Recap: July Pleasant View Metro District Board Meeting
The Pleasant View Board held its regular monthly board meeting at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 16. I’m a recently elected board member who started these updates as a private citizen to help the community stay informed.
Reach out to me any time at lauraforpleasantview@gmail.com or 720-675-8093.
The Short Version
The district’s annual financial audit has been completed. I missed this part of the meeting due to a board meeting at work, but based on the auditor’s report, no notable financial issues were found.
The chain link fence on the east side of Wolf Park keeps getting cut open. While the district can’t take down the fence for safety reasons, we are looking into a blind spot mirror to make the concrete trail better for pedestrians to use.
The fire department responded to 127 calls for help in June.
The fire department will pay the City of Golden to perform fire inspection duties on Pleasant View buildings.
This is separate from the board meeting, but the county is looking for feedback on its next strategic plan. I went to the open house and didn’t see anyone else from Pleasant View, so make sure your voice is heard by leaving comments online.
There is an extra board meeting on Tuesday July 29 to discuss GLO Park updates. Join us at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at the metro district building on 955 Moss Street.
The Long Version
General Metro District Updates
If you are confused about what the metro district is (we’re not a city), go to my About page for a quick reminder!
Annual Audit
Every year, the district hires a financial audit company to review the districts financial practices and position.
The auditor presented their draft report at the meeting. The report itself isn’t finalized yet and therefore isn’t public, but I will share it once it is available! I missed this part of the meeting but read the report.
The only finding that the district had was that there is only one person involved in approving some expenditures. Since the district has so few employees, it’s difficult to have multiple people do this.
The board provides this function retroactively for bills, so the report reminded the board of our duty to thoroughly review all the financial materials we’re provided each month.
Pleasant View Parks Updates
Wolf Park
Someone has been illegally cutting the fence at Wolf Park’s eastern boundary (top arrow in below photo). The fence was originally put up when the concrete bike path was built by Jefferson County. Recently, the chain link fence around the boundary of the park is getting cut.
The top arrow shows where the fence is being cut to illegally enter the park. The bottom arrow shows the legal entrance where a split rail fence ends.
I talked to neighbors while I was door knocking for my campaign, and several of them took the time to show me how cyclists and a blind turn make the paved path feel unsafe. While we were talking, we were almost hit by a cyclist so the concerns were very valid. You can see the blind spot below:
Approaching cyclists are coming downhill and can’t see pedestrians walking uphill. Myself and a few other board members asked if the chain link fence could just be removed again so that the district wouldn’t have to keep repairing it and residents could have their previous entry available.
The district’s insurance company came out for a safety assessment and unfortunately found that the fence could not be removed due to liability reasons. I asked if we could look into putting a blind spot mirror in on the path to encourage pedestrians to use it, and the district manager is looking into it.
Thank you to the neighbors who reached out and took the time to share their concerns with me. Even if we can’t take the fence out and make things how they used to be, I hope we can come up with a way to make the path safe for more people to feel comfortable using.
And legally the district has to repair the fence if it’s cut, so if you’re reading this and you’re the fence cutter….please cut it out (pun intended). If nothing else, it’s a huge pain for the parks staff who are already overwhelmed with tasks to make our parks nice to use.
Pleasant View Fire Department Updates
The fire department is working with the City of Golden on an agreement for fire inspector services. This is more cost-effective than the district hiring its own fire inspector.
Pleasant View Fire is also finalizing agreements with the Arvada Fire Protection District to make sure we have the same mutual aid services as we did before Fairmount Fire Protection merged with Arvada.
Mutual aid is when other departments respond to large calls so there are more firefighters, engines, and other help. For example, if there is a fire in Pleasant View, additional Arvada firefighters and engines will respond to make sure there is as many resources as possible to put out the fire quickly and make sure everyone is safe.
Public Comment
Thank you to Sam for coming to the meeting! She had great questions that helped me learn more about the public engagement process.
First, Sam asked what happened to the newsletter that used to get sent out with neighbor’s sewer bills. The board president answered that the newsletter became to expensive to maintain, costing the district $3,000 annually. They tried to move it online but didn’t get very many responses from residents when the district manager asked for email addresses.
The next question was how to get in touch with the board or bring up a topic for the board or district since it wasn’t totally clear on the website.
Your first step to get a topic onto the board meeting agenda is to meet with Tammy, the district manager. You can fill out this contact form here: https://www.pleasantviewmetro.org/contact-us.html.
You can also email me any time at lauraforpleasantview@gmail.com or text/call 720-675-8093.
Sam’s final question was why the board meeting was at 4 p.m., which makes it hard for people with school-age kids and/or 9-5 job hours to attend. The board president said the meeting was moved to 4 p.m. at the request of the public and that it used to be later.
If you have questions, now you know how to reach out! You can always attend a board meeting as well. The board can’t always respond to your questions immediately (like if we need to research something) but the district manager will get back to you once we have all the information we need to accurately answer your question.
Together Jeffco Strategic Plan
Together Jeffco is the county’s strategic planning process that’s currently underway. This new strategic plan will guide how the county spends money and invests in communities like Pleasant View for the next 20 years.
I went to last week’s open house and I was the only one from Pleasant View, so please make sure your voice is heard! I know the county can feel like an inaccessible huge bureaucracy, but you can’t complain if you don’t at least try to provide feedback (in my humble opinion).
South Golden Road is part of the governor’s Transit Oriented Communities and the county is updating its land use recommendations and zoning codes, something many of you talked to me about when I was out door knocking! Provide comments on the draft plans by the end of July here: https://togetherjeffco.com/
Quick note - I asked what the difference was between land use recommendations and zoning codes. Zoning codes are required uses for a piece of property. Land use recommendations are used to reference when a zoning change is applied for. For example, if an area is recommended to be used for “community resources” like a library, school, etc. and someone asks for rezoning for a bar, it would get turned down.
Next Pleasant View Metro District Board Meeting
An extra meeting has been called for July 29 at 4 p.m. to discuss new information about the GLO Park. I know this is an important topic to many of you, so I encourage you to attend so you can learn more. I don’t have any other information yet, but I’ll be at the meeting!
If you can’t attend, please reach out to me and let me know any specific questions or concerns you have. I’ll do a recap of the meeting as quickly as I can! (Full disclosure, my husband’s birthday is next week so there may be a delay while we celebrate him!)
The next regular meeting of the board is August 19 at 4 p.m. All meetings are held at 955 Moss Street. Hope to see you there!
Questions? Comments? Feedback?
I love hearing from you! Reach out at lauraforpleasantview@gmail.com or 720-675-8093 (call or text). It’s been great getting to know all of you who have reached out to grab coffee, meet at the playground with kids, or just talk on the phone. I don’t always have the answers but hopefully I can point you in the right direction and learn more about what’s important to you.