Kim Habicht, Central City.  At a meeting on May 1, 2018, Central City Council voted to amend the municipal code regarding election rules. The council unanimously agreed to change the amount of time needed for a write-in candidate affidavit from 20 days to 64 days before the date of the election. This means that if an individual wishes to be a write-in candidate, they must submit appropriate paperwork 64 days before the election. The code will now be in line with state code.

The portion of the code that dictates in what circumstances elections can be cancelled was also clarified. The new code makes clear that elections can be cancelled if there are not more candidates than seats at 64 days before the scheduled election.

At the same meeting, Tim Casey was unanimously appointed as an alternate on the city’s Planning Commission.

The Central Jazz event, which will take place on June 9 at Teller Lot in Central City, is planned to extend past 10 p.m., which would violate the city’s noise ordinance. The council moved to exempt the event from the normal code and allow the event to carry on until 11 p.m. Tickets are still on sale for the event, which will include a variety of live music acts and events.

The event is also in need of volunteers to serve as ambassadors, according to Jeremy Fey, who spoke at the council meeting on May 29.

Design and construction plans for an adventure park at Chase Reservoir are underway, according to Community Development Director Ray Rears, who updated the council on Denver Adventure’s plans for the site.

Manager Daniel Miera reported that gaming revenue in Central City is on the upshot. “We were encouraged by a recent trend and really some recent activity, specifically the month-to-month change from February to March,” Miera said. Miera reported that revenue was up over 32 percent month-to-month, which comparatively puts the city above the increases of Black Hawk and Cripple Creek casinos.

After a public hearing on May 29, the council voted to adopt an ordinance that furthered the effort to replace various water diversion structures. The city is receiving a loan from the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority (CWRPDA) to pay for the projects, which include the replacement of the Miner’s Gulch and Peck’s Gulch diversion structures and the rehabilitation of the Broomfield Gulch diversion structure.

The loan includes a 30-year payment period, with a 0 percent interest rate. Construction on the project is slated to start on June 18, and to be fully completed by October 31, 2018.

The council granted resident and recent Gilpin High School graduate Austin Boulter $5,000 to facilitate his attendance of the University of Colorado for Business Administration. The funds were granted through Central City’s promise program, which was created to encourage high school graduates and GED recipients to pursue higher education. The program assists recipients with costs incurred in their pursuit of a degree.

At a meeting on May 29, Adria Bleske, a 2014 graduate of Gilpin High School, was granted $5,000 in funds from the promise program in order to attend Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Denver.

On May 15, the council voted to clarify the city’s code regarding audits and other tax-related provisions. This modification was done at the suggestion of the auditing company Revenue Recovery Group, who was recently contracted to do a sales tax audit for the city. The new code will mirror statewide law and is focused on the provisions about deficient tax returns and adds a provision about the time frame of tax collection.

Manager Miera also reported that the prices that were proposed by Xcel Energy for new light poles at Spruce Street and at Lake Gulch and Virginia Canyon were amended. Originally, Xcel appraised the poles at $30,000.

After staff requested a reappraisal, the lights were priced at $10,268.33 in total. The drastic change in prices enthused the council, and they agreed that the project should be continued.

The city entered a lease agreement with South Park Rail Society (SPRS), which will allow the organization to move a railcar currently on display at William C. Russell Park to its museum in Como, Colorado. While at the museum, the railcar, which is likely one-of-a-kind, will be restored and on display. The lease agreement ends in June 2028, and restorations of the car will be completed by 2020.

SPRS representatives at the meeting invited visitors to the museum to view the car and the progress of the restoration work.

At meetings on May 1 and May 15, Alderman Laratta urged council members to consider a provision that would tie the funds that the Opera Association receives in 2019 to improvements on the group’s properties.

“We should be told what our $25,000 is being spent on, and why the houses haven’t been looked into. If we can, next year, put it in the budget that if we give them $25,000 it should be spent online on capital improvements,” said Alderman Laratta.

(Originally published in the June 7, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)