The Rifle City Council on Wednesday, May 7, approved two requests from Xcel Energy and heard a proposal from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department for a new field-painting robot.

Xcel Energy is asking to access easements required for construction of a new 115 kilovolt transmission line from De Beque to Glenwood Springs. They asked for the eastern parcel access previously in April, in the amount of around $57,000 and improved infrastructure. 

Xcel Energy requested access to a western parcel of city land for the ongoing construction of a 115-kilovolt transmission line between De Beque and Glenwood Springs. Council previously approved access to the eastern parcel in April for approximately $57,000 and related infrastructure improvements. Wednesday’s request, which council approved, was for approximately $36,000 to access the western parcel needed to complete the project.

Council also approved a separate $40,000 contract with Xcel Energy to provide street lighting along the Park Avenue Extension. Councilor Chris Bornholdt said the utility is generally prompt in responding to outages, noting their responsiveness as a positive factor in the agreement.

Later in the meeting Parks and Recreation Director Austin Rickstrew came back to the council to ask for the purchase of the tiny robots for field painting in the amount of $43,600. 

In February, the Parks and Rec department had applied for a grant in the amount of $30,000 to cover the expenses of the robots. Unfortunately, they did not get the grant, so the robot will be bought in full from TinyMobileRobots.

“They did come in officially at $49,600, but they gave us a $6,000 discount, so the cost for the robot, five year subscription and training is $43,600,” said Iris Trevisano, procurement and grant reporting manager for Rifle. 

Rickstrew said the robot will significantly cut down on staff time and increase layout accuracy. While a soccer field currently takes four to five hours to mark manually, the robot can complete the same task in about 25 minutes.

“With this robot, that same field will take 25 minutes,” Rickstrew said. “So it’s cutting down staffing time laying it out and it improves the layout accuracy.”

Councilor Alicia Gresley asked if the robot would replace a job, but Rickstrew clarified that it would instead free up staff to handle other duties.

“In five years, we’ll be offered another subscription,” Trevisano said. “We can go multi-year or single year at that time.”

Before the end of the meeting, Kim Burner, manager of Main St. and the Greater Rifle Improvement Team, announced the Barks, Brews & BBQ event on Saturday. 

“We have 16 barbeque teams competing this year,” Burner said. “Three are local and the rest are coming from either the front range and one from Oklahoma.”

The Barks, Brews & BBQ will take place from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday at Deerfield Park, 300 E 30 St., Rifle. 
The Rifle Police Department is also having their Bike Rodeo from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

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