October 30, 2014 VOLU M E 31 | I SS UE 1 8 | 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
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OFFICE: 722 Washington Ave, Unit 210 Golden, CO 80401 PHONE: 303-566-4100 A legal newspaper of general circulation in Jefferson County, Colorado, the Wheat Ridge 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: Wheat Ridge Transcript 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
P L EA SE R ECYC L E T H I S C OPY
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 year compared to 120,000 people at one time during the 1990s. Typical or not, local political 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 — 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,
Riders exit the light rail train for the W line at Wadsworth and Colfax in Lakewood on Friday, 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
Workers construct new homes known as the Lennar Homes at Table Rock at 58th Street and Highway 93. Eight homes have already been built in the area with square footage starting at 2,142 to 3,498. 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
Stature continues on Page 13
Wheat Ridge eyes funds City considers $794,000 reserve for city general fund By Hugh Johnson Wheat Ridge City Council mentioned the Zoppè Italian Circus and the vehicle replacement program during discussions Oct. 20 to trim the city budget. In hopes of balancing the budget without getting into reserves, council directed city staff to look at areas to make cuts. This year, the revenue for the general fund is $28,990,382 but the city expects to spend $29,784,588, requiring them to use $794,206 of the reserve fund to balance the budget. The use of almost $800,000 of the reserve fund didn’t sit well with District Two Councilwoman Kristi Davis who suggested city staff
and council evaluate the budget to see where the city could make cuts. “I think this our first shot, and I think we can go back and maybe do a little better, Davis said. “So basically my consensus is that all of us, council and staff, move toward a balanced budget without using reserves.” District One Councilman William Starker suggested that the city staff look at postponing a project to rebuild the 29th and Fenton street intersection. Starker said the project will cost the city $200,000 and the city should wait until improvements to the Ashland Reservoir are complete. The improvement calls for two new underground water storage tanks. Construction began in 2013 and is expected to finish in 2017. City Manager Patrick Goff informed Starker that the city may be obli-
gated to complete renovations to the 29th and Fenton intersection in a timely manner due to restrictions imposed by an intergovernmental agreement. Jerry DiTullio, the other District One council representative, asked staff to look at the vehicle replacement program. DiTullio pointed out that the city spent $516,000 on vehicle replacement this year, noting that the city typically spends between $200,000 to $400,000 annually replacing city vehicles such as police cars and city maintenance trucks. DiTullio suggested the city could look to get more mileage out of some of the vehicles. Also, DiTullio said that $80,000 goes to the city for marketing and then another $50,000 goes to Wheat Ridge 2020 for similar purposes. He suggested that perhaps those two funds could be consoli-
dated. Davis spoke to the possibility of discontinuing the city’s partnership with the Zoppè Italian Circus. For the past three years, Wheat Ridge has been in a contract with the circus in which the city provides the upfront costs to put on the event and the circus shares some of the revenue it generates back to the city. The initial goal was that the circus’s profits would eventually exceed or at least cover the city’s investment of $100,000, however the circus has failed to do so, returning roughly 60 percent of the of money. “I’m not sure that its (Zoppè Circus) at the vision that we expected to be in after three years,” Davis said. “If I’m thinking of not giving the senior resource commuter bus $12,000 but giving a weak circus $30,000, I don’t feel good doing that.”