Week of March 23, 2023
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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
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INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 22
VOLUME 36 | ISSUE 16
SUMMER CAMP LISTINGS In this week’s paper!
Laydon, Thomas attempt civility Two commissioners discuss grievances with assistance from mediator BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
In a near about-face compared to just six days prior, two of Douglas County’s elected leaders engaged
in a conversation to try burying the hatchet after a long climate of animosity. The public doesn’t care whether Commissioner Abe Laydon is right or Commissioner Lora Thomas is right, Laydon said. “They just see a board that is duking it out in public meetings,” Laydon said. His comments came in a March 20 work-session meeting of the commissioners titled “Governing
with Civility & Professionalism” on the county’s posted schedule. The conversation between Thomas and Laydon, partly supported by an outside mediator, saw some progress in moving past a conflict marked by public insults, investigations and changes in power on the board. Thomas quoted Commissioner George Teal as having said he doesn’t think she has the “capacity” to be a county commissioner. It’s an example of the type of tone she
Anti-Semitic propaganda found in Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock Incidents increasing BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
When Terry Carhart found an anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ flyer in his Highlands Ranch yard on March 4, he was disgusted. The flyer was in a small plastic baggie weighed down with dry beans and, by Carhart’s observation, had been scattered in several yards in his neighborhood near Fox Creek Elementary School. “I have an issue with someone who thinks that way driving around, passing out literature in my area,” Carhart, 64, said. “It’s nonsensical.” Carhart felt compelled to report the flyers to the Douglas County Sheriff ’s Office and the Anti-Defamation League because he has Jewish neighbors and worried about the messaging leading to harm. SEE PROPAGANDA, P8
wanted to end. Teal was not present at the meeting. “Any personal attacks, ad hominem attacks, I will not tolerate,” Laydon responded. Chalk that up as one of the statements in the meeting that provided some hope that the dynamic on the board could change. Aside from a moment of back and forth between Thomas and Laydon over whether SEE CIVILITY, P4
Two arrested in Highlands Ranch booby trap investigation BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A report from the Anti-Defamation League released on March 8 found that 2022 had over 6,750 instances of white supremacist propaganda reported, the highest number COURTESY OF ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE of instances the organization has recorded.
T S E B F THE O T S E B
2023
Douglas County deputies arrested two Highlands Ranch residents after a booby trap on their property sent a man to the hospital. Bryan Hill, 61, and Tracy Remington, 53, were taken into custody on March 15 after a “short stand-off ” at their Ashburn Court residence, according to a Sheriff ’s Office news replease. Deputies obtained a warrant to search the property after the man, a door-to-door salesman, reported being injured by a trip wire at the home on March 9 that triggered a device that set off a loud bang. The man told deputies a wire caught around his lower leg. SEE ARREST, P9
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