10 years ago
• Strong winds forced members of the Rocky Mountain Classics to postpone their annual Antique Boat Regatta at Lake Loveland. But soon the weather cleared, and the 11th annual Lake Loveland Regatta, coordinated by Richard Ball, kicked off with owners of seven antique boats cruising around Lake Loveland. One participant explained that antique wooden boats are those from 1941 and earlier as those made after 1942, when fiberglass boats were first made, are termed classic boats.
• Platte River Power Authority announced that the 20-some female bison in the company’s two herds had given birth to 11 calves with about five more assumed to still be on the way. The herds roamed 4,000 acres of prairie at the power company’s Rawhide Energy Station. With the new calves, the herds were expected to number almost 60, the largest they had been.
• The Loveland City Council approved a furniture store’s request for economic incentives and gave unofficial encouragement to two other businesses that were seeking help. The Council unanimously approved a three-year partial sales tax rebate of up to $150,000 Wisconsin-based rustic furniture manufacturer and retailer Roughing It In Style that was to be built near Thunder Mountain Harley-Davidson in northeast Loveland. While the Council had not yet approved incentives for two other businesses, members gave thumbs up, or unofficial support, to a partial sales tax waiver of up to $175,000 and a construction materials use tax waiver of $7,500 the proposed Crunchy Grocer natural foods store and to an oil and gas industry manufacturer, Leed Fabrication, that was looking for a waiver of $75,000 worth of fees for an expansion.
• Residents marked the one-year anniversary of the High Park Fire, which at the time was the most damaging wildfire in Larimer County recorded history. The cause of the fire was believed to be lightning sparking a dry landscape.
25 years ago
• ICG Netcom announced that it would provide local and long-distance phone service and internet service in Loveland and the region by October, competing with US West and Mcleod. The company reported that it would provide some fiber-optic lines to vastly improve calling as well as internet and interactive video conferencing.
• The Thompson School District Board of Education voted to grant Merix Corp. a 50% reduction in school district personal property taxes over the subsequent four years as an incentive to stay in Loveland. The tax break would amount to $400,000 across that time period, Superintendent Don Saul said. Merix, a key provider of printed circuit boards to Hewlett-Packard and Storage Technology, had said it was considering moving out of Loveland in 2021 when its lease at the HP campus expired.
• The school board agreed to a contract for the coming school year, offering teachers raises and two extra days per year for planning purposes. The contract also provided for the hiring of 10 new teachers to be distributed across schools based on their needs.
• The city announced an addition to its Loveland Recreational Trail with an aim of looping around the city. The latest piece, the city announced, would extend from the Barnes Softball Complex and the Larimer County Fairgrounds east to a former salvage yard just east of U.S. 287, mostly winding along the river.
• Loveland hosted an open house at its newest fire station at 251 Knobcone Drive. The 4,512-square-foot station was built to serve a 12-square-mile area and was expected to be one of the busiest in Loveland.. Fire crews had moved in at the end of April and had responded to about 70 calls since then.
• The Loveland Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the Thompson Valley Towne Center, proposed to be built on 82 acres on Taft Avenue near the intersection with Colo. 402, across from H-P and to include both commercial and residential components. The planned anchor was a 75,000-square-foot King Soopers grocery store.
50 years ago
• The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office was “moving into a new phase of law enforcement with the use of trained dogs.” The first three K9 officers for the department were being trained for patrol, search and drug investigations. All three dogs were privately owned by deputies, including one owned by Loveland-based Rick Watson, son of the county sheriff. Watson was paying out of his own pocket for the training, being completed by a Loveland dog trainer.
• Missy Krenning, 9, who placed first in the Loveland Huck Finn Day contest for her costume of Becky Thatcher, also placed first in the statewide Huck Finn Day contest in Denver. The judges were state officers of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, also the contest sponsor.
• Tourists who were interviewed at the Loveland Chamber of Commerce reported that they had encountered serious gas shortages during their travels, while a few added that they had noticed higher case prices as they traveled.
• The Big Thompson Soil Conservation District announced that it would be phasing out its Loveland office during the summer due to budget constraints. Those being served by the Loveland office were to be moved under the Fort Collins office.
• The Drug Abuse Control Community Organization was asking the Loveland City Council for $7,000 in funding for the Lighthouse, a counseling center that had been established three years prior, to supplement the Youth Services Bureau. Loveland’s Human Relations Commission issued a statement asking City Council to deny the request, saying there was no accountability of the operation to the city and that the other agencies in the area also could like to be consulted on the matter.
• The city of Loveland hired two new “parking maids,” who were chalking tires downtown for parking enforcement while the city’s parking enforcement officer was laid up after a motorcycle crash. The first to start enforcement, Connie Pollard, noted that the position was a second job for her.
• The Thompson School District Board of Education set the salary for Superintendent C.E. Stansberry at $27,600 following an executive session as part of his three-year contract.
• Officials announced that Sullivan Drug of Longmont was planning to occupy a large retail store in the new Safeway block between Lincoln and Cleveland avenues and Eighth and Ninth streets in downtown.
120 years ago
• “Work upon the new Catholic church is being pushed along in nice shape — and the laying and blessing of the cornerstone will occur on Sunday, June 7, at two o’clock,” the June 4, 1903 issue of the Loveland Reporter stated. “The church is to be a beauty — 32 x 71 feet in size — and will have a spire seventy feet tall. The interior will compare with churches much grander –— and the worshippers of that faith are to be congratulated over their labors.”
