Serving the community since 1866
WEEK OF MAY 1, 2025
VOLUME 159 | ISSUE 18
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Municipal center set for groundbreaking BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
gates for other visitors to leave and then sneaking in while the gates are up. Others have likely tampered with the gates. Robbins said he believes this led to the lower gate’s malfunction that was “causing it to pull the motor from the foundation.” Robbins confirmed repairs were scheduled to start April 28. He said he hoped the gates would be fully functional again by May 2 so the overnight closures could resume. Once they do, Robbins said Open Space will hire a local security firm to patrol the area every night. It would complete sweeps in the parking areas and clear out any lingering visitors and ensure anyone trying to enter respects the road closure. He said this would complement, not replace, any patrols by Open Space rangers, Jeffco Sheriff ’s deputies or Golden Police officers.
Golden’s 10th Street corridor will see several changes over the coming months and years and the first one will be the forthcoming municipal center and police headquarters. City officials recently confirmed they’re planning to break ground at the vacant lot at 311 10th St. in late July. The exact date hasn’t been confirmed yet, but City Manager Scott Vargo said it would be at 5:30 p.m. on a weeknight. The groundbreaking ceremony will be combined with an open house-type meeting on the site. In the interim, Vargo said community members may see crews doing preliminary site work leading up to the late July groundbreaking. The municipal center will serve as a new City Hall with public meeting rooms, employee offices and a highly secure police facility. Based on current designs, it will be three stories, including a walkout basement and will be composed mostly of brick and wood. It is expected to cost about $60 million, and the city has various contingencies built into its budget if costs rise, Vargo has said. In January, Golden issued $52.5 million in Certificates of Participation necessary to finance the municipal center, closing at a 4.03% interest rate over a 15-year term. Overall, the city will pay about $4.6 million annually, equaling $69.7 million total over the next 15 years. Vargo and other city officials are inviting the public to the next municipal center-focused Heart of Golden meeting. It will be at 5:30 p.m. May 20 at the Golden Community Center. To keep or move the Lions Park playground? The city also outlined several upcoming projects on the 10th Street corridor and got community members’ feedback during an April 12 Heart of Golden meeting. One was updating the Lions Park playground and deciding whether to keep it in its current location or move it to the center of the park. Jesse Badder, deputy director of recreation & golf, said Golden is designing the updated playground now and plans to put the full design out to bid by the end of the year.
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RALSTON VALLEY HIGH HEALTH TECH SHARES CONCERNS P2
On Nov. 12, a Jefferson County Open Space installs a gate along Lookout Mountain Road near the lower Chimney Gulch Trail crossing. Permanent overnight closures started in late January, but the lower gate started malfunctioning in early April and officials have left the road open overnight while the gates were inoperable. FILE PHOTO BY CORINNE WESTEMAN
Steep road, steeper learning curve VETERINARIANS FACE MASSIVE MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS P10
Jeffco Open Space fixes gates on Lookout Mountain Road, adds overnight guards BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
In January, Jefferson County Open Space and its partners used newly installed gates to close a 4-mile stretch of Lookout Mountain Road every night. They hoped this would curb illegal behaviors, such as gunfire, vandalism and littering. However, as officials recently confirmed, problems have persisted. The lower gate malfunctioned in early April, and Lookout Mountain Road has been open overnight since then. Local officials and residents have been working toward overnight closures on Lookout
Mountain Road for over a year. The gates were installed this November along a 4.1-mile stretch of road that only crosses parklands, so no residences are directly impacted. While some locals were against the overnight closures, dozens on both sides of the road were in favor due to safety concerns. In fact, many pushed for JCOS to install the gates before summer 2024, but officials said the scale of work wouldn’t be possible in such a short time. Once the permanent overnight closures started in January, officials figured there would be a learning curve as visitors adjusted to it. However, as JCOS Interim Deputy Director Matt Robbins said, considering Lookout Mountain Road has been open every night for 100 years, that learning curve has been very steep. Robbins said some people have been “gaming the system” by waiting outside the
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MINSTER MINES SHOWCASES TALENT AT SPRING FOOTBALL GAME
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