Ouray City Council prioritizes goals, discusses outlook

Robert Allen

Daily Press Writer

OURAY — The Ouray City Council whittled a list of about 20 goals for 2007 down to six of the highest priority at Monday night’s meeting.

“These (the top six) are direct measurables,” city administrator Patrick Rondinelli said. “The others are stuff we still want staff to spend time on.”

The top priority by unanimous agreement is to resolve issues regarding financing, design and construction of a second water tank to be built underground. The tank will serve as a back up to the current supply and is being funded with the help of a State and Tribal Assistance Grant.

A general water augmentation plan, as well as engineering plans to improve Sixth Avenue, were also among the top priorities for the year.

Improvement of the Skyrocket, Bridal Veil and Oak Creek drainages, as well as others, also received preference.

Paving three blocks of city streets made the list of goals, however, the council is awaiting feedback as to which streets should be paved first. Councilman Jack Schoenbaum said the council could wait and see how high this ranks on the Ouray 2020 before making a decision.

Ouray 2020 is a community survey to determine what the populace would like to see become of the city’s development by the year 2020. Mike Baker, of the community development committee, presented the survey questions at Monday’s meeting.

“It (the survey) is developed around people’s thoughts and feelings about the community,” Baker said.

It covers issues such as where people would like the city’s budget to be focused, how they feel about business and tourism, and what sort of developments would best benefit the community.

“In my case, I’d be interested in a good ambulance service by 2020,” Schoenbaum said. His comment was followed by a burst of laughter from those present.

“I do have children and grandchildren in the area,” he said.

Although most of the survey is multiple choice, some of the questions are left open to written response.

“We want to see what people’s vision is. What their imagination is,” councilman Janet Armstrong said.

The survey will be administered from Feb. 18 to March 11, with distribution targeting more than 35 areas of the demographic. Results are to be formally presented at the June 7 town meeting, where further discussion will take place before a report is presented in July.

Financing for a fence around the Manganese Mine, which is shared by the Box Canyon Lodge, Twin Peaks Motel and the city, was an action item approved at Monday’s meeting.

The fence is intended to prevent people from falling into the more than 162 degrees Fahrenheit water.

To date, there is no record of any fatalities at the site. The city will pay $4,500 of the $13,502.60 needed for installation.

Contact Robert Allen via e-mail at roberta@montrosepress.com