Last week saw a grand re-opening of the Hayden Community Center, honoring the end of construction work on the complex — now in a competed state. The event on May 15 marked the end of a robust period of community development including construction of a new K-12 public school complex, tearing town of the old middle school, $8 million in renovations and equipping the old high school as a community center, and massive progress on Main Street Apartments where the old middle school and football field used to exist.

The community complex is divided into four parts: 

• Recreation, with a shiny gymnasium and opportunities for basketball, volleyball, pickleball and complete with modern locker room, shower facilities and a sauna.

• Fitness, with fully equipped weight room and specialty rooms dedicated to cardio, cycling and weight resistance, staffed by accredited instructors.

• Special events, featuring a modernized, handicapped accessible auditorium and stage with computerized lighting and sound, as well as a dance and music studio.

A big thank you to the great and wonderful people of Hayden, the Hayden school board and district and Hayden Town Council and staff. 

Thanks, too, to the kids of Totally Kids who asked Town Council to “save the gym.” Thanks to the council members and former Mayor Tim Redmond, who accepted the challenge and the plea. Thanks to the staff at Town Hall, regular citizens and the folks at CU-Denver’s Colorado Center for Community Development for coming up with a viable design, then selling funding agencies on the idea of funding it. A tip of the hat to Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet’s office, which ushered a $2.8 million grant through numerous hoops.

And thanks to the voters of the town of Hayden, whose residents approved a sales tax increase to backstop those grants and have increasingly been buying memberships, using the center and brainstorming how it can be best used in the future.

Brodie Farquhar
Hayden