Photo provided by Douglas County Public Works

by Terri Wiebold

It is only October and Castle Pines North (CPN) residents are already reading about snow – well, welcome to Colorado! The CPN community rests at a chilly 6,210 feet above sea level, considerably higher than our “mile high” neighbors to the north, and October is a big snow month for CPN.

Last October, CPN received 23 inches of snow, and from October 2006 to October 2007, CPN received a total of 150.9 inches of snow.

Snow removal in CPN is a community-wide effort with responsibility shared by many parties. Last year was especially challenging, so here is some information to better prepare residents for this winter:

The Douglas County Public Works Department plows most public streets in CPN. Due to specialized equipment, logistics, timing, available funding and manpower concerns, a snow removal priority has been assigned to each street. For more information on the County’s winter procedures and plow routes, go to
www.douglas.co.us/publicworks/operations/Snow_and_Ice_Removal.html or call Public Works at 303-660-7480.

The Castle Pines North Metro District is responsible for plowing sidewalks and trails along major streets and in parks in the community. For questions regarding snow removal on CPN’s open spaces and trails, please contact the Metro District Parks & Open Space Manager, Charlie Fagan, at 303-688-8550, ext. 20.

Neighborhood HOAs are responsible for snow removal on any private streets, sidewalks and trails along designated HOA common areas, as well as driveways and sidewalks of town homes and patio homes.

For single-family homes, individual homeowners are responsible for removing snow and ice along sidewalks adjacent to homes.

Because snow removal responsibilities in CPN vary by neighborhood, the Master Association has established a neighborhood-specific directory on its website for homeowners to reference. Go to www.cpnhoa.org and click on the “contacts/services” link, and then click on the “snow removal” link.

If all else fails, snuggle up with a good book and wait about 15 minutes for the weather to change…it is Colorado after all.