Local News

Rick Acres and Rick Hedrick are doing their part to spruce up Littleton’s Main Street, old-school style. Both property owners have taken steps in the past year to undo dubious upgrades to their historic buildings that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Acres owns the building that houses Olde Towne Tavern and two other properties on Main Street in the historic district. A year ago Acres decided his historic property “needed a face-lift.”

Scores of teachers, students and parents flooded the Jeffco Board of Education meeting Jan. 19 to protest cuts proposed in the district’s elementary instrumental music program, forcing the fire marshal to temporarily shut down the meeting.

Firefighters in the West Metro Fire Protection District recently agreed to a 3 percent pay cut to help the district deal with dwindling property-tax revenues. The deal also includes a reduction in health benefits and a two-year salary freeze.

The approved contract includes a 3 percent salary cut for the district’s more than 300 firefighters and a $300,000 reduction in district health-care contributions. The pay reduction averages $160 to $200 a month for each firefighter. Four civilian jobs also were eliminated.

Concerns about overdevelopment, traffic, noise and the fate of hundreds of prairie dogs dominated a Jan. 10 community meeting at which 50 Woodmar residents protested the planned rezoning of two open-space parcels at Wadsworth and Coal Mine that are likely to become shopping centers.