Neighborhood Association Annual Meeting 2026
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The annual meeting of the Southern Gables Neighborhood Association was held on May 5, 2026 in the Green Gables Elementary School cafeteria. The beginning of a spring snowstorm an hour before the scheduled time reminded us that this is Colorado, and any fair-weather plans conducted prior to Mother’s Day are subject to disruption.
The meeting started with remarks by City Councilmembers Paula Nystrom and Jacob LaBure, who gave us an update on current plans and events. The Ward 5 meeting for May will be held with Ward 4 at the Green Mountain Rec Center on May 9 – tomorrow! at 12:30, on the subject of Wildfire Urban Interface. The results of the recent special election on zoning will involve more public input, and we will be hearing more about this as plans are developed. Both Paula and Jacob are on the Charter Review Committee with review sessions coming soon. The Lakewood City Manager is going to be retiring later this year. There is going to be a hiring process with community input. There is going to be a meeting about the plan regarding remodeling on Monday, May 11. In June there is going to be a Happy Hour Ward Meeting.
Lakewood Police Agent Quinn Pratt-Cordova, fresh from a SWAT exercise, addressed the group with an explanation of the function of the Community Action Team. The team is charged with outreach efforts to improve engagement with residents, supporting events such as National Night Out, our Neighborhood Night Out, and interactions with HOAs and neighborhood associations like ours. As part of the CAT engagement committee there are two homeless navigators; two law enforcement division case workers; and two mental health advocates. Most disturbance calls involve all three disciplines. Local issues are largely theft, traffic offenses, and welfare checks. He gave the web address of a Lakewood web page that tracks local police issues for transparency and citizen awareness, lakewoodco.gov/lpdtransparency.
The Association annual business meeting was conducted with a report on activities over the last year and upcoming for this year.
- Business Supporters selection, and gathering their promotional materials for tote bags. Ongoing social media promotion with aim of strengthening the community connection with “buy local” theme
- Monthly luncheons, Judy Whitten in charge. Among the 12 restaurants scheduled were Business Supporters Sunrise Sunset, Front Range, and Magill’s
- Book Club met every other month. Carolyn Wolfrum announced next meeting will be July 15, City of Thieves
- Funded 5 block parties at $150 each. Several also got City Get Together grants. This year the Lakewood grants are capped at $300.
- Coordinated Garage Sale weekend had 31 participants in the neighborhood, and a few more in Parkwest. They did not sign up for the map we published. This year we will also include Lakewood Pines. (This year’s weekend will be June 12-13.)
- Reviewed Neighborhood Night Out with emphasis on need for volunteers, and participation from Business Supporters, LPD, West Metro Fire Rescue,
- Applied for grant to get intern to work social media, approved but then program was canceled. This year we hired someone to manage Business Supporter signups and will handle the associated social media activities
- Leaf raking project in November for elderly and disabled; Denver Christian Middle School students raked 40 yards, we had Ken Fischer’s dump truck and neighborhood volunteers with pickups collect the bagged leaves and take 600 – 700 bags to the Fleischer Family Farm for mulch and compost
- In December we conducted a holiday mailbox decoration contest and awarded cash prizes to three winners.
- The largest share of Association expenditures goes to year-end grants and donations to nonprofits that benefit the community. Recipients last year were Green Gables Elementary for Giving Tree and Community fund, Denver Christian School for leaf raking volunteer program, Westwoods Community Church for direct neighborhood volunteer work, Action Center, Lakewood Police Emergency Assistance Fund, Joy’s Kitchen, and Lakewood Connects.
- The bank balance as of fiscal year ended 4/30/25 and 4/30/26 were given and were within $200 of each other. The practice of donating funds at year-end for organizations that benefit the community is a stabilizing factor, leaves a modest amount each year for startup and a small reserve.
- Dues payments: 231 households paid dues last year – about 25% of our 1000 households. This is fairly consistent year to year and we are working on increasing it.
- An annual audit of the Association income and expenditures is in progress by Patti Ellis. Audit findings will be posted online in the public Records Folder.
- Election of Officers. Re-elected Bruce McDonald as President, introduced and elected Trevor Donarski as VP, re-elected Liza Patty as Secretary and Bruce Loftis as Treasurer. Appointed Board members are Area Reps Marci DeMott, Carolyn Wolfrum, Carol Hamer, Joe Woelkers, Goldie Barrett, Marcel Guajardo. Areas 3 and 8 are open. Directors at large are Doug Whitten and Ken Fischer.
Official meeting record will be posted to the public Records Folder when available.
Theme image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. We didn’t really have that many people there.
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