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Online» In Colorado, farmers are the new pinups. Learn more. »blogs.denverpost.com/diggingin

By Greg Griffin The Denver Post

Bob Mager retired two years ago af-ter a four-decade career in the oil in-dustry and then as a business owner.

But that didn’t last long. After a fewmonths, he grew restless, and havingtaken a few hits from the economy, heneeded income. So Mager returned towork full time. The 68-year-old hostsfraud-awareness seminars for AARPElderWatch, where he had been a vol-unteer.

“I’ve got no desire to leave at thispoint. I’ll stay as long as they’ll

have me and I’m capable of do-

ing it,” he said. “Sixty-eight to me isnot old. Things have changed. Moreand more people are not ready tothrow in the towel and sit in a rockingchair.”

Whether because they want to orthey have to, more people who havereached traditional retirement age arecontinuing to work, either part or fulltime. That, combined with a steadily ag-ing labor force that’s ushering millionsof baby boomers toward retirementage, is changing the workplace in wayssubtle and profound.

Employers face the dual challengeWORKERS » 19A

School unsafe, unsoundMeeker Elementary, designed to standard used for sheds, shut down after its first year

Fracking confronts its badreputation »business, 1K

Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire

More offices have silver liningAging workforce means new dynamics for workers of all ages

By Eric Gorski and David Olinger The Denver Post

meeker» The new grade school sits empty up Sulphur Creek Road.The doors are locked. A sign taped to the window tells delivery driv-

ers to take their packages elsewhere.Children attendedclasses in the $18.9million building for anentire school

year before it was deemed unsafe to occupy — the result of mistakes by thecompany that designed and built it, a state agency that missed a glaring er-ror and local school officials who kept the building open despite repeated

warnings, The Denver Post has found.The first sign that something was

wrong came in October 2010, whendirt piled outside the gym caused awall to lean a few inches.

When Meeker School District RE-1 fi-nally brought in an outside firm to re-view the structural integrity of theschool nine months later, much deeperproblems became apparent: The schoolhad been designed with a building-codestandard used for storage sheds and wasat risk of collapse in severe weather.

The Neenan Co., the Fort Collins de-sign-and-build firm the district hired,has acknowledged making mistakes

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FEDERAL DEFICIT TALKS

Battles maygrow fiercein Congressif panel fails

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62 percentThe increase from 1998to 2008 in the numberof workers 65 or olderin the U.S. labor force

1.3 millionThe number of workersin 2008 who were 75 or

older, the fastest-growingsegment of the workforce

Meeker Elementary School sits closed after housing students for only one year. Structural problems started showing up within months of its fall 2010 opening. Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post

MediaNews Group

By Lori Montgomeryand Rosalind S. HeldermanThe Washington Post

washington» The congressionalcommittee tasked with reducing thefederal deficit is poised to admit de-feat as soon as Monday, and its unfin-ished business will set up a year-endbattle over emergency jobless bene-fits and an expiring payroll-tax holi-day.

Those provisions are among a hostof measures set to lapse at the end ofnext month.

During nearly three months of nego-tiations, the “supercommittee” hadbeen weighing whether to extend atleast some of those measures as part ofa broader plan to shave a minimum of$1.2 trillion over the next decade.

Democrats and many economistsconsider particularly urgent the needto extend jobless benefits and theone-year payroll-tax cut. With nation-al unemployment stuck at 9 percentand the ranks of the long-term unem-ployed at record levels, the govern-ment is providing up to 99 weeks ofsupport to about 3.5 million people.

DEBT » 8A

SCHOOL » 20A Source: Luke Studer, Studer Engineering The Denver Post

Bracing issuesOne of the problems at Meeker Elementary School was a lack of adequate braces that support a building against lateral forces such as wind.A bracing system helps resist horizontal loads from the floor or roof and transfers that weight to the next lower level.

News tipsThis story was a resultof a tip to The DenverPost’s investigativeteam. If you have a tipabout other problemswith school constructionand inspections, or some-thing else for The Post toinvestigate, reach us at303-893-TIPS (8477) ortoll-free at 866-748-TIPS,or e-mail us atTIPS@denverpost.com.

Perspective» The options for thedebt supercommittee vary widely,from doing nothing, to using gim-micks, to reaching a big deal. »1D

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