Herald Highlands Ranch 4/25/13
Highlands Ranch
Douglas County, Colorado • Volume 26, Issue 23
HRCA unveils pillars of plan
April 25, 2013
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourhighlandsranchnews.com
Organization focuses on improvement, efficiency over five years By Ryan Boldrey
rboldrey@ourcoloradonews.com The Highlands Ranch Community Association board of directors has been talking about developing a fiveyear plan for what, to some delegates, feels like five years. This past week, after months of discussion with the current board, HRCA board president Scott Lemmon unveiled the eight pillars of the longanticipated plan. “We’ve had lots of good information passed back and forth and lots of good suggestions,” Lemmon said. “When you really summarize all the comments we’ve had at all of our retreats, it Lemmon really comes down to eight pillars. Staff is going to go back and look at the framework of the plan and start to put some meat on the bones.” The individual pillars, which will support the framework of the organization’s direction over the next five years, are all still a work in progress, but Lemmon says that everything they are working on will fall under one of the following eight categories: public HRCA continues on Page 9
Rock Canyon Middle School archers Leland Boutilier, 14, foreground, and Kieran McCullen, 12, background, compete with more than 100 other students at the 2013 Colorado State Archery Championship, held on April 20 at Rocky Heights Middle School. Rocky Heights, with its Nighthawk archery club, is the first middle school in Douglas County to develop an after-school Olympic-style archery program. Photo by Deborah Grigsby
Archery program aims for fun Middle school becomes first in county to have club By Ryan Boldrey
rboldrey@ourcoloradonews.com Rocky Heights Middle School is right on target with the birth of its archery program. After receiving a grant from the Easton Foundation to launch the program, the school became the first in Douglas County to shoot its collective arrows skyward and even hosted the Olympic Archery in Schools state competition April 20.
“It took a little while to get things in motion, but the turnout and the involvement has been just overwhelming,” said head coach Rodney Graham. “With `Hunger Games,’ movies like `Brave’ coming out, with the Olympics — which I think was probably the biggest draw — I figured we would get a pretty good pull and we did.” When the program was initiated in January, Graham and assistant coach Dave Calloway had 150 students express interest in participating. Sixty of those showed a commitment to sticking with it, but the program only had room for 32 students. “We took what we could,” Graham said. “We did a lottery drawing and pulled kids’ names out of a hat and did it that way.” For those who had their names drawn,
not only have they had an opportunity to participate in a handful of tournaments over the past few months, but they can look forward to continuing the sport when they move up to Rock Canyon High School in a couple years, as there is a planned program in the works. Thanks to a second grant request to Easton written by Graham, there is also an elementary program already underway at Rocky Heights’ feeder schools. Not taking the two gifts from Easton lightly — the foundation provides all the necessary equipment and targets — the Rocky Heights club decided to pay it forward and raised $5,500 at a tournament in early April for the Wounded Warrior Archery continues on Page 9
Summer road projects mapped out in Highlands Ranch Time frames unveiled for construction projects By Ryan Boldrey
rboldrey@ourcoloradonews.com As Highlands Ranch enters its busiestever summer of road construction, Douglas County officials recently unveiled the time-
lines for the bigger projects. With three capital improvement projects underway or about to be embarked on, the pavement replacement portion at the Quebec/University/Lincoln intersection is nearing completion and should be done by the end of the month. The rest of the project — involving the narrowing of existing lanes, as well as the addition of turn lanes, bike lanes and through lanes — is expected
Douglas County has released the time frames for all summer construction projects in Highlands Ranch. Of the three capital improvement projects planned or ongoing, pavement replacement is expected to be complete at the intersection of Quebec Street, Lincoln Avenue and University Boulevard at the end of April, but the entire project will not be complete until year’s end. Photo by Ryan Boldrey
to take the remainder of the year. The other major projects, Broadway at C-470, and the Broadway/Wildcat Reserve Parkway intersection project, are both expected to wrap much sooner. The ongoing Broadway/C-470 project should be done by October and the Wildcat project is set to begin in mid-May and take until mid-August to conclude. The Wildcat project, according to county traffic engineer Darrell Roberts, will involve the construction of a retaining wall to accommodate a right turn at the intersection as well as some pavement reconstruction. “From Wildcat north onto Broadway, the road is crumpled pretty badly,” Roberts said. “Hopefully we will have two lanes open in each direction through the reconstruction.” The bulk of that project, Roberts said, will take place in August, once most other work around Highlands Ranch is complete. Some of the smaller projects slated include: • Sidewalk repairs in Districts 113, 87, 25 and 85, from April until June, followed by asphalt overlay projects from mid-June until mid-September. • Surface treatment projects in Districts 84, 51, 49, 60 and 85, from mid-May until mid-August. • Major concrete panel repair projects from mid-May until mid-September along Lucent from C-470 to Broadway, along Highlands Ranch Parkway from Santa Fe to
NoiSe baRRieRS aloNg C-470 The county is in the process of filing an application with the Colorado Department of Transportation for C-470 improvements, and as part of that, it is taking a look at federal requirements for the implementation of noise barriers. “I think the budget right now estimated it at about $15-20 million for noise walls along 470, where they are required,” said Art Griffith, the county’s capital improvements projects manager. “We anticipate several noise barriers going in, but some of the apartment owners along 470 can decide that they do not want them.” Griffith said a lot of the complexes like having higher visibility from the highway, and that even if they qualify for barriers, will sometimes elect not to have them installed.
University, along Wildcat Reserve Parkway east of Highlands Ranch Parkway, and along McArthur Ranch Road east of Wildcat. • Major concrete grinding projects from July through October in spots along Highlands Ranch Parkway and Wildcat Reserve Construction continues on Page 9 Printed on recycled newsprint. Please recycle this copy.