CHRISTOPHER

as they want.

No level of government can solve this problem. No set of churches can convince people to lay down their guns. e problem has exploded to such a magnitude that gun mentality for lack of a better term exceeds any power on Earth to control it.

I am dismayed when I publicly state my opinion, but I like to think that I am a realist. e recent “incidents” involving younger people getting shot by adults was the last straw.

Assault weapons legislation fails in Colorado

Last week I picked up our Denver Post which displayed a front page headline of “ Panel votes to end ban proposal .” e article was referring to proposed legislation being considered in the Colorado House of Representatives to ban the purchase or sale of assault weapons in our state. It died in committee.

House Bill 23-1230 was killed by three Democrats joining Republican committee members to vote no. Governor Polis let it be known his opposition to banning assault weapons and that may have played into the three Democrats voting against the bill.

So, you see what I mean: ere is no level of government in America today that can pass legislation to ban guns. Even if passed, the prohibition would be eliminated in the judicial system.

e only question which remains is “how much will the American public tolerate” before taking control of the situation?

Repairs approved in Westminster

Each spring, every Colorado municipality and county faces tackling repairs to streets, bridges and concrete curb, gutter and sidewalks. It simply is a “given” based on the winter weather with the freeze/thaw impact on asphalt and concrete plus wear and tear over the years.

CDOT has the same set of challenges on the state and federal highway system throughout the entire state.

In the case of Westminster, city council has approved over $11.5 million for this year’s street, bridge and concrete repair and replacement program. As I have described in the past, the city uses a computerized system to rank order the worse pavement sections throughout the city each year to develop the patching and re-paving priorities.

As expected, this year’s plan is being impacted by in ation. In the case of asphalt paving project, prices have gone up an average of 15% from 2022.

Sta was able to secure 41 lane miles of paving for a 10.6% increase in cost. e work includes initial milling work of removing 1.5” to 2.5” of existing pavement before installing the new asphalt overlay.

Chip sealing is another component of street maintenance to extend the life of the pavement and seal out moisture. is year’s program ($724,836) bears an 8.4% increase from last year with metro area costs ranging from 9.4%-22%.

Concrete curb, gutter and sidewalk replacement work ($2,733,441) will be done on priority scored locations throughout the city.

While $2.7 million is a huge amount of money, be mindful that the city has 750 miles of curb, gutter and sidewalks to maintain. Also, the amount of asphalt repaving work approved is less than what would be ideal to keep up with deteriorating infrastructure. New water treatment plant moves ahead e new council called a time out on the condemnation and construction plans to direct sta to look at options for the needed plant. After more than a year of study, analysis, cost estimating and sizing the plant involving di erent sites, the council was faced with a key decision on the

One of the most contentious and expensive issues the newly elected city council inherited in November, 2021was what to do about a new water treatment plant and the appurtenances which go below the ground. Don Tripp and sta had pushed ahead Water 2025 to the point that the location had been selected (condemnation of the site had been underway) and engineering/construction plans were at 30% completion.

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In my opinion, they had little choice but to complete the acquisition. Implied in that action was the assumption that the council had selected the “Kearney site”, but some didn’t think so. So, last week on a 6-1 vote (Baker opposing), the council formally approved the site and authorized contracts to move forward on the plant’s design.

Vocal opposition e decision was not without ardent opposition. Approximately 75 minutes of voice messages with the bulk of them against the “Kearney site” were played at the council meeting. Also, some of the audience at the meeting spoke against this site in blatant terms. e inherit cost of a new plant at the site in question was a major objection versus using the existing

Semper Water Treatment Plant. Do I think the whole process could have been handled better? Most de nitely. Was the new council’s hands tied on the condemnation action already well along? Most de nitely.

Could the city be totally assured if some recon guration on the Semper Plant was accomplished that it would last more than 20 years? No. I really believe that the “new” council was handed lemons and they did their best in turning them into lemonade.

Will the water plant decision be a hot topic in the campaign leading up to the November council election? It already is and will continue to be.

Bill Christopher is a former Westminster city manager and RTD board member. His opinions are not necessarily those of Colorado Community Media. You can contact him at bcjayhawk68@gmail.com.

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

At e Alley in downtown Littleton, you might nd a musician who’s so into the music, they’ll get up and dance on the bar.

When a local band surprises the crowd with a stellar performance that no one saw coming, “it just knocks people’s socks o ,” said Mary Riecks, e Alley’s bar manager and a Littleton-area native.

e watering hole on Main Street doubles as a music venue that nds and helps grow local talent — and the shows are free. It’s one of the bars in the metro Denver suburbs that o ers a window into up-and-coming homegrown performers amid a music scene that one longtime bar owner says is growing.

“Twenty years ago when I opened up the bar, there were a few bars around that had live music,” said Doug Jacobsen, owner of Jake’s Roadhouse in Arvada.

Since then, he’s noticed that “all of these di erent bars” now o er space for shows, said Jacobsen, who has friends who perform at spots around metro Denver.

“ ere’s a lot of great musicians here,” Jacobsen said.

Here’s a look at places o the beaten path where you can catch some lesser known — and sometimes famous — music artists in person.

‘Something for everyone’ Wild Goose Saloon in Parker o ers a bit of a di erent environment: It’s a bar but also a large event venue. ey’re both longtime musicians themselves — they perform in a band called Lola Black, garnered play on the radio and toured around the country — and have played Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre several times, Dellinger said. ey take their knowledge of the industry to running the Wild Goose, which was built around the concept of serving as a music venue and has a bigger stage, sound and lighting setup than most bars do, Dellinger said.

It aims to be “Colorado’s version of the Knitting Factory” — a unique, independent venue that hosts local and national artists, said Chris Dellinger, who serves as co-owner of Wild Goose Saloon with his wife.

It’s “kind of like every musician’s dream to own their own venue at some place and time, and we just ended up being able to pull it o ,” said Dellinger, who lives in Aurora.

After opening in July 2021, Wild Goose has hosted some large country artists and “some `80s artists that are still big,” Dellinger said. National pop-rock act American Authors is set to play there in late April.

“My motto always is, ‘If you don’t like the music one night, that’s OK — it’ll be completely di erent the next night or the next week,’” Dellinger said. “So we really try to have something for everyone here.”

His venue tries to get exposure for local talent by letting them open for national touring acts. For the audience, the typical admission cost for a national artist’s show at Wild Goose sits around $25 to $30, but local artists’ ticketed shows can cost as low as $10, and most of the local artists’ shows are free.

Dellinger and his wife have

“snuck in” a performance or two at Wild Goose, he said — they were set to play there in late April with the Texas Hippie Coalition, an American heavy metal band. Keeping classics alive

You might also see Jacobsen, a guitarist himself, playing with a band at Jake’s Roadhouse in the north metro area every now and then.

His bar started o ering live music “right away” after opening near the end of 2003. Sitting in east Arvada close to Denver and Westminster, the venue o ers mostly cover bands and blues, and on Wednesday nights, bluegrass is on tap. Sometimes, artists play original songs, but it’s rare, Jacobsen said.

“Our people come in to hang out, and most original bands don’t have four hours’ worth of original music,” Jacobsen said.

But playing covers at Jake’s Roadhouse is one way to get a new artist’s foot in the door in the local music scene.

“We have bands that come to us all the time that can’t get these other bars to give them a chance to play because they haven’t played anywhere before,” Jacobsen said. He added: “We’re not like that. I know a lot of musicians around town, and we will give a band a chance to play just on the word of a friend.”

He feels that live music is im-