This Week in History

10 years ago

• The downtown restaurant Inglenook was preparing to reopen with a new look, an added bar and a revamped menu. The restaurant at 530 N. Cleveland Ave. expanded into the some of the next door space after City News closed. “We ended up taking out almost all the interior walls, which we had built when we came in 11 years ago,” said Pam Brubacher, owner with her husband Rod.

• Loveland resident Helen Brown was celebrating her 100th birthday, saying that the secret to living a long and happy life is so simple, anyone can do it. “Just live your life every day and live it well,” she said. “Be kind and well to the people and they’ll be nice to you.”

• Loveland resident Dale Shannon spoke about his latest invention, the Dinky Connection, a pocket-sized charger and data sync cord for smartphones, tablets and devices that would soon be in production and eventually for sale on Amazon. An article in the Reporter-herald described the Dinky Connection as having a dual use. “The Gumby-like legs are flexible so that users can use the device as a small tripod for Facetime and Skype or to take pictures and watch videos.” The product was designed for both a vertical and horizontal view. Shannon said:”i build things that I wish I had for myself.”

• The Larimer Humane Society had 26 cats and kittens up for adoption from the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region to make room there for incoming evacuees from the Black Forest Fire. The previous summer, the Humane Society took in more than 630 animals from the High Park Fire, relying on other shelters to take in its adoptable animals to free up room for the evacuees. “I know that many of us have had flashbacks to last year’s High Park fire this week and remember how much the help that Pikes Peak and other shelters provided us made a difference for us,” said Judy Calhoun, executive director of the Larimer Humane Society. “It’s an honor for us to be able to return the favor.”

• Kidspak announced that it expected to provide 30% more weekend food bags to students within the Thompson School District in the next year, which would the nonprofit’s fifth. The nonprofit committee anticipated providing 350 students with bags each week during the coming school year. The program was adding Turner Middle School and Thompson Valley High School to its deliveries for a total of 24 schools that would receive the food bags for students.

• Don Smith, a mechanical engineer from Johnstown, showed off a remote-controlled, 10-foottall crane that he made almost entirely from Lego pieces — a contraption with the ability to lift as much as 20 pounds. His crane was modeled after a Lampson International crane because “they make the largest mobile cranes on the planet,” Smith said. “They are currently engineering one to lift 3,000 tons, which is 6 million pounds.” He demonstrated his crane in Denver and at the Loveland Home Depot, showing how it could lift a circular saw. He estimated that he used up to 100,000 parts to make the crane with only 12 that were not Legos, including deep-sea fishing line, bolts and other metal pieces at points of high stress. He planned to sell the crane for $7,500 to a private collector of one-of-a-kind crane models.

25 years ago

• Thompson School District Superintendent Don Saul said the district had no choice but to ask voters to approve a mill levy override in November 1998 so it would have the money to open a new high school that the district was building in Loveland. The school board had not discussed a specific amount to ask voters, but Saul told members that, without additional revenue, “It’s not going to be possible to open a high school with any degree of comfort to other programs in the district. It would just be destructive. It’s a highly political, scary issue. (But) I don’t see any other way.” Other expenses likely to be included in a tax issue were staffing needs, textbooks, technology and transportation.

• Residents of the Los Cinco

apartments were faced with a decision whether to stay in their homes or find a new place that accepted Section 8 vouchers offered by the Loveland Housing Authority. The federal government was no longer subsidizing the complex at Sixth Street and Madison Avenue, affecting tenants in different ways based upon their specific situations. The change came after the new owner of the complex did not renew its contract with the federal agency.

• The Loveland Library Board voted 5-4 to place a “Cyber Patrol” filter on one computer in the children’s section of the library, giving parents the choice of using an internet access computer that eliminated material that might be considered offensive. Only one of the library’s nine computers that had internet access was to have the filter, however, some residents complained it was an inappropriate move by the public library. “This is the camel’s nose under the tent,” one resident said. “We see government taking more and more of our constitutional rights.”

• Emmylou Harris sang for a crowd of 450 people at a sold-out show at the Rialto Theater. The line of people waiting for the show stretched down the block and around the corner.

• Kodak of Windsor ranked at the top of the list of toxic releases in the state, according to a report compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency. Kodak ranked No. 1 on the list with 692,000 pounds of toxic releases, including discharges into surface water.

• The national magazine True Police Cases was to include in its August 1998 edition the story of a 1994 murder in Loveland that ended with the body being buried behind the local bowling alley. Sgt. John Spreitzer was involved in solving the case in which a husband and wife murdered a man who was reported missing in 1994 and whose body was found in 1996.

• During renovations of the Heartland Café building’s facade, owners found a window sign for Lou’s Beauty Salon, pencil scribbling that referred to a barber shop and snack shop, and a 50-year-old Pepsi can. The owner was restoring the lower half of the outside of the building with plans to renovate the upper level facade the following year through a low-interest loan program. “This cafe will be here for another 50 years,” the owner said of the Heartland Cafe. “My son is learning how to run it and hopefully he will take over.”

• The Loveland City Council decided to wait before signing a resolution in support of Larimer County asking voters for a 0.1% sales tax increase to purchase land for a new Larimer County fairgrounds. Council members said they wanted more details before throwing their full support behind the issue. “Larimer County voters have a history of voting against ballot questions which are not clear,” said council member Larry Walsh. “There needs to be a better explanation of just what the county is proposing to build on the land.”

• The Loveland post office debuted six electronic mail sorters that could sort up to 40,000 letters per hour. Before the new equipment was launched, Loveland’s mail was sorted in Fort Collins. The sorting machines cost $150,000 each and, officials said, would offer more autonomy to the Loveland post office. The U.S. Postal Service had been using automated sorters since the 1980s.

50 years ago

• The Loveland City Council closed the Elks Club bar for two days after a state liquor enforcement officer reported that, on two occasions, he had been served a beer at the bar even though he was not a member of the club nor was he there as a guest to a member. Members suggested everything from a warning to a five-day closure before agreeing on the two-day closure of just the bar with food services still allowed during those 48 hours.

• A total of 21 teenagers completed a lawn mower safety workshop offered by the Thompson School District, which qualified them to operate power lawn mowers under the 1971 Colorado Youth Opportunity Act. The law required them to be trained in a workshop approved by the Colorado Division of Labor.

• The Thompson Education Association reported that it was rejecting a “meet and confer” proposal made by school board representatives, causing school board members at the meeting to accuse the association of playing “union politics.” The association had said the board needed to resolve differences with the association before school starts “if the school year is to have a good beginning.” The president of the school board, Robert Lebsack, described that as “an implied threat.” He said that the board had told TEA leaders it would not enter into collective bargaining to set salaries for the 1974-75 school year and that a meet-andconfer committee would be set up in the fall to arrive at a salary proposal in order to have representation from all teachers, whether they belonged to the TEA or not. The proposal was to have a representative from each of the 15 schools plus eight at-large delegates, the percentage of those to match the percentage of association and non-association teachers.

• The Johnstown town board adopted a 10 p.m. curfew for anyone 16 and younger and prohibited the use of air guns of any type within the town limits.

• Culprits stole a gum machine from the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office; proceeds from the sales went to a service club but it was placed in the lobby of the sheriff’s office. The undersheriff said a full-scale investigation into the theft was underway.

• Council member Rollin Clark told fellow members of the Loveland City Council that the city needed to attract “light industry” and suggested the council actively support the Chamber of Commerce and Development Fund on any efforts to expand employment opportunities in the city.

• Capt. Dennis Cressey, a 1964 Loveland High School graduate, was one of the several hundred American soldiers still listed as missing in action in Vietnam. He was in a jet that was shot down in 1972. Family members said the weapons system operator was one of only two men in the jet and had been expected to return home in a matter of weeks at the time he was shot down.

• Loveland’s only 24-hour gas station had closed early one day after running out of its gas allotment, while other stations also were closing earlier and opening later because of the limited supplies. The price of gasoline had also gone up drastically, residents reported, with the average price at 44.9 cents per gallon. Some stations were limiting customers to anywhere from $2 worth of gas to 10 gallons.

120 years ago

“Over at Longmont a wrangle has been in progress over Sunday baseball playing — and at last an ordinance has been passed forbidding it within the town limits,” the June 18, 1903 issue of the Loveland Reporter said. “Here at Loveland we have not had Sunday ball playing for six or eight years — the town is so built up that no room for ball grounds exists. Besides, our people do not believe in playing ball on Sunday in the vicinity of the churches — when a regular ball ground has been built at a safe distance from the town limits.”