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1. What is the Town doing about fixing potholes and snow plowing?

We are investing in additional resources including two new staff members, new equipment such as a snowplow, a weather station to let our staff know about conditions on the ground, cameras, and GPS for our snowplows. Additionally, the Town uses a pavement management system to evaluate road conditions and schedule things like road repairs needed.

2. We have an old oil and gas pad in our neighborhood, what's the plan for those?

There's several oil and gas facilities throughout the Town of Frederick. Over the years Frederick has maintained a position of trying to make sure that the operators are being responsible in the extraction of those minerals within Frederick. So, we’re working with our regional and state resources and partners to help work with the oil and gas community to make sure that as any of those operators winding down operations, they're doing so in the most expedient and responsible and environmentally safe manner possible.

3. Will there be anything from the Town on the November ballot?

The board recently passed a resolution setting a ballot question that would go out to the voters to ask the voters if open space could be broadened to be used for parks and related types of amenities as well. So that will be appearing on the November ballot, which is coordinated with the county.

4. Thank you so much for the road work at Tipple. Can residents expect more of these projects to relieve traffic congestion?

The short answer to your question is yes. Residents can expect additional improvements to infrastructure in the Town of Frederick. A couple of years ago, the Town Board approved the Transportation Master Plan that identified improvements focused on intersection widening, curb, gutter, and sidewalk improvements. The first one we were able to complete was Colorado Boulevard and Tipple. It has definitely relieved congestion throughout the peak hours. As we move forward, we're looking to replicate that type of improvement to several intersections in town. Our Transportation Master Plan identified locations where the need for this level of improvement, such as the turn lane and the widening can be put into place. We are looking at areas like Silver Birch and Bella Rosa, and Silver Birch and Godding Hollow. We were recently awarded a grant for Colorado Boulevard and Bella Rosa, it was approximately $2 million for the DRCOG grant project there. That is a joint effort with the Town of Firestone.

Also, we anticipate sharing more surveys and opportunities for our residents to tell us what's important to you. Over the summer, we asked a lot of questions about transportation related to your commute, your feeling of safety while driving throughout the Town of Frederick? We heard very loud and clear that there are some challenges with our infrastructure as it pertains to congestion and safety concerns. So as this Board will not be moving forward with a tax initiative to support some of those infrastructure changes, we want to ensure your safety and your quality of life.

5. Can you provide an update on the Downtown Plan?

Throughout the course of this last year, the team has been working hard to engage the community across the entire Town of Frederick to find out what they envision for the future of the downtown. Questions about the types of amenities that would help activate the downtown. And what would help drive them to want to come to the downtown. We're excited to have received nearly a thousand responses every time we've gone out and asked the community to give us their feedback. As we go into the next six months, we'll be working on drafting that plan, and we'll again want to come back to the community for input to find out what do they like, what do they have concerns about, so we can make sure that plan is reflective of the wishes of the community.

6. Are road improvements scheduled in the near future for Highway 52?

The town is currently reviewing plans for the proposed Silverstone Marketplace Development, which is coming at Highway 52 in Colorado Boulevard, with the Anchor Store King Soopers there. One of the major questions we get is about the congestion and the improvements coming for Highway 52. As a staff, we meet with CDOT regularly. We meet with our MPO, which is a planning organization where we can request funding called DRCOG. CDOT has indicated that a big resurfacing project will happen on 52. And while it won't widen anything, it will improve the drivability, the potholes, the cracking out there. They're planning on that for probably the end of 2025, beginning of 2026. And that'll go all the way from I-25 to Highway 85. It's a big improvement that we are looking forward to. 

As developments come in, we will see the opportunity to widen lanes to help with congestion issues, intersection improvements, and making sure that development pays its own way. 

Another area that we're focused on is working with our neighbors to the south of Highway 52 and the city of Dacono. We've been meeting with them regularly to identify areas where we can collaborate. So it's got a little bit of a regional aspect to it, but we've been big advocates lately for improving Highway 52 and we want to make sure that continues. 

As a resident of the Town of Frederick your voice can be heard by advocating for this region or for Highway 52 improvements in particular, a couple of things that you can do. There was a survey at one point from CDOT in particular that they asked questions of our area on the conditions of Highway 52. Unfortunately, that survey has closed, but they do have help information, phone numbers listed on their website that we're happy to provide. They are always welcome to share your feedback if you see any areas of concern specifically related to safety. 

As the Board of Trustees and staff, we work with our state representatives, Representative Parenti in particular has been helping us advocate our voice in the town of Frederick to expedite attention to Highway 52. I would implore you to get involved with your congressional leaders, house district leaders, and state representatives. You have a few of them who are running for election now and making sure that your voice is heard loud and clear that Highway 52 is a safety concern that needs to be addressed now. 

7. There should be street lights at the intersection of County Road 20 and the Frontage Road. I don't know if that's up to Frederick or the state, but I was wondering if that could be addressed?

I don't know if you've been out on the Frontage Road at Tipple where it connects to the I-25 Frontage Road. That was a project the Town took the lead on and worked with CDOT to get a street light put up. And it's also something where as long as the Town shows the initiative and wants to see that improvement done, we can definitely work with our state transportation organization in getting that done. So yes we could look into and talk to CDOT and make sure that it's something that meets their requirements and that it feels like the right thing to do in that location.

8. Will improvements be made at the lake?

Our department launched a long-term planning effort for the area around Milavec called the Community Parks Master Plan. It focuses on future improvements to that area, including the reservoir, Bella Rosa, a golf course, and Centennial Park. The primary focus of that plan is for it to be a community-driven process so that we can shape the next 20 to 30 years of those improvements. That process is currently ongoing. We have a project website and you can visit Frederickco.gov to get there. We have some initial concepts for the area that were developed from the initial surveys and comments that we received from people this summer and we would very much love to get everyone's feedback on those concepts. We'll work over the next 10 to 12 months to refine those concepts based on more input we receive from the community to figure out what those areas are going to look like.

9. I believe we voted on a second fire station and I would like to know where that is going to be and what the plan is to get that built?

Yes, the fire district, it is a separate entity from the Town of Frederick. They do have a new fire station that is currently in the construction process in Windham Hill. I believe it will be done probably in the first quarter or close to the second quarter of 2024.

10. What is the plan for Bella Rosa?

The board has prioritized the Bella Rosa golf course in the strategic plan. There were some difficult decisions made this last year to shut down the full-service restaurant due to the subsidies needed to keep that running. We looked to push that money towards improving the short-term playability of the golf course. And there's stuff in the Community Parks Master Plan that ties in. Some initial improvements that we've heard already from the community that they'd like to see are improved playability, wider fairways, more parking, and things like that. But again, nothing is definite yet. We're still taking public input and we want to hear from you.

11. When are we getting more trails?

In our short-term trail planning, we've focused on some of those missing segments that are in town. A number of our trails are built as development in the community comes along. And as that comes along, oftentimes there are segments that are missing from one neighborhood to another. So those are the first things that we're prioritizing for the next three to five years. Longer term for the priority trail system, our POST Master Plan prioritizes a number of corridors around town. Typically, those align with major transportation corridors. So oftentimes those trails are improved as development comes along and those transportation corridors are improved. And we do that because we're able to leverage additional funds from those developers so that it's not entirely taxpayer dollars that are footing the bill to construct those.

12. What is the Town doing to get more amenities such as retail, shop, restaurants, et cetera?

One way we're approaching soliciting feedback is through our Comprehensive Plan update. We’ve asked what type of amenities community members want to see in the Town of Frederick and we utilize that information in our retail attraction strategy. We also have a retail consultant that works on behalf of the Town of Frederick to help bring potential opportunities to Frederick for consideration. 

We've completed a retail attraction strategy as well to help quantify what opportunities might be a good fit for Frederick and then as was mentioned in one of the earlier questions about the upcoming Silverstone Marketplace with King Soopers as the anchor, the applicant who's going to be developing that site and the broker from the real estate group have opened their doors to feedback from the community to understand what types of shops community members want in that shopping center. So, if there's something that the community is lacking they can try to attract some of that. On the other hand, if we have too much of something then they can take that feedback as well. 

One other thing that I hope our community members will appreciate is that we do hear back all the time about the importance of the small-town feel of Frederick and that while we are growing and while change like these amenities needs to come, a lot of consideration is made to ensure we preserve the town heritage and atmosphere. We don't want to lose FRED in growth and I think that our Board and especially all of our staff members who are helping us as we go through this growth are doing a fantastic job to make sure that we can do both responsibly and hand-in-hand.

13. My neighborhood park is bad, what's the plan for improving and adding better amenities?

We have over 20 neighborhood parks in the Town of Frederick so maybe outside of this call if you don't mind sharing specifically which park you'd like some special attention to. We just started the department in January of 2022 so short-term we're really focused on improving our institutional capacity and that's to improve maintenance of the things that we already own as a town including the neighborhood parks, open spaces, trails. By doing that we'll improve staff training, operational planning, additional staffing, and new and improved equipment, so we're still working through some of that. In the long term, we're also simultaneously taking a holistic planning effort and approach to figure out what the priority improvements are in all of our neighborhood parks. We have 20 of them so we're trying to figure out what areas we need to focus on first with the resources that we have today - what can be improved, how can we incorporate water conservation efforts in those, are some of the things that we're looking at long-term.

14. What improvements will be made to Silver Birch and Bella Rosa Parkway intersection?

Our Transportation Master Plan identified several intersections and one of those is the Silver Birch and Bella Rosa intersection that's needed to be widened. We are taking the template that you see at Colorado Boulevard and Tipple and the improvements to replicate that throughout the town. We are looking at a phased approach for the intersection of Silver Birch and Bella Rosa. We'll have an interim design that's going to add some turn lanes and then as development and traffic builds out in that area we're going to look to put in the sidewalk improvements, ramps, striping, and traffic signals.

15. I just had a question about Bella Rosa and Colorado. Is there any plans on that intersection also?

That intersection was one that the Town of Frederick and Firestone teamed up to request grant money to do some big improvements. We were able to acquire $2 million to help put in bigger turn signals, and widen that intersection. It'll connect down into Bella Rosa, and so we've got trail improvements planned there. So, yeah, just a general intersection improvement. Typically, there's some right-of-way acquisition that has to happen too. And as we expect to start design, I'm going to guess the end of this year, early '24, will be identifying areas of need for that intersection to improve. 

But it is a positive that both Frederick and Firestone are looking to improve that. That is our town boundary line with them, and so both of us have definite needs to see that area widened and improved. This intersection was on our Capital Improvement and Transportation Master Plan Improvement project list last season because I believe there were some drainage components and some engineering work that needed to be done prior to. 

If you look at the golf course and the water from drainage that comes through Bella Rosa, drains to the north across Bella Rosa, you'll see that box culvert improvements are needed. And so, the timing of those improvements, so we're not impacting the citizens continually is something we're coordinating and making sure that we're doing the best for our residents.

16. Are you factoring in the fire station that is going to be going in when you talk about the Bella Rosa and Silver Birch intersection?

You've stumped the entire room in the town of Frederick Town Hall. I don't believe we are aware of a fire station in that particular location at this time.

17. Are there any plans to develop the roads Ridgeway or are they going to go all the way through?

A17 Ridgeway has been improved to its ultimate configuration to the very north border of the Town of Frederick. You'll notice it does turn to dirt when it gets into Firestone. As you continue north into what they call Frontier, we're crossing a jurisdictional boundary there that they'll have to take the lead and ownership of that improvement going north. So Frederick has done a great job improving its roadway of its improvements to Ridgeway going north to the end of our town boundary.

18. What is the Town doing to contribute to water conservation?

About a year ago, we adopted a water efficiency plan. That plan focused around conservation measures. The Board directed staff to hire someone who could specialize in championing programs and projects all focused around conservation. And we've done that. Kylie, is our water conservation specialist. She's been championing a lot of programs related to landscape modifications and water modifications. 

Conservation is kind of a new area where the board has really focused on making a measurable improvement on our water usage of the town. We're not going to be putting water that really is good treated water on the ground to water turf areas. 

We're going to be making modifications that we have raw water and we have less need for high-level turf. I'll add internally our parks department obviously were one of the larger water users in town and so we've been working very diligently to implement that water conservation plan internally. We have two staff that are certified irrigation auditors that's made us more efficient by being able to program our controllers to be more responsive to what's going on with the environment. To that end we are working to install smart irrigation controllers. We've done about six parks already this year and we hope to finish the rest of the irrigation systems in 2024. Those will allow us to control those systems from anywhere on earth with an internet connection so the rains or it's windy or anything like that we're able to turn those off and then long-term as we look to improve those neighborhood parks like I mentioned before really taking a hard look at what turf do we need for active use. Are there areas that we can have more native planning? Are there areas where we can limit some of that non-functional turf? So those are all some of the short long-term things that we're looking at internally.

19. How is the Town transparent with information to keep residents informed?

The Town takes transparency very seriously. Our strategic plan helps us to achieve that. It is continually being developed, reviewed, and redone as necessary. All of our board meetings are live streamed, and if you miss one the video is posted to our website. We also have community tour and talks, offering an opportunity to talk with our staff members and elected officials. We hold public meetings and conduct surveys to get community feedback. Additionally, all Trustees and Mayor Crites phone numbers and email addresses are on our website. FrederickCO.gov 

We also encourage residents to download our town app, there's a transparency portal there. Just in terms of your concern that goes through the app, you can see when it's submitted, who it's submitted to, and when the issue will be resolved. So it doesn't go into a dark hole and there's transparency in regards to that. 

The board has been working very diligently on adopting a code of ethics, as well as working on developing a transparency portal on our website. On our website currently, there's a whole page dedicated to the strategic plan. The strategic plan is the vision of the community where the board has collected feedback from the community and formed that into a plan, and that certainly has quite a bit of information on there.

20. Is there a possibility for adding turn lanes on Ridgeway, traveling south turning westbound onto 52?

That particular area we have attempted to tie this to development improvements that are also going on along Ridgeway with a project that's been in and out of activity. And so we may be getting to a point where we need to, as a Town, make some decisions about making these improvements ahead of this development.

21. Will there ever be another street other than Colorado and County Road 19 that goes through to Highway 56? Can we get pavement of the dirt roads?

William Bailey will go all the way, not all the way through the entirety of the town, but from Tipple to Highway 52. What we run into with your question is another jurisdiction to the north of us in Firestone has to also align and have the same roads that will extend all the way through. As development comes in, I think we get a little challenge to make sure those continuous connections happen in that manner. In regards to paving dirt roads, our team has a very robust program within the Town of Frederick that all dirt roads receive some type of maintenance at least monthly. 

In addition, there are some dirt roads that receive more, but we are aware of the dirt roads and the conditions and we work to improve in the best that we can. As part of that, within our Transportation Master Plan. It focuses on high volume traffic areas and addressing those needs first and those typically fall within intersections because it's serving a much broader population. So, within that Transportation Master Plan, it identifies those priorities as intersections first and then those things that have lesser traffic that are further on the list.