Local News

Some Jeffco sheriff’s employees are now eligible for overdue merit-based pay increases, after the county commissioners passed on a 2-1 vote Dec. 6 a budget that allocates an additional $1.4 million to the department for discretionary spending in 2012.

Overall, the $476 million county budget cuts $600,000 from the 2011 spending plan and includes $3.5 million in funds to be used at the discretion of department heads, including pay increases for subordinates.

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday affirmed Denver Judge Robert Hyatt’s congressional redistricting map, lines that take Mike Coffman’s District 6 out of Jefferson County and lump South Jeffco into District 1, represented by Democrat Diana Degette.

Supreme Court judges heard arguments Dec.1 in the appeal of Hyatt’s decision, which was filed by Douglas County and others. Though the court released its decision Monday morning, a written opinion was not yet available.

The Foothills Park & Recreation District has again postponed a controversial $2.7 million sale of more than 17 acres of land near South Simms and South Ward streets to a housing developer.
About 25 Shadow Ridge neighborhood residents and others packed the district’s meeting room on Nov. 22 to protest the sale, which many said violates one of Foothills’ own resolutions from 1999 that specified the land in question was to remain as undeveloped open space.

At age 17, Sam Granillo said he wasn’t ready to see a counselor.
Following the Columbine shootings, a flood of offers from local therapists inundated many students who, like Granillo, were years from understanding the full effects the event would have on their adult lives.
Today, at 29, Granillo rarely sleeps without intense nightmares — a delayed effect of the three hours he spent crammed into a kitchen office with 17 others at the high school, at times bracing against the door to keep at least one of the shooters from entering.