Memorial services set for Smoky Hill seniors
Memorial services have been scheduled for two Smoky Hill High School seniors who died following a car wreck Tuesday.
Ian Wallace’s service will be at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Living Hope Baptist Church, 11373 E. Alameda Ave. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at Horan McConaty Funeral Home, 3201 S. Parker Road.
Joshua Bankett-Land’s service has been set for 1 p.m. Friday at Eastern Hills Community Church in Aurora, 19697 E. Smoky Hill Road. A viewing will be from 4 to 9 p.m. at Taylor Funeral and Cremation Services, 15057 E. Colfax Ave.
Bankett-Land and Wallace, both 17, weren’t wearing seat belts while riding in the back seat of a 2002 Kia. The car, being driven by 16-year-old Michael Stillwagon, swerved into oncoming traffic on South Parker Road. Police are still investigating the case and haven’t decided on charges.
Stillwagon and one other passenger, Alton Coward, 17, had minor injuries.
* This brief has been corrected. Ian Wallace’s service was initially listed as 4 p.m.
Polygamous church wants property back
A polygamous church based on the Utah-Arizona border is seeking the return of property seized earlier this year from the brother of fugitive leader Warren Jeffs.
In a motion filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints indicates it wants property taken when Seth Steed Jeffs was arrested in Colorado. That property could include about $142,000 in cash.
The church also says it wants an order imposing “reasonable conditions to protect access to the property and its use in later proceedings.” The actual request for the property has been temporarily sealed.
Thursday’s motion asks that the request be permanently sealed.
“The free exercise of the church’s practice of religion contained within these documents is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the motion states.
Seth Jeffs, of Hildale, Utah,was arrested Oct. 28 by Pueblo County sheriff’s deputies who were investigating a possible drunken driver.
Humans OK, pets die in separate home fires
Two fires in Denver on Saturday scorched homes and proved fatal to family pets, a fire spokeswoman said.
A fire in an apartment on West Nevada Place shortly before 11 a.m. displaced a family of five and killed their three cats, Denver Fire Department spokeswoman Heather Green said.
The family was able to move into a vacant apartment in the same complex, Green said.
An earlier fire burned a couch at a home at 7100 E. Mississippi Ave.
The human occupants escaped injury and the family’s iguana survived, but an unidentified pet died, Green said.
To protect elk, resort trims summer plans
The Aspen Skiing Co. said it will trim its plans for summer activities in Snowmass in hopes of protecting elk.
The company has approval to build a new gondola at the bottom of the Snowmass resort to the bottom of the Elk Camp chairlift. The gondola and a new restaurant are expected to bring more visitors to that part of the mountain during the summer offseason.
State wildlife officials and local environmental groups said they worried the development would affect elk habitat. The company had planned to build four trails for hikers and bikers, but now will build only one, away from the Burnt Mountain area in question.
“Very friendly and reasonable discussions led to this,” said Sloan Shoemaker, executive director of the Wilderness Workshop.
“Skico, much to their credit, realized the depth of the opposition to this project as it was proposed, and adjusted accordingly.”
BLM seeks input on private-land drilling
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has begun reviewing its policies on drilling for federally owned gas on private land in the West and has established a website where people can submit comments.
The West’s gas-drilling boom has generated friction among ranchers and the gas industry. Under the policy review, ordered by Congress last summer, BLM will consult with property owners, drillers and others.
At issue is “split estate” land, where ranchers or other private owners hold surface rights but underground oil and gas deposits are owned by the government. Often, split-estate landowners have no say in how or when energy development takes place on their land.
The website for comments is www.blm.gov/bmp.
BLM also plans to schedule several “listening sessions” in late winter and early spring to gather additional comments and recommendations as it prepares a final report to Congress.
Suspect due in court in student’s killing
A man suspected of killing a Metro State student outside an Aurora bar in September will have his second court appearance Wednesday.
Marcus Bohnenkamp, 21, faces 12 charges, including first-degree murder, in the Sept. 17 shooting death of Gene Seho Park, 22, outside the Velvet Room Bar & Lounge in the 2700 block of South Parker Road.
Aurora police arrested Bohnenkamp on Dec. 22.
Police say Park was an innocent bystander who was witnessing a fight that had developed in the bar’s parking lot about 2:25 a.m.
Police say Bohnenkamp walked away from the confrontation, got into a car, possibly with other suspects, drove by the group of people near the bar and opened fire.
