DID YOU KNOW
It’s all in a president’s name
Monday is Presidents Day. Many Colorado locations are named for presidents, including streets, schools, counties and parks. Garfield, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and Washington counties are all named for the presidents, but Adams County is not. It is named for Gov. Alva Adams, who served two terms in the late 1800s.
President Dwight Eisenhower has a tunnel and a chapel named for him; Theodore Roosevelt, a national forest, among other landmarks; and Gerald Ford has a theater in Vail named for him.
Maybe the least-known place named for a president is the town of Woodrow, established in September 1913, in Washington County, roughly six months after Woodrow Wilson began serving as president. Currently, the farming and ranching town, with an estimated population of 20, has a post office and general store and a Baptist church. Woodrow and the town of Lindon combined their schools to form the pre-K through 12 Woodlin School, located between the two towns.
Sources: Woodlin School; “Colorado Place Names,” by William Bright; “1001 Colorado Place Names,” by Maxine Benson
An open-and-shut case
Gov. Bill Ritter on Thursday closed the Office of Colorado Benefits Management System – a 2-year-old operation set up to deal with escalating costs of the mistake-prone $200 million computer system for welfare benefits.
Ritter estimates that shutting the office will save $200,000 a year. He is returning the responsibility of running the system to the Department of Human Services and the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.
The bet here is they wish they had responsibility for something else – namely to replace it.
A newly polished dome
Lawmakers today will get a sneak peek at the refurbished Capitol dome. Closed some six years ago for safety reasons, “Mr. Brown’s Attic” reopens to the public Monday with an exhibition of historical photos and Capitol artifacts.
They already paid their dues
Rep. Dorothy Butcher, D-Pueblo, was critical of a bill that would prohibit employers from requiring workers to pay union dues.
Butcher had introduced an amendment to exempt belly dancers from the bill, which died in committee. “The spirit of this bill is not as funny as the amendments were,” she said.
Can we quote you on that?
“We’re sunnier, windier and smarter.”
– House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, in reference to the numerous other states pushing renewable-energy agendas
