All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
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If you're looking for something to do in the morning on Independence Day, the Niwot Downhill Mile might be it. Whether it be running with family, friends, or by yourself, it is a fun and inclusive activity for everyone. The Niwot Downhill Mile begins on Niwot Road at Niwot High School, and ends at the Niwot Market. The race is a point-to-point downhill mile, and registration is easy. Simply visit www.raceroster.com to register. You may also register the day of the race from 6:45 a.m.to 8:15...
One of the most enjoyable things about Rock & Rails is the mix of bands that play each week. It's possible that the only thing each week has in common is that whoever is playing on stage, they are going to be danceable. And Los Cheesies might be one of the most unconventional bands to step onto the bandstand stage at Whistle Stop Park. Their mix of fusion reggae, ska, Latin, '80's, rap and psychedelic rock stylings is blended with wacky humor that could winkingly be called "Yankovian" (as in Wei...
The rest stop at Whistle Stop Park was brimming with bicyclists Saturday morning, June 24, to raise awareness and money for the Bike MS charity, dedicated to helping victims of multiple sclerosis. The ride took place on a gorgeous summer morning when all of the flower boxes down Second Avenue were in full bloom, and many locals watched from the coffee shop patio as the endless stream of bicyclists zipped by. Other Niwot community members helped out the riders at the Whistle Stop Park rest stop....
Niwot Community Connection (NCC) is taking the town by storm and the founders, Pat Murphy, Dawn Server, and Eve Lempriere are leading the parade . . . literally. The long-time community activists will be the Grand Marshals for this year's Fourth of July Parade, which starts rolling and marching down Niwot Road at 11 a.m. on Tuesday. But the trio's work will start well before that. "Pat (Murphy) and my dad (Don Reeb, the former Niwot Community School Director) started the pancake breakfast and...
This week's Rock & Rails stage will feature familiar faces of Mojomama, with their beloved mix of funky blues, rock and soul that ranges from Aretha Franklin to Susan Tedeschi to Steely Dan. "Knowing that we get to play for the best crowd all summer makes us happy," said lead vocalist Jessica Rogalski. "People are really in a good mood, everyone's up dancing. As performers, it's fun for us to have that energetic exchange. It feeds our energy too." She remembers the fun, colorful crowd from last...
Summer is finally here, and it's time to make the most of the season by exploring exciting and enjoyable activities in our local area. If you're looking for a truly unique experience, look no further than 6715 W Colfax Avenue in Denver where you will find Colorado's self-proclaimed greatest restaurant on earth, Casa Bonita. Brace yourself for an unforgettable adventure as Casa Bonita is back, bigger, and better than ever before. The iconic restaurant, renowned more for its entertainment than its...
You might recognize him as a volunteer at various Niwot Community Association events, such as Niwot Clean Up Day. Perhaps you have seen him on the NCA Road Crew or as a member of the tech team at Rocky Mountain Christian Church. Most likely, you have seen him driving the golf cart offering transportation service at Rock & Rails. Misha Barrett started providing his transportation services for patrons who parked down the street from Rock & Rails in the summer of 2022. His usage of the golf cart...
Do you know of a local event, interesting story or local person the Courier might be interested in covering? Do you have comments about what you have read in the Courier or suggestions to make? We would like to hear from you at [email protected]....
The June meeting of the Niwot Business Association, held Tuesday, June 13 outside of the former feed store at 291 Second Avenue in Niwot, was sponsored by Osmosis Art & Architecture. Owner and architect Anne Postle greeted members and introduced Tucker Huey of her staff. Postle has been instrumental in working with John Fischer, owner of the former feed store, and the Niwot Cultural Arts Association, to arrange for Open Studios artists to use the space until early July to display art by local...
Given the weather over the last month, it seemed inevitable that rain would eventually crash a Thursday Rock & Rails party. And rain it did on Thursday night, June 15, halfway through the headline act. But that didn't stop the appreciative crowd from enjoying a country-themed evening, nor did it end the evening. Taylor Shae, a Colorado native who recently released the single, "Small Town America," started the music and happy hour off at 5:00 p.m. Shae, a singer and songwriter, has been...
On June 24, hundreds of bikers in colorful gear will fill the streets of Niwot, heading west on Niwot Road before looping down to Second Avenue, with a rest stop at Whistle Stop Park before crossing the Diagonal Highway to continue north on N. 73rd Street. The Bike MS charity is making its annual ride through Colorado. The route for this ride can be up to 100 miles long, winding from the Front Range Community College in Westminster to Colorado State University in Fort Collins. The Niwot...
The Niwot Community Association (NCA) held its monthly meeting June 14. This is a busy time of the year for the NCA as it focuses its work on the many events it sponsors. Niwot Clean Up Day and the second annual Slepicka Tractor Show were a success, and the annual 4th of July Pancake Breakfast and Parade is coming up very soon. Director John Barto led the effort organizing Niwot Clean Up Day. Barto reported that the event went very smoothly with traffic spread out throughout the morning. A...
On Tuesday evening, June 13, and again on Wednesday, June 14, a group of board members from the Boulder County Beekeepers' Association (BCBA) participated in a beehive clean-up in remembrance of Niwot beekeeper Tom Theobald, who passed away in November 2021. Dawn Server, co-owner of Meadow Lake Honey, organized the event, recruiting volunteers to clean up Theobald's apiary off Monarch Road. John Stobbelaar, a Marine veteran who owns the property on Monarch Road where the beehives are located,...
The Boulder County Community Planning and Permitting staff is proposing text amendments to the Boulder County Land Use Code related to composting incidental to farming found in the Composting Facility use section 4-506.A. The proposed text amendments are intended to better facilitate composting in a manner that is supportive of regenerative agricultural practices and allows farmers to retail the finished product. The goals of this project include reducing local barriers to composting as an imple...
The name is still the same. Many of the favorite menu items are still there. The vibrant colors of the décor still welcome customers. But behind the office doors of Raza Fresa Mexican Kitchen, big changes are occurring. On April 1, 2023, Rosalio Ibarra and partner Yovanny Quintana purchased the popular Niwot restaurant from the original owner, Steve Garcia, who opened the restaurant under his family’s franchise name “Ajuua!” in the early 2000s, and changed the name to Raza Fresa in April of 2018...
This week, CW & Twenty Hands High are returning to the Rock & Rails stage for their second year, bringing their country, Southern rock, outlaw, red dirt sound with them. Local musician Taylor Shae will open for them. I talked to the band's founder and frontman, CW Wooten, just after the band finished a performance at Beasts and Brews, a taphouse and butcher shop in Colorado Springs. Our conversation started not by talking about music or his latest show, but about the food that was there. Wooten...
This past weekend, the Slepicka Tractor Show was held just off 79th Street in Niwot near the Monarch Road intersection. Attendees enjoyed beautiful weather for the show, as they browsed among decades' worth of restored tractors, engines and other farm equipment displayed on the front of the farm of long time Niwotonians, Jerry and Marsha Slepicka, who have owned the property since 1994. Co-sponsored by the Niwot Community Association, the show gave a peek into a past way of life in the area with...
Three classmates who attended the Niwot School, which included grades 1-8, located where the Diagonal Highway now runs, met at the Left Hand Grange No.9 in Niwot on May 31. The gathering was coordinated by the Niwot Historical Society with photos and images collected to be added to the Niwot historical records. John Montoya, who lives in Wheat Ridge, planned a stop in Niwot during a road trip to visit the Niwot Cemetery and the area where he grew up, and was excited to arrange a visit with two...
Do you know of a local event, interesting story or local person the Courier might be interested in covering? Do you have comments about what you have read in the Courier or suggestions to make? We would like to hear from you at [email protected]....
When Lafayette, Colo., nurse Kara Plese traveled to St. Lucia for vacation in April, she assumed she'd come back with a few souvenirs. But she certainly never expected the one she actually brought home. On a walk near the resort where she was staying, Plese and her friends came across a small dog who looked scared and emaciated. "He was so skinny," she said. "He ran past us and almost got hit by a car. He was so mangy – I felt really bad for him." Plese wasn't sure she would see the dog again b...
Open Studios, a non-profit artist's organization based in Boulder, has returned to Niwot after a successful run last holiday season when the organization put on a display of art by local artists which was for sale during the month of December. Since then, property owner John Fischer has refurbished the interior and exterior of the property. The Niwot Cultural Arts Association worked with Fischer to make the former Niwot Rental & Feed property available to artists, and Open Studios is the first...
Dark skies and the threat of rain didn't deter a large crowd from enjoying the second Rock & Rails concert of the season on Thursday, June 8. The music kicked off at 5:00 p.m. with Dean Himes, a local country artist. Himes wowed the crowd with a combination of his original songs and well-loved covers. Himes is no stranger to Niwot having played at the Niwot Tavern, First Friday Art Walks and Rock & Rails in the past. Himes was inducted into the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022. Headli...
The requests for funding presented to the Niwot Local Improvement District Advisory Committee June 6 included old and new events –- a new event designed to capitalize on the Bike MS: Colorado event coming through Niwot on Saturday, June 24, a FlowerFest event scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 5, music for First Friday Art Walks, a resurrection of Oktoberfest on Sept. 30, and a Where’s Waldo Local scavenger hunt throughout the month of July. Bike MS: Colorado Bike MS: Colorado is a bicycle ride, as opposed to a race, with a route from Fort Collins to...
Members of the Niwot Community Connection gathered June 11 to weed and mulch the Niwot Gateway sign on Highway 119. "Josh Morin provided mulch and had We Love Trees employees mulch around the perimeter of the sign," said Tim Wise, who organized the event. "Alvaro Madrigal at Western Cut provided mulch that was placed among the catmint on the sign berm by volunteers." The Niwot Community Connection is an organization that helps Niwotians 50 and over connect with each other, and perform community...
Although it has required some long hours, Niwot High alums Ryan Gonzales and Tyson Christensen are enjoying every minute of the Denver Nuggets' first NBA Finals trip in franchise history. No, neither Gonzales nor Christensen is suiting up for head coach Michael Malone, but both have been instrumental to the Nuggets' home-court success this postseason. Gonzales, a 2002 Niwot grad, works for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Nuggets, as a Senior Director and Producer of Broadcast...
The May 31 issue of the Left Hand Valley Courier included a photo of Gustave Kuhlman in the Senior Class Parade. The event was organized by the Niwot High School Boosters, rather than the Niwot Community Association....
Thursday's Rock & Rails headliner is familiar to many attendees, with proven performers who can get the audience up off of their lawn chairs, abandon their picnic baskets and onto the dance floor. It will be the popular Chris Daniels and the Kings, the beloved Colorado Music Hall of Fame inducted band, which has played its rock and blues-based music in venues throughout the world. They will be preceded by the opening act, Gunbarrel acoustic guitarist Dean Himes, a 2022 Colorado Country Music...
Niwot Market's own Bert Steele has been hosting a local car show since 2020 that helped keep restaurants alive during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the restaurants near the Niwot Market struggled to stay in business during the height of the coronavirus, Steele felt there had to be something that someone could do to bring attention to Niwot's businesses and bring people together. Steele worked with multiple other business owners and prominent community members to brainstorm ideas on how to...
Despite the threat of rain and the allure of the Denver Nuggets playoff game, Rock & Rails kicked off its summer 2023 season last Thursday, drawing an impressive and enthusiastic crowd. With looming dark clouds above, the Niwot Community Semi-Marching Free Grange Band provided the opening set. The headliner, Girls on Top!, followed with two sets of high-octane party music, bringing the dance floor to capacity. As usual, the team of volunteer greeters, beverage servers, and student "gargoyles"...
The Boulder City Council meeting on June 1 was the last stop for the consideration of allowing e-bikes on Boulder's Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) trails, a process that took 18 months. Boulder City Council members present were Matt Benjamin, Mayor Aaron Brockett, Lauren Folkerts, Rachel Friend, Junie Joseph, Nicole Speer, Tara Winer and Bob Yates. Mayor Pro Tem Mark Wallach was not present. At the beginning of the hearing regarding e-bikes council member Rachel Friend recused herself with...
More art is coming to Niwot as summer begins. Open Studios, a local nonprofit dedicated to supporting artists and enhancing and enriching the visual arts in Boulder County, in cooperation with the Niwot Cultural Arts Association, is bringing its annual members' show to the former feed store on 2nd Avenue. The exhibit features work from the more than 205 member artists who participate in the organization. It includes work in a variety of mediums, ranging from watercolor, paint on acrylic, mixed-m...
Sierra Melton, a native of Gunbarrel, has recently won the $20,000 P.E.O. Scholar Award presented by the P.E.O. Sisterhood. The P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization) Sisterhood is a U.S.-based international women's organization of about 230,000 members, with a primary focus on providing educational opportunities for female students worldwide. Melton was nominated by the P.E.O. chapter in Boulder. According to the P.E.O. International website, "The P.E.O. Scholar Awards are one-time,...
Sandwiched between Thursday's first Rock & Rails concert of the season and Saturday's much-anticipated Niwot Lobsterfest, Niwot's First Friday Art Walk had fewer visitors than anticipated. But those who did make it out were treated to an evening of great music, inspiring art, light refreshments and fine dining. On Friday, June 2, a core group of Niwot business owners hosted four artists, including Penny Peterson at Slifer Smith and Frampton; abstract expressionist painter Blaise Simonelli,...
It was a fun-filled "Saturday in the Park" on June 3 as the Niwot Business Association held its Third Annual Lobsterfest at Whistle Stop Park in Niwot. The rainy skies cleared for this sunny charity event filled with over 150 friends, neighbors and family members which Deborah Fowler, an event organizer said raised over $3,000 to benefit the Niwot Sculpture Park, which is restoring the tree carvings created by Eddie Running Wolf. In addition to Fowler, the event was organized by Linda Klueber...
The first band to play Niwot's summer concert series 18 years ago returns to open the 2023 Rock & Rails summer concert series Thursday, June 1. Girls On Top!, a seven-member band featuring vocalists Dawn Beck, Kristin Henry and Michele Steele in three-part harmony, performs R&B, rock, soul and funk from the 1970s and 1980s, with a stage presence that has made them a favorite along the Front Range. "We're 24 years in," said Henry, who doubles as the band's manager. "We're interactive, we're part...
Gene Hayworth and Keith Waters are awarded the Left Hand Valley Courier's Left Hand Laurel for bringing the Niwot Jazz Festival back to life and for putting in the time and energy to organize Niwot's Oktoberfest. "We're really lucky to have the support of the Local Improvement District (LID) and the Niwot Cultural Arts Association (NCAA)," Waters said regarding Oktoberfest. The event will be held this year on Sept. 30, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Cottonwood Square. "There will be beer and food...
Often on a clear, crisp morning when the weather is fine and the wind is calm, Niwot residents who are lucky enough to be out early may get a view of a slow moving, brightly colored train of balloons flying low on the horizon. While a few of them are navigated by private pilots, many of the balloons in the sky just east of town belong to commercial companies. According to RefUSA, there are 21 commercial hot air balloon sightseeing companies in Colorado, and the majority of balloons that travel...
Womens' Investment Group Tuesday, June 13, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Several motivated women in the real estate industry - lenders, real estate agents, and investors - are offering the opportunity to help others learn how to make money through real estate investments. The meeting is free of charge. To RSVP and learn more, write to [email protected]. To learn more about the Left Hand Grange No. 9 and to rent the venue, visit www.lefthandgrange.org....
The Boulder City Council will take up the issue of allowing e-bikes on city open space trails, including several trails in and around Niwot and Gunbarrel, at its meeting on June 1 at 6 p.m. in the council chambers. On February 8 the Boulder Open Space Board of Trustees (OSBT) rejected the Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) staff recommendation for the adoption of regulations to allow e-bikes on trails that are in the plains (east of Broadway and US 36). This is known as Alternative B...
In 1987, Jerry and Marsha Slepicka bought a lot and, as per county regulation, had to keep it mowed. So they bought a tractor, and that original 1946 John Deere B turned into a somewhat unexpected hobby (collecting tractors) and a tradition: an annual tractor collection show. This year, the show will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 10, at the Slepickas' property, 6675 N. 79th Street in Niwot. Visitors will have the opportunity to walk around, check out the vintage farm...
Acclaimed author Ted Conover appeared at Inkberry Books in Niwot on May 24 to read from his new book, "Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America's Edge," to an overflow crowd. Conover's earlier book, "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing," won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is a professor at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, and has written for the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper's, and...
Niwot Clean-Up Day saw favorable weather Saturday, May 20, and a large amount of household waste recycled or sent to the landfill. "Another year and another successful NCA Clean-Up Day event," said event manager, John Barto. "I think everything went very well, and it was great to have such amazing volunteers. We couldn't do it without the help of our NCA members, the [drumline], and the scouts." There were approximately thirty volunteers helping this event operate smoothly. Barto mentioned that...
Saturday May 20 was a busy day in Niwot starting with the Niwot Community Association's annual Clean-Up Day, followed by the Niwot Business Association's Around the World Day, and concluding with an open house at the Left Hand Grange and a street concert by the House Blend Band on 2nd Avenue. Around the World Day, which began during the pandemic as the brainchild of NBA vice-president Deb Fowler as a way to bring shoppers to Niwot, provided the community with a reason to enjoy the spring...
In the 1950's, the area we now know as Gunbarrel Estates looked much like it did the century before. You'd see tractors instead of horse-drawn plows, of course, but the land was farmland, known locally as Carton Estate. The nearest neighbors were deer, prairie dogs and burrowing owls-all of which must have felt a world away from the growing city of Boulder. Around this time, an Illinois native and builder named Bob Bowron was settling his family in Boulder. The Bowrons might have stayed in...
After 35 years as an award-winning Boulder-based architect, Bob West retired in 2015, and bought a Wyoming ranch to raise Scottish Highland cattle. His memoir, "Twenty Miles of Fence: Blueprint of a Cowboy," co-written with Janet Fogg, describes the-at times-bumpy transition to life as a rancher along the North Laramie River. Accompanied by his family and trading what he called the "yuppie haven" of Boulder for the Devil's Washtub Ranch, West learned, sometimes the hard way, the joys and...
A crew of volunteers spent the morning of May 13 getting Whistle Stop Park ready for the Rock & Rails summer concert season. Several volunteers cleaned the Depot Building and the Caboose, while others hung banners at the front gate and on the Caboose. Barrels and table tops were moved out of the Depot and lights were reinstalled in preparation for the first concert on June 1. Offseason work included installing additional fencing at the southwest corner of the park, and new signage. Crew...
On Thursday, May 18, Governor Jared Polis signed climate legislation into law at Jack's Solar Garden near Niwot. Jack's Solar Garden, located on 95th Street between Niwot and Longmont, serves as a national model for governments, solar developers, and farmers for how to produce renewable energy while continuing agricultural production via agrivoltaics. In fact, it is the largest commercially active research site for agrivoltaics in the USA. Agrivoltaics is the co-location of agriculture and...
The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) held an in-person town hall on May 18 at the La Vita Bella restaurant on Main Street in Longmont. All three commissioners, Claire Levy, Marta Loachamin and Ashley Stolzmann, attended along with Boulder County Assessor Cynthia Braddock. The primary focus of the event were questions and answers about the assessor's property valuations. Other county issues raised by members of the public included rural subdivision paving policy. After introductory comments...
The City of Boulder continues the process of evaluating allowing e-bikes on city open space trails. On February 8 the Boulder Open Space Board of Trustees (OSBT) rejected the city staff recommendation to allow e-bikes on trails that are in the plains (east of Broadway and US 36). The staff recommendation would have been consistent with Boulder County’s regulations permitting Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes on county open space trails. The OSBT sent their recommendation to the Boulder City Council for a final decision. The Boulder City Council w...
David Joseph Waters, age 40, was sentenced to 16 years in the Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to charges of attempted second-degree murder and possession of explosives or incendiary parts resulting from a road rage incident in Heatherwood on November 24, 2021. Waters was sentenced as part of a plea bargain with the stipulation that he would receive a sentence of between 10 and 30 years in prison. On May 12, Boulder County District Judge Robert Gunning sentenced Waters to 12 years on the attempted murder charge and four years on...
