Brighton Standard Blade 121522 by Colorado Community Media

STANDARD BLADE B R I G H T O N

SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1903

75cI

VOLUME 119

Issue 50

WEEK OF DECEMBER 15, 2022

RSV viruses Navy joins Adams County to celebrate memorial raise concern for children Season starts early, strong BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Mom Brianne Price knew respiratory illnesses could be a concern because her baby was born prematurely. Then her other child, her 4-year-old boy, came home with a cough. Soon after, Price was calling a nurse help line. Her baby also had something, except it was worse. Her baby had trouble breathing. It landed her baby in the hospital. The girl, just shy of 6 months old, had a virus commonly called RSV. She was placed on oxygen. The baby recovered after spending days in the hospital. Now Price, from the Littleton area, is sounding the alarm for other parents, hoping they take the spread of illnesses seriously. “Keeping your kids home when they’re sick is super helpful,” Price said. Her remarks came during a news conference that included Children’s Hospital Colorado officials. It turns out that her daughter was one of more than 1,400 RSV-related hospitalizations in the Denver metro area from Oct. 1 through late November, part of a season where RSV, respiratory syncytial virus, and other viruses, including the flu and COVID, are causing more infections, prompting concerns from public health officials. At times in recent weeks, just two intensive-care hospital beds for children were available in the entire state of Colorado. Hospital departments took patients that they normally wouldn’t and health care professionals braced themselves for a marathon season that hopefully won’t put severe strains on hospitals, like those seen during the worst SEE CONCERN, P16

Colorado Navy soldiers came in honor of the stepping mast ceremony.

New veterans memorial in shape of a battleship reaches midpoint in construction BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A lifesized replica of a World War II-era battleship USS Colorado that’s taking shape on the banks of Brighton’s Mann-Nyholt Lake will never see naval service, but it’s already received honors from the U.S. Navy. Several U.S. Navy officers joined veterans and Adams County officials for the official “mast stepping” ceremony for the replica battleship, destined to debut by Memorial Day 2023 as the county’s new Veterans Memorial.

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“The Navy is excited about it because they want to use it as a recruitment tool, bring potential recruits, maybe bring out veterans to do physical therapy, weddings, military weddings, or commissioning of officers or chiefs, or retirements. We are going to have the USS Colorado’s bell the same one on the submarine, “ said Adam County Commissioner Charles “Chaz” Tedesco, a retired Navy Veteran. Crews are continuing to build the Veterans Memorial at the Riverdale Regional Park, on the shore of Mann-Nyholt Lake. It’s meant to honor past, present, and future veterans for their sacrifices to defend our country, Tedesco said. Meaning behind mast stepping The mast stepping ceremony was celebrated on Dec. 7, which is the Remembrance Day of Pearl Harbor. Veterans and community members

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PHOTO BY BELEN WARD

SPORTS • Eagle Ridge remains unbeaten

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placed mementos in a box that were placed inside the battleship’s mast. U.S. Navy Command Master Chief Benjamin Chester, a 22-year veteran who has deployed on three different ships, gave of speech on what the stepping of the mast means and the ceremony’s history. “The stepping of the mast is a meaningful event of the building a ship,” Chester said. “The mast is carefully lowered through the whole main deck surrounded by reinforcing shocks reinforcing shocks security structural beams, the mast was in jostled into position through a slot into the keelson.” Chester said the tradition started with the ancient Greeks and Romans placing coins under the step of the mast to pay a toll for the crew to cross the dangers of the sea – and into the afterlife in case the ship sank. The Roman tradition SEE MEMORIAL, P3