If you've tried to drive down Cleveland Avenue lately, you already know the drill. Cones where there used to be parking. A detour sign where the alley used to be. A dump truck idling outside the T-Bar Inn while you wait for your left turn.
What you might not know is what all that disruption is actually buying, or that while Main Street has been getting torn apart, the town quietly built something on the other side of town that no other place in Colorado has.
Cleveland Avenue Isn't Falling Apart. It's Being Rebuilt.
The dust downtown isn't decay. It's $4,476,822 worth of investment, funded through three separate Colorado Department of Transportation grant programs and channeled through the Wellington Main Street Program. The project broke ground in May, starting with waterline work on 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 6th Streets before moving into the alleys behind Cleveland Avenue itself. By mid-September, crews were still working alley by alley, most recently closing the 3rd Street intersection for a few days to install storm drainage.
The scope is bigger than repaving. The town's own framing calls for pedestrian safety improvements, ADA accessibility upgrades, more parking, better drainage, and new lighting along what's technically still called Main Street. According to reporting from BizWest, the heavier construction phases on Cleveland Avenue itself are expected to run into late fall or early winter, with the exact timeline dependent on weather.
| What | Detail |
|---|---|
| Total grant funding | $4,476,822 across three CDOT programs |
| Contractor | Coulson Excavating (based in Loveland) |
| Started | May 2026 |
| Expected finish | Late fall to early winter 2026 |
| Business impact contact | Caitlin Morris, Wellington Main Street & Events Coordinator |
If your errand list includes anything on or near Cleveland Avenue, the safest assumption right now is that side streets and alley access will shift week to week rather than staying put for the season.
The $20,000 Answer to "How Do I Get to the BBQ Place Now?"
The Board of Trustees didn't just approve the construction and move on. In partnership with the Wellington Main Street Program, the town is giving away $20,000 in local gift cards through the end of 2026, specifically to keep foot traffic flowing to the small businesses sitting behind the plywood and cones. Anyone can sign up for the drawings, and winners pick up their cards in person at the Municipal Services Building on 3rd Street.
It's a small mechanism, but it tells you something about how the town is thinking about this year. Construction disruption isn't being treated as an unfortunate side effect. It's being treated as a cost the town is actively trying to offset for the people who run Wellington Grill, Ghost Dog Deli, and the rest of the storefronts along Main Street.
The Detour That Leads Somewhere New
Here's the part of the story that has nothing to do with orange cones.
While downtown was getting torn up, Wellington Parks and Recreation was building something at Knolls Linear Park, on the west side of 3rd Street, that puts the town first in the state. It's called a MultiGolfPark, and it's not a metaphor. The nine-hole course combines three separate target games, disc golf, foot golf, and park golf, into a single layout, with six of the nine holes built to be fully accessible.
The course was designed by Avery Jenkins, the 2009 Disc Golf World Champion and a three-time U.S. distance champion, who was on site during the installation alongside Wellington's own Parks and Recreation and Public Works crews. The full layout runs 1,790 feet, with holes ranging from 135 to 235 feet, short enough that a family with mixed ages and abilities can actually play it together rather than splitting up.
Parks and Recreation Director Billy Cooksey pointed to Jenkins' involvement, not just in the design but in showing up for the install, as the difference between a course on paper and a course that actually works for the town's existing disc golf community. Mayor Rebekka Dailey framed it as an extension of something Wellington already had going for it: a real, established connection to disc golf that this project builds on rather than invents from scratch.
If you've been avoiding the west side of 3rd Street because the disc golf course was there, it's worth a second look. It's not the same course anymore.
Last Call for Movie Night
The town's outdoor movie season wrapped up this past Saturday, September 19, with the final Movie Night in the Park screening at Winick Park, the one most residents just call Pirate Park, on Wine Cup Street. If you missed it, the good news is that the town runs this every summer, so it's worth putting on next year's calendar rather than mourning this year's.
What's still ahead: a blood drive on September 30 at the Leeper Center, run in partnership with the Garth Englund Blood Center, with walk-ins welcome and appointments encouraged. It's a small thing, but it's the kind of civic rhythm that keeps showing up in Wellington's calendar year after year, alongside the St. Paddy's Festival in March and the Town Yard Sale in June.
The Storefronts Behind the Plywood
None of this matters if the businesses downtown don't make it through construction season, so it's worth being specific about who's still open and worth the detour.
Wellington Grill is still running its patio and its full bar menu on 2nd Street. The T-Bar Inn, the town's longest-running diner, is still doing breakfast the way it always has. Owl Canyon Coffee remains the town's one dedicated local coffee house. Fernandito's Mexican Grill and Ghost Dog Deli round out the lunch rotation. Old Colorado Brewing has been hosting community events like its Sip & Swap gathering, evidence that the brewery is leaning into its role as a gathering spot even with construction noise a block away.
None of these are new discoveries. What's new is the reason to be deliberate about supporting them this particular fall, since foot traffic is exactly what construction season interrupts.
A Garden That's Still Just an Idea
Not every project this year is finished or even started. On the east side of Wellington Community Park, near the dog park, the town has a proposed site for a Veterans Garden, a tribute space with military branch flags, a walkway, and benches. The Parks, Recreation, Open Spaces, and Trails Advisory Board, along with American Legion Post 176 and Friends of Wellington, has been raising money for it, and as of the most recent town updates, it's still in the fundraising stage with no groundbreaking date yet.
It's the quieter half of the same instinct behind the MultiGolfPark: Wellington isn't just patching what's broken on Main Street. It's building things that didn't exist before, on a timeline that depends on the community showing up for them.
That's the actual thread running through this fall. The construction on Cleveland Avenue is temporary and annoying and, per CDOT-funded projects generally, exactly the kind of infrastructure spend that pays off over decades rather than months. The MultiGolfPark is permanent and already open. The Veterans Garden is still just an idea with a proposed address. Three different timelines, all pointed at the same question: what does Wellington want to be once the cones come down.
If you live here, the honest answer this season is that you're watching it happen in real time, one alley and one ribbon-cutting at a time.
Want the kind of neighborhood-level read that goes beyond what's open this week, the kind that actually shapes what a home in Wellington is worth to live in? Meagan Griesel tracks this town closely, and a conversation costs nothing. Start your neighborhood-focused strategy and get a custom marketing plan whenever you're ready.
