The Home Front: Beware of urban bighorn sheep ‘still in their rut season’

“University of Northern Colorado President Kay Norton on Monday responded to a petition drive asking UNC officials to declare UNC a ‘sanctuary campus,'” reports The Greeley Tribune. “The sanctuary campus movement, with roots in the sanctuary city movement, has taken higher education by storm in the past few weeks, with petitions at more than 150 institutions and numerous institutions taking steps to protect students without proper documentation.”

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports on a win in court by Western Slope water users. “Western Slope interests led by the Grand Valley Water Users’ Association prevailed in the Colorado Supreme Court in a major water case Monday involving transmountain diversions to the Front Range. In a 5-2 decision, the high court ruled that a water court in Pueblo erred in concluding that storage of transmountain water rights on the Eastern Slope was lawful despite the lack of a water court decree allowing for the water’s storage prior to its use for its decreed purpose.”

“Several Longmont City Council members said on Monday night that they and their constituents want assurances that a proposed affordable-housing project, and its residents, will be compatible with other homes and businesses in the downtown Longmont area,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “The council members’ comments came during and after a joint meeting they and city staff members had with Boulder County Commissioners Elise Jones and Deb Gardner and members of the county staff.”

The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent warns readers to be careful around a herd of wild bighorn sheep that has been hanging around town. “One of the bigger concerns is that the sheep are still in their rut season, so the rams can be very aggressive,” Dan Cacho, district wildlife manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told the paper. “If people get too close, you might get one of the rams, or even the ewes, try to charge. That’s always a concern with any large wildlife.”

“The city of Steamboat Springs is suing a developer and a property owner to try and save a historic barn that the defendants have been neglecting for years near the base of Steamboat Ski Area,” reports Steamboat Today. “The city’s lawsuit claims the developer, RP Steamboat Springs, and the property owner, RCS-Wildhorse Land, LLC, should be maintaining the 88-year-old Arnold Barn per the conditions of a development agreement, which was signed in 2006.”

The Boulder Daily Camera reports on an elusive compromise for a housing cooperative. “The limitations written into the latest drafted version of Boulder’s new co-operative housing ordinance are such that if the ordinance were adopted today, only about 1 percent of the city’s total housing stock would be eligible for co-ops, and a maximum of about 150 people would become licensed co-op residents.”

“Mayor Preston Troutman during Monday’s regular city council meeting admonished the City of Cañon City, stating it is mostly to blame for so many older buildings sitting vacant because of stringent codes,” reports The Cañon City Daily Camera. “As the council continues to look for ways the city can proactively help potential business owners bring their business to the area and change the culture, Troutman said there is no way the city’s current codes and zoning requirements fit the older buildings located in the downtown and other areas in Cañon City.”

The Fort Collins Coloradoan localized the pipeline protests at Standing Rock in North Dakota. “Fort Collins resident Liz Bunya first realized a major oil pipeline could infringe on Native American land rights in 2012, years before the simmering standoff over the Dakota Access Pipeline started between the pipeline company, law enforcement and protesters.”

“A Pentagon-commissioned study in 2015 found the Defense headquarters wasted $125 billion. But upon learning of the study’s results, military leaders ordered the findings never be released to the press or public, according to a report published Monday evening,” reports The Washington Examiner on on the front page of The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “In January 2015, the Pentagon learned it could cut $125 billion in administrative costs at the Arlington, Va., facility over the next five years. But Defense leaders chose to keep the report secret in fear lawmakers would cut funding, the Washington Post found.”

The Denver Post reports funds are tight for local police. “All of this growth is happening as Denver’s public safety agencies still are trying to dig themselves out of the cuts made during the Great Recession — a period when the city saw its emergency services fall behind in recruiting and maintaining equipment.”