Happy Friday. This was a week where the news kept walking things back. The Shea hearing TrailMark spent weeks bracing for is off, punted to December. The mystery dig at Simms and Ken Caryl turned out to be a different agency's emergency altogether. And the city handed the police chief job to the guy who already had the keys. All of it's below, along with two Indian kitchens ready for a taste test and one last dry scorcher before the rain comes back. It's a full one, so pour the coffee.

The top slot is ad-free this week, so a quick one from me instead. Sometime around last weekend, the Post crossed 1,000 subscribers. Issue #1 went out to 139 people back in April, and I suspect half of those opened it to be polite. A thousand is different. A thousand is a real corner of the neighborhood reading the same page every Friday morning. If this thing has earned a spot in your week, forward it to one neighbor. That's the whole ask.

The Shea hearing is off. Stand down until December. Last week I told TrailMark to keep July 21 free for the council hearing on Shea's 27 proposed homes on the lot just north of the fire station. Change of plans. The final agenda, stamped Wednesday, continues the rezone, Ordinance 14-2026, to December 1, a "date certain" in city-speak, with no public hearing next week. The formal request came from Shea's side: the engineering firm running its application asked for the continuance in a July 9 email to city planning, and the paperwork gives no reason. Council already passed the rezone on first reading back in May, so what waits for December is the second reading and the public hearing that comes with it. TrailMark's own site still listed the July 21 hearing as of this morning, so tell your neighbors before somebody spends Tuesday evening in the council chamber for nothing. And the sewer rate study I've been telling you to watch for on this agenda? Not on it either. Council still meets Tuesday, but the Shea fight won't be in the room. If the Metro District meeting was your other reason for holding the night, that one's still on.

Two agencies, one broken pipe. The Simms dig, explained. A reader asked on our Facebook page why the Simms and Ken Caryl intersection endured months of rebuilding only to get torn right back up, and the answer explains the madness. The rebuild, 2.48 million dollars of new signals, medians, and drainage, was Jefferson County's project, and the county finished it in June. The dig that followed belongs to somebody else entirely. The Ken Caryl Ranch Water and Sanitation District is making emergency repairs to a broken sanitary sewer line at that corner, and the county says flat out that the two aren't related. Nobody gets to schedule a broken pipe, which is why fresh asphalt got jackhammered. The reader who flagged it says Simms is still closed north to south at the dig, and when I asked the district for a finish date this week, they wouldn't commit to one. Their line is 303-979-7424 if the detour is wrecking your commute. The second there's a real date, you'll read it here.

Littleton has a police chief, and you already know him. The city ended its search Thursday by hiring the man already doing the job. Gene Enley, who has served three separate stints as interim chief, takes the post for good. He's spent 28 of his 31-plus law-enforcement years in Littleton, 18 of them on the SWAT team, and his wife teaches in Littleton Public Schools. Of the four finalists, he was the only one already working in the building.

Tonight: music at the Ranch. Rockin' in the Ranch runs 5 to 7 at the Ranch House soccer field, free, with The Placebo Effect on classic-rock duty plus a food truck and bounce house for the kids. Open to non-residents, which is still worth saying out loud in Ken Caryl.

Tomorrow: cars for a cause. The second annual Reps and Rides Rally takes over Gym's House at 9729 West Coal Mine Avenue on Saturday, 10 to 2. There's a car show and a lift-a-thon, and proceeds go to the Rotary Club of Littleton and the Hornbuckle Foundation, the same crew whose carnival got blown out by the wind in June. Backing them while they regroup feels right.

Also tomorrow, for the Pokémon crowd: Super Mega Raichu Raid Day runs 2 to 5, and the local group walks it from Bega Park.

Next week's free music, in order. Dakota Blonde closes the Littleton Museum's lawn season Wednesday at 6:30, and Clement Park's amphitheater follows with Hand Turkey, soul and pop, Thursday at 7.

Next Friday is a doubleheader. Illuminate Littleton fills Main Street downtown with light installations and roaming musicians from 6 to 10, capped by a drone show. The same night, free Macbeth opens on the Clement Park lawn at 7, no tickets, bring a chair. It plays Saturday the 25th too.

And Bemis is playing outside. The library sets up all-ages lawn games on its front lawn Saturday the 25th, 10 to noon.

The regulars: the Farmers Market holds its Saturday 8-to-1 slot on Nevada Street downtown, and Wednesday Raid Hour steps off from the Clement Park skate park at 5:50.

Indian food now bookends the zip. Nanu's Kitchen recently opened in Jefferson Marketplace on South Kipling, from Bibek Rauniyar, already behind three other Indian kitchens around the metro, and reviewers are calling out the saag paneer and a mustard curry mahi mahi. Across 80127 on West Ken Caryl Avenue, Ken Caryl Kabob has been quietly doing Indian with a Mediterranean twist, six fried chicken momo with tomato chutney for 13 dollars, a gyro with fries for 16, open every day 11 to 9. I haven't picked a favorite yet, so try one this week and report back with your order.

Circle Saturday, August 1. That's when Black Bear Trail is set to reopen after its six-month raptor-nesting closure, reconnecting Deer Creek Canyon and Hildebrand Ranch. Make the return trip a weekend one, because the Upper Plymouth Creek trail work still shuts that stretch down Monday through Thursday, 8 to 4:30. This weekend the usual rules hold: the Deer Creek work zone opens back up Friday through Sunday, Apex is clear, and Waterton stays a no-dog canyon while the bighorns have the run of it. The fire ban hasn't budged either, still Stage 2, so the only flame allowed out there is one you can switch off. With the weekend running this hot, treat any hike like a morning appointment.

Eleven of you, one flat 80 dollars. Event and Airport Transportation is running its Sprinter deal through the end of July, 80 dollars flat between any two Littleton addresses, up to 11 passengers. A group dinner out beats anybody's kitchen in a week like this one. Reserve at least an hour ahead at limolimo.limo. Local and licensed, Colorado PUC LL-03624.

The drought map got redrawn, and not our way. This week's US Drought Monitor update puts all of Jefferson County in at least Severe Drought, with Extreme Drought now covering about 40 percent of it. At the end of June, that Extreme share was zero. It's the context behind the fire ban, the crunchy lawns, and the watering rules, and none of it changes until the monsoon does some real work.

If the dead branches in your yard have been bothering you, Ken-Caryl Ranch runs a slash drop-off Saturday and Sunday, 9 to noon, at Dakota Lodge on West Ken Caryl Avenue. Residents only, free, no sign-up. Fire mitigation you can finish before lunch.

Bemis opens late Wednesday, at 1:30, for a city staff event. Plan the library run around it.

What 165 for-sale signs look like. Forget the sold data for a week and look at the shelf. About 165 homes are on the market in 80127 right now. The floor is a 650-square-foot one-bedroom condo on South Gore Range Road asking 255,500. The ceiling is a brand-new seven-bedroom, 14,693-square-foot estate on Cherrywood Trail asking 9,995,000, and no, that's not a typo. Against the 90 homes that sold here in the past month, that pencils out to not quite two months of supply. A thin shelf anywhere. It shows in the fresh closings, too. A four-bedroom on West Marlowe Place closed Wednesday at 709,000, within a few hundred dollars of the zip's published median, and a Geddes Circle four-bedroom went 4 percent over asking in 19 days. Patience exists in this market. Just not much of it.

One more dry blast, then the pattern finally breaks. Friday hits 92, Saturday 93, and Sunday peaks at 97, all of it sunny and rainless. Monday stays hot in the mid-90s, dry through most of the day with the first slim storm chance creeping in late. Then Tuesday and Wednesday the monsoon actually arrives: storm chances near 55 percent Tuesday and 70 percent Wednesday, with highs sliding back into the upper 80s. That would be the first real shot at rain since the storms that blew through last Friday. One air-quality note for today: the state has an Ozone Action Day posted for the Front Range through at least 4 p.m., so if your lungs run sensitive, save the hard outdoor exertion for the morning. If your lawn could write letters, it already has. Get the outdoor work done early this weekend and give Tuesday a chance to show off.

Out on North Moore Road, just south of the zip, Zuma's Rescue Ranch has been taking in horses since 2008 and is feeding more than 60 of them right now. This week they put out a call on Facebook saying this drought year is hitting as hard as the last one and asking for help keeping the herd fed. Their donate page does the math for you: 50 dollars feeds 13 horses for a day. zumasrr.com if you have room for it.

And a note on how this issue got made. The Simms story up top started as one comment on our Facebook page. You flag it, I run it down. So tell me the next one, the intersection that makes no sense, the storefront that's been papered over for months, the project nobody will explain. Hit reply.

That's the week from the foothills. Squeeze the dry days for what they're worth, and when Tuesday's rain lands, go stand in it for a minute.

Joey

Your personal referral link: {{rp_refer_url_no_params}}

Subscribe | Forward to a neighbor | Advertise with us