Citizen Centennial 9-20-2013
Centennial
Arapahoe County, Colorado • Volume 12, Issue 44
September 20, 2013
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourcentennialnews.com
City escapes major storm damage Emergency Operations Center gets salute from sheriff By George Lurie
glurie@ourcoloradonews.com Addressing city councilmembers Sept. 16, Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson was remarkably upbeat in his assessment of how the city weathered the preceding week’s torrential rain and flooding. A limited number of city businesses and residences experienced some “minor” basement flooding, but “all in all, Centennial’s infrastructure held up nicely,” Robinson said, “particularly when you compare
Centennial to some of the other areas just to the north of us like Aurora.” Robinson credited “the folks who staff our EOC” (Emergency Operations Center) with helping to direct city resources to where they needed to go during the worst of the rain and flooding. With the relatively light damage assessed and cleanup well underway, Robinson Robinson added that Arapahoe County has now “sent a lot of our resources to our friends in Boulder County — and I expect they could be there for a good long time.”
Dan Olsen, stormwater inspection manager for the Southeast Metro Stormwater Authority, told councilmembers that most of the city’s retention ponds performed as designed during the long stretch of rain. “We looked at hot spots, areas prone to flooding, and monitored them accordingly,” said Olsen. “City crews removed debris and tried to keep inlets free.” The areas around Parker Road and Piney Creek “were the most challenging,” Olsen reported. “Some of the holding ponds did overflow their banks.” Olsen said the intersection of Broncos Parkway and Parker Road “saw just a tremendous amount of water and hail — and handled it well.”
DANCING DAYS
Some of the city’s worst flooding, according to Olsen, occurred in east Centennial along Arapahoe Road near Cottonwood. Robinson said two feet of hail was reported at the intersection of Parker and Quincy. Mayor Cathy Noon expressed relief that the city had escaped major damage from the storm. “But it was really amazing to drive around and see all of the new ponds in the neighborhoods,” she said. Councilman Voory Moon said he had received a number of reports of localized flooding from his constituents and ventured out himself one evening to witness what he described as “flash mobs watching flash floods with flashlights.”
Officials optimistic on budget New positions could include well-paid communication chief By George Lurie
glurie@ourcoloradonews.com
Members of the Arapahoe High School Toms dance team perform during halftime at a Sept. 16 football game at Littleton Public Schools Stadium. Team members perform a routine to music with a variety of dance moves that won the team a state title last year. Read about the football game on page 26. Photo by Tom Munds
Upgrades to council chamber fine-tuned $101,000 project partly spurred by desire for safety By George Lurie
glurie@ourcoloradonews.com Visitors to the Centennial Civic Center will notice some impressive improvements to the decor and audio/visual components of the facility’s municipal courtroom, which does double duty as the city council chambers. The renovation and upgrades to the 1,634-square-foot room, located in the Civic Center’s garden level, include a new dais, desks, podium, audio and visual components and a fresh coat of paint. The project cost $101,000 — $40,000 paid to Hardy Boys Construction for the renovation work and a total of $61,000 spent on IT upgrades.
The improvements were undertaken, in part, “to enhance the safety of the judge, council and public” who use the room, according to Centennial spokeswoman Allison Wittern. “These enhancements (also) provide more seating and functionality for the multiple uses of this space,” Wittern added. The courtroom/council chambers were shuttered from July 17 to August 5 in order for the work to be completed. At the Sept. 9 city council meeting, some technicians from Listen Up!, a Denverbased audio/visual company, made some final adjustments to the room’s sound system. The “tweaks,” city councilors were told, were related to audio-quality problems some council members had been having when speaking into their new microphones. “You’ll find that the mics are hotter now. So that you don’t have to talk quite so loud-
ly,” Robbie Jezek, a commercial engineer for Listen Up!, told council members before the beginning of their 6 p.m. study session. There were no scheduled city council meetings while the renovations were being done, and those scheduled to appear in municipal court from mid-July to early August were given two options: plead out their cases or postpone arraignments or trials until the courtroom reopened. “There were a few hiccups but all in all, things worked pretty smoothly” during the closure, said a city baliff. “People could still come in and pay their (traffic) tickets.” “We tried to minimize the inconvienence to the public by getting it done as quickly as possible,” said Wittern. Mayor Cathy Noon and the nine members of the city council have been unanimous in their praise for the newly renovated facilty. “It is just beautiful,” said City Clerk Brenda Madison. “We love it.”
During a budget workshop Sept. 16 in city council chambers, City Manager John Danielson reported that Centennial’s current financial condition is strong, bolstered by an economic recovery that continues to gain steam while generating greater-thanexpected city revenues. Current year sales, auto use and building-materials use taxes are all coming in higher than originally projected, said Dawn Priday, the city’s finance director/chief financial officer. Priday said her office is “projecting increases in property and sales taxes in 2014.” “We try to be very cautious and conservative in projecting revenues,” said Priday. “And we don’t plan to spend the money until we actually have collected it.” A report from the city’s Citizen Budget Committee highlighting “strong revenues and high fund balances” confirmed the generally rosy picture. But the same report warned of “a number of looming capital projects” slated for 2014. Priday told councilmembers the city’s revised 2013 budget has sales tax coming in $1.5 million over initial projections and auto use taxes surprising on the upside by $400,000. Meanwhile, healthier-than-originallyexpected sales and property taxes (based on preliminary assessed valuations) are expected to bolster the 2014 budget numbers, Priday projected next year’s budget could see an overall increase of $400,000 in additional revenues. Danielson has been Centennial’s city manager since 2012. He came to the city during a more turbulent time and orchestrated a series of RIFs — reduction in force cutbacks — that saw city staff reduced by more than 15 percent. In 2014, Danielson wants to add 3.5 new positions to city staff, including a new fulltime communication director who could earn as much as $134,000 a year with salary Budget continues on Page 11
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