Oh, it is a little bit more.

Just a walk.

Yeah, not the other.

Really?

It is IT ready, of course.

Okay.

So we are going to open this meeting and law the SD City Council and start off with the blood of Lincoln.

And Clark Better, did we get a roll call?

Mayor Topia Vega.

He's excused.

That's my understanding, isn't it?

Okay.

Oh, I don't know how it's sorry.

You asked for all but I didn't know how to give it.

Mayor Pro Tem Barnes?

Here.

Councilor Bullier.

Councilor Friedland?

Here.

Councilor Gallegos.

Good evening.

Counselor Tianola?

Here.

And Councilor Jensen.

Here.

Mayor, we have a quorum.

Mayor, I move to excuse Mayor Pro Tem.

I move to excuse Mayor Tapia Vega.

Can I get a second?

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Mayor Pro Cham.

I also move to excuse Councillor Bullier.

Second.

Any all approved?

Any opposed?

Aye.

All right.

So that stands.

There are both excuse.

And we're going to move right on to public input.

And for anyone who'd like to give public input, there are cards right out in the front lobby.

I do have stack here.

Please keep in mind we do have a five-minute limit.

And we'll call your name, please.

When you come up, do uh provide your address and you speak at the podium only when you get to the podium.

So we'll start off with Preston Patton.

Good evening, council and city manager and city attorney and staff.

My name is Preston Patton.

I live at 2389 Indian Peaks Trail in Lafayette.

If you see me fumbling with my notes, it'll is because I have outlived my eyes.

And we need more of that.

The Tebow property at the corner of 287 and Arapaho, however, is a unique piece of property for two reasons.

One, it sits at the corner of the two most horribly congested streets in Lafayette.

And the very last thing those streets need is to have several hundred new housing units plopped on that corner with those cars trying to get out on roads that are already congested.

Kensington wants to build on this corner.

And in the view of a lot of people should be, and that is a welcoming gateway to the wonderful community of Lafayette.

A property that says this is Lafayette.org petition, which now has over 2,600 signatures.

That's a hundred more than when I spoke to you two weeks ago.

A thousand of those signatures are from residents of Lafayette, your constituents.

If you look at the title of the petition, it says, do not annex this land for Lafayette Marketplace, the former name of the range.

And a majority of the other signatures are from residents of adjacent communities like Erie and Lewisville that would be impacted by uh by this project.

And all I can say is I hope that you will give every possible consideration to the requests of your constituents.

That I I would bet that there's not been another construction project that generated uh a thousand petition signatures against it.

And again, these signatories are not asking for changes in the Kensington plan.

They want you to reject it and uh have a welcoming gateway to our community.

Now I recognize there are challenges in achieving something like the AI image in front of you, challenges involving zoning and the uh comprehensive plan and the inner uh governmental agreement with Erie, but with all of the brilliance on this city council, and in the city administrator and city legal council and city staff, I'm confident that you can overcome those challenges and produce a welcoming gateway to our city.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Hi Ruka Watson.

Um hi, I'm Haruka Watson, and I'm here today to speak on the cemetery issue.

Back when the KKK ran Lafayette, they only marked the graves of Protestant white people.

The rest were thrown in a hole and forgotten.

After discovering this, you guys made the heartless decision to shut down the cemetery.

And if you remember, we should act uh sorry, and if you remember, at the council retreat, you guys said we should act on our citizens' behalf.

So listen to your citizens now and reopen the cemetery.

Um I've seen multiple people over the last few months voicing their concerns, and yet not once has it been brought up by council.

Umbody reserves a spot for a burial because they don't care.

Even as a kid, I know this is wrong.

You guys can do better.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Michael Watson.

Uh Michael Watson, 708 South Carol Avenue.

I'm the ugly one of the family.

Apologize.

Um in the city council retreat on the side about the slide about the GDP and the economy.

Um, the finance person, I didn't catch her name, uh, made a made a comment basically that that um well, the economy and the GDP is doing well overall, like lower income earners are clearly not sharing in this in this wealth.

Now, this is something that we all know.

Like we know that the economy of the United States works fantastic, and you are on the very top, and we're really, really poorly for it as the deeper in you get.

Now, there's a problem because the city staff and the city government depends on sales tax from the large corporations, from the people who are on the top of society in order to pay their wages in order to pay for the the benefits in order to pay the salaries in order to pay the uh everything that the city needs to do.

Um, and so when someone like Kingsington and Tebow properties comes in and they want to develop a parcel of land, it becomes very difficult to say no to them because the economic viability of the city depends on bringing more revenue into the city.

And that was something that was brought up in the in the retreat is the need to bring more revenue in because the city's budget is expanding and we need to make ends meet.

Um, this is kind of like trickle trickle down economics at its worst.

Um the the rich get rich.

We have to make allow the rich to get richer in order to siphon off a small percentage of that in order to pay the bills of the city.

Um I think the citizens, at the very least, the citizens of the city should have the right to present the same level of detail of at least an alternative plan as the developers have when they come in and they they present their sketch plan and they have all the meetings, and you have city staff scrambling to make sure to ask all the questions and connect all the dots there.

Um so I want to give you like a really quick like pie in the sky optimistic sort of sort of idea of what that corner could be.

I I commissioned a local artist um to to make this.

Uh it's basically so the idea is take because I think there's there's Lafayette needs more affordable housing.

That's not nobody nobody questions that we have a lot of people in the in the constituency and the citizen citizens who who really care about our environment.

Um, and a lot of you are up on city councils well, but you also care about affordable housing.

And Anne Marie, I know that you specifically are a big proponent of affordable housing.

So can we take the affordable housing piece out of the Kingslington proposal and keep that and throw everything else away.

And that's what kind of the what this uh what this drawing represents is you have like a nice pocket of this is the 40 or 50, 40 to 50 affordable housing units that are built according to to like what we want, what we value, like in high environmental standards, they're fireproof, they're they're they're built in accordance with nature, using natural materials like wood and hemp prete and all this sort of sorts of cool stuff that I think anybody in town would love to get their hands on and experiment with.

Um you got a bike trail going through it, and the rest of it is just left open so that the animals that we have, who like you said, Adam Adam, um, don't have a voice for themselves.

They are a constituency that does not get to come up here and then speak publicly at hearings.

Um, and so I would like to at the very least speak for them a little bit as well.

Um I'm gonna give this to the to you to Lynette in a second.

Um now, how is how can we do this?

Because I don't think it's enough to just disagree that we don't want any development.

We also have to come up with concrete proposals to make your job easier because you meet two times a month for a couple hours, and I know you spend a lot of time outside of that reading this stuff and becoming educated on it.

But I mean, I think the the the your constituents can help you out in a lot of ways.

We have a wealth of knowledge and and and experience around town.

We got people who work in construction, we've got an MIT guy who's down at NASA right now, um, who's against this.

Um, I got a physicist who lives next door who who loves talking about heat pumps and solar panels and how we get the city more sustainable.

Um we have created powerhouse of a community backing us.

We can do this.

We involve the community, we get it done as a town.

One concrete thing that I can suggest is you guys can amend the zoning code to add the field of low density affordable housing, permanently affordable housing that allows poor people the option to live in in single family homes the same way that anybody else wants to do, and doesn't just concentrate poverty into small pockets throughout town, distributed it, distributes it through the through the city and allows people to people, especially people who work in Lafayette to live in Lafayette as well.

Um at the end of the day, I'm just asking for like 15 to 20 minutes in a meeting where your constituents were citizens of the city, because like Preston said, we got thousands of people around town between the between his petition between preserve Lafayette who are against these proposals.

They're not, it's this is not a not a one onesie twosy deal with people.

Um let them give them the amount of time to present their their alternatives, and uh believe that we can do this.

Thank you very much for your time and uh I'll pass this to that.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Doug Conaro.

Good evening, pro tembarn counselors.

Uh I want I wanted to, I'm here to talk about the call of sign in case you were wondering.

Um I want to unwind the city staff memo that you were given and kind of give you some of the background of that.

Umly the single source quote that was given from the Connecticut company.

It was asked for by the by Laura by the Urban Renewal Authority.

They had asked the original restorer of the sign to give a quote, but they couldn't find her, they couldn't track her down.

But there was no competitive quote in that process.

So we get a sky high quote of 90,000, 100,000 from a Connecticut company who's gonna spend 20 grand on sending people here and housing people.

That's presented.

City staff takes that, Lura takes that to these meetings to the historic preservation board at the time and to uh historical society.

And my God, I if I saw that too, I'd go, we can't afford that.

Let's let's store it away and figure out someplace to put it later on.

Uh so that that's the biggest problem I have with it is that that there are a lot of other options, a lot of other uh ways of preserving it available to us.

The other part is the easement, which you've seen.

I sent in my packet that I sent you that you all, and you've seen it before.

The three-party easement, which involves the city who owns the sign, Laura, the urban real authority, and and Rick Ross, who he owns the building.

He owns the building.

He granted the easement.

In that in that uh group of people, the aggrieved party, really in this, the city wants to get rid of the sign and move it away, is Rick.

And and if, you know, I've I've been following city councils.

My family started doing business in Lafayette in 74.

If the shoe were on the other foot and the city were the grieved property, there would be a resolution, and the city would get its money.

Only if there's some sort of uh forbearance or or hardship with the city given exception, and that happens all the time.

Water bills, um, you name it.

The city's been very generous, in my opinion, in those respects.

But the city's the shoes on the other foot.

The city's like, uh, we can't afford it, we don't want to do anything with it.

But it all goes back to Lura and what Lura promised in that agreement to maintain the sign, and they never did.

And we have you saw evidence of that I gave you of these emails being passed around to the city city staff for two or three years.

The last one was Susan Booker, who isn't on staff anymore, but and none of them are actually.

Uh Karen Westover died about a month after that email that you saw.

Um but it this it kind of illustrates in that in that 10-year period exactly what's happening in the cemetery.

Something happened a long time ago.

It gets passed around the city.

Like, do you want it?

No, do you want it?

Who's in charge?

Well, maybe they'll pay for it.

Same thing happened with the cemetery.

It's like, where are we burying people?

Well, I don't know.

Well, let somebody else worry about that in a hundred years.

And and now you're having to fix it.

Now you're being faced with this.

The cemetery is an illustration of dysfunction.

This sign is an illustration of dysfunction.

Don't move it.

The easement agreement kills the agreement if you move it.

It kills the easement agreement.

Lura's no longer on the hook.

Rick can't do anything.

Hopefully, he'll get his side of his building painted.

$15,000 to fix his thing, $15,000 to move it.

Or 30 Lura said they'll put in 25 to rotate the art.

And I've I if I were Rick, I would never go for that because I'd want approval of the art that's going in it or on my building.

So I you know, I can't speak for him, he'll speak for himself.

But we need to go back to Lura for sure and say, You you were supposed to do this, you didn't.

Let's let's pay for it and let's share it and let's get it done.

And let's not move it.

Let's keep it there.

Thank you.

Frank Archelletta.

Thank you, Honorable Mayor Boat Tim, Council members, city administrator, attorney, police department, and department heads back here.

Council, thank you for breaking the city moratorium.

I am here to ask Lafayette Council for equal justice, equal rights for all the families who still have burial plots at the Lafayette Cemetery.

Council, your moratorium is broken.

The city of Lafayette has allowed Fred Smith to be buried in his coffin in Pottersfield.

I was there at the burial.

Now, with that said, every family that owns burial plots must have the equal opportunity to have full coffin burials for their loved ones.

This will eliminate the stress, the trauma, the fear, and the pain.

The 150 families are going through council.

You must be loyal, faithful, and show responsibility and accountability to choose for one self between right and wrong.

Two different contracts, one with SWCA, the environmental consultants.

I was there with Andrew Rogers when he went ahead and did the GPR penetration radar.

The findings will go to History Colorado and basically back to the city.

And we do want to see all these results.

Christopher told me that he wanted to help out all the families to be buried.

I met with him three times.

Chris, number one, when he staked out Fred Smith's burial plot.

Two, when they dug up the burial plot.

Also, when they had the ceremony, burials for Fred Smith here.

Most of this trouble at the cemetery is in Pottersfield in the oldest part of the cemetery.

And also in Henning's plots where they could bury up to four babies.

True facts are that the city owns the Lofty Cemetery, and no one can tell the city that they cannot continue burial coffins, burials there.

I ask you all to stand with us for social justice and equal opportunity.

After all, the moratorium is broken.

You cannot have one justice for one family and eliminate the other 150 letters that went out, where there could be up to maybe 200 people that still need to be buried.

This BPR was done maybe perhaps 10 years ago, included, inclusive.

When I spoke with him, it goes eight feet wide and down deep.

And basically, what they're looking for, ground disturbance.

Like I say, that oldest part of the cemetery is where the earlier days were mostly people were buried in down on the northern part by the road.

Potter field ran all the way from the cemetery area all the way east.

That stretched right there.

And that's where most of these people were buried.

So in conclusion, the other part of the cemetery still opened up for burials.

Maybe not so much in the middle part of the cemetery where the older part of burials were taking place.

But on that east end, in that east part of the cemetery by the baseline road and coming down by the rec center, they hadn't had no problems down there.

The problem's been at the bottom.

And we did ask to stop burying Potter Shield when they're digging up them babies down there three years ago.

And what happened?

No results.

Then boom, here they hit the coffins again here back in October down there.

Don't you pay attention, council, staff?

Don't you understand as far as basically what's happening here on Lafayette?

It's not right, folks.

So you must continue to allow coffin burials.

They're not going to find a coffin under 200 burials.

And like I stated before, years back what they would do, they would run to the left or run to the right if they did hit a coffin.

Common sense, folks, it's all common sense.

So now the moratorium is broken.

Allow the next families to have a coffin burial.

My aunt will be on there next, and they have it right at the beginning when you come to the main entrance.

The Garcia family.

She's in her 90s.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Samantha Brown.

Hello everyone.

Samantha Brown is here.

Today I would like to discuss.

Um, oh, before I start, I have some hangouts.

Um I don't have for everyone, but you're more than welcome to share it.

Um today I would like to discuss how people communicate with the governing bodies.

One way is to stand in front of you and verbally express an opinion, and other way is through organized outlet, lobbying group, or petition.

But when people do not want to get directly involved, people communicate through actions.

Out of curiosity, I was wondering how much effort does it take to create a footpath trail by simply walking the same area over and over again.

I was absolutely mesmerized that the people actually do research studies about it.

Um, in short, I will not bother you with uh science of it, but in short, a consensus is that it takes about 500 to a thousand passes, depending on the soil and vegetation to cause significant change in vegetation cover, even more passes to completely compact the soil and create a well-defined trail.

Let's put it in perspective.

A single person walking the path one way every day will spend one and a half to three years, significantly altered vegetation of the path.

It takes two people a minimum seven months.

Or maybe it's ten people, 50 to 100 days to create the trail, just working on it every day.

Possibly it was 250 people every day for two to four days, or even 500 people once or twice.

There are multiple side trails exist in Lafayette Park parks and open space, and a lot of people communicating with government and want to be heard.

Of course, when people do not explain themselves directly, one needs to read between the lines.

What people would do people want?

What citizens need, the existing infrastructure does not meet.

It's up to the government to decide if we want to close the trail and then steal and police, instill the rules and police them, or maybe people of elected government want to commentate the population needs.

And of course, we love our side trails and at Lurfing Group.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vicki Yuland.

Hi, I'm Vicky Lynn 303 West Simpson Street, and it is not a surprise that I'm here to talk to you tonight about the Coca-Cola Pat and Gar Highway Bar sign.

And since it's visual aid night, I have sent uh some photos along for you to look at of what the sign looked like in November 2016 when it was first restored and what it looks like now.

I think there are two key points for you to consider.

The first is that this is truly the people's sign.

Some of you may remember how exciting it was when this sign was revealed when the La Familia building was being torn down nearly 11 years ago.

So many people stopped to take photos and just check out this sign that had been hidden for half a century.

There was a public campaign to raise funds to restore and preserve the sign, and 62 residents and business people, including me, contributed their own money, raising an amazing 126,000 dollars.

We were promised that in exchange for this, the city would own and maintain the sign.

And then we got the legal document where Laura agreed as part of the easement agreement to maintain the sign.

The restoration team put together a daily, weekly, and yearly plan for how to maintain the sign and gave this plan to city officials.

You can read that plan in appendix I of our landmarking application.

So everything seemed great, and then it wasn't.

For the next 10 years, Laura chose to spend our tax dollars on things other than the sign they were legally obligated to maintain.

I appreciate that when Bridget Keating became Laura executive director, she started looking into finally maintaining the sign.

But while Laura paid for a consultant to evaluate the maintenance neglect, by then it was too late.

The sign is falling apart and needs a major restoration.

So basically, the public got screwed on this, which is why I don't support options two or three in your packet, suggesting that the sign be moved indoors and replaced with either a phony new sign, a rotating mural project that costs money and staff time, or worst of all, just sit in storage.

In fact, I'm not even sure why options two or three are under consideration, because there's no place in the city where the sign can be displayed indoors and still be accessible to the public who paid for it.

And there's no guarantee there ever will be.

I do understand that the Historic Preservation Commission recommended moving the sign inside, but they didn't have all of the information when they made that decision.

They didn't have Doug's historic research showing the signs association with Lafayette's first female city counselor, Pat Wright, and the business she owned in that location.

And they didn't have the details of Laura not fulfilling its obligations to maintain the sign.

The other point I want to make is that this sign is one of the most historical structures our city has.

Moving the sign from its current location off a public road saloon row destroys the second two historical designations.

And of course, allowing it to fall apart destroys all historic designations.

The bottom line is this sign finally needs to be properly cared for.

I agree with Doug that this includes Lura and potentially the DDA, which received LURA funds, ponying up for the restoration.

Call it the price for deferred maintenance that should have been done all along.

So I choose the restoration option in your packet, and I agree with Doug that it should go out to competitive bid.

I also think this restoration should be done whether the city continues to own the sign or gives it to Rick Ross, who owns the building where the sign is currently located.

Plus, and I can't emphasize this enough, there should be a post-restoration maintenance schedule that the city or whoever owns a sign is legally required to follow with regular check-ins by city council to make sure this is happening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there this too?

I apologize for being late and giving it to you.

My name is Rick Ross.

Um LLC.

I'm the managing partner for that company.

And that company is the um owner of the building at 103 North Public Road, which is where the Coca-Cola sign is.

And back in 2016, I believe it was when I bought the building.

Um it was brought to my attention that this sign would need a home.

So the city of Lafayette approached me or Lura approached me and want to know if they could put it on the south wall of that building.

And I agreed to do so.

And as been mentioned already on the agreement, the part of the agreement was that Lura would take care of, or the city of Lafayette, however you want to look at it, would take care of that sign, would maintain that sign.

So when I started asking for the maintenance of that sign, um the the things that I started getting back from the city uh was that it was going to be, you know, put out for a bid, that somewhere it was going to uh see if somebody wanted to take that sign off the building.

Well, you know, I kind of looked at it and I'm like, going, that's a very expensive venture.

It's way more expensive to probably do that than to you know put forth enough money to rehabilitate that sign.

And I've helped many a ways to try to come up with other ideas to do it.

One of those ideas was um between uh Lura and myself or whatever it is now.

I'm not 100% sure exactly what it is, but uh that uh party and I were discussing the fact that I could take over ownership of that sign.

I don't have a problem taking over ownership of that sign and keeping it maintained.

But what I would ask would be that when it when and if that becomes part of the proposal that the city would help or pay for the restoration of that sign to put it back to the shape that it should be in.

Um you know, there's been a lot of other things that have been floating around.

But what I really ask is that we do the right thing.

And the right thing to me is not to take it down and move it somewhere else or put it in a storage facility and let it rot and everything like that.

That's not that's not a good thing for it.

As um Vicky mentioned, there were a lot of people that invested in that sign.

And I don't think those people would really appreciate, nor the city of Lafayette.

The people of the city of Lafayette would really appreciate if that sign was put somewhere where it's just left to rot, or even put somewhere else that you know is gonna cost another tremendous sum of money to put it together because it was a tremendous sum of money that as Doug mentioned, you know, to put the whole thing together to begin with.

So in conclusion, that's what I would ask.

I am willing as as uh owner of the property, owner of the building to take over ownership of that sign.

But it would have to be under some you know, some sort of uh agreement to have it restore first.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak?

Okay, seeing no others, I'll ask if is there anyone online for question?

We do have one caller online.

Um caller with the phone number ending in 879.

Speaking is available now.

Caller ending in the number eight.

Yeah, hello.

Hello, thank you.

Yeah, hello, Todd Olheiser here, 2440 bitter root circle.

And uh I I submitted a document for the uh for the uh council to review, by the way.

Uh, appreciate the opportunity to speak.

Should have mentioned that up front.

I did submit some uh submit some documentation, which includes a brief letter and a map.

I really can't imagine you have that in front of you.

I'm just gonna refer to it here for a minute.

Um I'm I'm the guy that had his house flooded when the golf course, uh, Indian Peaks golf course flooded back in 21.

And uh and what happened was we didn't have a hundred-year flood, but I did.

Uh I had a my I had a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of damage to uh to a fully finished uh walkout basement.

Um so since then uh the city has been managing this bullhead gold gulch, which I appreciate.

Uh it it took a while, but that has been maintained.

It wasn't all done all the way to the bridge on Indian Peaks Trail.

And if you get a chance to look at the map, I'd appreciate it someday.

Last year you did.

You you maintained that all the way to the bridge.

So the whole channel, which happens to be on hole 14, uh, is all cleared out all the way to the bridge.

I thank you for that, and I would I would uh my letter is to encourage that to again occur.

I didn't want to come to you later after the potential burning season and so forth is done and say, hey, wait, what about that?

Um, I think it needs to be done annually.

It's a drainage channel for all of the water coming off a massive part of the golf course.

It's a drainage channel, not a wildlife area, and so again, cleaned out last year.

That was great.

I just want to encourage that to uh happen on an annual basis so that we that water doesn't get backed up and become my problem.

Uh so that's all I've got.

I appreciate you uh the opportunity to speak.

Thank you for your comment.

What sir, do you mind repeating uh your name and address again?

Yeah, Todd Olheiser 2440 bitter root circle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

City Clerk, is there any others online?

No, okay.

Uh with that, we close public input and we'll move on to the consent agenda.

And item A, January 27, 2026, CD Council workshop summary.

Item B, second reading ordinance number three series 2026, authorizing a lease of the Thomas Open Space for Agricultural Production Purposes between the City of Lafayette and Redwagon Organic Farms LLC.

Item C, second reading, ordinance number four, series 2026, amending chapter 4 fees for the code of ordinance to update planning and building department fees.

Item D, contract lighthouse transportation group, LLC, on call traffic signal maintenance and capital upgrades.

Item D, sorry, E.

Item E.

Change order number three, Diaz Construction Group, LLC, Cherrywood Drive, and Keel Court Waterline Replacement Projects.

Item F, change order number three, NG companies, intrepid fiber locating services.

Item G, purchase orders, public works, operating supplies.

Would any members of council like to pull any of these items?

I'd like to pull item B.

Item B.

Any others.

Seeing no others, uh, could I have a move?

Can I get someone to motion?

I move to approve the consent agenda minus item B.

Second.

Second.

All in favor of approving the balance of the consent agenda.

Any opposed.

No.

The item passes.

Um we need to pull item B.

Do you have a request for what you'd like on the I just wanted to pull this item because I think this is an important item to the city to the public.

You know, we we all value our open space here in Lafayette.

And this is an important part of that uh portfolio.

This uh this farm has been operating for quite a long time.

I remember when it was initially uh occupied, I think it was Abundanza all those years back.

Uh and it's nice to see it transition to a few different uh organizations who are running it.

Glad to see that Red Wagon is back and just really excited about uh the future of this open space parcel.

Okay, thank you.

I'll move to approve item B for second reading ordinance number three series 2026 authorizing release of the Thomas Open Space for Agricultural Production Purposes between the City of Lafayette and Red Wagon Organic Farm LLC.

Could I get a second?

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Uh stands approved.

Moving on to presentations.

We have a single presentation today on the Coca-Cola mural side, and we've got our economic development director, Laura Executive Director, and DDA executive director.

Many hats.

Uh, thank you for having me tonight.

Council is good to see you.

I'm Bridget Keating.

I serve as the city's economic development director and the Laura executive director, and so I'll be wearing both hats tonight and be able to answer questions.

Um, let's see.

So tonight, the agenda, I'm gonna be providing a brief history of the mural, the initial restoration and the current status, and then options and direction.

Um, I do want to note that I am not a historic preservationist, um, and so I will not be providing a recommendation, but my role here as staff is to report out on the exploration that has happened in the past couple of years, and then look for direction from council.

Okay.

So the a brief history, uh, the the sign, the coca-cole sign was originally on 201 North Public Road.

This is where the collective currently is.

Um, it's located on public and East Geneseo.

In the uh late 1930s, the building became the highway restaurant, and you can see that in the the late 1940s, about a decade later, um, the name Pat and Gars Highway Bar was uh part of the building.

Um, these are two really good photos of the history of the the building, and so to the bottom left, it's hard to see, but there was a PAPS blue ribbon um advertisement on there, and then to the photo on the right, there was a coarse beer advertisement.

And so um along this area, there was often advertisements for different brands that would pop up and rotate on these buildings.

In 1956, the building was covered with asbestos siding.

And um in 2015, when they removed that asbestos siding, uh, the Coca-Cola mural was discovered and was in pretty um vibrant shape because it was covered by the siding.

Um, there was a big community effort to save the sign, and so in 2015, when the mural was uncovered, it was moved to our fire station prior to the building demolition.

In 2016, it underwent a major restoration and then um ended up at 103 North Public Road where it sits today.

And the total cost to move the sign, complete the restoration, and install the associated flat work.

If you are familiar with that area, there's a little ledge, a railing and lighting, and the sign has a steel encasement and fix the building.

That total cost was 136,000, 126 was raised by the community.

Um, so though the way that is housed there, um, you can just see here that the original building was 201 and it was moved a block down to 103.

The Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority executed an easement with a property owner, RJ Capital Investments LLC.

And in that it states that the City of Lafayette owns the Coca-Cola mural and that the easement stipulates that Laura retains the sole right to enter the property and has the obligation to maintain the mural.

So moving forward to a recent assessment by John Canning Co., which is attached in your packet.

Since 2016, the mural has seen significant deterioration.

And in early 2022, Laura staff contacted the original restoration and preservation consultant to come out there to try to do an assessment and see what work needed to be done to restore the sign.

Unfortunately, over a year and a half of trying to schedule a site visit did not end up in one, and so we had to move forward with looking at alternatives.

So you can see here that from 2016 to 2022, when we first started this, there was some deterioration to the sign in its location.

So in 2023, after we weren't able to work with the original preservationists, Laura released a request for qualifications for the assessment as a phase one, and then looking to see what pricing could potentially be for the restoration of the side sign as a phase two.

We received three qualification proposals and moved forward with contracting John Canning and Cow, which is an award-winning firm in preservation, conservation, and restoration, and they completed that initial assessment of the sign.

I thought it was just interesting to see some of the work that they previously done.

The old Steinway, they've restored the Grand Central Terminal mural that's on the ceiling.

They've worked at the Boston Public Library, Washington, DC's Union Station, and Henry Ford.

So Laura ended up contracting with them just based on their qualifications of doing major restoration work.

So the initial scope of that assessment was a visual assessment and documentation of the historic sign to review the existing conditions.

The paint investigation, the mural included what happened over two or three days of studying the hand brush strokes, performing cleaning tests to determine the feasibility of removing surface layers of dirt and grime and paint layer consolidation tests to determine the possibility of finishes.

And the deliverable of this assessment was to provide a report with recommendations for potential conservation or restoration, and that's in your packet.

So I wanted just to spend a couple slides to just highlight some of the points from that assessment.

So there was evidence of the previous signs that were painted underneath, including that cores and Paps Blue Ribbon.

Due to the mural's position and location, it receives sun and wind throughout most of the day without much protection.

And these observations of weather are important to note because their correlation as to why the mural deteriorated so quickly after just eight years at being restored.

It was eight years when this report was written, and so that's that piece there.

And you can see here from a photo from the assessment of the paint flaking as well as rusted hardware within the wood.

And again, some more points from that report.

One should also consider the likelihood that the historic paint layers underneath are continuing to fail, rendering the prior restoration mute.

The paint is peeling everywhere throughout the space, and the slice touch will cause it to break off.

And the wood itself is cracking, splitting, and causing exposed wood and gaps, cleaning tests were attempted to better understand the state of the paint, however, it was proven difficult due to the fragility of the paint.

And then the last piece about the report is the mural faces southwest and therefore is exposed to sun or UV rays for a majority of the day.

You can see here the informative plaque, which has now been removed, is not on wood, but it also deteriorated during this time period from just getting long sun exposure and fading.

This not only costs fading of the colors in the paint layers, but also weakens their binding capabilities, which leads to flaking pain and paint loss.

So since the mural is painted on wood, it is subject to natural expansion and contraction of the wood from fluctuations in temperature and the rate of absorption of moisture by the substrate, the wood can affect the stability of the paint layer, and extreme weather fluctuations can severely accelerate this process.

So within that report, they landed on three sort of approaches.

And I think this is to note that there's not one right approach for this, right?

They in that report, if you remember, there are there are a lot of questions about why was this saved, how why is this meaningful?

Um, and so that's why they gave a bunch of different approaches to consider.

So the first approach is to complete a major restoration and conserve it where it is.

The second approach is to complete a major restoration but add additional protections like a bigger awning as well as a plexiglass covering.

The third approach would be a more long-term solution with a mural undergoing a major restoration and moving it into a climate controlled environment.

And then the fourth approach would to replicate the mural on site and move the original inside.

So they provided just ballpark costs, and this was more of just getting the rough order of magnitude.

To restore it, it would be up to 100,000, and then for a replica, it could be 60,000.

If we were to move forward with the restoration, we would do a competitive bid to get pricing.

So next, I want to just highlight after the work that happened after that report.

So preservation coordination and partnership exploration.

So Laura, as they are not historic preservation experts, referred the conditions assessment to the city's historic preservation partners for feedback on the recommendations.

The conditions assessment was presented and publicly discussed at the partner organizations of the historic preservation board, which is now commissioned, and the Lafayette Historical Society in the summer of 2024.

And both groups identified this as a historic artifact, and that moving it indoors would preserve its integrity.

I just want to highlight some of the notes from the HBC meeting on there.

They talked about that the sun-facing exposure of the paint makes it extremely susceptible to fading, cracking, and flaking as the UV breaks down the chemical bonds of the paint.

They also shared that advertisements painted painted on buildings at this time are meant to be temporary, not necessarily painted for long-term preservation.

And paint in general is a sacrificial layer meant to protect wood underneath.

So even really high quality paint needs to be reapplied every eight to 12 years in Colorado.

And the wood substrate expands and contracts with moisture, calling paint failure.

They did, you know, recognize that this is a very important historic artifact.

And so if it were to be moved indoors, there could be an opportunity to look at ways to honor the mural at the existing site, including signage or even an electronic light display that projects the historic mural at night.

And they also shared, you know, we've there's been other ways that preservation has honored past buildings.

An example is the collective building where it says Arts on Tap.

That is the original sign that used to say cores on tap, and so it's a way to pay homage to the previous sign.

So preservation coordination.

After receiving that feedback and the assessment, Laura approached city staff as the sign owner to get direction.

And based on just the feedback from HBC and the historical society, the city wanted to see if there was potential indoor display locations within the city's facilities as part of their operational asset management responsibilities.

It's a very large sign, and so just due to how large it is, there wasn't a suitable public viewable location.

You can see here that it's 14 feet tall and 26 feet wide.

It's the side of a building.

So it is a very large artifact.

At the same time, city staff reached out to History Colorado about partnerships as they relied on generous donations to build their permanent collection.

History Colorado declined to accept an artifact of this size just because they wouldn't be able to have the room.

We did say, do you have any other ideas of what to do with something like this?

And they shared in the email that you know there are a lot of food halls popping up.

There's something that you that might be an opportunity to reach out to them to see if they could house it, but staff didn't move forward with that.

So in 2025, staff initiated a request for proposals to explore if there was a qualified partner available, and the ideal partner would be a local museum or a public nonprofit with experience in managing artifacts to provide a permanent publicly accessible indoor home while preserving the sign's historical integrity.

We reached out to two museums within Boulder County about the opportunity.

And the uh as part of the RFP, we received a response from the property owner where the sign currently is affixed, that they would be interested in taking over ownership of the sign contingent on another round of major restoration.

So landmark designation.

In January 2026, community members Doug Connerau and Vicky Ulin submitted a historic landmark designation for the Coca-Cola Pat and Gars Highway Baral.

And the applicants share that the sign is historically significant for several reasons.

The first is its association with Pat Wright, who was the city of Lafayette's first female civic counselor and the co-owner of Pat and Gar's Highway Bar.

The second is the association of Lafayette's Lincoln Highway period.

They share that this sign is Lafayette's only remaining historic commercial billboard, recognizing when public roads was a spur of the Lincoln Highway, which was the nation's first federal highway.

And then last, it's association with Lafayette Saloon Row, which spans the west side of public road from Geneseo to Cleveland in the late 1800s, early 1900s, and saloon row was home to the only properties in Lafayette where alcohol could be sold.

All the other areas in town had Mary Miller's deed restriction forbidding the sale of alcohol.

And this is a photo of that original building that it was on where when it was the cores and the highway bar course and tap.

You can see that that's very similar to the collective sign that has been restored, which was also part of the applicant's application.

So moving on with the landmark app designation, it was not advanced to consideration within the city as it did not meet the city's definition of structure eligible for local landmark.

In our historic landmark designation, it could be a site, a structure, or a district, and so a sign to not meet any of those designations.

So in response, the applicants have appealed directly to City Council and are requesting consideration for an alternative preservation pathway through the Colorado Register of Historic Places.

And signs are eligible to be landmarked on this register, and the applicants have offered to rework their landmark application with council as the applicant.

So two examples on that register are Steampost Springs.

If you've been there, you you're very familiar with the Raveners Motel sign, and then also the Welcome to Golden Arches.

So options for council consideration.

I just want to set the table here by saying that staff, as I mentioned, does not have a single recommended course of action as the Coca-Cola mural sign really functions as both a historic artifact and a significant downtown placemaking feature.

And this decision really involves balancing long-term preservation of a fragile historic research with its continued role as a visible and meaningful element in the public realm.

So tonight I'm going to be presenting options that are just a starting point for discussion and seek direction on a preferred pathway forward.

And I do want to note that council may also direct staff to explore the landmark designation application process and funding through the Colorado Register of Historic Preservation at a future council meeting.

So we might land on multiple things tonight.

Alright, so I'm gonna go through the options.

Option one the to restore the sign and preserve it at 103 North Public Road with the option of installing enhanced protections.

So we would remove the sign and place it indoors temporarily for another round of restoration, since this would be a big undertaking.

We'd reinstall the sign at its existing location, and then there could be an option for some enhanced protections, including a plexiglass covering and extended awning.

I would note that there are some ongoing maintenance concerns related to the plexiglass, including moisture entrapment and the UV glass yellowing.

And so if this is something that council is interested in, we would want to make sure that we do some more due diligence about the feasibility of what that those enhanced protections could be.

So again, these are all ballpark costs subject to change.

We would want to go out to bid for all of these to narrow down, but the restoration could be up to 100,000.

The removal and trucking of the sign 15,000 enhanced protections could be around 15,000, so up to 130,000.

This does not include ongoing maintenance costs either.

We would need to talk to a preservationist about what that might be and especially with what option we land on.

Option two would be to restore the sign and explore options to relocate it permanent indoors in a climate-controlled facility.

So again, up to 115,000 for that restoration.

And then two kind of sub-options that we just want to throw out there.

One would be to do a new rotating art mural program, which I'll discuss in a second.

That could be up to 25,000.

And Laura has committed to those necessary costs for that program to get set up.

And then the other option would be a replica.

So that could be 60,000 for the replica and 5,000 for the new wood substrate, so up to 65,000.

And so the idea of the new rotating art mural program kind of plays homage to the idea that in these original buildings there was rotating advertisements.

And so this is it could it could be at or near this location.

We would obviously need to get the property owners' permission to do something like this.

Um we would obviously need to get uh the property owner's permission to do something like this, but the program would invite artists to interpret Lafayette's identity through themes such as history, culture, lifestyle in the natural environment, and be replaced every two to three years just because murals um often we see are temporary or um paint would need to be reapplied.

The other option would be to paint a replica at 103 North Public Road.

Um of course we would need permission from the property owner.

Um a similar approach that's been done at the Louisville History Museum, and uh a approach shared by John Canning Co.

Um, which is done in preservation often is that if you if you want to pay homage to something, you can show a replica with um signage that explains where the original one is or just detailing it.

And then option three um would be to remove the sign stored indoors and do not complete another round of restoration because it would further alter the original paint.

Um so 7500 for removal and trucking, and then Laura would also restore the original conditions of 103 North Public Road.

So I have all these up here, and again, there could be other options that we talk about tonight, but I wanted to at least give a starting point based off of that original assessment.

Um so I'm happy to go through these again, and in a way you can combine many of these.

Um, and so I'll be happy to turn it over to uh Mayor Pro Tem to just uh start the discussion and answer any questions.

Thank you, Director Keating.

So thank you, Director Keith.

Um we'll just start with uh clarifying cap questions.

Does anyone in council have uh questions?

We'll start with uh counselor Jensen.

So in the packet and in your remarks, you don't really tell us much about what landmarking gets us.

So we have this potential to reapply, but does that get us long-term help, one-time help?

Uh what will that provide us?

Yeah, that's a great question, which is why we share that.

Um if you're interested in it, we would want to come back to council to give you more information about the process, the funding, the options.

Um, it's my understanding that by landmarking you're eligible for um potential funding to help with the restoration.

Um, but we'd want to have a larger discussion about that.

Are there any downsides to landmarking it that you're aware of?

I'm not a historic preservationist, um, but it would yeah, I I think that we'd want to come back to have a more robust conversation on the pros and the cons.

Counselor Gayas?

Is the original preservationist still in business?

Is it possible that they couldn't come back in 2022 because of COVID-related travel concerns?

It um in my correspondence with original preservationists, it wasn't related to COVID concerns.

I think it was just scheduling and being out of town.

I don't believe that they're local anymore.

Um we ended the last correspondence with this is my last attempt.

Um, please respond if you're interested, and I didn't hear a response.

Okay, thank you.

Yep.

Counselor Friedwood.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Uh just a quick question, Director.

Where would we store it indoors?

So we would look at what facilities would be able to store it.

When we said previously that we didn't have any facilities that were publicly accessible, we would look at maybe some of our facilities that could store it indoors that might not be publicly accessible.

Um we can always reach out to our friends of the fire department.

Thank you.

Counselor Friedman?

Um I'm just curious.

I don't think I saw in the packet the um, I guess it was the easement agreement.

And what was that in the packet?

Did I just it was not in the packet?

I'm just curious what did Lura and by extension the city, right?

Um agree to in terms of maintenance.

So um I have the easema right here, and um I can read the maintenance section if that is helpful.

Um so in section 2.2 maintenance, it says Laura retains the sole right and obligation to maintain the mural and to end and to enter onto the property to do so, the grantor and Laura understand that maintenance may be included, the temporary removal of the mural for maintenance purposes, followed by reinstallation.

Um so it is it's just saying that Laura retains the sole right, it doesn't speak about any other portions of that.

Just says we accept an obligation for maintenance.

Yeah.

Um, and then also within the sign in the easement it's it states that the city laugh is the owner of the sign.

Yep.

Okay.

Okay.

Mayor pretending for me.

I just want to clarify that the easement says that we have the we're granted the right to maintain it, but doesn't say anything about an obligation to maintain.

But we do have the right to maintain it.

There wasn't a note about obligation of maintenance in that phrase that was just stated.

It it states the lure retains the sole right and obligation and obligation to maintain.

I'm sorry, so it's obligation and the right to maintain.

Okay, thank you.

But it doesn't clarify what that obligation includes, unfortunately.

Understood.

Was that everything?

Yeah, thank you.

I have a few questions.

Um when the original easement went into place and the there was a maintenance plan developed.

Correct.

What were the what were the costs that were associated with that maintenance plan?

Was there a was there a cost plan and everything?

So I wasn't here with the city at that time.

Um, but in reviewing the original maintenance plan, there were no costs as part of that.

Okay, and I mean what what happened that it never got maintained.

It seemed like there was a plan to do ongoing maintenance, even if it was monthly, weekly, daily.

I mean, there was there was a pretty clear from what I understand plan, and it just never was executed.

Um, so it's my understanding that previous staff who had the maintenance plan was reviewing the mural and seeing if there were signs of deterioration.

Um, it's also my understanding that staff did reach out to the previous staff reached out to the original preservationist about what should the plan be.

Um this was probably pre-COVID and then COVID happened, and then um with me joining the city, this is kind of when I picked it up again.

And so I think there was a clear understanding that there was a need for maintenance to happen.

Um, and it's uh unfortunately just been delayed to come to a decision about what should uh occur.

Do we have any understanding of what like an estimate of those ongoing maintenance costs would have been?

I'm not aware of any of those.

Um how was the sign moved when it was taken to be restored?

Was it moved as a single unit?

Was it split into pieces?

Was it a great question?

Um, so this we actually reached out to the original engineering firm that helps move it, and um again was not here, so this is my best understanding that it was um placed on uh uh there's a steel structure around it, and there was a brace, and so they they moved it in one whole unit off site.

Um again, but I wasn't there.

Appreciate that.

Yeah, yeah.

I I just you know, trying to think about you know the different aspects of the sign between being the billboard and being the patent gar highway bar separate sign, which each of those have I think different meaning that you know there could be value if this sign had been broken up, maybe this would be an opportunity to think about different ways to handle that, but if it's a single unit, that kind of eliminates a little bit of the thought I was having there.

I I will just add, you know, it was removed out of a building, right?

So they were able to move it out.

Um to add to that point, um where the little herbal apothecary is right now, when they did the demolition of that side, they found another sign and they cut that out, and it now is a fix on the different side of the building.

Right.

Yeah, yeah, I saw that today actually.

Yeah, um, I also have a question about the rotating mural idea.

Yep.

So the idea would be to put that in place of the current sign.

The idea is that this sign is served as a significant placemaking opportunity.

Um, I think a lot of people recognize our downtown because of it.

Um, and so if we were to move it inside with as it as a historic artifact, we'd want to make sure that we still have significant placemaking opportunities.

And so the idea is to pay homage to this idea that there was probably rotating advertisements, but maybe come at it with a different lens of not just having it be about history, but opening up into different themes.

Would there be any opportunity to do it to do that in a different location, such as the original location of the sign of the collective, which is you know associated with artists and Lafayette and might be a suitable place for a rotating mural?

Yeah, we we definitely um would need to again get permission from the property owner, but the idea is that there this has served as a significant placemaking in this downtown core, and so we if we were to do this, it would definitely be within this vicinity.

Um just you know, brainstorming a little bit.

Do we know how big the uh walls in the gym of the rec center are as one public location with a large potential wall?

Just an idea putting it out there, but um just thinking on the spot.

I don't have that off the top of my head, but you are correct that those are large walls, yeah.

No, that's just just a thought.

I know we're working on a capital improvement project uh, you know, to be coming soon, so um could be an opportunity here.

Um do we know how much the John Canning uh assessment uh report cost us?

You know, I don't have that number off the top of my head, and um this was also the time that I went on maternity leave.

So I believe it was in between 15 and 25,000, but I'm happy to follow up with counsel with that exact amount.

Okay, I thought I saw some hands in the back.

Good Connerau was putting some numbers up in the he says seven thousand thousand.

Okay, just well holding it.

The goal of my questions is try to understand the historic amount of money that we've put into you know, we maybe we would have put into doing the maintenance, how much did we put into evaluating it?

Um thinking about just alternatives and yeah and things we might consider going forward.

So I I would like to say that it's between 75 and maybe 15,000.

And I had mom burn at the time, so I don't remember that number off the top of my head.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, okay.

I don't have any more questions.

Thank you very much.

Yep.

Uh let's go to Council Jensen and we'll come back to Councilor Bayers.

So at the time when we were looking for a place to put this, had the capital improvement projects package passed.

No.

So as we develop three new buildings or renovation three buildings, there is a possibility we could look into the the indoor placement of this sign in one of those renovations.

But I I'm looking at what you wrote here about the historic preservation commission and what they think about it.

And I'm looking at their um, it says they are to advise the city council in matters relating to historically significant structures and properties in the community.

They didn't really give us advice here about this.

They say um it is a historic artifact, and that movie the moving it indoors would preserve its integrity.

There's not much else in our packet that it says about it.

So I don't know if they think it's worth spending money on, you know.

Uh, there's nothing really here that gives any sort of qualitative impression from them, and I would love to see what they think more in depth about this.

Um and then I would love for us to reconsider where it might be placed indoors, given that we have new information about these three buildings that we are looking at that could conceivably have large spaces where uh it might be sheltered, you know, in some place.

And so without those two pieces of information, I'm feeling reluctant to give guidance, and also without knowing further what landmark status gets us, you know, and knowing does it get us enough money to pay for this?

Does it pay for it long term, short term?

You know, what and what will it help us with?

I feel like it's there are pieces of the puzzle missing before I would be comfortable giving guidance at this point.

And to maybe respond to a couple of your your points there, which I appreciate.

Um so the the I think the sentiment that came out of Historic Preservation Commission at the time was this is a historic artifact.

And so to preserve its integrity and to preserve it, it is meant to be um put inside and displayed indoors.

And so I think that their sentiment was that this is something that is historic and it's an artifact, and so there is some um merit to preserving it.

Um so that's just one piece I just wanted to reiterate.

Um the second I appreciate about um you know this this happened uh a couple years ago, and so with new projects that are popping online, is there an opportunity to think about um do those get placed indoors?

In the passing, I've also spoken to some businesses that have shared that you know, yeah, maybe I'd be interested in it, um, but we haven't moved forward with any of those discussions further just because I wanted to have this conversation with council first about what we were thinking.

Um, the last pieces, of course, if there could be a door option three, four, five, right?

Of we need this before we make a decision.

So just wanted to respond to some of those points.

And I I would just want to respond to that about the businesses that have offered.

If we think this is of historical value, I would be reluctant to give it over to somebody who might not be in business in 20 years or might sell their building, you know, or demolish their building, or so I not that those businesses don't mean well today, but they can't control their circumstances 20 years from now.

So if we think it's a value, I would be very reluctant to go in the private sector direction.

That's just my opinion.

Yeah.

Councilor Gary.

So I had some questions regarding the 2016 restoration.

So when that contract for restoration was completed, was it stated that this restoration may only last about 10 years?

I'm curious if part of the deterioratory, I can't say that word.

Deterioration, um, it was more than natural weathering.

I wasn't here during that original restoration and uh wasn't privy to just kind of the what was done.

Um, so I'm not I I'm not sure.

Um, and I'm happy to follow up with council to kind of dig into that a little bit more about what was the uh lifespan of this restoration meant to be.

And you're in the okay.

Thank you.

Uh first.

Okay, I'll go first.

Councillor Freeman.

Yeah.

Um tell me more about the 90 to 100 grand estimate.

It's a rough order magnitude.

That was from uh um a firm that was competitively bid, but they their amount was just them trying to do rough order magnitude.

Is that right?

So um the way that we approached this was before going out to bid and saying let's restore this, we need to do a new assessment to understand the current state of it.

So Laura did a request for qualifications to see what firms are qualified to do an assessment of it, um, with the idea that there could be a phase two of actually restoration.

And so that assessment, um, John Canning had the we went with them for their qualifications.

They did that, and in their recommendations, they gave a ballpark number of we're um qualified to do this work, and if our firm were to do it, it'd be this ballpark.

That is to say that if we were to go out today, um, we would want to do a competitive bid just to get updated pricing and making sure that we are really looking at um those who are all qualified to complete the restoration.

And that that assessment was done and that number was given to us in 2023, right?

With that with the assessment.

2024.

We contracted with them in 2023, and I believe the report was 2024.

Okay, so it's not that old.

So I mean, there's probably some increase in cost, but yeah, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director.

Um a few quick questions.

One, and I think everyone here, unless I've misheard is not interested in in sort of uh beating you up for decisions that were made a decade ago.

But I I guess I'm trying to wrap my mind around we make a decision today with regard to the sign with assumptions about what the preservation may look like.

Perhaps we go with John Canning, um, which I imagine would also be very pricey considering the other uh clients they've worked with.

What sort of guarantee would the city have that what we pay for would actually lead to a long-term preservation?

Naturally, indoors would last longer than outdoors, but we were told something different uh a decade ago to Councilor Gallegos' point.

So I guess I have a little feeling of distrust about what we might be hearing from some of those other entities.

I think if we were to put it where it is, um, you can see after a period of time it has deteriorated.

And so if we were to keep it in place and do another major restoration, it is likely that we would need to have a robust maintenance plan because it is exposed to the elements.

And that maintenance plan would probably look different if it's in other locations, which is why we haven't really investigated what that is without understanding where council's kind of leaning towards.

Um, regardless as a historic artifact, we would need to do maintenance.

Um, I believe within our own public art collection, we have a budget of $30,000 to manage over 60 public art pieces, and so it's a big undertaking to manage just different pieces that are in the public realm.

Um so wherever we land, there's also a financial piece of how are we the best stewards for where it currently is and understanding that there might be multiple rounds to years to come.

Yeah, no, thank you, Director.

You've perfectly pre-staged where I was trying to go with this.

So I'm lucky enough to be the liaison to both uh the Cultural Arts Board and the Public Art Committee.

Uh and it's striking the amounts of money here on the on the slide versus some of the amounts of money that they're looking at for some of the other pieces.

So I think there's an element of the order of magnitude, just looking at a gigantic sum of money for one sign versus being able to redistribute.

That's that's something that's very front of center for me.

And just looking at the sign, um, I if we had unlimited resources, I would be very open to some of the options.

But I guess I'm wondering the piece that is most Lafayette in in my eyes is the piece about the Patton Gar Highway and the Amish there.

And so a question I would have for for you and colleagues is whether there's an exploration or possibility to explore breaking up or disaggregating the sign.

Um, the Coca-Cola piece here, the patent and Gar Highway piece there.

I imagine there might be some structural integrity concerns, but I'd be really interested in that since finding a, I can't do math in public, but a 14-foot by 26-foot wall in a new structure, I would want that to be the most wonderful piece of art that we would depict since that's such a huge space, and I don't know that I personally feel uh as wedded to Coca-Cola on that as the other historic Lafayette piece.

So I'd love to hear a little bit in the future about the structural integrity question.

Thank you.

Yeah, um I appreciate that comment.

And um, the previous chair of the historic preservation commission uh was Kim Dugan, who is a wood scientist.

Um, and so there could be an opportunity if we are interested in looking at the integrity of the wood or the structure of it, um, whether it's Kim or someone else, we can uh explore that if directed by council.

Thank you.

Counselor Ginola.

Thank you, Mayor Partin.

Um, just a couple more questions.

Yeah, we did hear from the building owner, Rick Ross today, and it sounds like he's interested in you know, taking over ownership and potentially maintenance of the sign.

So I appreciate you know that offer, and I think in my mind that that weighs pretty heavily on you know keeping this in Lafayette in place and kind of in the future foreseeing to Councillor Jensen's question, you know, there are easements and things that can be put in place um on a building that will run with the land, and so there are ways to maintain that future property owners would have to do that.

Um, and I think that may also be some of the advantages of um historic designation um where you sort of you're you're sort of stuck with that um as part of the building.

Um I actually have a question for the city attorney.

Um, you know, we we heard that the application for the uh landmarking under the local ordinance did not include signs.

Um can we amend that ordinance to include the potential for signs?

Council, you can amend your ordinance, yes.

Okay.

Um is there a reason why something couldn't be uh if let's say we amended that and we were to designate that as a historic landmark under that ordinance, could it also be designated under the Colorado Register of Historic Places, kind of a dual registration?

I can't speak to that because I'm not familiar with the state historic uh landmark.

Again, just thinking out loud a little bit, want to you know try to get some more clarity um on issues like this, but um, you know, I think there could be benefits from both potentially if we can you know look at that, you know.

I would be interested in seeing if we could amend the the local ordinance, uh what that might look like, kind of what the the risks and benefits and everything uh might be there to be able to put that uh that sign potentially as a local historic uh landmark to give it some additional protections, uh things like that.

So uh just you know, again thinking out loud.

Um Mayor Pro Tem, uh, that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Just one final question.

Are you aware, Director, of any other uh artifacts throughout the city that maybe we have had similar arrangements with other preservationists in the past that uh have some deferred maintenance concerns?

I'm not aware of any counselor.

I I I forgot one more of a statement than a question, you know, to Council Boulier's point um about you know displaying a piece of public art, you know.

This is this is not just a piece of public art, this is also a piece of history.

So it's kind of twofold, you know, we can't just lump it in as art for art's sake, it's also art for history's sake.

So just want to make that statement.

And I'm gonna ask that we wait and pause for a second before we get to discussion.

Please do ask that again if uh if necessary.

Um questions any further none.

Okay, I have a couple of questions I'd just like to ask.

And I if you if if it's known.

I had a question about is the wood from that makes up this mural.

It is La Familia, the the actual structure that was the pharmacy back in 1905.

Like it's that wood.

It's it's you it's from that long ago.

Is my understanding that it was the wood from that building, and I'm not sure if they did any siding like replacement throughout the time of that building, but that wood siding where the sign is from is from that building.

I'm not sure how old the signing is.

Okay, but the wood is old, real old.

Correct.

Okay.

Um that's all that's old wood.

Um what it is, Jim.

Do you mind?

Go to clear.

Doug, if you could at least for the record, sure.

Thank you.

Thank you for letting this.

It's it's old growth cedar, and it's called drop siding, and it was used it was on air almost every building because of ubiquitous because it came in on the railroad, it was manufactured older Denver and was brought in on the railroad, but it's old growth cedar.

Um, it's on my house that I own the Mary Mill or the uh can remember the name of it now.

Uh Anna Wanaka Thomas House, landmarked house.

Uh it's it's it's all gross cedar drop drop siding.

Uh the building is the same building that was built in 1905.

So yeah, thank thank you.

Uh my second question was when it was when it was in station number one, and I don't know if anyone knows, but uh and the our chief's not here, maybe it wasn't there at the time.

Where was it in station one?

And was it that sounds like it was problematic having it in station one because it's so big?

It was it was in one of the bays.

Yeah, okay.

Um next question.

Uh I guess it's more of a statement.

Um anything that's on the south side of a building is gonna go because this is more for council.

Um it's it's going to weather.

Um so if I understand correctly, when it was on the pharmacy La Familia that it was also facing south, correct.

Um and the in the preservation reports, it states that the reason why it was preserved is because it was covered up.

Yes.

Okay.

Um I think I think that's all the questions I have.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Um, so I would like to open it up for discussion.

And if there's any further questions we might ask you to come back up.

So members of council, what would you anyone like to start the discussion?

Counselor Gallegas.

So this sign is a very important piece of Lafayette's history, and it feels wrong to erase history.

However, a hundred thousand dollars and up is a lot of money.

So I would like to explore some other possible funding sources, possibly landmarking it if possible, um, seeing if there are any other grants to help with restoration costs.

Thank you.

Yes, Council Browning.

Thank you.

I I strongly agree with everything, Counselor Gaygos just shared.

I would love to see this preserved.

Um, and thank you again, director, for you and your staff's work putting this together.

It's a really good solid presentation.

I I guess the only thing I would just sort of note, just I bristle against the replica.

Um, I don't know why, just kind of bristle against that.

Love the and thank you, Counselor Gianilla, for the the correction.

This is both art and history.

Though I'd would love to see it protected, preserved.

I just worry about finding such a large space and such a large price tag, considering all the other competing priorities we have.

I'm struggling with that.

Councillor Jensen.

I kind of have the almost the opposite feeling, which is um if the replica could be done in such a way, yeah.

This is a placemaking sign that that everyone looks at and thinks, hey, I'm in Lafayette now, this sign is here, and nobody would really know that we've changed it, you know, that it would still be there and create that place making function that it takes, whether it was a replica or not.

But that in my mind, I still believe the sign might be worth saving and bringing indoors, you know.

And it sounds like our historic preservation commission at least flip a little bit of information they gave us is sort of saying that.

Um so if we could get grant money to protect it and bring it into one of our new buildings, and then put the replica so that we have the placemaking function.

It doesn't sound like it's very practical to leave it where it is.

Long term, you know, the the long-term costs of a multicolor sign on very old wood in the location that it's in, doesn't seem like it works very well.

And and it if it did, I mean, if we were paying the costs as the city of Lafayette, it's return on investment compared to other things that we would spend our money on, is pretty it's pretty expensive.

But if we could figure out a way to fund it and put the replica to keep that placemaking function and put it somewhere, I'd be inclined, but I I don't think we have enough information to know that yet.

Councilor Gianola.

Thank you.

Uh I'm I'm struggling.

I I really am.

I think maintaining preserving designating as it is a landmark, these are all important things.

The cost is rough.

Um that said, you know, the city fell down on the job.

Uh we were supposed to maintain it, we were obligated to maintain it.

And by we, I mean Laura, which is uh I'll call it an extension of the city, but we were obligated to maintain it, and we we didn't do it.

If we had spent you know, five thousand dollars a year maintaining it, we'd be halfway there right now, at least as far as the cost uh that sort of are in front of us on option one.

Um I think we also fell down on the job in particular to the building owner.

Uh they you know gave us an easement, and I'm a little bit concerned that you know that there's some some legal implications uh based on the city falling down on the job uh here.

I I wouldn't be happy if this was my building, uh I'll just say.

Um to your point, Councilor Jensen, you know, this is old wood.

This is not an easy thing to maintain.

You know, some of the examples that were shared with us uh in the community members report about signs in Fort Collins, signs and other places, a lot of these were painted on brick, which is much more of a stable surface.

Um, and so this sign, you know, it just you know, I feel like it's it's just more complex than some of the other kind of historic signs that we've seen.

Uh I'm thankful for uh the uh little apothecary building owner putting that sign on the north facing wall.

I think it's a little more protected there, but you know, will they face uh potential restoration issues there?

Perhaps I don't know what the the base of that sign is.

Um I do think there might be an opportunity to uh put it in a new building or an existing building.

I think we haven't explored all the options.

I think there maybe is only two buildings out of the three.

I don't see the service center as being large enough or publicly accessible.

So I you know they have they have snow plows in them.

And I think the goal is to make people see it, service the fire the fire engines, which are also large in there.

Um so I just I'm I'm really struggling what to do.

Uh I also just want to quickly think about the replica.

Um I it's an interesting idea.

I'm a little bit personally more interested in the rotating mural to you know, can still provide that place making uh Lafayette, it's a place with murals with local artists, and uh I think there's a real opportunity there, uh potentially if the sign were to move, but I just don't know what to do, what to say, which way I would want to do, but I agree with you that we probably need some more information.

Counselor Friedman.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Um I would I would add to the um the folks that maybe um are disappointed, um, the 126,000 dollars that were raised by local citizens, and we put in 10.

Um so yeah, I mean, we just we missed the ball.

I mean, it's just it's really disappointing, and you know nobody up here was there, people and staff were not here.

So that's the first thing I'm gonna say is that it's really disappointing.

And what do we do now, right?

And that's obviously our conversation.

So I'm also really struggling.

I also don't feel like we have enough information.

I would also love the commissions and maybe the historical society's input now, given where we are, given our options.

You know, I think these these options and maybe there's more um are new and should be we should get information from those expert bodies to help us make these decisions.

Um would love to learn more about the register of historic places, um would be open to considering changes to the landmark ordinance locally too, given as well expert um uh information from our bodies that are there for that.

I will also say too that, and I don't want to necessarily speak for those who have told us about this who who really care about this, but what I hear is a couple things.

One that hey, this is a really cool Pat is a really cool character in our history.

We should think about how we um give some acknowledgement to people like that, Pat specifically.

I'm sure there's others too, and so that's one piece that I hear that and saying, like this sign is a way to do that, but I would offer that there's probably other ways as well.

Um also that this kind of area, which is is still the vibrant, a very vibrant part of our community, and was in the past, I'm sure, when it was the only place in town for uh a cores on tap.

Um, you know, also having that history told a little more, which I think we do some, but maybe you know, when I see Colorado Register of Historic Places, I don't necessarily think of one sign, and not again, I don't know much about it, but to me it's like maybe we should talk about that area and say, could we put together an application for that whole area?

This being one element as an opportunity, and there's other things too.

So I guess what I in that I'm trying to open up options for us because I feel like this specific piece, while important, is kind of a an echo of other feelings that we have in our community around telling the whole story, right?

Telling all of our history, um, but just having lots of opportunities to graphically represent our history and also just share that history together and talk about it.

And so um it starts to turn into a much bigger proposition as I start to go down that path.

And I don't mean for that really, but I also think you know, when confronted with a disappointment or a failure, there's also opportunity in that for us to, you know, um make amends, but also you know, bring bring us together through disappointment, you know, and and move ahead.

So I don't know if that really helped, but I you know, I feel like I'm rambling now, so maybe I should stop.

But I think to sort of bring it together, I think we need more information, and I also think we should think about how it cascades into other opportunities to tell Pat's story and potentially other stories.

Thank you.

So can we clarify?

Oh, sorry, Counselor Jen.

Thank you.

Can we clarify the pieces of additional information for staff that we think we need so they can come back to us with the specifics?

We'll we'll do that.

Um I want to make sure everybody gets a chance to comment.

And I this happens all the time is someone will say something that spurs another comment that you have.

So I wanted to leave time for that's council.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

You know, what Counselor Fridlin just shared is just really resonating with me, and kind of like having the courage to note that we, and again, we isn't we, but the collective we that we drop the ball.

And I I think we none of us do that as much as as we should or we could, and so just recognizing oh, we we collectively drop the ball, and now we're gonna make a choice and a series of decisions on how to how to get that right going forward.

So I love what I heard in terms of openness to revising the ordinance and getting to Mayor Pro Temp's point in terms of what specific questions to provide to staff, but just really looking at this not just as kind of like the the discrete sign and the specific drop side, drop side would drop drop side, drop siding.

Um not just that, but like kind of what it represents and the broader feeling about who we are and what we value.

Um I'm gonna sit with that for a while.

I like that a lot.

Thank you.

Any anyone else?

Okay, I'll I'll make some statements.

So if something else pops up, let me know.

Um I was close to being there for this, and I've looked very closely at that mural, and I remember sciencing when I looked at it and said, like, this is being beaten by the sun.

And in all, you know, the reality is everything gets beaten down by the sun.

We have this is part of what we deal with when we put things outside.

It's called weathering.

Um things get old in the sun, and you can you can take that wherever you want.

Um that's what's happening, and it's going to continue to happen.

The fact that it's exposed to or was exposed to is exposed to wind and some types of precipitation that blow into it.

Anything that's carbon based is gonna suffer.

Um I believe in our packet there was a statement that there might be as many as 14 coats of wood, uh, sorry, 14 coats of paint on there when you consider all the other uh paint that was put on it to try to preserve it.

Uh it's hard, it's a really challenging piece to have anything survive out in weathering.

And I think we've worked out that cedar is pretty pretty tough wood, and it's over 100 years old if I'm doing the math right.

Um, so something that is hardy and painted and maintained that's in the sun and is weathering, it's still gonna get beaten down.

So, yeah, well, maybe we didn't do our do main our due diligence on maintaining it.

Uh, it's still gonna get beaten by the sun.

So there's a lot of stuff that happens, and if I'm listening and hearing correctly, there's a massive amount of history in this chunk of wood.

It's from that era.

It is, and we get to talk about La Familia as we get into this a little bit more, but that's a significant connection to our past as well.

And that is part of La Familia's place and the collective.

So I I think at some point we're gonna have to say goodbye to that piece of wood, but until then, it is a it's it's in its place.

Um I see it where it should be, and I I really do respect the historic preservation preservation board saying if you want to keep it, you need to put it inside because only climate control is gonna keep it from deteriorating as quickly as it is outside.

But it's where I think it's where it's home is um, and I I respect that we have all shown how we're all grappling with this bit and piece, and this is the opening, so I think I think there's more information that it that we could gain, and I think it would help us a great deal to get some more information about it.

And with that, has anyone come up with other statements that you need to make?

I do have a list of things that I think um we would need more information on, but before I go through that list, and we can verify it just to be sure.

No one else.

Okay, so what I did hear that it would be helpful if we can get more information on this, is a qualitative assessment from historic presentation board of what they think um it would mean to move it from that location and put it somewhere else.

And then was there any other pieces of that?

The degradation to it, the just you know, it's expensive, and whether in the grand scheme of all the historic things they think we have in the community, you know, is this a high priority for them?

Do they think it's really valuable compared to I don't know what other things they might think?

Um, but you know, the price tag is high.

Thank you.

The second one, I'm looking at director Keating to make sure it's right.

Uh the second one I I thought I heard was um if we could just verify what that cost was for the assessment, uh, I think it's 2024 assessment.

And number three, this landmarking status with Colorado Register of Historic Places.

Registry of historic places.

We'd love to know a little bit more about what that uh what that gets us.

Registry of historic places, we'd love to know a little bit more about what that uh what that gets us, and potentially amending the ordinance in conjunction with it that looks favorable because that parallels we're our home rule state, but it's it doesn't hurt to align with the states sometimes.

Um can I interject?

Yeah, sure.

And how likely would we to be get how competitive would we be in a list of many projects?

Like, are we you know really likely to get the money or only slightly likely that would be helpful?

Yeah, funding opportunities, right?

Yeah.

If we could have that uh there was a question about what would happen if we and I'm gonna use the word deconstruct or break it up into pieces, and I I don't even I've never seen the word that describes the cracking in the wood.

I'm just gonna call it crack a lack.

And so something happens to that wood that needs a lot of help.

And I don't know if that's a push from the back to restore that, but it's a lot when the wood starts to crack.

I am I I kind of wonder if that's it.

If you cut it, it's if it's gonna fall apart.

So um, yeah, what would happen if it were parted of uh and I believe the name Ken Dugan was mentioned as a wood expert who potentially could look at it or maybe suggest someone else.

Yeah, Kim Dugan was the former chair of the historic preservation commission.

She's a Lafayette resident.

She works for City of Boulder, and she's a wood scientist, which I learned that is a profession.

Sciences.

Yes.

There's many scientists.

Yeah, there are.

Yeah.

Uh and the last one I have uh was about amending the the the ordinance.

So is there anything that I missed that would be great?

Council Freedom.

Um one of the things that I sort of heard maybe and might be helpful to do before we go to our experts is further developing the options, right?

I I think you mentioned other businesses that might be open or interested.

So I'd be I'd be curious what that could look like.

Um so that would be what I would add is are there other options that were missing up there that we should consider and then take that package of options to our experts.

And there was other another question about is there going to be a place where we could put it?

And I think that yes, that's important, but I think there might be a lot of uh temporal delay, like we need to do something with it now.

So if if I might, I would say that that might be something down the road that we would consider versus having it in the parking lot until the rec center's done.

That was a joke.

Uh understood.

So yes.

I think we've counselor Juno.

I just have a couple more.

Um, yeah, we we I think we also need to discuss with the building owner um kind of what he his interests are, you know, how how if there's flexibility on you know what he can do, or he's a big player in this, and I think it's only fair to him to let him weigh in.

So I'd love to have some you know, kind of brainstorming with him.

Um just to be clear the to have the ask the city to do that.

Yeah, I mean, I think they're already in touch with him, so I yeah, exactly.

Um, the some of the storytelling things kind of spoke with me that we talked about, so I'd love to have some options around you know, how can we expand this or really kind of you know widen this up to to tell more about the history of Lafayette, I think could be interesting.

I I we didn't talk about it too much, but I also wonder, you know, what is the status of Laura and can they contribute to whatever project takes place given the responsibilities that they have?

I don't exactly know what their status is.

I'm happy to provide some clarity on that.

Um so we are in our window phase, it's a long goodbye if you haven't noticed.

Um essentially the downtown development authority has replaced Lura as the main entity for our downtown, but um Laura is uh in the final stages.

Um, this condition assessment was uh initially reviewed by Laura and they understood that there was an interest of uh or recommendation of moving indoors.

Um they said they would be committed to restoring that site by removing the flat work and moving the sign and potentially doing the rotating art mural.

I feel like since the enough time has passed and we're talking about different things, it would make sense to have a meeting with them to see what their interests are on potential partnerships.

They're essentially like not the biggest player in the downtown, but they're still a board, we still have a small fund balance, and so it's worth another conversation with them.

Great.

I think it's that I like that.

Um and I think you know, them kind of if there's an opportunity for them to recognize the falling down on the job part of it, uh, I think that that can go a long way with uh the public.

And then just one other thing that I think is worth um exploring to gather more information is you know, we think this hundred hundred thousand we'll call it is the cost to restore that.

How accurate is that?

Can we get some other estimates really understand if that's really how much it's gonna cost to restore or if there are cheaper ways to do it that would be just as good?

Yeah, if I I'm gonna add to that too, because I mean the qualifications of that firm look incredible, but also uh, you know, those are some pretty high, like seems to me like that's if I were them, I would be charging a pretty high rate.

Um, and so I wonder if there's an opportunity if we were able to kind of do you know, go out to bed a little bit.

Yeah, and then I also even wonder is there a way to do it staged where we move it in, have it you know restore it in indoors over time, that could actually be an interesting learning opportunity for the public, um, and maybe spread the cost out or reduce the cost.

And are there other parts of the side like to me it would make sense that maybe certain parts are more degraded than others, you know?

And I wonder if you know the top might be easier because it's it looks like it's simpler colors, and I don't know, it's to me that fits in further develop the options, right?

Like let's vet these options a little bit, throw them against the wall, try to bring down the cost and see if it makes any sense.

And just to clarify, when you say restoring it over time, I'm talking about moving it back and forth.

I mean, if we could find a home for it and put it in its current condition and display it, and then if there's room to do the restoration of that in place, you know, I think that happens to some pieces of art where they're just restored where they live, but not moving back and forth because that's moving back and forth.

15,000 a move.

I don't know.

It's it's options are what we're looking for, right?

That's a lot.

Um so is that um this is all really helpful feedback, and uh as you as you all shared, this is a difficult decision to land on because there are a lot of things that you all are balancing.

Um this is really helpful direction that we need to do some additional exploration.

Um, there's probably like a mini work plan that's associated with this, and I might um so it might be good for staff to go back and think about what is the time frame to do all this exploration and what are the different steps, and we can kind of report back out to that.

But uh, we have a good starting point about what needs to be done.

Mayor Pro Tem, could I also ask?

So I heard Historic Preservation Board and Um Laura, but I know through this conversation, there's also been mentions of other boards.

Is there anywhere on anyone else that we would like to go back to?

I heard the arts board, maybe ancillary.

Um, so that would be the one piece of clarification I would.

I think in the packet it said we had re had the Lafayette Historical Society, which I know is not a city board, but getting further input from them wouldn't hurt.

Um, but I have a question about timing of all this.

Is there some crucial if we don't get something done with this, it's just gonna be so falling apart that nothing matters anymore time frame because you know the condition of the wood is so bad.

So and and do we know what that is?

So the best way that I can answer that is um by leaving it in it's clear that's the two, right?

So by leaving it in place, it is still exposed to the elements.

If you were to restore it or move it, it would need to come it is my understanding that it would need to come down regardless to do that major restoration.

Um so that is that is something that I can also explore is could you do the restoration on site if that's where you landed?

I don't believe you can because that's what was happened before and it takes a long period of time.

So if depend regardless on what option you do, restoration or not, I think if you decide to not do anything, then you should just leave it in place, right?

Um I think uh I appreciate the question, and I think if we're going to move forward, we first find out um get some initial information and then look to move it to be restored sooner than later.

Restoring in place sounds like that could that sounds more problematic than to try to deal with because there's nothing covering it from the sun, and it's about to be summer, so yeah, a lot of more sunline wind.

Um let's get some feedback first.

And yeah, there's urgency definitely, but let's get some feedback for.

We thank you.

We didn't talk about fundraising to help uh with this, and I know that's not your job.

Um, but it sounds like there might be community members who care enough about this to help.

But given our track record of fundraising and then falling down on the job, I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to play with us.

Um, but I I do think you know, we should factor in that taking it down as quickly as we can to protect it from further deterioration and then working on a fundraising plan that uh if we can't afford it, that we can at least give a budget to the community and say this is what we think it would take.

And anybody wants to do a go fund me, it's pretty easy these days, and we could help get start getting it funded.

Perhaps I would offer that as part of the exploration that I do is to look at different funding options and um also working with our chief financial officer to understand if it were to be funded in-house, how would that be funded?

And again, I'm gonna go to Laura, and so I'll I'll come up with uh some different options.

Yeah, I think we should start with us before we ask the public to participate.

Just a quick question.

I wonder too if I can add to the pile of asks, and since I I think there's some consensus that we all want to protect this if possible, and recognizing the ongoing deterioration, it would it be possible to get an answer in terms of all right, we are deciding to take it down as soon as possible and store it safely indoors, and like what is that time frame and cost look like and where does it go if we push that button?

Um, so as part of this exploration, um uh we we reached out to a trucking company and also the uh original engineering firm that helped with it, and so we have a rough ballpark of what we think that is.

Um that is that 7500 cost.

Um, so we wanted to put that in there that if let's say council landed on option one and want to restore it, um, we would get firm bids for how much it would cost to remove it, right?

And sorry, director, if we push that metaphorical button, when would they come take it off?

We would need to um do our due diligence to actually get firm bids, but um, we got a rough order of magnitude for that.

Of um, it's a difficult piece to to move, but um, and I I bel I would have to confirm with Laura, but that might be something that they can pay for to remove it.

Okay, thank you.

If you wouldn't mind having that to the list, thank you so much.

I think the city administrator asked questions around other groups that we should reach out to.

I mean, I think we've got them with historic preservation and with the museum, the Lafayette Historic Museum.

Um I would also say that maybe the the LCAB might be interested in the question about the placemaking, kind of how do we tell that story a little more too?

So I don't know if they necessarily need to weigh in on you know what we do here.

Um but certainly I think that larger question of how do we tell this story that's sort of being um being brought up now.

Counselor Vegas.

And I'm also thinking about university partnerships.

Is this piece historical enough that the CU department of art history might want to invest in it?

Going once going twice.

Just lean out.

Well, I just appreciate the conversation.

Obviously, this is a stark piece and a significant placemaking in our downtown, and so it's it's not easy to make a decision, and I appreciate the feedback and direction, and I will develop a timeline and work plan to be able to come back to council with some more clarity.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Okay, moving on to regular business, and I believe resolution number 226, ratifying the city manager's appointment of Brian Rosapale.

I think I got it.

Chief of police for City of Lafayette City Manager.

He'll say he'll just want to be called Brian, so that makes it a lot easier.

Oh, okay.

Um, good evening, council or mayor pretend, council.

Um, tonight I have the honor of asking for your ratification for uh the city of Lafayette's next police chief.

I'll note um as a city manager, typically you don't have many opportunities to be able to select um, especially your public safety, but your police chief.

So I'm really excited to be able to share kind of the journey that we've taken and hopefully get your approval tonight.

So why are we here?

Even though you have three directory porties, there are four positions within our charter that council has to ratify, even though they still serve under the city manager.

And so that's why we're here tonight.

The police chief is one of those.

As you recall, after almost 43 years, Chief Basher retired in October as the longest standing police chief in the state of Colorado at 15 years.

So very large shoes to fill, which is why I took some time intentionally.

Well, he was the deputy chief, um, but asked him to serve as interim chief, but I really wanted to do my due diligence to better understand um where the community is coming from, where the staff are coming from, again, because it is such a very important position.

It's not just about public safety, but the police chief really is that liaison between our community to ensure there's a lot of trust between it, um, especially in this day and age.

So I reached out to likes of Mr.

Flores, who is here and provided me a very large petition, was willing to add even more signatures to it.

Um I reached out to our newly developed um fraternal order of police, our uh union to kind of see their perspective and just really spent kind of a listening tour um over the last several months to come to the conclusion that I felt that um interim police chief Russ Pellio was our candidate by state law.

We did have to post internally.

We had one applicant.

Um, but I just um I wanted to say that I'm very excited.

I've had the great pleasure for over five years now of working with Brian in various capacities, and I just think he's built tremendous trust within the community.

You know, he has served Lafayette for over 25 years.

So when I say there are big shoes to fill, he also has big shoes and being in this community for that long in almost every role within the police department.

Uh he has all the bachelor arts in criminal justice, has been to the FBI training, all of the accolades that you would want, and your chief of police, and you know, it's just overall recognized as a leader within the community and a leader within the region.

Um, you know, I I neglected to say I also met with other regional partners, including our sheriffs, just to better understand and the um glowing recommendations overall.

So, like I said, um have a pleasure, happy to answer any questions, and um excited that you guys are um as eager as I am to fill this role.

So, any questions from members of council.

He will not solve climate change.

Yeah, I got a point.

That was your question.

Oh, yeah.

Um, and I'm wondering, Mr.

Flores, would you like to say anything?

Well, thank you.

You want to come up so we can get the records?

All right, make everyone.

Absolutely.

Yeah, thank you.

Nice to see you too.

Hi, everybody.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Yes, yes, I'm very happy to see him chosen, right?

And and I gotta say, in behalf of a lot of people here in the community that we were uh very happy to know that he sort of came to be the uh you know a possibility and and also recommended by Rick, right?

Someone who, like you say, big shoes and work with the community so well that we trust him and you know we feel very comfortable approaching him.

And we we know you for years of um uh you know I'm a local activist here who working with the community and get into events, and I've been seeing you for a while.

We always talk, and it was so so great to see that it was gonna go this way or a possibility, which is still continue to be a possibility until you guys vote yes, right?

But it it was it was so good because uh, you know, there was a relation already with the community, and we we hope that uh we're gonna develop this to to have the same trust or even more, right?

These are times when our communities need to be together and we need to find places where we all agree and relate.

So I'm hopping that it's going this way.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh so I wonder if I could get a motion.

Council Jensen.

I moved to approve resolution number 202605, ratifying the city manager's appointment.

Uh Brian Rose Palonia as chief of police for the city of Lafayette.

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion or any comments?

Uh Councilor Friedman.

Yeah, it's been a pleasure to um interact with you.

Um thanks for having me the other day down at the station and talking about different topics.

Um it's clear that you and your team um, you know, are continuing, I would say, the the tradition brought to you brought to us by Chief Basher before you of just having really high standards, serving the community really, really well.

So I just I appreciate congratulations on being in this position.

Um I'm sure you're gonna do a fantastic job.

So thank you very much.

Councilor Berlier.

Interim Chief, I'm thrilled that this is the last time that you'll be called that.

Um it's it's an honor second everything that Councillor Friedman said.

I know there's a number of key issues, and thank you, Mr.

Flores, for speaking.

I know there's a number of key issues this council is eager to collaborate with you and your team going forward.

Uh, but today it's really just an honor to be able to cast this vote.

Thank you.

Okay, I don't see any other councillors, but I would like to say that I'm um how should I say I am confident that this community will continue to retain its hometown feel and people feel safe here?

I was lucky enough to ride along uh on two different occasions with one of your officers who happened to be officer of the year, whatever.

Um they're still an officer of the year, so I highly recommend to our counselors.

It turns out Councillor Friedman's already taken the opportunity, but please do um schedule yourself for uh as many ride-alongs as the chief says you can take and meet with our officers.

And I was asked, I did well after George Floyd and Brianna Taylor were murdered.

Um I was pretty rattled.

So I went and talked to our officers and officers, and I said, Where are we with this?

And um I quickly understood that they work in Lafayette for a reason, and that's because they uphold community rights.

And um I said, what do you need from me?

And they said, please let people know that we are of the highest quality.

They didn't say that, that's what they were gonna be implying, and that um represent us and say that we are here to serve this community and we respect um the rights of everyone who lives there, and we that's why they're in Lafayette.

So I'm I'm glad I have this opportunity to say that uh uh our officers are some of the people that I trust and respect, and I'm proud to live here in the city, and I'm really proud that Brian is going to be the new chief.

And with that said, I'd like to take a vote uh on the motion.

All of us in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Okay, that motion stands approved.

Congratulations.

Okay, and that moves us to uh staff reports, and we'll start with uh city attorney's report.

Thank you, Mayor Pur Tem.

I do not have any reports for you this evening.

Thank you very much, City Attorney.

Uh then that moves us to our city managers.

I'm just gonna stay right here.

So um thank you again.

So um just want to thank council and thank staff that participated in the 2026 City Council retreat, which just a few days ago, and so we are um kind of putting the final bow and we'll be presenting um in the near future about some of the outcomes that came out of that retreat.

But um, just want to thank the people and um commitment on Friday the 13th and Valentine's Day to spend with um our lovely seven-member council.

Um, also wanted to note that we um did receive this year a Boulder County Environmental Sustainability Matching Grad.

This is just over uh sixty thousand dollars.

That's gonna help with our tree canopy program, and so you can learn more on our website.

But um always excited to have partnerships with Boulder County through that dedicated tax.

And then tomorrow, as a reminder, we have our open house um for the Rappahoe Center Theater where you can meet the design consultants and ask questions.

That's from 5-630 at the Rappahoe Center, which many people haven't been in, so it's always fun to kind of see a new site that isn't always open.

Looking forward um to the gosh, end of February already, your February 24th workshop.

We're gonna be discussing open space program and property acquisition process in conjunction with a member from your open space board, um, a water supply update, and then because um, as happens with all retreats, you always have too many items that you don't uh get to.

We agreed at the retreat that we would move forward our board and commission work plan discussion to this meeting as well.

And so the packet materials will be similar to what was provided in the retreat materials.

On March 3rd, um, you'll have your annual municipal court update.

This is a joint presentation between your municipal judge and your court administrator.

And then two easement readings, uh, first uh uh first readings with both CDOT and Boulder County.

That is all I have tonight, Mayor Potem.

Yes.

Councillor Jensen.

Thank you, Mayor Broadham.

When we talk about water supply, will we also be talking about options for preserving water changes in our policy things that we could do going forward that might help that, or is it just about supply?

Yeah, typically uh during these we do them at least once a year.

Um, and so and we this year especially we'll have a couple different touch points, but typically we do have like the sustainability focus at the end of the presentation with kind of the resources that I think there you can talk about.

Is there other opportunities as well?

So we have that baked into the presentation.

Any other questions?

Uh thank you, City Manager.

And we will move on to council counselor reports or council reports.

Um let's start with Councilor Boyer.

And thank you for coming this evening.

My pleasure.

I'm I'm glad that the heads is uh is still on straight.

Um okay, a few exciting updates.

Uh, with apologies that these are not quite as well organized as I would have liked, Mayor Pro Tem.

Um, but first and foremost, um, just seconding the thanks that our city manager noted for the excellent staff work, the consultants, the warm camaraderie from fellow counselors for the retreat this past weekend.

Um, one thing that we were really, I think, lucky uh to hear is our Lafayette Poet Laureate, Z Bay Speaks, provide uh a bespoke poem for us at the outset of uh the retreat was really quite beautiful.

And I highlight that uh both to applaud them but also to note that Poet Laureate applications are due February 20th, so just there's a few more days.

I think, yeah, just three more days to get your applications in for the poet laureate.

There's interest from uh the LCAB in exploring how to make the Poet Laureate a permanent part uh of our city charter, so more to follow on that in future uh council meetings, but that's something LCAP is working on.

Uh, with the older adults advisory board, uh, unfortunately, there's been uh resignation for for very good reasons, and so there's an opening and um a very engaged uh member uh of OAAB, uh Denise Walker is throwing her hat into the ring to sort of replace uh that outgoing individual.

So that's something that will be coming to council in the near future, maybe March 3rd or afterwards.

Um but Denise wears many hats, she's also on the LCAB, so it's a very engaged member of the public, um, extremely active.

And then just lastly, um, let's see.

Coming up uh in mid-March, I can't read my own handwriting.

In mid-March, uh the Pioneers Building celebrates a hundred years, so I know that there's a lot of celebration around that, and our own mayor, Sal Tapia Vega is an alum of that school, and so I know they're very interested in having uh Mayor Tavia Vega involved in the celebration.

Um so those are the only things I'll report out this week.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councillor Freeland.

Thank you.

Um had the first meeting of the consortium of cities last week.

Um, a lot of topics were discussed in terms of um you know opportunities to collaborate or discuss in the next you know two years.

Um, some of those topics were uh emergency management, uh immigration enforcement um in our communities, um, the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, Sundance, and certainly minimum wage as well.

Um specifically, the next meeting I think is going to focus around emergency management and sort of how the different jurisdictions work together for response and things like that.

Um I I certainly tried my best to share kind of our experience recently with the the fire at 287 and down south and sort of some of them maybe challenges that we had or learnings and also opportunities in terms of uh positive opportunities that we saw of really quick response and really good organization with our emergency personnel.

Um, so there might be some um help I will ask of of staff around um if there's anything that we want to share around what you know what we do and things like that at that meeting.

Um, and though there will be continued conversation at that group around those topics, and I'm sure others of where do we go from here, how do we work together?

Um, and I know some of those topics are certainly on our list from our retreat, so I look forward to doing my best to represent us in that opportunity for collaboration.

Um the CML policy um workshop, I guess it is.

This is this Thursday, so I expect to have, and there's a meeting, a policy committee meeting this Friday, um, which I'll do my best to bring notes back from for you all so you know sort of what's going on and certainly this CML's perspective as best I can too.

Um, and if there's any sort of input that I need from you, I will certainly let you know, and I appreciate your support on that.

I think that's everything for me.

Thank you, Councillor Freeland, Councillor Garlegos.

So I just wanted to share some happy news from our local high school.

So the Centaurus Dance team placed second in the nation in jazz and fourth in Palm.

So they wanted me to share that with you.

Um we've supported the team in the past with their travel expenses.

So it was really nice to hear them doing so well.

And I also wanted to share that the elevator at our library is undergoing maintenance for the next four weeks.

Um so just plan ahead if you're unable to use the stairs.

The main entrance will be open and accessible, and staff members will be available to retrieve books from the upper level if you're unable to use the stairs.

Thank you.

That's great to hear.

Um there's a way to get books because we don't want anybody struggling to get their books and library.

All right, counselor Ginoa.

Thank you, Mayor Brotem.

Uh I I want to thank council for a robust discussion tonight.

Really enjoyed the discussion on the Coca-Cola mural.

Uh, I think we developed a lot of uh good questions and uh just it's it's fun to be here.

Um I want to address a couple things that I heard in public comment.

Um, you know, we've heard in the past uh comments about the cemetery.

A lot of this all took place, the the concerns that are being raised took place before I joined council.

Um so I'd love to have um staff give us uh an update at some point soon on kind of the the status of the cemetery uh and the the ground penetrating radar study, uh things like that, um, so we can think about what we can do moving forward.

Uh there was the comment uh about Bullhead Gulf, so I'd love to have an update on the maintenance uh of that to prevent uh problems in the future.

Um, and then I have a couple of reports from uh advisory boards.

Um the open space advisory board.

Um I'm glad to see uh the the acquisition discussion uh on the future uh meeting at the workshop next week.

Um at the most recent open space advisory board meeting, they were working on reprioritizing the parcels that they've identified as potential open space.

Um there's there's been a discussion about Erie's approach to open space.

They've been sending letters directly to property owners about desirable open space parcels, and our open space advisory board is thinking about how and should they do outreach.

Uh may be the same, maybe different.

Um they're looking for feedback and guidance on whether that would be a good idea, how to frame it, you know, things that could go wrong, um, and whether they would be the ones to send out that outreach, or if they would want to ask that council do it.

Um I have some thoughts about that, but we can discuss that um when we come back to it.

Um, and then finally, um, at the SRAB meeting, uh, you know, we discussed maybe Mayor Proton, maybe you'll talk about this.

The recent EPA's repeal of the endangerment finding.

Um, the Boulder County Commissioners um sent out a pretty nice uh letter to the community talking about the irresponsible uh actions that were there.

Um, and so just want to echo that and say, you know, we uh last I think it was last March, this city council passed resolution 2025 18 recognizing that we are in a global climate emergency and affirming the city's commitment to local climate action.

Um I think we're still there.

We've had a historically hot and dry winter.

Uh and uh you know, even talking to our uh uh parks and golf director about the the situation on the ground.

It's dry out there, it's hot.

We had a fire action day today.

I mean, it's it's here.

So I also wonder if council wants to kind of restate or reinforce um our resolution from last year.

Um recognizing that we're still in a climate emergency.

Um so put that out there, and then finally, um SREV asked me to share that Friday, March 6th is climate lobby day at the Colorado Capitol.

I think there's going to be some activities kind of teaching people how to lobby.

There's some in the morning, and then kind of go out and approach your uh state representatives, senators, and lobby them for you know things that are relevant to the climate.

So that's coming up uh on Friday, March 6th.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Gianola, Counselor Jensen.

So I attended two transportation related meetings.

Uh one, the Colorado Highway 7 corridor coalition, and uh lobbied them quite actively for the underpass that they had promised us uh at 287 near um what is Blue CERN, right?

And I was told that was really helpful because they were uh starting to sort of lose interest in that project, and so I will continue to do that.

I'm also really really concerned about the fact that they're expanding bus rapid transit from Brighton to Boulder without the construction of the safety elements of that transportation expansion.

There is I live near 95th in Arapaho, and between 95th and 75th, there's not a single crosswalk on Arapaho to cross safely, and now they're gonna have much more bus service on that road, and I'm concerned about that.

And I want to continue to work with our public works director on whether we can get some upfront funding.

The money is there to do the crosswalks, it's just the timeline is such that they're doing the bus first, and I'm gonna try to see if we can push some of that crosswalk dollars to be first rather than after the bus gets expanded.

So I'll be working on that.

Um, I also went to a meeting on a regional transit authority for the Northwest region, so it would be Brighton, Westminster, Boulder to Longmont in that area to try to do the pieces that RTD doesn't have the money and never really planned.

I'm talking about like from here to Brighton or from here to Westminster, sort of sub-regional, you know, not from here to Denver, but um when people are commuting to you know, from small town to small town, basically.

And I after going to the meeting, it's a huge lift.

Um, it requires a vote of all the communities in the entire region first, and the public has to support it, and then it requires some funding.

And you know whether we could secure the vote under Tabor of a tax of some kind to support that kind of transit.

I think it's kind of iffy.

I will continue to attend those meetings.

I think the first thing they're gonna do is a feasibility study, and they will be asking the communities who are in that region to contribute towards a feasibility study, which would be 10 to 15,000 per city.

So I I I'd love any feedback of whether anybody thinks that would be valuable to even do, whether we even have the money.

I can talk to Katie about you know where we could pull it from, but uh there'll be a formal ask at some point.

It's not now.

Um so I have a couple of other things uh because I'm new.

Um, the the Samantha Brown who presented pictures about social trails.

I would love to know what our policy is about social trails, what we do about that.

Sometimes social trails end up being beneficial, and that they're a straighter line to where people want to go than the original trail, and we decide to keep them because they have value, and sometimes we don't.

And I just like to know what our policy is on social trails and what we're currently doing, if I could have that.

Um, I would also like to request, and I talk to our city manager about this as that at some point in the near future we have a study session to talk about e-bike safety.

Um, and it may be not a study session, but a public meeting because I'd like to hear from the public about it uh and what they think the solutions are.

I know we all know there's a problem, um, and there could be a very heavy-handed approach to the problem, or there could be a lighter approach to the problem that more involved education, and you know, when you're talking about kids, heavy-handedness doesn't usually work anyway.

So, you know, I'd like to look at what our options are.

I understand there is going to be a bill in the legislature to address some aspects of this.

I don't think it's gonna be what we need.

So I I would like to see that in the future, and I don't I don't really know what the process is for a sole council member asking for more.

I mean, do I have to ask the rest of y'all if you think it's important and give feedback to the city manager?

So anybody else think you're that's important?

And we can ask for it to be included in a discussion at some point during uh one of our workshop, maybe not soon enough, but maybe you be uh with the urgency of the issue.

And we do have online guidance around e-biking, and I I will say that it's it's a problem that goes beyond e-bike uh behavior.

So it's a there's a there's an issue with the way people ride a bike, uh, and then e-bikes are there's other elements that are problematic there.

So uh I think we do need to discuss what is it that we can do to help influence all ages of people on bikes because the behavior is uh needs to be addressed, and uh potentially our officers can also provide um feedback on what might work and uh what they've experienced.

And then the last thing I wanted to bring up is you know, there is an effort to um expand the number of county commissioners to five.

And I was originally on the uh steering committee for that effort and took myself off because I started to not believe in it and had some serious concerns about it.

I wonder if the council's interested in having somebody come and give the pros and cons to us so that we might take a position on it.

Uh and and there are a couple things.

One is they haven't got enough signatures, so it's not on the ballot yet, so we could wait, or we could engage earlier so that we might influence people who might want to not find based on uh you know what they hear from us about whether they think it benefits Lafayette or not.

So I I don't know what you guys are interested in doing about that, but it it has the potential to significantly impact Lafayette.

So we can ask uh just generally counsel, would you be in favor of having someone present before we know if there's enough signatures uh to get it on the ballot just so we have an understanding of the the groundwork?

I think we should wait till it's either on the ballot or not and and see and hear about it.

Um and then I think for things like that, we can then decide if we want to support it or not support it.

Um but I don't I don't necessarily want to waste our time, I guess.

If it's not gonna be on the ballot, I'm not sure if we should spend time discussing it.

I am interested in as well, so thank you so much for bringing it up.

Um so I would love to certainly discuss it more, but I don't know if the timing is right before we know if it's on the ballot or not.

Uh and I would concur.

I think we should wait to see if it gets on the ballot, uh, just to minimize the amount of uh our workload.

Our workload, yeah.

Um that one, you know, that I think we can wait.

Okay.

And then weigh in because we might get asked for sure if it's on the ballot.

Yep.

Is it my is it me?

Are you doing that?

Okay.

Uh and I was lucky enough to attend my first Northwest mayors uh and councillors, commission commissioners, yes, council meeting, which was very active.

And uh there were a couple of items that we took votes on, but uh a couple of items that we uh tabled and asked for more information.

It's a very engaged uh group, and I think in addition to the uh consortium of cities and the all the highway transportation projects.

There was uh I think we're gonna have lots of information and feedback, and I'll give you uh I don't have the whole uh the specifics about what we talked about, but I'll bring that uh bring them next meeting.

But I can say that we did uh discuss transportation issues, um issues that will help the state manager manage table limits for funding transportation.

Um we also talked about front range rail, how that's progressing, and the contingent from the NW mayor's commission, there was West Mayor's and Commissioners meeting, um, does attend they do lobby in Washington DC on a regular basis.

And our lobbyists did say that it's a known entity when the Colorado contingency specifically this one shows up.

And there was a discussion about meeting with the FAA in order to discuss significant policy changes uh in the FAA and the way they manage airports.

So I'll bring more information about uh whether that might happen and what we would talk uh talk about.

And I think that's all I had, and uh thank everybody for your participation in the retreat.

I think we are off on a good foot.

So with that, I think I'm ready to adjourn this meeting.