GOLDEN
Sewage spill closes part of Clear Creek
Clear Creek from Georgetown to the South Platte River has been temporarily closed to recreation by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment until at least Friday morning as a precautionary measure because of a sewage treatment-plant problem in Georgetown.
On Tuesday afternoon, a power outage caused Georgetown’s wastewater treatment plant to malfunction, sending about 100,000 gallons of partially treated sewage into Clear Creek.
The state health department is taking water samples at various locations to determine the level of contamination.
When results are available, health officials will decide what additional steps need to be taken and when the warning can be lifted.
Golden officials said they took immediate measures to stop water from Clear Creek from entering the city’s water treatment plant. They say there is no need for concern about the impact on Golden’s drinking water.
DENVER
DPS candidate quits, endorses another
Denver Public School board at-large candidate Andrew Karsian backed out of the race Wednesday, and endorsed Denver businessman Brad Buchanan.
Karsian, a policy analyst, said that part of his decision was based on money because he didn’t get the teachers union endorsement. Last week, a consortium of labor interests threw support – and $20,000 – behind candidate Jill Conrad.
“It wouldn’t make sense for me to stay in with two strong candidates, like Brad and Jill,” Karsian said Wednesday, referring to Conrad and Buchanan. “It (the union) was an endorsement I was hoping to get.”
LAKEWOOD
Attorney appointed 1st District judge
Tamara Russell, chief deputy city attorney for Lakewood, has been appointed a judge in Colorado’s 1st Judicial District, which covers Jefferson and Gilpin counties.
Russell’s new appointment will begin Saturday, Gov. Bill Owens’ office announced. She will replace retiring District Judge James D. Zimmerman.
Russell has been with Lakewood for eight years and she also served five years as a deputy district attorney in Adams County.
A graduate of the University of Colorado Law School, Russell recently served as president of the 1st Judicial District Bar Association.
Her annual salary will be $107,044.
AURORA
Altercation with driver injures officer
The drunken driver of a stolen 1998 Oldsmobile slightly injured an Aurora police officer Tuesday night during a chase, officer Anthony Guzman said.
About 7:46 p.m., an officer saw a woman driving fast southbound on Potomac Street near East Alameda Avenue.
The officer pulled the car over. When he approached the woman, she appeared drunk and had an open container of liquor in her lap, Guzman said.
The Oldsmobile was still in drive and the woman refused several commands to put the car in park, Guzman said.
The officer tried to get the woman out of the car, but she closed the door on his left arm and drove away, Guzman said.
Another officer in a patrol car tried to stop the woman, but Guzman said she clipped the police car and kept driving through neighborhoods.
Police used stop sticks at East 48th Avenue and Peña Boulevard to stop the woman and arrested her.
Tonya Barker, 25, of Denver was taken to a hospital for an evaluation, then booked into the Aurora Municipal Jail on charges of second-degree assault, stealing a car, running from police and driving under the influence.
The injuries to the officer’s arm were not severe, Guzman said.
WALSENBURG
10 years later, Texas hiker’s remains found
The remains of a hiker from Texas who vanished on Mount Blanca 10 years ago have been found on the jagged north slope of the 14,345-foot mountain alongside his backpack, Huerfano County Sheriff Bruce Newman said Wednesday.
Jim Mills, a writer, former television magazine host in Salt Lake City and an independent TV producer living in Fort Worth at the time of his death, disappeared Aug. 17, 1995. He was 43.
Mills had reached the peak of Mount Blanca about 30 miles west of Walsenburg and was descending when he apparently fell, plummeting more than 500 feet, Newman said. He said a five-day search failed to find a trace of Mills.
On Sept. 11, two climbers found the remains.
Newman and others from his department and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, with directions from the climbers, searched the following day but could not find the site.
After getting a more detailed description of the location, Mills and others went back onto the mountain and recovered bones and Mills’ backpack, in which they found his driver’s license.
FRANKTOWN
Plague confirmed
in prairie dog colony
Health officials have confirmed a late-season case of the plague in a prairie dog colony near Franktown, near the Historical Grange open space west of Colorado 83.
There have been no reports of humans catching the disease, but people live and play in the area.
Officials have sprayed for fleas and closed the open space until the threat has passed.
The disease is spread by fleas from prairie dogs.
“With the weather changing pretty soon to fall and winter, plague becomes a non-issue as fleas die and (prairie dogs) hibernate,” said Bruce Wilson, director of the environmental health division for the Tri-County Health Department.
