Community News

Homelessness comes in many forms – about 75 percent of homeless people in Weld County are two families or more “doubling up” under one roof, officials say.

“Homelessness looks very very different in rural communities than it does in cities,” said Cassy Westmoreland, coordinator for Weld’s way Home, a United Way program focused on fighting homelessness. “It’s something we have to prepare for now.”

Fort Lupton’s first low-income housing complex, the Fort Lupton Farm Labor Camp, may no longer exist, but it still remains in the hearts and minds of many former residents for the way it shaped their lives.

“There was a real age of community,” said Gloria Delgado, 78, who lived in the labor camp when she was a child in the 1940s and 50s with her brothers Henry and Joe Martinez. “For me, the camp was like a barrio. It was people who had the same culture, the same way of life. They were there to make life better for their children.”

A recent $1.4 million upgrade has improved morale at the Fort Lupton Fire Department office, 1121 Denver Ave., according to the chief.

“It’s really improved the attitude of all the staff working in the office,” said Chief Phil Tiffany, who has worked at the department 30 years.

Workers get so much more done these days, said Allyson Tkadlec, the fire department’s executive secretary.

“It makes everything so much more productive,” Tkadlec said.

Fort Lupton officials want resident input for a proposed outdoor “spray park” at the recreation center at 203 South Harrison Ave.

More than 200 people filled out an online survey about what they wanted at the park at the city’s website: fortlupton.org, said Christopher Cross, assistant city administrator.

The survey asks residents to rate how much they want a new water park, how often they think they would visit, and what features they’d like it to have.