the town’s water shares that are not being used by Longmont, but Longmont apparently did not like that idea. Lyons agreed to adopt Longmont’s criteria of using a 12 percent or more affordable housing standard for any new housing projects.
In other matters, Finance Director Cassandra Eyestone told the board that there is one local business that has fallen behind in paying its sales taxes. She said she will keep the board updated. She added that the business does not have a current business license, “So it could get sticky,” she said.
residents, and an anonymous $5,000 dollar gift. The largest single donation was a $13,000 check from Planet Bluegrass’ foundation, money given by festival attendees, staff, in bar tips, and donated by Planet Bluegrass itself. If we counted, I’m sure there were hundreds of donations in 2024. The ambulance purchase is the Lyons Fire Fund’s biggest ever decision after the floods, to spend our community-based donations.
We should mention there were notable other donations to the Lyons Fire Fund from grants by Cemex and the Lyons Community Foundation. Those checks were designated for badly needed new firefighting PPE gear. The Lyons Fire Fund wanted to create a direct return of something tangible, useful, that immediately provides a life-saving service.
Buying a used ambulance isn’t exactly a common form of fiscal support – yet the opportunity came and the Lyons Fire Fund unanimously agreed to spend donated dollars on one, when approached by the two chiefs who had spotted a “For Sale” listing of a good used ambulance.
The numbers after the dollar sign aren’t only numerical figures on the Lyons Fire Fund’s annual report and bank statements. The support given to us can and has been turned into something tangible. practical, and useful.
Finally, fiscal support shown by the flow of dollars that poured in after the Stone Canyon Fire can’t be measured only in decimal places and numbers. It’s morale-lifting support. It’s daily encouragement for all the firefighters and
excitement as they talk about dovetails and oxidation marks, snake wood inlay and cabriole legs. It makes them feel good and it illuminates the owner into a big smile and it makes us viewers feel good too.
The reason why is that, when most of us regular folks evaluate a thing, we view it from a distance and compare it against our mostly puny knowledge of the subject. But when the connoisseurs evaluate their quarry, they stroke it, smell it, rub it, caress it, and peer into every crevice to relish each chisel stroke of the craftsman’s hand. They might spot the tell-tale chattering marks of an 1850 circular saw that left a clue that a foot was replaced. For these enthusiasts, it’s not writing the price tag, it’s a Lewis and Clark expedition into the heart of creativity. When a maker is making something, there are many places where a decision must be made. Whether to bode a quick fix or whether to do it the correct way. The way a Shaker chair-maker might have perfected a leg joint or a Spanish guitar maker might have carefully trimmed braces on the inside of an instrument that nobody will see for a hundred years. Eventually an expert or a restorer gets to peep, a bit like an archeologist entering a prehistoric cave for the first time, to see what care, skill and devotion was employed during the creation.
Antiques Roadshow is a model of how detailed appreciation can spread happiness around. It is an example that each of us can try to follow.
Peter Butler was born in India and lived in a house facing a giant kapok tree. Growing up in England there were trees but never quite enough. After qualifying as biochemist there was a gradual evolution into being a graphic designer. He and his wife Deirdre moved to the States in 1997 and to Lyons in 2000. Finally, there are enough trees.
LYONS COLORADO 2025 EVENTS
CONCERTS FESTIVALS
EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
APRIL
Orchard Blossom Festival and Bloomin’ Bets Concert
Live music and festival
JUNE-AUGUST
Sandstone Summer Concert Series
Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. at Raul
Vasquez Stage in Sandstone Park
June Pride Event
paramedics who serve as duty crews on the LFPD. Please know that it was entirely the community support that surged after the Stone Canyon Fire that let us purchase a second ambulance.
The Lyons Fire Fund sincerely thanks you all.
Johanna Zeh, Dave Roth, Maureen Davidovich, and Bill Sassani are members of the Lyons Fire Fund.
if you want to rent it out,” Polis said. “Most importantly, it meets a housing need in the community.” This law, which goes into effect on June 30, 2025 aims to boost the supply of affordable housing by making it easier – and less expensive – for most Colorado homeowners to build an ADU (a.k.a. casita, in-law suite or granny flat).
According to Mike Koenig, owner of Studio Sheds, it also presents an opportunity for those who have been either ineligible to add an ADU or for whom bureaucratic hurdles seemed too burdensome. ADUs add housing units with minimal impacts to infrastructure and with increased, compact infill development. They provide intergenerational living options and enable child or eldercare and aging in place. Because they’re small, ADU rents are typically low. What I find most exciting about this new law is that it removes any restrictions to build an ADU within an HOA.
I have a dream for Lyons where people who work in the community can also live here. I have a dream for Lyons where artists can continue to collaborate because of their close proximity to each other. I have a dream for Lyons where our businesses and service providers can hire local employees.
If you also feel passionate about Housing and Human Services, please consider joining the Housing and Human Services Commission. There are currently two vacancies. Applications can be filled out on the Town of Lyons website. Meetings are open to the public. They take place on the second Monday of the month at 4:30 p.m. at the library.
Tanya Mercer-Daty is serving her second term with the Board of Trustees. She also serves as liaison to the HHSC and to the LAHC. She has lived in Lyons since 2012 and enjoys teaching in local schools when teachers need a break. She loves working toward the betterment of her community. This article is her personal opinion and does not represent the Board of Trustees.
RockyGrass
Old-time traditional bluegrass festival featuring well known bluegrass musicians
Rocky Mountain Folks Festival
The nation’s top singer-songwriters gather for a three-day music festival
OCTOBER
Halloween Spooktacular Costume parade, trick or treating, kids’ games and more downtown
DECEMBER
Artisian Market & Holiday Parade of Lights
Holiday artisan market Sat. and Sun., 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.; parade on Saturday at 6 p.m.
will be open more often. Please remember to shovel your sidewalk, take care of weeds, and clean up after your pets. Town codes are there to help everyone be better neighbors. These little things can make a big difference in keeping Lyons a great place to live.
Kim Mitchell is Director of Communications and Community Relations for the Town of Lyons, and has called Lyons home since 2009.
ing executive orders from President Trump that blocked their applications and flights. I can only hope that, by the time this article is published, the U.S. will reinstate refugee policies that allow these families the opportunity to rebuild their lives. After all, they have sacrificed so much to support the U.S.; it’s only fair that we offer them the same compassion and support in return. Marcia Moore is a Family Nurse Practitioner at Hopelight Clinic, where she has worked for over 20 years in healthcare. She has been a resident of Lyons since 2009 and specializes in caring for homeless, refugee, immigrant, and uninsured individuals of all ages. Hopelight Clinic is a safety-net clinic located at the Church of Christ in Longmont.
lives of those attending.
Our community members have shown up to lead and contribute to this wonderful span of wellness resources. We continue to be present for one other. The Fireplace is for everyone in our community, regardless of income or insurance status. Thanks to grant funding, we are able to offer LEAF’s Fireplace at no charge to participants. We hope you’ll join us as we gather for warmth and wellness together this winter.
Of course, LEAF’s core programs: Food Pantry, Meals on Wheels, Lyons Volunteers, Basic Needs, Resource Matching, and Mental Wellness and Addiction Recovery are ongoing, too. Visit our website at Leaflyons.org to get involved.
Cherie Maureaux is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Addiction Counselor, and Approved Clinical Supervisor. She helped launch LEAF’s Mental Wellness and Addiction Recovery program over five years ago and now serves as the Clinical Program Director. She lives in Lyons with her daughter and loves supporting mental health in her community.
Downtown Lighting Ceremony
Holiday tree lighting and downtown lights ceremony, 5 to 8 p.m.
Treasure Continued from Page 4
Rocky Flats Continued from Page 1
Afghan Continued from Page 11
Housing Continued from Page 7 Annual Report Continued from Page 11
