Today's News

Of munchies and misdemeanors

Groups of Jeffco Public Schools employees made their cases before the Board of Education to be spared from budget cuts Feb. 2 at a meeting cut short by last week’s snowstorm.
Teacher librarians, instructional coaches, assistant principals and others filled more than two hours of public comment with short speeches about the need for their jobs.
Though board members were slated to discuss for the first time their preferences for $50 million to $60 million in cuts over the next two years, the rapidly approaching storm led the board to postpone discussion to a later meeting.

A snowstorm that began Thursday evening and continued throughout the day Friday, closing schools and government offices and making travel hazardous, finally tapered off Saturday morning.

The slow-moving storm was accompanied by wind gusts up to 40 mph, limiting visibility and piling drifts high. More than 18 inches of snow had fallen at some locations in South Jeffco.

Weather closures Friday included Jeffco Public Schools, Jefferson County offices, Jefferson County Public Library locations and Foothills Park & Recreation District facilities.

Two new electric Zamboni ice-resurfacing machines costing the Foothills Park & Recreation District $240,000 have broken down or malfunctioned repeatedly in recent months, leading the board of directors to question whether the unique machines are subject to the state’s lemon law.

Though the district purchased the new, more energy-efficient machines to much fanfare, the two Zambonis have so far both suffered broken steering mechanisms, programming errors and other mechanic maladies.