GRANTS

FROM PAGE 1 bene t the surrounding communities,” Watkins said. “ is Brighton initiative will clean up downtown core properties and explore safer connections to essential services while creating new jobs and housing opportunities.”

Most of the properties that are being targeted with this round of grants are located within three miles of the railroad tracks through downtown Brighton.

“Due to their historical use — and in some cases unfortunate re destruction — there is concern that contaminants like asbestos, lead, petroleum and solvent-based products exist on these properties,” Watkins said.

“ ere is also potential for several of these properties to be contaminated with arsenic and other heavy metals due to their proximity to the railroad.” e environmental assessments the Brown eld grants will pay for are the rst step in redeveloping the properties. e grant will also help the city create an inventory and prioritize additional contaminated properties with the highest potential for economic redevelopment.”

“ is grant will help us determine whether contaminants exist on these properties so that additional funding can be secured for future clean up and redevelopment,” she said.

“ e ultimate goal is to create muchneeded a ordable housing and commercial or industrial development.

Bu ng history

Blackhurst gave details on four downtown properties the city has its eyes on for redevelopment, including the lot at 404 N. Main St. that was home to the Brighton grain elevator.

“ at building was very intriguing and there was interest in redeveloping it into a restaurant or possibly some other uses,” he said. “Unfortunately, in 2012, the building caught re and burned to the ground.”

Another is the Midland Cereal Building at 640 E. Baseline Road. at building was built in 1920 to produce breakfast cereal but was reused in 1993 and used as industrial storage.

“You can see it, a three to four-story building with many, many windows,” Blackhurst said. “It has good bones. It has good potential for some neat redevelopment. It could be much more useful to the community and preserved going forward.”

Other potential properties include the former NAPA auto parts warehouse on 300 N. Main St. that burned to the ground in 2017 and the 1908 cannery building at 200 N. Main Street.

“ ese are just examples of the things Brighton could really use going forward to help us with redeveloping for housing int eh downtown area, or such things as a center for hosting weddings and other events,” Blackhurst said. “In my opinion, the rst 200 blocks of the city, the city has done wonderful job of doing facelifts there. However, we need to work on the 300 and 400 blocks of Main Street.”

Brighton’s $500,000 grant is part of a larger Brown elds e ort that the EPA announced in May, Watkins said.

City Manager Michael Martinez said local developers can apply for the grants to kick o the redevelopment of those properties.

“ e redevelopment of those sites, and others, is a win-win for this community and the property owners themselves,” Martinez said. “ e city can get new housing, businesses, entertainment and gathering places while property owners can work to ensure their further expanding economic opportunities. All of this will be explored with this award.” he said. “Next year I anticipate we’ll have more.” e 2022 celebration featured a concert and exhibition by muralists Babe Walls and garnered the county the “Non-Fair Facility Usage Award 2022” from the International Association of Fairs and Expos, which recognizes successful events outside of the annual county fairs. is year’s celebration featured a water slide, volleyball, a foam cannon and a drag show leading up to the evening performance by pop star Bebe Rexha.

Denver LGBTQ pop-up organizers Rainbow Dome co-hosted the celebration, building an instant roller skating rink in the parking lot in front of the park’s Waymire Dome and presenting a ash mob there. Zoe Campo, Adams County cultural arts manager said the county brought in the group to help give it a sense of exuberance.

“We think this event is all about fun and joy and that’s what they brought,” Campo said.

A midway along the edge of the parking lot featured tents with county o ces and vendors selling art, rainbow-colored clothing and gear while a handful of food trucks and vendors fed attendees along the other side, closer to the Waymire Dome.

County Commissioner Emma Pinter

said last year’s event was centered on the grassy area below the parking lot. is year, the main events tent, the foam cannon and games were still down there but the event itself grew to include much more of the Riverdale park.

“We just found that the tents worked much better on the pavement,” she said. “We’re still learning. It’s our second year, and we’re still working on it.”

Next level

But the key event this year was the

Marriagepalooza, the mass wedding. Zygielbaum said that idea came from his department sta .

“We participated in Pride last year, but we wanted to take it to the next level,” Zygielbaum said. “Since we oversee the issuance of marriage licenses for Adams County we thought it could be a great event and we started planning it a couple of months ago.” e clerk’s o ce issued rainbowcolored marriage licenses to the couples that took their vows at the ceremony. Zygielbaum said there was plenty of interest from couples.

“Hopefully next year, we’ll be able to double the size and we hope to be doing the event for a long time,” he said.

One of the couples, Tige Heacock and Jason Godtzinger, said they didn’t initially plan to get married at an event. Heacock said she wanted to get married on June 10, since it was her grandparents’ anniversary.

“We had planned to rent Boetcher Mansion and we went online to nd out what we needed to do for a marriage license and we saw Marriagepalooza,” Heacock said. “We have a ton of friends that we support and some that are getting married this year. We tried to get them to come out today, but they couldn’t. But we wanted to support everybody else and be part of the day.”

Pinter said the event is not meant to be politically provocative but simply to represent people that live in Adams County.

“I think it’s important to celebrate our whole community, and we do all sorts of celebrations throughout the year,” she said. “We just celebrated the opening of a new Veterans Memorial on Memorial Day and we’re about to do our Stars and Stripes for Fourth of July. is is another in the calendar of events where we celebrate our community. And this is very important to let our LGBTQ community members know we are celebrating them too.”

Publication Date: July 6, 2023

Advertising Sales Deadline: Wednesday, June 28th at NOON

Classified Sales Deadline: Thursday, June 29th at 10 a.m.