Serving Lakewood, Wheat Ridge and beyond
WEEK OF JULY 17, 2025
VOLUME 41 | ISSUE 50
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Funding freeze threatens Jeffco student services Superintendent warns of impact from frozen federal education grants BY SUZIE GLASSMAN SUZIE@COTLN.ORG
Golden’s DeLong Park, seen from overhead, has a sidewalk running through the residential property at 400 24th St.
COURTESY CITY OF GOLDEN
Golden agrees to buy DeLong Park sidewalk Design company is giving theWESTMINSTER city $80,000 to buy the impacted land BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CORINNE@COTLN.ORG
Since Golden’s DeLong Park opened in June 2022, people have pushed their strollers, walked their dogs and jogged with friends along the park’s sidewalks. But, unbeknownst to many of them, one of those sidewalks was mistakenly built in a neighboring yard. And now, three years later, the City of Golden and the construction company are fixing it. The Golden City Council approved buying about 2,700 square feet of land at 400 24th St. at its July 8 meeting. That’s where the sidewalk was built and the city will use money from design company IMEG, LLC to do so, city staff confirmed. The Pallagi family, the current property owners, will receive $80,000 for the sidewalk-impacted land and $7,000 for fence installation. The parties will close on the land purchase later this summer.
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‘We don’t know why it happened’
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residents hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for it on June 7, 2022. Assistant to the City Manager Steve Glueck confirmed how DeLong Park was designed in 2019, which included a completed property survey. The design included using city right of way for Vernon Street — which had never been built out as a street — to put a sidewalk between 23rd and 24th streets, Glueck explained. “In the preparation of final construction plans, the sidewalk connection was erroneously shifted down the hill to a location closer to the corridor for the abandoned Welch Ditch,” he stated in a council memo. “The connection was subsequently constructed in that location, encroaching on and effectively cutting off part of the property at 400 24th Street.” Joseph David Pallagi and his family have owned 400 24th St. since 1988. Pallagi reportedly tried to tell project representatives about the encroachment during construction in 2021, and again in fall 2024, according to Glueck’s memo. After the July 8 meeting, Glueck said it’s unclear exactly whom Pallagi tried to tell, whether it was city employees or elected officials, or someone from the construction company. Pallagi then had health problems and didn’t pursue it further, until he ran into a Golden Public Works employee last fall. At that time, he brought the issue up
In 2017, the City of Golden bought a 1-acre residential property off 23rd Street from the DeLong family. The long-term plan was to turn it into a park. The project was in the planning, design and construction process for about five years, according to previous Transcript coverage, and about 80 city officials and
VOICES: 10 | CALENDAR: 15 | PUZZLES: 18
Thousands of Jeffco students could lose access to language support, counseling and community-based services this school year after the U.S. Department of Education froze key federal funding streams with little warning. The decision puts approximately $3 million in planned programming at risk, district leaders said. Superintendent Tracy Dorland and the Jefferson County school board called the move “late and unexpected,” warning that the district had already budgeted the funds for professional development, English learner support, student engagement and family outreach. “Failure to release these funds creates significant impacts on our student programming at a time when Jeffco is already drawing on reserves and preparing for substantial reductions in FY 27,” a district spokesperson said. Because of federal supplanting rules, the district is legally barred from using its general fund to fill the gap, even if the federal funding is restored later.
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again, and the city looked into it. Glueck said that once the mistake was verified, the city sought a resolution with the Pallagi family and IMEG. After several weeks of meetings and negotiations and after agreeing it would be too difficult to move the sidewalk, all three parties found a resolution, Glueck said. Now that the City Council has approved it, the parties plan to close on the land transaction in late July or early August, Glueck said. Glueck wrote to City Council that IMEG, which did the park’s final construction plans, believed there was likely a miscommunication among the park design team. However, “accountability for the error lies with them,” Glueck wrote. On July 8, he added: “We can document what happened, but we don’t know why it happened.” Thus, the company is paying Golden $87,000 so the city can buy the impacted land and pay the Pallagi family to install a fence. This includes the 6-foot-wide sidewalk, the square footage between the sidewalk and the park boundary, and a 3-foot-wide buffer on the other side, Glueck described. In the council memo, he also stated how IMEG is covering all the city’s direct costs, including some legal reimbursements. The only exceptions are the “minimal” closing costs and the insurance policy, which the city is paying.
A district already under strain
Even before the freeze, the district was grappling with a $60 million structural deficit heading into the 2025–26 school year. Despite closing 21 schools and making $20 million in cuts since 2021, the district still faces mounting cost pressures tied to inflation, compensation increases and growing special education needs. Enrollment declines are expected to further impact funding, with a projected loss of 800 students per year in both 2026–27 and 2027–28. Because Colorado ties K–12 funding to student count, that drop will lead to additional revenue loss and potential staffing reductions. Colorado ranks 43rd in the nation for per-pupil education funding, a reality that leaves districts like Jeffco especially vulnerable to sudden shifts in federal support. SEE FUNDING, P23
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