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Niwotian Kelsi Singer is making international news as the 2019 Harold C. Urey Prize winner. The Urey Prize is awarded by the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences to early-career scientists, of any nationality, to recognize and encourage exceptional accomplishments in planetary research. The winner must be either under age 37 or have earned a doctorate degree within the past six years. Singer, 35, was nominated for the honor by a group of scientists working with her a...
According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, one in five adults in the US suffers with mental health issues. It’s estimated that 50 percent of those individuals also deal with addiction. Homelessness, deaths from overdoses and suicide, leaving educational programs, and chronic unemployment are just a few of the results of mental health and addiction issues. On May 29, Recovery Café Longmont (RC) opened its doors to anyone who needs help recovering from mental health or addiction pr...
Twenty-eight artists, 59 completed people’s choice ballots, and three judges’ professional opinions have resulted in the winners for this year’s “Why Not Niwot?” Juried Art Show., sponsored by the Niwot Cultural Arts Association (NCAA). Displayed at more than 15 businesses throughout town, the eclectic and imaginative entries illustrated what makes the town of Niwot inimitable. Following a musical performance by the Niwot Community Semi-Marching Free Grange Band at June’s First Friday Art...
This year, on what would have marked the ninth year of the much loved Jazz on 2nd Ave festival, downtown Niwot will be void of the wafting notes of trumpets, bass, drums, and saxophones. Craig Blockwick, co-founding director of the event, said that with the closure of Treppeda’s Ristorante, the location of the festival became a problem. While the organizers looked at a couple of other places in town to have the event, the given timeframe wasn’t conducive to either the necessary permitting or...
Debbie Lammers is this month’s Left Hand Laurel recipient because of her dedication to St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) and schools throughout Colorado. Lammers spent her formative years in Las Vegas where her father was a hotel executive. She was in seventh grade when her father passed away. Her family relocated to Northern California a year later. She attended California State University - Chico and then worked as a legal assistant and a paralegal for many years. She and Chris, her h...
Conversion of Boulder County leased farmland to genetically modified-free zones has been extended by county commissioners for another two years for corn crops and four additional years for sugar beet crops. The highly-charged issue brought out concerned citizens and farmers, making for standing room only during the June 3 hearing. Fiddling with the genetics of the seeds isn’t the biggest issue. It’s the chemicals added to the seeds, glyphosates (found in Roundup) and neonicotinoids (ne...
On May 15, the Boulder County Planning Commission unanimously recommended 8-0 that plans to build Jack’s Solar Garden at 8102 95th Street move ahead and be presented to the Boulder County Commissioners on Thursday, June 13. The first of its kind in Boulder County, the five-acre co-habitation of solar energy generation and agriculture is being proposed by Byron Kominek, a third generation owner of the farmland. Kominek successfully passed muster with Boulder County land use staff demonstrating t...
The University of Colorado Boulder’s 10th annual GoldLab Symposium culminated with the inspirational story of Mila’s Miracle Foundation (MMF) as told by Julia Vitarello, Founder and CEO of MMF, and Dr. Timothy Yu M.D., Ph.D. Local resident Vitarello and Boston-based Yu used a tag-team presentation to describe a profound scientific breakthrough in personalized medicine for Vitarello’s daughter Mila, and its far-reaching implications. Larry Gold, CU professor of molecular cellular and devel...
Fly Away Home is celebrating two big happenings - the home décor business has landed in its permanent home at Cottonwood Square Shopping Center and will be offering the talent of another local business, Zone913. Kathy Trauner, owner of Fly Away Home, has signed a two year lease for the corner space that started out at first as a pop-up holiday season shop. A steady flow of customers getting hooked on the unique home accents proved to Trauner that there’s demand for the reasonably priced de...
If you are one of the 120,000 property owners in Boulder County who have received a notice of property valuation in recent weeks, you are likely to have rolled back on your heels for a moment. The compulsory biennial recalculation of property values is close to 18 percent higher for Niwot residential properties than the previous county-assigned values. Niwot was on the high end of value upticks in the county, with the increases beginning at around nine percent. Although the demand for property...
Barb Van Winkle, Teacher Barb Van Winkle has worked for St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) for 31 years. She started at Niwot Elementary 24 years ago, where she taught fifth grade for a few years and then taught gifted and talented students for another 21 years. She said the students and parents in Niwot are wonderful. NES Principal Nancy Pitz said, “Barb has impacted thousands of lives throughout her teaching career. I will always remember her love for all students, her passion for the G...
The small two-story red brick building at 290 2nd Avenue, now Osmosis Art and Architecture was originally a Seventh Day Adventist church. When the congregation of the church disbanded in the late 1920’s, the building was renovated into a residence by Harry Slater. That’s most likely when the bell tower sitting atop the structure was removed. Local historian Anne Dyni has a photo of the building in one of her books. The building’s present owner Anne Postle said, “Ever since I bought it and Ann...
For more than 30 years, the Left Hand Grange has been a weekly hotspot for area bridge players. April marked the end of an era for Niwot’s Bridge Club when Jim Steele, the director of the Tuesday night games, died from injuries he received as a pedestrian in a hit and run accident. Steele, 82, was known as a man of many talents. He was an accomplished metallurgic engineer, a jubilant dancer, a performing poet, and an excellent bridge teacher. He was often spotted dancing at Rock and Rails events...
A bear visited Niwot last Tuesday, May 14. First reported midday Monday in south Longmont, Colorado Wildlife officers weaved through the area with each report of a sighting, but were unable to locate him. Another call, at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, placed the migrating bear near Hover Road and Highway 119, but an officer didn’t set eyes on him until he’d spent some quality time hanging out in Niwot’s Overbrook neighborhood and his stopover was publicized on the Nextdoor app in the late afternoon. The b...
He makes his living diving down more than a hundred feet to capture astonishing images of marine life and he lives in a barn in Niwot. Go figure. But Andy Mann’s work is about more than pretty pictures. Mann has quite the tale to tell. In 2003, at the age of 23, he moved to Boulder from Virginia for the mountains and the bluegrass music scene. A co-worker from The Sink restaurant asked Mann to come climbing and scaling the side of a mountain instantly became his obsession. Mann moved to E...
In theory it took a year and a half for Flagstaff Academy to be awarded the national designation of a School to Watch (STW), but in fact the award’s rigorous objectives have been in the works far longer than that. One of only 18 Colorado schools currently holding the title, Flagstaff Academy is also the first and only charter school to have earned the award. The STW program began in 1999 and is administered through the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, and within Colorado is c...
Filmmaker Adam Rosenberg’s creations may make you cover your eyes, but you’ll be peeking through your fingers so you don’t miss a thing. Rosenberg’s post on Nextdoor let us in on his latest short film, The Runs. The final scene takes place in his own hood, Cottonwood East. Rosenberg warned, “Beware, the film relies heavily on potty humor,” and that wasn’t an analogy. It took about a day for anyone to comment on his post. Perhaps it was because the film starts with a man on the toilet, which...
Besides the obvious deliciousness listed in the title Wine, Cheese and Chocolate Tasting, the fundraising event hosted by The Rotary Club of Niwot also hits on some other high notes – an evening of musical entertainment, the opportunity to take home fabulous auction items, while giving to the community. The venue for the ninth anniversary of the notable event is the Longmont Museum and the evening is Saturday, May 18, from 5 to 9 p.m. One hundred percent of proceeds go toward the Rotary C...
Tiny homes have an undeniable charm about them. They’re - well, let’s just say it – they’re super cute. An entire neighborhood of tiny homes is downright adorable. But for one particular community, the tininess is ultra-lovable, because it’s about opening up a whole new world for each resident. The people living in those homes were simply trying to make it through another day, and they were suffering. Now they’re being helped big-time, and deservedly so. The residents are veterans who took an...
Coffee, booze, and marijuana - all legal substances that make you feel a little body-mind “something something.” Now you can add Kava to that list. Imported from such exotic South Pacific Islands as Fiji, Vanuatu, and Solomon, Kava has become Boulder-bound going straight to The Root Kava Co., the first bar of its kind in the county. Opened in October 2018, The Root is owned by four partners; Winn Kirkpatrick, John Callahan, Pat Irvine and, the newest partner, Keller Heurich, hailing from Niwot....
Like a lot of kids, Dr. Joe Sertich had a thing for dinosaurs. But his childhood fascination didn’t subside and the Colorado native turned his inquisitiveness into a dino-lover’s dream career as a Curator of Dinosaurs. Now his life is filled with paleontological learning, researching, and the uncovering of bones for the same institute that fed his curiosity as a child, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS). Thanks to the suggestion of Niwot volunteers who clean fossils at the museum’s l...
At the March 12 meeting regarding the building moratorium in downtown Niwot, Boulder County Commissioners were clear that alley access by all parties between the residential area on 3rd Avenue and the commercial area on 2nd Avenue was essential. One of their directives was for land use staff to develop a solution for alley use. Unfortunately for commercial property owners, the first meeting addressing a solution on the matter didn’t satisfy them. The upshot of the April 3 alley meeting with B...
Each year, hundreds of youngsters in Boulder County enter the child welfare system. It’s a complex and fraught system, but Voices for Children (VFC), a nonprofit organization based in Gunbarrel, helps children and their families find a path out. Niwot-based Debra Reed Fowler Real Estate (DRF) has been an active supporter of VFC’s Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program for three years. In March, her team donated $1,000 to help the organization continue to advocate on behalf of neg...
From providing the quickest driving route, to identifying where measles outbreaks are likely to occur, software applications tracking data across geography have become elemental to our daily lives. Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (like the GPS in smartphones,) and other data collecting/analyzing tools help to forecast floods, analyze accident hotspots, and even study soil patterns. Front Range Community College’s (FRCC) Geospatial Program Lead, Jennifer Muha said...
A controversial development proposed for the corner of 2nd Avenue and Niwot Road has been taken off the table. The mixed use proposal put forth to the Boulder County land use department by Von’s Colorado Concepts (VCC) became mired in red tape last September when Boulder County began a six-month moratorium on new construction in the Niwot Rural Community District in order to revamp building codes. If the proposed project had been given the go ahead, the property owned by Dr. David Meisner at 376...
Reveling in five years of business in Niwot, Left Hand Animal Hospital will have an even bigger reason to celebrate this month. LHAH owners will be able to officially call Niwot home when they move into their very own building at 304 Franklin Street. “For us, the move is a great thing, because it means we get to be permanent residents of Niwot,” co-owner Dr. Nancy Bureau said.” And we get to move just around the corner from where we are.” The practice will take about a week to pack and move the...
Boulder County is rich in high quality, locally grown produce and farm-raised animals providing an abundance of nearby Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) choices that is really quite remarkable compared to others parts of the country. Each CSA offers their own format of sharing their bounty of pesticide-free veggie varieties or naturally raised meats. But what they all have in common is that they are just a short drive from your neighborhood, which results in a lower carbon footprint than...
When he was just 24 years old, Justin Hirshfield was likely the youngest head chef in Boulder at his gig with Laudisio’s Ristorante. Hirshfield is familiar to those in Niwot because of his 12 years working at the Niwot Market where he could be spotted most days. But, about a year and a half ago he joined the team at 1914 House as their head chef, so now it’s the evening crowd that’s most likely to see him. You may never have crossed paths with Hirshfield when he didn’t have a hat on his head or...
Around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, subcontractors for an Xcel Energy project accidentally punctured a 12-inch diameter water pipe buried five feet underground, sending a geyser of water onto the adjacent sidewalk, parking area, and townhomes. Left Hand Water’s distribution group was notified immediately and arrived shortly after the pipe was broken. Just after 5 p.m., when residents tend to be returning home from work and school, the flow of traffic was narrowed down to the eastbound lane o...
Springtime brings out the sun, the flowers, and the artists in town. Now in its eighth year, the annual Why Not Niwot? Juried Art Show is guaranteed to draw a talented collection of painters and other artists, each basing their piece on what’s special about Niwot. More than 30 artists will display their entries beginning Friday, April 5 in conjunction with April’s First Friday Art Walk and continuing through Sunday, May 31. The event is sponsored by the Niwot Cultural Arts Association (NC...
Donating money is wonderful, but engaging with a cause by giving your time and energy is likely to have an even greater impact – to that cause, and to you. It’s completely guaranteed that by volunteering you’ll be making the world a better place, and besides the obvious gratification of bringing about positive change for others, you’ll reap the benefits of connecting with others, which is proven to ward off depression and lower your blood pressure, and will generally make life more satisfying. Y...
In November 2017, the Courier reported IBM's Gunbarrel facility would be building Boulder's largest field of photovoltaic panels. Initially projected to be completed by November 2018, the endeavor underwent a few changes and broke ground this month. The array was originally planned to occupy the corner of 63rd Street and Monarch Road, but is now located on the eastern side of the campus bordering Highway 119. Still planned to occupy nearly 55 acres, the panels will span from Highway 52 near the...
Writer and filmmaker Ethan Knightchilde presented his premier Ghost Towns of the American West lecture to a packed crowd at the Left Hand Valley Grange in April 2018. Even those standing in the back of the room that evening walked away feeling entertained and educated by Knightchilde's study on hundreds of western ghost towns. As a result of the debut Niwot Historical Society speaking engagement, this year Knightchilde is bringing an updated version of his presentation to an even larger...
The Longmont Community Foundation (LCF) will be celebrating 25 years of supporting charitable giving at its annual dinner on April 4. Since 1994, the foundation has overseen the distribution of $11 million to non-profits. This year alone the organization will allocate more than $1 million to the arts, education, animals, human services, health and environmental causes. There are only 1,900 community foundations world-wide, each honing in on a particular geographic area. LCF was originally under...
At what was potentially the final public meeting regarding the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD) code update process on March 12, when Boulder County Commissioners (BOCC) could have approved land use staff’s proposed code updates for development in downtown Niwot, Commissioners Elise Jones, Matt Jones, and Deb Gardner instead chose to send the team back to the drawing board on several issues, thereby extending the six month moratorium on development by another month. While commercial entitie...
You can't miss the increasing number of nearby fields donning what seem to be modern art installations of shiny black rectangles slanted toward the sun. These masses of photovoltaic panels are solar farms and, while their orderly appearance in place of the usual disarray of plant life is what captures our attention, it's their purpose of collecting power from the sun and converting it to electricity that's truly amazing. But you haven't seen the most awe inspiring type of solar installation yet...
The National Education Association’s celebration Read Across America has been an annual event since 1998. What better day to revel in reading than to honor cherished children’s author Dr. Seuss? His March 2 birthday was chosen to spread the excitement of reading. On this national celebration of the wonder and importance of reading, Niwot Rotarians, known for bringing about positive changes in the community, read stacks of Dr. Seuss’s beloved stories aloud to every grade in Niwot Eleme...
Free entertainment for the community Niwot High School has a beautiful auditorium; the acoustics are fantastic, the seats are cushioned, and it’s a fabulous setting to enjoy a performance. On Tuesday, March 19, NHS is extending an invitation to the entire community to experience Spectacle 2019 – a no cost concert featuring four bands chock full of energy and skill. Joining NHS’s two bands, the Niwot All-Stars, an advanced student jazz band, and the Lefthand Jazz Ensemble, will be professional lo...
Niwot High School sophomore Fiona Nugent’s six months of treatment for cancer are behind her and in front of her now is the anticipation of the upcoming track and field season, continuing to play her cello and creating art. Then, there’s her first trip out of the country thanks to Make-A-Wish Colorado. Wish Night, the organization’s annual fundraising event, was held on Feb. 22 with hundreds of donors in attendance at the festivities. That evening, Nugent’s gift of a week in Paris was publica...
Bonnie Egeland discovered first-hand the benefits of Pilates when it helped her to heal chronic injuries she had worked on in a multitude of ways. Her history of trying to beat the injuries resulted in a cycle of healing and then re-injury. But with Pilates, she’d hit on the silver bullet and has stayed strong and injury-free. “I finally found Pilates and that was the one thing that helped me to strengthen and rehab old injuries,” Egeland said. “Then I found that I just loved it and what a...
Have you been out for a walk in the morning in Niwot and then midday stopped at the Niwot Liquor Store to pick up provisions, and perhaps in the late afternoon you were on your way to meet friends on 2nd Avenue, and on each outing you chanced upon the familiar face belonging to Rob Gordon? Gordon gets around town like no one else. Why? Because Gordon walks dogs and housesits; he’s a clerk at the liquor store; he works at the Niwot Inn; he does yard work around town; and he delivers newspapers e...
Niwot will soon be home to the eighth Pinocchio’s Incredible Italian Restaurant establishment. Founder and owner Annie Vick confirmed the good news – a lease was signed on Feb. 28 for the new eatery to occupy what was formerly Treppeda’s Ristorante at 300 2nd Ave. The 2300-square-foot space in Niwot will be remodeled to match the décor of existing Pinocchio’s locations. The kitchen will be totally revamped, carpeting installed throughout, and there will be a new bar. Tables will be set with che...
At age 46, Kim Needham Watkins had been dealt an extremely frightening hand. The Watkins’ family jumped into action last year when Kim was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. This very aggressive form of cancer statistically has a 40 to 50 percent chance of recurrence in a different organ system within the next five years. But there’s wonderful news to report – after five months of chemotherapy treatments and surgery on Jan. 28 to remove 16 lymph nodes, results showed her response to t...
For fear that they would be taken away by the Nazi forces that had invaded the Netherlands, the Frank family went into hiding in 1942 in cramped rooms concealed behind bookcases.The Jewish family lived a life of isolation for two years before they were discovered and arrested. Over that time, teenage Anne Frank passed the time by documenting her thoughts and the happenings in the secret annex in a diary recovered after the war. This poignant and important story is the subject of Niwot High Schoo...
Getting a healthy amount of sleep is a challenge for up to 70 million people a year the American Sleep Association reports. Some of us suffer from the inability to fall asleep or can’t sustain a good night’s rest. Others have apnea leading to interrupted breathing and waking up throughout the night. There are a variety of reasons why getting the proper amount of quality slumber becomes an agonizing quest. Fortunately, expert help for the exhausted is easily accessible. Colorado Sleep Ins...
Flagstaff Academy parent Melinda Coburn became a Dragon Volunteer when her oldest child entered preschool four years ago. Each week Coburn helps kindergarten students with their math and first-graders with reading. Those interactions lead to students learning and feeling cared for. But those are just a couple of examples of how Coburn’s energy, dedication, and kindness are bringing a ripple effect of positivity to the world. Coburn and her husband Sean met in junior high school while growing up...
At a public hearing on Feb. 20, more than two dozen interested Niwot community members spoke out about proposed changes to the Land Use Code that will affect development in the 2nd Avenue commercial district. Here are some comments presented to the Planning Commission: Dr. David Meisner explained that the mixed use development he and Von’s Colorado Concepts want to build on the corner of 2nd Avenue and Niwot Road was curtailed because of the moratorium. Meisner said, “The benefit to the thousands of visitors and residents to Niwot should out...
At a public hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 20, the Boulder County Planning Commission gave its blessing to land use staff’s proposed code updates for the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD) with two alterations. The first was the removal of a sentence reading “Where alley access is available, curb cuts should not be permitted.” Curb cuts are what the county is defining as access to off-street parking spots from 2nd Avenue. The second change was the addition of wording encouraging the explo...
Larry Dorsey will present this year’s first Now and Then lecture hosted by the Niwot Historical Society (NHS) at the Left Hand Grange Hall, 195 2nd Ave.at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 27. Chronicling a dramatic event that was emblematic of difficulties plaguing the nation in 1911, Dorsey’s presentation is titled, “Shoot Out at the Superior Depot, An episode in Colorado Labor Wars.” Dorsey, a retired Boulder Valley School District high school history teacher, chairman of the Superior Histori...
You can complain about it, but you just can’t change the weather. So why not make the most of the chill in the air by joining fellow whiners at the fifth annual Let’s Wine About Winter event in Niwot, 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 23. Nearly 200 tickets have already been sold for the stroll from business-to-business occasion, but there’s always room for more merrymakers. Over 35 establishments, along 2nd Avenue and in Cottonwood Square Shopping Center, will be serving up samples of wines, beers...