November 18, 2024
[Berthoud Community Library, Berthoud, CO.]
Businesses
Paonia Books
234 Grand Avenue
Paonia, CO.
81428
(970) 361-2119
Colorado Creatives
Jake Jabs, Musician/Businessman
https://spotlightcolorado.com/have-you-met/jake-jabs-an-american-tiger/
Colorado Secretary of State
Colorado Begins Post-Election Audit of 2024 General Election
[The following is based on a press release.]
The Department of State convened a public meeting to set parameters for the 2024 General Election bipartisan post-election audit. The bipartisan Risk Limiting Audit ensures that ballots were counted correctly.
After every statewide election, the Department of State works with every Colorado county that uses ballot counting equipment to conduct a bipartisan Risk Limiting Audit. The Risk Limiting Audit is a test that bipartisan election judges from every county conduct to make sure ballots were tabulated correctly according to the intent of the voters who cast them.
At today’s public meeting, 20 individual 10-sided dice were rolled, establishing each digit of a 20-digit random seed. Department Elections Division staff will enter the random seed into a pseudo-random number generator incorporated in the Department of State’s open-source RLA software. This process will result in a selection of individual ballots for each county to examine and audit, which is both truly random and replicable, thus ensuring the statistical validity of the audit.
Comics
Denver County, CO.
Denver, CO., 2025 Budget
[The following is based on a press release.]
The Denver City Council recently unanimously passed Mayor Mike Johnston’s $4.4 billion 2025 budget. This year’s general fund budget, $1.76 billion, will see a mere 0.6 percent increase from last year’s $1.74 billion general fund budget. This is the slowest growth in the general fund the City of Denver has seen in 14 years, since just after the great recession.
The overall budget is down 2.5 percent from last year.
The city’s full-time workforce has dropped to 9,738 — a reduction of roughly 200 positions. The reduction will happen because the city is not filling vacancies, not by enacting layoffs or furloughs.
Of the budget, $58.6 million will go to economic development. That mostly includes workforce development; small business support; neighborhood planning in southwest Denver, downtown and La Alma-Lincoln Park; and aid for businesses hurt by construction projects.
Funding for Denver Health, the city’s safety net hospital, will increase by 3 percent to $74 million. This is separate from the voter-approved Denver Health sales tax.
Another $60 million will fund the creation and preservation of 1,400 affordable homes, along with investments in rapid rehousing and vouchers for 3,000 households.
The city plans to help prevent people from becoming homeless by dedicating $20 million in temporary rent and utility assistance to households most at risk of eviction and in legal defense for tenants.
Of that, $12 million will come from the general fund. The mayor will also ask city council to allocate $8 million for rental assistance from the 2024 contingency fund.
The mayor’s budget includes funding for alternatives to police. That includes $6.9 million for the Support Team Assisted Response Program, $2.6 million for the co-responder program and $5.2 million for the Behavioral Health Solutions Center, along with $2.8 million for Roads to Recovery, the city’s treatment and rehabilitation program.
The city will devote $2.5 million to participatory budgeting, where the people will decide how money is used.
Another $2.2 million will go to improving transportation and mobility in neighborhoods. The goal is to use “simple, effective solutions to reduce vehicle speeds, improve the pedestrian experience and improve safety for everyone,” according to the mayor’s office.
To make city services greener, the budget also includes $6 million for building up Denver’s electric fleet and $7.4 million for adding charging systems for both city vehicles and the public. Another $3 million will go to green job training programs.
A total of $8.5 million will go to helping kids with afterschool programs, affordable childcare and youth violence prevention.
The city will hold $220 million in reserves for economic surprises.
“We continue to focus on the Denver City Council’s key priorities, addressing the diverse and evolving needs of our community,” council President Pro Tem Diana Romero Campbell said in a statement. “From additional funding for youth programs to safe routes to school to strengthening public health inspections of residential properties, we were able to align the Council's priorities with the needs of Denver residents to pass the 2025 budget.”
Dry Bar Comedy
When Telling People You Have A Gun Goes Terribly Wrong, Paula Kosienski
Finding Colorado
The thirtieth highest mountain in the State of Colorado is Capitol Peak, at 14,130 feet above sea level.
Larimer County, CO.
Estes Valley Fire Protection District Report, Week of November 10, 2024
[The following is based on a press release.]
The week of November 10, 2024, the Estes Valley Fire Protection District (EVFPD) responded to 17 calls for service. This included:
Alarm activation: 8
Emergency medical (assist EPH): 3
Motor vehicle accident (MVA): 1
Assist: 2
Odor investigation: 1
Smoke investigation: 1
Good intent call: 1.
Wellington, CO.
Wellington Craft Fair
4000 Wilson Avenue
Wellington, CO.
80549-5100
December 7, 2024, starting at 9:00 A.M.
YMCA Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot
[The following is based on a press release.]
Join us for our annual Turkey Trot at YMCA of the Rockies – Estes Park Center, a fun-filled 5K run/walk through our stunning mountain landscape, 2515 Tunnel Road, Estes Park, CO. 80511.
November 28, 2024
9:00 A.M. Start time
10:30 A.M. Kids Race
Registration is free, donations are accepted
Register:
YMCA Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot
Resources
Until next time,