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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2021
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Mountain Life is a Highway
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$33 million school bond to be on this year’s ballot District’s schools need repairs, upgrades BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
“We’re a very happy bunch,” Brilz said of Friday’s first wave of visitors. “I missed it last year, and I wanted to make sure to have that experience this year.” While the highway is now open for the season, the U.S. Forest Service is requiring reservations for those wishing to visit and park between 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Reservations can be made online at recreation.gov up to a month in advance. Brilz said she wasn’t sure how she felt about the reservation system yet, but understood the general need to balance access to land with preservation efforts.
Clear Creek County voters will be asked in November to support a $33 million bond ask from the school district. Clear Creek school board members on June 3 informally agreed that was how they want to proceed as they continue to wrestle with the district’s buildings needing millions of dollars in repairs and upgrades. The board will approve the official resolution in August. Property taxpayers would pay an additional $25 per $100,000 of home value and commercial property taxpayers would pay $100 for every $100,000 of commercial property value if voters approve the measure. The bond would be repaid in 25 years. While the board hasn’t decided specifically how the money will be used, it is still discussing whether to turn the former middle school into a state-of-the-art elementary school to replace Carlson Elementary School. District officials have projected it would cost about $26 million for the elementary school — whether they remodel and upgrade Carlson, renovate the former middle school or try a hybrid model that would demolish
SEE MT EVANS, P14
SEE BOND ISSUE, P11
A mountain goat peeks around the corner of the restroom building at the Mount Evans summit Friday morning. Several photographers and visitors were excited to see alpine wildlife, as the highway to the summit has been closed to vehicle traffic since September PHOTO BY CORINNE WESTEMAN 2019.
Locals celebrate returning to Mount Evans highway BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Aurora’s Robin Brilz has visited Mount Evans hundreds of times — at least once or twice a year annually for more than 50 years. Until the pandemic and all its complications prevented her and thousands of others from seeing the summit last year. The Mount Evans Scenic Byway remained closed to motor vehicle traffic last summer because of health and safety concerns for the
U.S. Forest Service staff and general public. So, the only visitors last year were cyclists, trail runners, researchers, and trail restoration volunteers. On Friday, though, the highway reopened to the general motoring public for the first time since September 2019. At 8 a.m., the gates near Echo Lake were thrown open and dozens of cars briefly stopped at the welcome station before starting the 14-mile ascent. At the summit, photographers, skiers, out-of-state tourists and other visitors were reveling in the long-awaited panoramas and the breathtakingly blue sky.
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