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Local News

  • County to bring stricter cell tower rules on line

    Jefferson County says its regulations on cell phone towers will be tougher when changes are made to zoning and permit laws this spring.

    But for the many people upset when cell towers seemingly pop up out of nowhere in their neighborhoods, there still will be no formal notification system.

    County officials say residents who want to know if a tower is coming to their area will have to search the county's permit database or look for signs on private land indicating a special-use permit.

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  • County workers, officials get acquainted

    Jefferson County employs more than 2,000 people, but many of them hardly know one another.

    In an effort to change that — and to let employees meet newly elected Commissioner Faye Griffin and newly appointed Treasurer Tim Kauffman — the county commissioners hosted a party in their office Feb. 12.

    "We're all a team," Becky Baker, a 13-year veteran of the county building department, said while holding a cup of punch and cruising the commissioners' fifth-floor digs at the Taj Mahal. "This kind of reinforces that. That's the good of it."

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  • Missing any lawn art?

    The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is trying to find victims of a crime spree that occurred on Super Bowl Sunday.

    Lawn art was stolen from homes across South Jeffco on Feb. 1, according to sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley. The homes hit were in an area roughly bordered by South Pierce Street, South Wadsworth Boulevard, West Bowles Avenue and C-470 to the south.

     

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  • Hartman on the hot seat at CoHOPE meeting

    An umbrella group for area homeowner associations peppered Jeffco Commissioner Kathy Hartman with questions for an hour on Feb. 4 about everything from property assessments to the county's ability to respond to zoning violations.

    Hartman, who spoke at the Council of Homeowner Organizations for a Planned Environment, took most questions in stride, and she deferred on some issues to Tim Carl, Jeffco's director of development and transportation, who also attended the meeting.

    Property assessments

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  • Applications for gun permits soar in Jeffco

    President Obama's one-word slogan during last year's campaign — “change” — has meant different things to different people.

    But many people in Jefferson County apparently feel that one change will mean stricter gun-control laws, as the sheriff has been busy with applications for concealed-weapon permits.

    The sheriff's office issued 2,314 concealed-weapon permits in 2008, more than double the number issued in 2007 and more than three times the total for 2006.

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  • Crime continues decline in South Jeffco

    Crime has been steadily declining in South Jefferson County over the last few years, and that trend largely continued in the second half of 2008.

    Both serious and less-serious categories of crime have decreased in South Jeffco since 2004, when there were 4,475 “part 1,” or serious, crimes reported. That same year there were 7,437 less-serious, or “part 2,” crimes. In 2008, those numbers had fallen to 3,317 and 5,708, respectively.

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  • Jeffco residents can view crime maps online

    Ever have your car vandalized, and need a police report for the insurance company?

    In the past, you had to head down to the nearest sheriff’s station, which for residents of unincorporated Jefferson County can mean a lengthy car ride.

    But not anymore.

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  • HOA threatens to pull out of CoHOPE, form another coalition

    The Columbine West Civic Association — a homeowner association claiming to represent 1,494 homes — likely will pull out of CoHOPE and try to take other groups with it in a spat over voting power.

    CoHOPE, or the Council of Homeowner Organizations for a Planned Environment, is a coalition of South Jeffco homeowner associations and individuals that meets monthly to discuss common concerns. As of Feb. 3, the group claimed to represent 8,208 South Jeffco households.

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  • Local kids suit up for Colorado Science Bowl

    What is the name of the enzyme that synthesizes DNA? What do you call the range through which temperature changes more rapidly with depth?

    If you said “DNA polymerase” and “thermocline,” you might have been able to keep pace with the scores of Colorado high school students that squared off Jan. 31 in the 19th Colorado Science Bowl, hosted by Dakota Ridge High School.

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  • Commissioners allocate $850,000 to help disabled

    The Developmental Disabilities Resource Center will be able to help between 12 and 16 more people get off a decades-long waiting list this year after the Jefferson County commissioners approved more than $850,000 in funding.

    Art Hogling, DDRC's executive director, said the money will be used to help more than a dozen more people by purchasing a new group home, expanding transportation services and installing fire suppression systems in three of the DDRC's existing buildings. The additions would also create 20 jobs, Hogling said.

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