All the News About Denver’s Best Residential Community Since 1960 • Volume 60, Issue No. 10 • October 2021
Park Hill Golf Course
Story and photo by Cara DeGette Editor, GPHN
advocate for Ordinance 301 (shaded in green) to preserve the conservation easement at the Park Hill Golf Course.
Century Of Scouting
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Historic Big Boy Steams Through Park Hill
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Wellington Webb likens the battle to David versus Goliath. The former mayor of Denver may be 6’4”, he says, but he and other open space advocates are underdogs compared to the power and influence that Westside Investment Partners, which wants to develop the Park Hill Golf Course, wields over the current mayor and City Hall. The struggle is also being painted as Green versus Concrete, a reference to two competing proposals on the Nov. 2 citywide ballot — 301 and 302 — which could help determine the future of the golf course property. “This has to do with the future of Denver,” Webb said, during a Sept. 22 press conference in support of Ordinance 301. “Do you want more open space and green, or do you want more developers building out every site they can find?” Also in September, following presentations and some spicy debate, the board of Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. (GPHC) voted overwhelmingly to endorse Ordinance 301 and reject Ordinance 302. If adopted by voters, Ordinance 301 would prohibit Denver officials from terminating the conservation easement that protects the Park Hill Golf Course from development without a citywide vote. Denver taxpayers paid $2 million for the conservation easement in 1997, when Webb was mayor. If Ordinance 302 also passes, it would nullify the protection that Ordinance 301 would provide. Critics contend 302 is designed to purposely confuse voters. The board’s 13-2 vote (with one abstention) aligns with the results of a 2019 Park Hill Community Survey. Then, 77 percent of respondents said Former Mayor Wellington Webb, outside his home in the Whittier they prefer the golf course “remain entirely some kind of green space/park neighborhood west of City Park in September. Webb is a leading or golf course.” The survey, conducted by the Boulder polling firm Na-
Meet 10 People Who Want To Oversee Denver Public Schools.
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Park Hill Board Endorses Ordinance 301; Rejects 302 In Battle Over Dueling Nov. 2 Ballot Measures
Monster Election Ahead. Check Out What’s On The Ballot
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Going For Green
Inside This Issue
Artists At Work: Open Studio Returns To Park Hill
Fountain Of Youth Rediscovered At Hiawatha Davis Jr. Rec Center
Upcoming GPHC Meetings Community meetings are conducted virtually on the first Thursday of each month. The next meeting is Oct. 7 and begins at 6 p.m. The November meeting is Nov. 4 at 6:30 p.m. Link to attend at greaterparkhill.org/ join-us/community-meetings/
Park Hill-based Troop 62 Is Turning 100. They Are Throwing A Big Party, And Everyone Is Invited Story and photos by Cara DeGette Editor, GPHN
“[The] Colorado Boy Scout is a living university and encyclopedia and for the actual business of life he has the one priceless equipment—the ability to meet physical emergency. Here is a boy who can build fires, cook, find shelter, and face and fight storms. Where most people get lost he finds the way and where others quit he goes into action.”
This description of a Western scout appeared in the January-February, 1931 issue of Municipal Facts, a popular newsletter that was produced by the City of Denver in the early to mid-1900s. At the time of the publication, Troop 62 — the second-oldest troop in Colorado — was 10 years old. This year, on Oct. 3, Troop 62 is celebrating its 100th birthday with a big public bash on the grounds of the Park Hill Masonic Lodge on Montview Boulevard and Dexter Street, where the troop currently meets. The festivities will last from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Troop 62 is now chartered with girls’ Troop 262, and Crew 62, which is a high-adventure unit for both boys and girls ages 1420. For many of them, the birthday party is more than hitting the century mark. It’s a welcome reentry into being able to return to normal — and also a symbolic bookend to when Troop 62 first formed. In 1921, the world was emerging from the siege of the Spanish Flu epidemic. A hundred years later, Troop 62 is emerging from COVID-19. And, as many will affirm, trying to scout for the past year-and-a-half has been challenging, and a little weird. “The whole idea of scouting is meeting in person, and doing activities,” says Connor Beardsley, a Star
First Class Scout Nathan Klug and Star Scout Connor Beardsley, at the Park Hill Street Fair on Sept. 12.
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East quarterback Dylan Wigglesworth prepares to “give the Heisman” to a charging Rock Canyon defender while scrambling for yards in East’s Sept. 17 home win.
First Win Of The Season East Angels Tame Rock Canyon Jaguars 42-28 By Reid Neureiter For the GPHN
The Denver East Angels varsity football team registered their first win of the Fall season on a brisk September afternoon at All-City Field, with a compelling 42-28
victory over the Highlands Ranch Rock Canyon Jaguars. The Angels were led by senior quarterback Dylan Wigglesworth, who completed 14 of 24 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. continued on page 17