Extra day per week at Wild Waters in 2012

by Eric Mullens
WALSENBURG — Those seeking to beat the summer heat will be happy this year… Walsenburg City Council is adding an additional day per week to the Wild Waters summer schedule for 2012.
The city water park will now be in operation Wednesday through Sunday and will also be open on holiday Mondays. The water park should be opening Memorial Day weekend.
In other business the city council changed hats early in their Tuesday night agenda as they sat as the Walsenburg Beverage Licensing Authority to conduct a public hearing on a new 3.2 percent beer license for First Choice Market.
Karen Wilson, owner of La Plaza Inn, Carol Roesch and Colorado Food Stores Inc., owner Michael Hugh Brown testified in favor of the application. No one spoke in opposition and the authority approved the application on a unanimous 8-0 vote. Councilman James Baca was not in attendance.
The city council unanimously passed on second reading the new city sign code ordinance and the aggressive panhandling ordinance.
Mayor Larry Patrick offered thanks to the city planning and zoning board and city staff for all of the work that went into the ordinance saying, “We have a sign code that will serve the city for many years to come.”
The council also unanimously voted to renew the liquor license for the Moon Glow Inn; approved a $100 Wild Waters ad to be placed in El Fandango’s annual Cinco de Mayo program; and approved a contract with Fred Hand, managing director of Southern Colorado Water Operations to provide service as the class ‘B’ operator for the city’s wastewater facility. The contract will cost the city $700 per month and was approved on a month-to-month basis. The city also approved a trade agreement with KCRT radio in Trinidad. The city will provide 40 Wild Water passes per month for three months, in exchange for nearly 40 thirty-second commercials per month for three months on the radio station advertising the water park.
During the pre-meeting work session, acting city administrator Beth Neece showed council members a map of city streets with different colors assigned to show which streets and intersections need pavement and pothole repair. Neece said city street crews have also been surveying the streets and had prepared a breakdown of potential work sites. Neece said in preparing the map she drove every street in the city in a five hour period on a Saturday morning. The map, which will be hung on the wall of the meeting room at city hall, will be available for council members to study more closely as they begin discussions in the near future for the summer street work projects.