Glenwood Springs City Council will reconsider an earlier 4-3 decision to include a toll with the South Bridge project, after a slew of public comments at its Sept. 18 meeting warning that the move could jeopardize a nearly $50 million federal grant that would cover about 60% of the project’s cost.
Eleven people lined up during the public comments for items not on the night’s agenda portion of the meeting, all but one of them asking the council to revisit the decision.
Among them were two former city council members/mayors, and the local chamber of commerce director.
“Losing this grant would be devastating for the project, and would negate years of work and investment already made in the effort,” Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association President and CEO Angie Anderson said, speaking on behalf of the chamber’s board of directors.
The prospect of a southern bridge crossing the Roaring Fork River between the South Glenwood neighborhoods and the Four Mile corridor over to Highway 82 represents a “critical evacuation route,” and was “strongly supported” by voters on a 2016 tax question, Anderson said.
Former Mayors Jonathan Godes and Matt Steckler pointed out that $50 million (the grant is technically for $49.68 million) in federal money doesn’t come along very often.
“We have a shovel ready project, and we need to take advantage of it,” Godes said. “Please don’t let this project be the reason we are black-listed for the next decade or two for federal monies.”
Four Mile resident Dave Rippy broke from the rest of the commenters, though, saying the need for an escape route “is overemphasized,” and that the new bridge will ultimately create a bypass route that will need to be controlled in some way.
All council members were present for the meeting, including Sumner Schachter who joined via Zoom while on vacation just so he could speak to the South Bridge issue.
While he voted on Sept. 4 with the majority in favor of the toll bridge concept, Schachter said new information since then had caused him to rethink his vote — namely, an opinion passed along to City staff from Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Executive Director Shoshana Lew that a toll plan could very well kill the project.
Council voted 5-2 to reconsider the matter at its Oct. 16 meeting, with Councilors Steve Smith and Ray Schmahl opposed. Schmahl chastised the council for going back on a decision that was already made, which he found inappropriate.
Mayor Marco Dehm asked if a CDOT regional representative could be present for the followup discussion to help explain the agency’s viewpoint.
Mitchell-Cooper
City Council also heard an update from City Attorney Karl Hanlon regarding an ongoing situation with the West Glenwood Mitchell-Cooper Ditch and Pipeline Co. over nonpayment of its city water bill.
Mitchell-Cooper (MC) is a private shareholder-owned water utility serving a smattering of residential and commercial properties along Highway 6 & 24 in West Glenwood. However, since 2018, MC has had to purchase water from the city to run through its distribution system, due to a state health department boil order.
As of Sept. 17, the company was still $52,789.89 in arrears to the City, although a recent $8,500 payment had been made, Hanlon said.
“As with any water customer who fails to pay, the City will need to decide when to terminate service and proceed with a collection action,” he advised.
At the same time, though, the City does not want the residential customers in particular who are served by MC to be without water, so it’s a dilemma.
If the City does have to cut off water, Hanlon and Public Works officials said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has a provision to step in and provide bottled water to the affected customers until the service problem can be resolved.
Council members said they hope it doesn’t come to that, but they did vote 5-1 to give 120 days notice through a court proceeding that the water supply will be cut off unless payment is made on the outstanding balance.
In the meantime, MC has a pending lawsuit against the City over what it says is a breach of contract on the part of the City for switching some of the newly redeveloped properties in the MC service area over to city water.
Landfill enforcement
City Public Works Director Matt Langhorst advised the council about a plan to enforce several regulations and safety controls at the City’s South Canyon Landfill.
Among them are rules against scavenging at the dump site, speeding along the landfill roads, smoking on site and illegally dumping hazardous wastes, such as car batteries.
The City will begin aggressively enforcing the rules, which it can do under state law related to city parks, attorney Hanlon explained. The landfill property is part of the City’s designated parklands in the extended South Canyon recreation area, which includes a network of mountain biking trails, shooting and archery ranges and a historical mining site.