SPOTLIGHT ON PAOLI
Elevation: 3,898 feet
County: Phillips
Population: 43*
Population younger than 5: 2
Population 65 and older: 12
Percentage high school graduates: 81.3 (national rate is 80.4)
Name: Named for Paoli, Pa., by the chief engineer of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad when the rail line was built through the area. The Pennsylvania town was named for Gen. Pasquale di Paoli, an 18th-century Corsican leader.
According to “Place Names in Colorado,” a local humor story about the name was that a Swedish workman named Ole, who laid track on the railroad, became angry and quit. He went to the timekeeper and said, “I quit. Pay Ole.”
Town government: The government consists of a mayor and five-member town board that meets once a month. Mayor Virgil Harms started on the town board in 1952 and became mayor in 1961. He is possibly the longest-serving mayor in Colorado. Town Clerk Marilyn Miller also serves as postmistress and runs the post office from her home.
Harms said the town’s post office box numbers are high for a small town because the boxes were given by the Air Force Academy when the academy replaced its old boxes. Instead of renumbering all the boxes, Paoli residents decided to use the numbers already on the boxes.
Brief history: Established in 1895; incorporated in 1930. Paoli was originally founded as a railroad town, but the economy later was based on agriculture, mostly corn, wheat and sunflowers.
In the early part of the last century, the town sponsored a rodeo where as many as 5,000 people showed up to watch.
At one time, the town had a hotel, hardware store, three grocery stores, a bank, a land office, a creamery, three gas stations, a restaurant and a train depot. As the population declined, the businesses moved away, leaving only the Paoli Co-op and Kugler Fertilizer, a retail fertilizer outlet. Several of the residents work in nearby Holyoke or Haxtun.
In 1968, northeast Colorado banker William E. Heginbotham left $2.4 million to Phillips County when he died to use for county improvements. The gift funded, among other things, a tennis court for residents of Paoli, who have used it extensively.
*Based on 2005 estimates; other census information is from 2000
Sources: Mayor Virgil Harms; Denver Post archives; U.S. Census Bureau 2000 and 2005; “Place Names in Colorado,” by J. Frank Dawson; “1001 Colorado Place Names,” by Maxine Benson; “Colorado Place Names,” by William Bright; U.S. Geological Survey
REGIONAL NOTES
ASPEN
Tree-lighting ceremony and treats
The nation’s tallest living Christmas tree will be lighted Sunday in Aspen at the annual Sardy House tree-lighting ceremony.
The tree at the 114-year-old home, which is operated as a bed and breakfast, is getting a technological update for this year’s lighting ceremony.
A lighting firm is decorating the tree with LED nodes that will allow animations such as cascading rainbows or fireworks.
The ceremony will also include music, a Santa and Mrs. Claus visit and cookies and cocoa.
The Sardy House is at 128 E. Main St. The lighting is scheduled for 6 p.m.
GOLDEN
Free ski-season parking lots
Beginning this weekend, free ski-season parking will be offered in the overflow lots of the Jefferson County Administration and Courts Facility.
The alternative parking is available from 5 p.m. on Fridays through Sunday nights at the facility, at 100 Jefferson County Parkway near the intersection of U.S. 6, C-470 and Interstate 70.
For more information, go to jeffco.us and look under “Hot Topics” or call 303-271-5000.
