This article was written by Tim Mosier for the Estes Park Trail-Gazette.

On Friday (Oct. 8), Estes Park Mayor Wendy Koenig, along with other members of town staff cut the ribbon on the new Trailblazer Broadband customer service facility at 1180 Woodstock Drive. The building had been under construction for 18 months but is now open to the public.

“So much time and effort have gone into the renovation of this location to serve Trailblazer, the Utilities Department, and mostly all of our roughly 11,000 customers,” said Mayor Koenig. “Born out of a need for expansion this Town of Estes Park facility was designed to be a primarily administrative multi-use building with future growth potential. By housing the administrative growth needs of the Utilities Department, this provides an accessible, quiet, and central location for power, water, and broadband staff to work.”

The new offices will also allow residents an opportunity to interact directly with the customer support team for the Town of Estes Park’s community owned fiberoptic internet service. The building will also be home to Trailblazer educational seminars.

Utilities Director for the town, Reuben Bergsten, and his staff have been instrumental in the roll out of broadband in Estes Park, and he is pleased the community prioritized such a major project. 

“The Estes Park community has always been forward thinking. In the first half of last century, F.O. Stanley built his hotel as the first in the country to be completely electrified,” Bergsten said. “We’ve been providing public municipal power and water for over 80 years. The importance of connectivity in today’s world is crucial and our community of forward thinkers chose to launch the cutting-edge community-owned Trailblazer Broadband service. The town’s utilities staff is proud and honored you, the community, chose us to build and launch TrailblazerBroadband.com. We’re committed to delivering the highest quality customer service and broadband service. While we have an exceptional sales staff team, Trailblazer does sell itself in this day and age.”

The new facility is currently open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Masks are required inside the building.

“I’d liked to thank everyone, including the Town Board and the community, for making this important investment. It’s going to benefit our community for generations, you guys are going to get to use it,” the Mayor said gesturing to Town Board member Carlie Bangs’ young daughters.  “I think that’s great.”