TRINIDAD — The Trinidad City Council, in a work session Tuesday, March 8, began working on setting up the agenda for the regular meetings in March and April by hearing from Jim Vigil who will represent the city in Action 22. He addressed the council with thoughts on the developing trail system in and around the city. Vigil told city council that since 1992 Great Outdoors Colorado, GOCO, has funded around $9.3 million in grants for the development of trails, easements, and outdoor restoration projects statewide. “The development of conservation easements will preclude any development on them such as the trail on Fisher’s Peak,” Vigil said. “The project that the governor’s office is interested in is the trail connector program from Denver to Trinidad.” That program when completed will also connect Walsenburg to La Veta and then to Cuchara. Right now the building of that trail is slowed because of the lack of public lands between La Veta and Cuchara. According to Vigil, seven GOCO grants have been awarded to Trinidad for the development of trails and the connector trails, with the river walk being one of them. Council member Pat Fletcher noted it is the governor’s initiative that will push a system of connector trails which will link a series of trails together from Denver to Trinidad. Vigil has already stated that he will volunteer to represent Trinidad in Action 22. Even though council held a consensus approving the appointment they placed the approval on the March 15, regular meeting agenda. The city’s fire chief, Tim Howard, addressed the council on the need for the fire department to purchase a new pump truck. The price of the truck will fall between
$335,000 for a small truck and $460,000 for a large pump truck. The department needs to replace the current truck, a 1993 Pierce. “If we sell it for scrap we might get $2,000. But as a used a truck we might get as much as $15,000 for it,” Chief Howard said. So far the fire department has spent $40,000 for repairs over the past two years. A lease purchase would cost the city $75,500 a year over four years, or $65,000 over five years. Other departments in the city such as the police, parks and recreation, and water will all be approaching the city council presenting their needs for upgrades to their fleets over the next five years as city fleets age. Along with infrastructure repair and replacement fleet upgrades can be very expensive, and according to city manager Gabe Engeland, although very necessary. Bids for the remolding of the Rice School building for the police department will be looked at during the March 15 regular meeting. The interior remolding will involve door replacement, moving walls, and creating office space. The April meeting of the city council will be the first meeting to fall under the new schedule. The city council will meet beginning at 6 p.m.
