The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration are set to announce that the rail project will be included in the Corridor Identification and Development Program, according to a news release issued Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat from Lafayette. The program is a major component of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that aims to facilitate the development of intercity passenger rail corridors across the nation.

Front Range rail’s inclusion could mean significant money from the federal government over the coming years as the project moves closer to reality. Among its chief boosters is Gov. Jared Polis.

“This corridor stretches across more than 160 miles, connecting 13 of the most populous counties across the state and acting as a transportation ‘spine’ for the Front Range,” Neguse said in a statement. “I am excited to see this project become a reality for our growing communities.”

A formal announcement about the money and the corridor plan is expected later this week. Ahead of that, members of Congress in several states have publicized other corridors’ selection, too.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law contained $66 billion in additional funding for rail, including $1.8 billion for the Corridor ID Program and even more to support federal and state partnerships. This is the first step in identifying projects worthy of funding.

The $500,000 from the FRA for Front Range Passenger Rail comes after the project assembled nearly $4 million in funding in late 2021 to pay for studies to gauge the viability of the rail line, including a service plan. Of that total, $1.6 million came from the Colorado Transportation Commission’s reserves.

Andy Karsian, the general manager of the Front Range Passenger Rail District, a taxing district established to help fund the project, said the feds’ initial half million dollars “will go toward the technical work necessary to quantify costs and service for the new corridor.”

Early estimates have put the cost for a starter system — likely to be operated by Amtrak in a partnership — at $1.7 billion to $2.8 billion, with as many as six trains a day running mostly on shared freight tracks connecting cities including Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver and Fort Collins.

The first passenger trains between Fort Collins and Pueblo could be rolling within the next decade, Karsian said. Later upgrades to speed up service and add more frequent trains would add billions of dollars to the cost.

Karsian said federal officials’ selection of the project for the Corridor ID Program is significant because it plugs Front Range rail into a stream of “dedicated federal dollars designed to build this project.”

“That’s where Colorado is and that’s why we’re so excited to be part of the program,” he said.

Karsian said the district is about halfway through the planning process for the rail line, which it hopes to wrap up by the end of next year. After that, the project will need to move through the all-important environmental clearance process.

There’s also the politically fraught question of whether and when to ask voters living in the rail district to approve a sales tax to help pay for the project. That’s possible as soon as next fall.

Polis issued a statement Wednesday lauding Front Range rail’s inclusion in the federal rail corridor program.

“Front Range Passenger Rail will modernize our transit system, save people money, and support jobs and housing across our state,” he said. “I applaud the Department of Transportation and the Biden administration for securing and providing this funding, and for recognizing the need for this service and the promise to get it done soon.”

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Xylazine, also known by its street names “tranq” and “zombie drug” — for the severe, rotting wounds it can cause in humans — spurred a warning from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration last spring about its potential lethality, especially when mixed with opioids such as fentanyl. The drug is not approved for human use.

The bipartisan bill, dubbed the Testing, Rapid Analysis and Narcotic Quality (TRANQ) Research Act, directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to focus its research on existing and emerging illicit drugs containing xylazine and other emerging substances. NIST researchers have been helping to improve and develop technologies to get ahead of synthetic drugs, and Caraveo’s bill directs the agency to apply those efforts to xylazine as well.

The bill was the freshman congresswoman’s first bill to pass through both chambers of Congress. Introduced in March, it was approved by the Senate in June and came back to the House with minor changes for Monday’s vote.

Last year, 1,799 Coloradans died of a drug overdose, down slightly from the 1,881 overdose deaths recorded in the state the year before. Fentanyl and methamphetamine continue to push the state’s per-capita overdose rate to alarming levels.

“New illicit drugs like tranq are fueling an epidemic that is devastating American communities, including families here in Colorado,” Caraveo said in a statement issued shortly after the House gave final passage to her bill on a voice vote. “We need to head off these alarming new threats before they spread.”

Caraveo took office in January, becoming the first representative of Colorado’s newly formed 8th Congressional District, which covers parts of Adams, Weld and Larimer counties.

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“It was very traumatizing,” Sadler said of the midnight fire about a year ago. “I would have dark moments of depression. We cried it all out in San Antonio and then we left.”

Left for Denver, where Sadler’s brother and sister-in-law live. Soon after arriving in the Mile High City, the 38-year-old mother of kids ranging in age from 10 to 18 was referred to Jewish Family Service, a 151-year-old human services organization based in southeast Denver, for help finding work and a home.

Jewish Family Service, which is part of The Denver Post’s Season to Share program, found Sadler’s family a place in Lakewood to rent, and the organization covered the $1,750 rent out of the box. But Sadler said she has been covering a larger portion of it every month over the last year and plans soon to take on the burden fully.

“I’m really confident now. I know I’ll be able to pay my rent,” she said. “If you’re not willing to put in that much, you’re not going to prosper.”

Jewish Family Service serves an average of 32,000 people a year across more than 30 programs ranging from mental health support to aging services to housing stability to a refugee resettlement program. Last year, the organization helped 68 Afghan evacuees, finding them safe housing and matching them with “cultural mentors” to teach them to grocery shop, navigate public transportation and enroll in Medicaid.

“Our numbers have skyrocketed because of all the migrants coming into Colorado,” said President and CEO Linda Foster. “We serve everyone in need, regardless of their religious beliefs and circumstances.”

Jewish Family Service also has a food pantry that Foster said has been getting heavy use of late.

“Food insecurity is huge,” she said. “The first thing you have to do to help people is get food on the table and a roof over their heads.”

For Sadler, that roof is a home in Lakewood. She has landed a job working for Catholic Charities and is feeling stable in a way she hasn’t in years. She credits that to Jewish Family Service.

“They actually care and they take the time to see what your family needs,” she said of the organization. “They are in it for the right reasons.”

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE

Address: 3201 S. Tamarac Dr., Denver, CO 80231

In operation since: 1872

Number of employees: 185

Annual budget: $19.6 million

The gathering opened as pro-Palestinian protesters geared up to oppose — and potentially disrupt — the event in downtown Denver this weekend. A group of about 60 protesters gathered Thursday evening at the Colorado Convention Center’s blue bear and chanted, shouted and banged on the windows.

“We want to be loud, visible and hostile to our enemies,” an unidentified speaker said through a megaphone.

The disruption could be heard inside the convention center, host to the annual conference, which is put on by the Jewish National Fund-USA. The conference has become a local flashpoint in the weeks since Hamas carried out a deadly surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 and capturing nearly 250 people to be held as hostages.

The Israeli military’s response to the Oct. 7 raid has left more than 13,000 Palestinians dead in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry, inflaming tensions around the world.

On Thursday, Denver police closed a section of 14th Street, between Stout and Welton streets, to vehicle traffic as a security measure, and it put up concrete barriers. The closure will be in effect until 8 p.m. Sunday.

About 10 police vehicles blocked access to the front doors of the convention center Thursday night, as protesters marched past the windows of the facility with signs and Palestinian flags. Security was tight at the event, with heavily armed law enforcement officers stationed throughout the convention center.

Polis delivered welcoming remarks at the conference, which is scheduled to last through Sunday.

“There’s a lot of pain, and it’s made worse by the rise of anti-Semitism and hate,” the governor said. “Our greatest strength is our ability to stand together. Together we must fight all forms of hate.”

The governor’s appearance at the conference was denounced by the Colorado Palestine Coalition. The group labeled Polis “hypocrite-in-chief” on its Instagram page and accused him of welcoming “some of Israel’s most noted Islamaphobes and racist genocidaires” to Denver.

The organization is calling for a shutdown of the conference. And on Monday, Pro-Palestinian demonstrators speaking out against the Global Conference for Israel took over the chamber of City Council, causing the meeting to be postponed.

Yaron Marcus, an Israeli-American who serves as the vice president of the Mountain States region of the Jewish National Fund-USA, said his parents were called “Zionist, racist pigs” as they entered the conference Thursday.

“It’s disheartening,” he said inside the convention center.

NOW: Pro-Palestine activists getting loud and banging on convention center windows, while also blowing whistles and banging pots and pans in downtown Denver. They are opposed to the Global Conference for Israel happening inside. Governor Polis is scheduled to address the event pic.twitter.com/tfRThCofsz

— John Aguilar (@abuvthefold) December 1, 2023

The protesters this year are “angry, hostile and threatening,” said Marcus, who grew up in a Tel Aviv suburb and now lives in Denver. And they erroneously conflate the American arm of the organization to the Israel-based Jewish National Fund organization, he said.

“We own no land (in Israel),” Marcus said. “We are a nonprofit whose mission is to carry out humanitarian and other philanthropic endeavors in Israel.”

Polis, who is Jewish, told The Denver Post through a spokesman last week that “Israel has a right to defend its citizens against Hamas and to respond to the brutal murder of hundreds of Israeli citizens, and to work to facilitate the return of hundreds of hostages.”

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Polis’ spokesman, Conor Cahill, added that hate against any faith in Colorado “will not be tolerated, and that includes ensuring that any effort to intimidate or prevent people from speaking to a group of Jewish Americans convening in Denver does not succeed.”

Many pro-Palestinian activists accuse the Jewish National Fund of supporting policies that have displaced Palestinians from their land and have resulted in the severe curtailment of their rights as they seek to create a nation-state of their own.

Sarah Kaplan Gould, a member leader of the Denver/Boulder chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, said the Jewish National Fund-USA “supports a vision in Israel that does not support equality for Palestinians and for all people.”

Jewish Voice for Peace calls for an end to U.S. support “for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians” on its website. It also calls for a permanent cease-fire in the current war. A tenuous cease-fire that began a week ago was extended Thursday to release hostages, but it’s not clear how long it will last.

“The JNF doesn’t represent Jews everywhere,” said Kaplan Gould, who is Jewish. “I’m here to say: ‘Not in my name.’ ”

Jewish Voice for Peace plans to hold an “interfaith solidarity picket” near the convention center on Friday and another downtown protest Sunday. The actions are among a number of events being promoted by the Colorado Palestine Coalition this weekend, including a planned Friday walkout of Denver Public Schools students and a rally and march at the state Capitol on Saturday.

“I hope that people in Denver who are not sure they should speak out for Palestinian rights know they have a place and a community here and in Israel who recognize the intertwined fates of Jews and Palestinians,” Kaplan Gould said.

Marcus countered that Israel’s fight isn’t with Palestinian civilians.

“We’re not at war with Palestinians; we’re not at war with Gaza,” he said. “We’re at war with Hamas, the terrorist organization that governs Gaza.”

The New York Times on Thursday published the results of several recent polls that show that the level of support for Israel among Americans is decidedly stronger than U.S. support for Palestinians. In a Marist poll, 61% of respondents said they sympathized more with Israelis, and 30% sympathized more with Palestinians.

An NBC poll conducted in November showed that 47% of Americans say they feel positively toward Israel while 24% feel negatively toward the country. Only 1% of Americans feel positively about Hamas, while 81% feel negatively about the militant group, the poll found.

A mid-November Quinnipiac poll asked Americans who was “more responsible for the outbreak of violence” in Israel and Gaza. Sixty-nine percent pointed to Hamas, and 15% chose Israel.

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While some business owners aren’t sweating it, John Agnew has a less sanguine view of the effect REI’s presence may have on his snowboard and outdoor gear shop on Main Street once it opens in early 2025. The Seattle-based chain has 181 locations and reported nearly $4 billion in revenue last year.

“They’ll eat up a lot of goggle, helmet and snowboard sales,” said Agnew, who founded The Boarding Haus in downtown Durango in 1995. “I had to fight for many years to get the brands I want.”

REI, which has several locations in Front Range cities, has expanded its mountain market footprint in recent years, opening outposts in Dillon and then Glenwood Springs. The next-closest REI to Durango is an older location in Grand Junction, 170 miles away.

In the eyes of Kendrick Williamson, who oversees operations at Gardenswartz Outdoors just a couple of blocks south of Agnew’s store, the opening of REI there is not a direct threat to his nearly century-old downtown business.

“We’re not going to be losing a lot of customers — there’s not a lot of overlap,” Williamson said, as customers browsed a wide selection of fishing poles, Stetson hats and knives on an early fall afternoon. “People are pretty loyal to the local concept here.”

Gardenswartz sells hunting rifles and ammunition, which are not available at REI. Plus, Williamson noted, the new REI location will be on Durango’s south side — away from the tourist-heavy Main Street in the city of 20,000.

“They’re not in the epicenter,” he said.

The epicenter is the 10-block stretch of shops and restaurants, where hundreds of people empty out of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad depot daily in the warm season to stroll and shop in the city’s historic district.

Tim Walsworth, executive director of the Durango Business Improvement District, said he’d been monitoring the situation on behalf of the businesses his organization represents.

There are more than a dozen sporting goods stores already in the city, which is surrounded by square mile upon square mile of wilderness that beckons campers, anglers, rafters, skiers and hikers.

The improvement district recently crunched the sales numbers for the sporting goods sector in Durango. It found that more than $23 million worth of merchandise was sold last year, down just slightly from $24 million-plus in 2021, Walsworth said. Those figures compare to less than $19 million in pre-pandemic 2019.

The state’s outdoor recreation industry generates $37 billion in consumer spending each year and contributes 511,000 direct jobs, according to data from the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade.

“Our existing local sporting goods stores are concerned, of course, but also have spent many years cultivating their customers and providing good service and products,” Walsworth said. “They know they will have to step up their game.”

Similar competitive concerns cropped up when Walmart and Home Depot came to Durango, but Walsworth said the two national chains “did not cause local businesses to close.”

“We are worried that this could impact the viability of some of our existing sporting goods stores,” he said. “But again, they have years of local experience and tons of local customers, plus better visibility by being located in the heart of our town.”

“Even so,” Walsworth said, “we expect REI to take some market share due to their name recognition and that they already have members here.”

When the improvement district first heard about REI’s interest in Durango, it reached out to a sporting goods store in Flagstaff, Arizona, and learned that REI claimed about 20% of the market during its first year in town — and about 10% annually after that.

REI currently has 9,000 members in the Durango area, according to REI spokeswoman Megan Behrbaum. Durango will be the co-op’s 10th location in Colorado.

“Product assortment will broadly include camp, cycle, run, climb and snow sports — also similar to other stores in the state,” Behrbaum said. “The store will also have a section dedicated to Re/Supply, our used gear and apparel offering.”

REI can co-exist peacefully in markets with established outdoor retailers, she said.

“We don’t believe it is a simple scenario of big retailers driving out smaller retailers, but we do recognize our presence can create competition,” Behrbaum said.

Corry Mihm, a project manager with the Summit Economic Partnership in Summit County, said the opening of REI in Dillon in 2017 has produced no definitive negative impact on local outdoor recreation businesses.

“We have seen a couple of mom-and-pop sporting goods stores close, but it is difficult to say exactly why — it could be pandemic impacts, aging and tiring of the owners or landlord renewal issues,” Mihm said. “We have seen all of these issues impact local business but don’t have specific store-by-store information.”

But Agnew, The Boarding Haus owner, cringes at yet another big-box retailer setting up shop in Durango, which sits just a half-hour north of the New Mexico line.

He worries about what it’s doing to Durango’s character — and to its sense of self-identity.

“Part of the charm was the mom-and-pop businesses,” Agnew said. “This is another tick towards wiping that out.”

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The annual conference has become the latest focal point of reaction locally to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, which it launched in response to Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israeli soil. The conference, organized by the Jewish National Fund-USA, is set to begin Nov. 30 at the Colorado Convention Center.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who is Jewish, is scheduled to speak at the event on its opening night. The Denver Police Department said Wednesday that it was “working with the organizers to ensure a safe event.”

“As a precaution, the department will be providing additional resources to enhance security surrounding the conference,” DPD’s statement read. “We will not share specific numbers or planning strategies for safety reasons.”

The Global Conference for Israel is expected to attract around 2,500 people to downtown Denver. It is the 22nd annual gathering, according to Sam Goldberg, president of the Jewish National Fund-USA Mountain States board. Last year’s conference was in Boston.

Pro-Palestinian activists have organized recurring events in Denver, maintaining a presence that included interrupting the Colorado legislature’s special session on property taxes over the weekend.

On the Colorado Palestine Coalition’s Instagram account, the organization declares that “Zionists,” “racists” and “genocide apologists” are “not welcome” in Denver, referencing next week’s conference. In a Nov. 13 post, it called for the shutdown. But exactly what an attempted shutdown would look like is unclear.

Abdullah Elagha, an organizer with the Colorado Palestine Coalition, told The Denver Post in an interview Wednesday that he was “not sure exactly what we will be doing” during the conference.

He’s critical of the Jewish National Fund-USA, saying the organization, which describes itself on its website as “Your Voice in Israel,” has had “a direct hand in the brutalization of Palestinians” for decades. He pointed to both the war in Gaza as well as the ongoing building of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the United Nations has found violates the Fourth Geneva Convention, as concerns.

“The state of Israel, or any of its affiliated organizations, should not be fundraising in our state in the middle of a genocide,” Elagha said, referring to the more than 12,700 Palestinians who have been killed since the war in Gaza began in early October. That figure has been released by the Palestinian health authorities.

Israel began launching air strikes, and later ground incursions, in Gaza after Hamas terrorists brutally slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 people hostage in the Oct. 7 raid. Israel declared war on Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary cease-fire agreement, announced Wednesday, that’s intended to allow for the release of dozens of hostages taken during Hamas’ raid.

The conference in Denver was planned well before the latest hostilities, but the escalations will have an unavoidable impact. Goldberg, from the Jewish National Fund-USA Mountain States board, discussed his outlook.

“Hamas will not be forgiven for its intentional murder of babies and the brutal rape and mutilation of women,” he said. “All of the hostages that remain in Gaza must be freed immediately — especially the little kids.”

At the same time, there are “certainly reasonable and thoughtful critiques of Israel” to be had, Goldberg said, and many of them will be voiced at the conference.

But those who support Israel’s destruction, he said, “are unwelcome.”

Elagha’s interest in the war is personal. He was among Palestinian-Americans who recently recounted to The Post how their families in Gaza have been affected by the war. Elagha’s family has lost more than 30 members to Israeli airstrikes since the war began last month, he said.

A spokesman for the governor, Conor Cahill, told The Post this week that he intends to deliver remarks at the conference as planned.

Polis, Cahill said, “strongly believes that Israel has a right to defend its citizens against Hamas and to respond to the brutal murder of hundreds of Israeli citizens, and to work to facilitate the return of hundreds of hostages.”

Cahill added: “Here in Colorado, he has made it clear that hate against Jews, Muslims or Christians will not be tolerated, and that includes ensuring that any effort to intimidate or prevent people from speaking to a group of Jewish Americans convening in Denver does not succeed.”

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As Thornton filed its latest application for a water pipe permit with Larimer County on Monday, officials had hope that they would face less resistance this time. But forces that have lined up against the city in recent years have no intention of dropping their fight against a 42-inch-wide pipe that would run across the county — arguing the project holds the potential to negatively impact landowners while doing nothing to improve the health of the Poudre.

They want Thornton to leave its water in the Poudre, allowing it to flow through Fort Collins before it’s taken out.

The issue will once again land in the laps of Larimer County’s three commissioners, who could either approve or reject Thornton’s new pipe alignment in a vote expected by March.

A no vote would jeopardize long-term growth plans in Thornton, Colorado’s sixth-largest city, for years to come by hampering the ability to access water it bought the rights for decades ago.

“Though it has been frustrating all these years, I firmly believe this is a better project with all the community feedback,” said Brett Henry, executive director of utilities and infrastructure for the city of Thornton. “It’s more clear about what to expect. There are less unknowns.”

Larimer County is the linchpin in Thornton’s $500 million, 70-mile water pipe project.

Adams and Weld counties already have given their blessings, and Thornton has built and buried seven miles of pipe near Windsor and Johnstown. It is scheduled to construct another 16 miles just north of the city over the next two years, at a cost of $64 million.

Thornton says the pipe’s new proposed alignment through Larimer County holds several advantages over a route the county rejected in early 2019. It would take 16 fewer miles of pipe in the county than the original route called for, and the project’s western terminus would avoid a number of neighborhoods that had raised concerns around construction disruption.

The city is also willing to move a proposed pump station well apart from homes. The station would be used to divert the water shares Thornton owns in the Poudre to a collection of reservoirs northwest of Fort Collins.

The pipe would then traverse 22 properties in Larimer County before crossing into Weld County and turning south. City spokesman Todd Barnes said Thornton already has begun discussions with most of the landholders about obtaining easements for the pipe.

“It’s all rural farmland and Thornton owns two of the properties,” he said. “We’ve consulted closely with Larimer County and we feel we’ve gotten as much feedback as we could. We’ve let the community’s input guide our process and our design.”

That’s not so, said Save the Poudre executive director Gary Wockner. The community wants the water left alone rather than fed into Thornton’s “zombie” pipeline, he said.

“Save The Poudre’s position will be, again, that the water should stay in the Poudre River all the way to Windsor,” Wockner said. “Using the river as the conveyance is cheaper, faster, smarter and restores water to the depleted Poudre River through Fort Collins and Larimer County.”

K.A. Wagner, who heads opposition group No Pipe Dream, said her organization once again will get people involved in fighting Thornton’s plans.

“When the Board of Commissioners denied the first application, they noted that Thornton had not explored ‘all reasonable alternatives,’ as required by” the local land use regulations, Wagner said. “They also expressed disappointment that the future of the Poudre was not considered.”

But Barnes said courts have ruled that Larimer County can’t force Thornton to keep the water it owns in the Poudre River. And doing so would be counterproductive for those who will rely on it in coming decades, he said.

“Why would we willingly put our high-quality drinking water down the Poudre River past three wastewater treatment plants and all the urban runoff?” Barnes said.

Henry, Thornton’s infrastructure chief, said “no engineer would tell you to pollute or degrade the water before you treat it.”

Thornton expects to bring an average of 14,000 acre-feet of Poudre River water to the city each year. An acre-foot of water, or about 326,000 gallons, is what two average families of four use in a year. The city currently draws the bulk of its water from the South Platte/Lower Clear Creek system, at 26,500 acre-feet per year, and from Standley Lake, at 6,000 acre-feet.

If Thornton can’t secure its future water supply, the failure could stymie long-term growth plans for the city of 150,000. Barnes said the city already had a 10,000-plus residential unit backlog due to “water uncertainty.”

Barnes suggested the water stakes went beyond Thornton, potentially preventing the city from playing its part in helping to alleviate metro Denver’s affordable housing crunch.

Case in point: Maiker Housing Partners has paused the development of two affordable housing projects in Thornton due to the “uncertainty over future water delivery,” the head of Adams County’s housing authority told The Denver Post.

“As soon as the water is available, we will eagerly resume pre-development activities the following day,” said Peter LiFari, Maiker’s CEO.

But Wagner accused Thornton of employing smoke and mirrors with its water portfolio. It can still access all the water it needs without disturbing the residents and the landscape of Larimer County, she said, while also bolstering the health of a critical river segment in a part of the West beset by worsening drought.

“Instead of lamenting its backlog of building permits, Thornton should acknowledge climate change, respect the natural resources of Larimer County and plan for the unrelenting drought affecting the North Front Range,” she said.

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But ducks got dumped.

By fewer than 100 votes out of more than 10,000 cast, voters in Commerce City decided ducks shouldn’t be part of the city’s backyard animal mix. Each animal got its own question on the ballot for Tuesday’s election.

The unofficial results, as of Friday, show many voters made discerning choices. Don Johnson was among those who singled out ducks for denial.

“Ducks are not like chickens,” said Johnson, a resident of Buffalo Run, as he walked into the Bison Ridge Recreation Center with his wife. “When they go to the bathroom, they leave large piles.”

In Commerce City’s results, bees did the best with a 64% approval rate. Chickens got through with 58% support. The ducks’ result: 49.6% yes, 50.4% no.

The bees’ and chickens’ bases of support are well established.

“Bees have become a hot topic, as their importance to the ecosystem is better understood,” Mayor Benjamin Huseman said. “The push to allow hens in the community came about during the period (last winter) when egg prices saw dramatic increases, and more residents wanted the opportunity to raise chickens and supply their own fresh eggs.”

But the bees and chickens won’t necessarily be allowed in backyards everywhere in the north metro city — many neighborhoods’ homeowner associations have bylaws that ban backyard animals.

Over the last 20 years, numerous communities in Colorado have passed laws allowing residents to keep various animal types on their properties. All three of the state’s largest cities — Denver, Colorado Springs and Aurora — allow backyard chickens, though roosters are typically prohibited.

Nearly a decade ago, Wheat Ridge and Arvada approved backyard dwarf goats. Both Colorado Springs and Lafayette allow pot-bellied pigs in addition to poultry. Aurora last year added ducks to its list of permitted animals.

The backyard animal movement received a boost at the beginning of the pandemic, when people were marooned in their houses under a deluge of government stay-at-home orders.

In Commerce City’s election, where duck doubters edged out enthusiasts by a mere 0.8 percentage points, there’s a feeling that the animals are louder and smellier.

“Ducks are pretty noisy if they’re contained,” said Naomi Mendoza, who lives in the Reunion neighborhood and voted down both chickens and ducks. “And people are not familiar with duck eggs.”

It’s that limited familiarity with the species in general that resulted in ducks getting the big webbed middle finger from voters, speculated Brittany Kammerzell, who owns Duckberry Farm in Berthoud.

“People are more accustomed to a weird neighbor having a few chickens. And bees are in trouble and on the forefront of everybody’s mind,” she said. “I feel like ducks seem more like livestock to people. It’s a little weirder (and) harder for people to accept.”

Kammerzell keeps about 20 ducks, including the popular Muscovy, on her 2-acre farm. They’re joined by 16 chickens and two bee colonies, which, all told, encompass about 100,000 of the treasured pollinators. She sells duck and chicken eggs, along with honey.

Ducks, Kammerzell said, sometimes get a bad rap from people who don’t know enough about them.

“Ducks keep themselves cleaner (than chickens),” she said. “Ducks are healthier and have fewer health concerns.”

That includes fewer instances of mite or lice infestation.

The male ducks — known as drakes — aren’t that loud. The hens are louder, she said, but usually only around feeding time.

“Drakes don’t quack,” she said. “They just make a raspy sound. They’re super-quiet.”

Kammerzell also said ducks don’t tend to “tear up” the landscape, as chickens do. And most domesticated breeds of duck can’t fly, “so you won’t typically have them flying over fences to visit neighbors.”

Dave Williams, a new Commerce City resident who recently moved to the Front Range from Grand Junction, voted for all three animal species on Tuesday’s ballot.

“I like chicken eggs, duck eggs and honey,” he said. “Duck eggs are even better than chicken eggs.”

Back at the Bison Ridge Recreation Center, Roleen Johnson took a different tack with her ballot on Tuesday than her husband did. She said no to backyard bees, but yes to chickens and ducks.

“I just think they’re cute,” she said of the fowl. “I think everyone should be able to have them.”

The Arvada councilwoman’s nearly 400-vote advantage over opponent John Marriott, a fellow council member, by Wednesday morning prompted a concession call from Marriott, Simpson said. Late Tuesday, after she overtook Marriott, she had led at one point by just 20 votes, but the margin continued to grow.

“It was a very stressful evening — a lot of anxiety and stress,” she said of Tuesday night, noting that she went to bed at 1:45 a.m., only to awaken four hours later to check on the election results again.

Simpson held a lead of 50.5% to 49.5% as of late afternoon, with more than 44,000 votes tallied. The Jefferson County elections division said it had processed more than 99% of the votes it received but was still going through around 1,600 ballots. The current margin is well above Colorado’s trigger for an automatic recount.

Of her opponent, Simpson said Marriott is a friend and would have been “a fine mayor” had he won. She will take over a position that has been held since 2011 by Marc Williams, who was term-limited this year. She is set to take the oath of office in Colorado’s seventh-largest city on Monday.

Her campaign focused on housing affordability, among other challenges.

“I’m a big proponent of affordable and attainable housing solutions, particularly as they intersect with the homelessness problem,” Simpson said.

She also ran on a platform of strengthening Arvada’s ability to fortify itself against natural disasters, such as the Marshall fire that burned down more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County nearly two years ago.

“Here in Arvada, we have had quite a few neighborhoods that extend west,” she said. “We are not exempt from this.”

Simpson, 40, has been on Arvada’s City Council for four years. She spent the last eight years as the senior foreign policy and diplomacy officer for the Canadian consulate in Denver. She is married and has a young daughter.

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Councilwoman Wendi Strom defeated challengers Cathy Kentner and Don Burkhart in Lakewood, the state’s fifth-largest city, with about 47% of the vote, according to unofficial results. Burkhart was in second with 28%.

In Arvada, the state’s seventh-largest city, the result was much closer. John Marriott’s slender lead over Lauren Simpson Tuesday evening flipped by morning. As of 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, Simpson had pulled ahead by 405 votes, according to results on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website — out of 44,219 ballots tallied.

Simpson declared victory late Wednesday morning. Both Marriott and Simpson serve on the City Council.

Suburban voters had a host of candidates and ballot issues to decide on in this election, including a myriad of local tax measures and three separate ballot questions in Commerce City about whether residents can keep backyard ducks, chickens and bees. In early results, chickens and bees were in the winning column while ducks were not so welcome.

The winner in Lakewood will replace Mayor Adam Paul, who has served 16 years in total on the City Council, while Mayor Marc Williams, who has been on Arvada’s council for nearly 25 years, will make way for Tuesday’s top mayoral vote-getter.

“It’s been good to turn this page and move on,” Paul told The Denver Post last month.

In a mayor’s race in Thornton, which lands between Lakewood and Arvada in size with nearly 145,000 residents, incumbent Jan Kulmann defeated opponent Julia Marvin 54% to 46%.The contest in the north suburb has had its share of drama.

Kulmann, who has been Thornton’s mayor since 2019 and has sat on the council for a decade, spurred a resident lawsuit two years ago that accused her of violating the city’s term-limits statutes by trying to get re-elected mayor. But the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Kulmann was OK to seek her seat again this year.

Meanwhile, in Boulder, voters used a new method — known as ranked-choice voting — to choose its next mayor. In a five-way tussle for Golden mayor, incumbent Laura Weinberg was leading the crowded field with nearly 48% of the vote.

Tax measures on the ballot in metro Denver included funding requests for police and fire services, sidewalks, open space acquisition and affordable housing. In Brighton, a measure seeking $2 million annually to buttress the city’s police department operations through an increase in the sales tax was trailing badly in results posted Wednesday morning, by a margin of 63.6% against and 36.4% for.

“This is the first ask ever for dedicated law enforcement funding,” Brighton Police Chief Matt Domenico told The Post last month. “The reason for this ask to voters is the fast pace of growth in the community. The police department has not been able to keep pace with that growth.”

Brighton’s measure asked voters to add 0.15 percentage points to the city’s sales tax, which would amount to 15 cents on a $100 purchase.

The city has grown from about 33,000 residents to nearly 43,000 today over the past decade, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. With that population spike has come an increase in crime, Domenico said. Calls for service have jumped from about 40,000 in 2013 to more than 70,000 in 2021.

Golden had a measure on its ballot asking voters to pass a mill levy override to boost funding for the city’s fire department — to the tune of $4.6 million a year. The measure was leading 54.4% to 45.6%, according to election results posted Tuesday evening.

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