by Mark Smiley | Jan 30, 2017 | Valley Gadfly
“If music be the food of love, play on,” Shakespeare wrote. February is the month of love and romance with swooning ballads and contemporary pop songs to help us build a dream. Every self-respecting music fan — and that’s most of us — are plugged into high fidelity soundtracks. Thus snow, music and love become putty in our hands.
“Give me excess of it,” Shakespeare says in Act I of Twelfth Night. Illyria’s Duke Orsino opens the play with that emotion affected by airs of a melancholic lover.
Here are our heart to heart choices for shopping, dining and entertainment for sharing, caring and growing together so you’ll feel the bliss and get a hug and kiss:
3 Strike all the right chords as the Sean McGowan Trio plays the love songs of Lerner & Loewe at Dazzle Jazz, Feb. 9, 7 p.m. Finger style guitarist McGowan’s music will melt your heart. Information: 303-839-5100.
3 Capture love’s recipe at the Seasoned Chef Cooking School’s couples class to fire up romance at home Feb. 10, 6:30 p.m. Information: 303-377-3222.
3 Giggle, love and laugh together at Bovine Metropolis Theater’s Armando playing Feb. 10-11 and 14 at 7, 8 or 9 p.m. Information: 303-758-4722.
3 Share a musical sure to have your love asking for more by making it to Motown The Musical at the Buell Feb. 15-19. Information: 303-893-4100.
3 Fuel the flames of passion by treating your sweetheart to the Inn at Cherry Creek’s Valentine package including champagne, dinner, accommodations for two plus breakfast at sweet, sweet savings. Information: 303-377-8577.
3 What better gift than a home to share with your Valentine? Make your dreams come true with loan rates on a $400,000 home as low as $14,000 down from Stone Creek Mortgage. Information: 303-573-1200.
3 Re-energize your love life with meals, parties, events plus two plays at the New Play Summit in the DCPA Feb. 24-26. Information: 303-893-6030.
3 Swoon to the music, art, design and flavors of the Beaux Arts Ball at the Colorado Convention Center Feb. 25, 6 p.m. Information: 303-728-6546.
3 You and your buddy or beau will be bubbling over with love listening to the more than 25 songs in Red Hot & Cole. The Cherry Creek Theatre’s regional premiere of the two-act revue runs through Feb. 19. Performances are Thursdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. Sunday shows also on Feb. 12 and 19, 7 p.m. The Theater’s new home is at the MACC on the JCC campus, 930 S. Dahlia. Information: 303-800-6578.
This is the shortest month of the year. The Welsh call February “y mis bach” which means “little month.” Those of us living in the Valley are still trapped in winter, but we can at least feel uplifted that spring will soon be here. Throughout the 28 days Buddy Holly’s melodic words assure us: “Our true love ways will bring us joy to share.”
The third week in February is International Flirting Week. If you believe Paul McCartney’s silly love songs, take to heart it’s also An Affair to Remember Month.
Elvis Presley’s tune “Can’t Help Falling In Love” is fair warning. So if it isn’t snowing and you’re spinning around you’re on love’s musical joyride. You’ll feel love’s chill whether it’s Mozart, Madonna, tango or techno. Actually, neither true love nor music make the world go around but it sure makes life’s high notes seem sweeter.
— Glen Richardson
The Valley Gadfly can be reached at newspaper@glendalecherrycreek.com.
by Mark Smiley | Jan 30, 2017 | Editorials
A couple of well accepted axioms are that bureaucracies endlessly seek to grow and expand and that some of the least ethical of humans naturally gravitate to ethical boards and commissions if for no other reason than to help obscure their own highly unethical conduct in life. Both appeared to be at work in the most recent attempt of the Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) to control home rule cities and others throughout Colorado under Amendment 41 by attacking former Glendale City Councilman Jeff Allen on behalf of owners of Authentic Persian & Oriental Rugs store.
Amendment 41 was the brainchild of Jared Polis before he became a congressman and it was a ballot initiative to the State Constitution imposing draconian limits on gifts by lobbyists and others to elected officials and to restrict certain lobbying for two years. By its express terms it did not apply to home rule cities in Colorado such as Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and 67 other cities since the Amendment stated it “shall not apply to home rule counties or home rule municipalities that have adopted charters, ordinances or resolutions that address the matters that are covered by this article.”
That is how the IEC has apparently ruled ever since its inception in 2006. But that all changed just before Christmas when the five-member board unanimously claimed jurisdiction over every city in the state.
The new IEC position was almost unanimously condemned by all g
ood government groups in Colorado and even by strong Amendment 41 supporters such as Ethics Watch and Colorado Common Cause.
This is certainly not the first public condemnation of the IEC while under the control of its Chairman William Leone, an attorney, who has been controversial and is considered in some quarters to be highly disreputable. In early 2016 the State Auditor did an audit of the IEC and as stated by the headline in The Colorado Independent, “Audit: Colorado’s Ethics Commission has questionable ethics.” The State Auditor castigated Leone’s IEC saying it engaged in incredible sloppy record keeping and openly violated the state’s open meetings and open records laws. The Auditor could not even determine “whether the IEC consistently followed it rules over time, or properly conducted hearings . . . .” Former Secretary of State Scott Gessler has simply called the IEC — “Corrupt.”
As a result of the audit the Colorado Legislature was aghast at the conduct of IEC and Leone who was a former Acting U.S. Attorney for Colorado, albeit intimately involved in the Alberto Gonzales scandal at the United States Department of Justice in 2006.
When Pat Steadman, State Senator for District 31 (which includes Denver and Glendale), sought to address the ethical lapses of Leone and the IEC including its use of the Attorney General lawyers and not its own, Leone went ballistic. He declared the bill was a “backroom deal” made by an unnamed former commissioner and Ethics Watch and Common Cause. He threatened to sue the legislature and “fight to the death in court,” if necessary. Steadman was incredulous at Leone’s assertion that not even the legislature had the right to pass bills that would in any manner affect the IEC. As one observer noted, “Bill Leone believes he is above the law and the ethics rules apply to everyone but him.” The bill ultimately failed and Leone’s megalomania went unchecked.
But few people knew exactly how out of control Bill Leone was until mid-January. Under Amendment 41 all complaints to it must be kept confidential until it is determined that the IEC has jurisdiction and the complaint is determined to be “non-frivolous.” The IEC illegally leaked to The Denver Post that it had determined that a complaint against Jeff Allen filed by the owners of the Authentic Persian & Oriental Rug store by Russell Kemp of Ireland Stapleton was “non-frivolous.”
The claim proffered was that Allen should not have voted on a unanimously approved city budget because the City, under a law adopted years ago, gives money to the Greater Glendale Chamber of Commerce and Jeff Allen as COO of the Chamber draws a small salary. Under such ludicrous logic no councilman could ever approve any annual budget because under that budget they draw a salary approved years before.
But the key to the decision is what in the world does such a complaint have to do with the IEC under Amendment 41 and its gift/lobbying limitations? Aha! It doesn’t. Amendment 41 has a vague little noticed provision that declares that the IEC has jurisdiction over not only gifts and revolving door lobbying but also “any other standard of conduct or reporting requirement in state law.” Thus under Bill Leone the IEC could go after doctors, lawyers, contractors, or virtually anyone else in the state. Its purported jurisdiction is virtually unlimited according to William Leone.
Moreover, individuals covering IEC meetings and hearings have reported possible skullduggery concerning the Allen case. Last year another ethically dubious establishment character Bernie Buescher (once an appointed Secretary of State but later soundly rejected by voters) was discovered hanging around various meetings although he had no public case or controversy before the IEC. He was engaged in what appeared to be illegal ex parte communications with Leone and Leone’s Executive Director Dino Ioannides. When caught in the act he disclosed that he was representing “rug merchants” in Glendale to get their high-rise built and was hoping to use the IEC to pressure the City Council. Upon review it was discovered that Buescher is “of counsel” to the law firm of Ireland Stapleton which of course represents M.A.K. Investments.
In various IEC minutes Ioannides declared that he has a “conflict of interest” regarding a certain mysterious case which observers believe concerned Jeff Allen. Typical of the lack of ethics of the IEC, Ioannides did not disclose (as required by state law) what was in fact the “conflict of interest.” Did it involve Bernie Buescher and the wealthy rug merchants of Glendale?
Which brings us back to Jeff Allen. He is but a pawn in a massive power game of William Leone. Allen left the City Council years ago and gets only a small salary as a Chamber COO. He has no funds to fight the sick megalomaniac dreams of ethically challenged Bill Leone and his IEC. It will of course bankrupt him.
That is, of course, why Leone picked Allen. If he challenged Mayor Michael Hancock over his 2015 Super Bowl Trip he could expect a major fight on his hands. Leone and the IEC can roll over the corpse of Jeff Allen many times over. He has no ability to fight a cadre of sleazy, unscrupulous lawyers like Bill Leone, Russell Kemp and Bernie Buescher.
It can only be hoped that Glendale and home rule cities throughout Colorado will rise up to take on Bill Leone and his highly unethical Independent Ethics Commission on behalf of Allen. If Allen goes down, he will be only the first of many potential victims of one morally repugnant individual — William Leone.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Dec 22, 2016 | General Featured
$500,000 In Renovations But The Name, Sign, Bar And Booths Stay
Home to an eatery since 1946, the corner of Exposition and University first opened as the Bel-Air and switched names to the Campus Lounge in 1949. Former Denver University and NHL hockey player Jim Wiste bought the business and real estate in 1976. The restaurant is expected to reopen as early as this month under new ownership.
The sale of the Bonnie Brae landmark restaurant was announced to much fanfare with the last day of operation under the old ownership on September 25, but everything since that event has been shrouded in mystery, including who actually bought the business.
It was initially announced that a partnership led by St. Charles Town Company headed up by its president Charlie Woolley had acquired the Campus Lounge property along with fiction writer and vegan restaurateur Dan Landes. But a check of the real estate records by the Colorado Real Estate Journal showed that the property was, in fact, acquired by Exposition Avenue Properties LLC for $1.9 million with that entity headed by Wayne E. Barrett. Barrett is a vice president of ProLogic now headquartered in San Francisco but based in Denver until 2011.
“Wayne is an industrial real estate rock star,” Woolley told the Real Estate Journal. Barrett had hoped to remain anonymous in the Campus Lounge deal, Woolley explained. Furthermore, we’re told that Barrett is Woolley’s partner in another iconic restaurant, Wazee Lounge & Supper Club. Woolley bought the Wazee in 1997 but previously hadn’t disclosed Barrett was his partner. Since 1974 the Wazee Supper Club has been a landmark restaurant in Denver’s historic Lower Downtown district. Located at the intersection of 15th and Wazee Streets, it was founded by Angelo and Jim Karagas of My Brothers Bar fame.
In the case of Bonnie Brae’s Campus Lounge, Barrett had already put the deal together when he called Woolley to participate in it. “He really likes these cool, iconic places,” Woolley told the Colorado Real Estate Journal of Barrett. “He has a real passion for them.”
But they needed someone to actually run the restaurant. Woolley was then introduced to Landes by Todd Colletti, owner of the Buckhorn Exchange. The storied steakhouse — Denver’s oldest restaurant — is where mounted game gaze on dishes of yak, ostrich, elk and Rocky Mountain oysters.
The More Things Change — The More They Remain the Same
Opening under the same name — possibly as early as this month — the Campus Lounge is keeping the horseshoe bar, the booths plus the Campus Lounge sign. To continue the legacy of the Bonnie Brae eatery, the new owner is spending approximately $500,000 on renovation.
Woolley says the eatery will pay homage to the car
efree ambiance Jim Wiste created for the generation of families, patrons, and friends who frequented his beloved lounge.
Landes’ vegan restaurant City O’ City is doing well in Capitol Hill, and Landes reportedly wasn’t looking for another restaurant but the Campus Lounge seemed too good to overlook. “It’s got all of the elements — the right neighborhood and a big kitchen — to get a return on investment,” he believes.
Meet Campus Suspect
Landes’ reputation as a Denver touchstone began as a restaurateur when he founded WaterCourse Foods in 1998 and City, O’ City in 2006. His other lifelong passion is for literature that is always brewing just beneath the surface. In 2012 he released his debut novel, Joonie and the Great Harbinger Stampede, a creation myth about the birth of consciousness, told through the lives of prairie animals. He started his own publishing company, Suspect Press, in 2013 along with Brian Polk and Ken Arkind, and has published several of his own works since then.
The old Campus Lounge was famous for its burritos, burgers and beer. What the new menu will be is not yet revealed, but you can expect a full review of the revived restaurant in the next issue of the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle.
by Mark Smiley | Dec 22, 2016 | Travel
by Ruthy Wexler
In a corner of the Goodwill Thrift Store in Glendale, employee Nancy Thurman plucks a pink sweatshirt from a shopping cart piled with clothing. First she tests the zipper. Then she bends to scrutinize the material. “I am looking to see if there’s a big tear,” she explains. “Or if it has a button missing. Or if it’s dirty.”
The shirt passes muster. “I’m zipping it up so it won’t fall off the hanger,” Nancy states, brown eyes proud of knowledge gained from experience. Then she goes to get another item from the overflowing cart.
Nancy is 70-years-old. This past July, she celebrated her 50th anniversary with Goodwill. You might jump to the conclusion that she never again wants to see one more pink sweatshirt. But from all accounts, working at Goodwill is the happy center of Nancy’s life.
The youngest of three sisters, Nancy was born in an era when families did not talk about having a “special child.” Nancy’s oldest sibling Lynne reflects on Nancy’s luck at being born to their particular parents. “My mother’s philosophy was: ‘We created a beautiful little bird and we will let it fly.’”
There was no mainstreaming back then; her parents enrolled Nancy in the Developmental classes at Wyman Elementary and East High School. “Growing up,” Lynne recalls, “we got involved with people in Nancy’s various classes. We saw how they were not allowed to be open to possibilities. My parents could have kept her in a safe little bubble. But instead they said, ‘Let her live.’”
Nancy began with love and acceptance. Still, research has shown that happiness comes from finding purpose in life. “Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue,” goes the famous quote from Victor Frankl. So in Nancy’s senior year, when she interned for Goodwill, then got a job there upon graduation — it seemed an extremely lucky break.
Except … for Goodwill, this was business as usual.
“It is our mission, it’s what we do, help people who face what we call ‘barriers to employment’,” says Vanessa Clark, Senior Director of Marketing at Goodwill Industries of Denver. “We have lots of folks just like Nancy. In lots of ways, her story is not unique.”
Goodwill Industries of Denver separates people who encounter “barriers to employment” into three groups — at risk students, struggling adults and families, individuals with disabilities — and provides programs to serve them. “All the programs are work force development in nature,” Clark explains. “It is all about helping people take care of themselves.”
Goodwill provides a variety of services for both intellectual and developmental disabilities; e.g., workshops in American Sign Language, training individuals to fix donated bicycles and electronics, facility based day programs.
So the clothing and coffee pots we see are just a tip of the iceberg?
“Yes,” smiles Clark. “This is our funding model: get donations, sell those donations through retail stores, and through the proceeds, fund our programs. All that clothing is processed by donation attendants, who are simultaneously learning organizational and other life skills.”
When Teshe Shimeles worked as a donation attendant, the life skill he learned was fluent English. As an ambitious 26-year-old in Ethiopia, Teshe won his DV (Diversity Visa) through a lottery; upon arriving in Denver in 2001, he was guided by his sponsor to Goodwill. Fourteen years later, he is manager (and has been for over a decade) of the Glendale Goodwill, supervising 44 employees, including Nancy Thurman.
“Seriously … Nancy is the best worker,” Teshe says. “Never late. Never forgets anything. We call her the Governor of Shoes.”
The story goes that, a few years back, when Nancy’s job was organizing the store’s shoes, she confounded everyone by finding a mate for every single shoe. “At the end of the day,” Teshe recalls, “she knew exactly how many white pairs, 
how many brown …”
As a child, Nancy was presented with a confusing array of cognitive limitations and physical difficulties. For a while, the family thought her diagnosis might be Savant (think Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman). “She’s always the scorekeeper when we play Yahtzee,” Lynne says, laughing. “My sister and I are college graduates but even before we begin adding up the numbers, Nancy’s done. And she’s always right.”
Despite her arithmetic facility, Nancy needs her family’s help to live independently. She sees them often, plays hide and seek with the little ones at family gatherings. “Everyone loves Aunt Nancy,” Lynn says. “She’s a character.”
But she’s something else, too: an important person at work. Co-workers appreciate Nancy’s willingness to help out wherever needed. They kid her affectionately about her love for the Broncos. When she was younger, Nancy was part of a circle of friends from Goodwill who went out together. “But those people were older and they’ve died,” Lynne relates. “Now, she feels so good about coming into work. She feels she has friends here.”
Does she ever get tired of working?
“No, I don’t get tired. Am I not the Governor of Shoes?” Nancy answers. She says proudly, “Teshe tells me, ‘I don’t know what we’ll do when you’re gone.’”
“Goodwill has given Nancy a sense of purpose,” Lynne observes. Then more quietly, “She has been molded by my parents … and by Goodwill.”
by Mark Smiley | Dec 22, 2016 | Main Articles
by Megan Carthel
House Bill 15-1204 was signed into law on April 24, 2015, creating a Distillery Pub Alcohol Beverage License, and a man who had a large hand in the creation of that bill is opening a distillery pub in Park Hill, but not without some pushback.
Kevin Settles, owner of Bardenay, a restaurant and distillery originating in Idaho, looked to expand to Colorado because of the beverage-friendly atmosphere and the soaring economy. But, much like Idaho used to be, Colorado did not allow for distillery pubs to operate, until last year.
Settles hired the lobbying group that got HB 15-1204 passed, lobbied himself and even helped write some of the verbiage, which includes that 15 percent of a brew pub’s gross income must be from restaurant food. Getting a Bill passed to open a business seems like hard work, and enough push-back for most, but Settles carried on, looking for a location along the front range that could house his business.
“A building that had ceilings approaching 20 feet in height and that was 6,000 feet, would’ve been the perfect building, but we couldn’t find it. We did find a space in Park Hill where we can work our way into that building,” Settles said.
That building currently sits vacant as it has for years, living previous lives as a movie theater and Korean church. Nestled on Kearney Street, the commercial block resembles the Gaylord or Wash Park neighborhoods with commercial streets with small restaurants, local businesses and a few condos. Some residents of the area think the quaint and quiet atmosphere will be disrupted by Bardenay going into the building, according to Marcin Biegunajtys, HOA president and owner of the condos next door to the proposed Bardenay.
“Everything about it scares me, from traffic, from increased activity which is going to potentially cause more car theft, any number of things, to drunk driving,” Biegunajtys said.
The block has 70 parking spots with residential street parking surrounding the area. Settles said his restaurant and distillery is proposed to have 226 seats with about 20 employees on shift at a time.
While those for the business have left many positive reviews on social media sites like Facebook and Nextdoor, the opposition has been very vocal, posting anonymous fliers and writing a letter to the editor in The Denver Post and colle
cting 138 signatures for a petition that calls for the restaurant distillery to be no more than 125 seats, 25 percent larger than the neighborhood’s largest restaurant, according to the petition, and a commitment to off-street parking solutions for at least 50 percent of its driving guests.
Diana Buirski, Park Hill resident, said many of her neighbors signed initial polling documents from a third party polling firm attorneys for Bardenay hired. Later some neighbors regretted signing, not knowing the true size of the establishment. According to neighborhood hearing documents, the polling company Bardenay hired acquired 148 signatures.
“What I’m hearing in Denver is nothing compared to what I got in Idaho because they are anti-alcohol,” Settles said.
In addition to parking, those who oppose th
e current Bardenay proposal are worried about drunk driving, as the location is near a middle school and gymnastics gym. Marianne Rinehart, Park Hill resident and E.R. nurse, is particularly concerned about drunk driving and said “safe serve” is not enough to keep drunks off the street.
“That doesn’t work,” Rinehart said. “I work at University [hospital]. We see 300 patients a day. You have people who come that are drunk drivers that think they are fine — that they’ve had three drinks. I mean, the stuff that I’ve seen is just … you can’t look at someone and say that person is okay.”
Settles said his business has a “tremendous” reputation in Idaho.
“Based on 17 years in the business, I don’t think we’re going to have the problems the neighbors are worried about,” Settles said. “We’re not a noisy joint. We’re not a drunks’ bar. We’ve never had an infraction against our liquor license. We never over-serve.”
Todd Johnson, part owner of the building, grew up in Park Hill and said he would not put a tenant in his building that would harm the neighborhood. Johnson said the space is large and has high ceilings in the back, perfect for a brewery or distillery, in fact many of the potential tenants were breweries, but Johnson felt the neighborhood needed something more unique.
“I’m very excited for Park Hill. We were very selective on having a tenant that would be a very positive business that would be creative to the lifestyle and property values and all together be a benefit to Park Hill. I care about that as a former Park Hill resident and as a son of folks that live two blocks away on Kearney Street,” Johnson said.
Tommy Gilhooly, former owner of Oblio’s Pizzeria and Park Hill resident, said this type of pushback is familiar to him.
“I also had some pushback when I became the sole owner … and applied for the full liquor license,” Gilhooly said. “We had some local neighbors that were concerned. It’s pretty crazy how history is repeating itself because the concerns that are being voiced now like parking, like crowding, people getting in their car and driving drunk from a community establishment, those were concerns that were voiced about our liquor license application about 10 years ago, and none of it came to fruition.”
The neighbors said they are excited about a new restaurant going in the building, but the size of the establishment is the main issue, and they are hoping to work together across the aisle to create a perfect fit for the neighborhood.
“Initially when I heard there was a restaurant moving in I was all for it. I was all for having something there, not a 240 seat distillery,” Rinehart said.
“We’re proposing that we work together on a scale that’s more appropriate to the district and no one is suggesting that they don’t open or that we don’t want development, no one wants a vacant building either, that raises safety concerns too,” Buirs
ki said. “I think to have something the size of a Chili’s [with no onsite parking] suddenly on a one-block neighborhood retail area, I just don’t see how they’ll do it without everything else having to change to fit that.”
Still waiting on some permits, Settles said his casual restaurant distillery is “possibly close, but not a done deal.”
