letters to the editor
It’s Not Too Late To Reroute I-70
Dear Editor:
In the January 2015 edition of the Greater Park Hill News (page 6), Amy Ford, Director of Communications for the Colorado Department of Transportation, advocates for tearing down the bridge/viaduct on I-70 between Brighton Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard, and replacing it with an enormously expensive, 10-lane cap and cover. The headline Ms. Ford’s article is “CDOT: Much Work Remains For I-70 East Project.”
On the opposite page (page 7), Thad Tecza, Senior Instructor Emeritus with the Department of Political Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder, ably refutes Ms. Ford (“CDOT is Right: I-70 Expansion Far From a Done Deal).”
You may read both articles at http://greaterparkhill.org/2015/01/cdot-much-work-remains-70-east-project/.
CDOT’s current funding plan is jeopardized by the potential loss of $170M to $270M of SB228 funds because of the TABOR requirement of returning money to the people if the revenues to the state exceed predetermined levels.
In short, CDOT doesn’t have the funds to assure that its trench/lid concept could be completed. There are serious environmental issues (noise and air pollution) which will probably not pass muster under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Although CDOT claims that it is too late to consider the sensible alternative of tearing down the bridge and removing I-70 from Denver entirely, rerouting through traffic along I-270/I-76, it is not too late to do so.
Tom Korson, Park Hill
A Bit More About That Baby Grand
I am the gifted and talented teacher at Stedman Elementary at 29th and Dexter. Our assistant principal, Hannah Kehn, wrote last month about how Stedman inherited a baby grand piano. The following is the full circle:
Jerry Jean Hale, a permanent Park Hill fixture, bequeathed her baby grand piano to Stedman Elementary upon her death last March, with a well-attended funeral at Fairmount. As it happens, Miss Moore was my piano teacher growing up. She, my parents and neighbors in Wheat Ridge, all became close and attended the symphony together for years. In her forties, she married Russell Hale. I became her Denver Public Schools’ colleague toward the end of her formal teaching career.
Jerry Jean hailed from Kansas as the only child of a middle-class African-American family. She lived and studied music, art and opera in Paris, then found her way to Denver. She taught at Barrett and Southmoor elementaries up until her retirement. Once retired and up to her death, Jerry Jean travelled the world and continued to teach and inspire those around her.
Jerry Jean Moore Hale was all class, and now we at Stedman will benefit from her continued generosity. Here is to a life well lived.
Cassie Perlmutter, Park Hill
Editor’s Note: We love your letters, and give preference to those that address an issue that has been covered in the newspaper, or a topic that is Park Hill or Denver-specific. Join the conversation and make your voices heard. Send letters to editor@greaterparkhill.org, and include your full name, and the neighborhood in which you live. Deadlines are the 15th of each month, for the following month’s issue.