It's time for this bi-weekly meeting of the Finance and Business Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us for the Finance and Business Committee.

Starting now.

All right.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Finance and Business Committee.

Today is Tuesday, March 10th.

And my name is Sadana Gonzalez Cutierez.

I'm one of your council members at large and chair of this lovely committee.

And we're joined by our fellow council members.

We'll go ahead and do introductions.

So with that said, I will start to my left.

Good morning, Darrell Watson, Fine District 9.

Good morning, Paul Cashman, South Denver District 6.

Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver, District 4.

Denver's perfect 10.

All right.

Well, we are joined here today to talk about the Metropolitan District 1, the Bellevue Station.

And so we're going to have a brief presentation followed by an executive session.

And so we'll go ahead and turn it over to our folks here to provide a presentation.

If you can please introduce yourselves and proceed with your presentation.

And if there are questions based on the presentation, and council members remember, we will be breaking into executive session following this.

So on to you.

Hi.

Hello, everyone.

I'm John Norloff.

I'm the new assessor replacing Keith Earth, my longtime assessor.

So with me today is uh Josh Bushner.

I'm the commercial manager in the assessor's office.

He asked me not to call in the subject matter expert, but I'm going to call in the subject matter expert on this.

This is our working relationship.

So with that, uh we are here today uh to talk about House Bill 25 1289, which was enacted uh regarding uh metropolitan district leases and property tax exemptions.

Um background is such that if well the assessor's office uh we locate, appraise, and record all of Denver's real and personal property in accordance with Colorado Constitution, state statutes, and the Board of Equalization Procedures.

Um this bill uh was uh believe bipartisan introduced uh by these representatives and it created new requirements for privately owned uh real estate lease to metropolitan districts seeking a property tax exemption.

Uh generally property used for a public purpose that is leased to a government entity is exempt from paying property tax for that portion of the property used for a public purpose.

Um this bill increased required transparency and closes a property tax loophole such that if the board members of a metropolitan district also own the underlying property being leased to the metropolitan district.

Certain information must be shared with the city and city council determines whether the leases are being used for a public purpose or not, and the subject to taxation or not.

Uh the information the new law requires when a conflict arises, the metro district's use of the leased property, the metro district's authority to use the leased property for metro district purposes, any use of the leased property by a private person for private purposes, and written disclosures by members of the Metro District's board of directors for any potential conflicts of interest.

Uh will be handled by the assessor's office on an ongoing annual basis.

Uh we have a number of exemptions that we look at every year.

Uh so uh going forward, any of these would be added to that list for review.

The exemption will remain valid as long as the exempt use exists.

The exemption would remain valid as long as the exempt use exists, and if the exempt use ends before the end of the lease term, the exemption should end as well.

Uh the four leases that are going to be before you today, uh as was mentioned.

This is in uh Bellevue Station, uh, right off of I-25 in Bellevue.

Um there are four leases that encompass uh multiple parcels.

The first lease is for two parcels for being used as a dog park, uh paid parking lot, and an open air entertainment venue and beer garden.

The second lease is related to a number of parcels being used as a nature trail.

The third lease is for uh storage and parking for construction materials and equipment, and the fourth lease is is the same, three different parcels being used for uh storage and parking of construction materials and equipment.

Um and so you all aware of the legislative timeline.

Uh this is based on when the uh leases and disclosures were submitted to the assessor's office.

Um today is Tuesday, March 10th, and then uh going through the 17th and the 23rd and Monday, April 2nd, would be the legislative deadline to adopt a resolution based on the 63 days.

And I think that was oops.

Was that it for this part?

I believe so.

Yeah.

Great.

Um looking at council members in the queue.

I have councilwoman Sawyer to start us off with questions.

Thanks.

Um thanks you guys for this information, really appreciate it.

Uh can the leases be like can parcels, because there are four leases, but there are multiple parcels under each lease, can they be separated out?

Um not the four leases being separated out, but the parcels underneath the four leases, or are they just a package?

No, we can do partial exemptions.

So for instance, the parcels that cover the dog park and the uh beer garden entertainment venue and parking lot, you could say we feel part of this is a public good, but part of it's not, and we can we can do a partial exemption in that case.

Great, really appreciate that.

And then second question, um is so is this decision your decision final or our decision final for the from the um for the term of the proposed lease or is it a year because we do property taxation on a year, like what is the uh the timeline?

The timeline would be for the lease, unless the lease ended early, which we would be checking on.

I I I would say there they should notify us, but sometimes people forget about the assessor's office on things like that, so we do check annually to make sure it's sold out.

That's it.

Some people weigh more.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

And thank you so much.

And I'm sorry, Councilwoman Soya, I forgot to notify everybody that you were here.

So hi, I'm here.

Welcome you.

So we're in district five.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Albidares.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, I was trying to follow, and I'm a little confused still on what qualifies as a public purpose.

Well, that's one of the great things about us being here today.

Um speaking with the attorney and other folks.

Um it seems that public use, public good is not clearly defined in statute.

Um, so there will be some stuff to talk about.

And John Thinker, Deputy Legislative Council wanted to fly that it's a great question.

That's why we have the exact discussion.

So we'll we'll get to that.

No problem.

So if there are any other questions regarding House Bill 251289, um, which was the informational briefing we just had uh on the policy that was passed at the legislature that now is being applied to us.

Um just wanting to see if there's any other questions regarding that part of the presentation.

Yes.

Council Pro Temer Mayor Campbell.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um and I think this does, but just to I think put a finer point on council uh member Sawyer's question, um, this decision or this um process that's before us today would only come.

Is this an annual process or would this be something that would only come up if they renew their lease?

I would say it should only come up if they renew or amend the lease or the use changes.

Um and a use change would be if they're if it's no longer a dog park and yeah, they said the public use is no longer in place.

Yeah, so public use is no longer in place.

We would review that annually, that's how like you were talking about every year.

We status property at the first of the year.

Okay.

Um, so if there was a uh if the property owner um had you uh in this next year, change what the use of one of those parcels is, they would come back in front of us this next year.

Possibly if they wanted to have it reevaluated.

I think it would be our responsibility to remove or amend the exemption at that point and make them reapply under the new use.

All right.

And so either remove the exemption or apply an exemption if that property is developed in a way that is a public use.

Yeah, and if the lease changes for any reason, same thing.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you.

All right, seeing no additional questions for this portion, uh, I will now entertain a motion to move us into an executive session pursuant to DRMC T-34A sections three and six for the purposes of discussing a property tax exemption for Bellevue Station Metropolitan Metropolitan District number one.

Second by council process.

All those in fingers.

Five.

Any opposed.

All right.

Executive session.

Don't worry about square hips.

That's all just a fallacy, my friends.

They'll square off when they want to.

Let out your breath here.

Good.

Inhale, reverse warrior.

You're gonna stay in this lunge and just reach your top arm up and back.

So get that nice side body stretch here.

Left shoulder directly behind your right.

Good job.

Take a full breath in.

Exhale, extended side angle, guide your front arm towards your thigh.

So you are the only one who knows what your body feels like in this pose.

I like to rest my arm on my thigh.

If you wanna fire it up a little more, you can drive your arm into the thigh.

It's all you though in this yoga practice, right?

You're the only one who knows how much milk you like in your cereal.

Let out your breath.

Inhale, reverse triangle, straighten your front leg now.

So you get to come out of that lunge.

Yay, and reach back.

So you are gonna straighten your front leg, but I do wanna see that your kneecap is lifted, and that means that your quad is engaged.

Good job, team.

Take a full breath in.

Exhale, it's high to mid plank, so you're coming through that chaturanga in all one breath.

There you go, step back, lower down halfway if you so choose.

Upward facing dog, lift your heart, good job.

Downward facing dog.

Full breath in, full breath out.

Cool.

Inhale, lift your gaze.

Exhale, forward fold, come to the top of your space.

Inhale, halfway lift, exhale, forward fold.

I got lost in that.

Inhale, halfway, lift, exhale, step your right foot back low lunge, right foot back this time.

There you go.

All right, come on up.

Inhale, crescent lunge.

There you go.

Perfection, my friends.

Yeah, and take a second.

You can move around if you need to.

Weirdo.

A little foot fetish.

All right, team, you guys look so good.

Yeah, just breathe right through this.

Pop up high on the ball of your foot if the arch will allow, and that's gonna help to steer the right hip crease forward.

Take a full breath in.

Oh, breeze.

Exhale, airplane arms, hinge forward, team.

Reach your fingertips towards the back of your space.

Good.

Keep your neck nice and long.

So just imagine that the crown of your head is creating this line all the way through that back heel.

Good.

Exhale breath here.

Inhale, crescent lunge, reach back up.

Exhale, warrior two, just pivot open.

We're on the other side here.

Yeah, there you go.

Nice strong warrior stance team.

So big bend in your front knee.

Dig into the blade edge of your back foot so that the arch lifts up and into the big toe mound of your forward foot.

So legs are working nice and hard here.

Let out your breath.

Inhale, reverse warrior.

Yeah.

Low half stays exactly the same.

You're just creating this nice side body stretch.

Feel the intercostals start to open up.

Beautiful job, team.

Take a breath in.

Exhale, extended side angle guide, forearm down to the thigh.

And find some equanimity here.

So as much as gravity's pulling you down, you're resisting and you reach up.

Hello.

I literally thought that was you for a second.

I was like, why?

Let out your breath.

Inhale, reverse triangle.

Big stretch.

Reach back.

One of my favorite poses.

Good job.

Take a full inhale.

Exhale.

High to mid plank.

Ride your breath down.

Sorry, I got a little close to you there.

Inhale, upward facing dog team.

Exhale, downward facing dog.

Okay, here's the vinyasa part.

We're gonna flow through that.

We'll see what the pigs do.

Inhale, lift your gaze.

Exhale, forward, fold, come to the top of your space.

Inhale, halfway lift.

Exhale, step your left foot back, low lunge.

Good job.

Inhale, crescent lunge, reach up.

Exhale, air plane arms.

Inhale, crescent, rise.

Exhale, warrior two, pivot open.

Inhale, reverse warrior.

Exhale, extended side angle.

How are we doing?

Okay, good talk.

Inhale, reverse triangle.

Exhale, high to mid plank, ride it down.

Good.

Inhale, upward facing dog.

Exhale, downward facing dog.

Okay, you guys are in this together.

Inhale, lift your gaze.

Exhale, forward fold, top of your space.

Inhale, halfway lift.

Exhale, step your right foot back, low lunge.

Inhale, crescent, reach up.

Exhale, air plane arms hinge forward.

Inhale, crescent.

Exhale, warrior two.

Inhale, reverse warrior.

Exhale, extended side angle.

Inhale, reverse triangle.

Exhale, ride your breath down, high to mid plank.

Everybody doing good here.

We're gonna do it one more time.

Inhale, lift your gaze up.

Exhale, downward facing dog.

Full breath in.

Stay, breathe out.

Let's do it one more time.

Inhale, lift your gaze.

Exhale, forward, fold, come to the top of your space.

Inhale, halfway lift.

Exhale, step your left foot back, low lunge.

Inhale, crescent lunge.

Exhale, airplane arms hinge forward.

Up you go.

Inhale, crescent, exhale, warrior two.

Inhale, reverse warrior.

Exhale, extended side angle.

Inhale, reverse triangle.

Exhale, high to mid plank, my friends.

Chaturanga.

Take it or leave it.

Inhale, upward facing dog.

Exhale, downward facing dog.

Here we go.

Inhale, lift your gaze.

Exhale, forward, fold, come to the top of your space.

Inhale, halfway lift.

Exhale, step your left foot.

Right.

Wait.

Sorry, right foot.

Thank you.

Inhale, crescent lunge, reach up.

Exhale, airplane arms hinge forward.

Inhale, rise.

Exhale, warrior two.

Inhale, reverse warrior.

Exhale, extended side angle.

Inhale, reverse triangle.

Exhale, high to mid plank, my friends.

Can we can we add on or do you guys want to break?

Downward facing.

Okay, your silence was uh sort of acceptance.

Okay, come down.

Grab some water for a second.

And then we'll add on.

Sound good?

Okay.

Are you okay?

Everybody good?

Supposed to be fun.

Okay.

Okay, team, let's add on a little bit.

Okay, downward facing dog.

Alright, if you already decided you didn't like me, you're probably not gonna like this part.

Okay, downward facing dog, take a full breath in.

Full breath out.

I like to do what we call drills.

Inhale, lift your gaze.

Exhale, forward, fold, top of your space.

Inhale, halfway lift.

Exhale, step your left foot back, low lunge.

Inhale, crescent lunge, come up and hold right here, my friends.

So normally we have a beat, but here's the thing.

I was in band for a long time.

I am a human metronome.

So bring your hands to heart center, hover your back knee, and we're gonna work these legs just a little bit, full lunge.

Here you go, lower and lift, straight down, straight up, breathe in, breathe out.

Good.

Band camp, you guys.

Last eight.

Actually, just go three, sorry.

Last two.

Everybody low on one.

Hold tiny little pulse here.

Eight.

Here's seven.

Breathe six, five, last, four, three, two, and one.

Inhale, crescent.

Good job.

Exhale, just open to warrior two.

Hold right here.

We're gonna change this.

Start pose.

Come up, heels in, toes out.

Yeah, there you go.

Horse.

Hands to heart center.

Bend your knees and sink down into this.

And this is one of those poses where it feels a little uncomfortable at first.

I always say it's like getting into a bath that's a little too hot.

So press your knees back.

Good.

And then let me see nice strong pecks here.

So palms together.

Good.

And now we're just gonna pulse down a little bit here.

Pulse down, down, good.

Open mouth exhale's encouraged.

Four, three, two, and one.

You got it.

Inhale, star, reach up.

Exhale, warrior two, front of your mat.

Inhale, reverse triangle so you can lose that lunge.

Reach back.

Exhale, high to mid plank, my friends.

Just ride that right through.

Inhale, upward facing, dog.

Yes.

Exhale, downward facing dog.

You guys are doing so great.

I know it's hot outside.

Inhale, lift your gaze.

Exhale, forward fold top of your space.

Inhale, halfway lift.

Exhale, step your right foot back, low lunge.

Good job.

Inhale, crescent lunge, come on up.

Alright, hands to heart center, double lunge.

You're gonna hover your back knee, and we have to mirror this on the other side.

So down and up.

You go lower and lift, breathe in, breathe out.

It's straight down, straight up.

Good job.

Last four.

That cider's gonna taste so good, you guys.

That's what I'm thinking about.

Last two.

Last one, stay low.

Tiny little pulse.

Eight counts.

Go eight, seven, last six, five, four, three, two, and one.

Inhale, crescent, exhale, warrior two.

I'm gonna pick on this side of the of the room here.

Start pose, come on up.

Heels in, toes out, horse, and we're straight down.

I'm gonna change it this time.

You're gonna press your knees back, tiny press, press.

Inner outer thighs are working.

Here, four, three, two, and one.

Inhale, star pose.

Reach out.

Exhale, warrior two.

Good job.

Inhale, reverse triangle.

Yeah.

Exhale, high to mid plank, or just meet me in downward facing dog.

All right, team.

Come on down to a seat.

We're gonna do a little belly up course.

You get to lie down, which is exciting.

I know.

Okay.

Have any of you not done yoga before?

First time?

Yoga.

Yeah.

Yeah.

One time?

Cool.

Okay.

All right.

Come on to your backs, my friends.

Colorado's like a mecca for yoga.

All right, on to your backs.

We're just gonna keep this nice and simple, friends.

So basic crunch.

Bend your knees.

Dig your feet into your mat.

So I actually lift my toes up because I want the tops of my thighs to work.

Fingertips behind your head, elbows wide, and just crunch up.

You go lift and lower, lift, lower.

Good.

Breathe out, breathe in.

Try to keep space between your chin and your chest.

Good.

Were you all in band?

Anybody, or is it am I the only nerd?

What did you play?

Uh sorry.

Clarinette, I was a flautist.

Yo, really?

It sucked though, because that's when American pie came out, you guys.

If you know, you know.

Yeah.

All right.

Last four.

Last three.

Last two.

Now stay up on one, stay up, tiny, pull straight up.

Lift eight, seven.

Here's six, five, four, three, two, and one.

I'm gonna sacrifice myself to the Cheerios.

We're gonna do some bicycle crunches here, my friends.

So start with bent knees, and you're gonna twist elbow to opposite knee.

So you twist, come center, twist, come center.

You can stay here, or you can pick it up.

You go right and left.

Option for straight legs.

This is what I thought would be really funny.

The pigs love it when you guys start to move your legs around.

Sorry.

Last eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one.

Bring your knees into your chest.

Give yourselves a huge hug in.

Hey, Baron, rock and roll.

Come up to a seat.

My goodness, Baron.

Heavens to Betsy.

All right, team, boat pose.

So, this is one of those poses that I really like because you can do it in a many different ways.

So these days I keep my feet down.

Goal here is lean back.

So that's how you get the front line to engage.

You can plant your palms or you can lift them up.

Stay here or lift your feet.

Okay, cool.

Okay, stay or you guys, good job.

Oh my goodness.

You've all done this before.

Come on to your backs.

Stretch out long.

Fingertips to the back, toes to the front, if you can.

If Baron will allow it.

Oh Baron.

Baron McKenzie Von Cute Face is his full name.

Yes.

My real name's McKenzie, so he bears my middle name.

Or my real name.

All right, team.

Bring your knees into your chest.

Let's do just a little supine twist here.

So lower your knees to the left side of your yoga mat and shift your gaze to the right.

And you might get some little pops and cracks out, which is actually my favorite.

You're your own chiropractor.

How fun for you.

Did you want a pig butt in your face today?

Did you think that's how your day was gonna go?

Come back to center, switch out your twist.

Knees to the right, gaze to the left.

I gotta create some like photo-op poses for y'all.

So all right, come back to center.

Rock and roll.

Okay, come up to chair pose, but use your hands if you need to.

Don't feel like you need to just like shoot on up to it.

Alright, chair pose, bellies are nice and warm here.

So let's get a good twist in.

Bring your hands to heart center.

Now lengthen forward, don't miss that.

Prayer twist to the right.

Tap elbow towards the outside of your of your knee or your thigh.

Mine's gonna land just right on top of my thigh.

I'm not super twisty today.

Good.

And then, so the goal here is we're just getting long.

We're creating this length in the vertebrae and moving some spinal fluid around, which is kind of the key to immortality, which I have not given up on.

I think that maybe I can live forever.

All right, friends.

Go ahead and release that to a forward bolt.

Good.

And just hang here for a second.

Okay, and we're bringing it right back up.

Take a halfway lift, full breath in, forward fold, breathe out.

Chair pose, come on up, bend your knees.

Same thing, other side, bring your hands to heart center, prayer twist to the left.

Yeah.

Nice job, team.

So consider getting long through the crown of your head and sending your tailbone back.

Take a breath in and forward fold, go ahead and let that go, my friends.

Inhale, halfway lift.

Just meet me in downward facing dog.

If you're like really set on those chaturangas, keep them going.

Otherwise, set them free.

Good.

Downward facing dog.

Big deep breath in here.

Full breath out, friends.

Okay, this is where we should be able to get some good photos.

So inhale, lift your gaze.

Exhale, forward fold top of your space.

I used to do a bend in brew, and we would do these poses with a beer in our hand.

It was so fun.

Inhale, halfway lift.

Exhale, fold.

Inhale, chair pose, my friends.

We're gonna take eagle gardu dasana on the left side.

So your left leg will go up and over.

And it might be a good idea since we're outside and distracted to kickstand your toes down so you're a little more rooted.

Left arm will go up and under.

This is not necessarily accessible for everyone, so feel free to capture opposite shoulder.

And then the worst thing is the deeper you sit, the easier the balance.

I know, but it's gonna make your legs burn, so I think it was Penelope that just went charging through us in this pose one day.

Like everybody fell out.

I think everyone enjoyed it though.

Oh yeah, for sure.

No complaints.

Oh my gosh, you got back.

I know, hooky.

Like, you guys have so much to tweet about today if you're still on Twitter.

All right, release back to chair pose right to the other side, right leg up and over, and right arm's gonna go up and under.

My thighs are so sweaty, it's really gross.

I know, for real.

Good news, you can stand up.

Alright.

Tricky one team.

Dancers, left side.

Flip your left palm up so we're not here.

We're just right here like you're carrying a tray.

Root down into your right leg and pick up your left heel.

Capture your foot from the inside sole of your foot.

Good.

Bring your knees back together.

And y'all can stay right here because you're getting a quad stretch.

You're getting the balance.

If you want to make a bigger shape.

Right arm is gonna go high and you're gonna slowly take your dance.

I have this nice fence to hold on to.

It's a standing back bend, so it's it's a lot of things going on.

It's gonna elevate your heart.

So you gotta breathe through it.

Good job.

Slowly release, feet back down, pedal it out.

I'm not much of a backbender myself, so all right.

Right elbow, right hip crease, same thing other side, capture the inside sole of your foot.

Left arm high and take your dance team.

It's hard.

I mean, literally, I'm just holding on to the fence, you guys, so don't be impressed by me.

All right, team.

Go ahead and release.

Alright, so heart rate goes up a little bit.

We're gonna ground now.

So tree pose, Rikshasana on the left.

Again, I'm gonna say kickstanding toes might be a beautiful place for you to stay.

You can go to your cap or to the inside of your thigh.

Just avoid pushing on your knee because it doesn't have a lot of give right left.

And any shape you want to make with your arms or your hands.

I saw Taylor Swift last week, so I'm full on with the heart.

Being a swifty is basically 90% of my personality.

Yes.

Right on your side.

I went Saturday.

Yeah.

Those surprise songs were real good.

All right, team.

Oh my gosh, breeze.

Yes.

Slowly release.

Take it to the other side.

And the other 10% of my personality is being a cubs fan.

For better or worse.

Really?

Oh.

Oh.

Not today, Satan.

Alright, slowly release.

Land your feet.

Ugh.

Inhale.

I've like, I'm really afraid of them, so it's I didn't scream.

I didn't really proud myself.

Inhale.

Exhale, forward fold over your legs.

Inhale, halfway lift.

Exhale your way back to downward facing dog.

I'm gonna see where we're at on time.

Can we rock out a couple of awkward poses together?

Are we all besties now?

Let's do it.

Okay, downward facing dog, full breath in.

Full breath out.

Inhale, lift your gaze.

Exhale, forward fold, come to the top of your space team.

Inhale, halfway lift.

Exhale, step your left foot back low lunge.

Let's just keep it how we did it.

Inhale, crescent lunge since everybody's there.

Good job.

Exhale, just open to warrior two.

Alright, hold right here, team.

We're gonna go for full triangle pose.

So you're gonna straighten your front leg, reach forward as far as you can, and then tick tock down and up.

Long gone are the days when my hand would actually touch my mat.

So I'm gonna keep my hand just about at my knee.

Yeah, and we're just getting this nice length in the side bodies, inner thighs fired up.

You can look wherever you want, my friends.

You keep your neck nice and soft.

You do you.

Alright, cool.

Now let's get awkward.

Come up to a star pose.

Yeah.

Now bring your toes in and your heels out.

There you go.

Wide legged forward.

Fold.

Yes.

You gotta dodge around your friend's butt.

It's fine.

For the cameras, you guys.

The pigs are excited because you guys are like a tunnel for them right now.

It's so cute.

Yeah, and you guys can bend your knees or widen your stance.

It's whatever it needs to be for you.

Alright.

Now take your hands down to the earth, and I'm just gonna have you walk around to a low lunge at the top of your space instead of bringing you back up.

Step back downward facing, dog.

You guys are almost done standing, so stay with me here.

Inhale, lift your gaze.

Exhale, forward, fold, come to the top of your space.

Inhale, halfway lift.

Exhale, step your right foot back, lunge.

Let's get this other side.

Inhale, crescent, warrior two, pivot open.

Good.

And then triangle other side, and you're gonna notice like it feels different side to side, especially in this pose.

So straighten your front leg, reach forward, down up.

And I, you know, to go back to the gaze thing.

I'm a very neutral gaze person.

Like if my head is this way, my gaze is just gonna go that way.

All right, team.

Up you go, star pose.

We gotta do it.

Toes in, heels out option here for a bind at your low back, interlace hands at low back, lift your heart space up.

The bind is maybe gonna come with you as you come down.

And if you're like not vibing with it, go ahead and lose it.

This is the uh space where whenever I have um like couples in my classes, they always start smacking each other on the butt.

All right, hands underneath your shoulders, my friends.

Come to low lunge at the top of your space.

There you go, just turn around.

Downward facing dog.

Are you all so done with standing up?

Do you wanna uh do some stuff on the floor?

Okay, come to a seat.

Yeah.

Did you guys go out last night?

I did.

Yeah.

Yoga's yoga can be hard.

Uh all right, here we go.

Let's take a seated forward fold.

And this is my caveat.

I say this every time I teach.

I have really open hamstrings.

So the goal is not straight legs, okay?

I don't hike, I don't bike, I don't go outside if I can help it.

I am the worst Colorado native you've ever met in your life.

So I have very open hamstrings.

Okay.

Start to remove the flesh from underneath you.

Say flesh in class.

Lift up.

Pull your belly in, slowly hinge forward, and I always start with bent knees.

And then you can start to move your butt back.

The goal here is you feel this in your hamstrings, not your low back.

It's a really tough injury to come back from.

Hi, baby.

I have a pet rabbit, and I really wondered what it would be like if I brought him today.

Like, be a full-on petting zoo.

All right, team, slowly roll up.

Make your way onto your back.

Yay.

All right, take your legs just straight up the wall.

Imaginary wall.

Legs straight up.

And you don't have to be active in your feet here.

Just let them go.

Bend your knees.

This is the pose for Sunday night scaries.

Okay.

Nice.

Oh my goodness.

Oh low, they come in.

Oh, you are just so handsome.

Okay.

You know when you can't sleep on Sunday nights because you're thinking about your week?

Yeah, you do this.

You do it against an actual wall.

It's the best.

It really helps to just get rid of that anxiety.

Yes.

I make my husband do it sometime.

He doesn't like to listen, but I make him do it.

Mm-hmm.

I got you.

Alright, friends.

Let's take a figure four because I feel like a bugs pose would look really weird right now.

Figure four, cross your right ankle to your left knee.

And you will keep active toes here for me.

So either a point or a flex is fine.

And if you want to deepen the stretch, yeah, you're gonna thread the needle and capture the back of your thigh.

Did you work very, very hard today?

Yes.

Go ahead and change big four other side team.

So a question that I get a lot as a yoga teacher.

I've been teaching for like 10 years is what yoga pose should I do every day?

This one that you're in right now.

Yeah, because you all are active people, right?

What's that like?

I'm an indoor cat.

All right, friends.

Release, hug your knees into your chest.

So this time you're gonna keep your right knee in and squeeze it to the outside of your rib cage and extend your left leg long.

But you can absolutely bend your left knee as much as you would like to.

Cool.

Now we're gonna take a supine twist through this.

So knee across your body, knee's gonna go left, gaze will shift to the right.

He just porked.

What is that?

It's like a honk and a bark.

Oh you go.

Oh my gosh, how cute.

Come back through center, my friends.

Switch that out, bring your left knee in, surrender your right leg long.

Yeah.

Oh, there you go.

Across your body, supine twist team.

My back always pops when I do this.

If yours does too.

Beautiful.

Love that for you.

I love the like barely contained chaos of teaching these classes.

Come back to center, friends.

Big squeeze in.

Just hug your knees into your chest, big squeeze.

Oh my gosh.

Really spinal shabbat left you.

So just go ahead and lie down on your mat.

I won't keep you for too long because I know it's kind of awkward to lie down outside with pigs roaming around you.

Is the mister hitting you guys over here?

Does it feel good?

Oh my gosh.

I knew I was.

Yeah, I knew I was gonna be on camera, so I was like, I should put makeup on, but I was like, it's just gonna melt off my face.

He's so cute.

All right, friends.

Go ahead and roll on to one side in a fetal position.

If Baron lets you, I don't know.

He's really in charge of you.

Yeah.

And then come on up to a seat, my friends, right back to where you started.

Just crisscross applesauce, Sukasana, top of your space.

Hands to heart center.

You all are so fun.

I know it's like a very informal yoga class, so thank you for hanging in there with me.

Like it is just, it's just my honor.

It's my honor to be able to do this and um and use, you know, my training to do something and provide and send it forward.

So um, hands to heart center, take a big breath in.

Open mouth exhale.

Do that again, full breath in.

Full breath out.

Thumbs to third eye center.

You all are so amazing.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you for coming out today.

The light in the honors the same light that shines so very brightly in each of you, and I bow to you all namaste.

To what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts?

Those endless mountain ranges, impregnable and covered to their very base with eternal snow.

Mr.

President, I shall never vote one cent from the public treasury to place the Pacific Coast one inch nearer Boston than it is now.

Senator Daniel Webster.

When President Jefferson acquired the Louisiana Purchase, the expectation was it would take centuries to do anything about settling this part of the world because it was so vast with immense distances between points of civilization.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, people lived in a very natural way.

They got up when the sun rose, they went to bed when the sun set.

It was a very agricultural mentality.

The Transcontinental Railroad completely changed the sense of time in America.

On the eve of the Civil War, the average American had traveled no more than five miles from their place of birth.

And the idea of settling the Trans-Mississippi West was little different than the notion of colonizing the moon.

Shortly after the war ended, these assumptions and doubts were carried away in a cloud of smoke, surging from the stack of a steam locomotive.

The building of the American Railway Network completely changed the country's conception of time, space, and destiny.

In 1861, there were approximately 20,000 miles of track, with passenger service limited to major population corridors.

By 1868, the American rail network had doubled in size and accounted for nearly half the track laid in the world.

The following year, on the arid plateau of Promontory Summit, Utah, a landscape that epitomized the image of a barren wasteland formerly associated with the West, Leland Stanford of California hammered home the last spike of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Telegraph wires along the rails carried the news instantly from San Francisco to New York.

Suddenly, the American West, an undeveloped area so vast that all of Europe could fit inside it, would be traversed with the rest of the continent in as little as seven days.

Enticed by swift, affordable railroad passage and prolific promotion, wave after wave of emigrants came west.

The migration that started ten years earlier with the Pikes Peak Gold Rush and American Homestead Act intensified, while the great tribes of plains Indians saw their ancestral lands and sacred customs rapidly slipping away.

Native Americans had already been suffering a lot of displacement, cultural and physical destruction.

And we think progress is always good.

But to Native Americans, progress meant destroyed cultures.

We lost tribal nations.

We lost languages, and we lost Native Americans.

Millions of them paid the price of this thing that we're calling progress.

By 1890, the American frontier, considered just one generation before as inaccessible, had effectively ceased to exist.

Standing in its center on a site that 10 years before was little more than a duck pond on the edge of a dying frontier town, was the ultimate symbol of manifest destiny, a giant cathedral-like structure venerating the power of the railroads and privilege of a people.

It was the largest building west of the Mississippi.

A dusty mining supply town 600 miles from the nearest population center, Denver teetered on the brink of collapse throughout the decade.

Its only hope for survival rode on the steel rails winding west from Omaha.

Denver was on the edge of an ocean of grass, and the railroad was the steamship that was going to come and save these poor castaways.

When the announcement was made in 1865 that it was not coming through Colorado, but instead was coming through Wyoming, the vice president of the Union Pacific, Thomas Durant declared that Denver was now too dead to bury.

Grading began the following spring.

Just over two years later, on June 24th, 1870, Denver Pacific board members assembled on the roof of the first national bank on Blake Street to watch the first train from Cheyenne snort into view.

Thereafter, the reports of Denver's death would prove to have been greatly exaggerated.

So in that decade, all the major rail lines arrive in Denver.

You get the Kansas Pacific, the Denver Pacific, the Colorado Central, the Denver and Rio Grande.

So from 1870 when the railroad arrives until 1880, Denver grows from a little over 4,700 people to 35,000 people.

Overnight, Denver transformed into one of the most spectacular boom towns in American history.

Timber, tools, and other merchandise poured in from the east, while in the other direction went cars laden with cattle, coal, grain, and ore from the Colorado Rockies.

The mines of Leadville were so productive that their output alone supported three dedicated freight lines for 30 years.

By 1880, just ten years after the completion of the Cheyenne Spur put Denver on the map, the exploding city housed no fewer than 13 railway depots.

Speculative business minds began to recognize that if all Denver's depots could be combined into one, then the man who did that combining would reap huge rewards.

Few were surprised when that man turned out to be New York City railway tycoon Jay Gould.

Gould and other eastern capitalists believed very much in the idea that you needed to impose order on chaotic economic systems.

So if there were too many competing railroad lines with too many different gauges, that was a chaotic situation, and the best way to control that was to impose some sort of vertical or horizontal integration where you control every aspect of a company.

John D.

Rockefeller was doing it with oil refining at the time.

Gould had already made millions through ethically questionable but financially brilliant speculations in railroad stock.

In 1873, he took advantage of a nationwide economic depression to buy a majority stake in the Union Pacific at bargain basement prices.

Then, after a protracted battle with Kansas Pacific stockholders, he succeeded in taking over that railroad in 1879.

Thus controlling Denver's two major trunk lines to the east, Gould was firmly in control of the city's railroad future.

His first move was to advocate, along with Denver's preeminent real estate developer Walter Scott Cheesman, the rerouting of all Denver rail lines into a single United Depot.

It was by far the largest and the most elaborate building in the city, the original 1880 depot, and of course was the most stylish building in town and gave people hope that Denver really was going to become a city.

Built in the middle of 12 acres on a distant and deserted edge of town, Union Station stretched to 880 feet in length and 140 feet in width, including platform and tracks.

The building itself was built in an elaborate French Gothic style with double-pitched mansard roof and giant dormer windows trimmed in Manitou sandstone.

The outer walls were made from rough-hewn lava stone and trimmed with white and red sandstone, all quarried in Colorado.

Inside, the luxurious second-floor offices for the various railroad companies were finished in French Walnut.

But by far the boldest architectural statement came from a 180-foot tower, reminding each passerby of Denver's ambitions to be not just the Queen City of the Plains, but one of the most important new commercial centers of the world.

As hotels, warehouses, and stockyards quickly grew up around the station.

This ambition seemed less and less far-fetched.

It was this mammoth train depot out on really what was the edge of town.

But its gravitational pull was such that the town of Denver really grew towards Union Station.

It totally realigned the streetscape of Denver instead of having a main street line with Larimer Street.

Denver's commerce would take place along 16th Street and 17th Street, radiating out onto the eastern plains from the doors of Union Station.

Denver uses the railroads to build a huge spider web of steel that taps not only every corner of Colorado, but also the surrounding states.

And this enables Denver to rise to become the Chicago of the Rocky Mountains, the regional metropolis dominating not just the state of Colorado, but the entire Rocky Mountain region.

But soon, passengers traveling to points east from Union Station would have a choice between six routes, and travelers to California could choose between three.

Within just a few years of its opening, Denver's Union Station serviced 60 passenger trains per day.

A considerable proportion consisted of adventurers bound to California to seek their fortune.

Very few were traveling for their pleasure.

To nearly everyone, the journey is a new one.

Partaking of the character of a daring enterprise.

William Fraser Ray, 1874.

Following completion of the Transcontinental Line in 1869, rail travel, once exotic and dangerous, was becoming part of everyday life.

For the subsistence farmers, ill-treated laborers and failed businessmen with nothing left to lose, or the true pioneers who simply wanted to be part of building something new, there was soon no substitute for the journey west.

The railroad journey soon became the stuff of legends, spun by writers with a gift for romanticizing the charms and challenges of the wide open country.

Through much of the 1870s and 80s, collisions, fires, hostile Indians, and the extremes of nature made the trip west genuinely perilous.

If you wanted to ride on the train, you accepted the dirt.

Or the cinders.

Back in the early days, why there was no air conditioning on the passenger cars.

And so the air conditioning was opening the window.

You opened the window and the cinders came in.

The experience varied considerably depending on the fare a person paid.

First class was relatively plush with sleeping cars and other amenities, but few could afford the 111 dollar fare, approximately 1,500 in today's dollars.

Third or immigrant class cost 40 dollars, but even this cheaper fare often amounted to every penny a working class person could scrape together over a period of years.

And for this fortune, their reward was to be herded onto crowded, stifling emigrant cars where sleep was nearly impossible.

Added to this was the misery of hunger.

The early trains carried little food on board, relying on scheduled stops where passengers were herded off into a hotel or other way station for refreshments.

Those at the end of the line would frequently find that both food and time had run out.

Still, passengers took comfort in the notion that they would accomplish in a matter of days a journey that just a few years earlier was measured in months.

Working behind the scenes to make this miracle possible were the men who ran the trains.

A growing army of conductors, porters, firemen, engineers, brakemen, switchmen, track maintenance crew, and ticketing and baggage personnel.

For many, the challenges were formidable.

In 1888 alone, over 2,000 railroad men were killed in action, and more than 20,000 injured.

It is a dangerous profession.

Everything that's done is done around heavy equipment that is not forgiving.

You do something wrong, you're gonna get hurt.

Before air breaks, the brakeman would climb on top of the cars, and he would go to where the brake handles are.

Jerry around brick handle, running up and down, up and down on the roof of the cars until it got slow enough that the engineer could control it with the engine brake.

A lot of brakemen fell off cars and were killed.

You had to run the railways in a very disciplined manner.

And so railway employees in the very beginning were put into uniform.

And the organization is almost military.

Brass cap badges, a little bit of gold braid for seniority for conductors.

So everyone had his own distinct uniform and job.

United by the adventure and perils of their work, the railroaders felt a deep sense of brotherhood, formalized by a growing number of trade unions to protect the interests of workers and their families.

Improvements followed.

The installation of air brakes made trains safer.

Candles were replaced by oil lamps, wood-burning stoves by hot water heat.

By the time Denver's Union Station opened its doors in 1881, Western rail travel had achieved a level of luxury and comfort rivaling some of the most prestigious trains of Europe.

Much of this was thanks to Chicago industrialist George Pullman, who placed comfortable rail travel within the reach of America's burgeoning middle class with efficiently designed mass-produced sleeper cars.

Pullman staffed his cars with African American porters and stewards, among them many former slaves.

Although restricted to service jobs, they prided themselves on their professionalism.

Pullman was soon the largest employer of African Americans in the nation, enabling thousands of blacks to join the ranks of the middle class.

Their community in Denver was a short streetcar ride from Union Station.

The Pullman Porters brought a great economic base to the Five Points.

They had regular salaries, and that allowed them to have and purchase property, as well as they had families, the wise very often were able to stay at home.

And they supported the social life.

They had their own clubs.

They were the sharpest-dressed young men around.

The nation's increasing obsession with trains and time resulted in the institution of four national time zones, spearheaded by the railroads in 1883.

The steady rise in Denver's traffic required an increase in the number of tracks at Union Station, from seven to thirteen.

In 1892, additional baggage and waiting rooms were added, and still the station strained to accommodate its ever-growing burden of people and materials.

So much so that two years later, an event that might have been deemed a disaster was quickly considered an opportunity.

Union Station didn't escape that plague of all Western cities.

And in 1894, a chandelier in the women's waiting room caused a fire that burned the entire center portion of the depot.

Despite the loss, railroad companies were open for business the very next day, and they soon took advantage of the destruction to update and expand the station.

Waiting and baggage rooms again increased in size, and a stone clock tower replaced the original decorative tower made of wood.

By centuries' end, Americans viewed the transcontinental railroad journey not as the perilous adventure of a lifetime, but as a trip that might easily be undertaken by anyone who could afford the ticket.

So planners began in the first decade of the 20th century to actually expand Union Station into a larger facility to accommodate this increased traffic.

And in fact, it's good they did that expansion when they did, because by 1920 and up to about 1950, Union Station received more trains than it ever had in its history.

The 1914 expansion of Union Station to its current configuration replaced the entire center section with a Beaux-Art style addition featuring a huge central waiting room with ornate wall sconces and chandeliers.

Plaster arches around the ceiling were decorated with 2300 columbine flowers, festooned high above rows of huge wooden benches that beckoned travelers laden with luggage to sit or even recline.

Access to trains was greatly improved by subway tunnels running under the tracks that linked the train platforms with stairways.

The American railroad network of track peaked in 1916 at 254,000 miles.

By the 1920s, it was estimated that four million people passed through Denver's Union Station every year.

And when you couldn't see it, you could hear the whistle.

And the train was always in your imagination, taking you to some place you'd like to go or wished you could go.

And it reminded you that the possibilities in life were vastly greater than those of your ancestors.

At the dawn of the 20th century, America's population topped 76 million, with more than a quarter now living in the West.

In unprecedented numbers, the migration from rural to urban centers continued, and the cavernous halls of metropolitan railway stations teemed with life.

In Denver, Mayor Robert Speer positioned the city to attract more of the country's growing convention and tourism business, landing the Democratic National Convention in 1908.

Speer declared the city open for business, a point accentuated just outside the doors of Union Station by a grand entryway symbolizing goodwill toward both arriving and departing visitors.

The ornate bronze arch stood 65 feet in height, shimmering in the sunlight by day and bathed in its own array of 2100 light bulbs at night.

The arts originally said welcome on both sides.

It took our chamber of commerce a year to realize you didn't welcome people to leave the city.

You did a farewell salutation, so they came up with Ms.

Pop.

What does it mean?

People all had different ideas.

Denver Ice would just tell visitors when they asked you, just say, Oh, it means Howdy, her farewell partner.

When someone is leaving, that God should watch over you while you were out of my sight.

In 1917, as the United States entered World War I, it was hard to imagine a more appropriate blessing than Ms.

Paw at the entrance to a station where thousands of servicemen would take leave of their families before shipping off to war.

By the 1920s, Denver's Union Station wasn't just the center of the city.

It was a city in itself.

Seventeen different passenger trains came and went just between the hours of 8 and 9.30 in the morning.

Narrow gauge, commuter, and tramway lines connected the city to its suburbs and the front range.

And always there were endless lines of trains moving freight.

Union Station had its own library, its own police force, and its own jail.

It was the primary sorting center for all the U.S.

mail passing through the Denver region.

Newsstands, ticket counters, and soda fountain buzzed with chatter and activity all hours of the day and night.

The station had a Union Station restaurant, Caboose Lounge, and the Continental Room.

And of course, the Caboose Lounge was the bar section of the lunchroom.

And this was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because back in those days, that's the way the trains ran.

Both going and coming was a grand experience.

And people today would have a hard time believing that people actually used to go to Union Station for the sole purpose of having dinner or having cocktails.

It was a lively place.

Despite growing competition from commercial airlines and buses, the railroads maintained their reputation as the most glamorous way to travel.

Railroad technology saw major advancements in the 1930s, with the introduction of stainless steel, a material one-third the weight of traditional steel, new designs that minimized wind resistance, and the perfection of the diesel-burning internal combustion engine, an engine whose efficiency and ease of maintenance left the steam engine in its dust.

On May 26, 1934, the streamlined Burlington Zephyr set a world record by running nonstop from Denver to Chicago, a distance of 1,015 miles in just 13 hours and five minutes.

The train reached a mind-blowing speed of 112.5 miles per hour.

But that wasn't the only source of its appeal.

Renamed the Denver Zephyr a few years later, it was one of the first passenger trains to feature viewing domes on nearly every car.

In 1936, the Union Pacific introduced its own City of Denver streamliner to run from Chicago to Denver.

They were destined to become two of the most popular trains in the nation.

Gasoline rationing and troop movements in the early years of World War II dramatically increased the demand for rail travel.

And the railroad lines competed for this business by offering a more and more luxurious travel experience.

Their profits might be made mostly on the freight side of the business, but their reputations rested firmly on the back of the passenger trains.

And back in those years, when you went on a train ride, you didn't wear your Levi's and t-shirt.

You put on your three-piece suit, wore your hat.

Ladies were dressed in dresses, and they wore their hats and gloves.

When you went into the station, there was a red cap around there to meet you, to take your luggage.

It was on the train when you got there.

He took care of you.

And the dining cars the same way.

Linens and silver.

And it was true silver.

Railroads christened their passenger lines with names meant to capture all the adventure and romance of travel.

Few topped the Zephyr, a name derived from the Greek god of the West Wind.

And then there was the train that needed no poetry to sell its tickets, the ski train.

Put into service in 1940, Denver's ski train was soon famous the world over for its spectacular 56 mile ascent to the Winter Park Ski Resort.

Adding to the train's mystique was the fact that it passed through no fewer than 29 tunnels along the way, ending with the 6.1 mile Moffat Tunnel crossing the Continental Divide.

Even more than the romance of travel, the electric atmosphere of Union Station during the World War II era derived from the troops themselves.

Thousands of small town boys and men embarking on a journey to the other end of the world, uncertain whether they would ever return.

Union station's huge waiting rooms had long been a place where important family reunions and farewells took place.

Added to the list now were solemn vows exchanged between a soldier and his lover left behind.

The tearful prayers of a mother, the brave but trembling handshake of a father, each bidding farewell to the loved one they might never see again.

The end of these farewells always came about in the same way, with a voice echoing through the great hall announcing the departure of another train.

At the close of the war, America's railroads were in a rare position of financial strength.

They moved quickly to adopt diesel engines throughout their fleets, greatly increasing their profit margins on the freight side.

But despite the success of the marquee trains, the number of passenger trains in America was dropping precipitously.

From more than 20,000 trains in 1920 to less than half that number by 1950.

The decade of the 50s would see two developments with major implications for the long-range viability of passenger trains.

The decision to begin construction of an interstate highway system and the introduction of passenger jet airplanes whose tickets were competitively priced with those of the railroads.

More convenient in the case of the automobile, and in both cases subsidized by massive government expenditures.

By the 1950s, airline transportation was overtaking the railroad line, and I think one of the key turning points when you begin to see the decline of Union Station is when they actually put up a neon sign that says travel by train.

They're having to exhort passengers to come to Union Station by the 1950s.

And certainly by the 1960s, train transportation is all but done.

In 1958, for the first time on record, Denver's Stapleton International Airport surpassed Union Station in the number of passengers served.

On July 18th, 2009, passengers boarded the 1950s era cars of the Denver Post Cheyenne Frontier Days train, powered by legendary Union Pacific steam engine number 844.

The train made its inaugural run from Denver up to Cheyenne back in 1908.

Today it still travels along the historic railbed that helped to put Denver on the map.

The annual journey is a major attraction for those wanting an authentic taste of a bygone era.

On a smaller scale, in the basement of Union Station, another historical display offers visitors a rare glimpse of American railroading frozen in time.

The Denver Society of Model Railroaders' elaborate layout is the oldest and one of the largest in the country.

By the 1970s, there were just 450 struggling passenger trains left in America, operated with federal subsidies by Amtrak.

More than half of the country's 40,000 train stations had been destroyed, and a movement to demolish Denver's Union Station was gathering steam.

Counterbalancing this impulse was a growing concern for preserving Denver's remaining historic buildings.

In the mid-1980s, a group of downtown business owners and preservationists joined together to save Union Station from the wrecking ball and preserve lower downtown's character for future generations.

We started a campaign in the Waikou, and we call it SOS, Save Our Station.

And we said, even if it's not being used as a station now, someday someone's gonna want it as a station, and you'll never, you could never rebuild it, would be lost forever.

To bolster their arguments, SOS leaders pointed to a new trend.

Shops, restaurants, and residences were increasingly being drawn to lower downtown, precisely because of the sense of history embodied in its streets and buildings.

Union Station had stood for 100 years as the hub for the commerce and culture in the Rocky Mountain West.

With proper planning, many felt it could be that hub once again.

Replicating the rationales offered by Walter Cheeseman and Jay Gould when building the station a century before, SOS members contended Denver's increasingly chaotic transportation system needed to be rationalized and tamed through the creation of one central multimodal depot.

In 1988, demolition plans were scrapped.

Denver was now one of the fastest growing cities in America with mounting challenges, including traffic congestion, parking, and pollution.

Both for those who remember the glory of its past and those who look forward to the promise of its future.

A union station that is once again a vibrant center of civic activity and a grand gateway to the city.

And it's got to maintain and preserve that sense of continuity.

Denver Union Station is the anchor.

And you know, to be able to have the design so that people walk through it and they actually experience the essence of the station.

Creating this place where all of the mobility options for people are brought together.

Trains and buses and bikes and pedicabs and car sharing and building a walk clots and places, the project's completely transformational for the region and for Denver.

The public space around the Union Station is from my thinking historic landmark perspective, almost as important as the station itself.

And the combination is very powerful.

We're looking at a hundred to two hundred thousand people a day utilizing the station area.

Hopefully, the historic building itself will become not only as it was before, a gateway to Denver, but now a seamless gateway between the Platte Valley and an expanded downtown.

Here's what's coming into view on Elevating Denver.

Well, hello.

My name is Iselle.

And I'm just your average turkey living in the city amongst the hustle and bustle of my sister Chico and all our goat friends.

And several other birds and mammals here at the Broken Shovels Animal Farm Sanctuary.

As you can see, I'm an incredibly fashionable and independent lady.

I know what I want out of life.

And living here at the sanctuary provides me the kind of freedom I need to be myself and to be happy.

As you prepare for the upcoming holiday feasts, I would like to show you a day in my life and introduce you to some of my other friends here at the sanctuary.

This is my friend Andrea.

She takes care of us.

If you know any birds in your life, whether it be parrots or chickens or even just the wild birds that you might feed in your backyard, we know that these animals are super intelligent.

One of the things that I love about turkeys is they have this incredible ability to recognize and remember different faces.

And not just faces of turkeys.

They form strong bonds and they love to be with their familiar friends.

Speaking of friends, there are so many of us that are thankful to be here at Broken Shovels.

There is love and Lily who are happily married and only enjoy the company of each other.

Gandalf and all of the beautiful water buffaloes.

Ducks, cows, dogs, and so many birds and mammals.

So, Andrea.

What are some challenges we have here at the sanctuary?

Anytime you're taking care of large animals, the challenges are plentiful.

The big one is, you know, we're working outdoors all the time, so we're very very weather dependent.

We get everything from drought to blizzard to flood, and that is uh where a lot of the challenge is.

Uh, the second challenge is the overwhelming need for rescue, and and a lot of people consider that farm animals need rescue just like dogs, cats, and any other animal that can be um domesticated and not well taken care of.

So we fill a vast role for the state of Colorado in being a quarantine space and uh home and foster home for farm animals of all different kinds.

Um every year we turn down about three thousand animals that are offered for surrender just because we are limited by space and budget.

And of course, budget is the third biggest part.

We're a non profit, so we're constantly fundraising.

We are very affected by the uh upturns and downturns of the economy.

I would love to hear about our human friends.

In order to run this facility, we have three full-time on site um staff members who care for the animals 24 or 7.

And then we have about 50 volunteers who are here on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

How can people help our mission?

We are always in need of financial support.

We have uh through our website, we have ways that you can sponsor specific animals.

Um you can buy us hay, buy us a bag of feed.

Um, you can just donate a general amount to our general fund, and then it makes its way into whatever our our biggest needs are.

Well, Andrea, I'm incredibly grateful for you and all the work you do.

What are you most grateful for?

You know, without all of this community, this this sort of widespread, far reaching group of people who support us, none of these animals could be here.

The great thing about me getting to be an advocate is the the bigger picture is that I let these animals advocate for themselves.

Animals don't keep it a secret when they're unhappy or when they're happy.

Um, getting to see a duck splashing around in a pond, um, getting to see a chicken rolling around in dust bathing and and doing what they would do naturally, um, getting to see goats laying with the best friends that they've had forever.

The feeling of running.

It looks like we are back.

Um we have made it back from executive session.

Uh with the item that we we have before us um is uh 260248.

Um sorry.

260243, my bet.

Um and this is memorializing decision regarding property used by W Station Metropolitan District number one.

Um the question is whether or not this is ready to move forward to the full body.

Um and I'm just seeing to see if there's a reason to take a vote on this or if everyone's okay with it moving forward.

All right.

Um that will move forward to the full body.

We do have four items on consent.

Those will also move forward, seeing that nobody has pulled those down.

We need a mover in a second.

Oh, yeah.

I apologize.

We have I need to go back to the action item.

Thank you.

I need a motion and a second.

Motion from Council Pro Tem Romero Campbell, seconded by Councilman Watson.

Any need for a roll call vote.

Seeing no need for a roll call vote.

That will move forward to the full body.

Uh and the four consent items will also move forward to the full body.

Um seeing that those had not been pulled off.

And with that said, we are adjourned.

Thank you.