Welcome back to this monthly meeting of the parts Arts and Culture Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us in the parts, Arts and Culture Committee starting now.

Good after good morning.

Welcome to the Parks Art and Culture Committee.

And we are so excited to have a presentation from the library today as well as Parks and Rec.

And we'll start in the room with introductions.

I'll start with the other council member here at the middle of the room.

I'm sorry, parody, one of your council members at large, and I know other people are working their way over from the committee room.

So yes, I apologize for that.

We were just in executive session in Mayor Council, but I know there are people that may be tuning in online and that will be here shortly.

But we'll start with you all.

If Erica, you want to introduce yourself and introduce your colleague, that would be a great start.

Yeah, good morning, everyone.

My name's Erica Martinez, and I'm the director of communications and community engagement.

I am just driving today, so I'm Nicole Davies, the city librarian and executive director for Denver Public Library.

And we're so excited to have you.

Can you share a little bit about how long you've been with the library and what you did before this?

You bet.

I've been in this role now since August of 2025, and prior to that I served as the state librarian for the state of Colorado.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much for sharing that.

Well, take it away with your presentation.

We're really excited to have you here for the first time at City Council and hear about all the great things that the library is doing.

Thanks for the opportunity.

Really appreciate it.

I also just want to recognize I have an amazing support system back here with lots of uh the team from Denver Public Channel.

Well, that'd be lovely.

Yeah, thank you.

If they could just step to the microphone and let us know who's here, and it's helpful in case there's any questions.

Yes, thank you.

Let's mean another faces.

Hi, Gina Dunn, and I'm the director of finance for the library.

Hello everyone, Will Shatner.

I'm the Chief Operating Officer for DPL.

Good morning.

My name is Valencia Colbreth.

I'm the Chief Equity and Strategy Officer.

Hello, I'm Katie Anderson, the executive director for the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation.

Good morning, Anthony Kaufman, Director of Facilities and Planning.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much for bringing the team.

That's very helpful in case we have questions.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

I appreciate it.

And thank you for letting them have the opportunity to introduce themselves.

This work could not happen every day without the team.

So we're gonna take you through a series of highlights, uh touch base a little bit on our strategic plan, update on our broad bond projects, um, which I'm sure everybody's really interested in.

Uh take some time to talk a little bit about the Denver Public Library Fund and then what is on the horizon for the future.

So we'll go ahead and get started.

Um, since the last time we saw you, which was back in August, uh, we've had a lot going on at Denver Public Library.

Um, starting in the fall, uh, shortly after I started, we were happy to host our staff day at Central Library, which is an event we bring our staff together roughly every other year.

Um we bring the entire team together for a day of learning and connection.

We had over 600 staff members in attendance at that.

Then we moved into our hosting our annual service awards, and those include the Latinos Community Service Awards and the 2026 Juanita Gray Community Service Award.

We also recognize blacks in Colorado Hall of Fame in we were able to do all of these major events in our new park view space, which is at the Central Branch.

Last year, um we were able to open, proudly open our 28th location.

That's the Lena Archaleta Branch Library in the Westwood community.

And you may know we have a first location there, so we were able to add a second.

And Lena Archileta, as you probably know, was Denver's first Hispanic female school principal, and she was dedicated to improving the lives of all people, especially Hispanic Denverites.

I think we had close to 500 people at that community celebration, which was really heartening.

Wow.

Yeah.

And then just last month, I can't believe it.

Um, we celebrated the start of construction at the Globeville location, and it was wonderful to have community come out to learn more about this future location.

Uh groundbreaking is underway, um, and we hope that that branch will receive that certificate of occupancy uh by the end of 2027, hoping to open in the first quarter of 2028.

And then after more than 10 years on hiatus, we relaunched One Book One Denver, and the community really showed up for this event.

We had over 5,500 participants in that program over the the series of about four weeks.

We had dozens of programs throughout the system, and it was really encouraging to see the level of engagement that we saw in the community.

We heard a lot from program participants just saying how not only had they missed it, but they missed the opportunity to come together over a shared read, especially coming out of the pandemic where a lot of people lost that connection to one another.

This really provided an opportunity to come back together, build relationships, see neighbors, meet new people, and having that bond over a shared read was really powerful.

We were able to bring that author in, and that was really extraordinary.

So again, about a month's worth of activities spread out throughout the system.

So that was wonderful.

You'll see this community resource team.

In 2026, we began teaching the new Narcan overdose training, which was developed by the Department of Public Health and Environment.

And in quarter one of 2026, we've now trained 80 DPL staff members in this new training.

Just to give you some context, in 2025 alone, we administered NARCAN 21 times.

And already in the first quarter of this year, we've administered Narcan five times.

So this is very real for our patron population and for our staff.

And so really this the work of this team is extraordinary and so necessary.

And then 2025 was really busy.

I love looking at these numbers.

We had over 2.7 million visits in our 28 locations across the system.

Almost 73,000 storytime attendees in person and virtually.

More than 12,000 participated in phone a story across four different languages.

We had nearly 2500 bookmobile stops and issued over 850 personalized reading lists.

So it's really amazing to see the connection points in our community, knowing that the service of the public library is cradle to grave.

We have different connection points with patrons throughout their lifetime.

So you may start in a story time and then you may find some.

Conducting a comprehensive review of our privacy and library use policies this year, and then continuing an eye towards all of our accessibility strategies.

So bond updates.

I know this is you all know that there's a lot going on and a lot going on throughout the city.

Thanks to the Denver voters, we have several bond projects that are currently in the works.

So with regard to bond updates, we continue to get creative to ensure our buildings can meet the needs of our community.

We're still navigating ongoing challenges with construction, knowing that 2020-17 money, 2017 money does not fully or necessarily fulfill the original scope of the projects that were outlined.

Our buildings are also aging, and as we start our construction projects, we've been running into significant deferred maintenance issues.

So unfortunately, we've had to close locations throughout the system just due to those aging facilities.

So for example, in 2025, we had to close over 60 days due to building system failures and roughly eight days due to utility outages.

And this year alone, we've already had to close different facilities almost 29 days due to those aging facilities.

When possible, we've modified the scope of our projects.

We're also partnering with our Friends Foundation to raise funds to supplement the original budget and also use the DPL fund to close those funding gaps.

So as you all can imagine with inflation and all of the things that are happening with regard to construction projects, 2017 numbers don't really hold up as well nine years later.

So we're super fortunate to have such a working and healthy collaboration with our Friends Foundation.

They come in often to supplement those building projects.

For example, we um we're currently we had the opportunity to walk through the Hamden location recently, and in the scope, um, bathrooms weren't included.

So yeah, I mean, your face right there.

You can't you can't touch a building and not touch plumbing in a bathroom or have antiquated tiles and outdated facility pieces in a bathroom when you do a renovation.

So it's it's looking to the DPL fund to supplement, and it's also looking to our friends foundation to help so that we can update that whole experience for customers in that area.

So 2025 project updates.

Um last year we were able to reopen the Pauline Robinson branch and the Athmar Park Branch library, and as I mentioned, we were also able to open our 28th location, the Lena Archaletta branch.

Those felt like huge successes.

And then we have lots of ongoing projects.

Um we have several locations that are closed for renovation, and due to those budget realities, we had to take some of our locations offline early.

Um a few months early to help with the cost savings measure late last year.

As you may remember, we were asked to cut um I think nine million from last year's budget in real time, and then another 10 million over 10 million for this year for our budget.

So doing that was helping to save with some of those uh those costs.

Um, all of those locations were expected to be closed the latest by June of this year, some leading up to that.

And all of those staff were redeployed to other locations.

We were not forced to lay anyone off last year.

The Eugene Field, Hamden, and Ross Broadway branches are either under construction or nearing a groundbreaking date.

And then the Ross Phyllis Big Pond, formerly the Ross Barnum location will reopen to the public in June, and we will have a big community celebration in July.

Ross University Hills, Schleshman, and the Globeville location are also all in progress.

We recognize that the closure in several of the Southeast branches at the same time is not ideal.

Our team has been working hard to bring library services to the communities while the locations are closed.

At the end of this month, we will be rolling out two new bookmobiles that will provide dedicated service to Southeast Denver.

We've also been partnering with colleagues in the audience, Parks and Rec and others to make sure that we're supplementing those services in other locations.

We're also going to host two coffee and construction open houses for the community to come and learn more about what's going on at their branches and help to answer any questions that patrons may have.

We're very excited about this later this month, a new online dashboard where folks can go to learn and see what's happening at their branches, give construction updates, get real-time information about where we are in the process.

And when that dashboard launches, we'll make sure to communicate with all of you and your staff so that you can help to get that information out to your constituents as well.

And we'd like to take a few minutes now to reintroduce the idea of the DPL fund and share some exciting updates.

So you may you may remember that uh in 2022, 68% of Denver voters passed a ballot initiative that established a revenue fund to supplement funds available to the Denver Public Library beyond the general fund for the purpose of expanding and enhancing programs and services.

So as an independent agency of the city and county of Denver, the Library Commission has exclusive authority over the allocation and use of that DPL fund.

The ballot measure stated that the DPL fund could be used to pay staff at market appropriate rates, expand hours, expand the collection, expand programs and services in high need areas of the city, and supplement the general fund library budget to more fully serve our community.

The intent was not to the intent was to add the funding to what the city supports the library, but not to supplant.

So it's to add the services.

And we have to constantly check in with our commission to make sure that our proposals for that DPL fund are in line with the intent of the voters.

So some of those DPL fund wins include giving the public access to new resources and ref refreshing space thanks to the DPL fund.

The New York Times subscription, if you all are not taking advantage of that, is very popular, and you can see that with the numbers of use, over 270,000 accesses to the New York Times.

And lots of those that are popular, of course, are news, but also their cooking, I know their recipes are very popular as well.

As well as their games.

Yeah, cross world, yes, lots of those things.

So Denver's also streaming music via free and is able to access over 7,000 newspapers and magazines via our press reader.

And then thanks to the DPL fund, as mentioned, our locations got some updates too.

And we were able to complete a restroom renovation project also at the Ross Phyllis Big Pond.

That was another branch that in the scope of the renovation, it did not include restrooms.

And install EV charging stations at Pauline Robinson.

DPL fund also engages with capital investments.

And so, for example, at our Park Hill branch, and we were able to give that a little bit of a refresh.

It also helps to supplement uh deferred maintenance that we have through several of our branches, and then supplemental funding in all of the major renovation projects that are going on right now.

And then I did want to just take a moment to highlight some important dates for all of you to have.

We have our uh Eleanor Gary's awards coming up next week on Thursday.

Um again, you're gonna see those two new bookmobiles hitting the southeast corner of the community and the county within the city starting in June.

Um, also in June, we will be able to open up the Ross Phyllis Big Pond uh branch.

Ummer reading will kick off in June and travel throughout August, and then very excited uh to announce the big uh one book one Denver read um in August.

And again, those activities, um speaker engagement and author events will be happening throughout the fall, and then on October 3rd, we will have our 2026 Latino Community Service Awards.

So we'll make sure to get those dates on your calendars, and as always, the invitation is extended.

We'd love to have you there.

And at this time, I'd love to turn it over to see what questions that you might have, things we highlighted or questions you might be hearing from constituents.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

I want to welcome Councilman Heinz, Councilwoman Romero Campbell, and Councilwoman Lewis who's online.

And I don't have anyone in the queue.

Did anyone have anything?

Councilwoman Parity.

Yes.

Um sorry, now I'm reorganizing myself because I didn't expect to be first.

Um I I first did want to um go back to the construction timelines in Southeast Denver, because of course those are something we hear from constituents about quite a bit, I'm sure you know.

Um can you recap for me the um I think there's there's five branches that are more or less in Southeast that have had closures, right?

Not just Eugene Fields and New Hills.

Um could we go back and talk about the timelines for like what we know about the timelines for each of those five?

Sure, we sure have that here for.

Yeah, we can.

Um, the other thing I will mention is um most of these are attached to either 2017 or 2021 bonds.

You know that we legally have an obligation to hit that timeline.

Um the great news on the one hand is um community says yes to these bonds, which is amazing.

Um, I shouldn't say that, um, many of us were not at the table in terms of putting together these projects that were on the 2017 bond initiative.

So in hindsight, it would have been lovely to not have um so many in the same area at once.

We're always happy to take them and do these renovations because that's truly the only way to support these buildings.

Um, as I mentioned, I can't I come from a library background.

I ran two public library systems before I was the state librarian, and um a gold standard in public libraries is that you touch facilities every 10 years with a refresh.

Many of our buildings are decades, decades in to not having been refreshed.

So the only way to really accomplish this is through bonds.

So having recognized that, we found ourselves having to close five branches in one area based on bond initiatives that were done back in 2017.

And again, thankful to have the money to do these bond initiatives and these renovations, but less than ideal to have everything offline at the same time.

The typical typically, and I I'm gonna call on Will and Tony to supplement for me, but you're averaging 18 to 24 months on most renovation projects.

I've never seen a renovation project or a building project come in early.

So when they say 18 to 24 months, I would assume 24 months and then I think is a safe assumption, but um we're in the queue with every other building in the city of Denver to get touch.

So if we want to talk about specifics on um Tony has more of the deep dust than I do.

I'll just say really quickly that we we don't we know that the bonds are driving this, so I'm glad that you've said it for those who may be listening, but we are totally aware of that.

Yeah, I'm just curious as things have started to play out.

We're getting closer to the dates, like what the actual timelines are looking like.

Absolutely, thank you.

Because we have to do a question.

Pardon, I know you guys already introduced yourself, but before you answer, if you don't mind reintroducing yourselves for the people watching now, thinking absolutely.

So I'm Will Shatner, I'm the chief operating officer for DPL.

I'm Anthony Kaufman, director of uh facilities management and planning for DPL.

Thanks.

Yeah, and as Erica's pulling up the slide that actually had the renovations.

So as we stated, uh currently under renovation right now.

So you being field and Hamden are currently under construction, as well as well, Ross Broadway is also under construction.

If you drive by it, you can see all the work being done for Ross Broadway.

That's very exciting.

And then a lot of us were actually out at Hamden just two weeks ago.

So to see the work that's being done.

So those three are actually under uh construction.

Slashman has been under construction and we'll be reopening this January of 2027.

Yep.

And then with Slashman with that, so and when we talk about supplemental on the bonds, so a lot of the work did not cover the infrastructure required for Slashman, nor did it cover the exterior of the building.

So these are the things where we've added from our Friends Foundation from the DPL fund, and that's the reason why that construction time was extended.

So it's a comprehensive renovation and not just what was covered by the bond.

The work for the bond is actually done.

So now it's about the work that we're going to do a district for slash minutes was complete.

There was literally leaks coming in through the building that the bond did not cover.

So that's the reason why that one isn't until January of next year.

And just a clarifying question, I think on Schleshman, it did not include HVAC either.

That is correct.

A lot of the bond work does not include in fact HVAC, which is unbelievable because that is the things that's taking things down.

When we look at what happened to Mont Bell came down because of HVAC, when we look at Blair Caldwell had an HVAC issue that actually caused a fire.

These are all infrastructure things that are not included in the bond that we are going to supplemental work that increases that timeline.

I have a follow-up question to that piece.

When you say HVAC is not included, I I think about the new building requirements, which require a huge upgrade to HVAC.

So are you required to meet the regular city updated city building code?

Yeah, I would absolutely say yes, and then we go beyond that to make sure that they're energy compliant, that they're efficient, and things that I know Tony loves to talk about.

This is my wheelhouse.

I really love the bottom line sustainability.

And I'm happy to report that three of our older locations are gonna be fully electrified.

Wow.

Uh which is amazing because they're older buildings.

We brought the electrical infrastructure to the table.

We've used our our fantastic building code and modernize things, and we're going to be uh really on a path to carbon neutrality with those locations.

The other locations, if it wasn't fully feasible for whatever reason, we're gonna have a significant improvement in energy savings and energy efficiency and therefore carbon reduction as well.

Uh so each building's an opportunity to really make good on that and make great progress for our city.

So, Tony, while you're at the mic, just to get back to councilwoman parity's timeline question.

So we've talked about Schleshmen.

Can you talk about Hamden Broadway?

Yeah, Hamden would be next.

We broke around on that uh sooner, uh, just based on its schedule.

I think that was a rise bond uh project, and we're making great progress on it.

We have a huge addition for that building too.

It's really going to transform how we use it.

It's almost a 40% uh increase in square footage.

Um, and so we're looking at Q1 uh for a certificate certificate of occupancy for that location.

Uh moving on to Q one of what year?

Of 2027.

Yeah, thanks.

Uh and then moving on to um, let's see, U Hills is going to take a little longer just because it started later as a big project as well.

Uh we fully electrified as well.

And so we're looking at Q3 of 2027 for that location.

And then Broadway, uh, about the same.

That's also a transformational renovation where we're adding about 40% to the square footage for our staff and patrons, including a huge community room, which is just going to enhance our usage of that space.

It'll be almost electric, fully electric and about an 80% carbon reduction in emissions.

Um thanks to the Friends Foundation for their work on that.

Um and so, yeah, that's um if you drive by, you'll see that it's very much under construction with some more foundation work.

Um, and then moving on to Eugene Field.

We're about to break around on that one.

That one's uh it's not uh as substantial, meaning that it doesn't have an addition, uh, that construction is going to be very infrastructure heavy as well, uh, and we'll also improve the layout so the functionality will be better uh for our community moving forward.

And then the timing of fields that you're just starting roughly how long that one closer to Q3, Q4.

Okay toward the end of 2027.

Okay.

Sorry, I didn't catch when was Broadway supposed to be done.

I got too caught up in the beautiful community.

It's exciting.

Uh Q3.

Okay, great.

And I'm gonna I do have another question, but I want to let the district council member cut in on this since we're on the line of questioning.

Is that okay, Madam Chair?

Yeah, okay.

I might have thank you, uh Madam Chair.

Um I might have missed it at Ross University Hills.

What was the timeline for that one?

Uh Q3.

Q3 for completion.

2027, yeah.

For 2027.

For certificate of occupancy, one footnote I should add in detail that's important.

It takes time to mobilize to remove into the building between our shelving or collections, uh getting our staff spaces ready, getting our staff ready for it.

Um so there is a process of mobilization that does take some time once we get that CO.

Okay, so completion Q3 of 2027.

When does the construction start or the it has it started at Ross University Hills?

Uh it has.

Yes.

Right, thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Um, my other so I did want to go back also then to the deferred maintenance.

Okay.

Um you said 29 days of closures so far in 2026.

That's rough.

Um, I think would love to see as an at-large member um where those closures have been and what the causes have been.

Um, just since we do have a city budget cycle coming up, like that would be helpful for me to know.

Um, and then in particular, uh sorry, not in particular, separately from that.

Um, given that we have probably a very hot summer coming despite the snow today.

Um what you all are worried about in terms of HVAC systems for the summer and cooling for the summer, like which buildings you know are old and all that.

So if I could get that way and get that to email, I would really, really appreciate that.

Um then similarly, um, would love to see how you all have used the very sorely needed 2I funding specifically.

Um you address that a little bit, um, but just would love to see that broken down a little bit of like where it's gone.

I know you can spend it six times over, right?

And so um, but just curious, you know, how you've used it to fill things in.

Um all of that is fine for follow-up.

I'm not expecting anyone to know that on their feet.

Um, and then the the other question that I do want to ask in person is just an update on um the process of unionization.

So I know you guys got a petition um and that the union is requesting voluntary recognition, the mayor and city council for for employees that are under us uh for the first few petitions that we've gotten.

They had such high percentages of employees that we recently made the decision jointly to voluntarily recognize those bargaining units.

Um and I know that same ask has been made of the library board, so I'm just curious where in the process that decision making is.

Sure.

Um before we leave building projects, I I do just want to mention quickly though, um Tony was really kind to say, and we we think our Friends Foundation, when I when I say that the Friends Foundation significantly helps us, I'm talking upwards of gifts of 750,000 for a branch renovation.

So it is not it is not you know bake sales and books book sales, it is a lifeline.

It is significant um donor recording and aligning those donors with their passion in the community.

So I just I can't underscore that enough.

We we can't do what we do without our foundation.

So does those numbers too then?

Extraordinary.

So I just want to say that.

Um so I want to move on to collective bargaining and um Valencia.

Um check me if I'm incorrect about this, but um the ordinance has been uh an experience to navigate, and um where I I was last updated as of last week was that um the union, which CWA is primarily who uh this the library staff um that is their union.

Um they have to have it filed recognized.

What is the correct term?

With triple A arbitrators of America, America.

Yeah, so where we are I'm sorry if you could just read.

I'm sorry, yes.

So hi.

Valencia Colbreth, Chief Equity and Strategy Officer.

Um what we understand and where we are as a part of the process um is where CWA is going to be working with AAA as a part of uh recognizing the petition, so then we will then receive the petition file notification.

Sorry if I don't have all the words correct.

Um we would then post that for 10 days if we don't have anyone else coming in to want to represent our employees.

Um triple A would then put out a notice email to all of our employees because we have already provided the list and all of the things on our part, and we have done all of our commitments to the timeline as we see through the ordinance.

So those would be the next steps, and then they would convene both um CWA as well as us via our corporate authority, which is our library commission to then make the determination whether they would like to move to an election or to voluntarily recognize.

Got it.

Thank you for that.

And this has been quite a learning curve because we all wrote this charter thing and this ordinance collectively with outside partners and our attorneys and everything else, and have been working really hard to implement it.

And so partly we're going through it ourselves as as a as a corporate authority, and we're just wanting to know how it's working.

So that's all the questions is like is the you know um if there has been any confusion that came from the ordinance, please tell us because we need to amend that someday, you know.

Yes, yes, and again, we're in the thick of it as well.

But we just would it would be super helpful to us to let us know because it's such a new thing for the city and council is the body that's been trying to get all those details in place.

And so if we've missed any details, uh let us know.

Well, and I yes, I would be happy to do that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I I think what something that would be really helpful is just it's been um so we're we're not the the library, the corporate authority isn't responding to anything yet.

Oh, right because there's nothing that's happened for them to respond to.

So it feels um there's not always a great opportunity to be able to share that out to say that it's not the library commission holding things up, it's the union needing to get with triple A in order to make the next thing happen.

So there's nothing they can technically respond to yet.

And so it makes I just want to be clear that nobody is avoiding or dragging their feet.

There's if you're following the process, that's where we're stuck in the process right now, and it's nothing we can do.

So just to clarify that, it feels hard sometimes that we can't always say that.

Um, and it really should be something CWA is educating their potential members on that they need to do work with triple A and to follow the process.

Or us as the city government making sure that that word gets out to labor too, because I think I think it's been mutual befuddlement.

So good.

Well, this helps the QS very helpful.

And that clarity is very important.

It's hard, yeah.

I'll go to councilwoman Lewis online.

Thanks, Mr.

Thank you.

And um, I appreciate you uh councilwoman member parity for that question because I had a similar one.

Um I actually wanted to know about the deferred maintenance.

Do you all have a number that you all are operating with in terms of um deferred maintenance?

Do we have that yet or are we still working on that?

I know it's a goal for this year to have a very comprehensive strategy to our deferred maintenance.

Yeah, again, can we answer this better because he's working on our six-year CIP plan that covers our deferred maintenance, but we have those exact numbers in all the projects that would be your mark point.

Hi, Tony Kaufman, director of facilities and planning.

Um so yeah, I can speak to uh the deferred maintenance and that it's somewhat predictable uh as we catch up with these current bond projects.

It's really going to reset those locations in terms of life cycle.

Uh and so it's also then uh notable that we've got more uh and we're able to prioritize and forecast those uh based on their performance and also their age.

Uh and with Department of Finance, we have delivered a draft CIP budget.

Um that CIP budget is for the next six years, but then we've also extended that.

You can really see the next round of renovations that will need to happen beyond vibrant.

So we have a pretty good idea and some good sight lines in terms of where conditions at, uh, what's business critical required for occupancy for public services and what we'll need to do next.

The numbers are still being estimated, of course, for that, uh, because it works substantial, but we have a lot of data from these current uh renovations, and we're able to have some solid estimates for that.

Great.

And I know you all usually come uh present at budget when we have our budget hearing, so we'll look forward to hopefully having that number then.

Councilwoman Lewis, did you have more?

Yeah, that's great.

I appreciate you um saying that.

Um, Councilwoman Abidoz.

Uh I just have uh one more question.

And I only seen this on Instagram, and I always miss it, and I'm always very excited about it.

And I would love to know when you all are doing the partnerships with RGD and um the writing and reading on the bus or on the trailer.

Oh, yes, yes.

Because I only see it after the fact, and I want to participate, but I also would love to tell my constituents as well.

Um thank you, Councilwoman Lewis.

Um, I love that you touched on that.

Um I if I could gush for a moment.

Um I'm so proud of the work that is coming out.

Um I feel like libraries have always done an extraordinary job um really taking care of our little ones, like zero to five, we crush it in getting kids ready for school and ready to read, and then we do an amazing job with our senior citizens, getting them tech savvy.

Um, but we sort of uh we haven't always done the best job with adults, right?

And so we have this initiative around Joy of Reading.

Um, and it is extraordinary.

So one book one Denver is in that purview, but these opportunities to get together and read, um, these silent book clubs, the get on a train and read together is amazing.

And we're again we're seeing that that desire and love from the community to be together, and it's you know, 40 fifty, 30, 40, 50 year olds, like it's amazing.

So um there is an adult services newsletter that you can subscribe to on our website, and then you'll get a heads up on all of these.

They're also in our engage and connectionis publications.

Um, but there's just so much work, and we've so we have amazing talented staff that are thinking through um how do adults want to engage in the library and what does that look like today?

And the creativity is off the charts.

So um, so again, on our website, you can subscribe to different newsletters.

There's one around adult services, and and it's us, like we're adult services now.

Um, it's not seniors, it's this age group that we're trying to be very intentional about reconnecting with.

And that library is just that welcoming place that people feel safe and interested in coming back.

And um, and again, the creativity coming out of this this team is really profound.

So lots more to come, but this is a newer initiative that got launched last year with our 2025 strategic plan.

And I'm so proud of their work.

Great.

I mean, it's nice to not have to drive and you get to educate yourself.

And it's probably it's your tax dollars at work, like it is the best thing ever.

So yeah.

Wonderful.

Well, thank you.

Uh, Councilwoman Romero Campbell is next in the keeper.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Oh, are you done, Councilwoman Lewis?

I thought you said that was your last one.

Okay, just one more.

Um, I really I really appreciate that.

And um as an introvert, I love the idea of being able to be in company with people, but people being very quiet in reading.

Um, that's one.

And I did not know about the subscription to the New York Times, and so I'm very excited to share that as well with one myself, but also my constituents.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Lewis.

Councilwoman Romero Campbell.

Um thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh, a lot of my questions were um answered specifically for Southeast Denver and the library.

So I just appreciate the partnership um in and doing the outreach and making sure the community knows um about the closures and and timeline, et cetera.

Um the bookmobiles, thank you also for getting those online.

Do you know if like what I know we're still kind of working, or you have a general idea as to where those locations would be.

What are the hours of a bookmobile or that you're anticipating them being available?

Sure.

And I can get this confirmed for you, just so I'm not speculating.

Um we so it's really interesting.

Normally, in traditional bookmobile service, you go to places that don't have a brick and mortar facility.

The philosophy of kind of outreach or bookmobile service is very different.

Um traditionally, we're now supplementing places that have library branches, but those branches are offline.

So we have talked about making sure that when possible, we will have dates and times in the parking lot or adjacent to those branches.

And then going to a myriad of other places that our staff has identified as high need.

So again, making it to some of our senior retirement communities that would have gone to a branch, but they can't go to that branch now.

So we're gonna bring the bookmobile there and do what's called lobby service.

So we'll fill holds, we'll take returns, but we'll also bring materials in on book carts.

Um, but we're looking at a myriad of different places to make those connections and touch points.

So some of the places we've already figured out that we're doing some programming and outreach with our um our rec centers and schools and parks, but where are the other places that we could take these bookbone bills?

So we will have we can get to you what that schedule will look like.

And again, we'll have two in that rotation in those communities, really focused on serving um where those branches are offline.

So I can get you more detailed information.

It's normally a five to six day a week service.

Yeah, okay.

That's that's great.

Five to six day a week services.

Right.

And and kind of like those bulk operating hours like nine to six, nine to five.

Um, and we'll figure out you know, we can get you that list of because it's a very thoughtful uh curation of where they're going and why, so we can get you those dates and times of where they're gonna be on what days in those communities.

Yeah, and it's been incredibly helpful also the website that you have for Southeast Denver.

Um I think it's uh Denver library.org backslash Southeast and there is a a calendar up there.

So for those who are watching, I just want people to know that there's ways that they can also connect and that there are additional bookmobile services, um, and just that we appreciate that you're able to get those online quickly.

Yeah, and I think that will really round out the service and make it more comprehensive and less painful for um for our patrons who have their branches offline.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, one thing I will add is um we will be asking the community for input on areas where we should be going in Southeast Denver, and so there is a survey that we'll be launching, and people will be able to provide just some quick hey, this is where you should come, and it's gonna be in different languages as well, so that we get that feedback um from the community directly.

That's great.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Councilman Heinz.

Thank you.

Uh committee chair.

Um you have big shoes to fill.

Um, and I think uh Director Jeske was a fabulous librarian.

Um I think you're filling those shoes quite well.

So um thank you for uh thank you for giving up your relinquishing your spot as the state librarian uh for this little product town called Denver.

So two uh two kind of um veins.

I was really just gonna talk more about uh um uh renovations, but uh since council member parody mentioned uh the union process, and really I think the nature of the question is about the process, not about advocacy in any one way or another.

Um although you are quoted in Denverite in October of last year saying, quote, I support our staff's right to unionize.

So um just putting that um uh adjacent to the conversation that uh the council member parody had.

So other than that, I'll just leave that there.

Um the uh when you're talking about it astounds you that there would be a renovation without thinking about restrooms.

That astounds me too.

Um as someone who um many times have to have the uh I have to make a decision to not patronize a business or institution because uh I can't use the restroom there.

So um there are lots of places today um in Denver where I cannot um I I can't even get in the door of the restroom, much less um you know uh access the the the restroom services.

Um that's kind of important.

Um, you know, like if you're going to a restaurant or uh you know uh meeting friends, um it's uh uh what goes in must come out, and um, and so you know, if I'm uh having a drink with friends and cannot pee, then um uh that's an unfortunate situation that I've experienced more than once um in my nearly 18 years.

The city did a few years ago, I think this is kind of the nature of the question.

The city did an audit a few years ago of the hundreds of um city buildings, libraries adjacent.

So I don't think I I don't know if you were part of that ADA audit, but um we looked at every city building, including all the parks buildings, uh determine the the level of um ADA compliance.

And so I wonder if yeah, Councilmember Hines.

Great question.

So I saw this right when I came in, and just the libraries alone.

We had over a thousand physical ADA barriers that we need to remediate.

We're down to I think it's around 400.

So we remeded over 600 of those barriers and continue to remediate those through the bond projects through supplemental DI and the Friends Foundation to get those as down as low as we can.

Now some of our buildings are old Carnegie buildings, there's gonna be some limitations that we can, but the goal is to get to remediate all a thousand of those barriers just for what you're saying.

Yeah, and um just as I was putting a um a quote of yours uh you know associated with the conversation council member parody had just a uh another kind of uh data element associated with the ADA renovation.

Uh Americans with Disabilities Act is a compliance law, and it is the minimum.

Um it is uh you know the absolute baseline that um that an organization can do to to follow the minimum.

So I I hope at some point um as you take off you get close to a thousand um the conversation gets more to let's engage the disability community to make a welcoming and safe environment for uh for for everyone, including people with disabilities.

A lot of times the disability community is the lowest common denominator.

Some with a wheelchair can get around and some with a vision impairment can get around, then it is a broad and inviting experience for or broader and more inviting experience for everyone.

Okay.

We will definitely do that back, and thank you.

And when we look at accessibility is not just the physical barriers, but then also digital accessibility.

It's very, very broad, and we have multiple teams that actually are working at this in DPL, as well as then a team that's overseen as an umbrella to to break down those silos, even within DPL as we look at this because we understand it is a very, very broad and massive thing that we need to tackle.

Thank you so much.

I just want to be respectful of Denver Parks and Rec because we have another presentation.

Um, because we could talk to you all all day, so maybe we need to have you back.

I just want to close by saying thank you for all the work that you're doing.

I think restrooms is a key thing.

We don't have public restrooms around the city anymore.

But you all open your doors to everyone, and that's extremely helpful and meaningful.

So I know that wanting to get these branches open is also exciting.

And also future conversation want to talk about.

I know you all have previously, and I haven't got an update, but we love to talk about how you all have visited like the tiny home village in my district to ensure they had tech services, and how you all have been working with Urban Peak Shelter for Youth and those things.

And I think we can just go on and on about all the services that you offer for free to everyone.

So thank you.

That's all.

Appreciate your time, and welcome Parks and Rec up next.

Thanks so much for your time.

Good morning, Council.

Uh Joel Clark, executive director of Denver Parks and Recreation.

Good morning, community engagement specialist with Denver Parks and Recreation.

What's your name?

Straight for straight for the title.

And then also have several team members that we'll introduce while we're getting set up on the computer here.

Sheila Urban, Finance Director.

Hi, good morning, Gordon Robertson, director of park planning, design, and construction.

Hello, Yoli Casada, Director of Marketing and Communications.

Good morning, Luke Talon City Forrester.

Good morning, John Martinez, deputy executive director of parks recreation.

Awesome.

Well, thank you.

Thank you so much for having us.

We'll walk you through our presentation and hopefully have some time for questions here at the end.

So a couple things just to start uh, you know, kind of reminders of the core um uh mission of who we are.

I'm not gonna go through and you've seen this a bunch of times last a lot of time on it, but this next slide is one of my favorites because it really does give that idea of scale and scope of our system.

Um I like to look at different things on this and pull it out uh each time.

So the 348 miles of trails and park walks.

I did a little looking, and if you were to to walk across the state of Colorado, I'm not sure you this is the trail, it's just the measurement, so it might take longer to actually walk it on the paths that we have.

But the state of Colorado from east to west is 380 miles.

So you can almost walk the same distance as walking across the entire state of Colorado, never leaving our awesome uh Denver parks uh uh trails and park walks.

So it's just another thing that maybe you haven't thought about.

Um, that's also uh a lot of walks to clear snow off of um when a snowstorm is coming.

Um so uh so again back to our our core functions and some uh 2025 highlights.

You can see 2.76 million rec users.

Um we have different registrations.

We have our My Denver and our My Denver Primes or our two categories uh of special use within that 23 million park visitors, and again, we use that um data from folks' cell phones that we've presented to you uh before to kind of be able to uh quantify that usage even without having gates or entrances on that.

Um you saw it's part of the citywide goal on planting trees last year and the number of trees that we planted, 110 active capital projects.

So when we talk about you know, just the from the facilities side, right?

You just heard from the library and the facilities we have.

We have you know um just rec centers or 30 about to be 31 rec centers.

Um that's not counting all the playgrounds and all the other capital um programs.

So 110 active capital projects.

Um you can also see a little bit of uh how much permitting we do, how many volunteer hours we take, um, and then this is kind of our core function of recreation golf parks, our playing design and construction forestry, our mountain park system, 14,000 acres outside the city limits uh uh of Denver, and then our uh board staff through administration.

Um you'll see some of our top level goals, each of our divisions.

Again, we're we're a large organization, so each of our divisions all the way down, um, has um goals for the year, and then we pull up some of those goals that either tie into uh the citywide goals that the mayor's office has or areas that need some cross collaboration with other departments or internally across divisions.

And so you'll see here our goals around engaging young people through our summer camp permit program, specifically around PI zones, really focusing on providing night moves and summer wreck kids' slots, our downtown parks.

We have a lot of activity going on right now with Civic Center and with Skyline, and so really focusing on making sure that as those projects continue and then uh reopen that we're ready to fully activate those uh spaces.

We're focused on hitting 100% of the project milestones for all of our new vibrant Denver uh projects within 45 days of their deadlines, and then initiating 40 acres of landscape transformations, including uh the uh area in our front lawn here, right at the city and county building where we've launched the landscape transformation right outside.

The game plan for Healthy City is uh kind of our our guiding uh strategic document.

This was um that we hold.

And so you'll see as we move through here, we've kind of organized uh the stuff that we're working on, and that we're highlighting for you today around our game plan.

The game plan framework is uh broken up into adapt, diversify and grow, reinvest and connect.

And so, again, you're gonna see those and more information on each one as we kind of go through how we are how that is guiding the work that we do.

Uh the other big piece that guides the work that we do is our equity map and the closing the 10-minute walk-roll gap for our community.

And so I again we've had a full presentation on this, so I'm not gonna go deep into it today, but as a reminder, we take the city's equity map and then we layer on park specific indicators on top of that.

So you might see this and say, wait, that those colors aren't exactly the same because it's taking that underlying equity data and we're adding in that 10-minute walk roll, how many acres of total park acres, um, and then looking at per capita investment in those areas that we kind of overlap to give us our our maps that also drive the work that we do.

So moving into uh our adapt uh uh framework from game plan, you'll see that there are a couple of things that we're calling out big projects that we're doing.

Obviously, right now, uh despite the current weather outside, um, we are in a drought, and so managing um uh the water use as Denver Water's largest user, uh customer number one.

Um, so managing our water use to make sure that we are delivering on the savings uh that Denver Water needs us to come up with from a drought standpoint while also continuing to provide vibrant public spaces that can be used and permitted and everyone can you you know have all those things that that is very top of mind for us this year in how we manage.

We've just just on May 1st entered that uh period of time between May 1st and October 31st, where we will be actively managing all of those, just to give you again an idea of scale when we talk about this.

We have over a thousand different accounts with Denver Water different meters that are being measured as we come in.

Uh, and then again, our landscape transformation program uh continuing to advance that work.

Uh, the work that's been done in those landscape transformations over the past years is really serving us well right now because we have those landscapes that are more resilient, that do use less water, that are beautiful, they're attracting pollinators and all of the ecosystem benefits, but they also are more tolerant when we are experience the drops that we're doing.

So we have a couple of projects this year that are in that, including the living land area at uh City Park, our 56th and chambers, um, and then the city and county building project in that.

Also in our adapt category is uh a lot of times you'll see a focus on how many trees did we plant, how many trees did we plant?

But really, from a forestry perspective, we're really focused on how many of the trees that we planted are still gonna be there in a year and three years and five years and ten years and twenty years and beyond, because that is really the value uh of our canopy as those trees continue to mature.

So we are faking putting a lot of emphasis, especially with the drought, on supporting the trees that were just established that are going to be very um intolerant to you know decreasing amounts of uh precipitation in water, and so how are we augmenting that well with a watering plan to make sure that those trees survive and thrive, um, but also making sure that throughout, as we're making decisions about how to conserve that water in a drought, how are we making sure that we're doing it in a way that supports our existing canopy?

Um, also uh managing for the emerald ash bore, as you heard last year, it was officially found in Denver, and so continuing to not only plant trees so that as we lose those ash trees, those trees are growing in, but also our active management and treatment of the high value ash trees that we have.

Um you'll also see uh forestry rules and regs updates coming through uh this year, and then we launched the fires pilot program in the mountain parks with uh CASER, the Mile High Youth Corps, and the Denvian Denver Indian Center as a pilot for uh fire stands for focused indigenous restoration and ecological stewardship.

And then we launched the fires pilot program in the mountain parks with uh CASER, the Mile High Youth Corps, and the Denvian Denver Indian Center as a pilot for uh fire stands for focused indigenous restoration and ecological stewardship.

Uh it's a program that employs local young people to learn about fire ecology, forest health, uh, and really work on fire mitigation efforts in our mountain parks.

So those are some of the other things that will be happening.

And then continuing the adapt, also looking at the uh universal recycling and composting ordinance and how are we rolling that out across of all of our facilities, both uh front of house and the public facing parts of rec centers, but also back of house in our maintenance facilities and those other um uh buildings that we have.

Um we continue to replace and convert our handheld uh two cycle gas oil equipment and electrify it as we continue to um uh experiment with new technology in our spaces and upgrade our uh ability to plug all of these new uh things in.

And then we're also working on building a fit uh efficiency uh lighting to LED, converting plumbing fixtures to low flow, um, and that's on the smaller scale just renovation projects, but also our larger scale.

Uh, like last year we rolled out our Smith Road facility as the first net zero building in Denver in our parks and rec system.

Um, and then we're also uh working with Dotti and General Services on that full building audit to really look at what is it gonna take to fully support the electrification needs that are coming, whether it's a fleet side, it's small equipment, it's the larger equipment as those things become ready to make sure that we have a plan to also uh make sure that our facilities are ready for that as the uh equipment is available.

Uh moving on to our grow and diversify area of our game plan.

Uh, under that you'll see expansion of our parks and amenities.

We have the new Heron Pond, Carpio Sanguinetti Regional Park that is a uh a big and was a partnership with uh wastewater or stormwater systems, our Bethesda Park uh under construction right now, which was the first parcel ever purchased with the park legacy fund that will be coming on uh and uh and is under construction, and also some new pickleball courts coming in at Lowry and Rosemont that the community's been asking for for a long time.

We also have our uh Swansea indoor pool, so the upgrade of the pool from uh outdoor uh eight-week to nine week season to a full can be used all year round.

There are a whole host of upgrades to the center as well.

We invite all of you to come out and join us, I believe, at the end of this month for the ribbon cutting on that one, and then continuing to move forward also on the Westwood Recreation Center, uh, which is uh moving ahead on schedule as our newest rec center to add to the system.

And then we also have several strategic planning efforts that were going on right now.

Uh one of the biggest ones is our recreation plan, really looking at how many recreation centers do we have, how is it serving?

We have kind of a legacy system of smaller neighborhood centers and a more uh, you know, uh uh the way we're building them now, is more of these regional centers that have all of these amenities.

Well, what's the right fix?

How what does recreation look like?

What do we want it as a community to look like 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, so really having those conversations with community and with all of you around our recreation plan.

Also, um, you know, Park Hill Park as our newest regional amenity, um, and then we also have Garfield Park, a pathway study, some mountain parks work, and the Kennedy Golf course in that strategic planning effort areas that are moving forward.

And then we're continue to look at ways that we can activate our parks and our recreation centers in tandem with the PI zones.

Uh, so it's supporting that work uh holistically.

We we have all of our teams, including forestry working, you know, it's uh sometimes uh these things uh happen and it's great, it's a priority.

Say, hey, this area is experiencing um some negative activity and better lighting would help with that.

But without that coordination with our uh City Forester office of the City Forester, making sure that when we're putting in new lighting to that the community is asking for, and that helps with these sites, that that is not at the expense of our tree canopy, that we replacing it in ways that does the least uh damage to our trees, and so continuing to collaborate on that while also adding in those activations for uh young people and for park users.

Uh moving on to our reinvest area uh of game plan.

We, as you heard, we have uh a goal to um initiate all 17 of the uh bond projects from Vibrant Bond that DPR is a part of, so get them rolling in some form or fashion before the end of the year.

There's also construction underway as you've seen and see uh every day down here at Civic Center Park, Skyline Park is also under construction downtown, and then we have several in that 110 capital projects, lots of them.

I don't name them all here, but some uh parks and playgrounds and sport courts.

We just had the ribbon cutting at La Raza Park on Friday.

We have a Ruby Hill outdoor adventure hub under construction, um, and then the um mess hall and barrack one renovation uh up at the CCC camp.

They were they're just I just saw some pictures where they're moving buildings around up there, and then several uh upgrades to different ball fields, and then also uh continue to do that preventative maintenance, especially uh here highlighting on some of our pools, making sure that they're all continuing to uh stay operational as bigger bond projects come in to do the bigger work.

Uh you also heard last year about our consolidation of our permitting across parks and and the recreation size of the house.

Uh last year, if you wanted to permit something in the park, so the Wash Park Boathouse or the you know um City Park Pavilion, you called one number and worked with one team, but if you wanted to have your meeting inside at a rec center uh in the community space, it was actually a whole different system.

So we've brought those teams together.

It's now one point of entry for our residents for all of your constituents to say, hey, I'm looking for to have a graduation party, and it could be indoor, it could be outdoor, it could be quasi indoor outdoor, what are all the different things that you have?

Uh and so we're we've continue to bring that all together in one place.

Um and then our park operations continue to look at our our maintenance schedules, our trash automation.

We have uh some of our districts that have trash that is being collected by uh a small um truck that has an arm on it that makes it so they can get to that trash collection much quicker.

Um, and some of them are still, you know, where we're coming by and having to hand pick the uh trash cans into pickup trucks, so we continue to work towards more automation so that we can get uh to that trash as quickly as possible, and then continue to work on uh our our placement of portalets using data to back that up.

Uh there was a history um of before we had access to all that user data uh that we use from uh from the cell phone data, where it was just hey, somebody calls in and says there aren't enough portalets in my park, and the the department would just keep you know trying to address that based on calls.

But as we know, not every community feels as comfortable uh or or knows how to navigate the system to get into that.

And so what we found when we really started looking at the cell phone data was that that was not an equal equitable distribution of portalists.

There were a whole lot in areas where you're you know, and you've look at how many daily users at peak do you need one portal at for?

And there are places where there were way more than would would be kind of that standard, and places where there were none, even though there was uh a ton of people in there.

And so we now um have a this awesome uh dashboard um that the teams put together that allows you to go park by park, it uses the data, it looks at it across every different month of the year, so there's a seasonality to it, and there will be parks that don't maybe don't have a portal at year-round, but do once they reach kind of those thresholds for usage so that we can really try to make sure that we have uh portalettes as equitably placed across the city as possible.

And that means that we will have we have them in more parks um than they were before, um, and continuing to refine really that um data.

So we have our data team works with our field staff to say, hey, what are you what are you experiencing here?

What's happening here?

There's this blip in usage here, what's going on there?

Oh, that's a uh permitted event.

Well, they're bringing in their own portalette, so we don't need to bring in, or it's not something, it's something that happens all the time, but it's not something that's gonna bring in portalets, and so how do we um uh adjust that um and have that both the the data side of that but also the um you know the folks working in the field saying, hey, this is my observation.

Um of course we've had two of them that were completely blown up and burned to the ground in the last couple weeks, so we're also combating that continuing um vandalism of our plum dress rooms, which then close them down until we can initiate a capital project with which often is not on our six-year CIP, so we're we we're you know shuffling things to get that on.

Um, but even with our portalets, we continue to see a high level of vandalism and loss uh within that.

Um moving on to our connect um uh uh pillar in the framework.

Um as you all saw, we are launching uh full operations at uh Mount Blue Sky as it reopens later this month.

We'll hope you'll join us for that.

Um and we'll have our uh mountain parks team uh kind of taking on not just the responsibility for for the mountain parks that are up there but also um with operations uh at the gates kind of for that.

We also have our new concession operations that again I won't get into a lot because we just talked about that as it came through council at Pahhashka up at Lookout Mountain.

Um we continue to expand uh and thank you to council for extending removing the sunset from our bison ordinance.

We also are working uh with our Daniels herd to expand their grazing area with uh Highlands Ranch backcountry wilderness area.

We also are working uh with our Daniels herd to expand their grazing area with uh Highlands Ranch backcountry wilderness area um that are still working out all of the fencing and containment and all that, but continue to push that forward to have more land for that herd to uh graze on, and then we're also have been working with uh Councilman Watson and uh the entire team with Dottie and Jeff Co.

Open Space and Dinosaur Ridge in the town of Morrison, um uh mountain parks foundation, Green Latinos on this pilot shuttle that will work um across and connect to different Denver Mountain Parks, uh Jefferson County open spaces, um, and then some of those cultural destinations as well.

And then we continue to work on activation uh downtown uh uh as we reached out to all of you earlier.

We've launched a pilot program at Common Spark, a community that has really liked having that park be more activated, and so we have a pilot out right now um uh offering a few dates available for folks to bring ABEs in that we're working with the community to see if that is something that they would like um uh in that format to have more availability on that.

Um, and then we're also continuing to look at uh food and beverage.

That's uh maybe the number one thing that people come up to me and talk about.

They're like, hey, I was just in Chicago, New York, Paris, and I could grab um, you know, uh uh a hot dog or a soda in a park.

Why can't I do that at this park that I'm in all the time?

And so we continue to look at opportunities for that.

Skyline Park will have a purpose-built space for food and beverage in it, uh, the boat house uh uh at Sloan's Lake as we move maintenance operations out of there and really build the community was asking for a rentable community space, which will also be in there, uh, but there's enough room for that and uh a small food and beverage offering in there, and so we're continuing to do that, and you'll see an RFP going out looking at uh activation uh food and beverage activations at different locations as we have the ability to um and then our adaptive golf program was able to hire a full-time adaptive golf coordinator.

So we're really leaning in and expanding on our adaptive golf, uh developing a strategic plan for adaptive golf, and then working with grant writers to possibly look at uh more money to expand that um and kind of the access with um uh golf carts and and and getting onto the course with that.

Our ranger uh education programs continue to grow in addition to you know, you hear about them sometimes on the more enforcement side and reminding people about dogs off-leash uh as our number one complaint that we get, but also uh our rangers do a ton of education programs, um uh fishing programs, and then we are already having uh one of our biggest years when it comes to volunteer uh groups coming and adding those hours and cleanup, which is great for our team as we continue to grow and expand kind of that volunteer base that supports us both through groups that are kind of dedicated to specific parks or a specific garden, and also groups that just come in and say, hey, what's your area of highest need?

And we can kind of put them to work on whatever area needs the most care.

Um, so we have uh an awesome showing from our volunteers so far.

I think with that, that was um our presentation at this point.

Wanted to make sure that we had time if you had questions and so have questions and have the team here to answer what you might do.

Wonderful, thank you for that.

Covered so much that you all do.

So we'll start with Councilman Romero Campbell.

Thank you, uh Madam Chair, and thank you for the presentation.

It's a lot that you guys are working on.

Uh I wanted to ask specifically we get one question.

Yes, if you can stick to one.

Okay, we've got one question here.

And maybe we'll get back around and then we have documents.

And then we can be back around.

Um, I wanted to talk about older adults and some of the services um through the parks that um that I've been hearing from um my constituents.

Um, one is the portalets and the accessibility for those portalets.

I think we have a few, but just really having it easier, the the step-ups and stuff is just more difficult.

Um, and then also for seniors and things that I've been hearing about a lot is um around adult playgrounds.

And I think that I was like, what is an adult playground?

But what I believe that they are with what I've been told and what they've been talking about is along the trail having places to do like exercise and stretching and so forth.

And is there any consideration of like putting that or looking at older adults within the project plan?

Uh I don't know, Gordon, if the team's already looked at any of that yet, or if we can get plugged into here.

As you said, a workout area, um, specifically designed for older adults to stretch to work out, do it together in a park environment.

Yep.

So you'll see that.

We are the three uh pilot areas as well in south easily.

Um I will get that information to you.

Uh I don't think we've decided it yet, so we can look hard in that area.

We are we are geographically trying to disperse them.

Okay.

Um so it may very well end up in your area, but if not, I think they'll be successful and we'll do more.

Yes.

Um we've just got a lot of very active older adults that are in the parks all the time, and you know, it's to your point earlier, it's it's um just need the place to stop and go to the restroom and so forth and having to work out that's just adding a little bit of variety to their to the day.

Totally agree.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Um we'll go to councilwoman Lewis online.

Thank you.

Um my one question is regarding the cuts for park rangers.

If you all can provide to us um where those cuts have taken place, because I've gotten some concerns um in my district about uh a lack of like maintenance and things of that nature, and I just was curious if you can give us a comprehensive understanding of um how the cuts to park rangers have impacted the overall system um within the city and county of Denver.

And I'm sorry, just to I was having a little trouble here.

Park rangers or park maintenance staff.

Are you looking for just like just so I can get you?

Sorry, were you done?

I didn't want to interrupt you.

Yeah, go ahead.

Okay.

Um so a combination of both the park rangers and the park maintenance.

So how the cuts have affected both of those aspects um within your system.

Yeah, uh we can follow up with you on that.

Thank you.

Great.

Uh councilman Heinz.

Thank you, community chair.

Um, since I get one question, uh I think my question, I mean, so we've gone so many directions.

Um you're talking about adding a restaurant into Skyland Park uh restaurant um into Skyland Park, a restaurant, some Sloan's Lake Books.

Oh, yeah, the right work right.

Yeah, um, you know, government um a lot of times works on projects that um don't make financial sense from a private for-profit perspective.

Um I know that Cheesema Park um in the 80s had uh a um private restaurant immediately adjacent to the park.

Um there's also another one uh that's uh that operated about nine months and shut down that uh that was also immediately adjacent to cheese and so um I guess uh the one the restaurants will be part of the park system, not an enterprise, correct?

Correct.

Yeah, the I mean, so we similar to like the golf courses have restaurants, and there's a concession agreement with the city, that lives in the golf enterprise, but this these would not be in that enterprise, would be and again, Secret Garden Cafe or it's a replacement that is working on opening that is on private property, it just happens to have zero line between it and park, but these would be structures within the park on a concession agreement similar to our golf courses.

And then the second question is our one question.

Second part, yeah.

I thought that was the second one.

So um, how does parks consider um the profit when operating you know, restaurants or concessionaries?

Because government doesn't have to generate a profit, it can provide a service to the people who go to the parks, but yeah, but I'm curious about great, great.

We don't want to just drive the you know, like have more park ranger layoffs because we're doing concessions at Group.

Great question.

Right.

That the number one driver is the user experience, is creating a user experience in the same way that there are people who are like, hey, I want to be at the park and I want a playground.

Hey, I want to be at the park and I would like you know this activity to be their basketball football, right?

There are people who say, hey, I want to be in the park and I want to be able to grab a drink while my kids play in this new splash pad at the park at Skyline, or I want to sit by Sloan's Lake and I want to be able to grab you know a grab and go sandwich and sit there while I do it.

So we we are focused, you know, not whereas private enterprise would be focused on okay, what's the bottom line?

How do we make money on that?

Um that gives us flexibility to work out, right?

Not having um land costs because we we are that work out an agreement with that concessionaire that makes sure that it is sensitive to this is a different place to run that kind of operation and it's a different kind of operation.

It's not gonna be a you know sit-down kind of um you know restaurant necessarily.

It's more grab and go counter service kind of thing.

So to work that out without needing to turn a profit, but also to make sure that we're covering costs and hopefully bringing some more money back into the system um to help pay for those things and so not at the at the cost of, but adding to the guest experience and maybe adding some revenue at the end of the day as well.

My third question, just kidding.

Uh, appreciate that.

I appreciate thinking about the city of revenue.

My third question just kidding uh appreciate that I appreciate thinking about the city of revenue councilwoman parody yes um this is such a huge presentation to try to fit into one um council meeting and I have there's a lot to absorb about it and I really appreciate it I have a question that's um trying to open the PDF while I'm which is why I'm not making eye contact but um I have a question that relates a little bit to something that you may be coming back to committee for if it if it's able to be scheduled um but just as we get into summer we always get all kinds of consequent questions about rec centers obviously because everybody uses them and everybody loves them um so one question I've had from constituents and just wanted to I think put to rest people were concerned that with water restrictions we might not do some of the outdoor pools this summer is that on the under under Denverwater's current drought thing which will be for this season we are allowed to fill outdoor pools so all the outdoor pools will be filled okay I will quash that we were anywhere I hear it um and very concerned about the drones but I'm also glad that it's not impacting the pools and we will be just about people from doing their home pool.

Yeah and you can also tell people that we will still deliver on the 20% savings that we need to for Denver water even with that.

So that's the flexibility of having as big a system as we have a thousand different accounts is we can still fill that pool and still um through incremental changes achieve that water savings.

Great yeah and I know you've made a lot of progress in water savings that I have tracked and appreciate very much and if it's okay the second piece of that sure and then we'll get back and so that's great because we have some time.

Okay thanks sorry um is just when when people are um I've had a number of you I know a lot of parents okay I am one um and people always raise with me the process of registering for summer lessons and swim lessons and all that um I'm sure you hear about that even more than I do.

I'm just curious if the system for registration for swim lessons and all those things what happens is it opens up um at a time that's at noon um and you just first come first serve so everybody kind of goes in there and usually the slots are filled by like 1203 because they're so popular.

And so I have long wondered if there's ever been a thought to changing that in any way mostly because you know doing it in the middle of a workday and in a way where like the speed of your internet connection really matters I just worry about the equities of that I don't know what a better way would be um but I wonder about it every year.

Thank you Madam Chair John come up and talk to you about the the various iterations of one of the one of the things before John gets up that John's team has has done is found a way to add more slots specifically on some of that stuff.

It's still sold out real quick so we're not there yet but one of it is supply and demand which we would also love to get to in fact place where we have better supply but yeah because people love the lessons I mean I I did look at that so John Martinez the deputy um we have modified our registration over the years right to meet that demand um one of the things we did implement was a whole 10% for walk-in um for folks that did have that digital divide um but it is it's one of those challenges that we're trying to balance with the popularity of swim lessons um but we did add an additional 164 slots this last uh go around by uh pausing the private rentals okay so as you guys should remember um we paused the private rentals until we figured out um the greater community benefit okay um thank you i i'm glad to know that glad I asked thanks thank you so much um I think that's a really important question and something we do struggle with are those available like only for that day is it until they fill up for the in-person ones uh they're that day but they go just as quick as the online so trying to find that balance again um but my team is always looking at ways to improve our registration system uh and so it's it's on one hand it's a great thing our our programs are popular and they fill up um but on the other hand we we do have folks that are upset when they can't get their kiddos in um no okay let me just get in with one question um just uh I know we had set aside funding for Aspergen Park this year and I'm curious where we're at on getting the design contract and getting that going hi Gordon Robertson graduate park planning design and construction um that project is gonna be under design later this year I don't believe it's been assigned yet to a project manager we have a backlog of projects but that one is on our Q in our queue and should be underway later this summer early fall.

Okay if we could get a list of that queue that would be helpful.

Sure.

All right thank you so much Councilwoman Romero Campbell sorry to speed along everyone has so many great events.

So thank you council um committee chair I so we recently passed a bond and I thought Patrick was in the room that's why I kept looking back um he was I think there were a number of bond projects that are related to rec center improvements.

Um how do you anticipate that that will start?

I know they're looking at tranches and and moving forward.

Um I recently um with our last presentation, the two library renovations for those bond projects closed down both the libraries in Southeast Denver.

And so we are without two libraries and kind of that surrounding area total of five that uh council member parody had mentioned.

Are you thinking about like what that bond rollout looks like and what that capacity would be just because I know for Eisenhower it's gonna be for pool repair um and to update the kitty pool, I believe.

Those are the two things that were being put in there.

So just kind of thinking forward.

I know you're thinking, you know, about summer and registration, but what does that look like in the next year or so?

The bond projects, I'm sorry, Gordon Robertson, director of park planning is on instruction.

Um the bond projects are fairly minimal in in uh scope.

Um I think Eisenhower is the one that might have some impact.

Uh but we will do the pool work off season.

Um and the interior work shouldn't close the building, no, nor should it close Montbellow, the other bond project.

Um it's all work that we can do and keep the rec center running.

Great.

That's good news.

And do you know or do you have an anticipated timeline as to when those renovations would happen for Eisenhower?

Um the bond team is putting that uh out publicly here shortly if it isn't already on the website.

Uh, but that's being worked on right now.

Great, thank you.

Thank you.

Is that uh did you have anything councilman?

Oh, you had another one.

No, it's okay.

Okay, Councilman Heinz, did you have anything else?

No, thank you.

Okay, um, I did have a couple more, maybe one for follow-up.

Is since the scrap metal ordinance, have you seen less scrap metal theft?

I'm curious.

Um our backflows, our biggest scrap metal piece, right?

Uh John Russia's deputy, uh, that's correct.

The backflows, we had a significant increase last season.

Um, what my team has now installed is plastic backflows, so they seem to be working a lot better.

Um, but we we still have theft of of copper and some of those backflows.

It's just an ongoing battle.

Um, but we have I mean, we're still early in the season with the drought and the delayed schedule, so um, I can have a better number come summertime.

Wonderful.

Yeah, I think that would be helpful to see.

And then um obviously this is a separate question.

Uh, with the snow anticipated tonight and the trees booming.

I'm curious if there's a strategy that parks has on how we save our trees at this moment.

That looks like our city forester.

So if you don't mind reaching out, right here.

Yes, Luke Cameron City Forester.

Um, yeah, with the anticipated weather, we we are asking residents to be mindful of their young trees, especially, uh newly planted trees.

Uh if they can and they're they can do within like safe means, we're asking that they shake their trees.

Uh we'll be sending out some messaging through our comms and marketing uh if that hasn't gone out already.

But basically, anything beyond like the younger trees, uh, if you see a failure, uh a damaged limb or something like that, uh, we ask you to report that through three one.

But uh, it is on our radar, our staff are prepared, and we are mindful of what's coming with this weather, and hopefully it's just rain.

I appreciate that.

And a cut another tree related question.

Um, with the drought restriction and with the with the budget cuts, we cut the tree watering, and there was talk about with the tree watering being cut, there was gonna be more education on that.

So I'm curious with that, what is that look like for this year?

Yeah, so to be clear, Denver Water is encouraging residents and customers to continue watering their trees by hand.

Um, we do want to make sure that those trees are successful in establishing.

Uh tree planting is also another service that is supported by Denver Water.

Uh, when it comes to the reduction that we're doing in-house, uh, we're doing it strategically across our department to make sure that those trees of significance are continuing to be watered.

But um, in certain areas, it is something that's we will continue to monitor.

Um, our internal staff or operations team is out there watering every single day.

We've been continuing to water even through this winter, um, and we're making sure that those trees are resilient through the summer and the expected uh drought.

So when you're watering by hand, is that once a week, once a day, once what is the recommendation?

So it kind of depends on on the tree size, right?

Uh so for newly like a small baby tree.

Yeah, so like newly planted trees, it's about a two-inch caliper.

Uh, we're asking residents if they have one, say, for example, they were um a recipient of our BS Smart Ash, where we plant trees in the public right away for free for our residents.

Uh, we're asking for assistance where they water those about 10 gallons per inch, so that'd be a 20-gallon watering cycle uh weekly or bi-weekly, depending on what the weather looks like, and then you can scale that up for larger mature trees, obviously.

Great.

Council owner, come on.

Um thank you.

I I guess it's tree related, but it's also about the um planting beds or the flower beds.

Will those be in the parks this year, or is that scheduled?

I know last year's we had a hold because of budget and they came back, but maybe you can just do that.

Yeah, we will be planting the beds that um uh need to be planted.

We have over the years converted a lot of those to um annuals.

Um everybody on the team got me on my bed.

I was like, it's a round sound got that one.

Um so those uh obviously there we've been converting, so those are already there, but yes, we we are continuing planting on those.

Wonderful.

Well, super heartwarming to see the removal of the grass outside this building.

So thank you for the work there, and thank you for all the amazing things that you're doing.

Appreciate you all.

And with that, do we have any consent?

We have one item on consent.

Since no one has pulled it off, we'll go ahead and move forward and thank you for that.

And this meeting is turned.

Thank you, Madam Chair.