The Edgewater City Council met last Tuesday, February 21 for their bi-monthly business meeting. Councilperson Berg was absent, but a quorum was present with the remainder of the City Council and the Mayor present and sitting at the dais.
After the usual business of the Pledge of Allegiance and approval of the consent agenda, the meeting got underway. First on the the night’s docket was communications from the city staff. Chief Sonstegard began by welcoming Edgewater’s new Commander, Jimmy Martinez. Officer Martinez comes to Edgewater from the Denver Police Department and begins in April. Next, City Manager Maples let the council know that the Envision Edgewater website is live (https://envisionedgewaterco.com/). Envision Edgewater is a space residents can go to get information on current city projects as well as provide feedback.
Next on the night’s agenda was a presentation on automated license plate reader cameras (ALPR) from Chief Sonstegard. The Chief has been working with Flock Safety, a private ALPR company, to explore adding ALPRs in Edgewater. The Chief described the cameras as both a “game changer” and a “force multiplier.” ALPR cameras automatically photographs and reads license plates and adds them to a database. It functions as a sort of digital fingerprint for vehicles, logging the plate number, make, and model of vehicles. If a vehicle that has been reported stolen is captured, on duty officers are notified. They are also useful in the gathering of objective evidence post-crime and would serve as a deterrent. The Chief was careful to note that these cameras only gather information on plates, people are not photographed, no facial recognition technology is involved, and the cameras will not be used to enforce traffic infractions. However, they could prove useful during post-accident investigations. In the interest of transparency, there will also be an online portal Edgewater residents can visit. Hudson, Colorado has implemented ALPRs and has seen a 1000% uptick in recovery rate of stolen vehicles as well as a decline in thefts.
Next, the meeting was opened for public comment. Edgewater resident Larry Welshon took the podium and spoke for several minutes on what he perceived as a disparity in the tenor and tone of how a meeting on guns was run last summer versus the tenants rights discussion at the last council meeting. Mayor Beltrone disputed the assertion.
The next item for the night was a first reading of an ordinance amending the city’s process for special event applications. It passed unanimously. City Manager Maples then spoke about the changes coming to the process. Changes coming to the process include a deadline of 60 days prior to submit applications for “small events” and in the first 2 months of the year for “big events,” meaning events that happen over the course of more than one day. These changes will take full effect in 2024, but this year the application window for “big events” will open March 1st and close March 31st.
With that, the meeting was wrapped up with the usual Mayor and Council comments. Of particular note was that Edgewater Councilperson Steve Conklin was elected chair of the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG). Congratulations Steve! Edgewater City Council meets Tuesdays at 6:30 every other week. The next meeting is scheduled for March 7th. Residents can attend in person at the Edgewater Civic Center, or virtually from home. Video recordings of past meetings are available at the city’s website.
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