Local News

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of profiles of candidates for the Evergreen Park and Recreation District board in the May election.

Evergreen native John Ellis says he would like to serve on the board of the Evergreen Park and Recreation District as a liaison for communication.

“In the groups I’m in, we can work together,” says Ellis, one of five candidates for three open seats on the board. “They’re all important, and blend things together.”

Homeowner Lucy Schubert opened her front door Sunday morning to Clear Creek County Deputy Jon Walker, who told her to evacuate her home because of a fast-moving wildfire nearby.

Luckily, the “evacuation” in the Brook Hollow neighborhood was part of an all-day wildland fire training exercise and not the real thing. The Evergreen Fire Protection District and the Clear Creek Fire Authority co-hosted the exercise for about 100 firefighters in an area just south of Interstate 70 near Floyd Hill.

 An inmate inadvertently released from the Jeffco jail on Tuesday is back behind bars. 

Damon Elliot Slayton, 41, was taken into custody Thursday morning by a Jeffco deputy in downtown Denver near Broadway and Larimer Street. 

Jeffco sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said the Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies had been searching the downtown area based on tips from Slayton’s family and other friends. 

Slayton surrendered without incident, Kelley said. 

At least one neighbor — Adobe Creek Center owner Elizabeth Betterton — is worried that the new cell-phone tower in Kittredge is dangerous because of the radiation it emits.

Betterton said she plans to buy a radiation-monitoring device to check emissions from the disguised cell-phone tower erected recently by Verizon Wireless just south of 26040 Highway 74. She is worried that radiation from the tower could cause leukemia and cancer in nearby residents.