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January 14, 2015 VOLU M E 49 | I S S UE 52 | 7 5 ¢
Tri-LakesTribune.net T R I - L A K E S R E G I O N , M O N U M E N T, G L E N E A G L E , B L A C K F O R E S T A N D N O R T H E R N E L P A S O C O U N T Y
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Chamber to relocate to former town hall Director says the organization will have more room to grow By Rob Carrigan
rcarrigan@colorado communitymedia.com Beginning in February, the TriLakes Chamber of Commerce will be relocated to 166 Second Street in Monument, in what was once the town hall, and recently served as TriLakes Monument Fire Protection District’s administration building. The move, from the Chamber’s first permanent office on Highway 105 just south of the Village Inn where they have been located since 1985, will give the organization more room and access to events. “We are just out of space,” said Tri-Lakes Chamber Executive Director Terri Hayes. “The new space is about four times as large as we currently have. It gives us storage room. We can bring in more volunteers to help us. We have really grown in the last few years and this will allow us to actually have a front desk to greet visitors and conduct meetings without them conflicting with our efforts as a visitor’s center.” The arrangement, Hayes says, puts the organization nearby for
many of their major events, including the July Fourth Street Fair, Hop Fest, the Labor Day Kinetic Energy Race, and this year’s fishing derby. Town officials see benefits as well, and the arrangement is free of rent. “It keeps the building from being empty and several groups meet there on a regular basis, so it is important to have some type of ‘presence’ downtown. The Chamber is perfect, because they work regionally for all of us and they will bring people downtown that might otherwise have never gone off of (Highway) 105,” says Pamela K. Smith, Monument Town Manager Smith says there are a number of benefits to town and citizens. “Having an active ‘business’ that drives events and tourists to the downtown area is a win/win for all.” The specifics of the arrangement according to Smith are: “It is an annual lease that can be broken by either party with a 90-day notice.The Chamber will keep up the maintenance and the Town is responsible for any Capital repairs.” She said the details of the arrangement were mainly worked out by Mayor Dominguez and Terri Hayes from the Chamber. As far as a time line: “We hope to have everything remodeled and the building occupied no later than Feb. 1. The Town’s Community Relations Specialist, Madeline VanDenHoek will be officed in the building as well, since she works closely with the Chamber on events and with Downtown Merchants. It also allows for an additional meeting space in the Downtown area. It is an initial fiveyear lease renewable annually, but I think it is an arrangement that will last a long time,” she said.
The Tri-Lakes Chamber will re-locate to the former town hall building on Second Street. Photo by Rob Carrigan
POSTAL ADDRESS
Building was once Gwillimville School Structure moved three times before landing at current location By Rob Carrigan
TRI-LAKES TRIBUNE (USPS 418-960)
OFFICE: 325 Second Street, Suite R Monument, CO 80132 PHONE: 719-687-3006 A legal newspaper of general circulation in El Paso County, Colorado, the Tri-Lakes Tribune is published weekly on Wednesday by Colorado Community Media, 1200 E. Highway 24, Woodland Park, CO 80863. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT MONUMENT, COLORADO and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address change to: 9137 S. Ridgeline Blvd., Suite 210 Highlands Ranch, CO 80129 DEADLINES: Display: Thurs. 11 a.m. Legal: Thurs. 11 a.m. | Classified: Mon. 10 a.m. G ET SOCIAL WITH US
P L EA SE R ECYC L E T H I S C OPY
rcarrigan@colorado communitymedia.com With much fanfare, the Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce moved into the Highway 105 location in 1985, but the building itself has quite a storied history. It’s been a bit transient. According to a letter dated March 15, 1985, from long-time Monument historian Lucille Lavelett, the building has been bopping around Monument since perhaps as early as 1869. “The C.E. (Christian Education) Building was once a one-room Gwillimville School. Gwillimville was once a small, thriving community five miles east of Monument on Highway 105. It was founded by Gwillim R. Gwillim in 1869.” Lavelett relates the following story: “During a period of a few years, a dozen or more families had come from Wales and several from England, and settled in the community. Church services were held in the one-room Gwillimville School until the Gwillimville Church was built in 1893. This Church was built on the northwest corner of (Highway) 105 and Highway 83,” wrote Lavelett. “On Aug. 6, 1919, Monument School consolidated with three smaller districts which were Pring, three miles south of Monument,
The Chamber’s current building has been moved three times already and was built originally to house the Gwillinville School. Photo by Rob Carrigan Husted, six miles south (Husted is now part of the United States Air Force Academy), and Stout, which was east of Husted. The following year, Gwillimville joined the new district (1920),” she wrote. “It was in the late 1920s or early 1930s, Rev. R.J. Hassted, minister of the Presbyterian Church, and Earl Thompson moved the little white school into Monument and put it south of the Presbyterian Church
to be used as a Sunday School and community services. To help the church, the Monument Homemakers Club in 1938, and 1939, paid for having ceiling and walls re-plastered and painted, built a new flue in the west end, bought a large coal circulator heater to heat the building and put linoleum in the kitchen area. The east end had a cook stove, sink and cupboards. Cook stove did not give enough
heat to warm the building, so the new flue was built,” Lavelett said. “In the late 1940s, the church built the new kitchen and Sunday School room on the north side of the building. Also a rest room. The town, at that time, had natural gas, so a gas heater was installed,” she said. At the time of the 1985 move to its present location, Lavelett noted that this was third move for the old Gwillimville School. “When it was built, its home was about one and a half miles north of (Highway) 105 where the children had to walk through a cattle pasture. Children were afraid of the cattle, so it was move close to 105. Moved then to Monument, and in 1985 to home of the Chamber of Commerce,” according to historian Lavelett. Then County Commissioner Frank Klotz and Chamber President Sandy Smith turned a spade-full of dirt in honor of the new building in February, and actual move took place in April of that year, reported the forerunner of the Tribune at the time. The chamber had been organized nine years prior to spearhead efforts to attract business and industry to the Tri-Lakes area. The Chamber owns the building itself but not the land on which it is located (property of the Colorado Department of Transportation), and will be looking for a suitable tenant for their former location on Highway 105. “I love this building,” says current Chamber Executive Director Terri Hayes, “But we are just out of space.”