By Julie Fowler

reporting@lhvc.com

Throughout his career, Steve Jones had been involved in developing and selling a number of products and businesses.

Sitting behind the desk in his current office, tucked in the back corner of the Niwot Square building, Jones explained the basics of what he hopes could be one of his final big sellers - FlareAlert.

Jones, a longtime Niwot resident and president of The Keystone Group, was first approached by a competitor with the idea for a battery-powered alternative to the traditional strike flares. The reason that partnership didn't work, Jones said, is that he had ideas for improving the product, but the company wouldn't make the changes.

That's when he and his two oldest sons, Brent and Colby, started marketing their version of the safety flare. While Colby has transitioned to a teaching career, Jones still works with Brent and two other employees. But the business is fast outgrowing its physical space.

FlareAlert, which is marketed mostly to police and fire departments, is a small device run on 2 AA batteries and LED technology. It's weather resistant, can be seen from up to four miles away and is extremely durable. In fact, Jones himself has tested it by running over it with his car.

Another benefit of the lights, which currently come in orange and yellow but will soon expand in palette, is that they are magnetic and will stick to the back of a bumper should a driver need to pull to the side of the road. During the same 20 hours of light that FlareAlert provides on one set of batteries, you would need 80 strike flares.

A number of big city emergency departments throughout the United States are using the product, but so are businesses such as the Los Angeles and Las Vegas international airports, and Walt Disney World in

Florida. In addition, the FBI and NASA are testing FlareAlert.

       Jones says the product is popping up in all kinds of news papers, magazines and websites. One such site is www.treehugger.com, which touts FlareAlert's many uses as an environmentally friendly alternative to toxic flares - great for marking a broken down car on a dark night, as well as sticking to your mailbox so new friends can find your house. As an aside, the group has recently manufactured a smaller version of FlareAlert to be sold as The Everlasting Pumpkin Lite.

"I'm so doggone tired of going and relighting candles on Halloween night," Jones said. This light, which runs on three AAA batteries, will make your pumpkins glow for up to 20 hours. Not quite ready to do a full-scale marketing campaign, The Keystone Group has "accidentally" sold more than 30,000 of the candle alternatives through word of mouth. And, Jones says, his group is working on other products, too.

"We believe it's a good idea," Jones said. "We're going to have a number of items spin off of these."

You can buy FlareAlert locally at McGuckin Hardware and the McCaddon car dealership in Boulder or for $14.95 from www.FlareAlert.com.