All,
Here’s an update to Slacklining in Boulder. I’ve been gathering information and identifying contacts at the city.
I have a contact, through the Boy Scout Troop I volunteer for, that works for Boulder Mountain Parks. We were on a service project, and I asked him about slacklining, and the current state of legal / not legal in Boulder. He put me in contact with someone from the Forestry department. From there, the Assistant City Forester put me in touch with Boulder Risk Management as well as Parks & Rec. We’ve traded some emails, and they are willing to meet with some of us to discuss slacklining in Boulder.
For now, Tyler Shalvarjian and Heather Larsen are interested in joining me. I don’t think we should overwhelm them with people on the first meeting, but I would like to make sure I have all the points of view from the community in place. I’m hoping to set up a meeting for later this month.
Have any others recently worked with the city? If so, could you send me details about who you contacted, and what the result were? I’d like to make sure we’re consistent in our message to the city.
I sent them info from Slackline.us (see links in prior post). It contains a proposed city ordinance – though that may not be required. I sent them this email:
Earlier this summer, Tyler (included on this email) was issued a ticket from the Boulder Police for slacklining in Martin Park. We understand that the statute behind the ticket was Boulder Municipal Code 6-6-6, which prohibits attaching anything to trees in the city. As a side note, the slackliners are diligent about using ‘tree protection’ when they put their lines up.
Tyler is an active member of the CU Slacklining club, and I’ve been involved in slacklining for close to 30 years, though it’s my kids now who are the real slackliners. Between us, we’re connect to a large number of slackliners in Boulder, and we’d like to find a way to work with the city to make slacklining safe and legal.
I’m open to your ideas and thoughts as well – please contact me at ken at kgwagers dot com anytime.
Thanks,
Ken