Matthew Bennett / Post Independent
It was standing room only for Monday night’s state of Glenwood town hall meeting, cohosted by the city of Glenwood Springs and Imagine Glenwood.
Over 50 residents attended the two-hour event in the Glenwood Springs Library’s Community Room, which touched on a number of issues ranging from 2020 road repairs to the ongoing chief of police search.
ROAD REPAIRS
The city’s 2020 budget comes in at just under $90 million dollars. Additionally, over $18 million has been earmarked for street improvements.
“Streets are always a very hot topic,” Debra Figueroa, Glenwood Springs city manager, said. “So, we wanted to point this out.”
According to Figueroa $1.2 million from the city’s general fund, $4 million from the street tax fund and nearly $500,000 from the capital projects fund will go toward several street and underlying infrastructure projects throughout the city next year.
In particular, the city’s public works department will remove and replace all of Cedar Crest subdivision’s roadway surfaces and waterlines as well as upgrade its storm sewer system.
“We are looking at street projects with the city as large construction projects trying to get the biggest bang for our dollar,” Matthew Langhorst, Glenwood Springs director of public works, said. “Instead of spreading them all over the city, we are trying to concentrate on areas that need to be done drastically.”
Additionally, roughly $13.5 million will fund the reconstruction of South Midland Avenue in 2020.
POLICE CHIEF SEARCH
After 35 years with the department, former Glenwood Springs Chief of Police Terry Wilson retired earlier this year.
Subsequently, Lt. Bill Kimminau took on the role of acting chief in September while the city began its national search for a permanent replacement.
Figueroa said Monday that the city had received “many qualified applicants” for the position and would host a public meet and greet on Dec. 5 between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the community center (100 Wulfsohn Rd).
The meet and greet will allow the public to give their input concerning the three to five remaining finalists.
“Hopefully we will select a new police chief, with some luck, by January,” Figueroa said.
CITIZENS’ ALLIANCE
In addition to street repairs and the city’s police chief search, Glenwood Springs Citizens’ Alliance volunteer Heather McGregor gave an update on the nonprofit organization’s fight against the proposed Transfer Trail Mine expansion north of the city on BLM land.
“We have a lot of good news, in the face of this rather scary proposal that is staring down over our community,” McGregor said. “We have widespread support and we have unified community opposition to this proposal.”
Rifle, Silt, Carbondale, Basalt, Snowmass Village and Pitkin County have all approved resolutions of support for Glenwood Springs concerning the Transfer Trail Mine expansion proposal.
Additionally, McGregor said that resolutions of support were pending in New Castle, Aspen and Eagle County.
“We have over 1,500 people signed up on our individual endorsements list,” McGregor said. “We are also gathering endorsements from businesses and organizations and we have more than 170 of those signed and we are aiming for a goal of 300 business and organization endorsements.”
TAKE A MINUTE
Imagine Glenwood’s grassroots campaign called Take A Minute has asked the nearly 28,000 drivers that travel between the Grand Avenue Bridge and 23rd Street daily to “slow down in town.”
According to Imagine Glenwood co-founder Diane Reynolds, the Take A Minute campaign will continue to distribute signage and educational information throughout 2020.
“We will be influencing, hopefully, the traffic generated by restaurants next. We are hoping to partner up with the slow food movement. They have a fabulous sign that essentially says, ‘Slow the Fork Down,’” Reynolds said. “Lastly, we will be developing [public service announcements] for our local radio stations and we hope to engage the listening driver in very creative and imaginative ways.”
According to the Take A Minute campaign, the time saved by driving 10 miles per hour over the 25 mph speed limit through the city’s core evidently amounts to one minute.
