SWEET SUCCESS: Cideries find popularity around area for their many tasty offerings P12
75 CENTS
October 12, 2017
ELBERT COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
Suit targets Independence development Plaintiffs live adjacent to site located between Elizabeth and Parker BY JODI HORNER SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
your heart and life.” There is no shortage of faithbased recovery programs in the metro Denver area. Like secular recovery programs, they cater to a nationwide problem that is just as prevalent in Colorado — addiction to drugs or alcohol. Heroin-related deaths in Colorado doubled between 2011 and 2015, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports.
When the Elbert County commissioners made their decision Sept. 7 to allow Craft Companies to move forward with the Independence housing development between Elizabeth and Parker, there was a 28-day window for legal recourse to be filed. On Sept. 28, an attorney for area residents Shelly Rodie and Jackie Tugwell filed Complaint for Judicial Review CRCP 106(A4), hoping to ultimately have a judge reverse the county commissioners’ decision. A prerequisite for filing a complaint was that the plaintiffs live within three-quarters of a mile of the development. Rodie and Tugwell, who are neighbors, live immediately adjacent to the location of the Independence site, located at Hilltop Road/County Road 158 and County Road 5. “We’re not asking for damages, just judicial involvement saying the planning commission and county commissioners overstepped their level of authority,” Tugwell said. The lawsuit states: “The Board of County Commissioners exceeded its jurisdiction and abused its discretion by, among other things, unreasonable or erroneously applying pertinent statutory provisions, the Elbert County land use regulations and/or the county’s relevant master plan.” “This comes as no surprise” to the county’s three commissioners, according to Commissioner Grant Thayer.
SEE HEALER, P2
SEE SUIT, P10
Step Seven Executive Director Thom Straley, left, founder and pastor Tom Roth and program director Brian Laney stand outside of one of Step Steven’s five sober living homes for men in east Parker. “We share Jesus with the addicted,” Straley said. ALEX DEWIND
‘God is our healer, he heals us’ Faith-based recovery programs tackle substance abuse in metro area BY ALEX DEWIND ADEWIND@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
David Seller never felt like he fit in with his peers. When he moved to Lakewood from Australia at 7 years old, his classmates made fun of his accent. In high school, his longtime girlfriend suddenly
severed their relationship. In college, he went from having a group of friends to having none. His coping mechanism for life’s problems was alcohol. Then, it was methamphetamine. After run-ins with the law and a suicide attempt, Sellar hit rock bottom. So his mom called Teen Challenge — now called 180 Ministries — a faith-based rehab facility for men on South Broadway in Denver. “In everything we do, there is an undercurrent of Jesus,” said Sellar, now 36 and five years sober. “Ultimately, Jesus will change
THE BOTTOM LINE PERIODICAL
“I am almost talked out when it comes to the things that people do to people. How will anyone ever completely understand why Stephen Paddock did what he did?” Craig Marshall Smith | columnist, Page 8 INSIDE
VOICES: PAGE 8 | LIFE: PAGE 12 | CALENDAR: PAGE 10
ElbertCountyNews.net
VOLUME 122 | ISSUE 37