Did you know that City Park is a Certified Level 2 Arboretum? It’s true. And yours truly got to help plant some trees in City Park on Arbor Day! You can take a self-guided tour here: https://www.fcgov.com/forestry/tree-tour. A brand new fancy map is coming so you can explore all the different varieties. City Forester Kendra Boot is a wellspring of knowledge, and I learned a ton about the right (and wrong) things to do while planting a tree.

I recently got to explore the brand new robot truck for Boxelder Sanitation District. BSD staff use this when inspecting sewer lines to determine what’s causing blockages or if a line is damaged. Because water from Boxelder goes directly back into the Poudre River, any defects or damage must be found quickly to ensure we’re protecting the environment as best we can!

The Parks and Rec board was invited to explore EPIC’s chillers (the target for future upgrade) – the City staff responsible has a 24/7 on-call alarm to ensure that if something goes wrong, they’re able to respond quickly and keep both sheets of up and running. The filter room for the pools is also pretty spectacular. The level of knowledge required to make these two amenities available for the community is stunning.

You may want to know about the updates to Rolland Moore park and Playground! City of Fort Collins Parks and Recreation Parks Planning staff (including the masterful Jill Wuertz and Greg Oaks) led a fantastic open house at the Senior Center showing off some truly cool ideas. If you use the playground or the tennis area, you can provide feedback here: https://ourcity.fcgov.com/rollandmoore

Kim Graves and Ellen Martin at the Museum of Art Fort Collins started working on a cultural resources sharing nonprofit group which will help buoy our local cultural and artistic nonprofits in these increasingly wonky ass times. Yay for organizational-level mutual aid!

The City also recently celebrated Small Business Week with a proclamation which included Founded in FoCo! A huge thank you to Kelly DiMartino, Mayor Jeni Arndt, Tyler Menzales, Shannon Hein, SeonAh Kendall, Leisha Talley, and the entire Economic Health Office for celebrating Small Business Week, including Founded in FoCo in the proclamation, and for throwing one heck of a party.

If you didn’t know, our City has some of the most celebrated economic health pros in any municipality. They’re constantly working on ideas to help improve our City’s economic viability and small business support structures. Special shoutout to Edgar Ramos and Tommy Meritt who work their butts off to make sure small business owners have access to resources and get the help they need to succeed.

It’s easy to get lost in the dystopian dumpster fire from all the *gestures vaguely at the dystopian dumpster fire* but also remember that there are SO MANY OF US working towards so many great things with a spirit of generosity and inclusivity and that no amount of Federal-level buffoonery will outweigh the conviction of creative members of the community working hard together.