WEEK OF JUNE 5, 2025
VOLUME 130 | ISSUE 14
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Kiowa passes business moratorium downtown Action gives the town some breathing room amid concerns over Elbert County’s plans BY NICKY QUINBY SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
The Type 2 helicopter is capable of delivering 300 gallons of water per drop when responding to a fire.
areas in Canada and Australia. Peter Ambler, vice president of global affairs for Pano AI, said the company’s mission is to detect wildfire faster so that communities have more time to respond. He added that nearly 100 cameras are set up around Colorado and 12 of them are in Douglas County. “More eyes on the landscape translates directly into faster
The Town of Kiowa Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting on May 21 and unanimously passed an emergency ordinance, Ordinance 4, putting a temporary moratorium on businesses, offices, and nonrevenue-producing activities in the town center. The moratorium, which could be in place for one year unless it’s ended early, centered on concerns that Elbert County government might want to occupy more commercial properties in Kiowa, threatening the town’s revenue base that relies on sales taxes and economic activity. Kiowa is the Elbert County seat. The new Main Street Board and various community stakeholders attended the meeting, in-person or virtually. The Elbert County commissioners were invited to the meeting to speak with both boards but did not attend. “When it came to our attention that the county was systematically acquiring properties in Kiowa’s small town center, directly impacting the area … by leasing or purchasing unique, prime business spaces that have the potential to generate significant tax revenue,” said Town Administrator Kim Boyd, “we felt an urgency to intervene to prevent a potential economic disaster.” At the meeting, Boyd explained that the county’s actions could be a threat to Kiowa’s ability to maintain a revenue flow, with potential to affect the town’s sustainability. In general, the
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SEE MORATORIUM, P14
PHOTO BY HALEY LENA
Douglas County uses AI for faster fire response For years, residents often re- California, provides wildfire deSystem offered by California-based company alerts ported smoke or fires to emer- tection through artificial intelgency responders, but through ligence and real-time camera crews with precise location and real-time imagery more recent use of Pano AI tech- feeds across 10 U.S. states and in BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
It’s no secret that Colorado has been the home to numerous disastrous wildfires within the past decade, as it has one of the hottest red zones on wildfire heat maps. The state has even set records for having some of the largest wildfires in the nation, accord-
ing to the NASA Earth Observatory. In Douglas County, wildfires remain the number one natural hazard threat. With more than half of the county’s residents living within the wildland urban fire interface, Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly said that more people are in harm’s way than ever before, which is why response time is critical.
nology, Steve Roberts, a Douglas County emergency services supervisor, said emergency responders have been able to manage the fires more effectively. “A third of our county is forest service, and there could be fires up there that no one sees, no one smells it, no one even knows it’s there,” said Roberts. “With the Pano’s (artificial intelligence), it tells us and we can get up in the air immediately.” Pano AI, a company based in
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