Does the ‘city of pride and progress’ need to make some progress on housing issues?

Holyoke may be the “city of pride and progress,” but it may be time to take a step forward in the area of innovative affordable housing.

At the Aug. 16 city council meeting, council member Brian Akey briefed the council on a housing meeting he attended in Paoli this summer.

There’s an opportunity to use a grant to help pay for an audit of the city’s codes, which were mostly adopted in the 1960s. “I just don’t see how we can’t do it,” said Akey. “It’s time we get it looked at.”

If the codes are the reason that people don’t want to build houses in Holyoke, Akey said, there’s no harm in looking at the codes and seeing if there’s a better way to do them.

“Everyone comes in here screaming pride and progress. ... You can’t put a business in because there’s nowhere to live,” said Akey.

The council will need to decide by Sept. 30 if they want to be a part of the regional grant application.

Hofmeister, Calhoon speak at work session

The council conducted a work session after the regular meeting Aug. 16. Phillips County Commissioner Terry Hofmeister and Yuma County Administrator Andrea Calhoon were there to discuss funds the city of Holyoke opted to receive from an opioid settlement.

Calhoon cautioned the council that the state hasn’t totally decided what the reporting process will look like, but only 10% of the funds can be used administratively.

“You don’t get chunks of money like this all the time, and we don’t want to waste it,” said Calhoon of the millions of dollars headed toward a 10-county northeast Colorado region over the next 18 years.

Hofmeister said it’s important to set up a good plan from the start because 18 years from now “most of us won’t be sitting in this room.” There’s also going to be more money coming in from additional settlements, so the funds are only going to get larger as time goes on, he said.

There is going to be a regional fund that pools the money that entities opted out of receiving. Hofmeister said there’s still seats at the table for municipalities if anyone from the council wants to be a part of deciding what to do with those regional funds.

Comm center discussed

Also at the work session, council member Kevin Scott told the council that he would be in favor of increasing the city’s budget that is pooled together with other entities to pay for the Phillips County Communications Center.

If the city didn’t get to use the county comm center, it would cost a lot more to start its own program than simply increasing the budget. “I personally think we should back the county,” said Scott.

“I think of it as a partnership,” said Superintendent Mark Brown.

Other business

In other business at the Aug. 16 meeting, the council:

— Passed a resolution declaring the city of Holyoke’s decision to opt out of the Colorado Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program.

— Approved a bid for a drain pan on the east side of the new fire hall for $6,975 from Rockwell Construction.

— Approved the hiring of PC Telcom to wire the new fire hall for phones, etc.

— Approved paying an invoice from Rockwell Construction for $184,331.50 for projects at the new fire hall.

— Heard a report from Brown, who noted that the transmission went out on the baby blue airport car and the radio at the airport also needs replaced; however, he hopes to get some reimbursement through a state program for the radio.