The future is bleak for affordable housing in the Longmont area, The Times-Call reports today. “The town of Lyons will no longer have any mobile home parks after the buyout of the flood ravaged Foothills Mobile Home Park goes through within the next couple of weeks.”
The Denver Post profiles Charles “Casper” Stockham, an Uber-driving Republican challenger to Diana DeGette in the Denver area. “Stockham drives for ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft five nights a week. For a guy with years of experience in direct sales and multilevel marketing — he hawked food, home products and personal-care products for the likes of Amway, Herbalife and Nu Skin — he’s a natural at promotion.”
“A Basalt councilwoman is under fire for violating the Colorado Open Meetings Law by sending an email to three other council members July 11 to lobby them on an issue going before the board the next evening,” The Aspen Times reports. “Councilwoman Jennifer Riffle sent an email to Katie Schwoerer, Mark Kittle and Gary Tennenbaum to ask them to vote against a resolution directing the town staff to expand the areas in town where marijuana can be sold.”
The Colorado Springs Gazette reports on a race to build a new winter homeless shelter as a tent city pops up downtown. “With space growing tight, one camper organized a community meeting Thursday night – announcing an end to setting up new tents. She saw code enforcement officers there, and she implored the dozens of people gathered around her to continue keeping the area clean.”
The Boulder Daily Camera reports on Boulder’s disappearing middle. “The city has drafted a middle income housing strategy that will be presented to the Planning Board Oct. 20, and the City Council Oct. 25. Among the draft’s recommendations is a new requirement that residential developers include in their projects some percentage of housing that’s affordable to individuals and families making between 60 and 150 percent of the area median income, which is $85,400 for a family of three, or $66,400 for a single person.”
“While impending cold weather means the holiday season and ski resorts opening for some, for others it’s a scramble to survive the harsh winter elements,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “The fledgling Carbondale Homeless Assistance has been preparing to support the town’s homeless through the freezing winter. The organization formed last winter out of concern for Carbondale’s residents without roofs.”
The Fort Collins Coloradoan has a story about how U.S. Senate candidates Michael Bennet (D) and Darryl Glenn (R) differ on the idea of bipartisanship. Bennet calls for “principled bipartisanship” while Glenn calls it “political cover.”
“The Bureau of Land Management is working to address regional air-pollution impacts related not just to a Utah oil shale project near the Colorado border, but also to two northeastern Utah oil and gas projects that could result in more than 9,000 new wells in coming decades,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The agency is taking “very seriously” the air-quality and other concerns raised by the Environmental Protection Agency in connection with the Enefit American Oil shale project, BLM spokeswoman Lisa Bryant says.”
“Last month, the EPA formally listed 48-mining sites responsible for degrading water quality in the Animas River Basin as a Superfund site, with Thomas, based in Denver, as project manager for the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund program,” The Durango Herald reports. “The announcement came just a year after the Gold King Mine blowout, in which an EPA crew triggered a massive release of mine wastewater, reigniting the longstanding issue of metal loading into the watershed.” Now the Superfund project begins.
The Greeley Tribune reports local leaders are pushing to repeal the city’s panhandling ban after the ACLU warned cities across Colorado that such bans are unconstitutional. “At Tuesday’s Greeley City Council meeting, Police Chief Jerry Garner and the city attorney are going to make a pitch to take the begging ban off the books.”
A local Republican state senator, Kevin Grantham, is against two ballot measures that would allow unaffiliated voters to play a role in Colorado’s presidential primaries, The Cañon City Daily Record reports.
