Volume 6, Issue 5
February 15, 2025 - March 14, 2025
Skinner JV CHEER TEAM MIXES WITH MODERN ART Two Middle students hit by drivers this school year BY ALLEN COWGILL SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
The Denver North High School junior varsity cheer team performed recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art on a stage created to look like a basketball court. See a photo gallery on page 11. COURTESY OF GLEN ROSS
Sloan’s Lake athletic fields to close for 2025 season
Two Skinner Middle School students were struck by motorists while walking or biking to school in the last few months in two separate incidents that Denver Police said were both the fault of the drivers. On Oct. 31, Denver Police records show that a driver hit and injured a student on a bike who was crossing Lowell Boulevard on the West 41st Avenue Bikeway. Police records note that the driver, who was going straight on Lowell Boulevard, “failed to yield the right-of-way” and did not see the child crossing at the bikeway and pedestrian crossing. This intersection is one block away from Skinner Middle School. The child sustained minor physical injuries. A few months later on Jan. 15, a Skinner Middle School student was crossing Federal Boulevard on foot in the crosswalk with a walking light. Police records show that a driver turning did not see the child and hit and injured the sixthgrader, who was transported to the hospital after the crash with injuries. Denver Police cited “careless driving” in its records. This intersection is two blocks from Skinner Middle School and next to Columbian Elementary School. Federal Boulevard, as mentioned in previous Denver North Star coverage, is North Denver’s most dangerous street. Since Jan. 1, 2024, according to Denver Police records, there have been nine crashes within two blocks of Skinner Middle School on surrounding streets.
Reseeding to force park patrons, sports leagues to relocate BY NATALIE KERR SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
The multi-use athletic fields on the northwest side of Sloan’s Lake could be closed for a portion of 2025 as Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) reseeds the area to restore sparse turf and improve ground conditions. Seeding and closure will begin in the spring and last through the end of the year, according to DPR officials. DPR said it may choose to reopen fields earlier if the reseeding and germination results and conditions meet and/or exceed the POSTAL Customer
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department’s standards. Park visitors will have to adjust their activities in response to the closure, a change that particularly affects organized sports leagues in the area, like Volo Sports, a national adult sports league that operates several groups in Denver. Volo typically permits between 6,000 and 8,000 participants for sports at Sloan’s Lake each year, and the organization hopes to still be able to provide activities despite the closure. Volo is working with DPR to find a suitable solution before the league begins in the spring and ideally hopes to permit a space within Sloan’s Lake, said Greg Sileo, a Policy Advisor at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck law firm and a representative of Volo Sports. “We just want to be in the park — that spot isn’t better for us than anywhere else, but based on what we know, we think it makes the most sense and is the most promising,” Sileo said.
SEE HIT BY DRIVERS, P13
In past years, DPR has conducted partial closures and rotating improvement projects to keep some areas of the athletic fields at all times. But because conditions are so poor and other areas of Sloan’s Lake are heavily utilized for events like races, walks, leaf drop and large events like the Dragon Boat Festival, that was not possible this year. “DPR understands the inconvenience these temporary closures may cause and is working to ensure that the park can support the long-term recreational needs of the community,” DPR marketing and communications director Stephanie Figueroa said in an email. Though it causes some inconvenience, making sure the landscape at Sloan’s Lake is well maintained and healthy is paramount, said Kurt Weaver, a lake advocate at the Sloan’s Lake Park Foundation. SEE CLOSURE, P12
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