Longmont youth will help decide how to spend the nearly $1 million that the city has received from the sale of the Denver Broncos.
After discussions turned contentious between Longmont City Council members at the last council meeting, on Tuesday the council voted 6-1 to direct the $980,481 distributed by the Metropolitan Football Stadium District following the sale of the Denver Broncos toward the city’s Children, Youth and Family Services department.
Councilmember Tim Waters was the sole dissent and noted that he opposed the allocation because he believed that capital projects benefiting youth would be a better use of windfall money.
Council has discussed possible uses of the money several times since they were notified of the windfall, including funding a proposal from Longmont Latinx Voices, a multi-purpose dome and an expansion of the Longmont Museum’s Children Gallery. The money is restricted to “youth activity programs,” but is otherwise broad in interpretation — though the city will have to report back to the stadium district on how youth benefited from the money.
Before the vote determining where the money would go, council voted against granting $50,000 of the Denver Broncos money to Longmont Latinx Voices 4-3 with Mayor Joan Peck and Councilmembers Marcia Martin, Aren Rodriguez and Time Waters in opposition. Additionally, council voted against allocating $500,000 of the Denver Broncos money for the Longmont Museum Children’s Gallery expansion, with only Waters voting in favor.
After this vote failed, council did vote to allocate $1.5 million of mineral royalties that may now be eligible for the general fund toward the expansion. Council voted 4-3 in favor with Peck and Councilmembers Shaquita Yarbrough and Susie Hidalgo-Fahring opposing.
City Manager Harold Dominguez did note that the amount of mineral royalties eligible for the general fund may be less than $1.5 million, but staff didn’t have a concrete amount as they were still figuring out the numbers. He said that staff would come back to council if the amount was less.
The council also voted unanimously to instruct Children, Youth and Family Services to create a community involvement plan, using their data and data collected by council members as a starting point with how to use these dollars.
There may also be a grant process to get some of these dollars to nonprofits and the community this summer.
