West Side Recorder Volume 6 No 10

              WEST SIDE RECORDER
Volume 6—Number 10
Monthly Newspaper of the West Side, Denver, Colorado
February, 1970
Wayne McGhghy, director of the Lincoln Park branch, discusses the Boys' uiud of America Honor Award Plaque presented to Lincoln Park for their program showing the hazards of glue sniffing.
Members of the speakers team that presented the program to over 20 schools and 6,000 persons are
John Sanchaze, 837 Mariposa St. (center) and Raynolda Pacheco of 663 Galapago St. The plaque
was one of four Program Excellence Awards presented at the Boys' Club convention in San Francisco.
This is quite an honor as 870 Boys' Clubs throughout the nation competed for the awards. (See page
3 for story on the Boys' Club.)
RECORDER FINANCES
The WESTSIDE RECORDER has received a $3000.00
grant from the Archdiocese Special Evaluating Committee.
The Westside Action Ministry, the sponsoring organization
for the paper received $1500 of this in February and will receive the other half in six months. This brought the RECORDER funds up to $1900.00. The Action Ministry has
$35.00 in its regular treasury.
A big thanks is in order and well deserved by the Archdiocese for this continued support of the paper and other
West Side organizations and activities.
A   number   of   people   have
asked about the cost of the paper. The cost varies a few dollars each month but basically it
costs us $420 to print 5500 copies
of a six page issue, $15-20 for
mailing and billing the advertisers, and $120 In salary to a West
Side resident, Tito Guedea, to do
the ad work and head up the
distribution each month. It
should be noted that the Action
Ministry gave Mr. Guedea a vote
of confidence for the exceHent
ad job that he has been doing.
NO ONE on the paper staff (Mr.
Guedea is an employee, not a
staff member) or advisory board
receive   any pay or salary for
their services.
Mrs. Geddes served free of
charge for almost two years as
the advisor before resigning in
January, and deserves a big
round of thanks for her study
and hard work.
At no time since the Action
Ministry took over the responsibility of the paper have we had
over $2700 at one time. We hope
that our friends will continue to
support us financially as best
they can.
We do not mail the Recorder
to anyone on the West Side at
this time. We do try to deliver
the paper free of charge to every
home and business on the West
Side.
WE WILL CONTINUE TO
DELIVER THE PAPER
FREE OF CHARGE TO EVERY HOME ON THE WEST
SIDE AS BEST WE CAN.
However, if any Westsider
would like to have the paper
mailed to his residence we would
be glad to do so. We would appreciate $1.50 donation per year
(which would cover postage) to
do this service. If you would like
for us to mail you the RECORDER as well as our regular distribution, you may send your
donation (If you can) and your
name and address to: WEST-
SIDE RECORDER, 465 Galapago St., Denver, Colo. 80204.
Screening Committee
At their February meeting, the
Action Council selected a committee of five to review all block
grant proposals received by the
group and to place them in order of priority.
Committee members are Mary
Benavidez, 1464 Navajo St.;
Karen Vigil, 1241 10th St.;
Thomas Martinez, 138 W. 11th
Ave.; Paul Martinez, 357 Delaware St. and Mary Aguirre, 872
Galapago St.
W.S.AC Considers Block Grant Proposals
The West Side Action Council
has received seven proposals for
the approximately $12,500 which
they have in block grant money.
These funds are supposed to be
used by the council for projects
beneficial to the community.
Manual Martinez has submitted a proposal for an "Arts and
Crafts Training Program". Under the program, which would
cost $9,110, ten students would
receive intensive training in
ceramics, weaving, leatherwork,
silk screen printing and other
artistic skills. The program
would last 26 weeks and would
bring the students to the point
where they could begin professional work and, perhaps, open
a crafts shop on the West Side.
Martinez has studied art in Mexico and has created art posters.
A second proposal, called "La
Academia del Barrio", has been
submitted by Barbara Martin,
\ Virginia Lucero, Betty Castro,
Dora Manzanares and Yolanda
Guerro, all students at Metro
State College. "La Academia",
which would focus on cultural
pride and educational development, is a summer school program that would include classes
in Mexican History, math, creative writing, science and English. The program would be for
both West and North Denver.
Total budget would be $32,628.81
of which $6-7,000 would be provided by the West Side Action
Council.
Another proposal, this one
submitted by Centro Cultural, is
called the "Matching Fund Art
Program" and would provide instruction in pottery and ceramics. Classes for 15 people would
be held for three month periods
throughout the year. Centro
Cultural would match a $2,000
grant from the action council
with $2,000 of its own money to
fund the program.
A fourth proposal, submitted
by Larry Lovato, calls for $6,000
to establish a neighborhood
paper for young people which
would be called the "Chicano
Cultural Identity Newspaper".
Lovato has been the editor of a
youth newspaper called "La
Mota".
Another proposal has been received from Vince Garza, a consultant for the West Side Health
Board. Garza would use $6,000
grants from each of the action
councils to establish a main distributing station for the food
supplemental program.
Leonard Vigil, West Side Action Council youth representative, has made a proposal to
create a "Revolving Emergency
Fund" to be handled by the action center. The fund would be
used to provide food, winter
clothes and supplies to people
who might have no place to live
because of fire or eviction notice
or who, for other reasons, might
have need for emergency help.
The seventh proposal for
block grant funds was submitted by the Latin American Student Club, La Raza Unida, of
West High School. The proposal
requests $640 to send six West
Side students on a two week
study tour of Mexico. The six
students would be part of a
study tour for 40 Denver students sponsored by the Denver
Public Schools.
The council is still accepting
proposals for block grant funds.
If readers would like to submit
an idea or express an opinion
about these seven, they should
contact their action council representative.
CITY PLANS MORE
ONE-WAYS FOR US
On January 28, members of the West Side Coalition and
other concerned residents of the West Side and of the Capitol Hill area protested the city's plan for a bridge over Cherry Creek at 12th Ave., and for an llth-12th Ave. one-way system between Cheesman and Lincoln Park. They met with
City Traffic Engineer Richard Thomas to protest these plans.
At the meeting, attended by	
over 40 persons, angry residents
of the affected communities complained that the bridge and the
one-way system would increase
traffic and make the area dirtier, noisier, and more dangerous for children.
A number of mothers in the
group protested that the oneway system would increase the
speed of the traffic and endanger the lives of their children.
It was pointed out that the system would surround Evans and
Greenlee Schools.
Thomas answered these complaints saying that statistics
showed that one-way streets
were safer than two-way streets.
One mother pointed out that the
reason statistics were this way
was that parents with small clul-
dren either moved out when
one-way streets came in or else
kept their children inside.
A lawyer in the audience argued that one-way streets were
faster than two-way streets
since the lights were set so that
stopping was unnecessary. Thomas replied that the speed limits were the same for one-ways
as for two-ways since less stopping and starting was necessary.
Thomas also said that the one
way system would not increase
traffic on 11th and 12th Aves
Many persons then objected that
if the one-ways would not be
carrying more traffic then they
could see no reason for the one-
ways.
A city planner in the audience
pointed out that, as a matter of
fact, traffic tended to increase
rapidly on streets where one-
ways had been installed.
Thomas said that the city
would go ahead with its plans,
since in his opinion, no good reason had been raised by the protestors to stop the plan. He did
agree to give all present thirty
days notice for a public meeting before any final or binding
decisions were made on the
bridge.
Since that time these and
many other residents have been
expanding their opposition to the
bridge and the one-ways. The
West Side Coalition is passing
out petitions against it. Any
resident wanting to sign or circulate a petition against the bridge
and one-ways, can get them at
1110 Mariposa St. or call 623-
0737. Petitions are also in many
of the Action Ministry Churches.
W.S.I.A. TO GIVE AWARDS
Ruben Leal, director of district No. 10 of the West Side Improvement Association, was
named chairman of a new
awards committee at the last
board of directors meeting. The
committee will be giving out
awards to West Side businesses
and property owners who are
trying to improve or keep up
their property.
It was voted to give the
first such award to Zick's Market, 1301 Santa Fe Drive.   The
owner has recently remodeled a
lot of the store and has rebuilt
the front.
Mr. Leal, the chairman of the
committee, lives at 64 Fox St.,
and can be reached by calling
722-5615, if you have any sug
gestions for future awards.
The other two members of the
committee are Mrs. Wilma Dabrowski of District No. 3 and
Miss Connie Griego of district
No. 2. Miss Griego is a newly
elected director, who will be the
director of district No. 2 (Lincoln Homes area) until September.
Other business brought up at
the meeting included discussion
of the Victory Theater. Reports
have been coming in that it is
beginning to sneak in some of
the movies that the community
is opposed to. THE WEST SIDE
IS KEEPING AN EYE ON THE
THEATER.
The WSIA also voted unanimously to oppose the proposed
one way street system on 11th
and 12th Aves.
We Apologize
The WESTSIDE RECORDER
would like to apologize to Mrs.
Leona Partney and Mrs. Wilma
Dabrowski for the misunderstanding in the report of the
West Side Improvement Association news in the January issue. A question was raised in the
report of the meeting about
their receiving $50 checks for
past services and expenses from
the former treasurer after she
had been voted out of office.
The board of directors of the
Improvement Association voted
in July of 1969 to pay the president and vice president of the
association $10 per month for
expenses. Mrs. Partney and Mrs.
Dabrowski held these positions
from the time this resolution
was voted in force in July
through December of 1969. By
all rights they were entitled to
$60 each for their expenses for
this time. They both declined
taking this expense money during their time in office.
Mr. Waldo Benavidez, the new
president of WSIA, says that
there is no question in the mind
of the new board, but what both
women deserved every cent of
this money for their hard work
on membership drives, Christmas parties for community children, and the general work and
leadership of the WSIA for the
past few years.