Walsenburg Water Exceptions

As most residents know, there are several charges on the city utility bills.  The water bill has three categories, the gas has three categories, and the sewer bill has three categories.  

As far as I know, each residence has these charges.  When Love's petitoned the city council to add an rv park, I remember Veronica being concerned that the rvers pay their fair share for these services.

My question is whether a mobile home park should be exempt from all these charges and not  be required to have individual water meters to audit water usage.  

Walsenburg is required to account for water usage in the Northlands and augment for over usage which means that residents of Walsenburg are required to subsidize water cost in the areas north of the city.  

In the interest of fairness and keeping utility costs down, every home should pay their share. If I were to move 30 plus homes in and connect them to my water or gas meter, would the city not require separate meters and separate bills for each home?

I have been consistent in my criticism of the handling of Northlands utility problems. Early on it was apparent that any loan defaults for the sewer infrastructure would be the city's responsibility. 

When the situation is seen from a city resident's perspective, we are paying higher utilities for older infrastructure with no plans to upgrade it in the forseeable future.

Also, the city should not allow appartments or mobile parks to retail utilities provided by the city.

A New Building Inspector for Walsenburg

 It has been a while since Walsenburg has had full staffing in all departments.  The city inspector's office has been sadly lacking in qualified staffing for a while and just like that Bob Martin appears on the scene with great qualifications.  He is even willing to work of a fraction of the salary he could get in his construction business. It is too good to be true.

He is offering to get inspector certifications and start out at $20 an hour.  Why would anyone pass up a deal like that?  The answer would have to come from Nick Vigil, Veronica Maes, and Don Martinez who voted to deny his salary requests when the commercial inspectors who are contracted by the city cost $200 an hour plus travel expenses from Denver.

All of this is on video from the special meeting of the city council from August 18.  The argument that it would set a "precedent" seems to affirm the argument for agreement to pay increases for certification.  We are talking about city inspectors with certification not various employees in other city departments.  It is evident that we need a qualified inspector. 

Some council members need to recall that they are representing the city and working for the community.  Who are they representing when they vote to obstruct  the rebuilding of our various departments which have been short staffed and poorly staffed  for too long? 

Council Meeting 8-18-23

Aguilar's Hardware Store

One recent Sunday, I needed a tool to work on a plumbing problem. Since I live in Walsenburg, I checked the store hours for the Ace Hardware store in Colorado City.  I saw that it couldn't make it there before they closed.  I did another search for hardware stores and saw there was a store in Aguilar.  I wasn't aware they had a store.

I made it before they closed and bought the tool I needed.  Today I went to get some BBQ at the Exit 30 Cafe, so I drove by the hardware store to take a few pictures. 

Black Bear Hardware, 155 E. Main, Aguilar, Co. 81020  719-941-6022.

The Walsenburg Gas Department

 The Walsenburg Gas Department

I have been researching how we got to the present situation where we are paying for a 150% increase in gas prices here.  There are stated reasons for the increase.  It has been a long time since we had an increase since 2018.  The price of natural gas is increasing because of demand in Europe and China.  All of this doesn't resonate well when you are facing sub-zero temperatures in Walsenburg.  

I am checking the Council minutes to see if anyone raised a single objection to the increase.  Back in 2016 there was an uprising over a small increase. At that time the question was raised about the gas department loaning money to other departments in the city.  Have these loans been paid off?  If not, were they factored into the need for the present increase.  

Is anyone on the city council representing the citizens of Walsenburg? Most votes in the council are 100% yes.  How can there always be a unanimous vote?  

I digress.  The question arises about disconnects for non-payment. Recently, I became aware of a disconnect for non-payment within a couple of days after a bill was sent out.  According the Muni ordinance, there would be a minimum of 30 days before a disconnect could be done.  This would need to be preceded by a hand delivered notice or a 1st class mail notice of impending disconnect.  

Nobody's perfect.  We all make mistakes, but some mistakes can result in misery for people who are without heat in winter.

The Recent "boil water" Situation

Well, I went out on Feb. 3, to buy ice and water as a result of the boil water order posted on Feb. 2nd a day after the water break.

This morning on Feb. 4, I tried to find out the current status of our water supply. I checked the city website and there was nothing current about it.  

I posted a question about it on the Huerfano Community Bulletin Board and got several replies that the order was recinded yesterday.  

Getting news in Walsenburg is like the "Whose on 1st" routine that Abbott and Costello used to do.  

https://youtu.be/sYOUFGfK4bU .

When I contacted my council person, they said it was recinded.  This was not posted on the city website, but it was found on the Walsenburg, Co. Facebook page.  The date was Feb. 3 at about 4pm.  This was the last place I thought about looking.

Some of the people on the bulletin board received emails and phone calls.  Manual Luan suggested signing up for code red alerts. 

A City Police Department

In 2016 a group of citizens who were aware of many reasons to sack the local police department did a petition drive to get the issue placed on the ballot.  

The drive was a success and in the election there was a clear choice made to eliminate the department.  

The question that comes to mind is why the current city council is beating the drum for a repeat performance.

Is there a reason why the council doesn't want to renew the contract with the county? Maybe some people have a short memory about the costs of running a police department.

If there is a problem with the sheriff's department, why not air it in a council meeting.  Invite the sheriff and let him answer any questions the citizens have.

Also, what is the cost of the current contract renewal?

There may be some folks in city government who just like the idea of having a police department that can be directly controlled by the council.

The former police chief moved to a position in Adams county where he was investigated for undisclosed actions. The article about this is posted on this page. 

Revisiting the Failure of a City Police Department in Walsenburg

This is the outline for a more detailed article looking at the resurgence of the idea that Walsenburg needs its own police department.

My first impression about the former police department was the high cost to maintain it.  I noticed a few years ago that while the city budget was about 1.4 million that the police department used about $900,000 of that.  That appeared to be the biggest one cost that we had.

What did we get for that expense?  We got never ending liability stemming from complaints and continuous requests for vehicle repairs and money for canine training and upkeep and pension expense and medical insurance expense.

Many of these expenses increase year after year.

If we contract for police services, a lot of liability and other expenses are covered. I am looking for confirmation that the city is proposing the expenditure of about $25,000 on a study to decide if it is cost effective to continue contracting services.

Instead of paying someone to tell us what we need, how about being transparent about the current numbers.  How about inviting the Sheriff to attend a council meeting and go over the numbers and the services included in the contract.  It would be informative to know what percentage of the current budget is set aside for law enforcement.