by Brian Orr
WALSENBURG- Pity the poor train depot at Heritage Park in Walsenburg- it’s leaking from the top down, and flooding from the basement up.
The Walsenburg City Council agreed Tuesday evening that something has to be done soon, but what exactly that is, is a little vague. To repair or replace is the question, and the other part of the question is, how much will it cost? An initial replace estimate puts that cost around $45,000.
“We need to find out what type of damage is underneath- pull some tiles. I’m not certain we need a new roof,” said Councilman Lou Taylor. The council decided to request bids for both repair and replacing, and will make the decision at a future meeting. The flooding in the basement (see page 4) has been controlled, but is being left alone until the insurance company can examine it.
City Administrator Lew Quigley reported that the final two candidates for the Admin position are Daniel Dible of Hobbs, NM and Alan Hein of Farmersville, TX. The decision as to which on will be hired will be made on Friday evening in a special session.
Finance Chairman Larry Patrick reported that gas sales in February were down several thousand dollars from February 2008, but was doing better than the $200,000 deficit January sales had compared to January 2008.
Bruce Quintana of Parks and Recreation reported his committee was discussing the 2009 pricing structure of Walsenburg Wild Waters and would present the number soon. Quintana also reported work was jump-started on the North gateway project, with the concrete slabs that were dumped on the face of the hogback should be removed by next week.
In other business, City Council appointed TetraTec as the official engineering firm for the Northlands sewer project. On a related note, the Council opted to hold off accepting the Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) for the Northlands project until the General Improvement District Board (the City Council, wearing different hats) could put in on their agenda.
