{"id":1316550,"date":"2019-11-08T17:17:10","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T00:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=990624"},"modified":"2019-11-08T17:17:10","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T00:17:10","slug":"glenwood-springs-approves-90-million-2020-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/glenwood-springs-approves-90-million-2020-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Glenwood Springs approves $90 million 2020 budget"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Glenwood Springs\u2019 2020 budget places a multi-million dollar emphasis on repairing some of the city\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the city hopes to commence construction on South Bridge by 2025.<\/p>\n

However, some council members said the city must seek additional funding and partnerships in order to keep the ball rolling with respect to fixing Glenwood\u2019s streets and creating an additional connection from South Highway 82 to the west side of the Roaring Fork River.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s $90 million dollar 2020 budget was unanimously approved Thursday night and includes approximately $5.76 million in it for street improvements.<\/p>\n

Councilor Rick Voorhees said the city was able to \u201cscrape together\u201d the $5.76 million and had concerns about the availability of funds for streets in future budgets, particularly after 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is being responsible with this $5.7 million I\u2019m talking about, and the possibility of more money next year. But, the third year out there isn\u2019t going to be anymore money after we take money out of reserve,\u201d Voorhees said at Thursday night\u2019s regularly scheduled council meeting.<\/p>\n

The lion\u2019s share of that $5.76 million will go toward the complete removal and replacement of Cedar Crest Subdivision\u2019s roadways, waterlines and sewer systems.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the city\u2019s $90 million 2020 budget does not factor in the $7 million Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development grant, which will help fund the reconstruction of South Midland Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re in the posture of robbing Peter to pay Paul in order to make some things happen over the next couple of years,\u201d Voorhees said. \u201cThat\u2019s not sustainable and I want to be sure that we all understand that as we pass this budget today.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the 2020 budget passed unanimously, exactly how to spend the remaining Acquisitions & Improvements\u2019 bonding money remained a point of contention.<\/p>\n

A nonbinding resolution concerning where to allocate those remaining bond funds also passed Thursday night, but not without hesitancy.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Glenwood voters renewed a 1-cent Acquisitions & Improvements sales tax for 30 years and supported a companion $54 million bonding authority question.<\/p>\n

The city already bonded $22 million for projects, which commenced in 2019 and has its eyes set on reserving $20 million from the bond fund for South Bridge, specifically.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we are putting this out as a public resolution it might be good to put that into context of the fact that, that\u2019s not enough funding to build that project,\u201d Mayor Pro Tem Shelley Kaup said. \u201cThat\u2019s actually a $40-$60 million project, depending on where we\u2019re going to come out. \u2026We will need partners for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Bridge was in the specific ballot language regarding what the city could spend the Acquisitions & Improvements bond funds on. Other possible expenditures for the bond money included: South Midland, the 27th Street Bridge, a river walk and the construction of a \u201cGateway to Glenwood\u201d by making improvements to the Sixth Street corridor.<\/p>\n

According to city attorney Karl Hanlon, the city cannot allocate those bond revenues to anything not contemplated in the ballot\u2019s language.<\/p>\n

Councilor Tony Hershey called the nonbinding resolution concerning where to potentially allocate the remaining bond funds \u201csilly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear it doesn\u2019t really mean much,\u201d Hershey said of the resolution, which ultimately passed in a 4-2 vote. \u201cWe\u2019ve already bonded a lot of money\u2026so, I\u2019m voting no.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot support something that talks about Sixth Street until the business owners and landowners on that street make a decision nothing is going to happen there,\u201d Hershey added. \u201cI am not supporting, yet another beautification project, like the debacle on Seventh Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glenwood Springs\u2019 2020 budget places a multi-million dollar emphasis on repairing some of the city\u2019s streets. Additionally, the city hopes to commence construction on South Bridge by 2025. However, some council members said the city must seek additional funding and partnerships in order to keep the ball rolling with respect to fixing Glenwood\u2019s streets and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1316550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 06:13:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}