Week of March 30, 2023
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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
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INSIDE: CALENDAR: PAGE 11 | VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | SPORTS: PAGE 22
Spring HOME & GARDEN Special Section
VOLUME 36 | ISSUE 17
In this week’s paper!
Country receives more than $60K in funding for mental health Rep. Crow delivers check BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
top five biggest water users in the district, according to Centennial Water Conservation Specialist Paige McFarland. So Wind Crest and Centennial Water partnered to conduct an irrigation analysis, which looked for
A giant check heralded the arrival of more than half a million dollars in federal funding for Douglas County’s efforts to support the public’s mental health. “It is no surprise to parents that we are in the midst of a mental health crisis for our children. We’re near the bottom of the nation in terms of our rates for youth suicide,” said U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, who secured the funding as part of the federal spending process. Crow’s comments came during a March 20 news conference with Douglas County’s elected leaders, where officials announced that the funding would flow to several of the county’s efforts to develop a safety net for people experiencing a mental health crisis. “With this funding, it’s our goal to develop reliable follow-up support to keep individuals and families engaged in treatment following a crisis, while avoiding cycling through the emergency or criminal justice system to address mental health needs,” said Laura Ciancone, Douglas County’s coordinator of mental health programs. That “is a very costly track and we all pay for it,” Ciancone said. “Stabilizing
SEE WATER, P7
SEE HEALTH, P8
STEM Schools continues to deal with a lawsuit filed by the parents of Kendrick Castillo, who died attacking a shooter at the school in 2019. FILE PHOTO
Castillos want trial over settlement from STEM schools Records at center of dispute BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The parents of Kendrick Castillo, a student killed in the 2019 STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting,
have not accepted a $387,000 settlement from the school. The couple continues to reject the school’s settlement offer in an effort to make the information they have gathered from the shooting public. Court filings on behalf of John and Maria Castillo show the parents hope to bring light to the full set of events that resulted in Kendrick’s death with the goal of helping pre-
vent future violence. Kendrick, 18, lost his life when he tackled one of the shooters on May 7, 2019. The two students who attacked STEM are currently serving life sentences. In February, Douglas County District Court Judge Jeffery Holmes ordered STEM to pay the Castillos SEE TRIAL, P3
Wind Crest works to cut water use ahead of summer in half over a two-year period Change comes over 2 years most by updating sprinkler systems and BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
One of Centennial Water and Sanitation District’s biggest users cut its outdoor irrigation usage al-
implementing drought-resistant landscaping. Wind Crest, a senior living community on 85 acres in Highlands Ranch, was using over 33 million gallons of water on outdoor irrigation in 2020, which put them in the
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