WHEAT RIDGE MAYOR Election 2017 Shines the Spotlight on You
LOCALWORKS UPDATE Community Building with Five Fridges Farm
WEST METRO FIRE More Than 2,100 Climb To Remember
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NEIGHBORHOOD
WHEAT RIDGE | APPLEWOOD | MOUNTAIN VIEW | LAKESIDE September 19 – October 16, 2017 • ngazette.com • FREE
Elections Shape Up for November Races n By
Gwen Clayton
C
andidates running on the November 2017 ballot were required to file paperwork with their respective city clerks or school board offices by close of business Aug. 28. The following week, the Neighborhood Gazette emailed questionnaires to the hopefuls, along with a request for a highresolution headshot photo, to be published with their responses to the questions below: 1. What is your name, position running for, occupation, previous occupations, how long you've lived in the city or district, and any personal details you want readers to know about you. 2. Have you served in public office before? If so, what position, where and when? 3. Have you volunteered in your community? If so, what position, where and when? 4. What are the three most important issues facing your city/district, and how will you address them if elected? 5. Please provide basic contact information: Website, phone number, email, social media, as well as name of candidate committee and chairperson. Continued on page 2
A CLASSIC CAR SHOW was just one of many fun, family attractions at this year’s RidgeFest, held Sept. 9 in the heart of the Ridge at 38 district, highlighting the community’s agricultural heritage and handmade/homemade offerings. PHOTO: BECKY OLSTAD
All Along the G Line: Someday My Train Will Come... n By
I
Jennifer LeDuc
t isn’t hard to imagine the Arvada stop of RTD’s G Line buzzing with riders returning home from work and filtering off the train into any number of eateries and shops dotting the Olde Town neighborhood, or hopping on to to catch an easy ride to a game downtown. The G Line, formally know as the Gold Line, was slated to open in October of 2016. The line is 11 miles long, with 8 stops between Union Station and Ward Road in Wheat Ridge. The project is not stalled, as much as delayed, pending successful testing and approval by the Federal Railroad Administration of the commuter rail’s Positive Train Control safety system. That anticipated surge in foot traffic meant rents were raised for many tenants in Olde Town. Some businesses have hung on, some have not, and some prime store-front real estate is unoccupied. Informally polling shopkeepers and customers opposite the G Line stop on Grandview Avenue in Olde Town recently revealed mixed understanding of the delays, and optimism divided. “No, I don’t understand why it’s not running. I keep hearing the same thing everyone else does,” said Charlie Craven, proprietor of Charlie’s FlyBox. “There a lot of new businesses here that are optimistic. It certainly won’t hurt us, but people have been sold that this train is coming, and 13 years later it’s still not here.” Consequently, said Craven, the shop has seen a 30 percent decrease in sales over last year. “There’s no parking,” he laments. When the Olde Town stop was redeveloped in anticipation of the commuter line, the city removed the parking lot on
Grandview Avenue and built a parking garage beneath the station. Craven feels the city has poorly promoted the new garage and sees only those who work in Olde Town park there. “It’s less than abandoned,” he said. “All the time.” RTD is indeed not utilizing the parking garage, said Nate Currey, RTD’s senior manager of public relations. Logistically, he said, until the trains run it isn’t efficient
to pull the bus riders into the lot from the current Park-n-Ride lot across the street. At Silver Vines Winery, a few doors down from the FlyBox, the mood is more optimistic and some customers seem well-informed. Diane Chayer, whose two sons own the winery, said initially she didn’t realize the commuter line and the light rail were any different. “I kept calling it a light rail,” and some
customers corrected her, she said. “So that being said,” Chayer continued, “because we were all thinking it was going to open, rent has gone up tremendously, and everyone thought it would be bring people to Olde Town supporting our businesses – but it’s kinda hard to go on hearsay.” At the end of the line, at 52nd and Ward Continued on page 2
N E I G H B O R H O O D F E AT U R E
Filling The Fall With Community Music n By
Sally Griffin
W
e helped raise enough money for almost a month of staff salaries at the Lomagundi Medical Clinic in Chinoi, Zimbabwe. All we had to do, along with about 60 other people, was to attend a concert at the small outdoor amphitheater at Wheat Ridge Presbyterian Church. The concert featured the Afro-Pop band, Nokuthula. In talking to the co-founder of Nokuthula, Andre Mallinger, she told us that she loves performing music made for communities by community members – what she calls “community music.” It occurred to me, in a community like ours, there must be more opportunities to participate in community music, if only as audience members. The first place I found was with the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra (JSO). The JSO is a 75-member community orchestra that began in 1953 among a small group of faculty and students at Colorado School of Mines. This group quickly grew until, in 1957, it was recognized as the largest ensemble, based on community size, in the United States. CELLISTS FROM THE JEFFERSON SYMPHONY OR- Today, the JSO is one of the oldest and largest community orchestras in the state of Colorado. Wow! Talk about community music. CHESTRA rehearse for an upcoming performance. The The JSO has gone beyond community music to become a community
JSO will perform five concerts for the 2017-18 season. PHOTO: KEITH BOBO/JSO
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