Columns

As this newspaper reported, last week, the Colorado Reapportionment Commission approved a map redrawing this state’s legislative districts. Not only does the map deprive Jefferson County of its allotted number of whole House seats, it carves up significant natural, cultural and administrative communities of interest.

When Laura Boggs was elected to the Jefferson County Board of Education two years ago, it caught a lot of people by surprise. It looked like incumbent Sue Marinelli was headed for re-election in an uncontested race until Boggs pulled and returned candidate papers just before the deadline. Running under the radar, Boggs upset the incumbent and has been a controversial and polarizing member of the school board in her first two years.

During a series of commercials for Dodge Challengers in the early 1970s, a rural sheriff who usually said, “Boy, you’re in a heap of trouble,” stopped Challenger drivers because they must have been speeding in a car that looked so hot. As I read the latest report of the University of Denver’s Center for Colorado’s Economic Future, I found myself thinking all future residents of Colorado share the drivers’ dilemma. We are definitely in a heap of trouble.

Evergreen’s fire chief was essentially fired last spring, and taxpaying residents of the Evergreen Fire Protection District still don’t know why.