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Hey, Spike! sees Lone Tree as up and coming

Miles F. Porter IV
Special to the Daily/ Miles F. Porter IVHarold Anderson and Chris Wiger at the Lone Tree Arts Center.
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They may call it Lone Tree, but its roots are widespread. The city of about 11,000 – home to the massive Park Meadows Retail Resort and RidgeGate residential and commercial developments in the southeast Denver Metro area – has tentacles that reach up here in the mountains.Down that way for another art show, Hey, Spike! and Miss Mary visited with Lone Tree City Council member Harold Anderson and wife Ada, a former planning commissioner. Both are community sparkplugs who have owned a secondhome in Breckenridge’s The Corral since 1979.Very proud of their Douglas County hometown, founded in 1995, The Andersons provided a tour of the just-opened Lone Tree Arts Center (LTAC), a $23 million facility funded in a bond election.Councilperson Harold credits Town of Breckenridge spokesperson Kim Dykstra DiLallo for sharing insights with him on what it takes to bring a monumental project like the LTAC to fruition. Harold says the dream realized has brought some once-naysayers into the fold.Providing the tour of the 500-seat main stage theater after meeting Executive Director Lisa Rigsby Peterson, was Chris Wiger, the impressive center’s marketing and PR guy.Chris had a similar position with the Denver Center Theatre Company, part of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.”The new Lone Tree Arts Center is a dream come true for residents of the South Metro Denver area,” says Chris. “People who live and work in the Denver Tech Center area are now able to drive 10 minutes from their office or home and see the same quality of professional theater, music and dance that they had to drive downtown to see before.”Chris notes the first star to hit the stage will be Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell of Kiss Me Kate and Man of La Mancha fame, highlighting the center grand opening gala on Aug. 27.The link: http://www.lonetreeartscenter.orgAnd writing of writing, we chatted with Jane Reuter, who was volunteering at A Taste of Lone Tree, the show produced by musician Darren Skanson, who put on the recent Dillon artshow.Jane used to work for us at the Ten Mile Times and then this newspaper before moving to Littleton, where she freelances for the Lone Tree Voice and numerous other pubs owned by Community Media of Colorado, plus she owns a pet-sitting biz.Her son Robby is now 16.Another connection from The Summit came with Realtor Renee Hill of Hill Residential Brokerage, who had Femmes Fatales which later became Frills, a racy boutique in the Frisco Emporium Railroad Car.With Renee were kids Clara, 7, and George, 8.A single mother, Renee drove her Volvo XC70 in Frisco’s Fourth of July parade.One more Lone Tree “blast from the past” was with Elizabeth Smart, who managed Copper’s fancy Plaza Restaurant from 1985 into the ’90s.Elizabeth then moved down to Denver to be GM at Ristorante Boccalino’s in Cherry Creek. Today, she’s with E&J Gallo as a fine wine manager.Miles F. Porter IV, aka “Spike,” a Coloradan since 1949, is an Army veteran, former Climax miner, graduate of Adams State College, and a local since 1982. Email milesfporteriv@aol.com.


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