The Estes Park Police Department wants a new home. Located in a 90-year-old school building, Police Chief Ian Stewart says the offices are inadequate to meet the community’s twenty-first-century needs, and further retrofitting is not a good option.
The police department moved into its current location in the Town Hall building 51 years ago, when the Town’s population was 1,616. In 2020, the Town’s official population was 5,904. Fifty years ago, the Town saw 2,489,300 visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park; that figure jumped to 4,154,349 in 2024.
The quarters are cramped and disconnected, and the location—in the heart of downtown, right in front of Bond Park, where dozens of festivals and other events occur—poses safety concerns regarding getting police vehicles out in an emergency.
Police vehicles currently use a public lot that serves Bond Park, the Estes Valley Library, and Town Hall. Crowds, traffic, and tour buses can block the lot, delaying emergency response time. Heavy traffic in the downtown corridor can also make it difficult for emergency responders to access a path.
Additionally, the current police department also lacks a sallyport, which is a secure, enclosed garage that allows police to escort someone in custody from a vehicle directly into the police station without walking them outside and across a parking lot. Currently, police officers must escort arrestees, including juveniles, through a highly visible area with vehicles and pedestrians.
In 1970, the EPPD employed roughly 20 sworn and civilian professionals. Today, it employs 41 sworn and civilian professionals.
The number of calls for service increased by 15.5% from 2023 to 2024, from 8101 to 9546. Calls for service in 2025 are expected to surpass those in 2024, with 7008 calls as of July 31, 2025.
Current space constraints necessitate off-site rental for storing evidence, found property, and equipment such as uniforms, life vests, traffic vests, tasers, message boards, and training mats. The current facility does not have adequate space for training sessions.
Dispatchers in the Emergency Communications Center operate in a crowded space, where poor radio reception and unreliable electrical wiring have hindered emergency communications.
The EPPD does not have a dedicated emergency command center for situations such as fire or flood.
Location, location, location, and funding
Funding and location are two pressing challenges in acquiring a modern public safety center.
The Estes Park Town Board met with the board of the Estes Valley Fire Protection District for a joint study session on July 15 to discuss a proposed funding plan that would entail the EVFPD asking voter approval for a sales tax for the District and allow the town to retain sales tax revenue currently allocated to the fire district.
On Aug. 12, during a work session of the Estes Park School District, the School Board members discussed an invitation to meet with the Town Board for a joint meeting to learn about the Town’s interest in locating a new police station and public safety center on land owned by the EPSD.
According to a July 23 memo sent by Travis Machalek, Estes Park’s town administrator, to Ruby Bode, Estes Park School District’s superintendent, “the Town has identified a parcel of vacant land currently owned by the District as a highly suitable location for the construction of a new Police Department facility. The property, known as ‘Top Field,’ is located at the northeast corner of Community Drive and Brodie Avenue. This location offers a number of strategic advantages in terms of accessibility, infrastructure, community integration and central proximity of services to the community, downtown and school campus.”
The memo went on to propose, “an exchange of three acres of District-owned property known as Top Field, located at the northeast corner of Community Drive and Brodie Avenue (Parcel A on Exhibit 1), for Town-owned property of comparable size and value on Manford Avenue (Parcel B on Exhibit 1). The parcel includes the Town-owned land upon which the District’s CTE building is located and is adjacent to the District’s practice field. This option would ensure that the District retains its current total acreage and contiguous property while enabling the Town to proceed with the construction of a new Police Department facility.”
Because the EPSD Board does not meet in July, the proposal was not discussed until this past week, when the members of the Board met Aug. 12 for a study session. After discussing the proposal, the School Board decided to meet with the Town Board for a joint session to learn more about the proposal.
New revenue option for Fire Districts
Since Aug. 7, 2024, Colorado fire protection districts have been able to seek voter approval to levy a sales tax to fund their operations.
In December 2009, the Town, a Colorado Municipal Corporation, and the District entered into an intergovernmental agreement to “share the costs of all operations and other expenses of the fire department” beginning on Jan. 1, 2010 “until the newly formed District has financial viability.”
The Estes Valley Fire Protection District, which encompasses 66.3 square miles, was established as a Colorado Special District, an independent local government, in 2010 by voter approval in 2009, and was authorized to impose a mill levy on property in the district. Special districts are legal entities considered political subdivisions of the State of Colorado.
Before 2010, the fire department operated as the Estes Park Volunteer Fire Department, founded in 1907. Before the EVFPD became an independent special district, the Town of Estes Park governed the local fire department.
In the 2009 IGA between the Town and the District, it was agreed that by September 2010, the Town would pay 7% of its annual revenue from its 4% local sales tax to the EVFPD. Additionally, the IGA specified that all Town-owned fire department equipment, including vehicles, was transferred to the EVFPD, and the District was allowed to occupy the Dannels Fire Station, which was constructed in 1996.
In 2014, Town voters approved an increase in the Town’s sales tax from 4% to 5% for 10 years. The additional 1% tax, known as ballot question 1A, was specifically limited to fund essential community projects such as streets, trails, the construction of a community center, and emergency communications.
The 2009 IGA was amended to clarify that the Town’s payment to the EVFPD was based on the original 4% sales tax and not on the additional 1A tax.
The 2014 amended IGA specified that the Town would pay the District 7% of the original 4% sales tax and that the additional 1A tax would be applied only for the purposes outlined in the ballot initiative.
Since Gov. Jarid Polis signed SB-24-194 on May 22, 2024, which authorized a district to impose an impact fee on certain new construction and to levy a sales tax to generate additional revenue for district services, the EVFPD can collect sales taxes in the District, which would include taxes on the purchase of automobiles and internet sales, such as Amazon purchases.
Voters rejected the EVFPD’s bid to raise the mill levy in May 2022. The week before the election, the EVFPD Board signed a severance agreement with the fire chief. However, in 2024, Estes Park voters approved renewing its 1A sales tax for another 10 years.
With the renewal of the 1A sales tax last year, revenues were redirected from the Estes Valley Community Center, which received 25% of the 1A revenues, to other programs, including the EVFPD, which now receives 9% of 1A revenues, or about $400,000 annually for its Wildland Fire Risk Reduction Program.
If the EVFPD received voter approval to adopt a sales tax measure, the Town could redirect the sales tax revenues provided to the District for constructing a new police department and public safety center.
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