PHOTO BY JEFF HERSCH
STAN, HARRIS & TED WERE READY FOR CROQUET (& maybe rooms at the Funny Farm) at the 2nd annual ‘Wicket & Stick-It’ fund-raiser held Aug. 5 on Fillmore Plaza, 2nd & Fillmore. The event was hosted by the Cherry Creek Chamber of Commerce to benefit the Colorado Council for Economic Education.

■ Okay by Parks Manager likely to follow; most testimony at hearing from opponents

BY RORY SEEBER

By a 10-7 vote at its Aug. 12 meeting, the Parks & Recreation Department’s Advisory Board voted to recommend to department manager Kevin Patterson that he give final approval of the Admission-Based Special Events Policy (ABSEP).
    In February the board had approved the concept of admission-based events in the city’s public parks, but wanted the policy itself rewritten. Specifically, it desired clarification of four issues: the impact of such events on the surrounding neighborhood(s), the impact on the park itself, the size of events, and their duration and/or frequency.
    In March the ABSEP task force which had developed the draft policy over more than two years of meetings was reconvened to consider those issues. The draft approved by the Advisory Board was a result of that meeting.

■ Series of public meetings reveals new details, answers & poses questions

BY RORY SEEBER

In July and August US OpenAir representative Julie Frahm, the managing director for the Boston-based company, continued to attend community gatherings and meetings of registered neighborhood groups to address concerns about the company’s outdoor movie series planned for next summer.
    US OpenAir (USOA) is the exclusive US licensee of a Swiss company that created the technology for the screen (which can be raised and lowered) and projection system which will be used in City Park next summer, tentatively July 13-Aug. 19. City Council approved the project by an 8-4 vote in January.
    The original plan delineated in a Parks Use Agreement USOA signed with the city had called for beginning the festival in Civic Center Park, Colfax & Broadway, in July this summer in conjunction with the inaugural Biennial of the Americas celebration. The contract called for moving the event to City Park in 2011 and 2012.

■ Site at Josephine to be used for dogs & community garden until funds available to build central rec center

BY RORY SEEBER

Work has begun on a temporary fenced, off-leash dog park that will occupy part of the site selected for the future central recreation center at Colfax & Josephine.
    The former Church in the City property was approved as the location for the rec center in November, winning out over a proposed conversion and expansion of the Congress Park pool site at 9th & Josephine. Money to purchase the land came from the November 2007 “Better Denver” bond initiative Denver voters approved to fund infrastructure projects, which included $11 million for land acquisition and design services for a new recreation center to serve central Denver.
    The city purchased the 110,000 sf property for approximately $6 million, leaving $5 million for the design of the new center and demolition of the existing building, originally constructed as a Safeway. Construction will not begin on the new rec center until the balance of necessary funding is raised or acquired. No concrete timeline has been suggested, but work may not begin for at least five years.