This Week in History

• Loveland native Kate Lillis opened Colorado Active Pilates in the back entrance to Lake Loveland Dermatology on West Eisenhower Boulevard. The new business focused on private and semiprivate instruction to meet each patient’s specific needs.

• Four Loveland athletes — Kevin Lemasters, Nicole Fellure, Amy Hallagan and Adam Morgan —were preparing to return to Boston for the 2014 Boston marathon, a year after bombers killed three and injured 260 near the finish line. The Loveland racers, who were not injured, said they were still a little angry but also determined to celebrate their best times at the marathon, which had added new security measures. “I don’t connect the marathon and what happened together very often,” Morgan said. He finished with a time of 2:50:06 in 2013, about an hour and a half before the bombs went off. “I’m extremely excited to go back because of the excitement with this race. People say it’s going to be the biggest year it’s ever been.” Hallagan, who came in at 3:27:58 in 2013, had recently injured her leg and was unable to run in 2014, but said: “I would just like to be there to be with everyone, maybe get some closure — I don’t know.”

• Loveland Police Officer Garret Osilka was thanking the community for its support after he was shot while on duty a month earlier. The 36-year-old spoke of the numerous cards, emails, letters and other wishes he had received. He and his wife moved to Loveland two years earlier because it was a safe community, and he became the first officer to be shot in the line of duty in 25 years. “It doesn’t change anything about what I think about the community,” Osilka said. “In fact, it’s kind of backed up that decision in the way the community responded. … My wife and I were taken aback by the amount of people who came forward to say nice things, or offer their prayers and their thoughts. We’d never be able to thank them all.”

• The parent company of Loveland’s Embassy Suites named the local hotel its best in the world for quality and customer service. Hilton Worldwide gave the Loveland hotel its 2013 Connie Award out of 217 hotels worldwide.

• The National Park Service approved placement of the 19th century Milner-schwarz farmhouse on the National Register of Historic Places, seven years after a group of community members stepped up to save the building that was slated for demolition. “It was a long struggle,” said Mike Perry, president of the Loveland Historical Society. “After all those years, here we have a house on the National Register instead of a parking lot.” Located at 710 S. Railroad Ave., the house was thought to be the oldest surviving home in Loveland.

• Loveland received a $250,000 Great Outdoors Colorado flood recovery grant for parks and open spaces with about 75% going to repair trails, fishing access points and wetlands at River’s Edge Natural Area. Construction on the $1.3 million open space had just completed and the city was preparing to open the natural area when the flood hit, destroying the new natural area. The rest of the grant was to rebuild the flooddamaged recreation trail between Taft and Wilson avenues and the underpass under U.S. 287.

• A line of about 20 people were waiting outside the Choice Organics building, located east of Fort Collins, to become the first to buy recreational marijuana in Larimer County after voters approved sales. The first person to complete a purchase was Roger Williams of Loveland, who said the product was a more natural alternative to pharmaceutical remedies for his insomnia. “I’m a child of the ’70s. I’ve been smoking for many years,” he said. “I enjoy it.”

• Loveland officials said they were seeing growth in the number of lots being developed and building permits being issued, and residents spoke of the framing of homes rising in new developments. “We were behind on inventory; we have pent-up demand,” said Greg Miedema, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Northern Colorado. “We certainly hear that our members are getting busier and are more and more satisfied with the business climate.”

• The Larimer County Department of Natural Resources was to receive $84,300 from Great Outdoors Colorado to assist with flood recovery efforts in the Big Thompson Canyon and Hermit Park Open Space, part of $4.5 million in grants that Gov. John Hickenlooper announced to help with flood recovery projects.

• The Loveland City Council scheduled a special election for July 29 for voters to decide whether to impose a two-year moratorium on fracking “in order to fully study the impacts of this process on property values and human health” per a ballot initiative. Council members, however, continued to raise questions about the language and study aspect. “My main concern is that I abhor bad legislation and it doesn’t matter who writes it,” councilor Hugh Mckean said. “If it lacks definition so people don’t clearly understand what is the impact of putting their mark on the ballot, I have a really grave concern.” He said he intended to raise the question of whether the acting city attorney should seek clarification from the attorney for the group that placed the initiative on the ballot.

25 years ago

• The Larimer County commissioners told members of the Fairgrounds and Events Center Task Force that it would be best to wait a year before asking voters for a tax to help build the new multi-use facility east of Interstate 25 in Loveland. County voters previously approved a one-year sales tax to buy the 243 acres, and officials were looking at another tax to pay for the construction itself.

• The Loveland City Council voted to buy an emergency notification system that, during a crisis, would dial phone numbers of affected residents and deliver a recorded message. One council member argued strongly against the system, saying that the city did not fund other priority needs for the fire department when it was cutting its budget. While the fire department had other priorities, the fire chief said the emergency system was the top priority for the city’s emergency management program. The city was spending $32,200 to buy the system and operate it for the first year to be paid for by surplus dollars collected under the Taxpayers Bill of Rights.

• The Thompson school board unanimously passed a resolution expressing its intent to ask voters for a mill levy override on the November 1999 ballot. While the board still had to officially place the issue on the ballot, and approve ballot language, the intent was enough to allow the Yes for Kids Campaign committee to begin lobbying for the increase.

• The self-proclaimed “mad-dog killer,” who was convicted in the 1981 killings of 7-Eleven clerks in Loveland and Fort Collins was put to death in Arkansas for another murder. Marion Pruett chose lethal injection over death in the electric chair. Pruett was arrested after a five-victim killing spree. Among his victims was Anthony Taitt, a 21-year-old Colorado State University student working at the 7-Eleven on East Eisenhower Boulevard, who was shot four times point blank for the $28.71 that Pruett scooped out of the cash register. He also shot and killed Jim Balderson, 24, who was working at a 7-Eleven in Fort Collins; he pocketed $54 total and a sandwich from both stores. A Texas highway patrolman stopped Pruett for speeding and found that he was a prison parolee wanted in four states on robbery and murder charges; he pleaded guilty and received two life sentences in the Loveland and Fort Collins killings. He was convicted of all five murders.

• Walt Clark Middle School celebrated its 20year anniversary with balloons, cake, a multimedia presentation and the dedication of the building’s first marquee. During its 20 years, the school went from having no computers to three computer labs.

• High winds reaching speeds of 49 mph, shut down area highways and knocked out power lines west of Loveland, affecting about 450 households. The winds blew down a streetlight and whisked a large trampoline up into a tree.

• Loveland City Manager Brian Moeck announced he was leaving his position to fill the general manager seat at Platte River Power Authority. “The city of Loveland has offered me tremendous experience,” Moeck said. “Frankly, my experience here has a great deal to do with getting the job with the Platte River Power Authority.”

• Loveland secondgrade student Brittney Andrews, 8, and her mother, Michelle, were preparing for a trip to Washington, D.C., to join about 200 other children to call attention to the need for more organ donations. A heart transplant saved the girl’s life. “We’re going to be thanking Congress for their support for organ donor awareness and having them take the First Family Pledge, which (means) talking to your family and signing up to become a donor,” Michelle Andrews said. Brittney was born with hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, meaning the left side of her heart did not develop properly, and her only hope was a transplant. In 1991 she became the 86th infant in the United States to receive a heart transplant.

• Walmart developers were going before the Loveland Planning Commission with plans for a 203,000-square-foot supercenter at the southwest corner of U.S. 34 and Denver Avenue.

• The Loveland Police Department showed off the laptop computers that the department had added to patrol cars in January. The department rolled out eight computers and had another eight on the way, paid for by a $47,587 Department of Justice grant coupled with $15,863 from the city. Officials said the new computers were allowing officers to access national and state databases from their patrol cars rather than having the information relayed to them via radio, saving time for the officers and work for the dispatchers.

• A developer was working on construction of a new Officemax on U.S. 34 east of the County Market grocery store. The office supply chain was to be 23,500 square feet in size.

• The Loveland Planning Commission approved the annexation into Loveland of the Mountain View High School site at the corner of U.S. 34 and County Road 9. Commission members voted for the annexation, though they objected that the school district hadn’t consulted with planners or provided the level of detail that most development plans contain. School districts did not have to secure building permits from local governments, per state law, but Loveland had an intergovernmental agreement that the district must consult with the district — something commission member Steve Olson said the district did not do. “The purchase was made and the school was started and we were not consulted,” Olson said. “We were informed.” School officials however said the district complied with the “spirit” of the agreement and worked with planning staff to design a campus that would fit in that corridor.

50 years ago

• The Thompson School District had hired two learning consultants to help teachers deal with the individualized instruction required for students with physical or emotional problems. “We must help the classroom teacher understand the child’s special difficulty, the best way to present materials to him — and what to expect from him,” said Mrs. Kendall, one of the two consultants. The district was also holding a series of half-day workshops, paid for by a state bill, to offer educators background and skills for helping special need students.

• The Thompson school district reported that in the next school year the district would double the resources for helping children with learning disabilities. The district had a resource room in each of four elementary schools, Lincoln, Van Buren, Truscott and Garfield, and would be adding them in the fall at Mary Blair, Berthoud and Winona elementary schools. Each resource room was staffed by a specially trained teacher. Students could spend part of their day getting help in the resource room, but it was also available to help teachers augment their own materials and knowledge.

• Larimer County Democrats decided that delegates to the county and state assemblies would be selected by proportional representation rather than the traditional “winner take all system.” Under the traditional method, if a candidate received more than 50% of precinct caucus votes, the entire delegation was instructed to vote for them at the county assembly. But with proportional representation, each precinct would send representation to the assembly proportional to the caucus vote for each candidate. The same would apply to the delegation for the state assembly.

• A Loveland attorney explained to the Planning Commission that the state Mines and Minerals Act, designed to preserve the state’s commercial mineral deposits, could prevent the industrial development of an undetermined swath of land running along both sides of the Big Thompson River basin. The crux of the act was that the commission could not “permit the use of any area, known to contain mineral deposits, in a manner that would impede with present or future extraction of the deposit.” The Colorado geological survey had been compiling the location of mineral deposits and was expected to have details by the end of May or early June in 1974. The attorney explained that the act was primarily concerned with sand, gravel and quarry aggregate, and that the Big Thompson was among the richest in Colorado for such deposits. He was working to update planning ordinances to abide by the new law, but said that the action would not stop there and that there would be some “hot collars and some bleeding hearts before it was all over.”

• Larimer County road crews were starting bridge work for a project to extend Wilson Avenue from Ninth Street south to First Street. The road supervisor said that forms for the concrete abutments for the bridge over the Big Thompson River were to be stripped off, but that was as far as the project would go that year because there was not enough money to install a deck. The entire project, which included three bridges and two miles of road, was expected to take up to two years to complete.

• Representatives from two Berthoud motels protested to the town board about increases in their water and sewer bills and suggested that the town use meters. One motel owner said her water bill was more than seven times the amount of that paid by the average resident, adding, “We think it’s unfair and we cannot operate at the present prices.” Earlier in the year, the town had raised rates and decided to charge motels per unit the same amount as charged to apartments. At the time, only three Berthoud businesses had water meters, and the town policy was not to have meters at residences. The mayor referred the issue to a water committee to study the possibility of using meters.

• The Larimer County Board of Cooperative Services approved a 7.1% increase in the base salary for instructors at the Voctec Center. The increase was an average of the raises received by teachers in the three districts participating in the center, Thompson, Poudre and Estes Park.

• Larimer County Clerk Jim Thompson said that punch card voting could be the solution to long lines at the polls and that representatives from a California firm that produced such a system, called “Data-vote,” would visit Larimer County. With the punch card system voters would receive separate cards of amendment proposals, county and state candidates. Each card would be inserted into a holder and the voter would punch a hole next to their voting option. These would be counted by computer. “It will be simple — and much cheaper,” Thompson said. “We are trying to save the taxpayers some money.” He said the cost of a card-punch mechanism would be about $200 in comparison to about $2,000 for a voting machine. Demand for a more efficient method kicked off after some voters waited up to four hours to cast their ballots in the 1972 general election, during which only 130 voting machines were available for the county’s 54,000 registered voters.

A construction company out of Frederick was the low bidder to build Ivy Stockwell Elementary School in Berthoud, bidding the project for $819,398. The highest bid was $979,000 from a Fort Collins firm. The project architect said he would look at the bids and the work completed by those firms, and all with bids in between, and offer a recommendation of who to hire at a future school board meeting.