Q&A
Sarah Van Pelt is Boulder’s environmental sustainability coordinator. City officials have challenged residents to purchase wind power in an ongoing effort to increase use of renewable energy. The campaign runs through Oct. 31.
Q: What is the Boulder Wind Challenge 500?
A: It’s a challenge that comes from the city of Boulder and Western Resource Advocates to try to get 500 new wind-power customers in Boulder by the end of October.
Q: Why 500?
A: Looking at the data on what current levels of purchase are in numbers of subscribers, we felt like we could achieve a 10 percent increase in the number. And we currently have just over 5,000 subscribers in Boulder now.
Q: Most people understand that wind is a cleaner source of energy, but why would a city encourage residents to buy wind?
A: We have long-standing goals around renewable-energy use, and in 2002 our City Council adopted a goal to reduce communitywide greenhouse-gas emissions. … But this really sprang up from Western Resource Advocates.
Q: What is the Green Power Leadership Circle, and would the Wind Challenge 500 put Boulder in that category?
A: That would be hard. To get in the circle, which is an (Environmental Protection Agency) recognition for communities that have 8 percent of their energy coming from renewables. We’re at 6.87 percent, so we need approximately a 17 percent increase.
– George Merritt, Denver Post staff writer
REGIONAL NOTES
LAKEWOOD
Grants to improve trail system
The trail system in Lakewood’s two regional parks will be boosted through grants from the Colorado Youth Corps Association.
A $5,100 grant will pay for a one-week project at Bear Creek Lake Park that includes installation of directional and interpretative signs, revegetation and rebuilding of eroded trail sections.
A $10,200 grant will pay for construction of part of the 2-mile Summit Loop Trail in William Frederick Hayden Park on Green Mountain.
AURORA
Annual parade, fest set for Sept. 17
The 38th annual Gateway to the Rockies Parade & Art Festival is set for Sept. 17 in Original Aurora down East Colfax Avenue.
The theme for the parade and festival is “Celebrating Cultural Diversity.” The parade is scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon, beginning at Havana Street.
The festival will be 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Fletcher Plaza, 9800 E. Colfax Ave. There will be a petting zoo, pie-eating contest and kids’ singing contest.
Prospective participants in either the parade or festival are asked to call 303-361-6169.
GOLDEN
New rec center at School of Mines
A new student recreation center is in the works at the Colorado School of Mines. The 96,000- square-foot facility is scheduled to open in 2007 at the corner of Maple and 16th streets. Ground was broken this month.
Existing campus athletic facilities were constructed before the 1960s and were designed for an all-male student body that was one-third the size of today’s coed population of 3,600 students.
Funding comes from bonds and private philanthropy. Contributions include $3 million from John and Erika Lockridge of Pebble Beach, Calif., and $2 million from the Adolph Coors Foundation. John Lockridge graduated from Mines in 1952.
In honor of the Lockridges’ gift – the largest contribution to athletics and recreation in the school’s 131-year history – the center’s 2,500-seat gymnasium will be named Lockridge Arena.
DENVER POST STAFF REPORTS
