Hey there, NOCO Crew!
It's Election Day, and if your ballot is still on the kitchen counter, there's time (details just below).
We've been thinking a lot this week about the places that hold a town together: a school down the road, a church basement on a Friday afternoon, a parking lot full of produce on a Saturday morning. This issue is about all three.
We dig into Poudre School District's closure decision, take a look at the mountain schools families fought to keep open, visit a Red Feather Lakes pantry that became a place to see your neighbors, and raise a mug to the farmers' market as it closes its 50th season.
Grab a warm drink, and let's dig in!
– Megan & David
Weather: A mild, mostly sunny week, with highs in the upper 50s to low 60s and lows in the 30s. Clouds build Friday, and Saturday looks like the one wet day, with rain likely. The sun is back for Sunday and Monday.
Sunrise: 6:31 a.m.
Sunset: 4:55 p.m.
Daylight: about 10 hours, 24 minutes, and shrinking by about 2 minutes a day
Moon: Waning crescent, about 32% lit
Moonrise: 12:37 a.m.
Moonset: 2:09 p.m.
Polls close at 7. The sun clocks out two hours earlier.
We've lost more than 4 1/2 hours of daylight since the summer solstice!
Riding up the canyon. Standing at a workbench. Walking the dog. Pain can keep us from enjoying the little things in life that make life, well… life.
Sam Fischer and the team at Choice City Physical Therapy offer one-on-one care in Fort Collins.
40-minute appointments with a licensed physical therapist. Treatment built around you, and the activities you want to get back to enjoying in life.
3938 John F. Kennedy Parkway, Unit 11E · Fort Collins
970-460-8544
Today's the Day
If you haven’t voted yet, there’s still time. Ballots have to be received by 7pm tonight, and a postmark doesn't count, so skip the mailbox and use a drop box or a voter service center. If you're in line by 7pm, your vote will be counted. Make your voice heard!
Find drop boxes and voter centers: GoVoteColorado.gov
Check out the sticker. Larimer County's 2026 I Voted sticker was designed by Kylie G., a student at Berthoud High School. It shows a ram above an alpine lake at sunset, with blue columbines up front and "I Voted" in Colorado flag colors.
There were nine other student finalists from Berthoud, Rocky Mountain, Thompson Valley, Fossil Ridge and Loveland Classical, and nearly 2,500 people helped choose the winner using ranked choice voting. Her design is printed in the mail ballot instructions, and the finalists' stickers are at county vote centers while supplies last. See all 10 designs
Credit: Fort Collins Historical Colletion
Fifty Years of Saturday Mornings
In 1976, a group of Larimer County gardeners had a good problem: more produce than they could eat. The Colorado Master Gardeners set up a spot where home gardeners could sell the extra veggies to their neighbors. That first market ran at the CSU Trials Garden before moving to Old Town.
That was the start of the Larimer County Farmers' Market, and it just wrapped its 50th season on Halloween.
It's grown a lot since the backyard-surplus days. Twenty years ago, the season ran about three months. Now it runs six, from mid-May through October, and about 130 vendors set up this year. Nine out of ten come from Larimer or Weld counties.
Some vendors have been coming for more than 20 years, including Morning Fresh Dairy, Ela Family Farms, C & R Farms, Mitzi's Flowers, Cafe Richesse and Pope Farms and Produce. Others got their start at the market and grew into names you might know: Little Bird Bakeshop, The Bread Chic, Native Hill Farm, Well Fed Farmstead and Golden Poppy Herbal Apothecary.
As big as this effort has become, it still runs lean. Master Gardener volunteers show up every week, and CSU Extension in Larimer County manages the market with one paid staffer, coordinator Maggie Switzer.
The market also puts real effort into getting fresh food to people who might not otherwise be able to afford it. It takes SNAP/EBT and Double Up Food Bucks, and it runs Market Days for Older Adults, which gets fresh produce to low-income seniors. The county says it's the only program of its kind at a Colorado farmers' market. In 2025, food access programs sent more than $94,000 to local farmers, and vendors grossed nearly $2 million altogether.
We wanted to highlight this great effort to feed people, grow business, and bolster community. Here's to the next fifty years!
Where to find it in season: 200 W. Oak St., Old Town Fort Collins, Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Learn more: Larimer County Farmers' Market · KUNC: The Larimer County Farmers' Market celebrates 50 years
Credit: Fort Collins Historical Colletion
Credit: Fort Collins Historical Colletion
The Red Feather Lakes Pantry That Became a Living Room
Up in Red Feather Lakes, winter is long and neighbors can be miles apart; but on Friday afternoons, a lot of them end up in the same church basement.
The North 40 Food Pantry started in 2020. Since then, its founder estimates it has served more than 2,000 people across rural northern Larimer County, from Bellvue all the way to the Wyoming line. People come for groceries and household basics, and they leave with something harder to stock: a few minutes of quality time and conversation with their neighbors.
That second part got noticed. When Larimer County's health department asked residents what was missing in their lives, loneliness came up, especially in remote mountain communities. County health staff saw the pantry doing something they were trying to figure out how to do: giving people a regular reason to show up and see each other.
It's a fitting week to talk about this. Red Feather Lakes Elementary just got pulled off PSD's closure list after families fought to keep it.
Visit or pitch in: The pantry runs out of Chapel in the Pines, 23947 W. County Road 74E, Red Feather Lakes, on Fridays from 1 to 3 p.m. Call (970) 881-2664 to ask about donations or volunteering.
PSD Made Its Call.
Here's What Changed, and What Didn't.
After months of packed meetings and a vote that ran past midnight, the Poudre School District Board of Education made its decision early on Wednesday, Oct. 28. Six schools will close, two others will merge, and three mountain schools that had been on the chopping block will stay open.
It was not an easy decision, and plenty of families aren't happy with it. Here's where things landed.
What's Closing, & When
Starting in fall 2027:
Beattie Elementary: students move to Lopez and Bennett
Johnson Elementary: students move to Olander and McGraw
Putnam Elementary: students move to Dunn and Tavelli
Blevins Middle School: students move to Webber and Lincoln
Centennial High and Poudre Community Academy will combine into a new school. Its location will be announced in early 2027.
Starting in fall 2028:
Irish Escuela Bilingüe: students move to Cache la Poudre and Bauder. The district will spend the next two years building a more unified dual language program.
Timnath Elementary: students would move to Linton and Bamford, unless the Town of Timnath fully funds a brand-new, PSD-run elementary school. More on that below.
Why It's Been So Contested
PSD says enrollment has been dropping, and half-empty buildings cost just as much to heat and staff. That's the district's case for closing schools.
Families in the closing schools see it differently. Mountain parents argued that closing their small schools would put kids on bus rides of up to an hour. Some said they'd homeschool before they'd do that, which would mean the district loses those students and the savings it was counting on. In Timnath, parents pointed to the homes going up in the school's boundary and asked why a growing town should be treated like a shrinking one. Even after the board trimmed the list, thousands of students will still change schools.
The Good News
Livermore, Red Feather Lakes and Stove Prairie Elementary Schools are staying open. All three were on September's original list of nine closures. Mountain families kept showing up, and the board listened. For kids who live an hour up the road, that's a big deal.
Timnath got a path forward, not a flat no. The town's mayor asked the board for more time, and the town council backed a joint task force with the district. To keep the school open, Timnath needs an agreement with the district by Jan. 31, 2027, and full funding for a new school before the next School Choice round opens in early November 2027.
The closures are spread out. The first ones don't take effect until fall 2027, which gives families a full school year to plan.
What Families Can Do Right Now
School Choice opens tomorrow, Nov. 4, and runs through Dec. 16. Students from closing schools get priority. If you want a say in where your kid lands, don't wait.
Know the bus rules. PSD will provide transportation to students who live outside the walk zone of their newly assigned school. It does not provide transportation to a school you choose through School Choice.
Keep an eye on the district's planning page for transition updates in the months ahead.
Learn more: PSD Comprehensive Planning · KUNC · Denver7
A House Built Around the Sun
Tucked into a hillside in Loveland's Namaqua Hills, this 1981 home was designed by David Eric Calvin, a Taliesin Fellow, as a take on Frank Lloyd Wright's Jacobs II "Solar Hemicycle," a curved house shaped to catch winter sun. You walk in through a low, tight entry that opens into tall, curving rooms lit by high clerestory windows, round skylights and walls of glass, with original stonework running from inside to out. The current owners spent six years restoring it, and added a hot tub room under a glass ceiling, plus a guest suite with its own entrance and a koi pond out back. It's listed at $2,550,000 on 1.45 acres.
Meet Remy
Remy is a little guy with a big need to be wherever you are. He's been with a foster family in Windsor, where he's taken to trailing their five-year-old around the house and playing nonstop with their dog, Joey. He's potty trained, likes bones and toys, and uses a few small vocalizations to let you know what he wants. He's curious about cats but still a bit timid around them, so a home with one would need slow, patient introductions. He's young, good with kids and other dogs, and ready to be somebody's brand-new sidekick.
Remy is with Big Bones Canine Rescue in Windsor. Meet Remy
Eagles are back. Every winter, more than 1,000 bald eagles migrate into Colorado between November and March. Look for them near open water where ducks and geese gather: big reservoirs, river corridors, anywhere the ice hasn't closed in yet.
Black Hollow Sun is up and running. The solar complex near Severance hit full operation this fall, four months ahead of schedule. More than 500,000 panels cover about 1,700 acres, tilting to follow the sun through the day. It's Northern Colorado's largest solar project and is expected to send about 608 gigawatt-hours a year to Platte River Power Authority, which powers Fort Collins, Loveland, Estes Park and Longmont.
Happy 50th, Old Town Library. Fort Collins' library on Peterson Street was dedicated on Oct. 31, 1976, after outgrowing the old Carnegie building next door. The new library had room for about 109,000 books. If you haven't been in a while, this is your nudge!
The statue outside Fort Collins' Old Town Library is of a ____ named ____.
Answer in next Tuesday's issue.
Last week's answer:
B. Eaton! The town is named for Benjamin Harrison Eaton, Colorado's fourth governor. He was also an irrigation pioneer whose ditches helped water much of Weld County. (We told his story back in Issue 015.)
Every contribution keeps us out in the field, digging into local history, and showing up for the towns we cover. We're grateful for every bit of support. Thanks for being part of this.
— Megan & David
