Volume 52, Issue No. 2
February 2013
A Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. Publication
The Roads Ahead
Xcel Energy’s Pipeline Project, Department of Public Works Paving Plan and what it means for Park Hill
Financial Literacy for Denver’s Most Vulnerable
How a partnership between a financial literacy nonprofit and the city received a 3-year grant to provide free financial counseling to those in need - an interview with mpowered’s Chad Gentry By Erin Vanderberg Editor Contributed Photo/Erin Vanderberg Temperate January days allowed road crews to do some patching along 26th Ave. DPW’s pavement plan indicates more to come after Xcel completes the Park Hill component of the Accelerated Gas Main Replacement Program.
By Erin Vanderberg Editor The replacement of Park Hill’s aging pipeline infrastructure created road construction detours into the early winter and an aftermath of rough patched roads. Here, Xcel Energy and the Department of Public Works discuss the pipeline replacement project, the annual paving schedule, and how the Park Hill neighborhood can inform and be informed on issues related to street maintenance. Last summer, neighborhood outcry over Xcel Energy digging up freshly repaved streets in southwestern Park Hill to replace aging pipeline infrastructure prompted an official apology from the company’s Accelerated Gas Main Replacement Program (AMRP) representative Kirk Scheitler. His letter explained that Xcel Energy had not originally scheduled the Park Hill segment of its AMRP project for 2012, but later prioritized the neighborhood at a point in time too late to coordinate with the Department of Public Works.
“The change resulted in the disruption and inconvenience that we wanted to avoid, and we sincerely apologize for this unique situation,” wrote Scheitler. “But we also want to assure you that we have committed and will bear the cost to repave Albion from 16th Avenue to Montview Boulevard, and East 22nd Avenue from Cherry to Ivy streets. All other streets affected by this project will be returned to their preconstruction condition when we’ve finished our work.” As the mild winter progressed, Xcel’s AMRP project continued its work in Park Hill well into December before temperatures dropped too low for the work to continue. The temporary street patches are now sinking, leaving noticeable bumps along some of Park Hill’s main thoroughfares, like 26th Avenue. According to Xcel Energy spokesperson Mark Stutz, the rough patches on the roads are temporary, left behind when work was done right before temperatures dropped too low to properly do permanent street repairs. “These will be addressed with the return to warmer
See Roads on page 6
Walgreens to Open on Colorado at 35th New store prototype sells produce and additional groceries; June opening expected
By Rebecca Voll Contributor
Community leaders, elected officials, developers, company representatives, and neighbors gathered Wednesday, January 9, in the parking lot of a former church at 35th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard to break ground on the first Walgreens in the state of Colorado to feature a produce market. The new store, slated to open in June, will help address concerns about a ‘food desert’—an area where residents have to travel one mile or more for access to healthy food and produce—in Northeast Denver. “To many of our neighborhoods, including here in Clayton and Northeast Park Hill, we have challenges, and access to convenient grocery stores and fresh foods is clearly one of those challenges,” Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “From high obesity rates to chronic health problems and even higher unemployment rates, food deserts have serious
Contributed Photo/Rebecca Voll Edgemark Development LLC and the District 8 City Council office, pictured here at the ground breaking event with Mayor Michael B. Hancock on January 9th, were key players in making the Walgreens development a reality at 3555 Colorado Blvd.
Financial counseling will be more accessible than ever to citizens of Denver in 2013, through a collaboration between the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships and mpowered, a Colorado-based nonprofit that has provided financial education to the community for the past 10 years. Denver was one of five cities out of nearly 50 applicants to receive a $1.9 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies and Living Cities’ Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund. “We’ve helped people for years with financial literacy,” said mpowered’s Executive Director Chad Gentry, “but in this last recession we’ve gone from financial band-aids to financial triage. Families are not just coming in with some small debt issues and some medical bills. They’re coming in with a foreclosure, a divorce and no job for 12-months.” Over 30,000 Denver families are functioning outside the financial mainstream. The program will provide financial literacy assistance to an estimated 4,500 low-income Denver households over the next three years. The grant allows mpowered to increase their staff from 13 to 20 by July 2013 – the most support the front range has ever had through a financial literacy program, according to Gentry – and to operate cost-free to participants and host organizations in nine locations in Denver and Colorado Springs. A traditional brick and mortar nonprofit service agency, mpowered will replicate New York City’s Financial Empowerment Center model by embedding financial counselors, or “coaches”, at a human services hub – the Denver Human Services Castro Building at 1200 Federal Boulevard – and satellite nonprofit offices. ”A federal building can be intimidating for some service populations,” said Gentry. “They’re just not going to go inside a building that has a security guard. So we want people to go through their local nonprofits that they’re comfortable with and where they are already using their services.” One of the three satellite sites will be located in the Tramway Nonprofit Center, a multi-tenant nonprofit center redeveloped by the Urban Land Conservancy at 35th Avenue and Franklin Street in the Cole neighborhood, which currently houses 10 education-based nonprofits: Denver Urban Scholars, cityWILD, Civic Canopy, Colorado Disability Benefits Support Program, Denver Early Childhood Council, Babies Ready For College, Early Excellence, GOAL Academy, High Plains Food Co-op and WorkLife Partnership. Having a financial coach available to the populations that visit these nonprofits will create new traffic toward financial literacy. There is no poverty-level requirement for mpowered clients, according to Gentry. The organization is open to servicing anyone in the metro area who can find their way to their organization and who is willing to put in some effort. “We tell our counselors the job is not to carry a person,
See Walgreens on page 4
FEBRUARY 2013
INSIDE THIS ISSUE NEXT GPHC MEETING: THURSDAY, FEB. 7 AT 6:30PM
See Financial Literacy on page 2
8
Nate Easley resigns from School Board
9
Statehouse back in session
15
We love a Marade!