October 30, 2014 VOLU M E 1 4 8 | I S S UE 47 | 5 0 ¢
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Global stature on the rise Business leaders weigh 3 million mark for Denver metro By Amy Woodward
awoodward@colorado communitymedia.com Denver may be home to more than 600,000 people, but add the surrounding cities and counties, and the Denver metro area is expected to collectively grow to 3 million people. In fact, it may have already happened, a milestone that firmly places the area on the international radar in the global competition for jobs. According to estimates from the State Demographer’s Office, the population may have hit the 3 million mark in mid-August, but demographers won’t know for sure until next July, said Elizabeth Garner, a state demographer. In July, the estimated population of the Denver area was 2.951 million people. “The growth that Colorado is experiencing right now is not that unusual,” said Garner, reporting an increase of 78,000 people last year compared to 120,000 people at one time during the 1990s. Typical or not, local political
A GREAT PLACE TO BE Colorado ranked first in the country for the lowest obesity rate. A study released by Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation considered adult obesity rates by state and reported that every state had obesity rates above 20 percent. Colorado reported the lowest rate of 21.3 percent. A recent study by WalletHub ranked Colorado as the fourth happiest state in the country. The study considered 26 key metrics including emotional health, income levels, and sports participation rates. The top three happiest states in order were Utah, Minnesota and North Dakota. Outside magazine released a ranking of the 100 best companies to work, with 28 of those businesses located in Colorado. Four of the top 10 spots and half of the top 20 were Colorado companies. Sphero, a Boulder-based robotic toy manufacturer, ranked third, the highest spot of all Colorado companies. Also in the top 20 was GroundFloor Media (4th), Zen Planner (6th), New Belgium Brewing (7th), ReadyTalk (11th), Global Works (14th), RoundPegg (15th), Cloud 9 Living (16th), TDA_Boulder (18th), and Adaptive Sports Center (20th).
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and business leaders are taking notice of the population growth and weighing in about that means for the area. “It’s a brave new world for us,” said Tom Clark, chief executive of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. and executive vice president of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. “At 2 million people, a metropolitan region becomes a perpetual job machine,” he said, citing a study conducted by a research economist in the early 1990s. At the 2 million mark, a city begins to grow its own jobs and becomes self-sustaining, Clark explained. Money stays within the community longer and exits later while wealth and income tend to go up. But at 3 million, a city or in this case — a metropolitan area
Riders exit the light rail train for the W line at Wadsworth and Colfax in Lakewood on Oct. 24. Currently, the light rail supports 83,000 riders for the whole system, 14,000 trips a day for the W line with a projected 600,000 rail trips a day in 2035 once the whole FasTracks program is built out and operating. Photos by Amy Woodward — makes its debut on the world stage. “Three million begins to put you into a global competition for jobs,” Clark said. In the past, Colorado’s biggest competitors for job locations were Phoenix and Dallas. Today, Colorado’s direct competitors to the south are overshadowed by cities much farther away such as Dublin, Singapore and Toronto. Clark credits transportation build-out, infrastructure and a highly diverse economy for putting the Denver area on the global market. He pinpointed specific areas of the state’s economy that are in line with the U.S. economy — green and fossil energy, health care and wellness, IT, telecomm, bio-tech, aerospace and financial services. The Jefferson County Eco-
nomic Development Corp or Jeffco EDC, is the state’s oldest economic development organization and works closely with businesses and political leaders to build and sustain jobs in the county. “When we’re seeing that population growth, and we’re seeing that we’re becoming a major metropolitan area — and companies are recognizing that and wanting to set up shop here or they want to expand out here for existing business that we do have,” said Tom Livingston, economic development specialist with Jeffco EDC. “We want to make sure that we are able to accommodate that growth and there is a lot that goes with that as far as the residential aspect.” Balancing land use with continued growth will be a challenge
in Jeffco where preserving open space is an important aspect and cultural identifier of the county, County Commissioner Casey Tighe said. “We just have to be smart about how we grow,” Tighe said. Urban centers that offer walkability and bike-friendly access in close proximity to mass transit seem to be the future for urban planning to attract millennials and businesses to the area. “You’re starting to see that happening, and we’re going to have to see about other locations,” he said, noting cities like Arvada and Lakewood that are building urban centers around train stations along the W Line light rail. Global continues on Page 5
Crime lab ready for testing GOLDEN TRANSCRIPT (ISSN 0746-6382)
OFFICE: 722 Washington Ave, Unit 210 Golden, CO 80401 PHONE: 303-566-4100 A legal newspaper of general circulation in Jefferson County, Colorado, the Golden Transcript is published weekly on Thursday by Mile High Newspapers, 722 Washington Ave, Unit 210, Golden, CO 80401. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT GOLDEN, COLORADO and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address change to: 722 Washington Ave, Unit 210 Golden, CO 80401 DEADLINES: Display: Fri. 11 a.m. Legal: Fri. 11 a.m. | Classified: Mon. 5 p.m. GE T SOCIAL WITH US
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Regional lab to serve several cities By Amy Woodward
awoodward@colordo communtiymedia.com Civic leaders and law enforcement officials toured the expanded and improved Jefferson County Regional Crime Lab on Oct. 22. The lab more than tripled in size, from 2,500 square feet to 16,500 square feet and will bring together forensic technicians from the county’s various municipalities who are in need of better equipment, more space, faster results — all of which will eliminate the need for going to the state for help. “As we have now finished the validation stage of the DNA lab and as we bring that stuff online, we anticipate that we will be cutting some of those time frames at about half of what we have been experiencing,” said Division Chief Jeff Shrader at the Jeffco Sheriff’s Office. “That will give us the ability to set the priorities and set the number of items of what we can test at any given place.” The cost for the campus proj-
ect was $34.8 million with an estimated $12 million of the total cost dedicated toward the crime lab and storage space, Shrader said. The lab’s high-tech equipment for DNA extraction and testing costs $750,000. “We feel that we owe it to our community and our victims to analyze evidence that comes across our individual agencies in a timely and efficient manner so that we can ensure a speedy prosecution for those that rely on forensic evidence,” said Jeffco Sheriff Ted Mink. The lab houses several exam rooms for different areas of forensic investigations including DNA testing, ballistics, fingerprinting and a chemistry lab with quality testing equipment to accommodate advancing forensic science. Cities help support the crime lab through money or through staffing — technicians employed by city law enforcement agencies who will work there. Jeffco’s trend toward regionalizing certain services is part of the county’s and surrounding cities’ efforts to work together to provide better service while saving on costs. Other regional law enforcement partnerships including
Chris Loptien, the Jefferson County Regional Crime Lab director, handles bullet casings in the ballistics lab. Photo by Amy Woodward a regional training academy and a West Metro Drug Task Force with several plans in the works for the future including regionalizing a dispatch center for police and fire services. “Without the support of city councils and managers — we wouldn’t be able to do this,” Mink said. Golden City Manager Mike Be-
stor attended the tour along with Golden city council members, Marcia Claxton and Saoirse Charis-Graves. “This is going to prove to be a great investment for nailing these bad guys,” Bestor said, who supported the lab project. “All the jurisdictions here work really, really well together and that makes all the difference in the world.”