Inside Arvada

What Happens to Closed Schools in Arvada?

• City of Arvada • Episode 55

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We walk through what Jeffco Public Schools does after a school closes, from the board’s surplus vote to the different paths a property can take before it ever reaches the open market. Jeffco COO Jeff Gatlin explains how community benefit, municipal partnerships, and long-term enrollment projections shape outcomes in Arvada. 

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Welcome And The Big Question

Hello and welcome to Inside Arvada, the official podcast of the City of Arvada. I'm Sean Starr, one of your hosts. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. We're discussing the Jeff CO School District's school disposition process. In other words, what happens to all those schools in Arvada that have recently closed down over the past few years? To learn more about it, our guest is Jeff Gatlin. Jeff serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Jeff CO Public Schools, where he leads state district-wide operations, including facilities, transportation, and food and nutrition services. He focuses on aligning day-to-day operations with long-term strategy to ensure resources are used effectively in support of students, staff, and the broader community. And he also leads the school's disposition process efforts. And as always, I'm joined by my co-host, Katie Patterson. Hi, Katie. Hey, Sean. And hi Jeff. Thanks for joining us. Hey, I appreciate you having me today. I know this is an important topic for the city of Arvada, so I'm glad I could spend some time today to talk to you about it. Yeah, we're excited to have you. And so just start us off. Tell us a little bit about yourself

Meet Jeffco’s COO Jeff Gatlin

and what you do for the district. Sure. Uh so I've been the chief operating officer for JEFCO. I think I'm just completing my third year. So I haven't been in Jeff CO too long, uh, but I have been in education in Colorado my entire career. I started as a high school teacher and have moved in operations over the years. Like you mentioned, I oversee really anything facilities related for the district, whether it be our buildings, custodial, our sites, our grounds, all things transportation related. And then food nutrition services, I also oversee that department. So really the operational side of the district falls on me and all the great folks that I get to get to work with each day. As I'm sure many of our listeners know, the district has had to close several schools over the past several years, and seven of which are here in Narvada. So um impacts have been felt certainly throughout the community of those schools closing. And we do want to know the district goes through a phase process when they have to make those decisions based on a set of criteria around district resources, size of the schools, and so on. And we we recognize that, you know, those are really tough decisions that the district has to make and they can often be, you know, very emotional for the community for sure. And so we want to recognize that. But we're, you know, we're here today to discuss kind of then what happens next after that to those school properties and the school disposition process. So there's a lot of steps, there's a lot of information on the website about the disposition process. Um,

From Closure To Surplus Vote

can you kind of walk us through what happens when the the board makes that decision to close down a school? Then what happens next? Sure. Yeah, and I I appreciate you calling out um the emotion behind this. Um, you know, that is something that we're aware of that we uh we do our best to be sensitive to and and and really try to make sure we're being thoughtful about what we do. These schools have been staples in their communities for a long time. This is a big change. So we want to be sensitive to that, do our best to find good solutions um while we're looking to uh to sell the schools. So kind of back to process. Really, the first thing that happens is after a school has been closed, we present materials to the board of education. Will the board support a vote to officially surplus the school, which means that the board is determining that the school is no longer needed to really serve a major function for the district. And really those uh there, there's three main criteria that is presented to the board to make that decision. And that's around students affected by the closure have been successfully accommodated uh at other schools that operational schools within, we look at, we not only look at the articulation area, but we look at a 3.5 mile radius to make sure that those schools have adequate space as well. So, really that's it's almost like a feeder pattern for a specific uh middle school and high school. So we might have multiple elementary schools that feed into a middle school that feed into a high school. So it's all of those groups of schools for that particular area. And then also one of the things that we really look at is our long-term enrollment projections. And um, I'll probably talk a little bit about that later, but we've been really studying that closely to see what is what are we expected to see in a community uh around long-term enrollment projection and really making sure that we aren't expected to see a blip, that the trends that we're expecting to see are continuing or that we're planning on those. But really, those are the three main functions and main pieces of information we bring to the board. And then the board will ultimately vote yes, we we approve the surplus of this side or we don't, uh, based on that information. So far, the board has uh voted to surplus all of the properties that we brought to them for consideration so far. And that surplus would be hang on to it. Correct. Just hang on to it. It it's still closed, but maybe they need more information or they want us to consider something else or explore something further. And so, really, that's the first step in the process. And that allows us to take one of our school sites through the property disposition process.

Municipal First Or Open Market

And so the next step is once the board has voted to surplus, approve the surplus recommendation for a school, we reach out to our municipalities uh in which that school resides and ask them if they have an interest. It's a it's a priority for the school district, it's a priority for our board to be good partners with our municipalities. Uh, and we also we really want to uh support community benefit in the process as well. And we feel like working with our municipalities could lend itself well to that. So the first step after it's been surplused is to reach out to a municipality and say, hey, do you have an interest in this? Um, here's the school, here's the acreage. What are you thinking? And that will kind of point us in the direction of a further process. If the if the municipality says, yes, we're interested, or can you give us a little more time, we might explore an interest, then it has the potential to go down what we call our municipal interest process. Uh and there's multiple steps in that. And if the if the municipality were just to say, you know what, not interested, it just doesn't work for us for whatever reasons, then we would then take it through kind of our regular uh disposition process where we would look to uh put the property on market and see what what kind of offers or proposals that we get. And we'll talk more about that because I think that's the part that kind of gets people scared, right? And so I think back to what you were just saying is like the community interest and community value really plays into this. And so we'll dig into that more too.

Real Outcomes In Arvada So Far

The schools that are here in Nevada are Allendale, Arvada K8, Campbell, Fitzmorris, Parr, Peck, and Thompson. Those are the seven. And so a few of them have gone through this process in different ways. So Allendale was surplused, went through the disposition process. It went for purchase and sale in 2024 to Cardell Homes and will be converted into single-family homes. Thompson similarly went through this surplus and disposition process and was sold in 2025 to an organization called Evoke Behavioral Health. And so it's a school that serves students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Campbell closed in 2023. It was not surplused, it didn't go through the disposition process and then was reopened by the district as Campbell Early Learning Center. Fitzmorris, surplused, but no disposition process. So here you're already seeing all these different tracks that this can go down. That's right. No disposition process and was leased to Apex Park and Recreation District. And so that's kind of a unique scenario there as well. What are maybe like some successes, challenges that you've seen with those schools, or generally with these different tracks that schools go through in this process? Yeah, I think um, I think Thompson is is a place to start for success. You know, that went through our regular disposition process. So we we had a community meeting, we, you know, we we met with the community, really wanted to understand what their thoughts, what their concerns, what their input was. We actually had a couple community members serve on uh as part of our uh as ad hoc members to our process. And really they were along the way for what type of proposals came in. And what we've learned is the less disruptive the better, which is of no surprise to any of us here. Uh, but when a reuse proposal came in, um, you know, it immediately got a lot of support. And I think that that's an outcome that a lot of our communities are interested in, is can the building kind of stay as is, but get repurposed for a function that benefits the community? And so Thompson definitely served that purpose well in a reuse that uh we we've had we've had another reuse in another community, but but Thompson here was a good success story. You know, Allendale went through a very similar process, but it was a different outcome where we didn't receive a reuse proposal. The only proposals that we received were for redevelopment. But we had community members that were part of the process that helped provide input and guide that as well. And it did get sold to Cardell homes to become single family homes. I think one of the things that we've learned in this process too is a reuse proposal can happen a lot quicker and a redevelopment can take a long time. And that's of interest uh to the district as well. We've actually been working really hard to understand and seek out reuse interest in the community. Uh, we have a community relations firm that we've brought on to really help drum up interest in our nonprofit community and our philanthropic community, just to try to connect the dots around are there groups out there that might have an interest in reusing the facility in hopes that it serves the community interest well. And honestly, it serves the district's interest well too, just based on a pure, on a pure timing and alignment to what the community wants also. So I, you know, those are two that went through the process that, you know, had good outcomes, but are in very different places because of it. And then the other two, like you mentioned, were closed, didn't really go through a surplus vote initially with our board. FitzMorris ultimately has been surplus, but the lease arrangement with Apex is working really well, and we don't have any plans to change that. We know that's of a of tremendous value to the community, and that seems to be working well. And actually at Fitzmorris, we've we've housed a couple other district programs there as well. So we're we're consolidating a few things into that facility to try to maximize the space in that building too. Yeah, that's such a unique property in that it has like City Park, Apex, Rec Center, and a school all on the same property like area. That's right. So it allows for that kind of interesting uses there. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, someone who uh is in the Thompson neighborhood area there, um, can't speak highly enough of that whole process. And like you said, the reuse solution worked out really well for as a member kind of on the other side of just being a member of the community, like it's just like almost nothing ever changed, really. So yeah, I'm I'm I'm glad to hear that because you know I think the more that we go through these processes and have good outcomes, it helps maybe bring the temperature down a little bit at times. I think there's a lot of unknown that comes with this. And we have had multiple people go through the process skeptical at first, unsure, and then when they when they see it play out and and the outcomes that we've had thus far, they've they've been very supportive and appreciative of the thoughtfulness of the process uh to date. Yeah. So then

Arvada Sites Still In Progress

the three schools that we haven't mentioned yet, and kind of touch on them and explain where they're at in the process is PEC, which has been surplus, but that's it so far. The no designation beyond that. And then we have Arvada K-8 right here just across the street from City Hall, and Parr Elementary, which is over in Lake Arbor, kind of the northeast portion of town. Those have uh entered the municipal interest process, which means us, the city of Arvada, is interested in those properties in some way or another. So what is that municipal interest process? What does that mean? Yeah, no, good question. So really what that means is is the municipality has said, hey, you know, we have an interest, uh a formal interest, don't put this through your, you know, don't put it out to market. Um, you know, let let us seek interest and and try to put something together first. And so with Arvada Cate and Parr, uh, we've had multiple conversations with the city around our process, around our interests. And, you know, really the city is is exploring what a proposal might look like. And I think that, you know, the city has certain interests that it's trying to trying to solve. And really the the main interest the district has is selling the entire property uh to the municipality. And so we also know that it can take a little bit of time for a municipality to to explore this, to put the right things together. Uh, and so we want to be sensitive to that and supportive of that, also knowing that a little more time on the front end can mean it can move a little bit quicker uh on the back end, too.

Parks, Partial Land, Creative Solutions

Yeah. And I will say before anyone starts drawing conclusions or guessing what the city wants to do with those two properties, it's mainly our interest is to preserve the parks that are associated with those two properties. So Wolf Park here, right along 58th Avenue, is right next to our Vatican through eight. We just want to make sure that that park land remains a park. And then same with uh Far Horizons Park over there by Par Elementary. The city just wants to make sure, you know, those are parks that those community members enjoy. And so we just want to make sure those areas remain parks. Um we're not necessarily interested in the facilities themselves, but the district wants to sell it all as one thing. So that's probably why it's things are taken so long with those two properties. And I think it's a great example of it's a very realistic approach in this process around uh our relationship with Arvada and our continued partnership with Arvada is really has been really great. Um and we have two parks that um kind of blend the two together, you know, the city's interest that has been, you know, layered on top of school district landownership. And so, you know, when when these things come up, it does complicate it a little bit. But at the same time, I'm confident we can we can work towards a creative solution here. But but but you're right, the district doesn't have an interest in selling off a portion of it and then being left with a portion that might be more difficult to do something with. And so we are asking our our municipalities in the city of Arvada to come back to us with, you know, with maybe some creative thinking or potential partnerships. You know, it's ultimately up to them on on how they want to do this around the whole site, even though, like you mentioned, there's a a very specific interest that might not be the whole site. Sure. Yeah. And I will note that the school district website has flow charts that explain a lot of this is very complicated, but there are a couple flow charts that help break it down and make it more easy to understand. So we'll link to that in our show notes if you're trying to understand, like, okay, what happens next and all that. We you guys do a great job of kind of breaking down where each property is in the process and then what happens next. So I just want to throw that in there before we get too far along.

How Community Engagement Works

Yep. And another part of that process that we haven't talked about, the community engagement piece of this, how folks have a voice in that and when and and how folks can get involved. So what does that look like for these processes? Yep. So it looks a little bit different depending on the process. With the municipal process, typically we work with the with the municipality and and come up with some concept, you know, in in general that uh is the idea. And then once that's been established, then it goes out for a community input of some kind and community engagement of some kind. Um, that that's a a requirement in our process, is that once that that potential idea is is is starting to take shape, the community input is part of that. And that could look a few different ways, whether it be a community meeting, whether it be a town council meeting, you know, we have information on our school district website. We have sign-up forms if you want to be provided regular updates, if you wanted to be included in our newsletter, if you just want to provide your input and thoughts, we have that too. And we read every single one of them. And so there's multiple ways the community can can engage in that process. If, and that's the municipal process. So if a property were to go through the regular process, we would immediately have a community meeting and we would ask community members to participate in the process as ad hoc members. That's not where we are with uh the particular properties right now with Arvada because we're still on the municipal track. And you know, this is something that we found is a value not only to the municipality, to the city of Arvada, but to the school district as well. You know, our board very much so wants to know what the community's thoughts, reactions, input was into a potential solution. And I know and I know that the city feels that same way. So that is definitely woven into and layered throughout the different processes. Yeah. And so what that other track, non-municipal track, that you all have this property disposition advisory committee. Yep. And so those ad hoc members, when you go down that track, are community members at the local school site, near the local school site who are interested, who get to join that group. Correct. So there's kind of folks who help district-wide with this process that are community members, right? Yeah, they're community members and they actually represent our four, our three, three of our main district committees, our district advisory committee, our financial advisory committee, and our capital asset advisory committee. So we have representatives from those committees that form our core property disposition advisory committee. And then we bring in ad hoc members, like you mentioned, you know, specific to us uh school or neighborhood, in addition to our regular core members to go through the process for that particular property. And a cool example that we wanted that we got to meet Greg before this when we were preparing for this podcast, who was just an ad hoc member for this group for the Allendale property. That's right. So who's Greg? Yeah, so Greg Avidikian is in the operations department. He's our our project and strategy manager, and he does a ton of work on property disposition. He he knows more about it than anybody uh and he's done a great job. But he brings a very unique perspective to the school district where, like you mentioned, he actually was sitting at the table as an ad hoc member for Allendale, because he lives in proximity to Allendale, and he just wanted to make sure that he had input, that he represented the community's interests. So I first met Greg with that relationship, and then uh, you know, through a variety of of things, he ended up uh coming to work for the district, but has really brought that unique perspective around what is the district trying to do, but but really also bringing the perspective of what are our communities and our community members feeling along the way in the process. And it's just been a invaluable perspective to have and a pretty unique, uh unique one too, that I got to I've got to work with Greg in in a few different capacities. And um, but he is a tremendous asset um and really knows the this process well from a lot of different angles. Yeah, I feel like it can be really reassuring to think of folks who come into the fold at the district in some way that have also gone through the process. Like that's just a I think that's a reassuring perspective to know that exists there. You also mentioned there's a a community engagement newsletter for the property disposition process. And so I think because these can kind of move slowly and through different phases, it can be kind of hard to stay on top of what's happening when, and particularly if nothing's kind of happening for a while. Yep. And so that newsletter, and we'll link to it in the show notes, is a good place that, like, if there's a school you're interested in learning more about, that's a good place to kind of sign up for that newsletter. And then what as things are happening for these different properties, that's how you can get it. That's right. That's right. That's right. You know, and and you're right that you know, some of these properties either have been surplused and nothing has really happened. And you know, I think you know, no news can be isn't the best thing in the in the world for our community around what's happening, is something going on that I'm not aware of. So signing up for that newsletter, you know, we're we're starting to push out more regular updates around, hey, we know this is where this property is, nothing's happening yet. Or hey, something's about to happen. So here's how you can stay engaged as this property moves through through a process. And that big sheet that you have on the webpage, too, is great for that. Because it says where they're at. Each one's at it in the process too. Yeah. So we'll we'll link to all that stuff.

Budget Myths And Sale Proceeds

Yeah. Uh a good segue as we kind of get toward the end of the interview here is um and talk about some misconceptions and common questions that you get is centered around the school district's uh budget deficit, which is um, you know, no secret. A lot of people might be wondering, well, can't you just sell these schools that have closed the properties and make up for that deficit? Is that the solution? Yeah, no, I appreciate you asking this question. I think there is a misconception that uh selling these school properties is gonna solve the district's financial challenges. And we've either sold or contracted or were under a contract for a little over $17 million for six properties to date. And if we take a high valuation of our of those sales on a per acre basis and apply it to the properties that are remaining, I believe we landed about potentially $55 million that the school district can earn from the sale of the remaining properties. And this includes other communities uh above and beyond uh the city of Arvada. So $55 million is significant. But when we look at it in the general context of the district's budget and the challenges that we're facing, $55 million is about half of what the school district needs in one year to maintain its facilities across the district. And so it'll help. All of the proceeds from the sales of these properties goes back into our capital reserve fund to fund capital investments, building improvements, those types of things. The other thing is we don't realize all of those funds at the same time. They're spread out. We might sell three properties in a year and maybe we receive $10 million, $12 million, whatever the number it may be in one particular year. And so even if we got the $55 million all at one time, you know, it's about half of what we need annually to invest in and upkeep and maintain our facilities. And it's one-time funds. You know, once we sell them, we no longer have access to those dollars in a recurring way. And the dollars, you know, get spent ultimately. So it's important we sell these, it's gonna help, but it's certainly not gonna solve the the challenges that we're facing. Yeah. Just generally, I think there's plenty of just misunderstandings, misconceptions or things that are hard to understand or need clarification.

Community Benefit Beats Top Dollar

What are some of the other things along those lines that you hear a lot through this process? We understand that there's just there's there can be fear and anxiety in our communities around what's gonna happen to these schools. You know, I I do want to take the opportunity to to point out that, you know, part of our guiding principles in selling these schools, part of our decision-making criteria is centered around community benefit and uh and fitting in with the community. We actually have an example now. Uh it was hypothetical initially, but now it's actually realized where we received a proposal for for another school that we sold that had a higher price tag, but it didn't fit in with the neighborhood. And so we didn't take that offer. The board understands and supports fitting in with community, community benefit. And so we we often do hear that we're driven just by the highest dollar, that that's gonna motivate everything. That's a factor. But if if you if we look at our our guiding principles and our criteria, a lot of it is geared towards you know, what fits in well with the community and what's gonna benefit. community. So that's a big part of it. So I think that's important for our communities to know is that that's a driver in this. And when we've we've demonstrated that too in our decision making processes with some of our with one in particular closed school where where that that situation presented itself. Like I mentioned, we've also worked really hard to to try to find and to try to engage interests in the community that would align to that. Hopefully as these properties go go through the process, you know, we start to see the the the benefit of that, the result of that and the investment in that come out with um with proposals and partnerships that benefit the city of Arvada, benefit the school district, benefit the community and try to create as many wins as we can. Yeah, I think in some ways we um it's similar to the city's role in a in a development proposal too, right? It's like, does this meet our you know land development code and all these different things and does it how does it fit within what we expect of this area? There's some similarities there. Like we can't control everything. If it fits within the rules, it's a it's going to work there, but we have a a role in that to help make it work for the community. That's right. Yeah. And I think it's another important point is um I think Allendale's a good example you know the only proposals we received were for redevelopment. We can only work with what we received through these prof through our processes. You know if we could draw it up might be a reuse that you know that everybody's psyched about that's really easy. But you know we have to have a reuse proposal that's uh the right buyer at the right time and the and the right deal. And so hopefully we align all of those things. We are at you know a little bit of the mercy of the process and who's interested at that point in time. But you're right though, even then it has to follow very strict processes and follow land codes and you know you guys know that stuff better than I do, but it does have to adhere to that. And even when a property goes through a redevelopment, Alendale's a a good example, you know, that what we're seeing is the closer that a proposal adheres to the underlying zoning and requirements, you know, the the the more potential success it's going to have and much variation from that is going to be incredibly risky. That's been our experience. Yeah. Absolutely. And another one you alluded to at the beginning that I just want to touch on is this idea of like what if the school just what if we need it again in 10 years kind of thing. Yep. Can

Will Enrollment Rebound Someday

you speak a little more to how you make the look at those projections and and we know like trends are changing over time generally like how many kids people are having things. No, that's it's something that we we look at really closely. We we've had our our own demographic studies done we work closely with the state demographer and the state demographer's office. And that's just the reality right now is that the long-term enrollment projections of our you know of a lot of our schools this is isn't expected to grow. And so we do get that question a lot. Well wait a sec, you're selling these schools you're going to need them in a few years. We're just we don't anticipate that happening. It's unfortunate but that's just the reality like you mentioned you know people aren't having having as many kids families are staying in their homes longer and this is a bit of a result of that. We're pretty confident that we're not going to see a big shift in those projections. Yeah

Arvada School Trivia Round

thanks for clearing those up I'm sure you get them a lot and I'm sure a lot of our listeners are kind of curious about those too we'll wrap up with everyone's uh favorite segment here some trivia we got three multiple choice questions loosely related to schools not necessarily about them closing down or opening up so the first question is what is Arvada's oldest school that is still operating is it Arvada High School, Lawrence Elementary, Seacrest Elementary, or North Arvada Middle School, which is the oldest still in operation Arvada, Lawrence, Seacrest, or North Arvada? Oh wow Lawrence, just based on Old Town. I'll I'll go Seacrest. Okay. It is Lawrence. Okay. Um located in Old Town just down the street from us here from City Hall. And it was built in 1900. It was the town's first two-story school and it was initially called just Arvada School and housed both elementary and high school students before Arvada High School was built in 1922. Awesome. I mean what have yeah not still in operation because the schoolhouse in Old Town existed that is now a restaurant. So I was like that was our train stop. Oh no I'm giving away that Arvada School I swear I don't know these the Arvada's first school was built in 1882 and became many different things since including a movie theater, sporting goods store and dance school. What is in that building now? Is it a laundromat, ice cream shop, speakeasy or restaurant? My bad. That's all right. You want to answer this one? We're good. It is of course a restaurant schoolhouse restaurant. It opened in 2015 after the current owner purchased it and remodeled it to look like its original schoolhouse look. So if you've never been there encourage folks to check it out. It's really they did a great job with kind of repurposing that making it feel like you're you're in a schoolhouse very cool. Yep yep 1882 though so it's been a lot of things since then's awesome. Yep. All right question number three final question the late great Hall of Fame pitcher Roy Halliday attended what our Arvada area high school was it Arvada, Arvada West, Ralston Valley or Pomona? When was he in school? He was in school in the early to mid nineties. Roy Halliday I'll say Pomona. Oh I was gonna go Pomona. Okay. Okay we're gonna agree on this A winner out of West. Yeah so he was a legend with the Wildcats there. He led him to the 1994 state championship. He was drafted out of high school by the Blue Jays and he went on to have one of the greatest careers really of any pitcher. He's a Hall of Famer eight time All-Star two time Cy Young award winner and threw a perfect game and even was just the second pitcher ever to throw a no hitter in the playoffs. Unfortunately he um passed away after he retired in 2017 in a plane crash but um definitely uh a great career and I think Arvada West baseball is having like a really good season right now I think I saw their post kind of made some um connections to that 94 team so yeah yeah well I clearly have a little to learn I I I'm actually an Arvada resident but I've only been here for three years so if I'm ever on again I'll I'll brush up a little bit more we have these like history books about Arvada that we try to find our fun facts for so yeah I can loan them out to you.

Listener Contact And City Updates

Awesome Jeff well thank you so much for joining us we really appreciate it thanks so much for having me today I'm glad we had a chance to talk through this and um I know you guys are going to push out more information you know please reach out if people have questions or or or need anything from us we're happy to to to answer those and and and really just try to try to make sure that we're staying connected and and keeping our community informed. Absolutely thanks great thanks and as a reminder we love hearing from our listeners you can stay in touch by texting us using the link at the top of the show notes or you can email us at podcast at Arvada.org we really like hearing feedback about what you enjoy what you'd like to see differently episode ideas and more and coming up here on June 13th is the annual Arvada kids fishing contest at Arvata Blonde Reservoir from 7 to 11 a.m the event is free and open to kids age 14 and younger along with their families. The fishing contest includes prizes for each age division along with a free lunch and raffle and you can learn more at Arvadaco.gov slash fishing dash contest and the city is planning to host its annual 4th of July professional fireworks display on Saturday July 4th over at Stenger Sports Complex. Gates to parking will open at 6.30 p.m and parking is free and first come first serve the fireworks will start at approximately 9.15 and please keep in mind that it'll take about 15 to 20 minutes after the fireworks end for the parking lots to reopen and for West 58th Avenue to open again to allow for pedestrian traffic. So please be patient after the fireworks show is over. You can learn more about fireworks at arvataco.gov slash fireworks. And the city is also proposing drought surcharges for City Council to vote on their June 16th council meeting as an additional tool for encouraging water conservation during drought. This is something that Denver Water and a lot of our neighboring communities have implemented. And so the way ours will work is that for water use if approved is that water use over the base 12000 gallons bi-monthly since we do bimonthly billing only for single family residential and irrigation only accounts as those are our highest outdoor watering customers in Arvada. So the focus is really on those customer bases and which is the majority of our customers and if passed those surcharges will go into effect July 1 and that'll be a different pricing amount on your bill for usage over that 12000 gallons. And so we'll put all that information on the watering restrictions webpage Arvadaco.gov slash drought and then late summer garden in the box program through Resource Central which provides those low water plants for your landscape. Great to implement during a drought year when we're trying to conserve more water these plants can help do that in the long run. And so pre-order for those plants is available in June I believe it's a little bit later this month and pickup then will be in August and September. As a reminder the programs can sell out really quickly and so we encourage folks to sign up for the interest list and then act quickly. So that's resourcecentral.org slash gardens for more information. And then the annual water quality report is available now. The report shares information about our drinking water here in Arvada including water quality testing results, source water information, the lead service line replacement program and more and so visit Arvadaco.gov slash water report for that information. And thank you again to today's guest Jeff Gatlin. Be sure to listen to our next episode we'll have the city's chief building official Kylie Flynn on to talk about some of the recent changes to the building code. Today's

Next Guest And Closing Fun Fact

podcast was recorded and edited by Arvada Media Services. And today's fun fact is due to overcrowding in Arvada area high schools in the 1970s, the school district experimented with concept six where students went to school for four 43 day sessions a year throughout the year with staggered vacations. Interesting concept and that lasted about 10 years until 1981. Whoa