Guest Post Jerad Knight, Navy spouse in Lakewood Colorado has been nominated for the 2024 Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year (AFI MSOY). Jerad Knight is an active military spouse in his local and nationwide military spouse community. He has worked with local organizations and global military spouse networks to bring awareness to issues within the military community ranging from Mental health, suicide awareness, food insecurities, and housing issues. A full review of his accomplishments and nominations can be viewed on his candidate profile at: https://msoy.afi.org/profiles/2024-jerad-knight Public voting for the first round of competition opens from February 5 – 9 2024 at: https://msoy.afi.org To vote all anyone would need to do is create a user profile and they can vote daily each day of voting by logging in and casting their votes. Base winners (first round) will be announced February 13, 2024. A second round of voting will occur February 27 – 28 2024 and the public voting will happen the same way as the first round. Branch (Second Round winners) will be announced March 4, 2024. After the two rounds of public voting Branch winners will be judged for the overall Military Spouse of the Year 2024 award and announced at the AFI MSOY town Hall in Washington, D.C. on May 9, 2024. About AFI MSOY About the Military Spouse of the Year Program The Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year® (AFI MSOY) award was founded in 2008 to honor military spouses from all branches...
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
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Lakewood Courts got a little less transparent in 2023. The Lakewood Municipal Court holds an annual presentation for City Council and the public on the State of the Court. In 2022 we learned that Lakewood was focusing on compassion and opening an Outreach Court to clear warrants and provide resources. Unfortunately, in 2023 there was no update on this or any other subject. Judge Nicole Bozarth presides over the Lakewood Municipal Court. In 2022 it was reported that the number of service calls to police was up but the number of court hearings was down. Why? Is it still down? In 2023, Lakewood started the Outreach Court. How was success measured? Future plans? What is the state of the court?
The grant for the Navigation Center in Lakewood includes several letters of support from community organizations who have previously existing ties to the city. Organizations are a type of special interest group who have good intentions but do not necessarily democratically represent the neighborhood residents, for example by taking a vote. The residents who live around the Navigation Center did not provide any support letters, and no city meeting nor survey of Lakewood residents was conducted to solicit support. Was there a place for robust discussion and dissenting voices to be heard? Rather than talk to disparate residents, an easier route is to get a letter from organizations which has previous ties with the city. In this case, the Lakewood organizations all had close working relationships with Lakewood, including financial ties, as shown below. There is no evidence that the letters of support were financially motivated. What it may suggest is an echo chamber of existing, friendly partners rather than a coalition of broader community support. Other letters of support came from Jefferson County and the cities of Arvada, Westminster, Wheat Ridge and Golden. Each city letter used the same language: “fully supports the proposed goals of the project and looks forward to continuing to collaborate with the City of Lakewood and RecoveryWorks”. Only Jefferson County mentioned future funding, pending availability.
Cross-post from Denver7, by Kristian Lopez Note: Slater Elementary school is in Lakewood From the article… “The influx of migrants has boosted enrollment at schools across the Front Range. Jeffco Public Schools said it has been serving an additional 335 students this school year. Slater Elementary has seen around 50 new students this school year.” Read more from Denver7 …
Cross post from CBS news, reporting by Karen Morfitt “Council members want to hear from the public and say this is just a first step. The vote simply symbolizes a willingness to “be a good neighbor,” to the city of Denver, one councilman said.” https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/video/lakewood-city-council-votes-to-help-denver-with-influx-of-migrants/ A video report featuring Karen Morgan from the LakewoodInformer. Please contact us if you are interested in becoming a contributor. Click here to take a survey on the issue.
City Council passed up another opportunity for an open discussion on a homeless policy for Lakewood. Instead, on January 22 Council approved a “supplemental appropriation” to the budget which will implement the strategy they decided on internally. Accepting this grant for a Navigation Center represents a multi-year fiscal obligation about how to serve the unhoused and Lakewood has not so much as set a committee or a study session to talk about best practices. Final vote to accept the grant will happen on second reading. City staff have let you know they received a grant. Council has taken no other public vote but brief mentions throughout the year indicated something was being researched by staff, not Council. It seems reasonable that if the city is researching something for a year, that maybe the public be brought into that conversation at some point before the final vote. The public may want to contribute or may be interested to see how Council will represent them on questions such as: Definition: Navigation Center is “This is a centralized location that provides residents easy access to a variety of supportive services to help with basic needs, medical and behavioral services and housing resources for residents without stable housing. The facility serves as a “one stop shop” for anyone in need of resources and provides a day shelter to our unhoused residents.” – Lakewood.org There are many options to solve this problem and Lakewood seems to assume it has the answer with the most...
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