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Week of December 1, 2022
ADAMS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
Northglenn-ThorntonSentinel.com
VOLUME 59 | ISSUE 17
GOOD DAY FOR A GOOD CAUSE
Antisemitic letter found in various Thornton mailboxes Thornton Police don’t know how many homes have been affected BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Food Bank of the Rockies volunteer Imani Mafe hands out boxes of food Nov. 19 at Adams County Sheriff ’s Operation Freebird. Organizers said they were prepared to hand out the ingredients for Thanksgiving meals – including gift certificates for free Butterball turkeys – for 2,500 families. PHOTO BY SCOTT TAYLOR
Affordable housing initiative could face rocky future Proposition 123 was approved by Colorado voters BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Few issues affect Coloradans as much as rising housing prices. The state will take a step toward addressing the problem — to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars
per year — as officials implement Proposition 123 approved by voters in November. In just 12 years, the median cost of a singlefamily home in the Denver area jumped from about $200,000 to three times that amount, according to the latest report by the Colorado Association of Realtors. The trend was similar statewide. Under Proposition 123, state officials are required to set money aside for
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 10 | LIFE: PAGE 12 | CALENDAR: PAGE 15 | SPORTS: PAGE 18
more affordable housing and programs to help Coloradans acquire homes and stay housed. Though the measure didn’t raise tax rates to fund those programs, it will, eventually, reduce the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, refunds that Coloradans receive — by $86 per taxpayer for 2024, for example. Yet voters in November also sought to reduce their taxes and, taken together, SEE HOUSING, P6
Thornton residents in the Hunters Glenn neighborhood received white supremacist, antisemitic, antiimmigrant and homophobic flyers in their mailboxes the night of Nov. 8. “I don’t want this in my neighborhood,” said Jeffrey Perkins.
Perkins said he found the letter in his mailbox on the morning of Election Day, Nov. 8, with no envelope or postage. His neighbors did as well. Perkins, who identifies as white and has a Latino family, said he thought it was a targeted attack. Now, after confirmation from his neighbors receiving the letter, he doesn’t think it was targeted at his family. The City of Thornton as well as city council have condemned the letter and do not wish to share it to prevent the spread of its message. SEE LETTER, P4
Thornton closes on $33 million oil and gas deal BY LUKE ZARZECKI LZARZECKI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Thornton will receive more than $33 million after selling mineral rights from 4,000 royalty acres to Phoenix Capital Group. According to a news release from Phoenix Capital Group, the acres spread across 15 tracts of land in Adams and Weld counties. This was the biggest deal in the history of Phoenix Capital Group, the city announced Nov. 4. Councilors debated the decision to lease or sell the minerals during a City Council update session back
in May. Prior to the sale, the city leased a portion of 8,000 acres of mineral rights, receiving royalties from the leases. According to the meeting’s agenda, mineral rights were originally acquired as part of the Thornton Water Project Farm acquisitions. That land isn’t required to complete the project. The city owns approximately 19,000 acres of farmland in both Weld and Larimer counties. Scott Twombly, real estate property manager for the city, said in May that it SEE MINERALS, P5
LOCAL HEROS
Eastern plains town runs on six-man football P8