Home Care In Columbine, CO

LAKEWOOD — On a freezing cold night at Jeffco Stadium, Columbine football heated things up in the second half.

The No. 2-seeded Rebels scored on their first three offensive possessions in the second half and got a pick-6 from senior defensive back Troy Johnson in a 35-16 victory over No. 14 Chatfield in the Class 5A state semifinal on Friday night.

“It’s just a special moment I’m going to cherish forever,” Columbine running back Josh Snyder said about the victory over rival Chatfield that locked the Rebels into the championship game next week. “Friday night lights against our rivals. Playing against kids that I’ve known since the second grade. It’s awesome.”

Columbine (13-0 record) was the first 5A team to punch its ticket to the championship game Saturday, Dec. 2 at Canvas Stadium on the Colorado State University campus in Fort Collins. The other 5A semifinal — No. 5 Ralston Valley vs No. 1 Cherry Creek — is scheduled for 1 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 25) at Stutler Bowl.

“We don’t care who is in our way,” Columbine senior defensive end Hunter Hamilton said of facing either Ralston Valley or Cherry Creek next week at Canvas Stadium. “Honestly I don’t care who we play. We are just hungry.”

Chatfield (8-6) looked game to give the Rebels a tough battle. The Chargers were coming off back-to-back playoff wins on the road against No. 3 Arapahoe and No. 11 Grandview.

A 24-yard field goal by Chatfield junior Andrew Astone to end the first half cut Columbine lead to 7-3 at halftime.

“I’m not sure what is happening the first half all of the sudden during the last couple of week,” Columbine coach Andy Lowry said about the Rebels scoring just 7 points in the first half in the quarterfinal and semifinal games. “We are playing better teams.”

The Rebels were clearly the better team in the second half. Columbine had three methodical scoring drives in the second half that all ended with touchdown runs by Snyder.

“That’s the team,” Snyder said of his touchdown runs of 5, 5 and 6 yards. “The hoggies block. The other running backs block. I just ran the ball. All credit to them.”

Johnson accounted for the fourth Rebel touchdown after the halftime with a 37-yard interception of Chatfield quarterback Jake Jones that he returned for a touchdown with 9:14 left in the fourth quarter to push Columbine’s lead to 28-10.

“Troy Johnson was unbelievable,” Hamilton said. “He came out this year and wasn’t super confident in himself. We knew what he was capable of. I think everyone saw what he is capable of tonight. That was an amazing play tonight.”

Jones had a 14-yard touchdown run and engineered a 74-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter for the Chargers the that was capped off by a 3-yard touchdown run by senior Landon Mueller.

Chatfield’s run through the postseason this season was similar to two years ago when the Chargers won the 4A state championship as the No. 7 seed. Chatfield went 7-3 in the regular season, including a pair of league losses to Bear Creek and rival Dakota Ridge, but it all came together in the playoffs.

Chatfield upset No. 2 Dakota Ridge and No. 3 Pine Creek to reach the title game. A last-minute touchdown pass by Jones to Drew Rohlman — both sophomores at the time — lifted the Chargers to a 41-34 win over Erie at Mile High Stadium.

However, the Chargers’ run this year ended Friday at the hands of the rival Rebels.

Columbine had taken a 35-14 victory over Chatfield in their regular-season meeting Oct. 27 at Jeffco Stadium.

“We can’t be content where we are at right now,” Lowry said. “We need to finish it and Chatfield happened to be in our way right now.”

Columbine’s last trip to the state championship game was in 2019. The Rebels suffered a 35-10 loss to Cherry Creek. It was the first of the current four straight 5A state championship for the Bruins.

The Rebels won five 5A state titles from 1999 to 2011 under Lowry. The loss to Cherry Creek in 2019 was actually the only championship game Columbine had dropped under Lowry who was 5-0 in title games.

“It hasn’t dawned on my yet,” Lowry said about coaching in his seventh state championship game next weekend. “It is just one week at a time and I love these kids. They are hard workers and have great character. They are kids you want to be around. It is probably the most fun and enjoyable year I’ve had in my career.”

The 5A state championship game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. kickoff Saturday, Dec. 2, in Fort Collins.

“We’ve got next week still. We are focused on Ralston Valley or Creek,” Snyder said. “We want that state championship title.”

Share

Chatfield Columbine

FORT COLLINS — Josh Snyder is an open book. He just wishes some more college programs would pick the darn thing up.

“I mean, I’m trying to put myself out there,” Columbine’s senior tailback told me with a chuckle, his laugh a frosty cloud of breath after carrying the Rebels to a Class 5A state football title.

His X bio lists every meaningful digit but the kid’s cellphone and Social Security numbers, naked to Elon Musk and the world. Says right here he boasts a 4.5 GPA, 405-pound squat, 260-pound bench, 4.5 40-yard dash, 7.11-second 60-meter official track time.

Dude might want to add this stat: 226 page-turning, all-purpose yards at Canvas Stadium that stonewalled Dave Logan and Cherry Creek from nailing a historic five-peat.

“I wanted this so bad,” said Snyder, still grinning after dropping 128 rushing yards, a 98-yard kick return and three touchdowns on the bigger, badder Bruins. “And that’s what motivated me — that there’s no tomorrow with football. It ends (Saturday). And so I gave it all I got out here.”

Logan will be back. It’s what he does. It’s what Creek (13-1) does. Columbine (14-0) doesn’t get to play the underdog card very often, but coach Andy Lowry played this one to the absolute hilt.

At the start of this magical postseason run, Lowry wrote the words “junkyard dawgs” up on the board at the front of the room for his kids to see. It didn’t take long for Rebs to get the message and start baring their collective teeth. Columbine pummeled Fountain-Fort Carson, Legend and Chatfield by a combined count of 121-26 on the march to FoCo.

“I mean, we’ve lost every eye test before the pregame the entire year,” cracked Lowry, whose crew jumped out to a 14-0 lead and pounded away to a 28-14 victory. “(I had) somebody who was a college coach (visiting) and he said, ‘We’re waiting for your linemen to come out.'”

With that, Lowry nodded to the lunch-pail guys behind him, a motley crew of 6-foot-ish, try-hard types dancing on Cloud 9.

“He told us to play loose, play confident and just have fun,” Snyder recalled. “I mean, this is the last game for so many seniors and so many guys. And it’s a dream come true. And it’s one day that you’re never going to get back.”

Saturday’s 5A title game was billed as a battle of Goliath vs. Goliath, but only one giant had Lincoln Riley on speed-dial. Creek started an offensive line with road-graders who’ve got offers from USC, Iowa State and Purdue.

Our man Snyder, meanwhile, has an offer from Mines. Oh, and Western Colorado.

That’s it.

“They’ve got, what, 6-7, 6-8 linemen?” the Columbine star cracked. “And our nose guard’s 5-8. So it’s just it’s incredible what they did up front. And that’s what led us to victory (Saturday).”

That and special teams. It was the little things, ironically, where the Bruins fell short. Missed tackles. Bad fits. Fundamentals. Snyder even booted the longest punt of the game, a 37-yarder on a pooch kick. Meanwhile, three punts by two different Creek players managed to travel 34 yards … in total.

Freshman Jolan Quintana, in a show of frustration that summed up the Briuns’ afternoon, almost kicked the Creek bench farther than he kicked a ball Saturday, the poor kid.

One of those shanks gave Columbine the ball at the Creek 32 on the Rebs’ first offensive series of the tilt. Columbine ran it nine straight times, methodically, before Snyder showed those squat numbers were real by plowing over the line from the 1 to give the junkyard dawgs a 6-0 lead.

The guy’s 40 time was legit, too, apparently. Snyder broke free on the opening play of the second quarter for a 46-yard score, outrunning every Creek defender to the end zone and putting Columbine up 13-0 before the extra point.

“I don’t know how (Josh) doesn’t have those top Division I offers yet,” Rebs QB Reeve Holliday wondered. “With that 4.4 speed, and he’s just a dawg. He makes every play. He made a bunch of plays again tonight on offense and defense.”

Early on, Holliday fumbled a snap on third-and-2. He turned it into a 3-yard gain anyway. When it’s your day, it’s your day.

When it’s your year, it’s your year.

“We love our 98-yard drives, 97-yard drives, because they just eat the clock,” Snyder said. “But when we’re (starting) on the 30-yard-line, I mean, why not go score and make it a shorter drive?”

And if you’re a college recruiter looking for a dawg, you might want to give No. 21 in a blue a call before he plows over your line for somebody else.

“There’s some dudes (with better) times or maybe a little stronger or taller or whatever,” Lowry gushed, nodding at his tailback. “They’re not a better football player than he is. You know, we’ve got a whole whole group of them like that.”

Junkyard dawgs with tears in their eyes. And if Saturday was a tease of Snyder’s next chapter, the young man’s gonna be one heck of a read.

Courtesy of Brent McWhirter

Opening next month under new ownership, the building that was previously home to the Columbine Bar in Mancos will soon be the site of a family-friendly restaurant offering sandwiches, burgers and steaks.

The new eatery, called the Columbine Bar & Grill, will also offer Colorado craft beers, ciders, wines and spirits.

“It’s going to be a restaurant that happens to have a bar in it,” co-owner Brent McWhirter told The Journal. “Think of Applebee’s, but with actually really good food.”

McWhirter and his wife, Rachel, became owners of the former Columbine Bar in January.

The Columbine Bar had been one of the longest continually operating bars in the state. Some say it opened in 1903, though it was undoubtedly open by at least 1910.

It also had a reputation for being the site of raucous barroom antics.

“It was known as a pretty rough bar in its heyday,” Brent McWhirter said.

Fights were not uncommon over the years, and there are stories of patrons riding a horse into the bar.

The owners of the building approached the McWhirters last year about starting a restaurant and helping in the remodeling decision-making process.

The restaurant was officially purchased in January, but the process of remodeling and upgrading the building began earlier. New plumbing and electric have been slowly installed, along with a new roof.

In addition to standard bar fare, the restaurant’s menu will include items such as burgers, steaks and pastas. The McWhirters also operate the Moose & More ice cream shop in Cortez. All of the restaurant’s dessert items will be prepared by Moose & More and taken to Mancos.

Wines and spirits from throughout Colorado will be available. The restaurant also plans to offer items from local cideries, as well as breweries from Cortez and Durango.

The building’s owners also own the Mancos Common Press. McWhirter told The Journal that the new restaurant might collaborate with the Mancos Common Press to host talks and other events.

McWhirter said it was a bit tougher to find contractors and materials during the pandemic.

“It’s been slow going,” McWhirter said. “Very slow going. We didn’t want to open up right in the midst of the pandemic. We’re kind of blessed to open on the downslope of this where people are getting vaccinated now, so that we can offer in-person dining right from the beginning.”

The goal is to be open at 100% capacity by summertime.

“It’s been good to fill a niche over here that’s sorely needed,” McWhirter said. “People really want to go out again. They’re really tired of cooking at home.”

The Columbine Bar & Grill plans to launch in April. It will be open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.

[email protected]

?Parties affected by the North Shore Manor bankruptcy filing made progress toward agreement on first-day court orders, but testimony Thursday indicated that the debtors and Columbine Management Systems are no closer to harmonizing “Kumbaya.”

An exasperated federal judge listened patiently to the attorney for North Shore Manor describe what he said were efforts to force North Shore into failure. The attorney for Columbine responded that the debtor’s problems were brought on by its actions, not Columbine’s.

The judge told North Shore that if Columbine had breached a contract, the remedy was to file a lawsuit, not debate it in bankruptcy court.

He then proceeded to accept the debtor’s versions of first-day orders that affect insurance coverage, cash management, turnover of files, and use of cash collateral.

The issue is a dual bankruptcy action filed by stockholders of North Shore Manor Inc. and North Shore Associates LLC, which owns the real estate of the skilled nursing facility at 1365 W. 29th St. in Loveland. Debtors allege that the bankruptcy action was filed because of actions of Columbine Management Services Inc., the long-time manager of the facility. CMS is a part of Columbine Health Systems, a company operated by J. Robert Wilson, who owns numerous facilities in Loveland, Fort Collins and Windsor.

Prior to Thursday’s hearing, which was continued from a week prior, parties attempted to negotiate the so-called first-day orders. They did reach some agreements.

Then early today, attorney Aaron Garber filed a status report that outlined multiple grievances about how Columbine has handled the dissolution of the arrangement that had existed between the nursing facility and the management company.

Among them:

• Wilson and CMS disregarded a directive from the North Shore board to seek approval of expenditures greater than $5,000.

• John O’Brien, attorney for Columbine, has required all communication to go through him, and by email, which has slowed the transition and delayed critical services. “The arrangement is unworkable,” the report said, “because opposing counsel lacks the institutional knowledge and practical experience necessary to adequately coordinate an orderly transition.”

• Staff — there are 170 employees at North Shore — did not receive paychecks on the normal schedule with pay delayed until Monday, March 20, even though pay was budgeted and the money was available.

• “Large groups of documents have been dumped on the debtor all at the same time.” O’Brien acknowledged that 30 years of paper records were trucked to North Shore.

• Columbine has not provided a business contact who can help provide context for the data.

• Columbine accounting was contacted March 9, a response was not provided until Tuesday and assistance with transfer of electronic records was delayed until Friday.

• Columbine has said it will cut off transportation services.

• Columbine has stopped forwarding employee job applications, but has accepted transfer applications of North Shore employees.

• Human resources services have been cut off.

• Pharmacy services are soon to be cut off.

• Columbine has stopped or will stop providing intravenous antibiotics services to North Shore.

• Columbine informed employees on Tuesday that it would cut off benefit plans on Wednesday.

• Columbine drained the resident trust fund — money that belongs to residents for use on personal services such as haircuts — and sent the check to the debtor’s attorney, even though the bank account was controlled by North Shore and could have been accessed as normal. This resulted in overdrafts of the account.

“CMS cannot be permitted to serve the goal of Wilson, which appears to be to put this facility out of business…,” Garber wrote.

Before hearing from O’Brien, Judge Joseph Rosania Jr. said that the venue for hearing such disputes would be in a different court. “If they are in breach of contract, file a lawsuit,” he said. “I’m not sure what this (the oral complaints) are going to do here. … I don’t see things getting better based upon what was filed this week.”

Garber said he had such a lawsuit drafted.

O’Brien said the debtor’s issues were caused by the debtor, not Columbine. “This debtor was going out of business before it filed bankruptcy. It’s a fairy tale that Columbine is responsible for the poor decisions that the debtor has made.

“It is the debtor who sent in a hired gun to go in and take control of the facility. Wapello (a company Wilson formed to assume secured debt of North Shore) didn’t do that. … Not only was the management agreement terminated, but the debtor has deprived Columbine of being an effective manager. What makes Columbine nervous is that they want to operate under Columbine’s credentials but Columbine has no access to the residents.”

He said Columbine can’t be responsible for payroll because “we don’t know who has been hired or fired.”

The judge set a followup hearing for 2:30 p.m. April 25, at which time North Shore will have a month’s worth of financials for review.

“Please cooperate. Please communicate,” he concluded.

This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2023 BizWest Media LLC.

You won't want to miss this magical place.

If you're craving sun-soaked afternoons and wishing you were dipping your toes in crystalline waters, this storybook destination is sure to feed your daydreams and give you plenty to look forward to this summer. Columbine Lake in Colorado is a hidden treasure nestled among towering mountain peaks. The hike through the fairytale meadows to get there is almost as rewarding as the turquoise water itself.

Create a free account or log in to keep reading.

Gain access to limited free articles, our daily newsletter, news alerts and more.

Sign upLog in

Located in the San Juan National Forest outside Silverton, Colorado, Columbine Lake is a stunning mountain lake.

The little bowl shape where it sits makes you feel like you've discovered an unchartered gem, remote from the rest of the world.

You can do the 3.5-mile hike at your own pace, as it can be challenging in some parts. Once you reach the edges of the waters, you'll think you've been transported to a Neverland lagoon.

The glacial waters are so turquoise they look like sparkling jewels and are offset by the rugged mountains sitting all around them. You can climb down to explore the shoreline and even brave the chilly waters if you're up to it.

The lagoon is off the beaten path, and once you find the glittering oasis, you'll feel like you've found one of nature's best-kept secrets.

Some of the peaks have an elevation of 12,800 feet making this spot a stunning sight for sore eyes.

The trail is open year-round but is best hiked in the warmer months. It's free to access for the day, and you can complete the hike in a few hours.

See on Instagram

As you wander through thick trees to open meadows and finally to the jewel-colored lake, you'll feel like an adventurer finding a whole new world of nature's bounty.

And luckily for us, there aren't any pirates but we wouldn't mind seeing some mermaids.

Price: Free

When: Year-round

Coordinates: Latitude: 37.859041 Longitude: -107.747035

Why You Need To Go: You can discover this lake in the middle of a bowl-shaped mountain range with blue waters.

Remove ads. Go Pro.

Website

We strongly advise that before you go swimming or visit any location, you check the most recent updates on potential hazards, security, water quality, and closures. If you do plan to visit a site, respect the environment.