Week of March 18, 2026
Week of March 18, 2026
Colorado's meteorological winter ended Feb. 28, with March 1 marking the beginning of the new spring weather season. According to the National Weather Service (NWS) and local climate experts, this winter was the warmest in Colorado history with the highest temperatures recorded in more than 150-years of climate data collection. Colorado's warm and dry winter disrupted typical farming schedules, including bee pollination, creating climate-driven mis-timing of the seasons. Chris Borke, founder of...
The Boulder County Planning Commission will meet today, Wednesday, March 18, to discuss changes to the draft Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan released March 3. The document will shape how the City of Boulder develops over the next 20 years and guides decision making, especially around land use. The Boulder Valley Planning Area covers the city of Boulder and unincorporated areas immediately surrounding the city, including Gunbarrel. The portion of Gunbarrel that is not part of the City of...
Nick Little, a member of the Niwot Incorporation Committee, opened the public forum on incorporation on March 12 to a standing-room-only audience at Niwot Hall. Little said the meeting was limited to an hour and during that time, the committee would share a recap, updates, details about the petition to put the issue to incorporate Niwot on the November ballot, creation of focus teams, and then hold a Q&A session. Little said the Niwot Incorporation Committee website, Niwot.town, was updated...
A surprise was in store for the 50 attendees at the March 12 meeting of Niwot Community Connection (NCC). The gathering at Niwot Hall began in its customary way, with introductions and a welcome to new members. The meeting then moved to its featured presentation, when mother-daughter duo Kathy and Krista Koehler began sharing the results of their meticulous research into previously unknown pieces of Niwot history. Shortly after their talk began, however, an unexpected distraction occurred. A...
The League of Women Voters of Boulder County (LWVBC) was formed in 2007 by the merger of the Longmont and Boulder Valley chapters, resulting in the LWVBC. The name may be misleading as democracy doesn’t have a gender. While honoring its suffragist roots, today’s League is a diverse powerhouse where men and women work side-by-side to protect the vote. Men have been joining the League of Women Voters (LWV) since the 1970s. The LWV is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages...
ROAD NEWS CO 119/Diagonal Highway - Niwot Road median closure Beginning next Wednesday, March 25 at 7 p.m. through Monday, March 30 at 5 a.m., the Niwot Road median between northbound and southbound CO Highway 119/Diagonal Highway will be closed to all modes of transportation while crews complete signal work, final alignment striping, concrete paving operations, and install guardrail for the CO 119 Safety, Mobility and Bikeway Project. During these closures, the intersection will remain open...
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Musician Tom Waits wrote, "And I want to know the same thing/ Everyone wants to know/ How's it going to end?" Niwot resident Dick Lentz wonders, too. His new book, "Christians, Unpack Your Bags!" addresses the question. Lentz presented his book and the question it posits at Niwot's Inkberry Books on Saturday, March 7. Lentz explained that he found religion in the Navy. "When I left the Navy, I went to Bible college and got a degree in theology," he said. "My goal at the time was to be a...
Armed with his guitar and cowboy hat, Niwot High School graduate Drew Moore (NHS '24) is pursuing a music career and recording his first album, "Drew Moore's Carnival of Animals," which will be released this summer. Moore is from Oklahoma and moved to Colorado with his family in 2018. He began playing guitar at the age of seven, and soon excelled at songs from bands such as Metallica, Van Halen, and Iron Maiden. He began playing music on the piano and xylophone at age three. At Sunset Middle...
When Niwot High School senior Tessa Ashkenase worked as a caregiver at a daycare near her Erie home, she noticed that the bookshelves were often empty. Last year, as she was working on her CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) project, a requirement for her International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma, that observation turned into inspiration. As a result, she created a program designed to inspire community book donations and make books available to students who might not be able to afford books of...
Sophomore Emersen Pearson has become a familiar face across all of the Niwot High School arts programs in the last two years. It may be only her second year at NHS, but Pearson dove into two areas of NHS arts headfirst: music and theater. Musically, Pearson began playing guitar in her free time as a child. For the past few years, she has refined her technique on the complex string instrument. Before joining the band program this year, Pearson was a member of the cheer team. She said, "During...
Senior Julia Klein is new to the Niwot High School girls golf team this season, but the sport is anything but new to her. Klein has been playing golf for most of her life with her dad. However, this is the first year she has taken the sport to the competitive level. "I really started getting into the sport last year and started keeping track of my scores," Klein said. After years of focusing on club volleyball, Klein decided that her senior year was the right time to finally join the Cougars'...
The Niwot High School girls tennis team faced Legacy High School on March 10, a tough opponent, but sophomore Janie Holmes made sure the Cougars didn't go home empty handed. Holmes was Niwot’s lone singles winner on the road loss at Legacy, winning her match 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 Singles in one of the more convincing performances of the early spring season. It was a sharp turnaround from her heartbreaking super tiebreak loss to Holy Family High School on March 5. This time, Holmes was in control from the start and never let up. The rest of the...
The Niwot High School boys volleyball team picked up two strong wins last week, defeating Pomona High School 3-0 on March 10 before earning a 3-1 victory over Cherry Creek High School on March 12. "One of the best takeaways with both of those matches is we were almost at 100 percent of our guys being around," Head Coach Mathew Samson said. "It was really fun to see how we played together as this cohesive group that we know we'll be taking the distance." Niwot controlled the match against Pomona...
The St. Vrain Valley School District girls lacrosse team, based out of Mead High School, opened its season with a strong performance against Pueblo West High School, winning 20-3 on March 13. Beyond the victory, the team's chemistry and positive energy were a key element throughout the game. Coach Hannah Hackney has emphasized that the culture within the group has been one of their biggest strengths. "The girls are supportive of one another, they compete hard, and they genuinely enjoy being...
The Cougars girls golf team began league play on Tuesday, March 10, at the Broadlands Golf Course, placing third at the Granite Peaks League match with a team score of 365. Holy Family High School won the event with a 326, followed by Monarch High School at 364. Junior Wendy Cheruiyot led Niwot with an 83, finishing fourth overall. Sophomore Sonya Holmes followed closely with an 84 to place fifth. Senior Emmy Hostelley carded a 95, junior Adison Murphy shot 103, and senior Julia Klein finished...
Depth across the roster helped Niwot High School's track and field team claim a series of victories Saturday, March 14, at the Murray Kula Invitational at Windsor High School. On the girls side, the Cougars found success in both the distance races and the relays. Freshman Lila Robbie led the distance group with a second-place finish in the 1600-meter run in 5:31.32, while freshman Paige Edwards placed seventh in the same race with a time of 5:36.31. Niwot's 4x400 relay team finished second in...
Niwot High School baseball needed eight innings to win on Thursday, March 12. Twenty-four hours later, the Cougars did not need nearly that long. After walking off Lewis-Palmer High School 4-3 in extra innings, Niwot followed with a 13-0 five-inning victory over The Academy on Friday, March 13, completing a two-game sweep before heading into its early-season trip to Arizona. The Cougars opened the stretch Thursday at home against the Rangers. Lewis-Palmer scored in the first inning and added...
The Erie High School district-wide boys lacrosse team continued its strong start to the season last week, earning two decisive wins with a 15-3 victory over Kent Denver School on March 9 and a 14-6 win against Lewis-Palmer High School on March 11. The Tigers' balanced offense, strong defensive play, and dominance in possession have helped the team maintain momentum early in the season. Head Coach Riley Curran said the biggest takeaway from the two games is the team's continued improvement. "I...
Dear Editor, I am a resident of Niwot. A resident of Cottonwood Park West. I am also someone who believes that facts, no matter how inconvenient, are important. Since the fall, I have heard a lot about the lack of attention Boulder County has paid to Niwot. I have heard that the County instituted a draconian minimum wage plan that would eventually bankrupt the businesses in Niwot. Longmont’s plan was held up as an alternative. Longmont doesn’t have a minimum wage plan. The City of Boulder does, and Boulder County’s was very similar....
Dear Editor, The main disadvantage for incorporation that I see is the potential to create riffs between neighbors. I observed this in Thursday night’s meeting, March 12. We have had a nice, unincorporated, town here, since its beginning. A group of “well meaning” people (23 who donated $150,000 for this effort) think that they know the best way to preserve the wonderful character of this town. They have done a lot of work to prove that they are correct. And, I suppose a few others do, as well. I prefer the simple way that it is now...
