The Home Front: One condo in Colorado’s Steamboat Springs is selling for $1,446 per square foot

A condo in Steamboat Springs sells for $1,446 per square foot, reports The Steamboat Pilot & Today.

“The opening public salvo in a potential 2018 Greeley ballot question came Tuesday in the form of a city council work session presentation identifying more than $550 million in capital construction projects and other costs during the next 20 years,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “City staff plans for months of resident input, but the ultimate goal for city officials is to renew quality of life and public safety sales taxes first passed in the early 2000s. Those taxes, totaling 0.46 percent, don’t expire until 2022 and 2024, respectively, but the city can ask voters to renew the taxes any time between now and then.”

“Longmont’s City Council gave initial approval Tuesday night to an ordinance that would prohibit people from standing or sitting on medians where local officials have adjudged it to be unsafe,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “The vote was unanimous, and the council did not discuss the proposal. The ban — if it gets final council approval after a public hearing and final council action scheduled for May 9 — would amend Title 11 of the Longmont Municipal Code’s provisions about traffic medians to add a new chapter about ‘Pedestrian Access to Medians.’ Violators convicted of the offense could be ordered to pay a fine of up to $500, or to serve up to 90 days in jail, or both.”

“President Donald J. Trump’s review of national monument designations since 1996 amounts to an attack on monuments in general, say conservation groups,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The executive order affecting monuments of 100,000 acres or more was to be issued today and in Colorado could affect the Canyons of the Ancients in southwest Colorado. Two other recent designations, Chimney Rock near Pagosa Springs, and Browns Canyon, near Salida and Buena Vista, are smaller than 100,000 acres, so they are not included in Trump’s order.”

“The Republican-backed plan to require Colorado counties to cooperate with tougher immigration enforcement policies from President Donald Trump’s administration passed out of the state Senate on a 18-17 party-line vote Tuesday,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “Senate Bill 281 would let the federal Department of Homeland Security designate whether a state or county was offering “sanctuary” to undocumented immigrants — triggering a cutoff in federal and state funding. The bill now heads to the Democratic-majority House where it could be killed because Democrats passed a measure earlier this session to push back against the Trump administration’s focus on ‘sanctuary’ communities.”

The Coloradoan in Fort Collins asks why more police officers don’t care the life-saving overdose spray Narcan in the midst of an opioid epidemic.

“Former Johnstown doctor and surgeon Kenneth Pettine pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor drug charges on Tuesday and was sentenced to five years of probation plus 200 hours of community service,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Pettine, 63, originally faced felony allegations that he obtained drugs fraudulently by forging other doctors’ signatures on false prescriptions. He was arrested in June 2016 after the Denver office of the Drug Enforcement Administration opened an investigation on suspicion of prescription fraud against Pettine dating from January 2013 to spring of last year. Pettine agreed with the Colorado Medical Board to cease practicing medicine in May 2016, documents show, and will be unable to resume practicing medicine in Colorado or any other state as part of the criminal convictions.”

“The Boulder City Council on Tuesday night voiced support for increasing the wages of seasonal and other ‘nonstandard’ city employees,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “Last summer, the council gave direction that the minimum wage for all full-time, part-time and temporary city employees should be bumped to $15.67. Not included among those workers are people performing “nonstandard” roles for Boulder, such as junior park rangers, camp counselors and those generally hired on seasonal or demand-based terms. During Tuesday night’s study session, the council stopped short of moving these roughly 700 employees up to the $15.67 floor applied to other employees. Doing so would add about $2 million to the city’s budget — nearly eight times the amount Boulder will spend by the end of 2017 to bring all “standard” employees up to the new minimum wage.”

“There’s good news in a study of weekend travel patterns on Interstate 70 from the Denver area to mountain resorts. There’s worrying news, too,” reports Vail Daily. “The I-70 Coalition — a nonprofit group of governments and business interests along the three-county mountain corridor — commissioned a study of highway users in February and March of this year. The study firm, Boulder-based RRC Associates, surveyed highway users at the “dinosaur” park-and-ride parking lots on the west end of the Denver metropolitan area. The study — a continuation of similar research done in 2012 and 2014 — showed efforts to cut congestion are paying some dividends.”

“Harrison K-8 School Principal John Pavlicek was put on paid administrative leave Tuesday morning by the Cañon City School District, hours after the school board voted not to renew his contract,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Superintendent George Welsh said the decision was made based on legal advice the district received after Monday’s school board meeting, where a crowd of Pavlicek’s supporters shouted questions and chants at board members. “Mr. Pavlicek has been placed on paid administrative leave for the remainder of the school year,” Welsh wrote in an email, the paper reported. “This was based on a recommendation by legal advisors, taking into consideration the emotion that surrounded the recent decision on his contract.”

“Denver Police Chief Robert White on Tuesday said federal immigration agents have become ‘more assertive’ since the Trump administration took office and that more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been seen on the city’s streets,” reports The Denver Post. “Still, White assured about 60 residents concerned about hard-line immigration enforcement that his department was not out to detain people living in the country illegally unless they have committed a crime. Then, they would be treated like any other criminal, he said. ‘We can’t police ICE, and ICE can’t police us,” White said. “We’ve made it clear we’re not in the business of doing ICE’s work.'”

“In their first regular meeting, the new Colorado Springs City Council unanimously approved a land swap that members see as a kick-start to revitalize southwest downtown,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “Council members and downtown boosters were jubilant after the 8-0 vote. Councilman Bill Murray had an excused absence. “I think we came up with a great plan here that’s going to make a big difference for our community,” said Council President Richard Skorman. Skorman, jokingly calling himself “an instigator,” served on the council in 2001 when downtown’s southwest quadrant was designated an urban renewal area. But, he noted, America the Beautiful Park had been the only result since.”