Women’s History Month
Women’s History Month is a month-long celebration in March, acknowledging women’s accomplishments and contributions throughout history and now. This month, we provide a few highlights from the ladies at Baseline.
Julie Esterl, Principal Planner – When I was hired as a planning technician in 2015, one of the first clients I began working with was the City of Black Hawk. Early on, I began attending Development Review Committee (DRC) meetings with Vince Harris, Principal, and I quickly became familiar with the staff and land development review process in Black Hawk. Every once in a while, I would attend the meetings solo. The confidence Vince had in me, along with the professional courtesy that the Black Hawk staff had for me allowed me to grow into a larger role with the City. Soon, I was writing staff reports and preparing and presenting land development items to the Black Hawk City Council.
Fast forward to June 2020, when Vince goes on his month-long sabbatical… By now, I have been promoted to the principal planner and I’ve taken over the day-to-day coordination with the City of Black Hawk while Vince is away. During this time, I assisted with the Gregory Street Plaza and Sign Plan projects and performed planning-related inspections for the Monarch Casino Hotel, as well as the Canyon Casino, Lodge Casino, and Saratoga Casino parking lot projects. I led progress update meetings with the City’s Planning Director, presented projects to the Black Hawk City Council, and participated in meetings with FEMA and the DNR regarding planned revisions to the Flood Insurance Rate Maps for Gilpin County. In addition, I led kickoff meetings for the Black Hawk Park subdivision project on Miners Mesa, and the Golden Gilpin Mill redevelopment project!
I continue to grow in my role at the City of Black Hawk and assist Vince with additional projects that are on the horizon, including the Hawk’s Landing Airstream RV campground, the Rick Thomas Distillery, and the Lake Gulch Whiskey Resort – all currently in various stages of design and review on Miners Mesa. I’m very grateful for Vince and the culture at Baseline that has allowed me to grow as a professional land planner.
Sarah Parsley, EIT, Project Engineer – I do such a variety of work at Baseline; I’m classifying my favorite projects by general area.
- Grading: I was tasked with very challenging grading on a severe slope for two buildings and a long driveway for a single-family residence on a large parcel. I really enjoyed working on the project because I came away with a good understanding of drainage and grading concepts which have transferred to other projects.
- Utilities: I worked on a large subdivision that had storm sewer, sanitary sewer, and waterlines servicing the development. I really enjoyed working on the two gravity systems and then routing the waterlines horizontally and vertically throughout the site, making sure all crossings worked. It was really fun working with the three different pipe networks and designing horizontally and vertically.
- HEC-RAS: I recently worked on revising a HEC-RAS model for a floodplain study that I really enjoyed. We received new topography and the floodplain had to be revised. It was fun working in the different software and seeing the impactful results.
- Reports: I have done a few utility reports that are fun as well. I really enjoy writing and compiling data to present my findings.
Mary Lovett, Office Manager – The one accomplishment I’m most proud of is not work-related but rather personal. I was part of Jack Quinn’s running club, every Tuesday we would do a 5k run, I completed 76 in three years. I had planned to complete 100 or more but my knees did not agree with me. I still plan on knee replacements and hopefully completing my 100 runs.
Misti Hopson, Marketing Manager – One of my greatest achievements is that after eight years of big game hunting (elk) and success with cows, I finally bagged and tagged my first bull at 325 yards in the wind/rain! A nice 5×6!
Did you know?
- In 2021, 27% of seats in US Congress are held by women — a record high.
- In 2020, full-time working American women made 82 cents for every $1 an American man earned.
- In 2019, 57% of all bachelor’s degrees awarded went to women.
- In 2019, women accounted for 27% of all STEM workers, up from 8% in 1970.
- In July 2019, the number of females in the US was 166.6 million, where there were 161.7 million males.
- In 2019, the appropriate ratio of women 85 years and older outnumbered men the same age in the US by 2 to 1.