LAKEWOOD INFORMER

Independence Day is the number 1 or number 2 holiday for driving fatalities, usually involving drinking or drugs. An estimated 620 people nationwide may die this year.  In contrast, from 2005-2020 there were an average of 8.5 deaths per year nationwide from fireworks-related injuries. Most injuries are from common fireworks such as sparklers. Neighborhood conversations will often reflect worries over fireworks, not drunk driving over the holiday, if not for personal safety then for concerns over fire. West Metro Fire only had three calls involving “fireworks” codes in 2020. However, there may be other calls in a non-searchable field. A housefire will be called a housefire, not a fireworks fire. Callers may believe a firework started a fire but investigators ultimately find no evidence. This was the case for one fire in Lakewood, started in a shed that spread to the house. According to the National Fire Protection Association, local fire departments responded to 1,353,500 fires in 2021. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports fireworks caused approximately 12,000 fires in 2021. That’s about 1% of the reported fires in 2021. Noisy fireworks are an extreme nuisance to pets and anti-noise advocates but are not statistically not the most dangerous activity in any category. In 2020, the City of Lakewood received 1666 call for services related to fireworks. Only 68 of those were agent initiated. Only 3 of those 68 resulted in a summons, due to the difficulty in tracking down a noise source after it’s over. Lakewood Municipal Court numbers...

By Lenore Herskovitz Update July 16, 2023: In the last paragraph of my article on HB 23-1255 I commented that Lakewood was M.I.A. in media coverage. A newly discovered article from CBS reporter Alan Gionet that was first published on April 11, 2023 does include a statement from Mayor Adam Paul. It is interesting to note that the Mayor comments that”…the City Council Legislative Committee voted to oppose this bill….” In actuality, this committee didn’t vote on this bill until April 24, 2023. Apologies for not finding this article sooner. On July 17, 2023 there will be a Lakewood City Council Executive Session to discuss the legal issues arising from the passage of HB 23-1255 that may overturn the voters’ passage of the Strategic Growth Initiative in July, 2019. On June 7, 2023 Governor Polis signed HB23-1255 into law. This bill, when it takes effect in August, 2023, may repeal Lakewood’s Strategic Growth Initiative (SGI). Boulder, Golden and the rarely mentioned Pitkin County are also affected by this legislation. Moving forward, Colorado cities and counties will be prohibited from imposing population and residential growth limits. A precedent will be set permitting our state government to override the vote of the people. Colorado Municipal League (CML), a non-profit, non- partisan organization that represents the interests of 97% of the cities and towns in the state said it best in their April 7, 2023 newsletter: “SB23-213 and HB23-1255 reflect a desire to disempower municipal voters from exercising their initiative and referendum rights....

On June 6, the Lakewood Budget and Audit Board decided to recommend that Lakewood keep future TABOR funds instead of refunding any excess to taxpayers. That recommendation will proceed to City Council for approval, along with the recommendation for resident input through focus groups. If approved, the issue will be on the 2024 ballot. In 2018, over 60% of Lakewood voters approved allowing Lakewood to retain funds that would otherwise be refunded through TABOR. That measure expires in 2025. At that time, the voters were told this was a one-time measure, which would be used to fund “parks, police and potholes.”  Those program promises were fulfilled. The 2019 budget used $12.5 million of TABOR funds, $8 million of which went towards parks property purchases (Looking@Lakewood). The 2021 budget used $5.5 million on police body cams, among other things (Looking@Lakewood pg4). However, the city is now used to spending at that level. Overall expenditures and revenues from the General and TABOR funds were presented at the March 16 Budget Board meeting. As of the June 6 meeting, the day the decision was made by the Budget Board, no critical program was identified as needing additional funds only available through TABOR retention. Instead, overall levels of city spending have grown, and funding for all departments will need reduced proportionately if the city must operate within the General Fund budget. The General Fund is strained because Lakewood’s residential population has grown, requiring increased services, while economic development has not grown, resulting in fewer...

   Due to negative impact on locals, including but not limited to affordability, Italy has proposed new restrictions on STRs, just as Malaysia had to recently do, just as Paris, Tokyo & Colorado towns have had to do. Please read below article.     Why didn’t Lakewood City Council heed the info, repeatedly presented to them, of other municipalities’ multi-year experience across the country & the world?    Despite their own votes on their generous ordinance & in another example of cognitive dissonance, the “need to address affordable housing” was once again raised by members of the dais in the 6/12 city council meeting; the same members who recently voted for unlimited STRs in Lakewood.   In Community, Imara SHORT-TERM RENTALS Italy Proposes Law to Restrict Short-Term AccommodationsItaly is pondering a move to curb short-term rentals in its historic centers, giving locals a chance to score dreamy homes instead of tourists, and the proposal has sparked a fiery debate between locals, businesses, hotels, cities, and even the national government. It’s like an Italian soap opera right before our eyes! Italy’s Tourism Ministry recently unveiled a draft law to limit short-term tourist rentals, including Airbnb listings, across the country. The aim is to tackle the scarcity of affordable housing in major cities and alleviate overcrowding in tourist hotspots. While Florence has already banned Airbnb in its city center, the proposed bill in Rome has sparked mixed reactions. While hotel businesses advocate for stricter rules, property managers are standing firm in defense of...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has extended their public comment period on two proposals that would further regulate ethylene oxide to protect people’s health and the environment. The agency is now accepting comments through June 27, 2023. https://www.epa.gov/hazardous-air-pollutants-ethylene-oxide/summary-how-engage-epa-actions-address-ethylene-oxide Ethylene oxide is an ongoing issue in Lakewood, originating from Terumo BCT. Read more from the Westword: https://www.westword.com/news/terumo-bct-ethylene-oxide-lakewood-cancer-lawsuit-epa-13820045 Terumo BCT public comment: https://www.terumobct.com/terumo-bct-and-ethylene-oxide Comment submitted to EPA from Lakewood resident: To Whom It May Concern, My comments will concern an aspect of cases of pollution, radiation and other hazards that are not typically looked at – the corruption and malfeasance by the elected official involved in making decisionswhich, while not obvious at first, have dire consequences upon thousands, and, at times, over generations, millions of people. I grew up a short distance away from Chernobyl, in Belarus. To this day I come across pieces of knowledge, whereby, government officials made horrendous decisions, be they driven by the desire to save face or to simply hide the truth (and at times, coupled with ego-driven foolishness). Worse still, I see corruption and ulterior motive decision making, mainly driven by greed and ego/narcissism in the U.S. at state and local levels now more than ever. Which brings us to Terumo BCT in Lakewood, CO. Yes, there should be far stricter regulations on how any given facility utilizing Ethylene Oxide is overseen. However, what is not been looked at are the decisions made by the local and state officials. Under the convenient guise of “EPA is a federal entity that’s looking...

Cross-post from Alex Plotkin, YourHub And by the way, if you get hung up on words, then you’re going to let a lot of evil [individuals] slip through. Because evil people learn the correct terms very quickly. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that? They are the first ones to learn it so they can smuggle their evil [stuff] through. By saying everything ‘correctly’ even though they are hiding really bad [stuff] in it.” – Patton Oswalt Metro districts and high-density, high-priced rentals have spread, like cancer, across Colorado. Municipal and state legislators are enabling this plague, using the “right” words such as “affordable housing”, “equity”, “sustainability”, and “economic development”. And you are paying for it – hundreds of dollars, per month, on top of the mortgage, in metro district fees which were voted on by the developers, before the residents had any say, or between $1,600 and $2,400 or more for a one-bedroom rental in a corporate-owned apartment building. … Read more at YourHub