LITTLETON ASKS VOTERS FOR EXCESS FUNDS
LITTLETON» Littleton will ask voters in the November election if it can keep nearly $2 million in excess tax revenue to pay for pavement improvements and road-safety upgrades.
The city says for the 2016 fiscal year, Littleton’s tax revenues exceeded its Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights limit by $1,937,904. The excess must be refunded in the next fiscal year unless voters say the city can keep the money.
Littleton’s City Council wants to spend the money on projects and is asking voters to approve two questions so it can.
The first question asks voters to allow the city to retain $1,392,904 in excess money for pavement improvements on residential streets and $545,000 for intersection safety upgrades at Bowles Avenue and Federal Boulevard
“The second question concerns adjusting the base used for calculating the TABOR limit,” the city said in a news release. “If voters approve the question, the revenue base will be updated to the 2016 level.”
Horse owner found not guilty.
A Fremont County jury deliberated for an hour Friday before finding Penny Gingerich not guilty of 39 counts of animal cruelty.
Gingerich, 42, burst into tears. Family and friends let out audible sighs of relief.
Gingerich originally was charged with 64 counts of animal cruelty after the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office seized horses from her property Jan. 20. That was later amended to 39 counts.
Gingerich’s horses were seized after the sheriff’s office received reports that she wasn’t providing them with food and water.
But Gingerich’s attorney James Cook argued she treated her horses the way a reasonable person would.
7 high-end bikes worth $62K stolen.
Burglars in Carbondale made off with seven highend bicycles worth $62,000 in a theft last week, police said Thursday.
On Saturday morning the shop manager at Basalt Bike and Ski on Colorado 133 discovered the thefts, indicating the burglary must have occurred the previous night.
The store’s door appeared to have been pried open.
Carbondale police ask that anyone with information about the incident call 970-963-2662.
Same group suspected in two gun robberies.
COUNTY» Detectives ARAPAHOE believe the same group of five masked, hooded and gloved burglars busted through the entrances of two Arapahoe County pawn shops within 25 minutes early Friday morning and stole various items including guns, officials say.
“It’s fairly fresh so we are working it hard,” said Julie Brooks, spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Department.
Authorities say the same white, crew-cab Ford pickup truck with a white tool box and white fuel-transfer tank was used in both burglaries. Both thefts were captured on store surveillance video.
Although these burglars did not crash into the entrances with stolen SUVs, the burglaries fit a type of so-called smash-and-grab burglaries that have been happening with increasing frequency across the metro area the past year.