Sentinel NORTHGLENN 2/21/13
Northglenn -Thornton
February 21, 2013
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Adams County, Colorado • Volume 49, Issue 28 Former Adams County District Attorney Don Quick delivers a farewell speech at a Jan. 7 recognition ceremony at the Adams County Administration Building in Brighton. Quick, the chief prosecutor for Broomfield County, served as the Adams County District Attorney for eight years before stepping down in January. Photo by Darin Moriki
BACK ON THE HILL
Don Quick to run for attorney general Former Adams County DA identifies childhood education as main focus By Darin Moriki
dmoriki@ourcoloradonews.com Broomfield County chief prosecutor Don Quick will seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for attorney general in 2014 following a longtime career as the Adams County District Attorney. Quick, who stepped down as the Adams County District Attorney nearly two months ago after two terms in office, officially filed his papers on Feb. 11, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. “It’s something that I’ve thought about for some time, but it really didn’t get up to the front burner until last November,” Quick said. “It was the right time for the family … so it made the most sense.” Quick, who served as the chief deputy in the office from 1999 to 2005 when current U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was the state’s attorney general, said he wants to particularly focus on helping
children stay in school and keeping them out of the criminal justice system — an effort that he said has made some headway through the Adams County Youth Initiative, which he helped to establish about eight years ago. “One of my prime focuses as attorney general is lowering the number of people in the justice system, and we’ve got a pretty good model about how to do that here in Adams County,” Quick said. “There is no cookie cutter solution for all communities — you need partnerships that use data and different strategies.” Quick also took a moment to address the conflicts federal and state laws created by Amendment 64, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana for adults who are 21-years-old or older and enacted a tax on it to benefit the public school capital construction assistance fund. He explained that the state attorney general is required by the Colorado Constitution to defend state statues and noted that district attorneys have a slightly different obligation under the law because they do
Chef Ian Kunter prepares an omelet for a customer during brunch at Brittany Hill event venue as part of its grand opening celebration Sunday, Feb. 17, in Thornton. Photo by Andy Carpenean
Quick continues on Page 3
Thornton speaks out against CDOT road shaving plan State proposal created to address 88th Avenue overpass accidents By Darin Moriki
dmoriki@ourcoloradonews.com Thornton City Council sent a clear message to Colorado Department of Transportation last week that it does not support a proposal to increase the traffic clearance on the 88th Avenue overpass by scraping down pavement on Interstate 25. “If that’s the only option, it’s not the best option because it’s really a short-term solution,” said Assistant City Manager Margaret
Hunt. “The 88th Avenue bridge has to be replaced anyway to accommodate the ultimate widening of I-25, which is the only place on I-25 between Highway 7 and way up north that needs to be widened.” Council unanimously approved a resolution during its Feb. 12 meeting that voiced opposition to the CDOT-backed proposal and called on the state department to consider an alternative city-backed solution that would not affect the planned I-25 North Managed Lanes Project scheduled to kick off late this year. The $2 million CDOT proposal first introduced last October calls for a gradual scale down of the I-25 concrete roadway leading
POSTAL ADDRESS
up to the overpass and a gradual scale increase after vehicles pass the bridge. Gene Putman, the city’s transportation and emergency management manager, said the fix was posited to address two accidents over the past six months in which high-clearance tractor trailers struck and damaged the overpass in the freeway’s southbound and northbound lanes. In all, he said the overpass has been stuck eight times in its 42year life span. He said it would cost about $300,000 in insurance proceeds alone to fix the damage on each side of the bridge and about two or three weeks to fully implement CDOT’s concrete shaving propos-
al. During that time, Putman said traffic control measures would significantly impact motorists on the already congested freeway. “Just think about it — having to go down to probably two lanes just to get around the construction of the lowering is going to be a mess,” Putman said. “As somebody who has worked years in traffic control, this is a nightmare for me.” To solve this problem, the resolution backed a plan crafted by Putman to close down 88th and remove the northbound side of the overpass. Putman said CDOT could then phase in repairs through the department’s newlycreated Responsible Acceleration of Maintenance and Partnerships
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(RAMP) program. Putman said the $400,000 removal project could be completed in two without hindering traffic. Ward 4 City Councilman Randy Drennen said he supports Putman’s plan but was concerned CDOT may stick the city with most of the repair costs. “I think you’re taking a bit of a gamble here, because I think it’s very possible that CDOT could like the idea of demolishing half of the bridge to save the money and avoid the height reduction hassle and say, ‘Thank you very much,’” Drennen said. ‘There’s no guarantee that we will get a five-lane bridge in a much shorter amount of time, if we do a demolition project.”
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