The mountain area’s newspaper since 1958
WEEK OF NOVEMBER 21, 2024
VOLUME 66 | ISSUE 1
Evergreen man uses his mountaineering feats to help and inspire others P2
Evergreen resident Scott Cutlan on a rock formation on Alaska’s Denali called “End of the World” in June 2019. PHOTO BY SCOTT CUTLAN
VOICES: 10 | HAPPENINGS: 13 | LIFE: 14 | SPORTS: 18
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Jefferson County commissioners deny Shadow Mountain Bike Park proposal BY JANE REUTER JREUTER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A four-year battle between developers of a proposed Conifer bike park and residents of the surrounding community ended Nov. 12 when the Jefferson County Commissioners voted to deny a special use permit for construction of the park. The motion passed 2-1, with commissioners Lesley Dahlkemper and Andy Kerr voting for the denial and Commissioner KraftTharp voting against it. While the Jefferson County Planning Commission voted unanimously against the special use permit in September, the county commissioner had the final say. Members of the community group Stop the Bike Park hugged in the lobby just outside the commissioners’ Golden hearing room after the vote. “I am just so relieved, I’m shaking,” said Conifer resident Pam Rothman. “I just can’t believe, after four years, it’s over,” said Barbara Moss Murphy, co-chair of Stop the Bike Park. “It was never about mountain biking. We just never believed this was the right spot, the safe spot, for wildlife and traffic. “To have a community come together in a way that wasn’t politicized to say this didn’t make sense … I think it was so heartfelt,” Moss Murphy continued. “I am exhausted. But there is also such a feeling of exhilaration that we did it.” Denver resident Phil Bouchard, who with his friend Jason Evans proposed the day-use, lift-served bike park on State Land Board SEE BIKE PARK, P4
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