In light of the weather, the Marv Kay Day celebration has been moved indoors, to the upper gymnasium in the student recreation center (map). Celebrate the greatest Miner of all time from 3:30-5PM. Mayor Sloan will also honor the former Mayor Kay by proclaiming this to be Marv Kay Day at tonight’s City Council meeting.
City Council meets tonight at 6:30PM in City Council Chambers (see full agenda). They will consider a request by the owner of 708 Cheyenne to be exempted from the building moratorium. They will also vote on the proposed $12.25 million purchase of the Coors North Office Building and property in the Goosetown neighborhood.
A Review of Recent Finance Discussions
In October of 2017, City Council created an Investment Forum Task Force to review the long list of things that citizens had said they wanted (open space, support for cultural organizations, affordable housing, solar improvements, etc). The timing was appropriate, because we will pay off the debt for the golf course, water park, and community center in 2021, so at that point our annual debt payments will be $2.4 million less. City staff calculated that at that point, we would be able to borrow up to $43 million for new projects.
The task force surveyed the community to determine which things they most wanted. The results showed that open space acquisition was the highest priority for those who took the survey.
As a somewhat separate topic, the task force discussed creating a new lodging tax, to be earmarked for some specific purpose. Some wanted the new tax to go to the cultural organizations, some to open space, and some to affordable housing.
Former City Manager Mike Bestor volunteered to campaign for a lodging tax to be used for cultural organizations.
Former Mayor Jacob Smith hopes to create a Community Trust to finance open space and affordable housing investments. Proposed funding sources include a lodging tax, city bonds, TIF financing, developer fees, etc.
Recently, Coors offered to sell their office building and property on either side of 10th Street. That wasn’t on the list of purchases we had been discussing, but the City sees it as a good opportunity, so they plan to buy it for $12.25 million. They estimate that–with necessary remodeling–the total cost of the project will be $20-24 million. They suggest paying for this by incurring city debt, establishing a lodging tax, renting out some of the new office space, and selling some city assets such as the Golden Transcript Building/City Hall Annex.
The advantages include the opportunity to gather city staff into one building and allow for future growth of city staff, the possibility of moving some of our cultural organizations into the “new” building, and allowing us to control the property along Clear Creek.
Open questions include: what we would do with the current city hall and police department? Will we demolish them and turn that area into park land? Sell them to developers? Will the Library move?
City Council will discuss and vote on the $12.25 million purchase tonight, subject to property and environmental inspections.
Tonight’s Live Music:
Ace Hi Tavern – Karaoke, 9PM
Dirty Dogs Roadhouse – Dave Frisk, 6-10PM
New Terrain Brewing Company – Whitewater Ramble, 6-9PM
