Estes Park Sanitation District’s 31-year-old excavator is on the fritz, so the district’s Board directed the staff to spend what is left in its 2025 budget for repairs to see if it can limp along with a temporary fix until its scheduled replacement in 2028.
The district has already invested $1,500 to tow the excavator 42 miles to Four Rivers Equipment in Fort Collins, plus a diagnostic fee. According to Davina Gladson, the district’s collections superintendent, repairs are estimated between $40,000 and $50,000.
Gladson said the trailer meant to haul the excavator to jobs within Estes Park is even older, a 1984 model. While the trailer is trustworthy for in-town moves, Gladson said she wasn’t comfortable safely transporting the 32,000-pound piece to Fort Collins, so a tow truck was ordered.
At the EP San monthly meeting on Tuesday Gladson explained that the excavator’s swing gear box had been leaking. During work on Far View Lane, “it started leaking a lot,” she said, requiring gallons of oil to be added to finish the job.
“Having heard this narrative, I want to say the district staff deserve a safe and operable piece of equipment,” said Jennifer Waters, a Director on the EP San Board and the Town of Estes Park’s engineer in charge of flood plain management and development reviews. “I think it is time for this piece to be let go, to not be spending more money on it, and do a search for a used piece to replace it, a used excavator,” she said.
$250,000 is budgeted for 2028 to replace the excavator, which Gladson said has been well-maintained by the district’s staff. While the equipment is used sparsely, it is occasionally needed to lift large manhole covers and complete excavating projects with line replacements and/or repairs.
Gladson reported that she had already spoken with several local excavators and confirmed they would be available in an emergency. The district has not scheduled any additional excavating projects through the end of the year.
Equipment similar in size and weight to the district’s excavator is no longer produced. New models are about 10,000 pounds heavier than what was being used, and the current trailer cannot haul the additional weight, Gladson told the Directors.
The Board ultimately directed staff to see if it can be patched and delivered to Estes Park using this year’s remaining budget balance for equipment repair and maintenance, but only if the cost does not not exceed what is remaining in the budget, approximately $10,000. Discussion also included moving the excavator’s replacement schedule to 2026.
Sewer line holds up work on Stanley Circle Drive development
The District also learned that sewer easements to the workforce housing development site at 179 Stanley Circle Drive, owned by the Town of Estes Park, were nonexistent.
The issue was discovered in February when the Estes Park Housing Authority, the entity managing the project on behalf of the Town, began creating preliminary plats for the development.
At that time, plans for the Town employee housing project showed existing sewer mains, even though easements for the line that currently serves three households beyond the development did not exist, said Tony Drees, the sanitation district’s director. District regulations call for easements of 10 feet on each side of a sewer line.
To remedy the problem, EPHA suggested a 12-foot easement on one side and eight feet on the other. The district’s Board accepted the solution.
In addition, Dees said a new sewer line should be updated from a six-inch clay pipe to an eight-inch PVC pipe during construction.
During an EPHA Board meeting on Wednesday morning, Pete Levine, EPHA’s real estate development director, said the design for the Town’s project had to be changed to accommodate this easement.
The Town owns the piece of land that currently has a single-family home built in the late 1930s. The housing that will be built is intended for employees of the Town of Estes Park. On Wednesday, Levine said that the development’s sewer easement will now be located under the parking lot.