By Tina Eden
Boulder County Commissioners Ben Pearlman
and Will Toor fielded questions ranging from traffic
congestion to climate change during the annual Gunbarrel meeting held March 1
at Saint Mary Magdalene Church in Heatherwood. 
Over 40 residents attended the two-hour meeting, and Sheriff Joe Pelle was there to help answer questions.
One Heatherwood resident expressed concern over illegal activities near open space trailheads. For nearly a year she has been asking the county for a solution to teens parking and possibly using drugs in the area late at night. The sheriff and commissioners promised to contact her and monitor the situation.
Pelle, who answered questions for nearly 40 minutes, informed the crowd of his duties as sheriff, and the responsibilities of the county sheriff’s department.
He and his staff manage the jail
located on
In addition to serving as county sheriff, Pelle is president of the
Several attendees complained of
traffic woes on
as the belief that traffic will increase, resulting in congestion once again.
Finding solutions to traffic
problems along
One resident, whose house is on
The discussion became heated when
one audience member brought up the lawsuit between
Another man stated that similar types of disputes between governments and churches are occurring across the nation. The commissioners defended their position stating that they are upholding county code and are not influenced by other factors such as loss of property taxes, from which the church is exempt.
Questions pertaining to county
plans in the event of a major flood were raised. The county is revamping its
emergency plans and, in conjunction with the City of
One attendee questioned what the county is doing to combat global warming. In 2005, the county formalized a sustainability initiative. The initiative includes replacing infrastructure at the justice center and jail, use of hybrid vehicles and office composting projects.
Funds for the sustainability initiative were garnered from the 2005 passage of ballot issue 1A removing certain TABOR requirements.
A budget summary for
Public hearings are held Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Commissioners’ Hearing Room of the Boulder County Courthouse. The meetings can be seen live via web streaming at www.co.boulder.co.us .
Photo by Tina Eden
Left Hand Laurels Cindy Silvis And Susan Lutz
By Kathy Raczkowski
Tell the average adult to stand in front of a crowd of 500 people and sing a song or do a dance, and most of them would rather have a root canal. Give that same opportunity to a bunch of elementary school students and you’ll end up with a two and a half hour show filled with glee and sparkle. That is, you will if you put the entire endeavor in the hands of two enthusiastic and committed local moms such as Cindy Silvis and Susan Lutz, this month’s Left Hand Laurels.
For the past three years, this dynamic duo has brought joy
to the hearts of hundreds of young would-be entertainers and their families
through their work coordinating and producing the Niwot Elementary School
Talent Show. 
This is no small feat, as this year’s show alone boasted over 150 performers in 60 acts. There would have been more but experience taught Silvis and Lutz to limit the acts to two minutes each and each performer to a maximum of two different acts. Otherwise the show might go on for days.
And as cute as these kids are to watch, every audience has its limits. They’ve learned to trim time elsewhere as well.
“They used to do little vignettes between the acts to keep the theme running throughout the show,” said Lutz, “but we found that made the show run too long.” After all, she explained, the entire point is to feature the kids, not the principal and the teachers.
That adjustment is just fine with current principal Mike Keppler, who is not very comfortable onstage. He said the previous principal loved being up there, but he’d rather keep a low profile.
Keppler still had to play The Man in the Yellow Hat opposite a fifth grade Curious George to introduce this year’s theme of “It’s a Jungle Out There,” but he was given very few lines. He loves that the kids have center stage in this “right of passage,” as he calls it. And he credits Lutz and Silvis with making this a good experience for them.
“Susan and Cindy do such a good job with the kids and the talent show,” he said. “They’re flexible, friendly, and they don’t show stress during the night of the show. That’s really important.”
“It’s a ton of work and they do a great job with it,” said Ali Knight, who edits and splices together all the music for the show and puts it onto a master CD for the sound technician to play during the performance.
Knight is happy to do that, but she’s even happier that Lutz and Silvis took over running the show as a whole. She tried it one year and said it was just “way too much work.”
It takes a long time to mount such a production. The creative team coordinates early on with the high school to lease the auditorium and its technical staff for both the show and a dress rehearsal a few days before.
They meet with the yearbook committee and art teacher and decide on a common theme for the year, such as the jungle theme this year, a tour bus theme last year, and a 60s theme the year before.
They create compelling announcements and invitations around the theme to encourage the kids to participate. Then they hold what Silvis calls “Show Offs” shortly after the school year begins.
Not really an audition, since all who try out get in, the Show Offs give the kids a chance to present their ideas of what they might like to perform to Silvis and Lutz, who then give them feedback and suggestions. They encourage the kids, give them the parameters and figure out where to place their acts in the final show.
They make sure the selections are age-appropriate and one of a kind. There’s a “non-dress rehearsal” a month before showtime to make sure the kids are on track, then a dress rehearsal at the high school during the week before, and finally the show itself on a weekend in February with full lights, sound and costumes.
Lutz coordinates the kids in the auditorium seats, sending up the upcoming acts to wait in the wings as their predecessors perform. Silvis works backstage to keep the acts moving on and off as scheduled and to handle any last minute emergencies.
The team works up explicit cue sheets to provide NHS’s technical staff with all the information needed to support the budding performers with lights, sound, curtains and staging. And the kids and the audience have a blast.
“I’m hoping to open it up next year to encourage even more kids to participate,” said Silvis, explaining that providing an act or two that anyone could join in on might allow some of the shyer kids to share the spotlight. “I want everyone to experience this. It’s so much fun.”
Photo by Janet Hale
Cindy Silvis and Susan Lutz tame the wild jungle of the Talent Show at Niwot Elementary
Group
By Mandy Sutyak
“The acoustics in the
Freshmen Anne Trytko and Emily Wilkinson agreed they were very nervous when they started playing but not being able to see people’s faces helped and soon into the performance, they were having fun. “No one thought we would actually place,” said Wilkinson.
Twelve orchestras from across the
country were invited to the competition but NHS was the only school from the
western
“We received excellent ratings in state competitions for the past six years,” said Keith Ellison, orchestra director. “We were invited to our first national competition after two judges saw us in a district competition and gave their recommendations. Just performing in the competition is a huge honor for the kids, but placing third shows the dedication, passion and drive these students have.”
Photo By Mandy Sutyak
Tara Sugadhan, Emily Wilkinson and
Anne Trytko proudly hold the National Orchestra Cup
trophies which are now on display at
By Kathy Raczkowski
A dear old friend in our community is sick and needs our help. With major reconstructive surgery mandated for her very survival, we must come to her aid, or risk losing her forever. The Left Hand Grange Hall has always been there for us. Now it’s our turn to return the favor. The building is rotting from the bottom up. Due to poor
drainage and the fact that
Assessing the extent of the damage as well as the best methods to remedy the situation has been a long process. The members of Left Hand Grange No. 9 have secured a Historic Building Assessment Grant from the State Historic Fund to facilitate this investigation. Robert L. Parich of Environmental Systems Design has been approved as the primary structural assessor. He will work closely with experts in various building trades and the State Historic Fund to create a prioritized list of recommended replacements and repairs. The estimated cost of renovations
will exceed $200,000. That’s on top of the $9,960 assessment fee. The Grangers
were able to secure a grant for the assessment, and they have researched
several other
The Boulder County Historic Landmark Rehabili-tation Grant Program offers grants of up to $10,000, but requires matching funds of 100 percent before application is made. The National Historic Fund has the same parameters. In order to secure funds up to $100,000 from the State Historic Fund, the Grange would first have to raise at least $50,000. Grangers are used to fundraising, but this is a completely different ballpark. Previously, fundraising only served to maintain the Grange Hall itself, but the Grangers recognize the importance of maintaining the hall as a community civic center and of making it available free of charge to other community organizations. The Grange Hall plays host to ongoing meetings of troops of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, the Niwot Community Association, the Niwot Business Association, and the Niwot Historical Society. In addition, the hall serves as a community meeting place for town and county meetings, a polling place for all elections, a storage facility for Niwot Youth Sports’ equipment, and the home of Niwot Senior Citizens’ Medical Equipment Loan Closet. It also hosts the quilt show on Nostalgia Day, the Haunted House on Halloween, the Senior Citizens’ holiday dinner and Santa’s annual visit to Niwot. Here’s how you can help:
· Hold a fundraising event with your group and donate the profits to the Grange. · Make a large tax-deductible donation as a business or organization. · Support every Grange fundraising event. · Write a personal check. · Come up with your own brilliant fundraising idea and pass it on. · Get your picture in the paper for donating $500 or more. |
 |
You too can have your name on a Really Big Check and your picture in the Courier. Simply make a tax-deductible donation to help save the Left Hand Grange Hall by filling out the coupon at left and mail it to Left Hand Grange, P.O. Box 301, Niwot, CO, 80544. Make checks payable to “P.I.C.K.” (People Improving Communities and Kids) and write “Left Hand Grange” in the memo space on the check. P.I.C.K. is the 501-c3 corporation set up by Colorado State Grange to receive donations recognized as tax deductible by the IRS. Contact Dorinda Dembroski at 303-652-2749 with questions or suggestions for fundraising. |
Photo by Kathy Raczkowski
Every year fans of Robert Burns, poet and agrarian, gather to celebrate his birth on Jan. 25. Local Scotsmen Norm Mattram and Peter Holmyard helped bring this tradition to Niwot five years ago, serving traditional Scottish food and drink to all comers.
This year, the celebrants raised an extra $500 and decided to donate it to the Grange Hall in honor of the “Ploughman Poet’s” agricultural roots. If “Rabbie” Burns were alive and in Niwot today, he’d surely be a Granger and support this historic agricultural community and its meeting hall.
Pictured are Dorinda Dembroski, Neal Anderson, Emily DeCillis, Joe Dembroski, Joan Rech, Sue Wilson, Rosemary Bruce, Jane Betts, Kellie Beran, Norm Mottram.
Ten Years And Still Going
Courier Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary
By Mandy Sutyak
Editor’s Note: This month the Courier celebrates its 10th anniversary. In this article the partners look back to the early days and to the future.
Vicki Maurer chuckled remembering the first few issues of the paper ten years ago. “People probably thought the Courier was junk mail at first and threw it away.”
The consensus now though is the paper serves an important community purpose. “It’s community news,” said Selene Hall. “I think it builds community and that’s why I’m involved in it. Niwot is special – you know who your neighbors are, it’s safe. The paper is a major part of that.”
Maurer agreed. “I have people come all the time and ask for a copy. I think it is something the community really looks for because the news and the articles are different from what the larger papers cover. It has more of a small town feel.”
“It sounds hokey to say it, but we wanted to be the good news paper,” said Mary Wolbach Lopert who as editor, avoids sensational stories and learned early on that being a monthly meant taking a different angle than the dailies.
The Courier does cover political issues that affect the area, but, “We try to stay away from being the arbitrator of what is going on,” said Karen Copperberg. “We work hard to represent all sides in an issue.”
What makes the Courier important today is what drove the partners to start the paper in the first place even though “nobody had a clue how to publish a newspaper.”
Bruce (Biff)
The original idea for the paper came from Warren who had long thought it was time to revive Niwot’s newspaper tradition. The invention of the personal computer really made it possible although everyone laughs about the early days of the “sneakernet” as Lopert refers to how floppy disks were transferred from writers to editors to graphic designer.
“We were ahead of our time,” said Lopert. “We were a virtual paper. We had no office and had no capital equipment.” No one knew how to use desktop publishing software so Lopert’s ping-pong table was used to lay out each issue.
Several years ago the paper had increased in size from the initial publication of 12 pages to 36 pages and the partners believed the time had come to move to a bi-weekly paper. Nobody seems to remember quite when that was, possibly because no one wants to remember the nightmare of overlapping deadlines.
Although Ron Goodman would like to see the paper published weekly, other partners aren’t so certain. They do all agree however, the website is under-utilized. Currently, the website is updated with selected articles after each issue is published, and selected articles are posted. Lopert would like to see that process reversed with breaking news being posted to the web on an on-going basis.
There is one other sentiment the
partners agree on: running the paper is fun. “If we didn’t have a good time
doing it we wouldn’t do it. The people you get to work with are top-notch,”
said
Six of the seven original partners
are still with the paper. They are Ron Goodman, Selene Hall, Mary Lopert, Vicki Maurer and Biff Warren. In
choosing his partners
By Mary Wolbach Lopert
The Left Hand Valley Courier would like to thank all our advertisers. Without your support it would be impossible to continue bringing the news to our area.
We would also like to thank those advertisers were with us in our first issue. Those advertisers are:
Bank of the West
Canvasback Gallery
Classic Looks
Eye Opener
Flowers in Bloom
Gunbarrel Import Motors
Niwot Antiques
Niwot Jewelry & Gifts
Niwot Liquor
Niwot Real Estate
Warren, Carlson and Moore
Ed McGill, Canvasback Gallery - I have more of my good customers read the Courier, so I believe the paper really helps my business.
Selene Hall, Bank of the West -The Left Hand Valley Courier has been invaluable in helping businesses in the Niwot-Gunbarrel area reach their target market. There are so many tremendous services, restaurants, places of worship, retail stores, events, schools and camps that are right here in our community, and the Courier gets the word to the community’s doorstep.
Nancy Armstrong,
Jan Kohl, Niwot Jewelry – The Courier has been a good thing to have for local news. A lot of people read it for new about their kids.
By Ron the Rat
Ten years have elapsed and it is time to expose the sordid tale of the Courier’s beginnings to the light of day.
In order to protect the guilty, only the gang’s sobriquets for their fellow conspirators will be used.
This exposé of the Machiavellian
machinations involved was prepared by Ron the Rat who quietly left town for
Imagine a dark windowless cellar. Old dusty boxes filled with yellowing files cover most of the floor and occasionally the piles of file boxes form walls, reaching the wooden ceiling beams. In one un-swept corner, a hanging billiard table lamp illuminates an old wooden table and several rickety chairs.
This subterranean cave is the lair of the plot’s instigator, Biff Wiff. Wiff, as the other participants in the Courier plot knew him, developed the Courier Mission Statement. “This town is incomplete.” he proffered, “without its everyday activities archived with ink on paper. There are stories to uncover and tales to be told.
“What is behind the new shops on
The first recruit for the Courier’s cabal was Slinky Selene AKA the penny pincher. Not a buffalo nickel would slip through her tight fist. Without Slinky’s stranglehold on the finances, the plan, like gravy without cornstarch, would never thicken.
Slinky brought Mary the Moll and Lori the Doll into the picture. The Moll and the Doll could look down the barrel of a gun with the best of them. And if the Moll wrote it, the Doll could photo it. Besides, how could we hold meetings without the gavel-yielding Moll to maintain order?
Krazy Karen was a co-defendant with the Moll in a nefarious affair involving the spelling of “serendipitous,” which they both pled out. Krazy can spell every word and punctuate like a pro. She was in.
Ron the Rat was Slinky’s recruit too. He could draw cartoons and write a little, never larger than six point type. Everyone in town is a potential victim of his slightly acid pencil. The underground office, with its billiard table light and cardboard box walls, was almost ready to commence operations.
There was still one unfilled hole in the talents necessary for a successful publication. This grave opening would soon be filled by Vicki Obit, (shortened from the traditional family name Obituwary.”) She fit naturally into this last spot, as a casket fits in a grave. Obituaries, even if it is a dead end job, would be her vocation.
She agreed to dig deep, even six feet deep, for every last fact about the deceased.
With the Munificent Seven recruited and assembled, the gestation period began. Nine months later, April 1997, the first 12 page Courier was on the street. (The delivery crews had not yet mastered the technique of throwing the paper on to the lawn.)
During the Courier’s 10 year run it has contributed generously to the county’s recycling effort and provided the raw material necessary for the training of many Niwot-Gunbarrel canines.
1 picture - Lhvc first issue (can put anywhere)
How the Courier has grown. While all the people who make up our staff couldn’t be there on March 3 for a group photo, there was a good representation from all departments.
We owe a special thank you to the Courier Carriers, who do a great job of delivering the paper.
File Photo
First Anniversary Photo, March 1998
Sand Bar – Anna Mahorski, Gay Waterbury, Selene Hall
On The River Bank – Biff Warren, Karen Copperberg, Ann Barnsley, Ron Goodman, Mary Wolbach Lopert, Kim Alsop, Vicki Maurer, Helen Johnson, Julie Fowler, Alec Fowler, Grace Fowler.
Picture – 10th anniversary
Photo by Curtis Jones
10th Anniversary photo, March 2007
Back Row – Tina Eden, Gail Ludwig, Allison Forke, Anne Dyni, Claudia Lewis, Otto Ahlgrim, Arlene Ahlgrim, Kirsten Maurer, Donna Currie, Curtis Jones, Louise Alderson
Front Row – Biff Warren, Selene Hall, Karen Copperberg, Vicki Maurer, Mary Wolbach Lopert, Marge Mercurio Smith, Mandy Sutyak
Koehler Inducted Into Coaches Hall of Fame
By Bruce Warren
Not many football coaches get a Hall of Fame call after an 0-9 season. But Paul “Tiny” Koehler’s coaching career has been anything but ordinary.
Just ask any of the 27 former coaches, players,
administrators and fans who joined Koehler at the
Long time friend and coaching comrade Don Winger presented Koehler to the assembly as the first of five inductees this year. Winger served as defensive coordinator for Koehler for many years, while Koehler returned the favor and served as an assistant basketball coach for Winger early in his career. Together they served as co-head coaches for track at Niwot for seven years when no one else would take the job.
Winger had three things to say about Koehler: “First, he was a friend to a lot of people, and not just those who played for him or coached with him; second, he was a player’s coach; and third, he is forever a person of integrity.” Winger recalled an instance where a transfer student who played two plays in an early season game was reported to be ineligible two days later due to an error by the administration. Koehler’s response to the news was, “Then we forfeit,” even though it cost his team a playoff spot.
When it was Koehler’s turn to speak, the native of Flagler, Colo., held the room’s attention for well past his allotted five minutes, but no one minded as he recounted just a few of the special moments in his career, ranging from his first season in 1972 to coming out of retirement to coach a struggling Estes Park team in 2006 when no one else would.
“I am honored and humbled, awed and ecstatic to be standing here,” Koehler began. He thanked his players, his staff and administrators, and his family, including wife Jeanne and daughter Krista who were in attendance. He emphasized the importance of the effect coaches and teachers have on students, quoting General Colin Powell’s pinball game analogy that “Kids need adults to keep them in play while they’re figuring out where they want to go.”
Koehler’s Niwot teams won four
conference championships, and in 1990, he won a state championship.
Fittingly, six members of that team appeared to present him with a plaque at
the pre-banquet reception. He spent 26 years as head football coach at
Niwot, and three years as defensive line coach at the
But wins and losses were never the measure of Koehler’s success as a coach. And his stories weren’t about the exceptional abilities of some of his players, such as Matt McChesney, now playing in the NFL.
Instead, he recalled how in his
first season, he had his players run a mile the first day of practice, “like
that had anything to do with playing football,” he recalled. Brad Peterson,
who would be Koehler’s star tailback, led the team and finished his four laps
well ahead of the rest. As Peterson caught his breath, he saw a player,
Manuel Hinahosa, struggling to finish the second
lap. Peterson stepped back on the track and ran the rest of the way with
his teammate, and as the others finished their mile, each of them followed
Peterson’s example and joined Hinahosa until he
finished. “You can’t coach that,” Koehler remarked in noting how blessed
he had been to have been there. Later, the school administration told him
wasn’t enrolled in school, and when Koehler approached him, simply responded,
“I came to
Koehler also recalled when one of his best young players, Rusty Chezem, was seriously injured when he was drug by a horse. Chezem was in a coma for several weeks, and Koehler was asked to visit him every day. Eventually Chezem came out of the coma and returned to school, but he was paralyzed on his left side. Koehler recounted teammate Billy Zisch asking Koehler to help teach Chezem to run again in the halls of Niwot High. Although Chezem had to drag his left leg along, he eventually returned to the team and learned to play nose guard.
Koehler recalled Chezem making a tackle in front of the bench, still dragging his left leg. “He drew us together unbelievably,” Koehler said. “These kids, that’s what it’s all about.”
Koehler’s last story recounted how
he received a call from the All-State Games Director Torgy Torgerson complaining that Koehler must have been the
cause of Niwot student manager Garrett Stelzer’s calls. Stelzer persisted in asking to help at the All
State Football game, where Niwot’s Matt McChesney was scheduled to play. Koehler denied
putting his long-time student manager in touch with Torgerson,
then forgot about it. When Koehler decided to stop by the last day of
practice on his way back from a trip to
In recalling his former players, he noted, “Twenty-six guys are coaching now at the high school or college level.”
Koehler, who was often asked to speak at NHS graduation ceremonies, quoted Henry David Thoreau’s writings when he said, “After years of vain familiarity, some distant gesture or unconscious behavior, which we remember, speaks to us with more emphasis than the wisest or kindest words. We are sometimes made aware of a kindness long passed, and realize that there have been times when our friends’ thoughts of us were of so pure and lofty a character that they passed over us like the winds of heaven unnoticed; when they treated us not as what we were, but as what we aspired to be.”
Judging from the respect Koehler has earned from his players, his peers and his colleagues, and in his induction into the Coaches Hall of Fame, those strong winds are no longer unfelt.
Photo by Bruce Warren
Former Niwot High Football Coach Tiny Koehler is surrounded by members of the 1990 State Championship Team at the Coaches Hall of Fame Banquet (l to r): Donny Fort, Brian Miller, Coach Don Winger, Paul “Tiny” Koehler, Casey Kochevar, Coach Alan Stabe, Mike Lund, Brendon Riley, and Coach Ron Stedman.