Local News

Members of Mountain Foothills Rotary will place the Evergreen Ice Melt Contest barrel on Evergreen Lake at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7. Rotarians will cut a hole in the ice into which the barrel will be set and monitored until it falls into the lake when the ice thaws.

To address the county’s growing need to dispose of slash, Jeffco is moving forward with finding a permanent slash collection site and using a “curtain burner” to dispose of it.

“We are looking for a permanent collection site,” said Mark Gutke of the Jeffco Office of Emergency Management. “The goal would be to have that site collect slash year-round and burn it when the weather permits.”

Being in the wintry outdoors promises to be far more delightful than frightful for those attending the 18th annual Ice Fest at Evergreen Lake.

The two-day event sponsored by Drive Smart begins at 8 a.m. on New Year’s Eve with the Youth Pond Hockey Tournament and continues in the afternoon with a snowman-building contest before Skate the Lake in the evening.

On New Year’s Day, the brave and the faint-hearted will line up to jump into the frigid water during the Evergreen Lake Plunge.

Come the new year, Evergreen will be the hub for all things emergency-related this side of the Jeffco Sheriff's Office.

It's all part of "regionalization," a nationwide push to bring emergency agencies together under one roof, system or organization to better coordinate response over an extended area. And when that area is prone to wildfires — or flooding — a little reorganization is designed to go a long way.