This Week in History

10 years ago

• After a Loveland police officer, Garret Osilka, was shot while making a traffic stop, a search was underway for the person who had shot him. The officer suffered serious injuries, but was expected to survive. Days later, a 23-yearold Loveland man was arrested under suspicion of shooting the police officer after he turned himself in to Fort Collins police.

• A study showed a 16-day government shutdown in October 2013 had hurt Estes Park, cutting its sales taxes by 18.2%. Visitation fell 7.4% during the apex of the fall leaf-viewing season. The state of Colorado had paid $202,000 to keep the park open for five days, during which 16,569 visitors spent about $1 million, the report said.

• Larimer County Commissioner Lew Gaiter announced he would run for reelection to the District 1 seat. “We need to continue to make great strides in Larimer County that will spread to the state and the nation,” he said.

• Eight candidates were vying for three seats on the Berthoud town board — incumbents Dick Shepard and Thomas Jones, and Jan Baker, Jason Bridgeman, Chris Buckridge, Dana Foley, Mike Henning and Jeff Hindman. The ballot in the April election also would include two questions that aimed to undo a controversial farmland annexation and require the town to seek a vote on any future growth decisions not already covered by the town’s management plan.

• Berthoud’s Nikko Landeros and Tyler Carron, best friends who had lost legs in a car accident, were competing together on the USA Sled Hockey team. “I think sometimes they know what the other person is going to do before they even do it. It’s almost like they’re twins,” the team manager said. Along with the rest of the team they were heading to compete in the 2014 Sochi Paralympic Games.

• New school board member Carl Langner was credited with restoring order when the school board president, trying to silence board members he disagreed with, attempted to adjourn the meeting without listening to a twohour presentation from the district’s Master Plan Committee. “I felt like it was important to hear the information that was on the agenda, which involved really hundreds of hours of work from a great many people in the district,” Langner said. “To turn our back on them would have been rude,” he explained later. He said board president Bob Kerrigan “just got excited and perhaps a little emotional. I’ve gotten a little mellow in my old age, but there was a time when I was fiery, too,” Langner said. “If I can moderate these kinds of differences, I think the whole board will be more effective.”

• Drake’s flood-damaged post office was ready to reopen. “That is the place where people come to see their neighbors and exchange information,” said a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Colorado and Wyoming. “We know what this means to the town — that things are getting back to normal. To have that flag flying high means that Drake is alive and well and ready to take on the future,” he said.

• Injured police officer Garret Osilka was released from the hospital, five days after he had been shot while he attempted to make a traffic stop. A benefit fund was set up for him, and his family said they were “overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, support, and generosity from our family, friends and community during this horrific event.”

25 years ago

• Hewlett-packard officials announced the company would spin off its smaller Test and Measurement Division from the bigger Computing and Imaging Division to create two distinct companies. “Things are unfolding even as we speak,” the company spokesman in Loveland, Jim Willard, said. “It is without question the most monumental announcement … in the company’s history.” The reorganization would leave two separate companies under different names, run by different boards. About two-thirds of Loveland’s 2,500 HP employees worked in the Measurement Division. At the Fort Collins plant, about 850 of the 3,200 employees worked in the measurement area.

• Loveland’s newest planning commissioners, Mike Arnold and Kevin Hartig, said they would focus on managing growth to maintain the sense of community they found when they moved to the city. Both said they were not anti-growth, but wanted to make sure to balance the city’s small town characteristics with growth.

• Loveland annexed 135 acres at the northeastern corner of Taft Avenue and 28th Street Southwest for the Aspen Knolls Addition, where 600 homes were proposed. A handful of residents said they were concerned about additional traffic on Taft. The developer said Taft would be widened to four lanes in that area and turn lanes would be added on 28th Street Southwest.

• Visits to Boyd Lake State Park decreased in 1998 to 478,909 people, down from 513,000 in 1997. Park officials said they were continuing to negotiate with the Hirsch Family Trust for the sale of 82.5 acres north of the park.

• Three sets of Loveland parents attended the Thompson School District Board of Education meeting to tell the board they were still interested in pursuing a Core Knowledge charter school. The school board had denied an application for an Independence Academy, but the parents said they would start over on the effort.

• Berthoud Town Administrator Anna Lenahan was put on paid leave pending a hearing that could lead to her dismissal. Following a special town board meeting, Mayor Richard Strachan read a statement, outlining seven reasons why her performance was being questioned, each connected to the Mary’s Farm subdivision, where a developer was building 163 homes on 50 acres east of First Streete and south of Colo. 56.

• The power operations manager for the city of Loveland announced plans to remove a pair of turbines at Viestenz-smith Mountain Park to refurbish them. They work would cost about $250,000 and take six months.

• A construction company working in Estes Park was suspected of dumping debris into the Fall River, causing a major fish kill. A Division of Wildlife manager examined a stretch of the river a mile and a half long trying to determine what had killed the fish. Between 1,000 and 2,000 fish were estimated to have suffocated over three weeks due to dirt introduced into the water from a construction site.

• A proposal to move Larimer County offices into the Bank One building at 200 E. Seventh St. in downtown Loveland fell through, the county facilities manager said. The county had bid on the building, but received a rejection letter. He said there were 39 offers submitted for one, some or all of the Bank One properties for sale across the state. “But we didn’t want the bank in Colorado Springs or Boulder. We only wanted one. I think that hurt us,” he said. The county’s building at 205 E. Sixth St. did not have enough space, but the bank building would have offered the space needed, he noted.

• If Colorado legislators made concealed weapons permits easier to get, experts predicted more concealed weapons in Larimer County, but it was unclear if that would mean less crime, more firearms accidents or both. “It think it’s safe to say that here in Larimer County we’re going to see more because there’s only four (permits),” Sheriff Jim Alderden said. Loveland Police Chief Tom Wagoner said he issued concealed weapons permits only when a compelling need was shown, and aside for people with law enforcement background, he had issued only one to a citizen in his 10 years as chief.

• The youngest mogul skier on the U.S. Olympic Ski Team, 16-year-old Jeremy Bloom from Loveland finished sixth in the Junior World Championships in Finland, his first taste of competition outside America.

• Berthoud residents upset about the suspension of Town Administrator Anna Lenahan said they were considering an attempt to recall five town board members.

• Former Loveland Planning Commission member John Lewis was fighting a one-man battle to stop the development of an assisted living center that he said would be too big and too close to the intersection of Taft Avenue and 29th Street. He said it would block views to the west from North Lake Park. The building’s architect said it would be farther back than other buildings along Taft, adding it would be “one of the most attractive buildings on Taft.” The Planning Commission approved the project on a 6-1 vote, despite the objection. “I think the applicant has gone through all the hoops,” Commissioner Steve Olson said.

• Two historians were hired by Loveland’s Cultural Services Department to perform an inventory of all buildings in the Loveland area older than 50 years, expected to be about 1,100 sites. The aim was to identify areas of historical significance and to create an inventory to be used by future researchers. At the time, Loveland had only two buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places — the Rialto Theater, built in 1919, and the Loveland Depot, built in 1902.

• Neighbor to Neighbor purchased an 11-unit apartment building at 1158 E. Sixth St. in Loveland to provide affordable housing to families making 50% or less of the area’s median income. The nonprofit spent $485,000 to buy the building, and estimated it would be able to rent the units for $380 to $475 a month, compared with $500 or more that a private investor would have charged.

50 years ago

• Speaking in Denver at a meeting of the Inland Daily Press Association, Vice President Gerald Ford said he had no intention of being a candidate for president in 1976, saying he had made that commitment to his wife. Commenting on Watergate, he said “if Congress goes beyond the very precise words of the Constitution, the majority party might be accused of partisanship” if its members impeached President Richard Nixon. He also spoke about the energy crisis and inflation. Reporter-herald owner Ed Lehman, president of the Inland association, presided over the meeting at which the president spoke.

• A warm, dry wind created havoc in the Thompson Valley, including a sixcar collision on Interstate 25 caused by limited visibility. The State Patrol said visibility was only about 10 feet in some areas. Some windows in Loveland were blown out and signs were blown over.

• Preliminary work began on the Loveland-big Thompson Centennial Book, under the direction of project chairwoman Clara Ball. About 250 pages would be produced, with proposed topics including schools, churches, municipal government, women’s and service clubs, banks and libraries.

• Loveland City Manager Don Hataway said he had learned the city would receive nearly $50,000 in federal funds for street and traffic improvements, but it was unclear exactly how the money could be used.

• The Loveland City Council was considering an electric rate hike that could raise rates for residential users. The city finance director presented several proposals, but councilors generally liked one that would raise rates by 5.53%. The new rate structure was aied at increasing revenue for increased expenses and to discourage heavy use of power. The city had not raised electric rates since 1938.

• The joint City Council-school board committee instructed Wheeler & Lewis Architects to go ahead with plans to include a community auditorium and swimming pool at the new high school being built in Loveland. Residents would need to vote to approve a 1% city sales tax to finance the auditorium and swimming pool. • A fire destroyed the popular night spot Clancy’s, located halfway between Loveland and Fort Collins on U.S. 287.

• Streakers, people who ran naked in public, had been reported at Colorado State University and in Boulder and Denver, and the fad came to Loveland as a young man attired only in cowboy boots, a cap and a face full of shaving cream streaked down the middle of Fourth Street from Railroad Avenue to a waiting car at Jefferson Avenue. “People said he was moving a little fast ‘to get a good look,’” the newspaper reported. According to Loveland police, it was a disorderly conduct offense and if caught the streaker faced a $25 fine.

• After Wally Austin of Loveland spent 18 months with 1,500 hours of work building a homemade plane, all went well on the first flight of the Pitts Special bi-plane.

• Finishing touches were being done at the new Loveland fire station No. 2 on Taft Avenue near Lake Loveland, with an official inspection set for March 15.

120 years ago

• The sheep yards of W.L. and L.F. King had 2,500 sheep, including 1,400 yearlings. “No other sheep in this vicinity are receiving better care …,” the March 3, 1904 issue of the Loveland Reporter stated.

• “Rapidly is the list of subscribers to the phone service growing — and the ‘little box of strings’ will soon seem as necessary to the well-regulated household or the store or the office as is a broom or a drink of water,” the March 3, 1904 issue of the Loveland Reporter predicted.