RIFLE - Mayors and city council men and women from across the state got a firsthand look at what energy development has meant for Western Slope communities Monday. The Colorado Municipal League's energy committee met in Rifle Monday morning. CML lobbies for state towns and cities and its members are elected officials of those governments.

The committee also took a tour of a drill rig in the afternoon.

Oil and gas development has been both a blessing and a curse for towns and cities in western Colorado. Rifle has grown exponentially in the last three years, in part because of oil and gas activity both east and west of the city. While the town now boasts its own Wal-Mart superstore it also has to contend with a zero percent housing vacancy rate because of the influx of energy workers, said Rifle assistant city manager Matt Sturgeon.

"There were shortages. All of a sudden housing disappeared and there was a 50 percent increase in housing values last year," he said.

That growth has also spurred a need for a $29 million wastewater treatment plant. "We thought we had a 2 to 3 percent growth rate" and that the city had time to upgrade or build new utilities. "We have to build it now," he said.

Sturgeon also said people in other parts of the state don't grasp what's happening here in the oil and gas patch. The new demands, which the city as a hard time meeting, "makes it hard to create community and to move forward in a more sensible manner," Sturgeon said.

Parachute town manager Juanita Satterfield echoed Sturgeon's concerns. She said traffic in and out of the small town is so bad that cars and trucks can't make a left-hand turn off the Interstate 70 exits but must make a big loop around downtown.

The interchange "reached maximum use five years ago," she said.

The town also has a zero vacancy rate for housing including motels, Satterfield said.

Parachute, in an effort to keep up with its explosive growth, has several town projects ready to go but most of them will come in over budget because of rising construction costs. The town, Satterfield said, is competing with oil and gas for construction supplies such as gravel and asphalt and for workers.

To help pay for rampant growth, Silt Mayor Dave Moore only somewhat tongue-in-cheek has suggested installing a toll station on heavily used town roads, roads he says have been impacted by oil and gas as well as gravel pit traffic.

"They're tearing up our streets," Moore said. "They cost $1 million a mile to replace."

At least one CML member, Charles Spielman, who sits on the city council of Monte Vista, was not overly sympathetic. "I'd trade problems with you any day," he said, although he did not elaborate what they were.

Contact Donna Gray: 945-8515, ext. 16605

dgray@postindependent.com



Post Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO