Your weekly field guide to Littleton, Ken Caryl, and the SW Denver foothills
The sun sets at 6 on Saturday, so it's dark before the little kids' bedtime. The clocks go back an hour at 2 AM Sunday, and Sunday evening the sun is down by 5. The houses readers sent in for the Halloween map are at the bottom, in Community Corner.
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
Tomorrow is Halloween, and Ron Lamberson's new novel comes out with it. Ron, who lives in TrailMark and has a creative-writing degree and an MBA, writes his novels right here in 80127.
Wormhole to Hell brings the only rock band in the galaxy back for an encore. Garton Prog's buddy Murgatroyd sends him a cryptic invitation to test the latest Mu technology, an artificial wormhole that could carry him and his friends to Earth, and the Mu's track record with new tech is iffy. Then word comes that his lone enemy, the monster Croakus, has broken out of jail. The wormhole might get him to safety, maybe even to Earth, or it might send the whole band to some unknown galaxy.
Heavy Metal Moon's ebook is free on Amazon Saturday, October 31, through Wednesday, November 4.
BIG NEWS
Ballots have to be in by 7 PM Tuesday, November 3. The county listed this past Monday, October 26, as the last day to mail one, so a ballot still on the counter goes in a drop box or to a vote center. The boxes around here are on the county's 24-hour list, and these are the sites a neighbor would use:
The Jeffco South Service Center on Bradford Road and Columbine Library on West Bowles, open now, 8 to 5 weekdays and Saturday, each with a walk-up box.
Clement Park on West Bowles, a drive-up box and no vote center.
Calvary Chapel South Denver on West Ken Caryl Avenue, Ridge Rec Center and Lilley Gulch Rec Center, open as vote centers Monday and Tuesday only. The two rec centers have boxes, the church doesn't.
The vote centers are closed Sunday, and on Election Day they run 7 AM to 7 PM. The county's turnout page, last updated Wednesday night, October 28, showed 143,914 ballots back from 432,682 active voters, 33%. The rest of the sites are on the county's voting-site map.
The owner of the vacant land at South Kipling Way and West Coal Mine Lane has asked Jefferson County to add mini-storage, mini-warehousing and contractor business and storage to what the land's zoning plan allows. The land sits east of the Hogback, near Ken Caryl, and backs onto houses on West Walker Place and, at the east end, West Peakview Drive. A county long-range planner wrote June 17 that the storage uses don't fit the county's comprehensive plan, which recommends neighborhood mixed use for the land. The planner recommended the applicant take them out of the zoning plan, leaving a contractor business with no outdoor storage as the one use that could fit. The county's June 22 letter says the application needs another round of review before a Planning Commission hearing can be scheduled, and that the public comments it got were generally opposed.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Friday, October 30, 11 AM to noon: the Halloween costume parade at Bemis Public Library, on the front lawn at 6014 South Datura Street, for kids of any age, with storytimes and a walk through the park for treats.
Friday, October 30, 4:30 to 6:30 PM: Park 'til Dark at Chatfield State Park, its first year, with hayrides, s'mores, stories and trick-or-treating at the Kingery Nature Center and Discovery Pavilion. Park at the Discovery Pavilion lot off Waterton Road. You can't get there from the main park entrances, and there's no registration.
Saturday, October 31, 10 AM to 2 PM: Trunk or Treat Street at Foothills Bible Church, 6100 South Devinney Way, open to everyone, with food trucks and trunk-or-treating for kids age 2 through sixth grade, each with an adult. Registration is closed, and the church's page says walk-ins are welcome.
Saturday, October 31, 4 to 7 PM: mall-wide trick-or-treating at Southwest Plaza.
Through Sunday, November 1: the last nights of Magic of the Jack O'Lanterns at Hudson Gardens, and the last weekend of the corn maze at Chatfield Farms, Friday through Sunday, 9 to 5.
Tuesday, November 3, 1 to 3 PM: Mahjong for Everyone at Deer Creek Library, 11100 Bradford Road, no sign-up. It's the library's first-Tuesday game, so the one after this is December 1.
Saturday, November 7, 6 to 8 PM: Foothills Park and Rec's Mother-Son Dance at the Peak Community and Wellness Center, 6612 South Ward Street, for boys and a parent or special guest, $50 a couple for district residents and $64 otherwise, and registration closes Monday, November 2.
NEW & NOTABLE
El Tejado posted on its Facebook page that its grand opening is Wednesday, November 4. It's the Mexican restaurant with a location on South Broadway in Denver, and the new one is on Wadsworth just north of Belleview, in Lakewood. Readers have been asking about it since July.
The Castle Sports Bar & Grill is the name on a sign application for the old Sirens space on West Chatfield Avenue at Wadsworth. Somebody applied to the county September 3 for a wall sign with that name. The permit hasn't been issued, and the county's record gives no opening date.
The Mahjong Meet Up, a mahjong studio and shop with classes, open play and leagues, is open at Aspen Grove in the City of Littleton. Its site billed a grand opening for Saturday, October 24.
Reply and tell me about any new sign or crew working in an empty storefront near you, even if all you know is the street.
TRAIL REPORT
At Deer Creek Canyon Park, Meadowlark Trail reopens Monday, November 2. A week later, on Monday, November 9, Lower Plymouth Creek Trail starts closing 8 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Thursday, for culvert and drainage work the county expects to run through November.
ALSO SPONSORED BY
Today is opening day at KidsUnited Littleton. Every kid gets a free intro class. Memberships are at grand-opening pricing for the first two weeks, through Friday, November 13. The classes are indoor soccer for kids 18 months to 9 years, at 5005 S. Kipling Pkwy. Book the free class at kidsunited.com/littleton.
GOOD TO KNOW
A night noise near Chatfield Farms. A reader who heard a high-pitched noise at night, coming from the direction of Chatfield Farms, says neighbors traced it to nighttime road crews. Nobody said which crews. One overnight job nearby is CDOT's repaving of C-470 between Ken Caryl and Wadsworth, which CDOT expects to finish this fall.
REAL ESTATE SNAPSHOT
80127 has 227 homes for sale. Two houses closed October 21 and went opposite ways. On West Coal Mine Drive, one listed June 10 at $885,000, came down twice to $850,000, and sold for $812,000. On West Crestline Drive, one listed September 3 at $615,000, dropped to $605,000, and sold for $623,600, over both asking prices. Freddie Mac's 30-year rate came in at 7.24% on October 29, down from 7.32%.
WEATHER
The National Weather Service has a Dense Fog Advisory until 10 AM this morning, visibility under a quarter mile. After that, today is 65 and mostly sunny. Halloween is 63 and partly sunny, and after dark the low heads toward 43, so a jacket under the costume won't hurt. Sunday is 63 and mostly cloudy, with rain showers likely before dawn Monday, and Monday is 54 with showers and thunderstorms, a 75% chance.
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COMMUNITY CORNER
Here are the Halloween houses readers sent in for the map.
West Alamo Place at South Lee Street, north of Bowles and west of Kipling, a reader's pick.
West Roxbury Avenue at South Kline Street and at South Nelson Street, west of Kipling between Coal Mine and Ken Caryl, where a reader says a lot of the houses are lit up.
11418 West Roxbury Avenue, at South Robb Street, sent in by the owner, who says it's lit most nights, with fog and more on October 30 and 31.
Wood Sorrel at West Bowles Avenue, east of Wadsworth, a reader's pick, where the whole front yard is pirate themed.
They're pinned on the Halloween map.
Happy Halloween. Keep the porch light on.
Joey
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