Notes from your editor, October 8, 2020

OK, getting back to the news…
New this week, is the return of our local high school coach Marcus Richardson to write about school sports. He has two articles about girls softball, and next about football.

It’s an exciting time to be in Lyons with our girls softball team having a smashing season! They are on the verge of making the state championship, which they haven’t done in a long time. 

Our Arts, Culture & History article of the week is about a big travelling trunk, almost a hundred years old, that was used by a famous road builder, W. A. Colt, who lived in Lyons. You will be shocked at all the road construction work he and his sons did over the years, such as Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mt. National Park.

In our weekly Gardening section, we are introducing a handy resource for gardeners. There is a new page–Facebook “Lyons Gardeners,” that offers locals a place to ask their questions that pertain to growing things specifically in the Lyons area! You can’t get more personal advice than that. Some of you may have met the group’s administrator, Lindsay Wolf, who had a seed exchange this past week in town. The article includes jealousy-inducing photos of her garden!

We also welcome new writer Rebecca Batson, who did the gardening article. You’ll be seeing a lot of her other reporting in the coming months.

In our Wellness section, we have an in-depth article from Dr. Deja Heckard-Dunn (Stillwater) about how we can lose weight that we gained during our COVID-19 isolation. If you follow her suggestions, you will never have to see a doctor again! …you will be so healthy, svelte, and energetic!

Community Resource pages:

• UPDATED: Community Resources (eg, county, transportation, schools, health, etc) 
• UPDATED: VOTING-2020
• NEW PAGE: Business Resources = Energize Colorado Grant (25 employees or less); Lyons Revolving Loan; Proposed Artisan Market in Lyons

Around the town news:

Tanya Daly is doing a series of video interviews of the businesses that benefited from the Lyons Community Foundation’s coronavirus-related grants this year, and posting them on Facebook. It’s also a good way to learn about small businesses in town that you may not know about. Tanya will be doing a full article in the Recorder very soon.

Lions: Marilou Webb put a warning on Facebook to be aware if you like to run or walk on Old South St. Vrain, that there has been some mountain lion activity there recently. Two sheep were killed in a pasture this week. Also, someone tossed the carcass of some deer a couple of times in the past two weeks, which draw wild animals to the area. (Be sure to contact the police etc. to report such illegal activity). Also, a Main Street resident took a photo of a bear in a tree outside his place!

Politics:

BALLOTS: The Colorado ballots are being mailed out October 9th, so it’s time to state a few things about voting.

While others states and the federal government (post office, and the Administration) are trying to affect or delegitimize mail-in ballots (Texas is only allowing one ballot box per county), our state is constantly making it easier, while using strong security measures.

I can hardly keep up with the new and innovative ways that our Colorado Secretary of State is making sure that our votes count! I’ll put more details on the ELECTION-2020 page, but here are three NEW things: (1) you can track your vote from the day the ballot is sent out till it is counted (2) you can fix your “bad signature” using your smart phone (3) you can register right up to 7 p.m. on voting day (4) additional Sunday 11/1 voting stations will be open.

There was a hub bub in town about an ad running on TV. In the ad, local charitable person and partner in some stores in town– Neil Sullivan— stated his support for Senate candidate John Hickenlooper, saying “He said he’d help us rebuild and he did. He got to work with state and federal authorities to get things going…There’s a lot of people who are trying to tear him down. To me John Hickenlooper is the type of person who lifts people up.” LaVern Johnson and others testified that he dug money out of state coffers to fix the roads fast, and more, when the federal government put up restrictions and delays for months and years. In 2018, the town thanked him by naming a new short trail after him. You can debate his other projects, but there’s no debating his help during the 2013 Flood. 

Health Issues & Weather:

New announcement this week from the CDC. The updated Guidance acknowledging that Coronavirus can spread simply through the air -not just by direct talking, coughing, exercising, etc. Airborne particles can linger in the air “for minutes or even hours.” Warning: take special care in enclosed spaces that are poorly ventilated.

The good news is that the number of CU students contracting the virus has gone from 254 two weeks ago, to 63 last week, and zero so far this week = Quarantine and masks do work!

Well, Mother Nature played a trick on us. We thought we were now into fall’s cooler weather, but all of last week we were in the mid-80s! But Tuesday will drop down to 72 degrees, and continue in the 60s (as predicted so far) for the rest of the week. The normal average high for this time of the year is 69 degrees.

It is interesting to note that Denver had only 11 “green days” out of the last 30 days, per Channel 2 weather news. The rest were smoke filled, plus with the lower humidity that means more breathing problems, nose bleeds, itchy eyes, and coughs. And, Lyons may have got more of these, since we are closer to the forest fires. Not a day went by where we didn’t have at least a haze on the mountains.

Stay well, and stay informed! Keep reading the Lyons Recorder!
 
See you next week! Kathleen Spring, Your Editor

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