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North Jeffco
POSTAL PATRON
February 8, 2013
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourwestminsternews.com
North Jefferson County, Colorado • Volume 12, Issue 5
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Programs adjust to county cuts Organizations gear to keep services on track By Glenn Wallace
gwallace@ourcoloradonews. com Editor’s note: This story is part one in a three-part series, looking at how $3.1 million in reductions to Jefferson County’s 2013 operating budget impacts the programs and people involved. It’s Country Music Day at the Jefferson County Senior Resource Center, and folks attending Adult Day Care are nodding their heads and tapping their toes. Cowboy hats and bandanas are passed out. A few sing along to the classics, and the more mobile are coaxed out of their seats by SRC staffers for some dancing. Showing up late to the party is Mira “Chicky” Nickerson, 87. “It’s good to get out of the house, see people, socialize,” she
Henry Arnijo dances during an adult day care program inside the Tall Timbers room at the Senior Resource Center Friday, Jan. 25, in Wheat Ridge.
says with a smile. Nickerson, with her pink ribbon breast cancer walker, lives about 20 minutes from the SRC facility (3227 Chase St.). She used to get to the center on an SRC transport bus, paid for by Medicaid, five days a week. That changed this year, after Jefferson County announced it was reducing its level of funding for SRC by 41 percent — equaling $400,000. “The word of the cuts came as a huge surprise,” said SRC President John Zabawa. SRC, along with two other nonprofits that contract with Jefferson County to provide human services — Family Tree and the Jefferson Center for Mental Health — all were told to expect flat funding from the county for 2013, only to be told in early December that they would be facing $688,000 in cuts. A representative for Jefferson Center for Mental Health said they were able to dip into reserve funding to maintain services for at least one year before having to cut back on services. SRC is not so lucky. “The cuts go beyond the sticker value,” Zabawa said. Even though SRC was expecting less than 12-percent of its annual revenue to come from the county, those unrestricted dollars from a local source have an exponentially greater value, when leveraged for state, federal and foundation grant funds. Zabawa said SRC specifically uses the county dollars to subsidize the cost of Medicaid patient services — a program the county asked SRC to take more than 20 years ago. He said the program incurs $727,000 in annually unfunded Medicaid costs. The cuts to services had to be done with little warning, Zabawa said, including the closing of the
Maria Rodrigez, left, leans over to give a kiss to Becky Lopez in her wheelchair during an adult day care activity inside the Tall Timbers room at the Senior Resource Center Friday, Jan. 25, in Wheat Ridge. Photos by Andy Carpenean South Wadsworth adult day facility that served 30 seniors, and laying off four employees. Across the rest of SRC, four others also lost their jobs, including a transportation manager who helped recruit and organize volunteers to help drive seniors, and a fundraising organizer who helped boost community support and donations. SRC Activities Coordinator Kera Tafoya said the cuts have forced a scaling back of Medicaid transportation. Seniors like Chicky Nickerson had their transportation avail-
ability drop from five days a week to three. Arts and crafts, exercise, education and even field trips at the center continue to be funded, but some seniors could miss out, due to a lack of transportation. “Socialization is the huge piece of this,” Tafoya said. “Many of them say, ‘Oh I haven’t danced in years,’ but this gives them a chance to remember what it was like to be younger, and have those experiences.” Seniors who regularly used the transportation service to make it to dialysis treatment have also been affected.
With Jefferson County boasting the largest 65-and-older population in the state, Zabawa said there was a strong economic reason to take care of seniors and help them remain healthy and active in their own homes — their quality of life is higher, medical costs are lower and they continue to pay taxes. In contrast, a senior on Medicaid, placed into a skilled nursing facility costs taxpayers $72,000 a year. “I think it puts a huge burden on society as a whole,” Zabawa said.
Proposed bill would get law and order out of bedroom Legislators target old statutes on adultery, immorality By Vic Vela
vvela@ourcoloradonews.com With apologies to Hank Williams Sr.: Your cheating heart may tell on you, but that shouldn’t result in troubles with the law, too. At least that’s what two Democratic legislators believe. A bill that would repeal a
longstanding Colorado law that prohibits adultery — as well as repeal a separate law that makes it a crime to promote “sexual immorality” — was introduced in the state House of Representatives last week. “Adultery should be a matter between a person and their spouse,” said Rep. Daniel Kagan, D-Cherry Hills Village, the bill’s House sponsor. “It is wrong, in my view, to make it the state’s business to inquire into who I slept with last night.” Yes, it is against Colorado law to cheat on one’s spouse, and it’s
been like that since the 1900s. To be sure, it is a toothless law, seeing as how there is no penalty associated with it. But a separate law that the bill aims to repeal, “promoting sexual immorality,” does carry with it a potential misdemeanor charge. An example of a violation of this law would be when a hotel worker rents a room to an unmarried couple, knowing that they’re going to use the room to have sex. “It has been prosecuted eleven times in the last three years,” Kagan said of the sexual immorality law. “This bill keeps the po-
lice out of our private business.” Kagan is sponsoring the bill with Sen. Pat Steadman, DDenver. They are the same two lawmakers who unsuccessfully attempted to repeal the laws during a previous legislative session. The attempt to revive the bill is being panned by at least one Republican legislator. Rep. Libby Szabo of Arvada had some fun on Twitter, saying sarcastically that the bill is “another display of the (Colorado Democratic Party’s) focus on jobs and the economy.” Szabo elaborated on her tweet in an emailed statement to Colo-
rado Community Media. “It just makes you wonder what the legislative priorities are of two senior members of the Democrat legislative caucus when they’re more interested in running legislation concerning sexual immorality while more than 200,000 Coloradans are without a job,” Szabo wrote. But Kagan insists that this bill “does not take away from our efforts to create jobs and strengthen the economy.” “We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Kagan said.
Colorado Supreme Court to consider access in Sigg case Media challenges closed hearing Staff Report The Colorado Supreme Court will consider arguments in a request for access to the preliminary hearing in the case of Austin Sigg, the teenager accused of killing 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway of
Westminster. Judge Stephen Munsinger closed the hearing in order to ensure a fair trial and protect the privacy of the victims and their families. Sigg But prosecutors and media organizations including the Associated Press, the Colorado Press Asso-
ciation, the Colorado Broadcasters Association and several other media outlets argue that Munsinger issued his ruling without hearing evidence or considering alternatives to preventing the public from attending a court hearing. Munsinger will have until Feb. 11 to explain to the Colorado Supreme Court why he closed the hearing to the public. Prosecutors and the media organizations will then have until
Feb. 19 to reply. Sigg’s preliminary hearing is currently scheduled for Feb. 22. Sigg is facing 19 charges including first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault on a child in the case of Ridgeway, who was last seen walking to school in Oct. 5, 2012. He is also accused of attacking a woman who was jogging last May in Ridgeway’s neighborhood.
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