Headlines — December 2, 2022

December 2, 2022

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BVSD Security Places Boulder High On Secure Status Following Safe2Tell Tip

School officials placed Boulder High School on a secure status early Thursday afternoon following a “Safe2Tell” tip. The tip source said there was a student off campus with a weapon.

As part of the secure status, the Boulder Valley School District’s security team locked the main doors to the high school, but allowed class and activities to carry on as usual. School officials notified parents about the secured status but did not provide information on what prompted the heightened security during initial communications. 

According to the Daily Camera, Boulder police found the student with a BB gun but no other weapons and as a result, lifted the secure status around 1:30 PM. School officials did not reveal if the student is facing any disciplinary action or charges. 

EPA Says Denver Water Can Maintain Its Lead Pipe Replacement Strategy For Remaining Service Lines 

Denver Water will maintain its strategy of removing lead pipes from the region’s water system that involves giving out water filters to households and slightly boosting water alkalinity to ward off heavy metal degradation as the utility replaces the lead pipes. 

The Environmental Protection Agency gave a nod to the nearly $700 million plan on Thursday after reviewing results from a three-year agency study in which Denver Water replaced 15,000 lead pipes. According to federal officials, the utility successfully suppressed heavy metal levels to fractions of the allowable limits. 

In 2012, elevated levels of lead in the system prompted Denver Water officials to plan a wide scale replacement of lead pipes. Starting in 2018, the utility pushed back on a regulatory mandate that requires the injection of orthophosphate into the water system to slow lead-pipe corrosion. Denver Water argued that the chemical would harm humans and downstream waterways and pushed its alternative plan as a safer and more effective approach. 

Officials Hold Ribbon Cutting For New Park Built Above I70

As the I70 construction project in central Denver wraps up, city, state, and federal officials celebrated the formal opening of a park that goes above I70 in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood Wednesday. 

The Colorado Department of Transportation added plans for a park above Interstate 70 after community members protested the state’s decision to expand the lower freeway which since the 1960s has bisected the two previously connected neighborhoods. 

During the ribbon cutting ceremony, officials said the 4-acre park and covered structure to I70 will reconnect communities that the highway wrongly bisected for decades.

To make way for improvements and expansion to I70, the Colorado Department of Transportation, starting in 2018, moved ahead in demolishing the I70 viaduct and in doing so also removed over 70 homes and businesses in the lower income, minority neighborhood. Advocates and community groups from the neighborhood opposed the $1.3 billion construction project saying CDOT should have rerouted it completely out of the area. 

Although the park is now complete, community members remain skeptical about the impacts from the highway expansion. 

Large Tour Bus In Boulder Sideswipes At Least 32 Vehicles 

The driver of a large tour bus sideswiped at least 32 parked cars in Boulder Wednesday night along the 900 to 1200 blocks of Pleasant Street. The driver claimed he was unaware that he hit the vehicles. Boulder Police charged the driver with multiple counts of hit-and-run and careless driving. Police say there were no injuries and all the known vehicles that the driver struck were unoccupied. 

House Democrats Choose Joe Neguse As Chair Of Their Policy And Communications Committee

Democrats in the United States House of Representatives elected Colorado Representative Joe Neguse as their party chair for the Policy and Communications Committee of the 118th Congress.

Neguse, from Lafayette, won a third term in November representing Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District with 70% of the vote. 

According to the Daily Camera, Neguse’s chair position will make him Colorado’s highest ranking congressperson in a Democratic House leadership position in 85 years. In a press release statement Thursday, Neguse said he looked forward to communicating the work of the Democratic House to the American people.

House Democrats also elected Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York as their next minority leader along with Massachusetts Representative Katherine Clark as the minority whip, and California Representative Pete Aguilar as Democrat Caucus chairperson.

Boulder County Fire Crews Respond To Small Wildland Fire

Boulder County fire crews responded to a small wildland fire Thursday night in the Pinebrook Hills neighborhood of unincorporated Boulder County. The Boulder County Sheriff’s office said numerous emergency personnel responded to the quarter acre fire which burned in a wooded mountainous area during last night’s high winds. Crews suppressed the fire just after midnight. The Sheriff’s office says no structures were threatened and there was no threat to public safety.