New parks, schools only add to city?s high quality of life

LONGMONT ¾ Longmont’s small hometown feeling, with many amenities of larger cities, continues to please new and longtime residents. Now, the community’s joy-of-living level is being enhanced further as new parks, golf course improvements, better transportation access and new schools are added to the city.

Five new or completed projects include the first phase of the Sandstone Ranch community park complex, the $4.8 million renovation to Fox Hill Country Club, the Highway 119 extension, the new Silver Creek High School and plans for building a new campus of Front Range Community College.

The Sandstone Ranch park complex, east of Longmont on Highway 119, celebrated its grand opening this summer on May 19. The park was leased and purchased from Frank and Andrea Bigelow for $3.7 million, and resides on more than 313 acres of natural, cultural and historic resources. It consists of a 120-acre community park and a nature preserve that connects to Union Reservoir and Barbour Ponds State Park.

Longmont’s Park Improvement Fund, Water Fund and Conservation Trust Fund and a $400,000 Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) grant funded the project in April 1998. The park is divided between active ? sports fields and team activity areas — and passive facilities, including open land for trails, wildlife viewing, picnicking and other recreational activities.

The city has agreed to a mining plan with Aggregate Industries Inc. for part of Sandstone Ranch south of the St. Vrain River. Gravel mining will be completed in 2001. An estimated $1 million in royalties is expected from the lease and will be used to help pay for the acquisition of Sandstone Ranch.Fox Hill renovation

The bulk of work for Fox Hill Country Club’s $4.8 million renovation project, including a new clubhouse and parking lot, was completed in 1999, according to Nelson Scott, general manager. A new swimming pool and tennis courts were added in June 1999, and an expanded driving range and practice facility, including chipping and putting greens, opened in the spring of 2000.

This year, the club has received a new fleet of E-Z-GO golf carts and has placed bird houses around some of the lakes and in out-of-play areas to encourage a variety of feathered creatures to nest on the golf course. “We support wildlife habitat wherever we can at the country club,” Scott said.

The club also is investigating ways to increase the fox population on its property and is constructing artificial dens in places where the foxes will be safe. “We have five foxes that we know of,” Scott said. In honor of these long-tailed residents, the club holds its annual golf tournament, the Fox Hunt, for members and guests. “We don’t hunt the foxes, we just play golf,” he said. The tournament is planned for Wednesday, June 27, through Saturday, June 30.

Fox Hill provides full-service country club facilities to its members and food and beverages, meeting space and golf outings to non-members. “We are very near wait-list status for our membership,” Scott said. The club has placed a limit of 450 members for the club so all can enjoy the golf course and other facilities in comfort.

Besides Fox Hill, Longmont offers three public golf courses. Highway extension planned

The city is beginning construction on a highway extension this fall that will reach near Fox Hill Country Club and be completed in 2003.

According to Nick Wolfrum, Longmont’s public works engineering manager, Longmont and Boulder County have completed a study for a 2.5-mile extension of Ken Pratt Boulevard from Main Street, U.S. 287, to Highway 119 east of Sugar Mill Road.

“The new connection will skirt downtown and ease the congestion on 3rd Street,” Wolfrum said. Colorado’s Transportation Department will be the lead agency for the construction with Longmont taking responsibility for engineering design, environmental regulatory compliance and right-of-way acquisitions.

“The city’s and Boulder County’s revenue participation will be 45 percent, or $23 million,” he said. Total project cost is about $51 million. In addition to the 2.5 miles of road, the extension includes two bridges, one over the St. Vrain River and one over Left Hand Creek, and takes Highway 119 around two main railroad crossings that slow up traffic.New high school

In addition to transportation improvements, a new high school has been added to accommodate growth.

Silver Creek High School, also scheduled for completion early this summer, will open its doors this fall to approximately 800 middle and senior school students. Silver Creek is part of the St. Vrain Valley School District consisting of 19 elementary, six middle, three middle/high, three high schools and multiple alternative schools.

Ken Kirkland, assistant superintendent for business services for the district, said the combined middle/senior school is on the south side of Nelson Road west of Longmont. “The principal will be Chris Rugg, assigned a year ago from Sunset Middle School, to coordinate the opening.”

An elementary school, Eagle Crest, was built at the site about two years ago, and a new middle school is planned in addition to the new high school. “Eagle Crest has grades K-5 and won’t change,” Kirkland said. “This fall, Silver Creek will house grades 6 through 10, then we’ll add a grade for the next two years. Fall of 2002, we’ll add grade 11, and fall 2003, grade 12.”

A retaining pond is being constructed for irrigating the site and a serpentine nature walk will edge the school grounds. Rocky Mountain Consultants headed up the project, estimated between $2 million to $3 million.

Plans also are progressing on a new campus in Longmont for Front Range Community College, according to John Feeley, media relations director for Front Range. “Land consisting of 45 acres has been donated to the city at Main Street and Quail Road,” he said. Front Range will have a long-term lease on its buildings.

Presently, the community college leases 30,000 square feet on a retail mall in Longmont, and also has 19,260 square feet in Boulder on Shine Road. The new campus will have at least as much space as the two combined campuses, Feeley said, but final plans have not been determined. “The city will have a museum and recreation center at the site as well,” he said. New medical facilities

Medical facilities for Longmont area residents also are undergoing major expansions.

Longmont United Hospital, Front Range Orthopedic Center and the Neenan Company are partnering to build a new, 107,000-square-foot medical facility at Pike Road and Main Street, or Highway 287, in Longmont.

“The joint venture with the Neenan Co. and Front Range Orthopedic Center is really a step into future alliances in health care,´ said Dan Allen, board chairman of Longmont United Hospital.

The new medical facility is slated for completion by March of next year, said Tim Long, the hospital’s director of program development. “Longmont has grown by 40 percent over the last 10 years,” he said. “The same continuation of that is projected into the next five years.”

The new facility will house several specialties, including orthopedics, an ambulatory surgery center, an urgent-care center, occupational medicine, a physical therapy department, diagnostic imaging and laboratory, Long said.

The hospital is recruiting 10 to 12 orthopedic surgeons and 20 to 25 physicians, including family practice doctors and specialists, such as an internal medicine doctor, an ophthalmologist and an ear, nose and throat doctor for the new clinic.

Dave Demchuk, chief executive officer of Front Range Orthopedic Center, came up with the idea for the three-way partnership. “The best way to deliver medicine for patients and cost is in a collaborative setting rather than just try to fight one another,” he said.

The new center will be a place where patients can get all their orthopedic needs cared for under one roof. “It puts it all together in a continuum of care,” Demchuk said.

Front Range Orthopedic Center is moving from its 9,000-square-foot facility across from the hospital at 2030 Mountain View Ave. and will occupy approximately 13,000 square feet in the new facility.

Besides having more space, the new center will include accessibility and heated, covered parking, Demchuk said. “Surgery patients will be able to drive under canopies and leave from canopies,” he said, “because patients don’t walk very well when we’re done with them.”

The clinic’s location will allow Front Range Orthopedic Center to continue to serve Longmont, as well as outlying towns such as Berthoud, Lyons and Lafayette.

The Neenan Co., a real estate development company, designer and builder, will design and build the facility and also be a one-third partner, said Alan Main, the company’s vice president of real estate development for health-care facilities. Profits from the facility will be divided equally between the three partners, he said.

In addition to the new clinic, Longmont United Hospital also is expanding its main facility at 1950 Mountain View. A new, 166,000-square-foot, five-story tower was completed last January, Long said. The tower houses medical surgical beds, a telemetry unit, physical therapy and a sleep lab.

Also this year, the second floor of the tower, which was shell space, is being renovated and will house the maternity ward called The Birth Place, he said. The Birth Place will consist of 26 rooms, 22 labor, delivery, recovery, postpartum rooms and four postpartum rooms for C-section patients. The Birth Place also will include a 10-bed level two nursery for infants needing extra care.

The former maternity ward space will be used to add 16 beds to the intensive-care unit. The hospital also is adding 23,900 square feet to its surgery facility in the main hospital. Phase one of the new surgery center is slated to be complete this September, and phase two is set for completion by spring 2002. Also, 1,600 square feet is being added to the imaging labs and this addition is expected to be complete by this September.

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