The Home Front: As ‘Colorado Resistance’ forms, ‘everything’s on the table in 2018’

“The Colorado Resistance group debuted Sunday in Boulder, with a goal of organizing people statewide to work toward a ‘progressive takeover’ in 2018’s state mid-term elections,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “‘It’s really easy to get depressed right now,’ said Sen. Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder. ‘People want to know how they can be effective to produce change.’ To resist President Donald Trump’s agenda, he said, people should focus their energy on shifting the balance of power in Colorado so Democrats control the House and the Senate and the governor’s seat stays blue. ‘Everything’s on the table in 2018,’ he said.”

“Colleen Peppler isn’t just ‘the farmer’s wife,'” reports The Greeley Tribune. “She knows at times in her career that she’s been looked at as one — just the sidekick or the supporter. But she’s more than that. In fact, she’s been a partner in a business for 33 years. It just so happens her business partner is her husband, Kent Peppler, former president of Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, and she inherited his family’s farm with him when they married 33 years ago. Together, they operate Peppler Farms, a fifth-generation farming operation near Platteville. Peppler, 57, has been breaking stereotypes since she was a kid growing up on a dry land wheat farm in Akron. According to stereotypes, Peppler said, farmers tend to be uneducated men. She’s neither.”

“A revised plan of testing for radioactivity by oil and gas companies operating near the site of a 1969 underground nuclear blast test site in Garfield County shrinks the area where such testing is required,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The revision, completed in July, also eliminates ground and surface water monitoring requirements, saying other testing requirements make them unnecessary. The area subject to testing has been reduced from 25 square miles, encompassing a circular area extending three miles in all directions from what’s known as the Project Rulison blast site, to an oval area of just under 6.3 square miles, and ranging from 1.5 to two miles away from the site. The revised plan also gets rid of a limit on the number of drilling rigs concurrently operating in the monitoring zone ‘because this has not been an administrative problem in recent years,’ it says.”

“Summit County’s suicide rate has now risen to three times that of the national average, and that has local groups banding together to locate ways of expanding access to care and generating more dialogue around the growing trend,” reports The Summit Daily News. “The county experienced an all-time high last year of 13 instances where someone took his or her own life, and there have already been a number of occurrences in 2017, too. The reasons vary, but the fact is the issue remains an increasing priority for the community, particularly with September representing National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month — as well as one that won’t disappear overnight.”

“Members of Boulder County’s city councils, town boards and Board of County Commissioners and their staffs are to assemble in Longmont on Friday morning for three hours of discussions about whether a collaborative approach could increase their constituents’ access to affordable-housing opportunities,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “That “Affordable Housing Summit,” according to the Boulder County Regional Housing Partnership group that’s been promoting such an approach, will try to involve all of Boulder County’s government jurisdictions in addressing countywide affordable housing shortages.”

“After a decline in military surplus equipment flowing to Colorado law enforcement agencies, the numbers are rebounding and Larimer County agencies continue to benefit,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “The federal 1033 program, created in 1997, allows the Department of Defense to transfer excess military equipment that might otherwise be destroyed to state and local law enforcement agencies at a fraction of the items’ cost — they often pay for only shipping and maintenance.”

“The local Rx Task Force continues on its mission to educate the community and prevent more opiate overdose deaths in Routt County, as well as Northwest Colorado,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “For the second time, the Task Force will be hosting a series of Lunch and Learn events that will bring in both local and regional experts to discuss the epidemic. The “Changing the Culture of Pain” series will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 4, 11 and 18 at Bud Werner Memorial Library’s Library Hall. Lunch will be provided.”

“Dan Willadsen predicts plenty of climbing when new equipment is installed at Junior Achievement park in central Loveland,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “That’s what it was designed for, after all. The major theme parks planners took away from an event where about 60 children drew dream parks out of their imaginations was that the youngsters wanted a place to climb, and that they loved adventure.”

“As the temperatures dip and the aspens change color, Eagle County girds itself for the upcoming ski season and the annual influx of seasonal workers,” reports Vail Daily. “And each of those newcomers will face the central dilemma that thousands of workers have dealt with in seasons past — where am I going to live? Eagle County’s housing shortage has been well documented, and the problem is not restricted to the eastern end of the valley. Renters hoping to finding more affordable units in the downvalley communities of Eagle and Gypsum are going to be disappointed. Not only have prices risen substantially, available units are basically nonexistent.”

“It’s getting harder for businesses to find space at a time when the La Plata County needs to be broadening its tax base,” reports The Durango Herald. “Since the 1980s, the number of permits for new commercial buildings in unincorporated La Plata County has trended down, county data show. In 1985 La Plata County issued 80 commercial building permits, and issuances have declined since then. The last peak was in 2008, when 42 permits were issued. Before that, the last time the county issued more than 40 permits was in 1995, according to county data.”

“In a boom town full of growth industries, one of the most consistent job producers in Denver for five years running has been city government,” reports The Denver Post. “After a post-recession hiring blitz, Denver government offices have outgrown several city-owned office buildings, including downtown’s massive and modern Wellington E. Webb municipal building. That expansion, which includes plans for more hiring next year, could end up increasing the municipal workforce by nearly one-fifth between 2012 and 2018, a Denver Post review has found. As city finance officials have inked multiyear deals for private office space fronting Civic Center, the number of budgeted positions this year reached the equivalent of 12,445 full-time positions, including some temporary workers. Mayor Michael Hancock’s proposed $2 billion operating budget for 2018 would increase that total to 12,918.”