News highlights: 2000

By JoAn Bjarko
North Forty News

County residents woke up on Jan. 1 with water and power and nothing amiss as a result of Y2K.

The Holnam Cement Plant in LaPorte announced it was thinking about burning wood waste at its plant as an alternative to natural gas and coal.

County Commissioner Jim Disney, a Loveland Democrat, announced he would not seek re-election. Disney served two four-year terms. Commissioner Cheryl Olson, a Fort Collins Republican, decided later in the year against running for a second term.

US West had to extend fiber-optic cable from Wellington to Waverly in another effort to ease phone congestion.

Halfway through his first term, Wellington Mayor Don Irwin resigned saying the working environment in town hall, specifically surrounding himself and Town Administrator Dave Evertsen, had reached an intolerable level. Wellington residents then called on former mayor George Lutz to fill Irwin's unexpired term.

The LaPorte Business Alliance sponsored two community forums on Holnam's idea of burning wood waste. Community residents said they were more concerned that Holnam may want to burn tires, plastics or other wastes. To alleviate concerns, Holnam formed a citizen advisory committee to help determine what alternative fuels the company would include in an air quality permit application.

Fort Collins officials began the task of looking for another location for a bypass north of Douglas Road, as directed by city voters.

Evertsen, Wellington's town administrator, resigned April 17 after trying to fire the town's library director while she was working at the library. Mayor Lutz said he believed the town board was ready to ask for the administrator's resignation.

The Red Feather Lakes Community Library Foundation began a campaign in May to form a tax-supported library district.

The Bobcat Gulch Fire destroyed 19 homes in Larimer County in June and threatened many others in Eden Valley, Masonville and Buckhorn Canyon before it was brought under control. The fire, reported on June 12 and controlled on June 24, burned 10,600 acres.

Crews excavating for sewer lines in a new Wellington development unearthed the skull and tusks of an Ice Age mammoth on June 26. The bones were found about 11 feet deep in glacial gravels from the Pleistocene Epoch.

The Division of Wildlife reopened the Watson fish-rearing unit in Bellvue following an effort to clean out whirling disease spores, which can deform young fish. Because the unit remained positive for whirling disease, its fish are released into lakes rather than disease-free rivers.

Using the county's first mail-in ballot, voters in June approved a plan for county government to build a new courthouse rather than remodel the old one in downtown Fort Collins.

Larimer County buried two time capsules in the cornerstones of the new Larimer Justice Center as part of grand opening festivities. The $28-million justice center in Fort Collins has five stories with 172,000 square feet. In contrast, the first county seat was in LaPorte, where county government took place in a log cabin from 1865 to 1868. The county purchased the cabin for $150.

The LaPorte Presbyterian Church celebrated its first 100 years. The church's first building, located on Overland Trail just north of Old Highway 287, was destroyed by fire in 1955. The first service in the new building was held in September 1956.

The North Forty News switched to full-color printing with its October issue.

Wellington welcomed a new town administrator, Larry Lorentzen, on Oct. 2. His experience included jobs as a city engineer, city planner, public works director and community development director in Colorado and Wyoming. When he started work, the town had applications to annex almost 2,000 acres with room for more than 4,000 homes. In addition, recent annexations had development proposals for close to 1,000 homes.

The Owl Canyon Road Coalition rallied opposition to a truck bypass using county roads in northern Larimer County.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation began work in the fall to repair the dams holding in Horsetooth Reservoir.

Election results: Local voters passed a phased-in $10 million mill levy increase and a $175 million bond issue for PSD in November. An expansion at Eyestone Elementary in Wellington was at the top of the list for new construction. Tom Bender and Glenn Gibson, both Republicans, were elected to four-year terms as county commissioners. They joined Republican Kathay Rennels on the board. Following an uncontested race for district attorney, Stu VanMeveren was elected to his eighth four-year term. The Red Feather Mountain Library District received wide support.