Parachute struggles to handle impact

PARACHUTE, Coloraod — From two more police officers to dump trucks “built in this decade” to major road improvement projects, the Town of Parachute has more than $80 million of needs due to natural-gas development, according to Town Administrator Robert Knight.

He presented a “wish” list of projects in need of funding help to gas operators at last week’s Garfield County Energy Advisory Board meeting.

“We welcome the industry to our area, just as we did with oil shale,” Knight said. “But our roads and the county roads in the area are terrible and getting worse and it’s because of you.”

Knight said the town appreciates the help the industry has already provided, but it still needs more.

“Our requests for help from the county have fallen on deaf ears,” Knight said. “We want to try to be the masters of our own fate, but we need some help.”

Knight said he hoped the industry would help convince the county to agree to equitably distribute the funds to those communities.

“There’s something wrong with this picture,” Knight said at the meeting. “Our rainy day fund is less than one year’s operating budget.”