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Local News

  • Community comes together to help Shirl Smith's community fruit orchard

    A single pear hung from the top branch of one of more than a dozen pear trees at Feeding Many's community fruit orchard Aug. 1.

    The orchard wasn't supposed to produce fruit yet; the trees and other plants were planted at the beginning of April, and Shirl Smith, the orchard's creator and driving force, wasn't expecting anything to flower until at least spring of 2010.

    But there it was, the single pear, which Smith took as a sign.

    "It's the very example of why we're here in the first place," Smith said.

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  • County website offers look at credit-card spending

    The Jeffco commissioners have charged more than $1,200 on their county credit cards since May 5, on items ranging from airline tickets to T-shirts.

    This information, available in the past through open records requests usually accompanied by several days of waiting, comes from the county's new online procurement card database, a feature the county says will increase transparency for residents wondering how their tax dollars are being spent.

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  • Foothills dog park on hold - for now

    Advocates pushing for a dog park at South Jeffco's Robert Easton Park have been rebuffed and will have to find a new site.

    The proposal was opposed by residents of the neighboring Waters Edge subdivision, leading Foothills Park & Recreation District officials to scrap the idea and start over. Now the district is eyeing a portion of Jeffco Open Space land controlled by the district at the Fehringer Ranch property near the intersection of Highway 285 and South Simms Street.

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  • Scam targets classified-ad customers

    Landmark newspapers in other parts of the U.S. have reported a telephone scam involving classified advertising customers.

    Several classified customers reported being contacted by telephone by individuals falsely identifying themselves as an employee of the newspaper. The customers were told that a payment problem had occurred with their advertisement and asked for a credit card number or checking account transaction routing number.

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  • Woman sexually assaulted in her South Jeffco apartment

    The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is looking for a man who sexually assaulted a woman in the early-morning hours of July 20.

    According to the sheriff's office, a woman in her 40s couldn't sleep and went out on her patio about 2 a.m. July 20 at her apartment in the 7400 block of South Quail Circle (near South Simms Street and West Ken Caryl Avenue). As she was headed back inside, a man grabbed her from behind and forced her inside, where he punched her, ripped off her clothes and sexually assaulted her. He then left through the apartment's front door.

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  • County's share of cultural funding drops 16 percent

    Jeffco's share of Scientific and Cultural Facilities District funds dropped 16 percent from 2008 to 2009, but the district still awarded more than $820,000 to various organizations and events.

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  • Commissioners’ e-mail exchange may have violated law - again

    The Jeffco commissioners may have once again run afoul of the Colorado Open Meetings Law by using e-mail to discuss a common statement regarding the board’s controversial effort to seek authority to regulate bicyclists on county roads.

    The apparent violation comes less than two years after the Courier successfully sued the Board of Commissioners over a violation of the law in July 2007. In a settlement of that lawsuit, the commissioners acknowledged they violated the Open Meetings Law and agreed to follow all of the law’s provisions in the future.

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  • Commissioners backpedaling on bike restrictions?

    Jefferson County commissioners appear to be rethinking a plan to seek legislation that would allow them to regulate bicycles on county roads.

    After several public meetings about a proposed cycling event through Deer Creek Canyon - and amid a continuing debate about the safety of bikes and cars co-existing on narrow foothills roads - the commissioners had announced they would seek legislative authority to regulate cycling.

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  • $2.5 million worth of marijuana plants seized in Pike National Forest

    The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and the West Metro Drug Task Force seized more than 5,100 marijuana plants weighing nearly 2,000 pounds from land near Sugarloaf Mountain on July 9.

    The plants have an estimated street value of $2.5 million.

    The large grow area had a sophisticated irrigation system using water from a nearby stream, according to sheriff's spokeswoman Jacki Kelley.

    "This looked like a very sophisticated operation," Kelley said.

    Sugarloaf Mountain is in the Pike National Forest near Cheesman Reservoir.

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  • Littleton investment banker running for state treasurer

    Littleton investment banker J.J. Ament has thrown his hat into the 2010 race for state treasurer.

    Ament, who is running as a Republican, has spent years in the private banking industry working mostly with governments on major investment projects, and he says taxpayers' dollars can be used and invested more efficiently.

    "I've worked with this treasurer (and) with this governor," Ament said. "And it was frustrating for me to show them the right things to do and have them not do them, and then have to sit there afterward and show them the losses."

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