What’s Happening in Golden Today?
9-10AM Women’s Exercise and Bible Study @ First United Methodist Church
9:15-9:45AM Baby Time @ Golden Library
10AM and 1PM Wild West Walking History Tour
10AMand 1PM Wild West Short Tour
10-10:55AM Silver Sneakers Classic (Virtual)
10:15-10:45AM Preschool Time @ Golden Library
12-12:55PM All Levels Yoga (Virtual)
1-1:45PM Silver Sneakers Yoga (Virtual)
1:30PM Triad Senior Safety @ Jeffco District Attorney’s Office
5:30-7:30PM Golden Elite Rockstar Connect Networking @ Buffalo Rose
6-8PM Trip Planning and Terrain Management Clinic @ Bentgate Mountaineering
6:30-8:30PM Bar Bingo Night @ VFW Post 4171
6:30PM City Council Regular Business Meeting @ City Hall
Tonight’s consent agenda includes a resolution extending the City’s agreement with Muller Engineering for on-call engineering services and another extending our agreement with IMEG Engineering.
Council will read proclamations regarding National Radon Action Month and International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Golden Rotary Club will provide Council with an update on their many service projects.
2022 Creek Management
The Deputy City Manager will recap last summer’s crowd and traffic management on the Clear Creek Corridor. They painted stripes on the paths along the creek, and that has reminded people to stay on the right side. They have encouraged–but not required–bikes to use the trail on the south side of the Creek. There was one fatality inside the city limits and several rescues over the course of the summer. There was significant erosion at the take-out spot in Vanover Park, so the city installed paving there to replace the grass.
2023 Creek Management
The Communications Manager submitted a memo that proposed moving or rescheduling this summer’s special events, including the Farmers’ Market, Arts Week, the Fine Arts Festival, and Buffalo Bill Days. The memo pointed out that the Creek itself attracts so many people that it’s the equivalent of hosting a special event every weekend. It said that staff is overwhelmed by “contaminated dumpsters, left-behind trash, filling security gaps, and parking support due to a high volume of visitors, events, and uneven event policy adherence about volunteer or staffing requirements.”
City staff feels they can’t control the number of Creek users, but they can deny special event permits to the regularly-scheduled events. They would like them to move to the shoulder seasons (spring or fall) or to somewhere away from the Creek.
Staff’s long-term solutions are to implement the Heart of Golden plan, which will accommodate bigger crowds, and to roll out a shuttle service, so people can park remotely and be driven into the Creek corridor. Until they can make those changes, they suggest that the usual summer events be moved or rescheduled.
This has caused an explosion of public reaction. Among the comments I’ve heard are:
Why should events that have run for decades be canceled in favor of the tubing crowd?
The non-profits that run those long-standing events depend on the revenue they generate.
This is way too late to be informing the event organizers of this change. They’re already signed contracts and put down deposits.
One of the outfitters (Adventure West) sent a letter to the Chamber indicating that they feel thrown under the bus by the City. They never suggested that the special events be canceled, but they are being blamed. They have made suggestions that they think would help, such as limiting the number of tubers allowed on the Creek and requiring that everyone wear life vests.
Of course, there are many places for people to enter the Creek—including upstream, outside the city limits—so it’s hard to say how the City could implement a limit.
And of course, many (probably most) of the people playing in the Creek bring their own flotation devices, and have nothing to do with the local outfitters.
Public Comment
With passions running so high, this promises to be an interesting meeting. If you want to make public comment in person, be there at the beginning of the meeting, at 6:30. If you want to send written comments, send an email to PublicComment@cityofgolden.net before 3PM.
The business meeting will be followed by an executive session (no public, no cameras) “for the purpose of receiving legal advice and developing strategy for negotiations and instructing negotiators regarding the City’s response to claims made by Crystal Wilson against the City.” They will also receive “legal advice regarding the annexation process generally.”
Live Music
6PM Karaoke with Linda @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
6PM Open Bluegrass Pick Night @ Over Yonder Brewing
Trivia
6PM Trivia Tuesdays @ Golden Mill
6:30-8:30PM Team Trivia Tuesdays @ Buffalo Rose
Golden History Moment
Golden had continued its annual summer party–called Golden Days–through the war years, but it was a decidedly muted affair, with a heavy emphasis on victory gardens and food production in wartime.
76 Years Ago
In the summer of 1946, we were finally at peace, so we had a lot to celebrate! That year, Golden merged several festivities and had a multi-day blow-out.
1946 was the 100th anniversary of William Cody’s birth, and tens of thousands were expected to visit his grave and museum that summer. In his honor, Golden Days was renamed to “Buffalo Bill Days” that year. The schedule was packed:
Tuesday and Wednesday – 4H fair, horse races, and rodeos at the county fairgrounds
Thursday – Carnival on Washington Avenue, barbecued buffalo sandwiches served by the American Legion
Friday – Carnival, Buffalo Bill Parade, VFW dance
Saturday – Carnival, air show, beauty contest, soap box derby, frat tug-of-war, fireworks, square dancing
Sunday – Baseball games, “sailplane” acrobatics over the ball field
By all accounts, the celebration was a huge success. There were long lines for the buffalo sandwiches. Everyone enjoyed the fireworks. Children loved the carnival. The parade included several people dressed as Buffalo Bill and many others as generic cowboys and Indians. Gertrude Bell (of Bell Junior High fame) won the prize for best American Indian costume.
Only the public health officials had qualms about the big gathering. We were in the midst of a polio epidemic. A few days after the big party, the County Health Officer recommended that “all public playgrounds, swimming pools, amusement parks, Sunday schools, picnics and fairs where children congregate in the county, be closed, in compliance with recommendations made by the State Board of Health and Colorado Emergency Polio Committee.”
Because of the epidemic the opening of school was postponed by two weeks that fall.
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!
