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Glenwood Springs’ proposed 2020 budget has $5.76 million for street improvements

Although not yet adopted, the city of Glenwood Springs’ 2020 budget has $2.61 million more earmarked for street improvements than what was in the 2019 budget.

According to Chief Operating Officer Steve Boyd, the city did not cut services in order to allocate additional funding but instead dipped into reserves and pulled from carryover projects.

“More resources are invested in streets in the 2020 budget than the 2019 budget because we are going into reserves in the street tax fund in 2020,” Boyd said.

Since 2006 the city has collected a voter-approved half-cent sales and use tax that makes up the city’s street tax fund.

Specifically, $4.1 million from the city’s street tax fund, $1.2 million from the general fund and $450,000 from the capital projects fund amounts to the $5.76 million going toward street improvements next year.

The city’s overall 2020 budget includes $89.8 million appropriated across all funds.

“It is a significant investment in our streets,” City Manager Debra Figueroa said at a recent city council meeting.

The $5.76 million does not include the $13.5 million designated for South Midland’s design and reconstruction in 2020, for which the city has already received a $7 million Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant.

“The streets department has been milling and filling potholes all over town this year using the new pothole trailer,” Director of Public Works, Matthew Langhorst said. “They have completed major repairs on Wulfsohn Road, South Midland and have started the repairs on Midland from Eighth Street to 27th Street.”

Additionally, this summer the city performed chip and seal projects on Bennett, Blake, Palmer and Pitkin avenues as well as mill and overlay work on the Midland Bridge, Stone Ridge Court, Park West subdivision and other areas.

According to Langhorst, the city will continue to perform standard street maintenance such as crack sealing in 2020 in addition to alley reconstruction projects.

The city will also pour a significant amount of money into West Glenwood’s streets in 2020.

“The main streets project expense for 2020 will be the complete removal and replacement of the Cedar Crest subdivision including Cedar Crest Drive, Tanager Road, Cardinal Lane, Ptarmigan Lane and Ptarmigan Drive,” Langhorst said. “This project includes the removal and replacement of all roadway surfaces and base/subgrade material, replacement of all waterlines, upgrades to the storm sewer system and installation of broadband conduit and fiber to the entire subdivision.”

Mayor Jonathan Godes, although pleased with the funds going toward streets in the 2020 budget, was concerned about budgets beyond it.

“At some point we are going to have to have a larger, community-wide conversation,” Godes said. “We are not going to be able to find an extra $3 million a year to reconstruct streets, every year. We are making it a priority but it is absolutely not sustainable.”

mabennett@postindependent.com


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