Colorado
Englewood teams up with Compost Colorado to bring composting to city facilities
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Englewood is the first municipality to partner with Compost Colorado to bring composting containers to all city buildings.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), methane gas is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping atmospheric heat and makes up about 16% of global emissions. A new internal city-wide program in Englewood aims to cut back on methane gas emissions, starting with employee food scraps.
“If you are taking your banana peels and throwing them in the trash, that goes to the landfill, where it generates methane gas because it’s trapped in styrofoam and plastic and it’s broken down anaerobically. Instead, you can turn that banana peel, those coffee grounds into compost, which reduces and eliminates that methane and, in exchange, makes a really healthy, nutrient-rich compost soil amendment,” said Vann Fussell, founder of Compost Colorado.
The company offers residential and commercial compost pick-up to communities across the Front Range. They typically divert around 50,000 pounds of scraps and compostable products away from landfills each week.
In the last week, Compost Colorado launched something new — a partnership with the City of Englewood.
“This is one of the first kinds of partnerships we’ve developed with a municipality,” said Fussell.
Compost Colorado bins can now be found in about 20 break rooms for city employees.
“City staff can utilize it after lunch if they have a banana peel or anything organic. They can put it in this bin and know that they’re helping with waste diversion,” said Melissa Englund, Englewood’s sustainability program manager who has been working for years with Compost Colorado to launch the program.
The program was funded through money from the Public Works budget — $570 as a one-time start-up fee and a monthly payment of $685. That includes 20 bins and multiple 64-gallon roll-offs that will be located at the Civic Center, the police department, the Service Center, Malley Senior Center, South Platte Renew and the Englewood Recreation Center.
Public Works staff saw firsthand just how much compostable material was heading straight to the dump in the trash.
“Right now, we currently have recycling. We do the trash removal, and we do look at what we’re throwing away. With a lot of food and a lot of product that can be in compost, we decided it’d be a really good program to add,” said Ron Thornton, deputy director of Englewood Public Works.
The bins are expected to have a big impact once all 600+ city employees join in.
“The first few weeks you might expect, you know, about one or two tons of diversion across their municipal buildings. But that might snowball into maybe even 10 tons a week from across all their departments,” said Fussell.
Organizers hope the commitment to composting spreads beyond the government buildings. The city has posted signage and hosted lunch-and-learns to give their employees information on how to properly compost.
“We hope that they take that information and bring it home to their friends and families and get them excited about composting, too,” said Englund.
“If your city leaders aren’t recycling and composting, it’s hard for you as a resident to feel that it’s your responsibility to do that, so I appreciate Englewood. They’re setting a good example to their community,” said Fussell. “I’m really hopeful that these other municipalities that we operate in Broomfield, Westminster, Arvada, Lakewood, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, all of these municipalities adopt a similar practice, and we can divert as much food waste from the landfill as we can.”
Englewood does offer community compost drop-off at the recreation center. Residents need to sign up with Compost Colorado for $5/week to have 24/7 access to the bin there. The residential bin was launched in May 2023 and since then, 2,820 lbs of organic waste has been diverted, according to the city.
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Colorado
Colorado mother says Lakewood crash killed son, left 2 of her children critically injured as driver is arrested
A mother is grieving after a crash in the Denver metro area last weekend left her son brain-dead and two of her other children fighting for their lives.
Lakewood police say 22-year-old Andrew Logan Miller has been arrested in connection with the crash, which happened Dec. 6 around 7:30 p.m. near Kipling Parkway and West 6th Avenue.
Police say Miller was driving an SUV southbound on Kipling Parkway at a high rate of speed when it collided with a bus carrying a wrestling team from Central High School, which is located in Grand Junction in Mesa County.
Sixteen people were taken to hospitals.
Among the injured were three siblings who were riding inside the SUV.
On Friday, their mother, Suleyma Gonzalez, identified them as Julio Gonzalez, 18, Analelly Gonzalez, 17, and Christopher Gonzalez, 14.
Analelly and Christopher remain in critical condition. Julio will never wake up.
“I didn’t want to believe it, until they had to do the second testing where they didn’t find blood going through his brain,” she said. “My other two are in comas.”
Gonzalez said doctors ultimately declared Julio brain-dead.
She describes her children as disciplined students and ROTC members with plans for the future.
“Two of my kids were going to graduate this year,” she said. “No drugs. No alcohol. They were good kids.”
Gonzalez confirmed that Miller, who was driving the SUV at the time of the crash, was her daughter’s boyfriend.
“I know he loved my daughter,” she said. “I don’t think he did this on purpose or intentionally. It was an accident.”
Police say the investigation is ongoing, but believe speed played a major role in the crash.
Miller was arrested Wednesday night and is facing multiple charges, including:
• Vehicular assault (7 counts)
• Speeding 40 mph or more over the limit
• Reckless driving
• Child abuse (2 counts)
• Reckless endangerment
“My kids know when you get in somebody’s car, there’s always a risk. Always,” she said.
Julio’s organs will be donated. He’s on life support, while the hospital searches for matches.
“He wanted to give to the world,” she said. “Now that I can’t get him back, we want to give life to somebody else.”
Miller is currently being held in the Denver County Jail and is awaiting transfer to the Jefferson County Jail. His bond and court appearance have not yet been announced.
Lakewood police say the investigation remains active.
Gonzalez, a single mother of five, says her focus now is on her surviving children and getting clarity.
“I just want answers.”
Colorado
DOJ sues Colorado Secretary of State for failure to release state voter information
DENVER, Colo. (KKTV) – The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced Thursday a lawsuit against the Colorado Secretary of State for failure to produce state voter information.
Secretary of State Jena Griswold claims the DOJ sent a “broad” request for the voter registration rolls on May 12.
Griswold says her office complied with the request and “shared the publicly available data consistent with applicable law.” However, the lawsuit against Griswold says that her office did not respond to the letter.
Griswold sent a letter in November signed by several Secretaries of State to the DOJ and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requesting clarification on how the data would be used, but she claims neither replied to the questions in the letter.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that DOJ attorney Eric Neff followed up by emailing Secretary Griswold on Dec. 1, requesting Colorado’s Statewide Voter Registration list.
Griswold said this request asked the office to share unredacted voter data, including a voter’s full name, date of birth, residential address, and complete state driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
Griswold responded by email on Dec. 3, stating, “We received your request. We will not be producing unredacted voter files or signing the MOU,” the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit cites the Civil Rights Act, which gives the United States Attorney General the power to demand the production, inspection, and analysis of the statewide voter registration lists.
The DOJ is requesting a judge to declare that Griswold violated the Civil Rights Act and to order her to provide the current electronic copy of Colorado’s statewide voter registration list.
Griswold’s office released the following statement:
The DOJ released the following statement regarding the lawsuit:
Copyright 2025 KKTV. All rights reserved.
Colorado
Toyota Game Recap: 12/11/2025 | Colorado Avalanche
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