Citizen CENTENNIAL 2.14.13
Centennial
Arapahoe County, Colorado • Volume 12, Issue 13
WATER WONDERS
February 15, 2013
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourcentennialnews.com
C-470 panel steers to tolls Committee’s unanimous vote narrows focus of highway expansion By Ryan Boldrey
rboldrey@ourcoloradonews.com
Missy Franklin of Regis Jesuit is congratulated by her teammates as Regis wins the girls 200-yard freestyle relay during the Class 5A State Swimming Championships at EPIC in Fort Collins on Feb. 9. Find more coverage on Page 18. Photo by Andy Carpenean
A pocket full of monsters Centennial Pokemon champ hopes to catch world title By Deborah Grigsby
dgrigsby@ourcoloradonews. com Harrison Frazier has a pocket full of monsters. Pokemon monsters to be exact. Although the 16-year-old Centennial student struggles to explain exactly what it is about the Japanese-born trading card game, he has no trouble snatching cards, nor Pokémon tournament trophies, holding multiple
titles and two championships in Boulder and Monument. “I’ve been playing Pokemon since I was about 3,” said Frazier. “I don’t know what it is. I just remember seeing the characters and I guess I just though they looked really cool.” The word Pokemon is a Romanized contraction of the Japanese words for pocket monster that morphed into a multi-media franchise owned by international video game manufacturer Nintendo that spawned the wildly popular children’s game in the mid-1990s. Didn’t Pokemon die out years ago? Hardly. Video gaming trade magazines show sales steady around the world. So what’s the big draw, exactly?
Pokemon champ Harrison Frazier shuffles through his favorite deck of cards at a local Pokemon practice tournament, Feb. 7. Frazier spends up to 10 hours per week on the Japanese trading card game and hopes to make it to the Pokemon World Championship in Vancouver this year.
Harrison Frazier holds Pokemon championship titles in Boulder and Monument. The 16-year-old Centennial resident hopes to make it to the 2013 Pokemon World Championship in Vancouver, BC. Photos by Deborah Grigsby “Essentially, Pokemon is chess, meets poker, meets Picachu,” joked Frazier’s father, Chris. “There’s a certain level of strategy required—a lot of planning and forethought.” In most Pokemon games, the player assumes the role of a trainer traveling from town to town trying to catch and train a variety of Pokemon creatures; the ultimate goal of battling and collecting them all. Frazier admits he spends an average of hours per week researching each character’s profile, preparing strategies and training for Pokemon tournaments. According to his father Chris, Frazier’s recent local wins have earned him valuable championship points, which count toward a potential invitation
to the 2013 Pokemon World Championships in Vancouver, BC. To qualify for the World Championship, Frazier will have to earn at least 400 points, of which he’s more than a third of the way there. Still unsure of where he’ll go to college, what he’ll study or even what he wants to be, Frazier says for now, he’s focused on the World Championship. “But it’s not all Pokemon all the time,” Frazier said. “I think a good balance in life is necessary to succeed in anything — mainly getting enough sleep.” And of course, his lucky tournament breakfast, the French toast at Burger King. “I eat it, and I have always won,” Frazier said. “So there must be something to it.”
Like traffic at the end of rush hour, the future of C-470 appears to be clearing up. On Feb. 7, the C-470 Corridor Coalition Steering Committee — made up of representatives from Douglas, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties as well as the Highlands Ranch Metro District and cities of Littleton, Lone Tree and Centennial — voted 7-0 to toll any new lanes along the 13-mile stretch between Interstate 25 and Kipling Street. The coalition has been studying different options to finance the addition of one or two lanes in each direction since 2011 and began a heavy dose of public outreach last summer. Other options included the implementation of sales or property tax increases within a to-be-determined taxing district as well as tolling all the lanes. “The public was divided on tolling (the new lanes) and sales tax,” said Roger Sherman, chief operating officer with consulting firm CRL Associates, in reference to a recent survey done by Hill Research Consultants. “What’s interesting is when you start to go head to head and weigh each potential funding option separately.” The public opinion poll, which was sent out near the end of 2012 to a random sampling of citizens in areas of impact in Douglas, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties, made two things clear — citizens were not in favor of property tax or tolling all lanes. “Our citizens have been very clear that in no way will they support a toll on the existing lanes,” said Douglas County Commissioner Jack Hilbert, chair of the C-470 coalition, before adding that “property tax is a four-letter word in Douglas County.” When it came to the possibility of raising sales tax, steering committee members were not shy about voicing their concerns. There was also a consensus that there was not enough support to pass a sales tax once a district was drawn. “It becomes very difficult to say `let’s tax this group of people and not others,’” said Lone Tree Mayor Jim Gunning. “Lone Tree is really a retail hub. Many people come to shop there. I think we see it as a competitive issue having a retail tax here that we (wouldn’t) have in other locations, just outside the boundary.” Another issue with sales tax, Hilbert said, is that it would take an additional two C-470 continues on Page 6
C-470 CORRIDOR COALITION STEERING COMMITTEE Jack Hilbert, Chair, Douglas County Commissioner Nancy Sharpe, Arapahoe County Commissioner Don Rosier, Jefferson County Commissioner Jim Gunning, Lone Tree Mayor Cathy Noon, Centennial Mayor Jim Taylor, Littleton City Councilman Allen Dreher, Highlands Ranch Metro District Board Member
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