City continues support of child care initiative

At its Aug. 17 meeting, Holyoke City Council voted to support the Holyoke Community Childcare Initiative in its application for the Department of Local Affairs Energy Impact Grant for $600,000.

Trisha Herman, project coordinator/executive director of HCCI, was present at the meeting to provide council members with an update on the project’s progress.

She started writing grants totaling over $800,000 last January, and she’s waiting to hear back from those foundations.

Herman noted that with the funds raised and the donation of $500,000 from Shawn and Kristi O’Neal, they have raised $1.2 million, halfway to their goal of $2.4 million for the project.

Herman said the deadline for application for the DOLA Energy Impact Grant is Sept. 3, and since government entities must apply for it, she wanted to ensure HCCI continued to have the city’s support.

She reminded council members that the land is going to be donated to the city from Melissa Memorial Hospital, and after 10 years the land and the building will be donated to HCCI. She noted that the city will have no financial burden.

Herman went on to say that she hopes to receive news about grants by the end of December and then raise funds from the community to meet the goal of $2.4 million. She added that she hopes to break ground on the project by the fall of 2022 and be in operation by the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024.

Parents bring concerns to council

Kaitlin Hansberry, Arika Luedke and Kayla Kafka attended the meeting to bring some concerns to the council’s attention.

Hansberry provided council members with a survey outlining parents’ feedback about the pool and recreation department, with some concerns that arose throughout the summer.

Luedke said her biggest concern is the pool. Noting that she feels something needs to be done about the pool’s management, she said she has seen lifeguards not paying attention and doing homework, talking on their phones and not being available to take money at the front desk.

Kafka said she feels the pool is getting to the point that safety is a very serious concern.

She related an instance where her 5-year-old had to pull her 3-year-old out of the water during swimming lessons because the instructor walked away from them. She said she saw it happen from across the pool where she was seated in the parents’ section.

“There is a need there for something to change because it’s getting to the point where we don’t want to take our kids because we don’t feel like they’re safe,” she said.

She added that there were also complaints about the pool not having the correct cleaning supplies, and she told council members that she had the complaints in writing available for them to review.

Utility terrain vehicle ordinance approved

After tabling an ordinance that would add the use of utility terrain vehicles to municipal code at their Aug. 3 meeting, council members unanimously passed the modified ordinance.

City Attorney Al Wall said that the language added to the ordinance allows for commercial or industrial business use, the permit owner’s recreational purposes and other uses.

Unused monitoring well to be abandoned

Council members voted to hire Darrell Phillips of Haxtun to abandon an unused monitoring well near the westernmost Jack’s Bean Company building.

City Superintendent Mark Brown said that in 1999 there was a water quality problem with the city’s electric shop well, and the monitoring well near Jack’s Bean Company was constructed to try to ascertain where the problem originated.

Wall said the well needs to be capped in any case since it has not been used for years.

Brown contacted Phillips, who worked with him in the mid-1990s to abandon approximately 36 wells in and around Holyoke. Brown said Phillips estimated that it would cost $300-$400 per well if the city supplied a backhoe and operator.

Wall to draft letter regarding sewage backup

At their Aug. 3 meeting, council members tabled taking action on a letter the city had received from Dwain Skipworth and Eldene Hinde regarding sewage backup at the house they own.

Council members reviewed the subject again at their Aug. 17 meeting and ultimately voted to have Wall draft a letter to the residents saying the city is not liable.

Mayor Orville Tonsing said a piece of the residents’ equipment, the backflow valve, failed.

Wall said the city’s liability is limited only to places where the city doesn’t have a routine maintenance program set up, and in order for the city to have liability, they would have to prove the city doesn’t have a maintenance program.

Brown pointed out that city personnel try to rod all city sewers once a year, which is even more frequent than the city’s insurance company requires at once every two years.

Council approves water service connection outside city limits

After reviewing letters from Gayln Einspahr and Riley and DeeAnn Dubbert requesting connection to the city’s water system, council members approved hooking them up to the city’s water supply.

Wall pointed out that chapter 13.20 of the city’s ordinances does allow for water and sewer service outside city limits, and the sections in the chapter just need to be followed.

Riley Dubbert told council members he had talked to Brown about getting tapped into the water system by Rocky Bieber’s place on Howitt Street north of the fairgrounds.

Riley said he will have to get a permit from the state to put a water line under Highway 385 to his property where it will then turn north to run under Highway 23 to Einspahr’s well.

Council hears reports

Recreation director Victoria Dunker said she read through the parents’ surveys and has made notes of the things she has control over.

Noting that some of the feedback involved keeping score during soccer games, Dunker said they were able to purchase two electronic scoreboards using Mike Meusborn memorial money. The scoreboards don’t have to be plugged in and will allow score to be kept on two fields.

She added that she is grateful to the donors who gifted the memorial money, and the scoreboards will be in memory of Meusborn.

She also said that she will be meeting with Corey Koberstein, the new school athletic/activities director, to see if there will be more opportunities for using the school’s gyms and fields.

Dunker then proceeded to update the council on the park master plan from Ripley Design. They have half the renderings done and are almost finished drafting concepts. Next they’ll start putting together opinions on the cost for each phase.

After that, the Ripley Design team will start generating schematic site plans for the Great Outdoors Colorado application.

Dunker said Ripley Design has contacts they’ve worked with in the past who have experience applying for GOCO grants, and they will share those contacts with her.

The next step is to meet with the Recreation Advisory Committee and other stakeholders to make sure the designs and concepts are in line with the desired goals.

Dunker noted that registration for flag football is open. She has been working to schedule games against teams from Haxtun, Julesburg and Wray. She said the survey showed that some people want to travel for games and others don’t, so she will try to have both home and travel games.

After sharing the soil compaction report for the new fire station lot with the project’s general contractor at Rockwell Construction, Tonsing said the report was submitted to the engineer for the building for interpretation. Tonsing reported that he has not yet heard anything back, but he will contact them again.

Brown reported that electric department personnel have been switching the city’s Christmas lights to LED. Water and sewer crews have been working on broken meters and getting water and wastewater samples for state certification.

Street crews have been painting crosswalks that were covered during the recent seal coat project. They have not yet been able to get to all the crosswalks downtown yet since they are running out of paint and none is available through the city’s suppliers, but they will complete the project when they have the necessary paint.

City workers from the electric, water and street departments have been working to replace the asphalt with concrete near the intersection of SW Interocean Drive and West Hargreaves Street.

Brown informed the council that Mike Beckhoff, based in Wyoming, will be the city’s new contact at Armstrong Consultants since Julie Thiessen accepted a new job in Oregon. Brown said Beckhoff hopes to get the airport lighting project started in late September, but they have been encountering problems getting some supplies in a timely manner.

“Time will tell on the progress of that project,” said Brown, adding that Beckhoff hopes to visit Holyoke soon.

Police Chief Doug Bergstrom reported that Holyoke Police Department handled or generated 67 calls for service from July 29-Aug. 12, including three animal complaints and two municipal code violations under code enforcement.

He also informed the council that he was scheduled to do a walkthrough Friday, Aug. 20, at Holyoke JR/SR High School to see how it’s changed after the construction project.

In other business at the Aug. 17 meeting, council members added Veterans Day to the city’s paid holiday policy.