Westminster Window 4/18/13
April 18, 2013
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A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourwestminsternews.com
Adams County and Jefferson County, Colorado • Volume 68, Issue 26
Longtime Westy store to close By Ashley Reimers
areimers@ourcoloradonews.com It’s been 28 years since Bill Heasty bought his first Newsland store. And now, sadly, he will be closing his fifth and final store in Westminster. By the end of this month, Newsland will be no more. In 1985, Heasty bought an existing Newsland store, which specializes in magazines, newspapers and books, in Aurora. Three years later, he opened the Westminster store followed by three others in the Denver-metro area. At that time, business was booming with a total of 1,500 customers coming in a day at all five stores, 350 customers a day at the Westminster location alone. “We were seeing 20 customers an hour at the Westminster store,” he said. But after interest in the Internet started to grow in the mid-1990s, Heasty said that’s when he started to see a change. He said people started spending their time messing with electronic devices, rather than reading magazines. “It’s how people choose to spend their time, and they do it by using electronic devices and that started to take over everything,” he said. “People get these smart phones and they spend hours learning how to use them and they end up not having any free time to do anything else other than playing with them.” Over the years Heasty was forced to close each store one-by-one because he didn’t have the money or the time to invest in each one. He closed his biggest store in Aurora four-and-a-half years ago. He said even by closing his other stores and other book stores closing, like Borders, he still never saw a difference in sales or revenue. “Every time something happened that I thought would make a positive difference, I didn’t see anything,” he said. Heasty’s decision so purchase a News-
Bill Heasty will close the doors of his last Newsland store in Westminster after 40 years of business on April 30. Photo by Ashley Reimers land was simple — he was a lover of newspapers. He said he grew up with both parents always reading a newspaper. So in turn, he became a newspaper reader. He says he loves knowledge he gains from reading. “Newsland is a place of knowledge. It’s a place where people can talk about things, what’s right and what’ wrong,” he said. “It’s a place people want to go to, not a place
that they have to go to like the gas station or the grocery store.” Although it’s sad to think a longtime Westminster business is closing, Heasty doesn’t look at it like that. He said he’s enjoyed every day at work and the interesting people he’s met along the way. But he has tons of retirement plans come May 1. He won’t be taking it easy, he’ll
be busy riding his mountain bike and hitting the slopes. “My wife and I love to camp and go hiking. I love to play sports and I love to ski,” he said. “I’ll have a lot to do after this place closes. But I will miss the people and the access to the product.” Newsland, at 9295 Federal Blvd. in Westminster, will close on April 30. All products are discounted leading up to the closure.
Commissioners repeal jail cap Elections bill stirs passions By Darin Moriki
dmoriki@ourcoloradonews. com Some city officials say they were pleased with a sweeping resolution that will repeal the county’s jail cap and associated inmate fee system but will wait to see what the Sheriff’s Office will do over the next few weeks. The move, which was unanimously approved without discussion by the Adams County commissioners during their April 15 meeting, rescinded the caps placed on the number of inmates who can be sent by cities to the county jail and the $45 daily fee assessed to cities who exceeded allotted caps. “I’m very encouraged that the commissioners acknowledge that municipalities and the county have a genuine need for municipal inmates to be in the county jail,” Ward 3 City Councilwoman Beth Humenik said. “However, to the best of my knowledge, the sheriff’s position has not changed. It is my understanding that the sheriff will have
an announcement coming out soon so we are waiting to hear what the sheriff’s response will be.” The cap restrictions, which began on Jan. 1, 2012, previously stood at 30 and was divided among nine municipalities based on their population in Adams County. The caps, set by Sheriff Doug Darr, were as follows: Thornton, eight; Westminster, five; Aurora and Commerce City, four apiece; Northglenn and Brighton, three each; and one each for Federal Heights, Arvada and Bennett. The commissioners later approved a resolution in October 2012 to double the initial soft jail cap to 60, waive all cap-related fees incurred by the municipalities beginning on Jan. 1, 2012, and allow the Sheriff’s Office to 13 certified deputies to ease staffing crunches. But efforts to pass the measures were delayed twice — once in December 2012 and again in January 2013. “The repeal is a great deal for us and all the surrounding cities in Adams County,” Northglenn
Ward I City Councilman Wayne Dodge said. “Everything is about money. I know his (Darr) issue is money and our issue is money, but when you keep pushing it downhill our way, it affects everyone downhill.” The move also came on the heels of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee’s recommendation “to staff a total of 1,255 beds, located in a total of eight dorms, in an effort to alleviate, to the degree possible, the jail-wide bed shortage including the existing municipal court bed cap issue.” The committee, which was established in September 2011 by the commissioners, began meeting in May 2012 and are tasked with resolving staffing and management issues in the jail. “It is thought, with reasonable expectation, that staffing for the 1,255 beds would provide all jurisdictions more available jail beds,” Adams County District Court Judge and Committee Chair C. Vincent Phelps said in an April 15 letter addressed to the Commissioners.
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Democrats see more involvement; Republicans predict greater fraud By Vic Vela
vvela@ourcoloradonews.com A Democratic-sponsored bill that would put in place sweeping changes to how Colorado elections are conducted passed a state legislative committee on April 15, following a lengthy and heavily debated hearing that went deep into the night. House Bill 1303 would change the state’s election code to allow for same-day voter registration and would put ballots in the mailboxes of every registered voter. The bill also would do away with a system where “inactive” voters — those who did not vote in the previous election — do not continue to receive mail-in ballots. Democrats say the changes would encourage more involvement in the voting process, and would save taxpayer dollars on things like voting equipment, because fewer people would need to vote in person. The bill’s sponsors argue that Colorado voters want greater voting access and that legislators should respond to their desires. “People have demanded that we reform our elections system, and it is time for us to design an election system around our voters,” House Majority Leader Dick-
ey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Gunbarrel, a bill sponsor, told members of the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. But Republicans argue that the changes could lead to greater voting fraud and that the Democrats’ efforts on the bill are self-serving attempts to boost their own party’s voter rolls. Applause erupted from the audience when Rep. Tim Dore, RElizabeth, questioned the sponsors’ motives, telling committee members, “I don’t hear the outcry from voters.” “I’m trying to get my arms around why we’re doing this,” he said. The bill passed the Democratic-controlled committee on a 7-4 vote, on the heels of a hearing that lasted more than seven hours. Among those who testified was Jefferson County Clerk Pam Anderson, a Republican who is the president of the Colorado County Clerks Association, who said the bill puts “ballots in the hands of voters in a cost-effective manner.” “As a whole, over three quarters of (CCCA members) support this legislation as an important and timely policy that looks to the future,” Anderson said. Anderson also tried to alleviate the concerns that mailing ballots to every registered voter in the state would lead to greater voting fraud. She said the bill would provide “necessary security for the (voting) system” and that there Vote continues on Page 24