GLEN HAVEN — Life is good at the Glen Haven General Store.
The scent of homemade cinnamon rolls glides out the front door, gently ushering hungry hikers inside. Fur, the dog, is in her usual happy place, lying on her side and greeting strangers with a perpetually wagging tail.
Owner Steve Childs couldn’t ask for a better day. Tourist season has begun, the cold mountain air is mellowing out for the summer, and the battle for Glen Haven’s place in the world — or at least on the county map — appears to be over.
For now.
“Finally, for the time being, logic seems have won out,” said Childs, the town’s former fire chief.
After a three-year fight led by Childs, the Larimer County Commissioners last month agreed to keep unincorporated Glen Haven on county databases and told the 100-year-old community it could keep its 80532 ZIP code.
The commissioners’ 2-1 vote put to rest plans that would have had Glen Haven’s homes and businesses address themselves as part of nearby Drake or Estes Park.
“Why would I want to be associated with Estes Park and all that rat race?” said Teri Warner, who sometimes lives in the backroom of one of Glen Haven’s other big businesses — Pony Tracks Trading Post.
The 400 or so residents of Glen Haven got defensive about their town when county planners began the county’s Rural Addressing Project in 2005. It is aimed at trying to make addresses in the scattered hamlets and outposts in the foothills above Fort Collins and Loveland more uniform.
This, they said, would help medical and fire crews get to emergencies quicker and eliminate confusion among 911 dispatchers.
But residents of the community, which rests about 25 miles west of Loveland, were incensed by the plan.
County planners said community names are tied to the U.S. Postal Service, which requires a named, defined boundary for mail delivery. They suggested Glen Haven incorporate to become a defined delivery route.
But most mail is sent to the Glen Haven Post Office, Childs said. He argued that the county has the authority to assign a parcel address and can call the parcel whatever it wants to.
Larimer County Commissioner Steve Johnson agreed. “We don’t work for the post office,” Johnson said. “We can call a property Mickey Mouse or Mars; it doesn’t matter to them.”
Johnson said once he made sure emergency services had a specific boundary for Glen Haven and could get emergency crews there, he was satisfied Glen Haven could keep its name.
“Each community has a distinct personality and spirit, and we want to keep it that way in Glen Haven,” Johnson said.
Commissioner Kathay Rennels, however, voted against assigning a ZIP code to Glen Haven, saying only the Postal Service could do that.
She also hopes keeping Glen Haven on the county records will not lead to confusion when it comes to emergency response.
“I understand it is a big issue for them,” Rennels said. “I just hope it turns out well for them.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
