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More BoCo families to be eligible for help with child care
Jun 11th
Boulder County expanding access to quality child care assistance by raising qualifying income limits
Boulder County, Colo. – As increasing numbers of families in Boulder County struggle with economic challenges, the county is expanding access to quality child care assistance to help them re-establish their self-sufficiency.
Effective July 1, Boulder County will raise Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) income limits by over 25%. Previously, a family with income above 185% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) was ineligible for financial assistance for child care. Under the expanded eligibility guidelines, a Boulder County family can now have income up to 225% of the FPL and still qualify. As an example, for a family of three, this increases monthly income limits from $2,857 to $3,580. The expansion was requested by the Boulder County Department of Housing and Human Services (DHHS) and approved by county commissioners.
“Work supports are a crucial part of an economic recovery,” said Jennifer Eads, director of DHHS’ Self-Sufficiency and Community Support Division. “The more we can do to help parents find jobs or complete their education, the better their chances are for re-building a lasting foundation for their families.”
An important part of Boulder County DHHS’ mission is removing barriers to work for families struggling to sustain themselves. CCAP provides crucial supports for parents and caregivers who are looking for a job or who are employed but are unable to afford quality care for their children. Boulder County’s expansion of this program recognizes both the ongoing employment challenges and the high cost of living in the county.
Boulder County Commissioner Deb Gardner said she was happy to support the eligibility expansion. “This has been a difficult past few years for so many of our neighbors,” Gardner said. “If we are going to have a real and lasting recovery, we need to help people get back on their feet.”
Currently, parents and caregivers of nearly 1,000 children are receiving child care assistance through CCAP in Boulder County. Quality child care providers across Boulder County accept CCAP payments. The county currently receives about ten applications per month from families above 185% of the FPL. Of the seventeen Colorado counties now allowing incomes up to 225% of the FPL, Boulder County is the largest in terms of population.
Christina Ostrom, Boulder County’s Family and Resident Support Services Division Manager, oversees the CCAP program and the county’s partnership with Aspen Family Services, which administers the eligibility portion of the program. “I’m thrilled that Boulder County is able to increase the income limit for families struggling to pay child care costs,” she says. “Many families don’t realize they are eligible, and hopefully now they’ll call for a screening.”
The CCAP expansion will be funded through revenue generated by the Temporary Human Services Safety Net (TSN). The TSN (Ballot Initiative 1A) was approved by voters in November 2010, and is a five-year increase in property taxes that is designed to backfill cuts to state funding for human services in Boulder County.
CCAP Eligibility and other requirements are available at www.bouldercountychildcare.org or by calling Aspen Family Services at 303-604-1043, extension 2828.
Nightmare in the mountains scheduled
Jun 5th
County road chip seal projects begin Monday
Boulder County, Colo. – The Boulder County Transportation Department will apply chip seal to 25 miles of county roads beginning this Monday, June 11.
Starting Monday, crews will begin working on Overland Road above Jamestown and work their way down James Canyon, and then Lefthand Canyon all the way to U.S. 36 (Foothills Highway).
The chip application will be followed closely by rollers and sweepers to set the material into the road surface along with the application of a “fog-coat” to further reduce the amount of loose material. The process is expected to take less than a week for each section of road.
2012 chip seal schedule:
Week of June 11
- Overland Road
- James Canyon Drive
Week of June 18
- Lefthand Canyon Drive from James Canyon to U.S. 36
- North 75th Street from south of St. Vrain Road to Highway 66
- St. Vrain Road from 75th Street to Longmont city limits west of Airport Road
Week of June 25
- North 73rd Street from Niwot Road to Clover Basin Drive
- Niwot Road from 63rd Street to the Diagonal Highway (119)
- Jay Road from U.S. 36 to 47th Street
Week of July 2
- Jay Road from 47th Street to 75th Street
- Baseline Road from 55th Street to Cherryvale Road
Schedules are subject to change due to weather and other factors and the projects will cause minor traffic delays. Visitwww.BoulderCounty.org/Transportation for updates.
Applying chip seal to county roads is a cost-effective means of extending their life and reducing potholes. Adding stone chips to pavement after it has sat for more than five years extends the pavement life considerably, allowing for more use of the original overlay. Additionally, the cost of chipping a road is a small fraction of the cost of new paving and chip sealing uses less oil and less material than paving.
“We understand the chip seal can be disruptive to cycling and can make for a rough ride for a period of time,” Boulder County Transportation Director George Gerstle said. “We’ll continue using the smaller chips, which we’ve used for the last two years with good results, and we will continue sweeping and fog-sealing the roads immediately after the chips are applied to create as smooth a surface as possible. However, there will still be impacts and cyclists should expect poorer riding conditions and use caution on these roads for a couple of weeks after the work is completed.”
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Coming to CU: High-tech hallucinogenic "Swarm Wall"
Jun 4th
June 1, 2012
A monthlong summer exhibit at the University of Colorado Boulder Art Museum will feature a dynamic new media composition based on innovative robotics technology.
Called “Swarm Wall,” the large-scale interactive piece displays changing fields of color, light and sound that are driven by a distributed form of artificial intelligence.
As many as 70 intelligent “nodes” behind the piece create a swarming effect when they detect movement and communicate it with one another. The nodes exhibit swarm behavior because each performs actions solely based on its own plan and the actions of its immediate neighbors.
The 42-by-12-foot installation is the first product from a new art and technology research group on campus. The group was launched by faculty members Michael Theodore of the College of Music, who received a $44,000 grant from CU’s Innovative Seed Grant Program last year to support the collaboration, and Nikolaus Correll of the computer science department.
Also involved in the Swarm Wall is Ken Sugawara, a visiting computer science professor from Tohuku Gakuin University in Japan who is an expert in animal flocking behavior, the inspiration behind the patterns the wall displays.
The seed grant, which Correll and Theodore say already has helped them attract additional funding, was the first step toward establishing an active lab where students, faculty and professional researchers from various disciplines collaborate on cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence.
“We’re now calling it the ‘if’ lab because we want to see what happens if artists put engineers in front of tough problems,” said Correll, who is providing space for the growing group within his own robotics laboratory in the Engineering Center at CU-Boulder.
“We want to assemble some basic, inexpensive tools that students can use to explore and to develop new applications of robotics,” Correll said.
Scattered around the lab last week were a collection of small custom circuit boards, electronic panels, items resembling ping pong balls and various other components that are being used to assemble robotic devices.
An assembly of circuit boards connected with bright orange cables also was mounted on a partition in the lab in preparation for the installation of Swarm Wall. Small mechanical arms or flippers waved back and forth as the “brains” behind the Swarm Wall were tested. Sometimes the movement was synchronized, while other times a ripple effect would occur in response to some stimuli.
“Artistic exploration can help computer scientists and engineers to ask questions they wouldn’t have otherwise asked,” said Theodore, who also serves as director of the ATLAS Center for Media, Arts and Performance.
“The difference between arts and science is very diffuse; both want to discover new things,” Theodore said. “The cool thing about art is that we can explore systems that are not of interest to classical funding agencies, but might be so after maturing in a lab like the ‘if’ lab.”
Swarm Wall is one of four pieces in “Michael Theodore: Field Theory,” an exhibition of kinetic sculpture, sound, lighting and works on paper, running June 15 through July 14 at the CU Art Museum. The exhibition is free and open to the public. An opening reception will be held on June 15, from 6 to 8 p.m. For additional information, visitors may call the CU Art Museum at 303-492-8300 or go to http://cuartmuseum.colorado.edu.
