Multiple fires mixed with historic wind speeds destroyed over 600 homes, displaced over 35,000 people and left almost 55,000 Coloradans without power. It’s believed to be the most destructive in state history.
How to Help:
- Donate to the Community Foundation Boulder County Wildfire Fund.
- If you’re local, sign up to be a vetted host through the Airbnb Open Homes Program and host those displaced.
- Donate any household goods to our local non-profit thrift stores.
- Join the two Facebook Groups to help our neighbors find their pets and find temporary homes for displaced horses and livestock.
- Call, text, email your friends, family, and co-workers in the area. Check-in on them. Be there for them however they need you to be.
Follow the Boulder Office of Emergency Management on social media for continuous updates on the fire, evacuation, relocation, and for more ways to help.
As we find more resources and ways to help, we’ll continue to compile and share them on our Linktree.
Douglas County Transit Solutions Local Coordinating Council Meeting Notes
December 9, 2021
Open discussion for member updates
Artie Lehl from Douglas County Housing Partnership – Many new affordable housing developments coming in 2022. Consider transit options for residents, visitors, and staff.
- South Range Crossing – available spring of 2022 in Parker
- Apex Meridian South- 208 units available in March 2022 in Northern part of unincorporated DC
- The Audrey- Senior housing- open now in Highlands Ranch Town Center
- Bridgewater- Senior housing 79 affordable and 63 market rate units (memory care and independent) available summer 2022
- Koelbel and Company- Affordable housing- 67 units construction underway near Ridge gate station in City of Lone Tree
- Oakwood Senior Apartments
Program Updates
- Review of Bylaws – Due to priority conflicts within the Douglas County Attorney’s Office, the endorsement of updated DCTS bylaws will happen during the March meeting. This will include review of DCTS Officers and member requirements.
- 2021 Program Update – attached
DCTS Dashboard. RTD contract signatures occurred late in the second half of 2021. Transportation services were requested and provided but not yet reflected on the dashboard.
- Current and Projected Funding
- 5310 and HST current funding is through December 31, 2021. DRCOG has sent out funding extensions for January 1 – June 30, 2022 and providers are allowed to continue offering trips for reimbursement while the extensions are being reviewed and signed. There should be no disruption in service.
- Service Providers: RTD trips need to be in EmpowOR for 2021.
- Funding priorities for 2022 using 5310, HST, OAA, and RTD Local Funds
Anticipate a ~10% increase in trips provided and two new vehicles from DRCOG HST/AAA/5310 proposal. Costs have increased due to operational expenses, driver costs, fuel, etc.
2020 Implementation Plan amendment for action in 2022
Discussion on updates and revisions to Implementation Plan for 2022. Request member comments and remarks. Understanding of current transportation supply and options are an important aspect for moving forward with a plan.
NEXT MEETING: Thursday, March 31, 2022
Meetings will be held the last Thursday of each quarter
Senior Planet is offering virtual, 1-on-1 tech tutoring sessions! Volunteers from Verizon will join via Zoom to individually help you with any technology-related questions you might have. You do NOT need to own a Verizon device to take advantage of this free opportunity!
To sign up for personalized assistance, please email Rebecca Altneu at raltneu@oats.org. Include your name, phone number, and the tech issue you would like to be helped with.
Denver County Local Coordinating Council, December 15, 2021; 9-10 AM
Introductions
- Angie Malpiede – NETC, Blake Van Jacobs – CDOT, Cooper Langdon – RTD, David Krutsinger – DOTI/DCLCC Chair, Dianna Castro – DRMAC, Jaime Lewis – CCDC, Julia Wcislo – CDOT, Kate Williams – DRMAC, Kenna Davis – DRMAC TATF, Mark Patterson – Via Mobility Denver, Matthew Helfant – DRCOG, Michael Davies – RTD, Moira Moon – CDOT, Perla Gheiler – Office on Aging for CCD, Robbie Roppolo – Atlantis Community, Stephen Rijo – DOTI, Zach Gambetti-Mendez – DOTI
Micro mobility: Scooters & Bikeshare City-Wide Presentation: CCD DOTI Planning, Stephen Rijo
- Evolution of Micromobility in Denver:
- Denver B-Cycle ran from 2010-2020
- Dockless Pilot Program (2018-2021) with 5-7 operators
- Shared micromobility program (present) with 2 operators – Lime and Lyft
- Current program
- Limited number of operators allows for greater investments
- No less than 20% of scooters to deploy bikeshare
- Equity programs – nearly free programs
- Opportunity Areas – 30% of daily deployment in Opportunity Areas (based on DOTI equity maps)
- Seeing about 13k trips per day (equivalent to traffic on York St)
- Working with operators to not have the pile-up seen when first launched – have structure in place for operators to respond to complaints or issues
- Wanting to get ridership throughout the city, not just in downtown
- Questions
- Tracking injuries? – had a pilot program but was cumbersome and stopped during the pandemic; would like to track these more
- Any adaptive vehicles coming? – want to expand to have more types of vehicles for all abilities
- Who is liable when injuries happen? – not sure, case by case basis
- Issues with service animals, blind persons, etc. – enforcement? – working to do enforcement for these issues, can use 311/pocketgov to report issues; building dataset of issues to target specific locations
Winter Bike-to-Work-Day pre-planning: CCD, Zack Gambetti-Mendez
- Friday, February 11, 2022 – Denver is a top participating city world-wide
- Goals include encouraging Denverites to use their bicycle as a commute option, even in the winter
- Event held in conjunction with DRCOG at Bannock St (more information to come)
- What you can do – promote the event or host your own station
Rountable Announcements & Discussion of Goals/Interests for 2022
- Robbie – Open positions at Atlantis Community, including a housing emphasis position
- Kate – Need to include Human Services agencies at the DCLCC (i.e. Denver Health, Kaiser, DaVita, Denver Housing, etc.); everyone could bring someone new to the next meeting to expand this group. I can invite someone from The Gathering Place to represent people experiencing homelessness.
- Angie – Need to include students and seniors; be culturally competent and in multiple languages; work with City Council persons to engage with their transportation committees/groups.
- Kenna – Denver Safe Routes to School Five Year Action Plan has been published and could present to this group
- Moira – Policy and planning events in the community – is this still a good formula? Do we want to see completion of a project, is that our role? Pre-pandemic, this group was doing in-person listening session and working with the youth, RTD safety staff in the Sun Valley neighborhood.
- David – Developing data policies for seniors at CCD, want to grow transit ridership within the Denver programs.
- Jaime – Watching the new Federal money to make sure it is spread equitably
- Perla – The Office on Aging works with partners in the City, such as Vision Zero, work on Colfax, etc., so that the aging community has a voice in these projects. In 2022 going to look at their aging assessment – access to transportation is still an issue for aging adults in the community.
Next meeting Date: Wednesday, January 19th at 9am
Broomfield LCC, December 12, 2021
Attendees: Nikki Crouse, Teague Kirkpatrick, Sarah Grant, Penn Street, Dean Bennett, Stephanie O’Neill
- Meeting information will be covered in the Broomfield newsletter from this point forward. Sign up for the newsletter here: https://ccobroomfield.formstack.com/forms/b_in_the_loop
- Teague Kirkpatrick reported that he went to a transit conference a few weeks ago and they discussed how on-demand transportation is not a fad. Everyone is trying to figure out how to do it and incorporate it into their services. The rider experience is heightened with on-demand transportation.
- Penn Street asked if there is a better option to get information about transportation rather than just giving a phone number. LCC members discussed some transportation options, but ultimately referred to her to DRMAC to discuss further.
- Sarah Grant reported that Broomfield does have funding for a third bus for peak hours. They were previously struggling with operator shortages rather than a funding shortage. Some ideas that are in the works are doing a “fare free summer” for 2022, free fare during ozone season to reduce emissions rather than on specific days since it’s difficult to predict when ozone levels will be high.
- Nikki Crouse reported that Broomfield Easy Ride is getting ready to offer 2 new drivers positions, meaning they will be back fully staffed. The biggest hurdles they’re facing are working on utilizing an app for pre and post trip inspections and figuring out how to make it work on tablets with route match. They’re also looking at putting together a series of educational opportunities/”summer of travel” event for next summer 2022.
Read the Latest Extra Dose!
