Tourism, Taxing, and Long-Gone Houses

*Golden Eye Candy – Frank Hanou – Wizard of Oz Weather – click to enlarge*

COVID Updates

% of Jeffco residents (12+) who have received either one or both shots–source

Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment: All Coloradans 12 and older are eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine, and all Coloradans 18 and older are eligible to receive the Moderna or Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine.

Appointments to Get the COVID Vaccine
State of Colorado’s Find Out Where You Can Get Vaccinated page.
Jefferson County Public Health’s COVID-19 Vaccine Call Center: 303-239-7000 |
State Hotline to answer questions, including location of vaccine providers: 1-877-268-2926.

Jefferson County Case Summary:
Cases in Jeffco – Fri: 47,051 | Mon: 47,245 (+194)
Deaths in Jeffco – Fri: 816 | Mon: 824 (+8)
Currently Hospitalized in Jeffco – Fri: 55 | Mon: 54 (-1)
Recovered – Fri: 44,912 | Mon: 45,308 (+396)
Known Cases in Golden – Thurs: 1963 | Mon: 1975 (+12)

Golden Testing Sites
Mines COVID Testing | Jeffco Fairgrounds COVID Testing

JEFFERSON COUNTY RESCINDS THE MASK ORDER – VACCINATED PEOPLE NO LONGER REQUIRED TO WEAR A MASK, UNLESS A BUSINESS REQUIRES IT: Read the full order….

Tourism

The City’s tourism program has posted a survey for Golden residents. They want to know how important tourism is to the community, what you like about living in Golden, your favorite Golden event, your least favorite Golden event, and how you learn about what’s happening in Golden.

This last one is exciting, because they actually included GoldenToday (my website, which generates this daily email) as one of the options. Their past surveys have only included city-run websites and newsletters.

To take the survey (which is very short), click here.

Virtual Events

8AM Golden Merchants Meeting
8:40-9:35AM Silver Sneakers Classic
10:15-10:30AM Toddler Time with the Library
6-7PM Recursos Digitales
7PM Cochamó Dreams (Colorado Mountain Club) – Register

6:30PM City Council Study Session (no public comment)
The police department may form a “Police Department Community Engagement Group.” They will describe the concept to City Council at tonight’s meeting and gather their feedback.

Council will also discuss the possibility of establishing a lodging tax. Many people think that a tax paid by visitors, rather than citizens, is a no-brainer. The hotels say it would hurt their business, as that is something that people ask about before reserving rooms. City Staff estimates that we would raise about $1.5 million/year from such a tax. Before Council can impose a new tax, the residents would need to vote for it.

They will also discuss making retail sales of marijuana legal in Golden. This is legal in Colorado but many cities, including Golden, have opted not to permit marijuana sales. Golden had a citizen task force in 2014 to discuss the possibility of allowing cultivation, manufacturing, testing, and sale of marijuana products. There was more negative than positive public comment at that time. Tonight’s meeting memo estimates that Golden would net $475,000-$950,000 per store, per year. Some people say that we should permit it in Golden because people will buy it anyway, and we might as well get the tax money. Others just don’t want our town to have anything to do with marijuana sales.

The final topic on tonight’s agenda is a request from the homeowners at 408 18th Street that the City provide a Quit Claim to grant them ownership of the old Welch Ditch property as it runs along their property.

For more information about any of these topic, see the meeting packet.

Real World Events

Tuesdays at the Buffalo Rose:
Prime rib dinner for $25.
Dogs are welcome to sit on the patio on Tuesday nights.
79 cent Coors Banquet or Coors Light for Golden locals, students, and service industry workers

Golden Community Food Drive

Drop off food donations
Please drop off food donations (10AM-4PM, today through Saturday) at the CAG Food Pantry & Thrift Store at 1401 Ford Street (map). Food will be distributed among the three pantries.

Golden History Moment

The October 6, 1968 Colorado Transcript featured this “Home of the Week,” which belonged to Katherine Dier Lowther. The article says that Mrs. Lowther had lived in that block her whole life, having been born at 1606 Ford St.

*1606 Ford Street, built in 1871 – click to enlarge*

Neither of those houses exist anymore. They were demolished, along with several others, when Safeway built their “new” store in 1980. I found a postcard that shows that area before the new store was built:

*Pre-1980 view of Golden – click to enlarge*

The Golden Transcript (originally called the Colorado Transcript) has been publishing since 1866. The Golden History Museum has been working on digitizing the historic issues. You’ll find old Transcripts online at coloradohistoricnewspapers.org