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VOLUME 120 ISSUE
FORT SERVING THE LUPTON COMMUNITY SINCE 1906
75c I
PRESS
VOLUME 120 WEEKOF JANUARY 5, 2023
VOLUME 117 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25 , 2020 ISSUE 48 THE SEASON FOR SHARING
Caraveo wants to tackle healthcare, climate and a ordability
BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Riley Wise, 14, rolls around in the little red truck he and his dad made for his wheelchair for Halloween. It’s Riley’s dream to create costumes like this for other kids in a wheelchair or special needs. PHOTO BY BELEN WARD
Ten stories we talked about in 2022
From wastewater treatment to marijuana and cars left on train tracks, a lot happened
STAFF REPORT
Every year before Thanksgiving, First United Methodist Church in Fort Lupton and the Fort Lupton Food and Clothing Bank provide community members with food boxes. This will be the program’s 10th consecutive year. Above, Joe Hubert, left China Garcia and Sue Hubert with Change 4 Change, another organization that helps with the food drive. See more on Page 2.
As Congresswoman-elect D-08 Yadira Caraveo inches closer to beginning her rst term as a U.S. Representative, she’s squaring away the logistics. For housing in Washington, D.C., she’s in an apartment building that houses many other members of Congress. Her medical practice will remain and the o ce is planning to hire a replacement, but she’s planning on taking a few shifts when she’s in the district. “Just to keep my skills up,” she said. She plans to come back to the district as often as possible to be able to spend time with her family as well as to strengthen her connection to the community. When it comes to a congressional mentor, many people have been helpful to her while nding her bearings but hasn’t thought about a speci c person she wants to spend most of her time with. People from the Hispanic Caucus and the Democratic Coalition all come to mind, she said.
On the issues
As a Democrat state legislator, most of her time consisted of serving in the majority. Now as a minority member in the soon-to-be Republican-controlled House, her game plan won’t change from her actions in the state legislature. A downstream issue “Having a very clear majority in
Wastewater improvements - and the House and having a trifecta in the funds to pay for them - dotted the State, I really always strove to many a council conversation in make my legislation bipartisan,” 2022. she said. “Two-thirds of the bills
One theme held true from late in that I carried had bipartisan votes February all the way through. on them.”
“We have to spend a lot of ree issues she campaigned money,” Mayor Zo Hubbard said. heavily on were healthcare, climate “Unfortunately, it has to come from and a ordability. citizens. I don’t like it.” e price tag is around $37 million. e city agreed to accept a $25 SEE 2022, P2 SEE CARAVEO, P5
million loan from Colorado Waster Resources and Power Development Authority for related tap fees late in the year. e interest rate cannot be higher than 2.75 percent. Funds will come from the city’s wastewater revenue budget. e Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is forcing several cities, including Fort Lupton, to clean up the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and chlorophyll in surface water. More than 60 cities led an appeal, citing the more than $1.5 billion combined cost of the repairs. CDPHE turned it down. e need for a new plant didn’t rule out repairs on the existing one. In March, then-plant operations manager Jon Mays (he died later in the year at age 65) told council the plant’s centrifuge was breaking down.
“We’re taking the solids, but they don’t disappear. We have to get rid of the bacteria.
“We’re constipated.”
Boom year
Fort Lupton was a little late in getting to the housing party. But for much of 2022, it seemed to be making up for lost time.
In April, sta said the city population could grow at a rate of 3 percent per year. Almost 200 housing permits were on le just for 2021. e city’s public works director, Roy Vestal, wants to nd a way to save 2 million gallons of wastewater, though large commercial development was on the city’s radar.
“We need to plan forward, and we don’t want to do this for another 20 years,” Vestal told council
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