Colorado transportation officials said Wednesday they may have to cut $75 million from the state’s highway construction and maintenance budget in each of the next four years if voters fail to approve Referendums C and D on the November ballot.
If the measures pass, Referendum C would allow Colorado to retain more than $3 billion over five years for state spending above limits set forth in the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR.
Referendum D sets up a “critical needs financing corporation” that would allow the Colorado Department of Transportation to sell $1.2 billion in bonds for building 55 high-priority road projects around the state over the next four years.
The state would pay back bondholders using retained revenues allowed by Referendum C.
Without the infusion of new highway money from the ballot measures, CDOT is likely to have about $300 million less in spending for roads through 2010 than was anticipated in earlier highway-funding plans, officials said Wednesday.
The shortfall would result because TABOR restrictions have reduced other sources of money for roads, they said.
FORT COLLINS
2 face murder charges after body recovered
Two Fort Collins residents are facing second-degree murder charges after police uncovered a woman’s body in Poudre Canyon this week.
Wade Burkham, 44, and Bunny Snow Winstar, 55, were arrested in connection with the case.
Both were booked into the Larimer County Jail on charges of second-degree murder and criminal attempt to commit second- degree murder.
Burkham is being held on $750,000 bail and Winstar on $150,000 bail.
Police said they received information Monday evening from a Fort Collins man regarding his involvement in a homicide that had occurred in the 1300 block of Cherry Street.
During the course of the investigation, it was learned a woman’s body had been buried in Poudre Canyon. Investigators located the burial site and recovered her body.
Cause of death and identification of the victim are pending, police said.
EVERGREEN
Giving couple named Parents of the Year
James and AnnaMarie Jackson of Evergreen have won a plethora of awards, but last week they were given another: “Parents of the Year.”
“I’ve told them many, many times that they were the best parents in the world, and now it’s official,” said their son Douglass Jackson, 42.
The Jacksons, who have two sons and four grandchildren, will be presented with a plaque Sunday by the National Parents’ Day Council and given a $1,000 check.
The fourth Sunday of July was made National Parents’ Day by Congress in 1994 and signed into law by President Clinton.
“We had quite a few outstanding couples, but the Jacksons really stood out,” said Howard Self, spokesman for the nonprofit council.
“They had shown a lot of dedication to their own family and then extended that love beyond their own family to take care of others with a parental heart.”
As a real estate agent, James Jackson reached his childhood dream of becoming a millionaire by the age of 25. At 30, he decided to give his money to charities and start over again.
“Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you’re happy,” the 64-year-old Jackson said Wednesday.
The Jacksons began Project C.U.R.E., a nonprofit humanitarian relief organization that collects medical surplus and donates it to developing countries.
“They have an amazing level of compassion and consistency,” said Douglass Jackson. “Things that are important to them haven’t changed since I can remember.”
LARIMER COUNTY
Coroner rules death in car crash a suicide
The Larimer County coroner said Wednesday that the death of a 56-year-old Loveland woman found in her car in the Cache la Poudre River on Tuesday was a suicide.
The woman, Cindy A. Kuchenbrod, was the driver of a 1999 Toyota Camry that traveled off the right side of Colorado 14 about 30 miles west of Fort Collins.
The vehicle left the road for about 30 feet and rolled down a 60-foot embankment into the river before becoming submerged in the water, according to the Colorado State Patrol.
The coroner said Wednesday that Kuchenbrod’s manner of death was suicide and the cause was drowning.
DENVER
Judge drops state case against federal agents
A federal court judge on Wednesday decided federal narcotics agents could not be held in contempt of a state court order to return medical marijuana seized in a 2003 raid.
Federal agents, armed with a search warrant, entered the Routt County home of Donald Nord and confiscated 5 ounces of marijuana and paraphernalia, according to court records.
A Routt County judge ultimately dismissed charges against Nord, who was legally registered to use medical marijuana.
But federal authorities refused to return Nord’s marijuana and pipes, defying a state court order to do so. Medical marijuana use by authorized patients is legal according to Colorado law but is a violation of federal statutes.
U.S. District Judge Walker Miller ruled that federal authorities were entitled to immunity protection, and he dismissed the proceeding.
HIGHLANDS RANCH
$10,000 in vandalism at historic mansion
Authorities are looking for clues to who ransacked the historic Highlands Ranch Mansion on Monday night, causing an estimated $10,000 in damage.
The mansion, more than a century old, has been home to some of the area’s most well-heeled residents and serves as a historical site.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office asks that anyone with information about the break-in and vandalism call its tip line at 303-660-7579.
