WEEK OF FEBRUARY 20, 2025
VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 34
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Short-term rentals get closer look CRIME BRIEFS
Less than half of properties are licensed, officials say, leading to bigger problems
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BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
CHILDREN THRIVE IN HIGH LIFE
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Steven Taylor, dean of CCU’s School of Music, presented the scholarship awardees with commemorative plaques and thanked Chapman for his inspiration. “People learn the theology; they believe more from the song they sing more than the bible they read,” Taylor said. Later on in the evening, Chapman gave a special, career-spanning performance, featuring songs from his decades-long career, including Christian contemporary hits such as “Cinderella” and “I Will Be Here.” Chapman said he learned to play guitar from his father, who taught him “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash. Chapman played a segment of “Folsom,” but was sure to stop short of the “I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die” line with a wink of acknowledgement for the crowd.
Arvada has more than 800 short-term (less than 30 days) rental properties in operation, though just 250 to 300 of those are licensed, which can create problems for code enforcement officials, Arvada’s Director of Community and Economic Development Jessica Gardner said. Gardner discussed the current state of short-term rentals in Arvada during a workshop at the Feb. 10 city council meeting and said that when a property has chronic issues but no license, it makes it very difficult to enforce city codes because it becomes unclear who to contact to resolve potential issues. “There are many, many properties operating, they don’t have a license, but one of the bigger challenges we have is when we’re dealing with persistent chronic problems from some of these properties, it’s also because they don’t have a license, so it makes it even more difficult to enforce,” Gardner said. Code Enforcement Officer Peter Krentz said that although complaints against short-term rental properties are a small proportion of the cases he handles — about 3% of cases, or 23 complaints against short term rentals out of over 2,000 complaints against other properties — license gaps make following up on those cases difficult at times. “I have issues when they don’t have a license and there’s no one to track down,” Krentz said. “A lot of (short-term rental properties) are owned by LLCs, some of them by foreign LLCs or they’ll loop them through other states, or some of them will be defunct and I’ll have no one to talk to, and it’s back to square one again.”
SEE MUSICIAN, P14
SEE RENTALS, P4
Grammy winner Steven Curtis Chapman was the second guest at Colorado Christian University’s President’s COURTESY OF CCU Series.
‘Show them with your lyrics’ Acclaimed Christian musician Steven Curtis Chapman visits Colorado Christian University
BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
‘REAL PEOPLE’ AT ARVADA CENTER P12
2025
VOTING STARTS
MARCH 1!
It’s not every day that a fivetime Grammy Award-winner visits your college campus, but for students at Colorado Christian University, that prospect came to fruition when acclaimed Christian musician Steven Curtis Chapman stopped by for a master class, performance and scholarship presentation. Chapman’s appearance at CCU on Feb. 7 marks the second edition of the school’s President’s Speaker Series — the first featured former Vice President Mike Pence making an appearance. The festivities began with a songwriting master class where six students from CCU’s music school who are majoring
VOICES: 8 | LIFE: 10 | CALENDAR: 13 | SPORTS: 16
in composition shared their original songs with Chapman and got feedback from the celebrated artist. “Don’t tell them — show them with your lyrics,” Chapman said during the masterclass. “When we offer up the gifts that have been entrusted to us, that can be used for God’s glory, amazing things can happen.” After that, a dinner with students, faculty and donors was held in Chapman’s honor, and two scholarships were handed out, one to Joanna Hansen, who is in CCU’s adult education program, and one to Cooper Kimbriel, an incoming freshman who will be studying music at CCU next fall. Kimbriel is a songwriter from the Western Slope who competed in a songwriting contest to earn the scholarship.
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