Virtual Events
9-9:55AM Silver Sneakers Classic
10:15AM Virtual: Toddler Time with the Library
5:30-6:25PM HIIT & Sculpt
Real World Events
8-9AM Virtual: Coffee Connections
9-10AM Women’s Exercise and Bible Study
10:15AM Baby Time @ Golden Library
1:30PM Triad Senior Safety @ Jeffco District Attorney’s Office
5-7PM Golden Living Community Happy Hour @ Buffalo Rose
6:30PM City Council Regular Business Meeting @ City Hall
Tonight’s consent agenda includes the Golden’s Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan. This is an interesting document: it includes maps of Golden showing the danger of various hazards (landslides, flooding, subsidance, wildfire, etc.) in each part of the city. (You can look up your location!) It also contains a resolution saying that Golden’s portion of the Colorado Opioid Settlement will be pooled with other local governments’ portions within our region. The final consent item awards a $378,840 contract for improvements at the Water Treatment Plant.
There will be three public hearings tonight. The first item would grant an exception to the building moratorium. The owners of 352 Goldco Circle (map) want to expand their crawl space to add a third bedroom. The family have a newborn, and they need an additional bedroom.
The second public hearing concerns an ordinance that would allow businesses to continue using parking lanes, sidewalks,and alleys through the winter.
The agenda says that the third hearing will cover the 2022 Operating Budget and the Capital Improvement Plan. This may be a typo, because the Capital Improvement Plan is not included in the meeting packet. The Operating Budget, which Council reviewed last week, includes seven new hires (Right-of-Way Inspector, Fiber Administrator, Associate Planner, part time Economic Development Assistant, Co-Responder, Social Media & Marketing Coordinator, Affordable Housing Policy Coordinator, and Homeless Navigator). These last two jobs have already been filled.
The final item in tonight’s meeting will be the City Manager’s report on safety and crowd management on Clear Creek over this past summer. It’s an interesting report. The City did a survey regarding the Creek, and learned that visitors were quite happy with their experience on the Creek, while residents were somewhat more frustrated.
The City employed 8 park rangers to patrol the Creek, working seven days/week, 9AM-7PM. It’s not clear that the approach is working. The lion’s share of park rule infraction related to the “no alcohol” rule. The rangers contacted visitors about alcohol 1,174 times, but wrote only 35 citations all summer. The second-highest number of infractions (518) were off-leash dogs, and 0 citations were written for that. The rangers did write a lot of parking tickets (495), which probably helped with parking congestion.
The report contains several suggestions for improvement in future summers, including having bicyclists dismount, imposing speed limits for bikes, allowing tubers only on alternate days, establishing a reservation system to reduce crowds, prohibiting cups, cans, and bottles in the Creek, hiring crossing guards at Ford & Water, installing a hard service in Vanover Park at the Creek exit point, and several other items (see the report).
Opinion: Clear Creek Report
The final idea in the Clear Creek Management report is frankly silly. It suggests that we might give up on our no-alcohol policy and only intervene when behavior shows “over consumption of alcohol.” The report says that “those that were issued alcohol citations” (a total of 35 people all summer) say that “similar settings in nearby areas, such as Denver and Englewood” allow them to drink alcohol. The report concludes by saying “should the focus of City enforcement be on possession of alcohol or on behavior caused by over consumption of alcohol? “
I think we need to verify these “similar settings.” Does Denver allow people to drink along Cherry Creek? Does Englewood permit drinking on public streets and sidewalks? (If Denver and Englewood jumped off a cliff, would Golden do it too?)
Weekly COVID Update
80.3%
% of Jeffco residents (12+) who have received at least one shot (+0.4% since last week)
75.8% are fully-vaccinated (+0.5% since last week) – source
New item: 43,708 people 12+ have had booster shots. That’s 8.5% of the 12+ population.
Jefferson County Case Summary:
Cases in Jeffco – Oct 18th: 61,347 | Oct 26th: 62,996 (+1649)
Deaths in Jeffco – Oct 18th: 958 | Oct 26th : 966 (+8)
Currently Hospitalized in Jeffco – Oct 18th: 60 | Oct 26th : 80 (+20)
Recovered – Oct 18th: 58,546 | Oct 26th : 59,815 (+1269)
Known Cases in Golden – Oct 18th: 2393 | Oct 26th : 2444 (+51)
COVID Vaccine Appointments
State of Colorado: Where You Can Get Vaccinated
Jeffco Public Health Vaccine Call Center: 303-239-7000
State Vaccine Hotline: 1-877-268-2926.
Golden Testing Sites
Mines COVID Testing | Jeffco Fairgrounds COVID Testing
More Public Health References
Sign up for exposure notifications | CDC | Colorado | Jefferson County | City of Golden
Where to get vaccinated
The Pfizer COVID vaccine now has FULL FDA APPROVAL. Safeway (map) is accepting walk-ins to administer these free vaccines. Walgreens (map) takes walk-ins from 9:30AM to 1PM and 2-8PM Monday – Friday. Appointments are not necessary, but they are available.
Golden History Moment
161 Years Ago (plus one day)
George West, who founded the Colorado Transcript in 1866, also published an earlier newspaper. The Western Mountaineer ran from December 1859 – December 1860. Fortunately, every issue is available online. The Mountaineer provides some interesting insights into life in Golden in its earliest days. The October 25, 1860 issue is a great example.
West’s friend William Byers (editor of the Rocky Mountain News) had recently lost his house in a fire. This caused West to think about Golden’s vulnerability. He wrote an article pointing out that we had no fire-fighting equipment and no water supply system. He wrote that the town needed to organize a bucket brigade to draw water from Clear Creek.
A “bucket company” can and should be formed, and the expense to each man would be trifling. Nothing would be needed save that each member come to the scene of the conflagration provided with one or more buckets for passing water from the stream to the fire….
It would be well, too, to form a “hook and ladder” company, and provide it with proper means for tearing down buildings contiguous to those in flames, and which might be the means of aiding the progress of the devouring element.
Fires will occur, and no one knows how soon Golden City may be doomed to suffer from a conflagration. When it does occur we may be favored by fortune as was Denver the other evening, and lose only a single house, or we may be doomed to see half our city in ashes. Let us take the proper precaution, and when a fire does occur, confine it to as narrow limits as possible.
Speaking of West’s relationship with Byers: the two of them often addressed quips to each other in the columns of their newspapers. Much of the time, I don’t know what they’re talking about, but I found this one funny:
APOLOGETIC.–The Daily News takes exceptions to our remark last week, that nearly all the disturbance in the late Convention was caused “by about half a dozen of the Denver delegation.” We will retract, and put it four or five of that delegation. There, BYER, that lets you out.
Western Mountaineer – October 25, 1860
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!
