City of Boulder, CO Inside Boulder News, 8 Nov 2013

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From YouTube: Inside Boulder News - November 8, 2013

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This week on Inside Boulder News: Voters show support for city priorities, a destructive pest takes root in Boulder's ash trees, firefighters work to protect residents from a silent killer, and the community says goodbye to two leaders who helped us understand our world through science.

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This week on inside Boulder news, voters show support for City priorities. A destructive pest takes root and boulders ash trees. Firefighters worked to protect residents from a silent killer, and the community says goodbye to two leaders who helped us understand our world through science.

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Welcome to inside Boulder news, I'm, Ashley, Pro, Boulder voters, let their voices be heard this week at the ballot box, passing every city council supported initiative by wide margins. The measures included competing questions related to the possible creation of a local electric utility supporters, say a city-owned utility would be able to increase renewable sources of energy and decrease harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

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Voters agreed to 21 to support the ongoing exploration of this idea, while also approving some additional requirements related to costs and possible out of County customers inside Boulder News spoke with regional sustainability coordinator Jonathan Cohen about what's up next. Is the city continues to study ways to achieve the community's energy goals so.

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As we move forward now, there's a lot of work. That's going to take place on the legal front, mostly around the acquisition of the assets that we would need to buy from xcel energy to create the new utility, but at the same time, we'll begin the process of developing what we are calling kind of the business model of what the utility would look like and how it would function if we do indeed create the utility. So obviously this is a pretty complicated issue. There's a lot of moving pieces to it.

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So we really encourage people to either pick up the phone and call someone in the energy future office or get on our website, which is energy, future Boulder and boulders energy future com, and we have all of our analyses all of the memos that have gone to City Council and a lot of details there. We want this to be a very strong community involved process. It has been up to this point, and so if people have questions, we want to make sure they're reaching out the.

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Community's energy goals weren't the only ones voters were asked to evaluate this year. Several tax measures passed that will have significant impacts on open space, transportation, general city services funding and the ability to implement retail marijuana regulations in Boulder. This.

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Was a long-range impact over many years, so it really goes to the very sustainable fiscal aspects of the city. That's what was so important.

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The reason the city for this flood, that we just have the reason we're in such good shape financially compared to many others, is that we had set aside reserves. We had matched those ongoing expenditures to ongoing revenues. We didn't use one-time money to pay for ongoing costs and that's really done put the city in the position was for the flood. So we need to continue that more.

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Information about these and other ballot initiatives can be found at Boulder, Colorado, gov, / elections. Voters also filled five seats on City Council, choosing three newcomers and reelected two veteran members. The new council will officially be sworn in. On november nineteenth at ten a.m. the ceremony will be broadcast, live on boulder channel 8 com and comcast channel 8. An exotic beetle responsible for killing millions of ash trees across the United States is now living in boulder and late-september. Members of builders, Forestry Division discovered the emerald ash borer feasting on an ash tree within city limits.

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Boulder is the first city this far west of the Mississippi to make this worries and find that's.

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The phone call you don't ever want to receive when it comes to trees, emerald ash borer, they don't. It doesn't really get much worse than emerald ash borer. It's.

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An invasive species, so it doesn't have any natural enemies and it's discovered a food source that it just loves and if enough emerald ash borer gets around a tree and they feed under the bark enough it'll, eventually girdle the tree and kill it ash.

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Trees they're a tough urban tree I mean they're able to survive living in an urban environment. You know the heat island effect, the being surrounded by concrete the air pollution they're able to survive so to have that tree taken out of the equation. For us, it's going to be difficult in order.

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To understand the full extent of the infestation, the city is collecting branch samples from local ash trees. Each branch will be examined closely for the presence of the emerald ash borer to help prevent further spreading. The Colorado Department of Agriculture will be imposing and enforcing a quarantine on the movement of all ash tree products and hardwood firewood out of Boulder County by November twelfth for educational material, about the emerald ash, borer log on to EA be Colorado. Calm.

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Public safety officials are keeping a close eye on the tent dangerous, as residents impacted by the recent floods work to stay warm this winter. This includes making sure that early warning systems like carbon monoxide detectors, are available to those in need. Thanks to a generous donation, 100 families and individuals will now be able to replace this life-saving device. Boulder.

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Fire Rescue was recently donated about a hundred carbon monoxide detectors on a first-come, first-served basis to residents in need known as the silent killer, carbon monoxide sneaks up on you, causing nausea, dizziness weakness and confusion. The only way you can actually detect this invisible odorless gas is with a carbon monoxide. Alarm, hey cam, thanks to read with us, I invited Kim to my house. To show me the best locations to install CO detectors anywhere from the ceiling to a ground-level outlet are all places that carbon monoxide alarms can be placed. It's.

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So prevalent all around and again people do not realize that they're being exposed to it or have been exposed to it. Until sometimes you know you you develop symptoms outside.

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Of bedrooms is best because safety and sleeping areas is key. However, they should never be installed near a stove or furnace, because the gas release from these appliances can set off a false alarm feel.

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Wood-Burning stove or propane heater. If you have gas stove in your kitchen, you know all those different types of gas fed appliances. Then you have risk to have carbon monoxide in your house. This.

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Is especially important for individuals and families whose homes were damaged by the floods? That's why Kim reached out to Quetta who generously donated the alarms to boulder Fire Rescue, the.

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First round, we want to be very clear: make sure that you're, a city resident, second of all, that you are affected by the floods if.

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You discover dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in your home, get out and call 911.

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We tell people fires, you make sure you get outside. Everyone in the house is outside quickly and call 911. Then we can actually go in and measure the gas level in the house and determine if you know sometimes it's just someone's battery. That needs to be changed. That that's the case, then that's an easy fix, Boulder fire.

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Rescue will be offering these alarms free to the public once there are no more requests from flood victims, contact kim scott at 3034, 414, 355 or email. Her scott k at boulder colorado gov to make a request. Members of the community gathered this past weekend to honor the legacies of two influential Boulder natives astronaut, scott carpenter and physics.

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Professor al Bartlett left us with important lessons about space, the deep sea and the impacts of world population growth, scott Carpenter, who reach legendary status in 1962, and he became the second American to orbit the Earth diet on October 10th. His contributions have been recognized by the city, with both the scott carpenter park and pool in 2012.

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The famed astronaut attended the rededication of his namesake park in the celebration of his 50th anniversary of his orbiting, the earth boulders also celebrating the life and contributions of a local scholar who made an impact a little closer to Earth al Bartlett, who is often considered the founding father of limited growth initiatives and a key player in preserving boulders open space died on September 75 million viewers on YouTube, know al Bartlett as the man behind arithmetic population and energy.

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This lecture on world population growth debuted in the 1960s and there's little doubt it will echo well beyond the professor's passing before his death Bartley, requested that any memorial gifts be made to the University of Colorado foundation, Albert a Bartlett scholarship fund in care of the department of physics. Thank you for watching inside Boulder news stay in touch with us on Facebook and Twitter. By submitting news tips and questions, you can also sign up to receive video updates right in your Inbox, just go to boulder channel 8 com and click on subscribe.

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