The Home Front: Homelessness, housing, and barking dogs take up today’s front pages in Colorado

Here’s a real case of the Wednesdays, as the front pages of newspapers across Colorado tackle transients, affordable housing, how long a dog should be allowed to bark, and irate car dealers taking on their local governments.

Under the headline “Tackling a transient dilemma,” The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel has 11 recommendations from a city panel about how to reduce homelessness. The newspaper also posted the committee’s 16-page report online. (Homelessness has been all over the front pages of Colorado newspapers recently, with different cities dealing with it in different ways. The Gazette in Colorado Springs recently had a front-page story about how a plan by Albuquerque’s Republican mayor to pay panhandlers to clean up the city was working.)

The Greeley Tribune fronts a story about local car dealers going to war with the local clerk and recorder’s office over holdup and lag time with title deliveries, among other issues. The car dealers want an audit of the office. “It looks like it’s becoming a political mess,” one dealer told the paper.

If it’s not area homelessness, it’s area affordable housing on the front page as Steamboat Today shows today with a piece about that. “Key players in the renewed effort to move forward on creating more housing supply in the Yampa Valley agreed with the Routt County Board of Commissioners Aug. 30 that it will be important for the Community Housing Steering Committee to be able to propose concrete, achievable projects when they make their recommendations sometime in December.”

The Fort Collins Coloradoan has an A1 story this morning about a petition at Change.org for local Walmarts to start selling imperfect-looking food. (Think a bumpy, misshapen cucumber.) The piece comes with this likely unintentionally hilarious lede: “Petitioners want Colorado Walmarts to get ugly.” Get ugly?

Fire restrictions are being extended in Larimer County, reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “The Board of Larimer County Commissioners unanimously approved the extension, 3-0, on Tuesday at the request of the Sheriff’s Office.”

The Longmont Times-Call has a story about the business dean at CU-Boulder who has been the subject of three federal gender discrimination lawsuits, stepping down. But David Ikenberry will still remain a faculty member.

The Denver Post fronts an item about Sniagrab — that’s “bargains” backwards— ending its big Labor Day ski sale. But the paper tells us about other deals around town to fill the void.

The Aspen Times lets its readers know on its front page today that “Aspen Assistant Police Chief Bill Linn is truly a nice guy.” Read why in this local beat sweetener.

The Durango Herald tackles “one of the county’s favorite subjects: barking dogs,” letting readers know about a public meeting over regulations about how long a dog can bark before a neighbor can complain. “Why should it be 20 continuous minutes?” asked one citizen. “A nuisance is a nuisance.”

The Boulder Daily Camera has a story about about their city council favoring a permanent day shelter for the homeless with a re-upped camping ban. “The biggest question entering Tuesday night is still unsettled. If Boulder is ever going to open a tiny homes village or dedicate city-owned land for legal camping, it’ll have to be decided another day.”

The Gazette reports how parts of Colorado Springs looked like it got rocked by a hurricane in Monday’s hail storm. At least six homes have been deemed unlivable after the freak extreme weather.

Denverite has a piece about a real deal for developers in the Mile City City. “You can build taller if you offer affordable housing.