On Thursday April 23rd an official ground breaking was held at the Salida Hot Springs Pool on the improvements to the locker rooms. The post and beam roof structure construction has begun and the Salida City Council hopes to finalize a bid for the interior refurbishment at a special meeting on April 26th. The Council is completely committed to improving this facility and the special meeting will allow us to accept a bid and continue movement towards an upgraded locker room by early summer.
The approximately $120,000 for these improvements will come out of 2B money. The Council and City Staff are well aware that these moneys are at risk due to the local Lodging industries actions to reverse the voters and the City Council’s approval and enactment of the 2b legislation. This Council has consistently expressed that maintaining the subsidy to the pool while letting it deteriorate further is simply not an option. The solution of an Occupational Lodging Tax to enhance the pool and other recreational and cultural assets of the City is reasonable. The Council listened to the Lodgers and reduced the tax from $4.82 to 2.50 per occupied room. No tax is paid when the room is empty. Ultimately, this tax will be to the benefit of residents, tourists and the tourist industry.
Salida City Clerk Janella Martinez found the Lodger’s Petition for Referendum insufficient. An insufficient petition is one that does not fulfill the criteria stated in Colorado State Statutes regarding petitions. The criteria protect us from a group that might forge signatures, have unwitnessed signers sign a petition, or have people not from the area, or not registered in that area sign a petition (to list just a few of the statutory requirements).
The Lodgers have filed an objection to the City Clerks finding of insufficiency. A hearing was scheduled for April 17 for Colorado Springs’ City Clerk Catherine Young to hear and decide the merits of the Lodger’s objection. Due to the unavailability of Don Jackson and the Lodger’s attorney the hearing has been postponed until May 8th at 9 AM. We will announce the hearing location at another time since Council Chambers will house the Municipal Court on that morning. We will all have to tune in later to find out how 2B fares.
There are a lot of other major projects occurring within the City of Salida this summer. The demolition of the old Hospital is bringing some beautiful details back to view. The demolition crew are finding original arches, transoms and other historic finish work as they remove the layers of past “improvements”. The project will yield a wonderful and more efficient facility to serve the County and City residents.
The Highway 50 Corridor Improvement Project is nearing its 60% planning phase. Everyone that has an interest in the changes to Highway 50 should plan on attending the meeting at the SteamPlant at 6 PM on April 29th. This is a key meeting and possibly the last chance to modify the project’s plans.
We will soon begin the chip seal project to almost one third of the roads within Salida. This project will prolong the life of the roads by approximately 2 to 10 years.
Perhaps the biggest news, and largest expenditure, is the payment to Mr. and Mrs. Vandaveer for the purchase of the Vandaveer property. The city now owns the land and the water. This allows us to entertain proposals for the use and purchase of the Vandaveer property far more easily than before the final payment.
Finally, you can meet with me at Hattie’s Pub the Monday before each City Council meeting from 5:30 to 7:00 PM. I am on KVRH at about 7 AM the Wednesday after each Council meeting and immediately afterwards on KHEN. Remember you can see the Council Meetings on Channel 10 or on DVD available at the Salida Library.
It’s also worth mentioning that Andrew and Theresa have a podcast of their KHEN show on which Chuck appears Wednesdays after council meetings, and the April 8 show included a useful discussion about the occupational lodging tax.
I must say that I’ve had it up to _here_ with the sort of obstreperous, belligerent and willfully ignorant comments like those made in the recent letter to the Mountain Mail by Glenn Dotter. It’s abundantly clear that this is not the first step towards taxing all the occupations in Salida. This is a pass-thru tax on visitors who stay in local lodgings, simple as that. On balance, it’s a fair proposal, and will help the City accomplish things wanted desperately by citizens for years, if not decades.
For some lodgers to claim that they don’t have to play by the same rules as everyone else in circulating petitions is ridiculous. If they’re serious about a referendum, even one as patently disingenuous as the one they circulated, they can go back and try it again — although I’d strongly encourage them to drop this battle and get behind the council and the majority of folks in the City who see 2B as a means towards making Salida a better place for visitors and locals alike. Ignorance of the law, or worse yet, the arrogance to think that a select few are above it, is no excuse.
As a new resident to Chaffee County, I am impressed and appreciative of how the mayor keeps us informed through columns such as this and those that appear in the Mountain Mail. For those of us who might not be entirely comfortable speaking at a city council meeting (which is televised, not less), the opportunity to meet one-on-one prior to the meeting is a great option.