Arva-Pride
Hi Neighbor!
Spring is quickly turning into summer, and things are very busy! Luckily I have my dog Chip to help me at work:
📰 Community Beat
Save Water, Drink This Instead🍹
Arvada hit Stage 1 drought status—so yes, save water where you can. Lawns can wait. Your spring drink lineup, on the other hand, cannot. Once the sun’s out and patios start calling, it’s officially time to trade in the heavy winter pours for something a little brighter. Luckily, Arvada bars are fully leaning into spring right now, whether you’re in the mood for something bubbly, frozen, or even zero-proof.
Ok, but seriously. What are the new drought guidelines? 🚰
Arvada gets 75% of its water from a contract with the city and county of Denver, in which we get raw water for our residents. Part of this contract requires that we follow the drought restrictions Denver declares or have even more restrictive practices. We anticipate that this year we will hit stage 2 drought status before the end of the year. 60% of our summer water use comes from irrigating residential lawns, so it makes sense to restrict this use the most. The historic low snowpack means we are facing restrictions we haven’t seen since the early 2000’s. You should have received a postcard about your watering days by now, but if you missed it or need more info, check out below.
🔗 Drought Guidelines - let’s save our water together!
Axon, Flock, ARTIC - Last community meeting is tonight! 👁️🗨️
Arvada Police Department recently had a $5.4 million contract approved by council with Axon to provide drone first responders, data evidence storage, new body cameras, and more. They plan to have a real time response center called ARTIC developed to aid in their work to provide police services to the city, which will bring in feeds from various cameras including automatic license plate readers, some of which are provided by Flock.
If you have questions about this program, APD is hosting the final of three community engagement meetings tonight: April 30 | 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. | Lake Arbor Community Station
I am for the police department adopting the ACLU’s community control oversight protocols, and always appreciate community feedback on city services like our municipal police department.
🔗 Read the ACLU guidelines here
🏛 What’s Up at Council
Spring Forum on Homelessness 🏘️
Jefferson county commissioners, staff, city mayors and council members gathered to review the success of the severe weather sheltering. Arvada’s navigation staff have reported that the program is successful, however, there were not enough vouchers even this past winter which was warmer than normal. The rest of the session was spent on how we can collaborate as a county on this issue and how we can resource solutions. Arvada has made strides as a city in getting people housed and was able to share our successful models with other cities. The county has spent over $33 million dollars in preventing homelessness in the region and continues to be an important partner in helping our residents.
🔗 Read more about the county work on homelessness here
Council Meetings 🚛
The latest city council meeting was a workshop on our trash program and adding an option for organics. While there isn’t staff capacity for curbside organics in the next few years, collective sites are possible in the near future and it could be possible in future contract requests for trash, recycling, and organics.
The council meeting before that went until 3am, largely concerning the development at the Welby Gardens property. The CUP approval for residential use failed on a 3-3 vote, and it’s likely that the question about the property’s use will come before council again. There was also a vote for Arvada Police Department’s Axon contract which passed on a 6-1 vote.
🔗 Arvada City Council and Study Session Videos
🔊 Housing Related News
The Habitat For Humanity Newsletter has a couple of Arvada related items - internships for our youth and homes for sale at Griffith Station! Check out the newsletter here
That’s it for this newsletter, feel free to reach out by replying to this email or calling/texting me at 970-425-3060. See you soon, Shawna
