There were plenty of action items on last Tuesday’s Town of Estes Park Board agenda and all of them were approved by the board of trustees.
Of highest public interest seems to be the final public hearing on an electric rate increase of 5% to take effect in October of this year. This is a five-percent increase to both the base rate and the per-kilowatt hour (consumption rate). Three members of the public, Connie Phipps, Rebecca Urquhart, and John Meisner, were on hand to speak about their concerns and Estes Park Power & Communications (EPP&C) director Reuben Bergsten presented an updated rate study in an attempt to answer these and other concerns received via email. In a 5-2 vote, with Trustees Marie Cenac and Mark Igel dissenting, the rate increase was approved for this year only. Read the detailed story here.
6E and Linkage Fee funds slated for the purchase of two properties
Housing and Childcare Manager Carlie Bangs presented on opportunities to provide funding for the purchase of Fall River Village by the Estes Park Housing Authority; and, for the Town to purchase the building at 1250 Woodstock Drive, the building that Mountaintop Childcare, LLC leases for its operation.
The Workforce Housing Regulatory Linkage Fee started collecting just last year, and it’s already raised $1,444,590, reported Carlie Bangs. This fund is paid by those who hold vacation rental licenses in the Town: an additional $1430 per vacation home is charged annually for this linkage fee, along with the license fee of $200 + $50 per bedroom. Bangs presented a proposal to use this linkage fee balance and what will be collected for the next five years to support the purchase of Fall River Village by the Estes Park Housing Authority to be used for workforce housing.
The building that houses Mountaintop Childcare, LLC was put up for sale in May and recently got an offer from an investment firm; however, Bangs made a case for the Town to purchase this property, to lease it back to Mountaintop for its operations.
“Losing this center would be detrimental to families in the Estes Valley,” said Carlie Bangs while making a case to purchase the building at 1250 Woodstock Drive. “We do believe that this property is an ideal childcare center as it’s centrally located in the Estes Valley, near schools and the community center, and it has had childcare licensing (officials) going through the building annually for its inspections. Its last one was in May.”
“Additionally, there’s potential to expand on the existing facility to serve more children,” Bangs said. “$25,000 would come from the 6E childcare fund in earnest money, and then upon closing, we propose that $300,000 come from the 6E childcare funding reserve that carried over from the previous year, she proposed.
“Then, (we can) take a loan from a general fund to cover the rest,” she added.
Bangs also mentioned a plan to reallocate the childcare portion of the 6E funding from 12% to 20%, which would generate $1 million annually to support childcare initiatives in the Estes Valley.
Both purchases were approved by the board.
Grants to finish Fall River Trail and the highest bid to rehab Tregent Park’s restrooms were accepted
Civil engineer Travis Witter presented on two IGAs with the Colorado Department of Transportation to accept state and federally awarded funds in the amount of $3,738,557 with a local match of 1,050,519 to complete the Fall River Trail, a 4+ mile multimodal (hiking, biking) paved trail extending from historic downtown Estes Park to Rocky Mountain National Park. As these were budgeted funds, the board passed these resolutions unanimously.
Project Manager Derek Pastor presented on two bids to renovate the Tregent Park restrooms, a budgeted expense for 2024. “The restrooms will need to be closed for the entirety of this project, as this is one of the few public restrooms open year-round, the impact could be significant,” Pastor said.
Tregent Park is located along the Riverwalk on the east end of Elkhorn Avenue and features picnic benches, a cowboy statue in the river, and restrooms that have not been renovated in quite a while and are not ADA compliant.
“Staff is recommending entering into a contract with the higher of the two bids received,” said Pastor. “Both contractors provided bids that were less than the approved budget” but most importantly, the higher bidder – Whitestone Construction, Inc, with a bid of $216,645 – will have the restrooms ready in 56 days, in time for the Catch the Glow Parade, he said.
After some discussion, the bid was accepted by the board.
Consent Agenda items and a report on construction relief grants administered by the Estes Park Chamber of Commerce
The president of the Estes Chamber of Commerce, Colleen DePasquale, presented a report on the Construction Impact Grant authorized by this Town Board on June 11. Fifty-eight grants ranging from $20 to $14,680 were given through this program which ran from June 13-28. Eligible businesses had to hold a Town of Estes Park business license, be located within the eligibility area, and not have any legal or tax liens on their property.
The grant application also asked for financial documents comparing 2023-2024 to the previous years. This confidential information showed that collectively, the 58 businesses experienced declines totaling $3,790,608 due to the ongoing construction in the area. The largest grant given was $14,680 and the smallest, $20.
The Chamber is also administering matching marketing grants that will stop taking applications on August 31. This grant will reimburse businesses 75% of marketing expenses incurred between May 1 and July 31 of this year.
On the consent agenda, the resolution to accept $40,000 annually from the Estes Park School District over the next three years to fund a school resource officer was questioned by Trustee Cindy Younglund: “My concern is that the pay for that many years is going to be set in stone (what the school reimburses the police department). And I was just wondering if the officer would not be having a raise or anything for those three years. So basically, I’m concerned that the police department’s cost for that officer is going to go up over those years.”
Estes Park Chief of Police Ian Steward was on hand to respond.
“$40,000 is not a large portion of that school resource officer’s total package of what it costs the PD to have him, but what the community gets far exceeds what he provides inside the school itself. Not only just making that area safer, but our community safer. We get a tremendous amount of benefits over the summer as well.”
The consent agenda was approved unanimously by the board.
The next Town of Estes Park Board Meeting will be held in Town Hall on August 27 at 7 p.m.