Virtual Events
6-6:55AM Virtual Dynamic Circuit
8:30-9:30AM Virtual Power Training
10-10:55AM All Levels Yoga
11-11:55AM Find Your Balance
1-3PM Zoom into Watercolor with Janet Nunn
2-3PM Virtual/Call In: Active Minds Mondays – The U.S. Electric Grid
4-4:30PM Virtual: Kids Martial Arts Class
5:30-6:30PM Step Circuit
6:30PM Downtown Development Authority Meeting – Virtual
The DDA will consider an Exterior Improvement Grant Request from Kona Bowls, which is moving out of Tributary Food Hall into a new, stand-alone space at 1111 Washington Avenue (map). Their tenant finish expenses will include roll-up garage door-style windows. The finish expenses will exceed $11,000, and the grant request is $2500.
The board will also discuss the Public Art Commission’s Art Framework Plan, which will lay out the types and locations for future artwork. Staff will update them on the planned decorative lighting for Miners Alley, on the DDA/City Intergovernmental Agreement, and on various capital, redevelopment, and DDA projects. The meeting packet includes an interesting status report from Miners Alley Playhouse regarding their purchase of and move into the former Meyer Hardware Store.
Real World Events
9:15-9:45AM Baby Time
10AM-3PM Aussie Bag Class @ Golden Quilt Company
10:15-10:45AM Preschool Time – WAITLIST
6-9PM Golden Game Guild Meet-Up Mondays @ Golden Game Guild
Golden History Moment
115 Years Ago
The January 24, 1907 Colorado Transcript reported on a spirited debate as to whether Golden should build a sewer system. At that time, almost all homes and businesses got along with outhouses. Golden had a population of about 2300, almost all of it living within a quarter mile of the Creek. The issue had been under public discussion for years, and this article offered quotes from several leading citizens as to the advisability of the plan.
All of the people quoted (merchants, doctors, professors, and the town banker) were in favor of building sewers. They saw it as a necessary step to ensure public health. One person remarked that “Plagues and pestilences were once thoughts to be acts of God; we now know that they are the acts of communities which do not attend to water supply and sewage disposal.” One of the town doctors added, “Better pay for a dozen sewers than for one funeral.”
The Transcript admitted that many people were staunchly opposed but were unwilling to be quoted. The proposal was that property owners should pay for the portion of the sewer that fronted on their property. Some people in town had already installed “private sewers” and did not want to be assessed for a public sewer system.
These private sewers were questionable affairs. One fine home on 14th Street piped the household waste into the gutter that ran along the street. That may work (questionably) in a very rainy climate, but in Colorado the waste would run out to the street and stay there, for all the neighbors to enjoy.
The State Industrial School routed its waste into Kinney Run, which was objectionable for people living in the Ford Street neighborhood. The School of Mines used a similar natural “run,” which led to the Creek in wet weather and otherwise remained in the streambed, waiting for rain.
The two major private sewers ran down Miners Alley and Prospector Alley–the two alleys on either side of Washington Avenue. Both ran straight into Clear Creek. G.E. Dollison, one of the downtown merchants in the block nearest the Creek said, “I am heartily in favor of anything that will eradicate the stench in the vicinity of the Washington Avenue bridge. It fairly ‘smells to Heaven,’ and it is a wonder that serious sickness has not resulted.”
Golden did go on to build sewers–first on the south side of the creek (where the more affluent population lived), then on the north side. They continued to dump the untreated sewage into Clear Creek (this lasted until the 1950s) but they moved the outlet pipe downstream, farther from town.
Thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!
