Serving the community since 1866
WEEK OF MAY 22, 2025
VOLUME 159 | ISSUE 21
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An empty lot that’s full of potential GOLDEN HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
Golden-area groups collaborate to design firstof-its-kind modular home
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BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
SCHOOL CELEBRATES 100% ACCEPTANCE RATE P11
Fulton and others pried open a bench that’s attached to the school’s exterior and found not one, but two time capsules inside. The other belonged to the Class of 2005. Once Fulton and the other alumni sorted out which time capsule items belonged to which class, they opened theirs from 1987 and revealed each item to the 100 or so people gathered around. Unfortunately, many of them were waterlogged and virtually ruined, like a copy of “The Rocky Mountain Times” newspaper and several photographs. Some were salvageable, like the Garbage Pail Kids cards and a cassette tape of Phil Collins’ “No Jacket Required,” which had been in separate bags. The alumni were thrilled to see some of their favorite items again and — while they didn’t recognize everything — the fifth graders were excited too. When Fulton revealed a dirty but intact school T-shirt, the students started chanting “Frame it!” at Malling. Malling, Fulton and his fellow alumni said they would sort through the items in the coming days and decide how best to preserve each one.
Lot No. 7 of the Golden Hills mobile home park is empty right now, but a year from now, it will be the site of a unique modular home. And, longer-term, locals hope Lot No. 7 will be the beginning of a larger trend that could help hundreds of others across Colorado and beyond. Golden Hills residents have been working with the Neighborhood Rehab Project, Colorado School of Mines students and staff, and a local housing development company to design a first-of-its-kind modular home that’s affordable, sustainable and scalable. The 12 Mines students — now Class of 2025 graduates — designed it during the academic year as part of the Capstone Design Program. They worked with Golden Hills residents and NRP on how to make it livable, while Golden-based Addazu offered insight on how to make it affordable and buildable on a large scale. One Mines team worked on designing the home itself, while the other team focused on concepts for powering it via geothermal energy. Both teams won first place in their respective categories at the April 24 Capstone Design Showcase. The graduates stopped by Lot No. 7 on May 10 to show their families the project they’d been working on and celebrate their graduation together with their Lot No. 7 partners. “For a student team to do something like this, it’s great experience,” said environmental engineering graduate Jake Wright, who was on the design team. “Everyone got something out of it.” Now, the stakeholders are planning to break ground in August and have the modular home fully built and in place by next May. They hoped it would act as a pilot project that, if successful, could be produced on a larger scale.
SEE TIME CAPSULE, P6
SEE EMPTY LOT, P7
On May 16, Ralston Elementary School Principal Rob Malling holds up a photo from a first-grade class in 1987. The photo was among several items that was found inside a time capsule from that year. PHOTOS BY CORINNE WESTEMAN
Turning back time: Golden elementary school opens time capsule from 1987 Current fifth-graders to assemble their own time capsule this week
BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
THE STATE OF COMEDY IN THE SUBURBS P14
When Ralston Elementary School’s graduating classes from 1986 and 1987 put together a time capsule, they filled it with some of their favorite things: cinnamon toothpicks, Garbage Pail Kids cards, physical photographs, a bottle of the Original New York Seltzer, a school T-shirt and more. On May 16, about two dozen of those students — now alumni pushing 50 years old — traveled from across Colorado and beyond to gather outside their former elementary school’s northeast entrance and open their time capsule. The students buried it there in 1987, when the school was building an addition on the east side. Alumni Drew Fulton, Shannon Chisholm and others decided they would open it this year as part of the school’s 150th anniversary, with the idea that the current fifth graders would replace it with a time capsule of their own. Principal Rob Malling explained everything to the fifth graders, who were enjoying the school’s end-of-year sleepover, and brought them outside to get a glimpse of history. “I bet it’s full of dinosaurs,” one student shouted before the alumni unearthed the time capsule.
WESTMINSTER
MINSTER MINES TRACK & FIELD LATEST RESULTS P18
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VOICES: 12 | LIFE: 14 | CALENDAR: 17 | SPORTS: 18
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