Inside Arvada

Inside Arvada's Sustainable Golf Course Maintenance with Joe Kunze

• City of Arvada

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Manager of Golf Course Maintenance and Operations Joe Kunze brings 30 years of industry experience to Arvada's two city-owned courses, Lake Arbor and West Woods, implementing sustainable practices that benefit both golfers and the broader community.

Topics discussed in this episode include:
• Tips on how to maintain your own lawn, including when to fertilize and aerate
• How deep, infrequent watering mimics rainfall patterns, saves water and promotes healthier root systems – watering tips webpage
• The environmental benefits that golf courses provide, including wildlife habitats, stormwater management, and carbon sequestration
• The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf
• How native grass areas on courses require less water and offer better fire resistance than traditional turf – golf course native area maintenance webpage
• How the City's golf courses are funded through an enterprise fund (and not tax dollars)

News & Events: 

Visit us at ArvadaCO.gov/Podcast or email us at podcast@arvada.org.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Inside Arvada, the City of Arvada's podcast, where we bring you conversations with the people who make Arvada a thriving community. Hear stories about the past, present and future of Arvada through the lens of the city team members who help make it all happen. Explore the complex topics impacting our community, from the roads you drive to the water you drink, the parks where you play to what your neighbors think. Join us as we take you Inside Arvada.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Inside Arvada, the official podcast of the City of Arvada. I'm one of your hosts, Sean Starr, Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. Got a great guest on. It's Joe Kunze. He's the City of Arvada's Manager of Golf Course Maintenance and Operations, overseeing both Arvada city-owned courses, Westwoods and Lake Arbor. Joe's been in that role for the past five years. Before that he was at Green Valley Ranch, Fossil Trace and Lakewood Country Club, among many other stops. As we'll learn in the interview, he's been in the golf industry for a long time. He also serves on the board of directors for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and he's a certified golf course superintendent, which essentially means he is at the very top of his field. And, as always, I'm joined by my co-host, Katie Patterson. Hi, Katie.

Speaker 1:

Hey Sean. Yeah, it was great for me actually just get to meet Joe for the first time, hear about really some of the benefits to the broader community that golf courses can provide and the sustainable practices they use for things like improving water quality in the community and water conservation at the golf course. He talked about the computer, like state-of-the-art computer system they use for their irrigation, and just a really interesting interview with Joe interview with Joe.

Speaker 2:

Hi Joe, Thanks so much for joining us on Inside Arvada.

Speaker 3:

Let's begin by telling us a little bit about yourself and your work with the city, thank you. Thank you for inviting me today. This is interesting. This is my first podcast I've ever done or listened to, so it should be interesting. A little bit about myself. I was born and raised in central Wisconsin in a dairy farming family, so I've always been exposed to work outdoors, started my first job on a golf course at the age of 14, which puts this as my upcoming as my 30th season for working on a golf course. That's basically the only thing I've done through college, and after that I went, moved back to Wisconsin and left Wisconsin in 2012. I've worked at a few golf courses in Colorado and have been working with the city since 2020 as the golf course operations and maintenance manager, where I'm overseeing the golf course maintenance at Westwoods and Lake Arbor Golf Clubs.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if you do something you love, you never work a day in your life. Right, that's correct.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 3:

That's awesome. So before we get too much into kind of about our courses, part of your work also comes with a lot of is the turf on a golf course, so kind of a few things that we do on the golf course that you can also do at your home. That will help a lot with the quality of your yard or gardens. A few of the things that need to be done. Everybody knows about fertilizing and taking care of weeds and things like that, but I think it's really important to know that a lot of that stuff should be done in the fall and not in the spring. Doing these things in the fall helps the turf over winter very well and it keeps it very healthy going into spring where you don't get those weeds encroaching. You're always going to have weed seeds that are in the soil at all times. It's just weather conditions are right for them to come up and if the space is open for them to come up. So if you have a very healthy turf going into winter, you keep that coverage. Coming into spring the weeds try to germinate but it's actually out-competed by the turf. So fertilization getting on top of those weeds is very important to do in the fall. Any aeration practices, also very important to do in the fall.

Speaker 3:

Another way to help increase health of your turf and your yard is the irrigation practices. Everybody kind of turns their irrigation on and it's set and it's the same every single day and it runs every single night and then it gets shut off. Maybe in the fall the best way to do it and how we do things at the golf course with the irrigation, is we try to mimic rainfall events. So everybody knows I mean, even just this last weekend we got two and a half inches of rain and it was incredible on how things greened up. Right, Everybody saw things green up.

Speaker 3:

People talk about the magic of rain. There is a little bit of something in rainfall that might be different than irrigation water. But the big thing with rain that makes it special is it doesn't rain every single day. So those days that it does rain, you see that big response, right, you want to do the same thing with irrigation. You want to maybe give it a half inch or three quarters of an inch in one night and act like it just rained and then shut it off for two, three days.

Speaker 3:

Right, like the day after it rains, things look even better. Right and you didn't water again. And maybe that second day they're still growing really well and you're like, man, I haven't, I haven't watered. And, depending on the weather, you get to a day where it's like, boy, we could use some rain, right, everybody kind of sees that as things start turning a little bit and the first thing in your mind is, boy, we could use some rain. And then that's when you irrigate again. This time of year it might only be once a week, so you can save a lot of water. You can be very efficient with the water that you put down and most importantly is you're getting a response from that plant when you put it down and kind of acting like that perfect natural scenario where it rains every four days.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, those are some great tips. I know we have a page dedicated specifically to watering tips, but to hear it kind of compared to mimicking rainfall I don't know if I've heard that analogy. I'm not great at taking care of my own yarn, so that's probably why. But those are great tips and because, like spring, you know, things start growing, I'm like all right time to take care of lawn, but very interesting to know that a lot of the work is actually supposed to be done in the fall. So it is.

Speaker 3:

And that's it's tough to. You're just you're not thinking about that in the fall, um, and in the spring you are. So it's it, it. It's hard to keep that on your radar in the fall to get those things done, um. And then one real quick other benefit of doing a we call it deep and infrequent irrigation, um, is that if you're waiting for that rain or that fourth day where you can irrigate again, if it does rain, you have room in the soil to store that water. Your ground isn't constantly saturated, where now it just sits on top or it rolls into your gutters. It actually goes down into your soil in your yard and that way you have room to kind of store your own water.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, very cool.

Speaker 2:

That makes sense. Okay, so now let's get a little bit more into, like, the specific work that you do at the two courses, lake Arbor and Westwoods. As an aside, indian Tree is run by Apex, so a little bit separate even though they're kind of like right in between the two city-run courses. And really, you know, for the past four or five years we've had record number of rounds and no small part to the work that you and your team do. The courses are in phenomenal shape, so the courses are really busy. That said, the average community member really isn't actually a golfer. I think it's about two thirdsthirds of folks in the in Arvada don't golf or identify as non-golfers. That said, there is a lot of benefits that a golf course can provide to the environment, to the community, that maybe some people who don't golf or even who do golf may not realize. What are some of the benefits that having a golf course provide that people don't realize?

Speaker 3:

I think the first one is obviously, you know, the green space. It can fill some of these urban voids with green space. That can be very attractive. It looks highly maintained. It has good color to it. There's good contrast with, maybe, the surrounding areas. We're able to promote wildlife areas. We're able to have a very diverse landscape throughout the property. It can include wildflowers, it can include native areas, it can include bluegrass and then it can include even Poa. Ann can include bluegrass and then it can include even Poa Annua that's mowed at an eighth of an inch. It's a very diverse culture of turf grasses.

Speaker 3:

Golf courses. They generally raise property values for people's homes that back up to them. Golf courses store quite a bit of water. They do a phenomenal job of both filtering water and runoff. They were being done at the University of Wisconsin when I was, when I was there, that they would show how much um Kentucky bluegrass could filter phosphorus out of groundwater before it reached um, before it reached a pond or a stream, um. So really interesting stuff on how turfgrass can filter um.

Speaker 3:

And then just the stormwater capabilities of golf courses.

Speaker 3:

They can be designed in such where they can handle very large rainfall events.

Speaker 3:

They provide areas for water to sit and for silt and things to be filtered out of them and kind of, yes, they end up on the golf course and we generally have to maybe clean them up in some areas, but it's better than ending up in drinking water ponds and things like that. So they do a good job of of filtering and letting that water settle out, um, before it moves on farther downstream. So they do a, like I said, a phenomenal job with stormwater um, with um we're we'll get into this in a little bit, I think with with the Audubon Sanctuary, but a lot of these things that go together with that program to support pollinator populations. You know bees are very important for our food production and we're able to provide habitat to support those populations. They do a lot outside of. You know, I think around 80 acres of turf can provide enough oxygen for 15,000 people in a year. So the amount of oxygen, the carbon sequestration that they do, they're very good for the environment.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, anyone who's ever played out at Westwoods you know there's 27 holes, so it's a large course. There's all sorts of wildlife out there that who knows may not have a habitat if it was maybe filled in a little bit more with development. And in addition to all those benefits with the you know wastewater benefits that you mentioned. So it's not just you know people will drive by and be like, oh, look at the golf course, such a waste of water and land, but that's not always the case. In addition, all the impacts of being able to use the course and play golf, and that as well. But you know we're kind of speaking to the non-golfer.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you mentioned the. You started to mention the Audubon program. So our golf courses are certified as a part of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program.

Speaker 3:

So can you explain a little bit about what that is and tell us a little bit more about the program? Yep, the Audubon Cooperative, is a organization that examines and has a certification program, different levels of certification programs based on. They have seven different general areas that they want you to focus on. Some of them they include environmental planning, wildlife and habitat management, chemical reduction, water conservation, water quality management. There's all these things that they have recommendations and requirements that you do to gain these certifications. Some of the examples are and we talked about wildlife and habitat management. Well, that can be very broad or smaller. So, yeah, one example of that is how we're converting bluegrass areas into native areas throughout the golf course, on edges, around ponds, around fence lines, areas that maybe are closer to some open space, closer to like. That then fulfills our requirement for the wildlife and habitat management I was talking about.

Speaker 3:

In the homeowner stuff about the irrigation practices, we have the highest, most state-of-the-art irrigation central control that is available to anyone. I know the Parks Department's got a very sophisticated irrigation controllers that are wireless and can report, but, to be honest, the one that we use at the golf course is probably tenfold better than that. I mean it can do all of those things where we're programming on how to give the greens rainfall. We can dial in exactly the amount of water that we want to put down every day in a numerical, measurable amount. We have a weather station that monitors a bunch of environmental conditions and what it does is it will give you a number at the end of the day that says you lost 0.22 inches or you lost close to a quarter inch of water today. Our irrigation computer then knows it needs to put a quarter inch of irrigation water down that night. But we are able to adjust every one of our 2,500 heads to specific times on their own, and that computer can then organize which head runs in the most efficient manner. If we do get some rainfall say we get less than a tenth of an inch it will actually subtract that off automatically that night. So it will irrigate that much less. If we have one of those afternoon thunderstorms that it doesn't really rain much but it, you know that you get in Denver in the summer.

Speaker 3:

Um, so that fulfills the water conservation part. Um, you know there's. And by doing all of these, by having beehives, by promoting the pollinators, um, they, they certify us as what is called called a cooperative sanctuary, um, and about less than I think it's less than 1% of the courses in the world are cooperative sanctuaries, um, so it's a very, it's a very good title and certification to hold Um, and we are examined and recertified every three years to make sure that we continue to do these things, and it's not just a a one and done like, hey, this is what we did this week to get this certification. This is what we do every single day. Um. This is in our all of our management plans. It's in the back of the minds of all the employees, um, and and hopefully, everybody that plays as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, very strict process. I believe Westwoods was certified back in 2007,. Lake Arbor in 2014. And so, as you mentioned, it's a recertification every three years, where they come out every three years and they check to make sure that you know we're doing what we say we're doing and there's not maybe anything more that we could be doing to be more eco-friendly. Are there anything specific that they, you know, recommended? Like hey, like you could convert some of these areas to native or you could conserve a little bit of water. Anything specific that came out of that?

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. I mean that certification is what drove areas to be converted to native areas, specifically at Westwoods. To native areas specifically at Westwoods, it was the reduction of turf grass that needed two inches of water per week to something that needs a half inch of water per week. That was. That's a great example. I think another kind of a recommendation that we were able to get from them and to implement were duck houses, bat houses and bird houses. That we have able to get from them and to implement were duck houses, bat houses and bird houses that we have installed throughout the golf courses to promote that wildlife as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would never think of something like that, Like I know bat houses but I don't know duck houses.

Speaker 2:

Weren't we making honey from the bees too?

Speaker 3:

out at westwoods we were we were able to harvest honey um at westwoods one time um. Honeybees are very they're hard to manage I give beekeepers a lot of credit um and it. It shows you that in a, in an urban setting, they there is a lot of pressure on them sometimes. I mean we did lose um and we did lose a hive one of the years, but we were able to reestablish it and hopefully we can harvest some honey again, because it's cool, very cool.

Speaker 1:

What did you do with the honey?

Speaker 3:

We handed it out to employees of the city. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 2:

Yeah cool, that's fun, but I think it's really cool that that certification program gives legitimacy to a lot of these programs because it's not just like oh you know, we're eco-friendly, we're thinking of the impacts of the environment, but it's like no, this is this third party that's saying what we should do, and what we're doing is the right way to do it.

Speaker 3:

Correct, and we also make a lot of those decisions with the customer and the player in mind as well, as we want to increase their experience too. So, by adding contrast and maybe a little difficulty here where it's needed and make it easier where it's not is also part of our strategy of managing, too, is to blend all of that together. So it's a great customer experience and we're doing the right thing when it comes to practices with the environment.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a good segue because we've talked a lot about kind of these like broader community benefits that come with golf courses. But you also have some things going on. What can golfers be excited about that you all are working on?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we're able to. We've had you know when we talk about having record rounds. We've had a couple of very good years and we're able to start working on some projects, doing improvements on the course that the customer is really going to notice. I think one improvement that we're starting to work on heavily is improving the bunkers out at Westwoods. We're also working on them at Lake Arbor as well, sorry what's a bunker Non-golfer, that's fine, yep.

Speaker 3:

Um, uh bunker is a sand trap. So when you watch the masters next weekend and see the perfect white circles of sand, that that that's a bunker, got it? Um, the expectation is not that Westwoods will have a gust of bunkers when this is done, but we are working on renovating them. They're 25 to 30 years old. Sand needs to be replaced, drainage surrounds, things like that. So I think that those improvements are going to be noticed a lot.

Speaker 3:

We've had just some aging infrastructure, such as heaving sidewalks, you know, settling concrete, that we were able to do some work with the streets department and have them come out and do some repairs, but they did a great job. We're looking at improving the restrooms on the Cottonwood 9 at Westwoods at a minimum, and probably the rest of them will get a little bit of a fresh look and clean and facelift to them a little bit. But the one that's on the Cottonwood 9 is for a little bit of reference of where it is is very close to where the Ralston Creek project is going on, so a lot of work being done down in that corner that the player will definitely notice.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we'll have Sam on to talk specifically about that project here coming up, I think, in a couple episodes.

Speaker 3:

And yes, we work with like I mentioned, working with streets, on some of the concrete work um craig and his team have been great um, and then ian and his forestry team have been out at westwoods um helping a ton with tree removals and aging cottonwoods and pruning and helping maintain our ash trees and making sure that our irrigation coverage is great and we don't have any branches hitting things like that, and it's been great to work with them and I'm extremely appreciative of the great work that they do for us.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I think all these just about all of them are done in-house, and what we mean by that is do for us, yeah, and I think all these, just about all of them are done in-house, and what we mean by that is, you know, city employees, city departments. We're not having to go out for contract work and have outside companies come in and do this work, which means we're probably saving tons of money too.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. I have a lot of previous experience with golf course construction. A job I had at the end of my college career at the University of Wisconsin was building the Oaks golf course and basically my first day was following a GPS around pounding PVC pipes in the ground where greens and T's and bunkers were all going to be placed. And we did a renovation project at Lakewood Country Club. That was very intensive.

Speaker 3:

So being able to bring this experience and able to help my team learn some things and being able to build it yourself with your hands can be very appreciative. Besides, coming from a dairy farm, my, my father was a carpenter, so it kind of is ingrained in you and when you're able to do some of these things, you, you can, you take a lot of pride in it. You can take a step back and look at it and realize that you did a fantastic job. And when you learned and know stuff like that, then you don't have to pay contractors for all of that work and you're able to take some opportunities to save some money and be more efficient with your budgets.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, great to see that collaboration among different departments in the city. So I also want to just give you kudos because I know frequently we hear from golfers that Westwoods it's a city-owned and city-run municipal course but it looks and feels and plays like a private country club, a lot of people say, and so it's one of the top-rated courses public-wise in the area. And Lake Arbor is maintained really well. It's just a different sort of course and different setup and it's maintained very well for kind of the purpose that it serves. What I'm getting to, finally, is another question that we ask our guests is kind of is there any misconceptions or anything you'd like to clear up about the work that you do, that you kind of hear from the public, that you want to kind of set the record straight?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean I've talked a lot about irrigation in the last 20 minutes and I think it's water is just an extremely important topic, especially in this state. The water laws and the amount of effort that's done to save our water in Colorado is, I mean, it's huge compared to the Midwest where it rains all the time. So just having everyone understand that we're more stringent and picky with our water use than anyone, I think people see green grass and they think that it just takes a ton of water and a ton of fertilizer and a ton of everything to make it green, and that's not the case. It's good management. It's making sure, like I talked about, getting that response from the plant and being ultra-efficient with irrigation and trying to set that example for others to do as well. I think as well with water conservation. I mean kind of the opposite of water is fire, and that's also been a very sensitive topic in the area of with the way that we're getting a little bit drier. Unfortunately, we had the Marshall Fire which hit way too close to home and it obviously really raises awareness and maybe some questions about how things should be managed. Conservation we're also promoting. We're able to promote turf in this.

Speaker 3:

Turf grasses in these areas that that they do not need a lot of water to survive. We'll take buffalo grass, for example. It's a warm season grass. You see it a lot, a lot of it is east of I-25, we're in the plains where it's very, very dry, and the way that this stuff is actually fire resistant is it's able to take a very low amount of water that's in the ground and keep it inside that plant.

Speaker 3:

Where bluegrass, your cheat grasses, other those when they run out of water they go dormant and they start purging everything out of them to try to go to sleep because that's their last defense mechanism. Well, that makes them very flammable. So we're promoting grasses that, although they're brown and they look brown during the summer, they do have water in those crowns and they're able to stand time without having to be irrigated or rainfall for months at a time and they're able to actually be more resistant to fire. So I think it's very it's. The other part of native areas is the mowing frequency Generally generally generates a lot of comments about it and I understand. It is Brown and it is longer. But when you mow those areas, you're now taking that plant material and you're cutting it off of the crown and now, as it lays on the ground, it becomes material that could possibly become flammable. Now where, when it's sitting on the plant, it's connected to that water and it has a much, much higher chance of not burning.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we've done a lot of work in the past couple of years trying to better explain, you know, this exact process of how we maintain these native areas, and so we will link to that web page in the show notes so people can read more about it, because there is a reason and why of when we mow which areas of the course. Then in the fall, you know, we do want to mow it, because then that'll promote the growth for the following season, and so there is a method to the madness of how we maintain those areas. It's not just like, oh, when we feel like it will cut the native, and when we don't, we won't.

Speaker 3:

Yep, and part of those native areas too is we are incorporating seed into those areas of the turf grass that we want there that is fire resistant, that are trying to incorporate seed that is specific to native areas in Colorado. They're all native species, there's no invasives. So trying to promote that as well as part of our plan. That I don't think a lot of people realize.

Speaker 1:

That's interesting. I'd never heard it explained that way. I do have one other not necessarily maybe misconception, but we didn't talk at all about how golf courses are funded, and I feel like that might be a question that we get the revenue that we generate at the golf courses.

Speaker 3:

We are not supported by sales tax or general fund funding. So I think a lot of people are under the understanding that if you, for example, if you buy a house on a golf course, that property tax or the tax that you're paying is going to fund maintenance on the golf course, and that's not correct. It is the customer who is providing every ounce of our budget for the expenses that we incur, that we're able to pay for those through our customers. So not every resident of the city of Arvada is paying for golf course maintenance.

Speaker 1:

It's the customers that are and, as we talked about, really they're reaping some benefits, particularly maybe if you're in the area, but of some of these other pieces of the puzzle that we talked about. Yeah, I mean, yeah, a small amount even of property tax ends up going in the area, but of some of these other pieces of the puzzle that we talked about. So yeah, I mean yeah.

Speaker 2:

Small amount, even of property ends up going to the city and then that goes in the general fund and then maybe to like a fraction to support some, like you know, sort of human resources, sort of services and stuff like that might end up in the course. But yeah, for the most part it's run like a business because it operates like a business.

Speaker 1:

So I'm glad you pointed out that misconception, because we hear that a lot. Yeah Well, I'll move us to the lightning round. Then A couple of quick questions for folks to get to know you what is your favorite thing about Arvada?

Speaker 3:

Definitely Old Town. I think it's a very. It kind of reminds me of Madison, wisconsin a little bit. I love the businesses and the people around and the friendliness of everybody, but definitely Old Town.

Speaker 1:

It's vibrant First, last or best concert.

Speaker 3:

Best concert, easy one Mumford Sons when they recorded at Red Rocks.

Speaker 2:

You were at that show. Yes, they're coming back this summer.

Speaker 3:

Yes, I think tickets go on sale today.

Speaker 1:

You're like oh no, what brought you to Armada?

Speaker 3:

This position with the golf courses as I was progressing professionally through my career. I was a superintendent back in Wisconsin. I was kind of I was a superintendent back in Wisconsin and when I moved to Colorado I kind of had to start over again and, you know, went from irrigation tech to assistant superintendent and then was very lucky to be able to get this position when it was available in 2020, when Mr Jim Wilkins retired.

Speaker 1:

So very lucky to be in Arvada. We're glad to have you. Yeah, I think you already mentioned, but first job.

Speaker 3:

First job, nealsville Country Club. My first tasks of when I worked at a golf course actually real quick. What got me interested in working at the golf course was my parents were golfers and they took me out one night and handed me a club and of course the first one I hit was pretty good and I just I fell in love with the game. I played golf a lot. I was just. I was at the golf course all the time and the first set of irons that I was going to get were Tommy Armour 845 Silver Scots, and the general manager made a deal with my dad that I had to work 75 hours for that set of irons and my first tasks were sorting aluminum out of the coarse trash to be recycled and I also mowed the small lawn in front of the clubhouse.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome.

Speaker 3:

Those were my duties for my first summer and then worked into bunker maintenance. Love it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great. What's been your favorite project that you've done with the city?

Speaker 3:

Favorite project. I mean probably doing the Lake Arbor feasibility study, a lot more on the business side and analytics and data and demographics and studying the community and just the much bigger picture of just providing green turf for a golf course, like the actual how to learn about a place being financially sustainable and what that takes and what kind of population it takes to support that and average. Just having a very critical look at your operation and comparing it to others around and and then when it's done, knowing that you're, we're, we're doing a great job and that we are fulfilling needs of the communities and people that surround us, and so I think you know, just having a much bigger overall look at a property and a picture like that was I learned a lot and it's by far been my favorite Nice.

Speaker 1:

Well, Joe, thanks so much for coming on and joining us today.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely Thanks.

Speaker 1:

Joe.

Speaker 3:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

And, as a reminder, we love to hear from you all our listeners, so please stay in touch with us. You can text us with the link at the top of those show notes in every episode or email us at podcast at arvadaorg. We did get a good listener question at the end of the episode with Ben Sawaya, our pavement program manager, and they were asking for a little bit more information about sidewalks in particular and just feeling frustrated. They live in, you know, the southeast part of Arvada and often feel frustrated or sometimes unsafe with the narrow sidewalks. I'm just curious about what ADA compliance for sidewalks is and if the only way to expand sidewalks is through if the landowner, the property owner, decides to do that work. And so I would say generally that sidewalks kind of reflect the era in which they were built, right, so the Americans with Disabilities Act went into effect in the 90s, and so neighborhoods or properties that were built prior to that may not have really been considering sidewalk width in the same way or with the same standards that we have held since then and with the ADA in effect. And then also, yes, you're kind of correct that sidewalk maintenance is up to the property owner, and so expanding sidewalk or putting in sidewalk can be the property owner's decision. But then you can think about, kind of how you know a whole block or a whole segment of an area in mind and then, like Ben mentioned on the show, there isn't a program for sidewalk replacement at scale. That's funded through the city and so typically the way the city does that work is really to look at and prioritize areas that are closing sidewalk gaps near schools or transit connections or where there have been areas that have been flagged for different pedestrian safety concerns, and that work is typically funded with some type of partner grant funding. For example, the CDOT, the Colorado Department of Transportation, has a Safe Routes to Schools program and we have a grant with them right now for some work on Pierce Street connecting to the school there at 64th and Pierce I can't think of the name of it, but yeah, so that hopefully answers that question. It's kind of complicated but a great question. So we appreciate you writing in and asking us.

Speaker 1:

And then some other news and events that's going on right now. The first bulky item drop-off event of the year is Saturday, april 26th, 9 am to 2 pm at the North Area Athletic Complex, or the NAC. As a reminder those are open to all residents through the city's waste hauling program and be sure to plan for extended wait times. Bring proof of residency and then check the list of acceptable items online before you go at arvauticogov slash bulky items. And then back to the ADA transition plan. I should have done this one first. We are working on an Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan update, so that's a plan that the city maintains to improve accessibility throughout Arvada over time and make prioritizations with limited resources, and so as a part of that update process we're looking for community feedback on the plan's priorities and lived experiences with accessibility. So arvadagov slash access Arvada for more information on that and to take the survey, and that'll be open through the end of April.

Speaker 2:

The mayor's annual State of the City address is coming up here in a couple days. It's Friday, april 18th, at 8 am at Social Capital Events. You can purchase tickets through the Arvada Chamber of Commerce if you wish to attend in person, or we will have a recording on the city's YouTube channel afterwards for free. We'll link that in the show notes. At the time of this recording the city manager position was we had scheduled some meet and greet for the public as well as interviews with city council, and so we don't know the outcomes of that quite yet at the time of the recording. But by the time we publish we'll have more up-to-date information. So we'll link that and the show notes to the webpage, which will have the most up-to-date information on the city manager search. A follow-up from a previous episode that we had with Sarah Kolb from the Arts and Culture Commission, both the Garrison Street and the Quaker Street murals are now completely finished. Those are pretty close, but the additional interactive QR codes have been installed on both of those, so go and check those out. Very cool experience to kind of add on to what is both very cool public art projects in the city along the Ralston Creek Trail and then finally, the Westwoods Restaurant is hiring. We talked to Joe a lot about the golf side of things. There's also a restaurant there at Westwoods and they're hiring for the summer season. They're particularly in need of kitchen staff. So if you go to arvaticogov slash jobs and then you can go into the city's job portals and see what jobs are available and you can apply and just have a really fun, cool work environment there at Westwoods.

Speaker 2:

Thank you again to our guest today, joe Kunze. Be sure to catch our next episode featuring Trails and Open Space Manager Bob Bromley. As always, you can stay in touch with the podcast on our website at arvadacogov slash podcast. You can subscribe on Spotify, apple watch, our YouTube channel. We've got video up there now of each episode and you can always reach out to us at podcasts on arvadaorg and ask questions and, as you listened, katie will provide a very thorough answer to any of the questions you might have. Thank you everyone once again for listening. Today's podcast was, as always, recorded and edited by Arvada Media Services, and today's fun fact is that Westwoods Golf Course saves 4 million gallons of water a year thanks to its native area maintenance program.

Speaker 1:

Whoa.