WHEAT RIDGE NEWS Flooding Risk Likely to Drop, But Hazards Remain Page 2
LOCALWORKS UPDATE Wheat Ridge’s Mid-Century and Modern Gems Page 5
2017 CARNATION FESTIVAL Special pull-out section with information, schedules Pages 9-16
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Gazette NEIGHBORHOOD
WHEAT RIDGE | APPLEWOOD | MOUNTAIN VIEW | LAKESIDE July 18 – August 14, 2017 • ngazette.com • FREE
Five Festivals & Fairs For Family Fun n By
Sally Griffin
T
he definition of a festival is “a celebration or an occasion for joy, often with a program of cultural events.” A fair is “a public exhibit of culture and particular achievement, often combined with entertainment and sale of products.” Lucky for our area, we have plenty of both. Summer is the best time for joy, celebration and fun. I know I remember how much fun my siblings and I had with carnival rides and games, parades, music, food and special treats. This year, we want to remind you of five festivals or fairs that will take place in our parks and streets.
Carnation Festival The Carnation Festival is a celebration of the Wheat Ridge community since the city’s incorporation in 1969. Once named the “Carnation Capital of the World,” Wheat Ridge embraces its heritage through this spectacular event. Celebrating its 48th anniversary in 2017, Wheat Ridge Carnation Festival will be filled with food, music, culture and fun for people of all ages! The main events are held at Continued on page 6
“EVERYBODY LOVES A PARADE” especially one with roots as deep as the Wheat Ridge Carnation Festival. These young fans lined the course of the 2016 parade. 2019 will mark the 50th consecutive year of the Wheat Ridge Carnation Festival Parade held to commemorate the first year of the city’s founding in 1969. The 2017 Carnation Festival Parade is the first to have a theme: “Rockin’ Carnations.” Please see the special pull out section, beginning on page 9. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHEAT RIDGE CARNATION FESTIVAL.
Hail’s Ripple Effect on the Community – More Than Roofs n By
H
Tawny Clary
ail. It is described by the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) as “a form of precipitation that occurs when updrafts in thunderstorms carry raindrops upward into extremely cold areas of the atmosphere where they freeze into balls of ice.” But what is it really? For Colorado, it is fear of damage costs, skepticism toward strangers doing honorable work and renewed education on how to better prepare for the next storm. For the City of Wheat Ridge this year, it is 3,360 inspections completed in the first nine weeks since the city’s largest hailstorm on record. It is six additional inspectors with 814 billable hours from the same time frame. It is 2,256 online roofing permit and inspection applications submitted in a month. (City Treasurer Jerry DiTullio shares all of this information from the bi-weekly permit report on his page, jerryditullio. com.) Colorado’s May 8 hailstorm takes the cake in the top 10 most costly hailstorms in Colorado with a current estimated total of $1.4 billion, according to the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association (RMIIA). The RMIIA explains, “Colorado’s Front Range is located in the heart of ‘Hail Alley,’ which receives the highest frequency of large hail in North America and most of the world.” Years of this kind of weather would lead us to believe we would be armed and ready for these catastrophic storms. Yet the monumental effect of hail never ceases to catch us off guard. In less than a half hour, a short-lived, but forceful army of falling hail means businesses close due to extensive and
expensive damage; employees find they have no jobs to go to the next day; residential roofs sit partially finished for days due to miscommunications and backup in available manpower. For the city and its people, a piece of hail turns into long lines with deadlines getting pushed back, frustrations and loss of patience. It turns into unanticipated
revenue costs of $968, 708.26 in just two short months since the storm, per the city treasurer. It doesn’t stop there. Each piece of hail has another purpose wrapped up inside it. It becomes neighbors helping neighbors. It becomes more job opportunities and purpose for contractors, glass and auto repair companies, rental car companies
and insurance. It becomes a facelift for neighborhoods whose property values go up with every new roof and each can of new paint followed by revived landscape and updated materials. Entire industries are there for residents and business owners in the recovery from the disruption that a little Continued on page 23
N E I G H B O R H O O D F E AT U R E
Mad Men Raise Money for RRCC Foundation n By
Gwen Clayton
I
t’s a beautiful sunny day with mountains to the north and the Denver skyline to the south – an easy sell, even if you’re not a Madison Avenue advertising executive. But it wasn’t Don Draper who brought more than 200 people to The Club at Rolling Hills on the weekend of June 24 through 26. It was the local community as they attended the Mad Men on the Rocks Gala and Annual Golf Tournament. The Foundation at Rolling Hills is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization formed in 1999 with the mission of raising funds for the benefit of worthy charitable causes in the local community. Since its inception, the Foundation has raised more than $2 million, with most of the money staying in Jefferson County. Every year, the Foundation Board chooses a different beneficiary. In 2017, that recipient was the Red Rocks Community College Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, established in 1991 with the vision of removing the financial barrier and THE FOUNDATION AT ROLLING HILLS RAISES MORE helping students of all income levels access higher education.
THAN $150,000 each year for local charities. GWEN CLAYTON
PHOTO:
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