Estes Park’s Town Hall is scheduled to reopen Friday morning after being shut down due to power and phone service outages that began Wednesday disrupting the ability of employees to conduct the Town’s business.
What began with sporadic disruptions in the morning persisted throughout the day and backup power systems began to fail in the late afternoon, according to Public Information Officer Kate Miller in an email exchange with the Estes Valley Voice.
According to press releases sent out Wednesday and Thursday announcing the phone and electrical outages, while Town administration offices located in the Town Hall were impacted, there was no disruption to the 911 phone system or to police services.
Town offices not located in Town Hall were not affected. Many Town administrative officials who are officed in the Town Hall building worked remotely Thursday and relied on email and cell phones.
According to Miller, an electrical contractor and the Town’s facilities staff determined that the closure of Town Hall was necessary until a reason for the outages could be identified.
“There was a risk of one of the electric phases melting somewhere in the building, which could cause a fire,” explained Miller. “Since then, the specific issue was identified, and the team is working to stabilize the situation, so it is safe to reopen Town Hall.”
Miller said that a short-term solution would allow Town Hall to resume operations as a long-term solution was found.
Asked if there was any connection between the outages and the public restroom renovation project underway at Town Hall, Miller responded, “a professional electric contractor has determined the electric capacity in Town Hall was overloaded well beyond its capacity. The total electric usage in the building has been significant. That would include the use of power tools for the remodel, specifically last week, though all indications are that the system was overloaded even before that work began and has been overloaded for some time.”
Miller said factors contributing to the problem include the age of the building, the capacity and condition of its current electrical system, and extreme winter weather.
“It is important to note the significant strain on the building’s central heating systems, which have been supplemented by numerous personal space heaters drawing extra electricity. The bottom line is that we have learned that Town Hall does not have adequate electric capacity, and it must be upgraded,” said Miller.
The Town Hall building is 90 years old and was originally constructed as a school building.
Miller denied that the construction crew working on the restroom project had done anything directly to cause the problem, but the added strain of power tools being used may have been a contributing factor.
“The continuation of the restroom remodel will be dependent on the full functionality of Town Hall’s operations and the system’s ability to support the use of power tools, or the ability to provide alternate power to the project,” said Miller.
Readers reached out to the Estes Valley Voice Thursday to inquire about a rumor circulating about the community that Town Hall had been shut down because surveillance bugs had been found in several offices and law enforcement was conducting a sweep to locate them. Miller denied that there was any truth to the rumor. “There is no basis for any rumors about listening devices at Town Hall,” she said.
Another reader also asked the Estes Valley Voice if there was any connection between Town Hall being shut down on Wednesday and a reported threat received by Estes Park Health which caused the hospital to announce on Wednesday that its Jan. 29 board meeting would be held online and not in person in the Town Hall board room.
“There are no connections at all. And there is no basis for any rumors about listening devices at Town Hall,” Miller said.
The Estes Park Police Department is providing additional patrolling of the hospital campus at this time. Increasing patrol when a threat is perceived is “a common request from Estes Park businesses and residents and a service we provide routinely,” said Miller.
No other security measures are being implemented at this time and the EPPD does not see an imminent threat to public safety, said Miller who explained that the threat at EPH was an “internal personnel matter” which raised security concerns for the hospital and clinics internally.
“After hearing the details of the matter from EPH leadership, we determined, from a law enforcement perspective, that the information they relayed to us did not contain evidence of a threat or any potential criminal activity, and therefore would not lead to an investigation,” said Miller.
EPPD did not recommend additional security measures beyond what is standard at EPH, nor did the police department take part in the decision to move its board meeting next week from an in person meeting in Town Hall to an online meeting.
“This is an isolated matter only within EPH, and we have no evidence of any security threats in our community,” Miller assured.
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