By Linda Jones
Ron Engels in his refurbished kitchen
Ron Engels was just completing his first term on Central City Council when he was appointed to complete the term of Mayor Ron Slinger in August, who resigned because of the demands of his new job for the Colorado Community College system. In the recent election, Engels earned his own four-year term.
Engels is anticipating his leadership role.
“The job is a real challenge, but tremendously rewarding,” he said.
When asked what qualifies him to lead this particular business, he said, “I’m used to looking at a big picture and organizing it, unwinding the problems to the lowest denominator and starting there to solve them. Where do we want to go? Who do we want to be when we get there? Central City has numerous challenges, but I enjoy the opportunity to be creative.”
A top priority for Engels is to leverage Central City as a Heritage Tourism destination. The city has enchanted visitors since it was born and Engels wants to emphasize the importance of its history.
“We have the cemeteries, a world-class opera, a wealth of Victorian architecture and museums, which I hope to keep open all year. There’s only one Richest Square Mile on Earth, only one Cradle of Colorado. I’d like to see every visitor to Central City enjoy at least a bit of our rich history. I want to strengthen relations with the Central City Opera, enclose their uphill courtyard and heat the opera house for year-round events. Another one of my important goals is to build city reserves; our budget this next year is leaner than lean. We’ll live on tight rations to acquire a healthy amount of reserves in order to increase our infrastructure funds. Among other things, we need to bring our water plant up to snuff,” Engels said.
Answering the question of how the town can benefit the casinos, he said, “The casinos will benefit if we provide the best possible experience for our visitors. We need to make the overall experience as pleasant as possible. The new Main Street streetscaping (beginning next spring) and the new entrance to the Big T parking lot are evidence of that last goal. Ultimately, I hope we can lower the device fees for our casinos, freeing up capital in their budgets.”
Engels’s degree is in Journalism/Mass Communications and in Spanish, from the University of Iowa. His first job was a classic; he worked for a public radio station in a rural corner of Kansas/Colorado, around Liberal and Garden City, Kan. Engels laughed that it didn’t pay much but was fun because the broadcasters (including him) were given a free hand to dream up projects and promotions, some of which were very successful while some were flops. His current job – for the past 15 years – has been the Manager of Enterprise Data Integration for the Denver Public Schools. That translates to providing data to teachers and principals so they can make informed educational decisions for DPS students.
His current passion is restoring the Victorian house where he and Zane Laubhan live. Their large house is a mansard-roofed beauty and he and Laubhan are overseeing every detail of its transformation. They have researched the history of the house on Casey Street and determined it was built about 1878. The lot sold in 1877 to Richard Harvey, who in turn sold it to Emily Chapman. By 1908 Sam Glanville lived there and he electrified the house that year. In 1946 Agnes and Ralph Nafziger were living there and after his death, Agnes married Frank (Pancho) Gates, a noted artist. After Gate’s death Engels and Laubhan acquired the residence.
When asked about hobbies, Engels said, “restoring the house” but when the house is finished, he’ll pursue a second, long neglected hobby – photography. He’s building a darkroom in the house and plans to begin using the photography equipment he’s stored for many years. That hobby will have to wait a few more years, however, while the stunning showplace he’s creating is completed and Central City is reborn.
