Local Business Column Debuts see page 2
‘Tis the Season To De-Stress see page 3
Neighborhood
Winter Fitness Challenge Begins Jan. 12 see page 7
Gazette
WHEAT RIDGE
EDGEWATER
Edgewater Rings In New Year And Fire Department By J. Patrick O’Leary
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dgewater will say hello to a new year and goodbye to its historic, 97-year-old fire department on New Year’s Eve at 5:30 p.m., at the Edgewater Fire Station, 2508 Gray St. The party will feature refreshments as well as a final blast of the station’s fire siren, before the Wheat Ridge Fire Protection District takes the keys to the building at 6:00 p.m., said Mayor Bonnie McNulty. “I decided we’d have a ‘last blast’ of the fire siren, which hasn’t been heard in years because of the use of radios,” she said. “We’re inviting all former and current firefighters, as well as the public.” She also went on to say, “It’s a bittersweet thing. The fire department has been here almost a hundred years, 97 that is almost a century of community service. We will be losing a little bit of the community.” It’s a bittersweet moment as well for the departing fire Chief Mark Finocchio. “I have been privileged to be associated with a group of individuals who routinely sacrifice their personal life to provide for the safety, health and welfare of the community,” he said. He went on to say, “I wish we could have found a way to save this organization, but the conspiracy of lack of available funding, dwindling personnel and extreme demand for our services required us to move in the direction we have.”
Edgewater voters made the decision to include their city in the Wheat Ridge Fire Protection District by a nearly two-toone margin in the 2012 general election on November 6. The move was endorsed by the city and the fire department. “I was hired as the first paid fire chief for the department in November of 2009 with the expressed intent to find whether or not we could develop a sustainable and viable model even if I ended up working myself out of a job,” Finocchio stated. Finocchio has accepted a fire chief with an out-of-state department, and will be moving in January. “The legacy that has been left by all previous members can never be tarnished or forgotten and I believe the community will not let that happen,” he said. “I wish all the best for Edgewater in this new endeavor with the Wheat Ridge Fire Protection District and I know the city is in good and capable hands,” said Finocchio. Wheat Ridge Fire Protection District will begin using the Gray Street station that evening, as well as the second floor of the adjacent building at 5845 W. 25th Ave., to provide fire protection service. According to an agreement between the City of Edgewater and Wheat Ridge Fire Protection District signed earlier this year, the District will lease the building from Edgewater for $1.00 a year until 2018, and receive Edgewater’s fire
Wheat Ridge Smoking Ban: Snuffed Out Or Still Smoldering? By J. Patrick O’Leary
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heat Ridge parks, playgrounds and open space may soon be off-limits to smoking if the City Council adopts a resolution allowing the Parks and Recreation Department to make a rule prohibiting smoking. However, because it will be a department rule, and not a city ordinance, no tickets, fines or punishment will be meted out for violations. The resolution is set for presentation and
wheat ridge parks, like the recently opened Discovery Skate Park, may soon become off-limits to smoking, if City Council adopts a resolution set for a vote Jan. 14.
a vote at Council’s Monday, Jan. 14, 2013, meeting, according to Parks and Recreation Department Director Joyce Manwaring. Breathe Easy Wheat Ridge, a grassroots coalition of Wheat Ridge residents, organizations, and businesses working to reduce public exposure to secondhand smoke and decrease youth tobacco use, began working with City Council in the last year to pass a law that would make all workplaces smoke-free, including tobacco businesses, hookah bars and businesses with three or fewer employees, extend the smoke-free entrances perimeter around businesses from 15 feet to 25 feet, make outdoor seating and service areas of restaurants and bars smokefree and also make parks, playgrounds, and transit waiting areas and hospital sidewalks smoke-free. Breathe Easy claims that nearly 75 percent of Wheat Ridge residents would support new laws that restrict smoking in public places, yet elected representatives were split. “The other [previous] extreme outdoor smoking bans proposed by Breathe Easy Wheat Ridge will not have my support,” said Mayor Jerry DiTullio. He said, “Especially their recommendation of ‘banning’ smoking establishments such as legal restaurant patios and hookah bars.” Breathe Easy drafted a new resolution, Continued on page 2
fighting equipment (except engines) and $304,000 (due January 10) to fund operations in the coming year. The city will be paying to upgrade the current fire station so District firefighters can sleep there; the agreement requires a minimum of three firefighters be stationed there at all times. The token $1.00 annual rent jumps to $50,000 in 2018, motivating the District to construct and operate a new station in the city within five years. Also, the city will be allowed to park its fire engines at the current station until they can be sold. Edgewater’s current 5.03 mill levy expires on January 1, per a city council ordinance, contingent on voters approving the inclusion, approved by city council and the mayor in August. The fire district’s 7.5 mill assessment will be imposed at the same time, but won’t be collected until 2014.
THE NEW YEAR will see the end of almost a century of community service from the City of Edgewater’s Fire Department. Voters elected to merge with the Wheat Ridge Fire District in the 2012 election.
2012: Was it Naughty or Nice? By Cyndy Beal
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he last several years have been tough in Colorado, with drought conditions in weather, jobs and finances; sometimes one wonders if Colorado was on the naughty list. However, it is fair to say there is movement to the nice list. In October, the unemployment rate for Colorado was 7.9 percent according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/lau/. This is down a full percentage point from the annual average in 2010 of 8.9 percent. Despite several years of the Great Recession, slow growth and high unemployment rates nationally and in Colorado, as well as the looming fiscal cliff for the federal government, the cities of Wheat Ridge and Edgewater are fairly economically stable. They are showing signs of economic recovery and the return of optimism, albeit a cautious kind. Both Wheat Ridge and Edgewater have had and continue to have balanced budgets with no debt. Such is the same with 2013 budgets. Both cities are also benefiting from higher-income Denver residents relocating and spurring a rise in home sales in the two small communities, with their combined number of residents still totaling less than 50,000.
Wheat Ridge The total proposed budget for 2013 is $45,735,304, up from the adopted 2012 budget of $41,206,340. Most of the increase would come from grants, which are higher than last year. “We’re optimistic that things are going to get better,” said Wheat Ridge City Manager Patrick Goff. According to the City of Wheat Ridge website, the majority, 68 percent, of the city’s revenue comes from its 3.0 percent sales/use tax. The three highest expenditures are Police at 33 percent, followed by and
Parks and Recreation at 16 percent, and Public Works at 15 percent, representing 64 percent of expenditures in the total budget. Most of the focus in Wheat Ridge has been on development, according to Goff. This is in reference to development projects such as the 18 to 24-month pilot program on 38th Ave. that includes the addition of bike lanes and lane reconfiguration and the 38th Ave. Corridor plan implemented this year is one of the city’s largest projects, and not without its differences in opinions. Starting in January, improvements for the 32nd Ave. and Youngfield St. interchange will begin. It is a partly grant-funded project, and one of a dozen grant-funded projects slated for 2013. The number of business license applications for local business in Wheat Ridge went up in 2012, with 205 licenses, minus 14 that are no longer in business. The total includes a small number of new ownership of existing businesses and some temporary licenses, primarily from the Carnation Festival. The 205 number is significant in that it is more than doubled from 99 in 2011.
Edgewater In November, Edgewater voters made the decision to include their city in the Wheat Ridge Fire Protection District. The Edgewater fire station will still function, but under the WRFPD banner instead of Edgewater’s, ending a nearly century-old tradition. (Please see Mayor Bonnie McNulty’s column and Edgewater Rings in New Year). In the 2012 city budget, the total expenditure for the city’s fire department was $238,226. Although Edgewater’s fire department was largely a volunteer organization, the bulk of this cost was salaries and pensions. In 2012, Edgewater had to cancel its annual July 3rd Fireworks show, on account of a state-wide ban on fireworks because of extremely high fire danger. In past years, Continued on page 4