Fee hikes, not taxes, likely to bite you more during 2025

Clear Creek County Community Event Calendar

March, crews will continue

sanitary sewer service

installation and waterline

installation along Virginia

Street. Homes can be ac-

cessed from either 19th

Street or 22nd Avenue.

When water shut-offs

begin in April, residents

will receive seven days’

notice before any impacts

for those living on Virginia

Canyon Road, Virginia

Street, Illinois Street and

Placer Street. Impacts to

utilities will last approxi-

mately eight hours per

day, one block at a time.

Virginia Canyon Road

and Virginia Street is now

open. As sanitary sewer

installation continues,

Virginia Street will remain

closed from 19th Avenue

to 22nd Avenue. Follow

the posted detour routes

outside working hours and

always travel through the

work area with caution.

Also, adhere to no parking

signs. FNF Construction

will continue to accom-

modate local traffic as best

they can.

Working hours will be

from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.,

Monday through Friday.

Full access will be given

to emergency vehicles, and

a traffic control supervisor

will be on-site to guide lo-

cal vehicles during work-

ing hours.

Project schedules may

change due to weather

as heavy snow months

approach. Ice and cold

weather can impact equip-

ment, closure areas, water

lines and crew safety.

Remember that the team

is working with an infra-

structure estimated to be

100 years old. Therefore,

unforeseen circumstances

schedules throughout the

project timeframe.

Clear Creek County Ice Melt Contest—Place

your bets. Join us for the first-ever Clear Creek County

Ice Melt contest. Guess the exact date and time to the

minute/second when the barrel falls through the ice on

Georgetown Lake lagoon. For a tiebreaker, also guess the

high outdoor temperature for the day. Prize money will

be awarded to the three closest times. This fundraising

event will directly benefit the kids of Clear Creek County.

Sponsored by Clear Creek 2000 Rotary Club and Cabin

Creek Brewing. Tickets start at $5. The contest ends on

April 1, or when the barrel falls into the lake, whichever

comes first. For tickets, go to clearcreek2000rotary.org.

To see the rules, go to clearcreek2000rotary.org/stories/

clear-creek-2000-ice-melt-contest-rules.

CCMRD Friday Adventures—Clear Creek Recre-

th Ave., Idaho Springs, 7:30 a.m. – 5:30

p.m. Mines Museum of Earth; March 28 – Denver Mu-

seum of Nature & Science. For ages 5-15. $60 per child

per day. More info at clearcreekrecreation.com.

Clear Creek Game Night —Saturday, March 15, 7

p.m. Ball Arena, Denver. CCMRD has partnered with the

Denver Nuggets for a night of basketball action. Watch

the Denver Nuggets take on the Washington Wizards. For

tickets, go to nuggets.ksetickets.com/ClearCreekRec.

Clear Creek Metropolitan Recreation District

Adult Craft Night – Gallery Glass—Saturday,

March 15, 6 p.m. Slaymaker Cellars, 1428 Miner Stl,

Idaho Springs. Unleash your creativity at our Gallery

Glass craft night. Explore your artistic side with this

unique combination of painting and stained glass. $35

per perspn, includes first beverage. For ages 16+. For

tickets, go to clearcreekrecreation.com/adult-activi-

ties.

Clear Creek Metropolitan Recreation District

Community Clothes Swap—March 16, 10 a.m. – 2

p.m., Clear Creek Recreation Center, 98 12

Springs. Bring unwanted clothes, shoes, hats, bags, scarves

and accessories to donate, then have fun going through

what others have brought. Can’t make it but want to donate

items? Contact Ivy at ihansen10@yahoo.com.

Senior Foot Care Clinic—Thursday, March 26, 1 –

3 p.m., Clear Creek Recreation Center, Moly Room, 98

th Ave., Idaho Springs. Reservations are required – call

Heather at the Clear Creek County Library District, 303-

567-2020.

“Off The Cuff” with Sheriff Harris—Monday,

March 24, 6 – 7:30 p.m., Clear Creek County Office

Building/Sheriff’s Office, 405 Argentine St., Georgetown.

Sheriff Harris will provide an update on the Clear Creek

County Sheriff’s Office, followed by Q&A. Light refresh-

ments will be available as well as a tour of the jail for

guests over the age of 18.

Free Tax Help—Wednesday, March 26, 11 a.m. – 3

p.m., Idaho Springs Public Library, 98 12

Action provides free tax help. Drop-ins are welcome, but

appointments are recommended to guarantee your space.

This clinic is intended for people who earned less than

$67,000 in 2024, persons with disabilities, and taxpayers

who speak limited English. To book your appointment

contact Ranee at ranee@cccld.org or 303-567-2020.

Clear Creek Metropolitan Recreation District

Spring Dodgeball Tournament—Monday, April

28, 6-8 p.m. Clear Creek Recreation Center, 98 12

Idaho Springs. $100 per team. Registration closes on

. Info at clearcreekrecreation.com

Slacker Half Marathon/4-Mile Relay—Loveland

Ski Area to Georgetown, Saturday, June 28. Registration

is open for the 2025 Slacker. Info at slackerhalfmarathon.

com.

Triple Bypass Bicycling Event—Saturday, July

12, 118 Miles – 10,800’ of elevation gain – three Mountain

Passes. Secure your spot in Colorado’s largest and most

iconic cycling event. With stocked aid, full support, and

closed passes, we’ve got your back for this legendary chal-

lenge. triplebypass.org.

Save the Date—CCMRD Canine on the Creek – May

17, CCMRD Sup-athlon – July 4, RapidGrass Bluegrass

Festival – August 8-9.

The 68 teams that make up

this year’s March Madness field

and their first-round pairings

noon.

the photocopiers.

top seeds in three of

the regionals.

likely come from the Southeast-

ern Conference, either Florida

or Alabama.

Contenders behind these in-

clude Michigan State, coached

by the venerable Tom Izzo; St.

John’s and born-again Rick

Pitino; Tennessee; and a pair of

Texas teams: A&M and Tech.

Which will be in your Final

Four?

Which will be the next na-

tional champion?

As a public service, here are

pick all 67 winners,

or at least enough of

them, to claim first

place in the pool of

your choice.

seed beating a lower

with a No. 11 knock-

ing off a No. 6. (A 10

By this standard, there have

been 10 or more upsets in 15 of

the past 39 tournaments since

the field grew to 64 teams.

The fewest upsets occurred

in 2007 (three), and the most

came in 2021 and 2022 (14).

The annualized average is 8.5

upsets—4.7 in the first round

and 3.8 in the round of 32.

The highest seed ever to win

the national title was Villanova,

No. 8 in 1985. Three other No.

8s reached the finals. Five No.

11s reached the Final Four.

The trick, of course, is know-

ing which teams will pull of

these upsets. The NCAA hasn’t

figured out how to predict that

with any certainty.

Try the race track strat-

egy. A less scientific way seems

to work reasonably well when

handicapping your garden-

variety horse race: Choosing

the horse, you’ll risk two bucks

on to beat all others in the field

based on the colors the jockey

is wearing.

The equivalent is a team’s

uniform colors, or more pre-

cisely, the combinations they

don, since nowadays they do a

lot more mixing-and-matching,

both home and road.

There’s no readily available

data on the most successful

colors.

Make a game out of it.

There have been times in the

history of Major League Base-

ball when the team manager,

mired in a long losing streak,

resorted to pulling his lineup

out of his hat to find a winning

combination.

Sometimes it worked. A

variation could be worth a try in

this instance, too.

Tape your bracket to a dart-

board and throw darts at it until

you’ve hit one team in each

pairing. Those are your first-

round winners.

Advance the winners to the

next round and repeat. Con-

tinue through all remaining

rounds.

Have you already tried all

three above? Do they seem

frivolous? Do you think you can

do better?

Here’s a less imagina-

tive—most would say “more

serious”—way to fill out your

bracket.

Instead of starting with the

first round, pick your Sweet

16—the teams you think will

emerge from the first two

rounds.

Then, pick the winners of

games in the Rounds of 64 and

32 accordingly, including the

upsets you predict, keeping in

mind the NCAA data on upsets

and its definition.

Then pick your Final Four

and work backward again

Finally, choose your national

champion and the loser of the

title game. These are your Final

Four outcomes.

The NCAA has attempted

to ascertain the record for the

most correct bracket selections

to start a March Madness.

According to its research,

Gregg Nigl of Columbus,

Ohio, set the record for the

longest perfect start in 2017

when he correctly picked the

winners of the first 49 games

of that year’s tournament.

Previously, the record was 39

in 2017 and 36 in 2014.

None of these high-water

marks involved darts or team

colors.

Will anyone ever get all 63

outcomes correct?

Never say never, but the odds

strongly suggest it’s unlikely.

A quintillion is defined as a

billion billions, or 1 followed by

18 zeroes.

The odds of getting all 63

winners correct in a March

Madness bracket are 1 in 9.2

quintillion.

In search of the perfect March Madness bracket

How to /f_ind your cellphone in 5 easy steps

Well, I’ve done it again. I’ve

misplaced my cellphone. When

I’m home, I keep it on my desk.

Except when I don’t. And ap-

parently I didn’t. Thus begins a

frantic search, some variation

of which I undertake practically

every day and sometimes twice a

day for all manner of misplaced

items.

Step 1: I dig through the piles

on my desk a second time. It’s

so unusual for me to put things

where they belong that even

saying they belong there is a stretch. Consequently

I don’t always look there as carefully as I should.

On rare occasions I’m thrilled to find something I

thought was missing right where it belongs.

But not today. I do, however, find my car keys and

the lid to my food processor, neither of which I even

realized were missing yet.

Step 2: I race through the house looking in all the

places I’ve been known to put the missing object until

I got around to putting it where it “belongs.” In the

case of my cellphone, that’s a very long list, including

but not limited to my kitchen counter, dresser, bed,

coffee table, purse and the pockets of every jacket

I own. Then I look in all those places again. You’re

probably thinking that if it wasn’t there the first time,

it probably won’t be the second time either. And

you’d be right.

Step 3: I look in all the places I haven’tbeen known

to leave it—yet. There are fewer of those than you

might think—closets, kitchen cupboards, dresser

drawers and the refrigerator and dishwasher. This

might seem like a waste of time to you, but I once

found my phone in the garbage can in the garage so it

seems unwise to limit the scope of my search.

Step 4: I give up, exhausted, and trust that eventu-

ally the item will show up, most likely when I’m

looking for some other missing object. It’s amazing

how often this works. I regularly find things I gave

up looking for long ago while I’m looking for some-

thing else I won’t find until I’m looking for another

misplaced item months from now. Whew! Yes it’s

complicated. Plus it takes too long.

I do have another option though. I could be patient,

wait for my husband to come home and have him

call my phone. I don’t like this plan for three reasons.

One, I may have silenced my phone. I do that often.

Two, when I tell him I’ve misplaced it, he’s likely to

say, “Again? Is it silenced?” He does that often. And

it’s hard on our marriage.

And three, I don’t know how to be patient.

Instead I make another mad dash through the

house checking all the places where I leave my phone

when I don’t leave it on my desk. Then I check all the

places I haven’t left it. In case you’re wondering, it’s

still not in any of those places.

Step 5: I begin systematically dismantling the

kitchen, intending to do the same to every room in

the house. Actually systematically isn’t quite the

right word, unless that’s how you describe the way a

tornado clears a cornfield.

But then I hear the garage door open. I take a few

deep breaths to calm myself and when my husband

comes in, I tell him as nonchalantly as I can that I’ve

misplaced my cellphone. To his credit he doesn’t say,

“Again? Is it silenced?” He does say, “What are you

doing under the kitchen sink?”

I tell him I’m reorganizing the cleaning supplies.

He looks suspicious but before he can question me

further, I ask him to call me. He does and we hear a

faint ringing coming from down the hall. I follow it to

my office. And there’s my phone…under the piles…on

my desk.

Fee hikes, not taxes, likely to bite you more during 2025

Patrick Henry Sweeney

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