CITY OF ROCKY FORD COUNCIL MEMBERS WILL BE JOINING OTERO COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT FOR A PERSONAL & FAMILY PREPAREDNESS WORKSHOP

Monday, February 13, 2012
6:30 p.m.

Wm. L. Gobin Building
107 N Main Street
Rocky Ford, CO

Possibility of 3 or more Council Members in attendance

Dan Hyatt submitted his resignation as city manager to the Rocky Ford City Council Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Subject to negotiating mutually agreeable terms, Hyatt will stay on board as city attorney. Hyatt took on the dual roles of city manager and city attorney as an interim manager over eight years ago. After handling both of those positions on a part time basis for over a year, Hyatt was appointed full time city manager and city attorney. His initial intent was to remain in this position for only several years to assist the city. However, Hyatt started working on multiple projects that had failed to move forward and wanted to see the projects through as much as possible. These projects included the multiple phased water system improvements designed to build redundancy into the system to guarantee citizens would not be faced with water outages. Those projects have taken years to move through federal and state red tape. The water plant renovation was completed in February 2011. The new water tank construction has been completed. The new water pump station has been completed. The new chlorination and de-chlorination plant at the waste water plant has been completed. The new waste-water lift station at the fairgrounds has been completed. The Hancock water system mains have been constructed, at no cost to the citizens of Rocky Ford, and the city has purchased the Hancock water system. The SCADA system at the water treatment plant has been installed to allow computerized control of much of the plant. A point of sale system has been installed in the utility billing office. The repairs on the 1.5 million gallon water tank should be completed shortly. The delay was caused when additional damage threatening the long term integrity of the tank floor and walls was discovered after the tank was drained. Unfortunately, the newly discovered damage prevented the tank from being on line during the recent outage otherwise citizens would not have experienced any outage. The new well and backup transmission line will be completed shortly following a delay caused when the third well had initial radionuclide readings of twice the allowable limit. Those tests have been performed by a second lab showing the first lab’s results were incorrect and two weeks ago the state approved use of the water allowing the project to continue once again. During the outage even if the physical portion of the project had been completed, the city could not have supplied water from the new well due to the failure of the well to pass the water test at that time.

In addition, Hyatt completed the financing of all the projects. The water treatment plant upgrade, new water tank, water pump station, repainting and repair of the old water tank were accomplished with a $2,822,415 dollar loan from Rural Development and a $1,506,487 grant from Rural Development. In order to get the grant money, the city had to follow all Rural Development rules which slowed the project down by over two years. The city also obtained a grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs for this project in the amount of $425,207. The city paid $300,000 cash toward the project.

Water line replacement was originally part of the Rural Development grant and loan package. Delays caused by all the federal requirements and state requirements caused the project to run about $1.3 million over budget. This was originally going to be financed with an additional Rural Development Loan which would have caused citizens to repay the debt. Instead, this portion of the project was withdrawn from the Rural Development package and financed with a $2,000,000 grant from the state of Colorado. By using this grant, the city can replace the water lines originally part of the plan, make additional improvements to the wells, and install a Geographical Information System to allow better management of the water system. This data base, when complete, will allow city employees to know exactly where water lines are located using a GPS system, be able to locate all water valves, assure the correct valves are used to isolate broken mains, and record and assist with the planning of all water system maintenance. This is the equivalent of moving from stone tablets to pen and paper. This management tool will be completed in about 90 days. After the water system is in the data base, the city may expand it to include sanitary sewer, storm sewer, streets, alleys and even traffic control devices. Eventually it will completely change how city infrastructure is managed.

Hyatt also assisted Colorado Blue Ribbon Foods in moving from Pueblo to Rocky Ford providing the city with between 30 and 40 jobs. He worked to convince Innovative Water Technologies to locate in Rocky Ford bringing approximately 30 jobs. Hyatt believes IWT will see significant expansion in the future bringing the city even more jobs.

At this point, most of the projects are complete or nearly complete. All the financing is in place for the projects. The new industries are doing well. The city’s economic development program is working well and most of the downtown storefronts are full.

The only major project not completed or nearly completed is renovation of the waste-water lagoons. The engineering study will not be complete for several months and the time required for construction has not been determined.

Hyatt said he has accomplished most of what he intended to accomplish when he took the job as city manager. Hyatt believes Rocky Ford has a very bright future. It is simply time to step aside and let others continue the work.