Thursday, December 11, 2014 © Berthoud, Colorado “Covering all the angles in the Garden Spot” Volume 11, Number 50 75¢

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Look who’s in the news!

Devin ViseMcCallen Castles

Matthew Bailey

Mary VittetoeJordan

Schachterie

Weather ................................2Opinion .................................4 Then & Now ..........................5Sports ...................................6Crossword .............................7Classified ..............................9Legal notices .........................9

Play

‘The Homesman’ — a compellingly strange and complex film worth viewing

Page 7

Then & Now

Bell tradition to ring out over Berthoud again this year

Page 5

“In towns where there is a strong sense of community, there is no more important institution than the local paper.”

— Warren Buffett

Local students raise money for Christmas in BerthoudBy Sylvanna ZurbrickThe Surveyor

Dec. 25 is just around the corner, Santa and his elves are getting the toys and sleigh ready, and the Berthoud community prepares for Christmas in Berthoud. Christ-mas in Berthoud is a community-wide effort to bring Christmas cheer to Berthoud residents that may be in need this holiday season. With multiple festivities and fundraisers being put on in town for the event, local Berthoud philanthropists have donated time, talent and financial assistance. The philanthropy hasn’t stopped at the adults in town, but has trickled down to the youth of Berthoud, too. The students of Berthoud Elementary ran their annual coin drive to raise money for their peers in need.

The children have been informed by parents, staff and teachers what the fundraiser is all about and the idea behind helping those in need year round, but especially for other children at this very special time of year and how helping others is a way of showing gratitude for the gifts in their lives. The elementary school’s fund-raising endeavor was organized by the student council, Ber-thoud Elementary student grades two to five, some of Berthoud’ youngest do-gooders. One Berthoud Elementa-

ry student, Kelsi Thoren, in Mrs. Rude’s class, brought in the coins she and her family had been saving for over two years in an attempt to help the school surpass last year’s collection of $617. With all of the families donating, and the hard work of the young student council, this year’s final tally was $1,164.99, nearly doubling the funds from last year’s Christmas in Berthoud Coin Drive.

This past weekend L&M Garden Center held a festi-val and announced how much each school brought in for the community effort of bringing joy to Berthoud’s young children. Berthoud Elementary came in second place out of the three local schools, outdone only by Turner Middle School which raised $1,248.99, followed by Ivy Stock-well which added another $651.12, for a grand total of $3,065.10 from the three schools.

“We have been reminding the children bi-weekly about the coin drive and the purpose the money will serve in the community, and we are so proud of them for donating,” said Rebekah Beckett of the pride she and the other Ber-thoud Elementary staff members feel for their students and families.

For such a worthy cause within our small community, it gives the parents a sense of pride as well, when consid-

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Photo by Everett HindmanSanta Claus rides in a vintage Berthoud Fire Department truck during the Christmas in Berthoud parade on Dec. 6. This year, Christmas in Berthoud raised over $11,600, which is one of the best years ever for the event. The money raised helps local families who are in need of financial assistance.

This photo was taken by Berthoud resident Everett Hindman and is part of the Berthoud High School senior’s Berthoud Bound photographic project. Hindman will host a project kick-off celebration at City Star Brewing on Dec. 11, from 4 to 7 p.m.

Courtesy photoBerthoud Elementary student Kelsi Thoren holds a jar full of coins her family collected for the annual Christmas in Ber-thoud Coin Drive.

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Christmas in Berthoud

Town board approves new website development proposalBy Rudy HemmannThe Surveyor

A public hearing regarding the request for annexation and rezone, as well as the con-sideration of a proposed concept plan for the Heron Pointe development in north Berthoud, was rescheduled to the Jan. 13, 2015, meeting. Town staff became aware that certain entities within Larimer County, which have jurisdic-tions over the Heron Pointe properties, had not been properly noticed about the proposed annexation and development of the property.

Town Attorney Greg Bell stated that hold-ing a public hearing at Tuesday night’s meet-ing would be useless because of the oversight, and suggested the public hearing be resched-uled to a future meeting.

A motion was made and seconded to re-schedule for Jan. 13 the public hearing for the Heron Pointe. The motion passed unanimous-ly.

The trustees heard a presentation by Del Hunter, the town’s IT consultant, concerning a proposed contract between the town and Vision Internet of Santa Monica, Calif., to pro-vide various website services for the town.

According to Hunter, a committee composed of himself and other town staff members had evaluated and researched 15 Web development vendors with municipal Web experience. These 15 firms were asked to submit proposals and bids for the project of redeveloping the town’s website, and 13 bids were received. From this group, seven were selected for “detailed re-view” by the committee, with Vision Internet eventually becoming the unanimous choice by the selection committee.

Initially, Vision Internet will redevelop the town’s website at a cost of $24,975. Going forward, the company will receive annual com-pensation of $6,600 plus five percent annual increases for website support.

The website redevelopment is estimated to take four to six months.

A motion was made giving approval to proceed with the town’s website redesign and authorizing the town administrator to sign the agreements with Vision Internet. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.

The trustees adopted a resolution designat-ing the residence located at 647 Sixth Street (also known as the Edmondson House) as a local historic landmark.

In a staff report regarding the historic landmark designation, Interim Town Planner Sherry Albertson-Clark states the Historic Preservation Committee had found that the structure met the criteria for being named a historic landmark.

The committee found the house to be more than 50 years old (it was built in 1902), the home possesses sufficient historic integrity, it is associated with the life of a person signifi-cant in the local community, and it embodies the distinctive characteristics of the Queen Anne architectural style.

The current owners of the house, Alberta and James LeFeber had requested their home be considered for the designation.

Albertson-Clark also furnished a memoran-dum in which she outlined the building permit activity through the month of November. Five permits were issued for single-family residenc-es, which brings the total for the year to 56. In addition, the total number of permits issued in November was 67. She notes in the memoran-dum the reroofing permits issued last month had dropped to 35, which is the lowest number since the hail storm of last July.

In what have become largely housekeeping measures at this point in the 2015 budget process, the trustees adopted four resolutions and one ordinance to make the budget for next year official, the first resolution adopted the

Bring your children’s Letters to Santa to the Surveyor office, 440 Mountain Ave., for publication during December. You can also scan and email if that is more convenient.Send to editor@berthoudsurveyor.com.

KJ Wood Distillers relocating to OurayBy Heidi Kerr-SchlaeferThe Surveyor

Two years ago, John Wood opened KJ Wood Distillers in downtown Berthoud. Today, he is planning to move the business, and his family, to the small, touristy town of Ouray, Colo.

Moving to Ouray wasn’t a new idea for John and Marcy Wood, who had been planning for years to make a move to the southwest Colora-do town.

“For the better part of 15 years, even before we had kids and before we moved to this part of Northern Colorado, Marcy and I knew that one day we wanted to end up living in Ouray,” said John. “It was a matter of doing it soon or later, but we knew our last home in Colorado would be in Ouray.”

The two had looked seriously at several Berthoud properties that would allow them to

expand the distillery business, but they kept coming back to their desire to be in Ouray.

“In 15 years our kids will be done with college and we’ll be looking to take the next big step with the business, and we had to ask our-selves if we wanted to take that next big step here or in Ouray. We’ve decided we want to be there,” said John.

While John and Marcy have personal affec-tion for Ouray, they are also thinking about this move from a business and economic standpoint.

“As much as Berthoud is an awesome little community and has been really supportive of the distillery, it’s a bedroom community, and on the weekends and holidays everyone leaves and goes to places like Ouray to enjoy their week-end and to drink,” explained Wood.

“Berthoud is 5,000 people and Ouray is only 1,000, but Ouray averages 350,000 visitors a year down main street; people who are there for

an experience such as visiting a distillery,” he added.

Wood expects to do five times the volume in the tasting room in Ouray in the months of May through September than he’s done in an entire year in Berthoud. After establishing in Ouray, Wood’s next goal is to open a satellite tasting room in Telluride in order to tap into the re-gion’s winter ski market.

The property has been purchased at 929 Main St. in Ouray and plans for a 7,500 square foot KJ Wood Distillers facility are underway. It will include a tasting room and a full kitch-en that will be leased to a restaurateur who has been in Ouray for eight years. It will also provide expansion room for planned future distillery growth — both physical growth, such as expanded manufacturing capabilities as well as national and international growth of the

CHRISTMAS cont. on page 2TOWN cont. on page 2