VOLUME 35 | ISSUE 20
WEEK OF MAY 18, 2023
$2
Riverdale park getting amphitheater
Legislature asks voters to approve 10year property tax relief plan BY JESSE PAUL AND ELLIOTT WENZLER THE COLORADO SUN
A dragon boat sits moored in the Mann-Nieholt Lake on Adams County’s Riverdale Regional Park, across the water from the county’s PHOTO BY SCOTT TAYLOR new Veterans Memorial, which is due to be finished by Memorial Day this year.
29, according to Cyndi StringCommissioners agree to May ham, Adams County’s manager of planning, design and construction. put new feature across lake When finished, the memorial will be a life-sized model of the USS battleship, with the bow from Veterans Memorial Colorado jutting into the lake and the current • Vestas to lay off 200 employees •27J Schools moves online-only Dec. 1
• Page 9
BUSINESS LOCAL
BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
• Page 3
3 5 8 11
LOCAL OBITUARIES LEGALS CLASSIFIED
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Adams County’s new Veteran’s Memorial will get a companion amphitheater across Mann-Nieholt Lake next year, county commissioners agreed May 9. “When people are taking pictures and their event is backed up to the lake, they’ll have that battleship and that memorial in the background and that alone will justify this,” Commissioner Chaz Tedesco said. “Anybody that uses that facility will see it, and it can become an iconic place. People will see it in everyone’s background and they’ll want to see it and come there.” Work on the county’s new Veteran’s Memorial, a replica battleship being built along the southern shore of Mann-Nieholt Lake in the Riverdale Park complex, is due to wrap up in the next couple of weeks. The memorial opens by Memorial Day,
trail passing through the site. It will be surrounded by trails, memorial plaques and places to sit. It is the latest addition to the expansion of Riverdale Regional Park, which now includes the Adams County Fairgrounds, Waymire Dome and the recently opened Riverdale Animal Shelter. Stringham and Parks and Open Space Director Byron Fanning presented two options for locating the amphitheater — alongside the memorial itself or across the water on Mann-Nieholt Lake’s northern shore. Both have advantages, she said. Using the southern side would allow the amphitheater and the memorial itself to share infrastructure, especially parking and bathrooms. “This site benefits from co-location with the Veterans Memorial because of the presence of new facilities — water, power and electrical service extensions, including site lighting. Lake shore stabilization has already
occured and can be extended for the amphitheater.” Putting the amphitheater on the north side means the seats would be facing south, with views of the lake and Veteran’s Memorial. It would be $1.5 million more expensive, she said. It would take up about three acres for the construction, walkways, and parking. The memorial would be the main view across the lake from the amphitheater, she said. Commissioners agreed the north side of the lake needs infrastructure anyway. “That part is only going to expand,” Commissioner Chaz Tedesco said. “We have an opportunity to do it now, and we have grown our events in the park to warrant and support infrastructure like this. I think it enhances what we have on the north side.” Overall, the project should cost $4.9 million. Of that, $462,000 has already been allocated to design the amphitheater and Congress has allocated another $750,000. Commissioners would need to allocate $1.7 million this year to pay to start
BRIEFS: PAGE 2 | OBITUARIES: PAGE 4 | CLASSIFIEDS: PAGE 9 | LEGAL: PAGE 11
Colorado voters will decide in November whether to approve a 10-year plan to rein in skyrocketing property taxes, as well as whether the state should distribute about $2 billion in Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds checks next year in equal amounts rather than linking their size to people’s income level, with more money being sent to higher earners. The questions were placed on the November ballot on May 8 by Democrats in the Colorado legislature as the General Assembly wrapped up its 120-day lawmaking term. The legislature worked until about 10 p.m., just before its 11:59 p.m. deadline, to complete its work, when the Capitol carriage turns back into a pumpkin. The last few hours of the session were chaotic, with Republicans walking out of the House chamber in protest, Democrats in the House lambasting each other and the Senate limiting debate to stop a GOP filibuster. The property tax plan, pushed for by Gov. Jared Polis, will appear on the ballot as Proposition HH and would work by tamping down the effect of rising residential and commercial property values on the tax burden for homeowners and businesses. Here’s how it would work for residential property:
• The residential assessment rate would be reduced to 6.7% from 6.765% in 2023, for taxes owed in 2024, and to 6.7% from 6.976% for
SEE AMPHITHEATER, P11
SEE RELIEF, P5
COMMERCECITYSENTINEL.COM • A PUBLICATION OF COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
MOBILE HEALTH CARE
Adams Health debuts mobile nursing unit P4