1st Quarter Update

Hello, and Welcome…

Hello, and welcome to the North End Neighbors periodic newsletter. If this is your first time reading this, my name is John B. Holt, and I am the District 11 Delegate and Master Community Association (MCA) Board Vice President.

If you are familiar with my periodic updates, you know I held the role of District 11 Delegate role for two consecutive terms in 2021 and 2022, before stepping down and endorsing my neighbor, Josh Dembicki, who held the post in 2023 and 2024.

As a delegate, my role is to advocate for Central Park’s North End neighborhood, raising the thoughts, ideas, and concerns of constituents at monthly community meetings in The Cube, located on Northfield Boulevard.

Similarly, as a board member, my role includes considering community input but also delegate opinions, which the board uses to help shape policy and craft the annual budget, a task historically completed by the MCA Executive Director.

As a delegate, I am elected to serve a one-year term with the option to run annually in a district-wide race, and as a board member I serve a three-year term with the option to run again in an election decided by delegates alone.

Quorum Defined

The March 19th meeting opened with a note on quorum, which is the minimum number of members of an assembly that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings valid. While board meetings require quorum, delegate forums do not.

Police Response & GPS Routing

There has been concern among select North End residents that the digital maps used by the Denver Police Department (DPD) to locate homes in the Northernmost part of the community have not been displaying home locations (addresses) properly, which may not surprise anyone who has struggled to receive a food delivery. In addressing these concerns, the DPD has assured the MCA that the maps are now up to date.

As outlined by Keven Burnett, the MCA’s Executive Director,

“The police department has declared that all is well, however, if a person calls from a cell phone s/he may be temporarily routed to a neighboring police department, e.g., Aurora, based on where the call was placed. For instance, if you are in the North End neighborhood, adjacent to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, where Aurora has cell tower(s), you may be routed to Denver’s neighboring city until you clarify your precise location.”

To further address any resident questions and or concerns, DPD Lt. Hines will be at the next delegate forum, held on Wednesday, April 16th in The Cube. This meeting, like all delegate forums, are open to Central Park residents.

Community Wide Aquatic Updates

Aquatic Guides will be arriving via mail soon. New for this year, there will be a page for members, and all pools will be members only during the first hour.

Also, “open swim” will be from 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Staring at 5:00 PM, the pools will once more be for members only, adding value to the pool membership program, which is less expensive than paying daily.

As a public facility, the pools must be open to the public, at the same time, Central Park, which pays for the pools and their maintenance, is striving to strike a balance between serving the public at large and providing amenities for residents alone.

 Additional Cameras Coming

Additional cameras will be coming in late-June/early-July to deter ongoing pool vandalism, which has recently cost the community hundreds of thousands of dollars, e.g., a pool house was set afire, lawn chairs, planters, bikes, and other items are periodically tossed into the water, which must then be cleaned, etc.

In addition to cameras, the MCA is also working on a general waiver for pool use, and is consulting its legal team to determine the appropriate amount of information to collect at entry, e.g., driver’s licenses, active net, DVR camera footage, etc, so as to deter unwanted behavior and recidivism.

Beeler Park Shade Structure

A Beeler Park shade structure, for which funding was approved in 2024, and written into this year’s annual budget, is moving forward with a planned completion date of Summer/Fall 2025.

Central Park Reserve Funding

The Central Park MCA typically has an annual budget of ~$12M, and per a recent reserve study should have at minimum $2M in savings (reserves), though practically speaking $2M is far too low given the number of ongoing expenses the community faces, and $5M is a more reasonable goal over the next few years.

From planned expenditures, e.g., maintaining pools, parks, and programs, to unplanned costs, e.g., pool vandalism, repair, and reinforcement; stolen wiring from street lights; poorly secured post office boxes; et cetera, Central Park remains underfunded as many of these unplanned expenses cost hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece.

At present, the reserve fund, the community’s savings account, is hovering around $600K, though in 2025 approximately ~$1M is slated to be put back, thanks to the modest dues increase that brought monthly assessments up to $58/month.

In recent years, I served as President of two HOA boards simultaneously, overseeing a community of 120 condo units in Longmont and 45 condo units in Colorado Springs, both of which were historically underfunded prior to my arrival. During this time, I also served as VP a Colorado Springs MCA, which faced similar funding issues.

In each community, I was forthright with residents, outlining my fiduciary duty as a board member, and the cost associated with brining the HOA out of the red and into the black.

While Central Park dues have remained flat for years, this should not be the case in the face of remarkable tariffs, continued inflation, minimum wage increases, as well as unrelenting theft and vandalism. That said, there are areas where costs can be more effectively controlled, and I will work hard to this end.

Looking ahead, Central Park has approximately 100 lane miles of alleyways, and it currently costs $150K to replace once city block worth of alley concrete. With 12+ problem alleyways needing repair due to sump pump runoff, snow melt, etc., all of which drive water under the concrete, there is ~$1.8M worth of work to be done on these alleys alone in the near future, so it is clear that more funds—more dues—will be required to keep our community operating as it should without cutting the community’s beloved programs.

For reference, Central Park, a 501(C)(4) nonprofit, has historically spent $300K - $400K on structural improvements per year, but as play structures, alleyways, and large trees need to be replaced, and vandalism continues to be an issue, there is way to account for these expenses, while maintaining current programming, without drawing in more funds, e.g., many line items were 1,000% or more overbudget last year.

That said, in my decades of combined HOA and MCA experience, I have overcome worse scenarios, including a successful mulit-million dollar construction defect lawsuit against an errant builder, and am confident that with Central Park Board Members and Community Delegates working collaboratively to craft and pass a sustainable budget this year, the next three to five years will see ample funds in both the operating and reserve accounts.