Facing backlash from two cities and heavy media coverage, the tiny town of Bow Mar has hired a $300-per-hour public relations firm to manage its gate project.
BOW MAR, Colo. — Denver and Littleton gave Bow Mar's gate project a red light. But Bow Mar won't stop and has now hired Greenlight Strategies to help with the self-created public relations fiasco that followed an attempt to gate off entrances to its town.
The tiny town of roughly 900 residents and 300 homes on acre lots sandwiched between Denver and Littleton has spent the summer pushing forward with a plan to gate off public streets. Residents would get tags that automatically lift the gates. Everyone else would need a code.
The backlash has been loud enough, and the media coverage heavy enough, that the town's board of trustees voted Monday night to bring on Greenlight Strategy, a public affairs and public relations firm, specifically to help manage the fallout.
Bow Mar's contract with Greenlight bills at $300 per hour and covers, in the town's own resolution language, "public affairs and public relations services related to the Town's Gate Project."
Greenlight's website describes the kind of fight it says it's built to handle. The firm's pitch to prospective clients describes a familiar scenario: a small group of neighbors opposing a project, spreading claims online using "time-tested scare tactics and gaslighting" about traffic, crime and falling property values.
Bow Mar's gate project has drawn heavy criticism online following 9NEWS' coverage.
Bow Mar receives state road funding; drawn from the same vehicle registration fees and gas taxes paid by the drivers it's trying to gate out. Since January, Bow Mar has collected nearly $21,000 from the fund.
In June, Littleton Mayor Kyle Schlachter and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston jointly sent Bow Mar a letter demanding the town halt the project, warning that if it proceeded, both cities would be willing to install their own barriers on their side of the right of way, cutting off Bow Mar residents' most convenient routes in and out. Schlachter said at the time that the city learned about the plan from a resident, not from Bow Mar itself, and that the cities had been "literally locked out of the conversation."
The town has since moved to formalize its legal position. At Monday's meeting, trustees voted to retain outside counsel, the law firm Sweetbaum Miller PC, specifically for "legal matters relating to the installation of gates and potential road closures." Billing rates for the lead attorney were $560 per hour. A separate engagement letter, dated July 28 and read aloud at Monday's meeting, confirmed the firm was retained specifically "in connection with a dispute with the City and County of Denver and the City of Littleton."
Not long after approving the contracts, the town's board of trustees went into executive session to discuss the gate project, out of public view.
Monday's meeting was sparsely attended, as the town's usual meetings look, according to the mayor.
But it was different in June, when roughly 60 people packed into a small meeting room, overwhelmingly praising the mayor and trustees for sticking with the gate plan. Much of the frustration in the room wasn't just about traffic, but about how the story had been covered.
"We know you're committing a lot of time and energy," one resident told the board. "It sucks this is here right now," another said as he gestured toward a 9NEWS reporter and photojournalist in the room while defending the trustees' decision to push forward. A third neighbor praised the board for what she called the grit to stick it out.
In meeting documents from June, the board reviewed a roughly $206,000 contract with Wizard Works Security Systems for gate installation at Sheridan Boulevard and Prospect Drive, with a separate $43,000 concrete subcontract. Documents reviewed by 9NEWS showed the project also included license plate recognition cameras at both entrances, with equipment expected to arrive within four to eight weeks of ordering.
According to Schlachter, last month Bow Mar told him it was considering closing a gate at one entrance and only during rush hour, rather than around the clock. Schlachter said he was told at the time that construction on that plan would begin within two to four weeks.
That window has passed. And no gate has gone in.
Bow Mar gave no construction update at Monday's meeting.
Credit: 9NEWS
The Denver Mayor's Office told 9NEWS it's had some negotiations with Bow Mar but remains unsatisfied with wherever the current plan stands. A spokesperson for Johnston said last month that the city continues to explore all options, including the barrier threat.
Schlachter said he's had no recent contact with Bow Mar, though, despite Sperry telling the board of trustees on Monday that conversations with neighboring cities were ongoing.
"What conversations?" Schlachter told 9NEWS, adding he last spoke briefly with Sperry on July 23, with no update since, and that Littleton's city staff, city manager, and city attorney have had no communication with anyone from Bow Mar.
"I messaged Mayor Sperry last week, and I have not heard back from him because we would be in that window right now," he said.
It isn't the first time Bow Mar has tried to keep outside traffic off its streets. In 2021, the town posted a sign near one entrance falsely claiming a road doesn't connect to Sheridan Boulevard, when it clearly does.
9NEWS legal analyst Scott Robinson has said the current plan raises real legal questions. State statute gives cities and towns 36 different powers over traffic, Robinson said, but doesn't authorize full closure to everyone except residents and their invited guests.