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January 16, 2014 Douglas County, Colorado | Volume 27, Issue 9 A publication of
highlandsranchherald.net
Suspects in custody in chemical incident Device ruptures at Skyview Academy, forcing evacuation Staff report Two suspects were in custody Jan. 14 following an incident in which a chemical device ruptured at SkyView Academy in Highlands Ranch, forcing the school’s evacuation. A news release from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspects only as “juvenile males” and said the incident was not accidental and is being treated as a criminal investigation. Potential charges against the boys were not made available. The release said a chemical reaction within an unspecified container caused the device to rupture inside a classroom shortly after 10 a.m. Four students and a teacher were transported to an area hospital “as a precaution,” according to Sgt. Ron Hanavan, of the sheriff’s office. He said the injuries were minor and tied to potential respiratory problems. Ten people initially were evaluated for potential injuries, but only half of them transported.
All patients were medically cleared and released as of the evening of Jan. 14. The remaining students at the school were sent home for the day not long after the device went off. By late morning, the building had been cleared of any potential danger and the majority of emergency personnel cleared from the scene within an hour of responding, Hanavan said. The incident occurred in a single classroom, and approximately 1,200 students and staff at the K-12 school were evacuated into the parking lot initially, and then returned to the gymnasium when officials determined that area was safe. Students waited there while parents, alerted by phone calls, picked them up. By 12:30, nearly all students had been reunited with their parents, Hanavan said. Emergency vehicles, including a Douglas County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad trailer, filled the area near the school’s entrance. Parents waited in a single-file lane that snaked across the parking lot to be reunited with their children. But no one complained. SkyView continues on Page 13
A long line of parents wait to reunite with their students in the SkyView Academy gym at about noon Jan. 14 after a chemical rupture closed the school. Photo by Jane Reuter
Consulting firm looks at Littleton Fire Rescue Seeks ways to improve service, save money By Jennifer Smith
jsmith@coloradocommunitymedia.com
When Jamie LaRue accepted the executive director post in 1990, Douglas County had the worst library system in the state. It’s now the best in the country in its circulation class. Now it’s goodbye. LaRue is leaving Jan. 17. Photo by Virginia Grantier
A REAL PAGE TURNER
LaRue leaving after transforming Douglas County Libraries By Virginia Grantier
vgrantier @coloradocommunitymedia.com He was age 6, and bored out of his mind one day, while in the middle of playing a baseball game — even then, not a teamsports fan — when he spotted something. And he started walking. He walked right out of the baseball game, no one stopping him, and he kept walking. “I saw this blue shimmer, and it kept getting closer and closer,” recalled Jamie
LaRue, now 59, and the long-time Douglas County Libraries executive director. What LaRue saw was a bookmobile in his hometown of Waukegan, Ill., the first one he’d ever been in. Inside, a smiling librarian. And all of those books. At age 10, that same librarian, Mrs. Johnson, handed him “The Dialogs of Plato,” which he said changed his life. He said he still remembers the sentence he opened it to: “Socrates asked `what is wise?’ ” “I’ve been thinking about it ever since,” he said. Eventually he was reading a book a day. At one point LaRue decided to become a theoretical astrophysicist until he tried to get through a trigonometry class and realized he was the “dumbest kid in the room.”
It then occurred to him librarians were the people who had helped him all of his life. “The library for me was a sanctuary and intellectual playhouse,” he said. He doesn’t watch TV. He writes poetry, loves walks, reads while he walks and plays music. A popular song with audiences — when he performed with his guitar and banjo and a friend, an acoustic duo who called themselves the “Tuna Boys” — was “Blow up your TV,” by John Prine. LaRue said he has about 300 books near his bedside that he re-reads every year, and thousands of books about everywhere else in his Castle Rock house. “Good insulation,” he smiled. And great for other things. LaRue continues on Page 19
Never a dull moment for Littleton Fire Rescue, which is about to undergo its fifth intensive study in as many years. “Over the last several years, a number of studies and discussions have taken place to explore additional partnership and consolidation opportunities,” reads a Jan. 8 news release from the city. “The result of this due diligence, the partners agree, is that the current model is very successful and a good fit for everyone involved. That’s not to say there isn’t room for improvement, and that’s where the master plan begins.” The night before, city council approved a resolution to create a long-term strategic plan for the department, something the firefighters’ association has been asking for. “When asked over the years to articulate a strategic plan, we have always been met with silence, puzzled looks or at best a response of `status quo,’” members of the association wrote in a letter to City Manager Michael Penny in May 2013, after passing a vote of no confidence in Chief John Mullin. Mullin announced his retirement four months later and exited at the end of the year. With new LFR Chief Christopher Fire continues on Page 8
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