Photo by John F. Russell
Editor’s note: To protect the identity of the victim in this story, Steamboat Pilot & Today has used a pseudonym to identify the victim and the defendant. This story focuses on domestic violence.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS “What does it take in this county? For me to be killed before it matters?” Anne asked a law enforcement officer once.
“Pretty much,” he responded.
That conversation still echoes through Anne’s mind today 15 years after she met Ryan, her ex-husband, whose abuse of Anne and her children resulted in a three-year sentence, which was shortened to six months due to COVID-19. The abuse also gave Anne a diagnosis of C-PTSD, a more severe form of PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder.
Efforts to raise money for renovations and programming are just gearing up, but Lisel Petis is optimistic the doors of the Brighter World child advocacy center in Steamboat Springs will open this summer.
“We’re working on a lease right now, and we’re working with a consultant to kind of map out the design,” said Petis, executive director of Advocates of Routt County. “It’s new to our community. A lot of people have no idea what a child advocacy center is, so we are just trying to educate people and take care of back-end stuff like putting together policies and procedures for each piece of the child advocacy center.”
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS Steamboat Springs City Council will move forward on discussions about putting a property tax on the 2021 ballot, but council members were less enthusiastic about its potential during a Tuesday night work session than they have been in the past, with one member dropping support for the move altogether.
“We are not looking at the full picture of what this is going to do to our community members and if something like this would pass,” said council member Heather Sloop, who said she could no longer support a property tax.
Scott Ford, a local economist and former City Council member, presented current council members with data showing 60% of lower-income people in Steamboat own their homes, though they may have bought them decades ago when the house was worth a fraction of what it is today. If city voters were to approve a 5-mill property tax, the amount council has been discussing for months, many in the community would not be able to pay it, Ford said.
Editor’s note: This story discusses instances of domestic violence.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS Steven Patrick Padilla Jr., who the Routt County Sheriff’s Office has named as the suspect in the Wednesday Oak Creek shooting that resulted in two deaths and two injuries, had a history of domestic violence charges and had been repeatedly let out on personal recognizance bonds.
Routt County Combined Court records show Padilla, who was killed in the shooting, had four prior cases against him, including two that directly involved domestic violence, violation of a protective order and violation of bail bond charges connected to the two domestic violence charges.
The future of Save Our Season is in limbo. Graphic by Bryce Martin.
While the group is comprised of volunteers, Sarah Bradford, owner of Steamboat Lodging Co. and co-founder of SOS, told council the organization needs the funding to pay for Facebook ads and create more graphics, the group’s primary mode of messaging.
“We can’t afford to not do more than what we’re already doing,” SOS co-founder Robin Craigen said in an interview Tuesday. “Without help from the city, millions of dollars of revenue is at stake.”
“The winter sales tax revenue picture is still a big question mark,” said City Manager Gary Suiter.