The Rifle City Council approved appointments to the Greater Rifle Improvement Team and the project team for the Rifle Field House Feasibility Study during their regular meeting on Wednesday. 

Ryan Mackley was appointed to the GRIT team after a spot opened up. This was the only application received for the team, but should anyone want to apply for the alternate spot, visit rifleco.org/ and search for GRIT. 

Council also approved the 2026 budget preparation calendar. Although state statute requires the proposed budget to be posted publicly by Oct. 15, city staff plan to release it by Oct. 1. The final budget must be adopted by December, but Rifle plans to finalize it in mid-November.

The next appointment was for a councilor to the Rifle Field House Feasibility Study team, which will meet two times a month until January 2026. 

Councilor Alicia Gresley immediately moved to approve Mayor Sean Strode to the team and was seconded by Councilor Karen Roberts, which was approved. 

Next, the city of Rifle recently applied for a grant for over $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation from the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A). This is a 20% match grant from the city and they will be matching in the amount of around $685,000. 

The grant is for the northern Highway 13 corridor, which the city identified as a high-risk spot for vehicle collisions, near misses and fatalities. The road contains the last signalized intersection until the town of Meeker, 40 miles north, and the road being labeled at 50 mph next to Wamsley Elementary School raises concerns. 

Due to safety concerns, particularly for students, the city plans to construct a pedestrian bridge across Highway 13 and extend sidewalks from 26th Street to 24th Street on the west side of the highway to improve connectivity. 

City Engineer Craig Spaulding said the city hopes to receive a response on the grant later this year. If approved, the project could take up to four years to complete, but nothing is set in stone as the project hasn’t begun yet. Because the grant is from federal sources, then the city needs to apply now if they wish to get it done within that four year time frame. 

After the report to the city manager, City Clerk Alexis Ramirez spoke about messages she’s received concerning elections, which will be in November this year. 

“We do have our municipal elections page on the website with our new dates and packets will be ready July 22,” Ramirez said. “There’s five candidates who will be running for elections and the four candidates that receive the most votes will be elected for four year teams ending in November 2029 and the fifth candidate with the smallest amount of votes will receive the two year term seat.”

Anyone interested in running for Rifle City Council should pick up their packet on July 22. All paperwork must be filed by Aug. 29.