central denver dispatch
& The Cherry Creek News
With News of the heart of the Denver Metroplex
Hilltop • Belcaro • Bonnie Brae • Glendale • Virginia Vale • Cherry Creek
Volume 4 Issue 4
Splat:
Summer
Art at the
Platte
PlatteForum, a one-
of-a-kind art center in
Riverfront Park is proud to
announce SPLAT-Summer
Art at the Platte, a series
of art workshops for kids
ages 8-13.
Take a rafting adventure
down the Platte River and
work with a professional art-
ist in creating artworks that collaborate with nature! Trek through the urban jungle and use digital cameras to docu-
ment your journey! Share your video experiences with others during an exhibition at PlatteForum!
The workshops run from June 14 through June 25, and the costs range from $8–25. Kids can register for a morning
and afternoon workshop to equal a full day of art making experience. Group rates and scholarships are available.
Please call 303-893-0791 or visit www.platteforum.org for workshop descriptions, dates and times.
Gaylord St. Festival Memorial Day Weekend
The twenty-fifth annual Gaylord Colorado Irish Pipe Band and Xiren,
Street Festival comes off this the cornerstone community event
Memorial Day weekend with three offers something for all ages. Up and
days of music, food and entertain- coming groups are featured on the
ment. festival's south stage.
Headlined by Lannie Garrett and Free parking and shuttle service
featuring such diverse acts as the is available from South High's park-
Inside the Organics long term solution
CHERRY CREEK for beautiful gardens
decline of bacteria in American soil.
by Chuck Sherrod
NEWS &
If your lawn is typical of most in
the Central Denver area, you have
CENTRAL a little light brown layer of soil.
According to Dan Rupp of Rain
Field, this less that healthy soil is bad
DENVER for plant growth and leads to quick
water run off. In fact, it is predicted
that 90% of the soil in the country is
DISPATCH nearly dead.
The typical reaction to strug-
gling plants is adding topical fertil-
izer. That may temporarily green up
plants and grass, but it does nothing
• Colorado Wine Country
for the health of the soil that in turn
does nothing for the health of the
page 10
plant. It also leads to plants that are
chemically dependant. That sounds
a bit scary and it is not healthy for
• Dandelion page 9 the plants. Typical chemical fertiliz-
ers leave a salt residue that reduces
bacteria and leads to thatch build up
and a dead layer of soil that does not
• Restaurant & Bar Guide
allow the soil to breath
Rupp likes to explain it this way.
page 6
The soil is a cafeteria for the plants.
The bacteria within the soil prepare
it to deliver the food to the plant. The
• Open for Business more bacteria the greener, the stron-
ger, and the healthier the plants will
page 15 be. Recent studies have shown that
chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and
fungicides are the cause of a major
ing lots.
The fun kicks off at 10 a.m. daily
and runs through 6 p.m.
Vendors and exhibitors from
across Colorado add color to this
event staged amidst South Gaylord's
historic shopping district.
Organics feed the bacteria that in
turn feed the soil. In other words, the
cafeteria goes from just a quick drive
through to a giant smorgasbord with
20,000 times the selection. In addi-
tion, the organics help clear up pol-
lution in both the air and the runoff.
Rupp and Rain Field have been
involved in the development of the
distribution of organics that will,
over time, give you healthy soil and
plants. These include several alter-
natives including the trade marked,
Alaska Bountea, a soil stimulant
humus tea. Other products Rain
Field uses and sells are derived
from plant, vegetative, and minerals
that provide a rich carbon source of
organic matter.
With continuous use, these prod-
ucts repair the damage caused by
the over application of fertilizer and
other chemicals and returns the soil
back to its natural organic state.
Rupp explains that using organ-
ics will take longer to green up a
garden than chemicals much like it
takes longer to exercise to a healthier
back than to take a pain pill. But
the results are better for the soil,
the plants, and the environment.
see DROUGHT on page 15
April 23, 2004
Stokes Place
neighbors
battle
blackouts
Neighbors in the Stokes Place/
Green Bowers area have been strug-
gling with power outages for more than
a year.
Xcel Energy, in a letter to area resi-
dents, apologizes for the outages, and
says that maintenance work done last
fall has ended system related outages in
the area, a claim that residents dispute.
Alan Gass has been cataloging power
outages for the Stokes Place neighbor-
hood association and ticks off outage
and their length of time with ease. "We
have had frequent and numerous out-
ages," over recent years.
During last year's big storm, many
in the neighborhood went 63 hours
without electricity.
Gass said there have been as many
as fifteen outages since then, not includ-
ing many brief interruptions that play
havoc with clocks and computers.
Neighbors have complained to the
Public Utilities Commission and City
Councilman Charlie Brown. Xcel pro-
vides electricity to Denverites by virtue
of a franchise granted by the City.
"Even the momentary outages screw
up a whole work day for those who
work at home," says Gass. Some 165
area homes are effected by the prob-
lem. Gass says that Xcel's antiquated
area equipment is at the root of the
problem.
PERMIT NO. 353
U.S. POSTAGE
DENVER, CO
PRSRT STD
PAID
U.S. POSTAGE
DENVER, CO
PRSRT STD
PERMIT NO.
PAID
3188
ENVER DISPATCH
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CO 80246
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DEWS
Denver, CO
ENTRAL N
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