Week of October 13, 2022
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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
ParkerChronicle.net
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 22
Reacting to egg-flation ‘part of the territory’ Rory’s Diner grows under owner’s long hours, watchful eye
SEE DINER, P10
BY ELLIOTT WENZLER EWENZLER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Throughout the Parker Chamber of Commerce’s town council debate, candidates largely agreed on the direction of the town with the exception of a few key topics: Mainstreet, development and RTD. There are five candidates running for three spots on the town council. Three of them — Anne Barrington, Joshua Rivero and Cheryl Poage — are incumbents. Brandi Wilks and Brian Carruthers would be newcomers to the council. Barrington, Rivero and Wilks mostly aligned in their perspectives with Poage offering diverging opinions on some topics and Carruthers bringing an alternate focus. During the event held at the PACE Center, each candidate was given individual questions and then other candidates had the chance to weigh in using one of their limited “rebuttal cards.”
Rory’s Diner, with its red tables and checkerboard floor, is reminiscent of a classic diner COURTESY OF RORY’S DINER from the 1950s
San Luis Valley water project still has problems Legal situation unchanged BY ELLIOTT WENZLER EWENZLER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A plan to pipe thousands of gallons of water from the San Luis Valley to Douglas County has taken another hit after a lawyer hired by DougCo said the plan was still not ready. Steve Leonhardt, an attorney who specializes in water law, met with Renewable Water Resources about their proposal in July, and a memo summarizing the discussions was released Friday. “While it was a good meeting, the
Takeaways from Parker council debate Mainstreet, development, RTD discussed
BY RACHEL LORENZ SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Egg prices are up and that’s not good news when breakfast is a big part of your business. “Can’t really just say we’re not going to sell eggs this week because, you know, it’s kind of what we do,” Brandi Fehringer, owner of Rory’s Diner in Parker, told Colorado Community Media. Eggs are not the only cost to skyrocket, Fehringer said. While revenue at her restaurant has increased this year so has the cost of food and labor, resulting in a decrease in profit. However, Fehringer takes that challenge — and the others she’s faced in her nearly four years as a business owner — in stride. A 20-plus-year veteran of the restaurant industry, Fehringer knew owning her own place would be hard work. But as the single mom of two teens approached her 40s, she decided that she wanted the long hours she put in to go towards building up a business of her own. “Why am I working this many hours to make somebody else’s business succeed instead of doing something for myself and my family?” she said she asked herself. So in January 2019, Fehringer
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discussion did not alter my initial analysis and conclusions and there remain many hurdles to a successful project, which are not resolved at this time,” according to the memo. “The legal concerns with the project remain unchanged.” For several months earlier this year, the Douglas County commissioners considered whether or not to use a portion of their federal COVID dollars on the project. Leonhardt helped analyze the proposal and eventually gave the commissioners a memo outlining several significant issues he saw with it. One issue outlined in the May memo is that RWR has not formed an augmentation plan — as would
be required by law — showing how they will avoid injury to other water rights through their project. Leonhardt also determined there was “no unappropriated water” available in the valley and that the proposal is inconsistent with the state’s water plan. During the July 26 meeting, Leonhardt talked with RWR representatives about some of his concerns, including local impacts, federal approvals, endangered species, water modeling, an augmentation plan and other regulations. “RWR reiterated the importance of having Douglas County as a SEE VALLEY, P3
Mainstreet Barrington, Rivero and Wilks agreed that the town’s focus should be on completing the My Mainstreet project, which considers the best way for the community to develop five town-owned properties downtown. “In order to have the rest of Parker become a thriving community, we need to have our central hub be very strong,” Barrington said. A plan for the parcels is in the process of being approved by the town council after local developer Confluence Companies presented their concept earlier this year. The town approved a sale agreement and will soon hear a development agreement before the deal is final. Poage said she was concerned about the height of some of the proposed buildings and about any building blocking the view of the PACE Center. She also said she wants the Pine Curve property to have a park or open space. “We don’t need a lot of SEE DEBATE, P11