Coming up
Deal on new acute care facility nearly done
Mental Health Partners (MHP) is expecting to close on a 45,000-square-foot facility in Louisville at the end of November to serve as its new acute care facility. Details are still being hashed out, but here’s what we know:
• The purchase was made possible by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds awarded to MHP by the Colorado Behavioral Health Administration, specifically designated for acquiring a facility to increase access to recovery and health resources. Very little needs to be done to accommodate the building to MHP’s needs, according to Kristina Hernández Schostak, the nonprofit’s director of business development.
• Schostak expects the shift of services to happen in the first half of 2024, which will host MHP’s acute care teams including crisis, withdrawal management, medication-assisted treatment, substance use disorder intensive outpatient program, transitional residential treatment, and a new psychiatric urgent care team.
• The Ryan Wellness Center at 1000 Alpine Ave., Boulder will continue operations. If the building purchase goes through in November, MHP would transition its acute care services from its location at 3180 Airport Road, Boulder, to the new facility, located at 1107 West Century Drive, Louisville.
In case you missed it
Wolves from Oregon selected for reintroduction
Colorado will reintroduce wolves back to the state by the end of the year. Earlier this month, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) announced in a press release that up to 10 wolves will come from Oregon. Here are some quick facts on the reintroduction process:
• It’s been nearly 80 years since wolves roamed freely in the Centennial State after they were extirpated by shooting, trapping and poisoning in the mid-1940s, but a voter-approved ballot initiative (Proposition 114) in 2020 mandated reintroduction of the species by Dec. 31, 2023. CPW identified six congregating wolves in 2020 and 2021, but the agency says this doesn’t present a definitive number in the state.
• The final wolf restoration and management plan was approved in May this year, with the goal of maintaining a “viable, self-sustaining wolf population in Colorado, while concurrently working to minimize wolf-related conflicts with domestic animals, other wildlife and people.”
• Over the next three to five years, 30-50 wolves will be relocated to the center of the state (west of the Continental Divide and a minimum of 60 miles from bordering state lines). When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s, the canines moved an average of 50 miles from their release points in the following months.
• Wolves are apex predators known to influence the way prey species use their landscape, like how or when they feed, which could have hyper-local and nuanced impacts on the broader ecosystem.
New climbing gym in Longmont
The Climbing Collective is strengthening its foothold in east Boulder County with the Oct. 19 opening of a new 24,000-square-foot facility in Longmont.
• The gym, located at 115 Pinnacle St., will feature walls for lead and top rope climbing with auto belays, along with bouldering. Other features include a youth climbing zone, taproom, fitness equipment, yoga studio and sauna. It is replacing the current gym on 33 S. Pratt Parkway.
• The new space will also have outdoor climbing walls, including a certified Olympic speed wall and one for dry tooling, a method using ice-climbing equipment to scale surfaces without ice. The outdoor area will be dual-purposed as an event center for music and community festivals.
• Outside of Longmont, The Climbing Collective has gyms in Loveland and Greeley.
