Thank you for visiting my website. It is an honor to serve as your representative on City Council for District 3. If you have any comments, concerns, or suggestions in regards to District 3, please contact me.
The City of Centennial, in partnership with the Streets at SouthGlenn Best Buywill be hosting the first annual Centennial Youth Battle of the Bands on Saturday, May 30, 2009. The event will begin at 1 PM and conclude at apporoximately 8 PM. The event will be held in the Best Buy parking lot.
A couple of quick items for you this week: Centennial area projects that will get American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds and the 2009 Centennial Relay for Life update.
ARRA First, CDOT and DRCOG have approved several projects for funding via the ARRA. These are just the projects that are in Centennial or very close by.
C-470 from Santa Fe to I-25 - Concrete restoration ($33.1 million)
University - Resurfacing between C-470 and Arapahoe Rd. ($2.8 million)
Dry Creek Bike/Ped Bridge Extension - Construct 12 ft bike/ped bridge crossing Inverness Drive West south of Dry Creek Rd ($1.4 million)
C-470 and Yosemite - New ramp metering ($0.125 million)
In addition, Littleton Public Schools will get about $3.9 million and the Cherry Creek School District will recieve $10.3 million. Of course, the whole state is in line to get other money associated with ARRA. For example, Colorado can get $128.3 million for unemployment insurance if it meets certain conditions. It is all very complicated and you can follow the money at these websites: http://www.recovery.gov (for federal info), http://www.colorado.gov/recovery (for Colorado specific info), and http://www.drcog.org/index.cfm?page=FederalEconomicRecoveryFunding (for Denver regional info).
RFL On a different note, I attended the kickoff meeting for the Centennial Relay for Life on Tuesday. Centennial is working with the American Cancer Society to host a Relay for Life event at Arapahoe High School on the night of June 12th. Please consider forming a relay team, joing a team, or making a donation at http://www.CentennialRFL.com. This event is very near and dear to my heart. I am sure that for many of you, you have somehow been touched by cancer - either personally or by someone you love. This is a great event that celebrates those who are fighting cancer as well as their loved ones.
At Tuesday's kickoff, a young man whose mom is fighting cancer read the following passage about the Relay for Life that sums it up beautifully:
Cancer never sleeps
RELAY FOR LIFE starts at dusk and ends at the next day’s morning. The light and darkness of the day and night parallel the physical effects, emotions, and mental state of a cancer patient while undergoing treatment.
The RELAY begins when the sun is setting. This symbolizes the time the person has been diagnosed as having cancer. The day is getting darker and this represents the cancer patient’s state of mind as they feel that their life is coming to an end.
As the evening goes on it gets colder and darker, just as the emotions of the cancer patient do. Around 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. represents the time when the cancer patients start treatments. Some become exhausted, sick, not wanting to go on, possibly wanting to give up. As a participant, you have been walking and feel much the same way. You are tired, want to sleep, maybe even want to go home, but you cannot. You cannot stop or give up, just as the cancer patient cannot stop of give up.
4:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. symbolizes the coming of the end of treatment for the cancer patient. Once again, they are tired, but they know that they will make it.
The sun represents the end of treatment for the cancer patient. They see the light at the end of the tunnel and know that life will go on. The morning light brings on a new day full of life and excitement for new beginnings for the cancer patient. As a participant, you will feel the brightness of morning and know that the end of RELAY is close at hand.
When you leave RELAY, think of the cancer patient leaving their last treatment. Just as you are exhausted and weak, so is that person after treatment. But there is hope in the new day! The money raised at RELAY will support patient services, lifesaving research, prevention education and advocacy efforts…and that is why we RELAY!!!
At our February 17th City Council, meeting we had a lengthy discussion about public input on Land Use Cases. We have had several instances where a developer has help public meetings. Sometimes these meetings have occurred before the developer has filed and application with the city.
While it is good to see the developer reaching out to the public, it does present another issue. Some members of council, including myself, are concerned that the residents may express a concern to the developer, but that council may not be aware of the issue. The residents may feel that their concerns have been addressed, when in fact, there may be nothing that is legally binding to record that fact.
This presents a difficult situation. We can't say that the developer is forbidden from having these type of meetings and we wouldn't want to do that. Although we took no formal action, I think all of council realized the best thing to do was to continue to encourage the citizens of Centennial to show up at the public hearings on Land Use Cases. There testimony will be heard and available when council or the planning and zoning commission has to make a decision.
So if you see a Land Use Case that concerns you, I encourage you to attend the public meetings, but please make sure you also make your voice heard at one of the public hearings.
Have you had a sighting or incident with a coyote? Visit the official Centennial website to report it. You can also read Centennial's plan to address the coyote issue.
Road Construction
Avoid traffic headaches by reading the updated list of road construction zones on the City of Centennial's website.
Call Center
The City of Centennial has setup a 24-hour hotline to help citizens with any issues related to the city. If you spot a pot hole, code violation, etc., you can call (303) 325-8000 anytime for assistance. You can also visit the city's official website and use the Citizen Response form.
