Month in Review – April

 
A water proposal more than a decade in the making moves a little closer towards reality this month. The proposal by the Denver Water Authority would expand Gross Reservoir in Boulder County from 340 feet to 465 feet high, nearly tripling the capacity of the Gross Dam, draining many creeks of up to 80% of their water, explains Gary Wockner, Executive Director of Save the Colorado in a recent presentation. The proposal, which was originally brought forth more than 10 years ago, still needs several permits to proceed and could have a major environmental impact on Boulder, Summit and Grand Counties. The Moffat Collection System Project was originally written as a plan to service more of Denver Water’s million-plus users, but the final decisions will be in the hands of the County Commissioners, which could still be two or three years away.

A reported 18.3 inches of snow fell in Boulder as a result of one of the biggest storms of the year in Colorado. The spring storm moved into Boulder County on Saturday, April 16 and dumped the majority of the white stuff from Saturday into Sunday. Totals in the Boulder County area ranged from just under three inches in Longmont to 40 inches in Nederland, 39.2 inches in Ward and 36.2 inches in Allenspark, as the foothills were hit much harder than the cities.

The Colorado Music Hall of Fame, located in the Trading Post at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, recently inducted six new artists during a ceremony at the University of Colorado. The Glenn Miller Ballroom was the site of the event, which was a perfect choice as Miller lead the new roster of inductees. The other “20^th Century Pioneers,” as the Colorado Music Hall of Fame describes, include singer Lannie Garrett of Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, vaudevillian entertainer Elizabeth Spencer, “King of Jazz” Paul Whiteman, “Mr. Ragtime” Max Morath and Billy Murray, who was one of the first music stars from Colorado, touring vaudevillian circuits throughout the turn of the century.

An infant’s remains were found in an urn on the side of the road in Longmont last month. The urn contained the ashes of Jamesha Janaya Swain, who passed away in 1997 and had “Baby Girl Miscey” written on her urn, according to a recent press release. An oil and gas worker found the urn on March 3 and turned the ashes into the Sheriff’s Office in Weld County. Through a series of phone calls and tips the sheriff’s office was able to track down the girl’s mother and plans have been made to reunite the mother with her daughter’s ashes.

45 letters City Council received in favor of the Boulder-Nablus Sister City Project.

32: Google adds virtual visits to 32 off-street locations throughout Colorado.

200 hopefuls auditioned for the first round to be a Denver Broncos Cheerleader.

$175,000 in damage done to a home in Jefferson County thanks to burglars who didn’t steal a thing.

“America has changed, we have changed and definitely we need to realign and readjust our understandings of each other.” – Prince Turki al-Faisal of the Saudi Royal Family

“There are some incentives for not delivering complete clunkers, but the underlying motivation for both the university and the agent is to get warm bodies in the door.” – Philip G. Altbach, Founding Director for the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College of new international recruiting techniques.

“It’s as if the president is defining the policy and the Congress is executing it, that’s just upside down.” – Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of President Obama’s undocumented immigrant plan.

“Today it was a sad day for us, Romania unfortunately didn’t qualify for Olympics, so sad for me cause actually I come back from retirement just for this.” – Three-time Olympic Gold Medalist Catalina Ponor.

“She was funny and tough and loved life, living it to the fullest.” – Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond Co-star Doris Roberts’ passing.

Sources: The Denver Post, Boulder Weekly, Boulder Daily Camera, The New York Times, National Public Radio, Twitter