Parker Days returns stronger in 2023

Chamber

Parker’s Favorite Weekend is quickly approaching. Once again, the annual Parker Days Festival takes over Downtown Parker the second weekend of June.

Last year marked the triumphant return of the festival after two years dark. Many people think that Parker Days is an event sponsored by the Town. In fact, Parker Days is a private festival owned by the Parker Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation. ere was huge uncertainty about whether the festival could survive after nancial challenges caused by the two-year COVID gap.

After a lot of soul-searching, nancial planning, heated discussions (and, I’m guessing, some prayers), the Chamber’s board of directors made the decision to nd a way. ere would be no safety net.

pocket.

Our festival managers, Dean and Peg Menos, made miracles happen on a daily basis – navigating permits, wooing vendors, implementing security plans, erecting miles of fencing and electrical equipment. I asked them to make impossible staging timeframes work in order to lessen impact on Downtown businesses, and like the pros they are, Dean and Peg nodded yes. When you see them at this year’s festival, thank them for saving it. No one deserves more credit.

Many of our food vendors let us hold on to 2020 fees – interest free – until we were able to reboot in 2022. at was huge. We gambled with their dollars.

to be di erent in 2023. ere are a few things.

First, we’re opening the carnival rides one night earlier, on ursday, and we’re o ering Family 4-Packs so that families can save money and enjoy the rides on a less-busy night.

e revenue from that extra night of rides will help us cope with skyrocketing prices on everything from printing to fencing.

Best of all, proceeds from this year’s festival will fund community grants. We’ve already written checks to both Rotary clubs, Dads of Parker, the Miss Colorado organization, Parker Adventist Hospital, the Mountain Pine Woman’s Club, and more this year. Money you spend at Parker Days 2023 will be returned to Parker organizations in 2024.

I’m super proud of that. While my birthday is still postponed until after the festival, I’m not having as many nightmares. I have even promised my sta that I will take time to dance to at 80’s Band on Sunday night.

Come on, Parker. Let’s party.

RTD came through for us, allowing us to use a portion of the Park-andRide so that we could unify the carnival areas and increase public safety. e Senior Center said “yes” to a couple of my wacky ideas. Grace Baptist, as usual, were incredibly generous with their land. Volunteers from local nonpro ts rallied volunteers to serve beverages. Parker Adventist Hospital gave us a sponsorship that almost made me weep.

ere will be a big screen at the Main Stage, thanks to a beautiful sponsorship from Groove Mazda. We’ve moved our second stage to the parking lot just east of e Local, so you’ll see a lot more activity in the center of the festival. We’ve added a Salute to the Armed Forces area on the east end that will be extremely cool. You’ll notice more decoration at the entrances. We’ve invested in faster machines to run credit cards.

T.J. Sullivan is the President & CEO of the Parker Chamber of Commerce. Find him on Instagram at @ParkerChamberCEO.

I was the new guy at the helm, and I had never been responsible for an event this size. I’m a fairly con dent guy, but it was scary as hell. enancial reserves of the Chamber were entirely depleted on the gamble that we could pull o a 2022 festival. I had nightmares of being the guy who killed both the festival and the chamber.

e stakes were so huge that I canceled my birthday. I told friends and family that it was o cially moved from early June to early July. I couldn’t deal with any distractions from the job at hand. It felt like we were planning the Super Bowl.

Fortunately, I had a few aces in my

We signi cantly beefed up security and dramatically cut our marketing budget. We cut everything that drained dollars or sta resources. We hunted down every upbeat party band in Colorado. We added a Silent Disco and an awesome train running up and down Mainstreet.

Fortunately, fate was on our side. Mother Nature largely cooperated, and most critically, the crowds turned out. ank you, thank you, thank you! 2022 ended up the most successful year of the festival in its 47 year history.

People have asked me what’s going removing disfavored perspectives and people minorities from public purview.

Amy Joy Halliburton, 40, of Centennial, CO, passed away on April 21, 2023.

Amy was born to David and Connie Reed of Parker, CO, on July 23, 1982. She is survived by her husband Logan Halliburton, three children, Nova, Dax, and Kai, of Centennial, CO, her parents David and Connie Reed of Parker, CO, her sisters Sonya Lake (Tom) of Phoenix, AZ and Stephanie Healy (Ryan), her brother Tyler Reed, her grandmother Annette Reed, all

HALLIBURTON Amy Joy (Reed) Halliburton July 23, 1982 - April 21, 2023 FROM of Parker, CO, her basement gnome, Lucy Hinesley and many wonderful aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins whom Amy loved dearly. She is preceded in death by her grandfather Everett Reed and her grandparents Frank and Dorothy Larson. Out of respect for Amy’s wishes there will not be a service. In lieu of owers, please consider donating to a charity or organization that you feel would honor Amy best. book complaints led by citizens.

Because the book touched on the subject of drag queens’ clothing, some of the public commenters wanted the book removed from the shelves, while others suggested that the book be locked away in a “special place.”

At the same time, just as many commenters supported keeping the book available on open shelves.

In this time of divisiveness and culture wars, many of us take one side or another about things like book bans. Taking sides often has multi-aspects that are practical, as well as ideological … sometimes religious, even bigoted. ese days, when a minority group is the target of book complaints, there’s often a bigger ideological trigger in play at places like the DougCo Library Board meeting.

Based on the behaviors and words o ered by a few at the library board meeting, there are local people who would like the issue of freedom to read, to be subjugated to their ideological pre-approval, even to the point of

Many believe Douglas County Library is a public system second to none. And fortunately, the Douglas County Library adheres to the American Library Association Library Bill of Rights.

“1. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information and enlightenment of all people of the community, which the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background or views of those contributing to their creation.

“2. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

“3. Libraries should challenge censorship in the ful llment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.”

Well, the Library Bill of Rights surely covers the “Swish, Swish, Swish” issue. If not, the 1st Amendment stands at the ready, not just for the few, but everyone.

Lloyd Guthrie Roxborough Park

BY JOHN RENFROW JRENFROW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Pools around the metro area are gearing up to open for the summer. at is, if there are enough lifeguards.

e years-long trend where pools have cut hours or closed altogether appears to be waning, though it’s still a possibility in some places, according to aquatics managers across the Denver area, who are more optimistic than in past years, but still concerned as summer nears.

For instance, South Suburban Parks and Recreation needs 250 lifeguards for its peak summer season but has only 183 ready to go.

Karl Brehm, the recreation dis- trict’s aquatics manager, hopes to get closer to the goal as summer approaches but wonders why applications are so slow to roll in.

“I have seen, more and more, less interest in the position,” Brehm said.

He’s been in the business for a long time. Brehm worked at Elitch Gardens for ve seasons and the Highlands Ranch Community Association for 16 years. He said he’s seen a general lack of interest, generationally, from young people who want to do the job. Fewer people are becoming CPR certi ed as well, he added.

“I’ve often wondered why we were having those issues,” Brehm said. “Back in the day, I remember if you didn’t have your job by spring break, you weren’t getting a summer job.” e problem could a ect South Suburban pools across the district, which serves more than 150,000 residents in Bow Mar, Columbine Valley, Littleton, Sheridan, Lone Tree and parts of Centennial and Douglas, Je erson and Arapahoe counties.

If he can’t hire enough lifeguards, hours at pools could be cut, Brehm said. It’s not for a lack of trying, though. e district has introduced incentives, bonuses, pay bumps and more in hopes of luring in more lifeguards.

South Suburban isn’t alone. ere’s a national lifeguard shortage, which was exacerbated by the pandemic. Lifeguard shortages a ected roughly a third of public pools throughout the country.

In response last year, Gov. Jared Polis announced a “Pools Special Initiative 2022,” in which Colorado introduced incentives. Chief among them was a $1,000 payment to those who completed lifeguard training to ght pool postponements and decreasing operating hours.

Now, out of necessity, hiring lifeguards is ongoing throughout the entire summer season, Brehm said. Lifeguards for South Suburban make between $15 and $19.14 per hour, per South Suburban’s website. A head lifeguard makes $15.75 - $19.93 per hour.

But there are additional costs to South Suburban. ough life-