Bayfield town trustees may ask voters to raise the town sales-tax rate as part of the April 1 town election.
Last month, Town Manager Chris La May and attorney Dirk Nelson presented draft language for the ballot question to trustees.
Bayfield’s sales tax is currently 2 percent. The proposal is to raise it to 3 percent, with new revenue to be designated for street maintenance.
As written, Trustee Debbi Renfro said additional revenue could be used to buy land. She asked if it might be for a bike path.
“That’s the intent,” Nelson said.
Mayor Rick Smith said, “I think we are OK with the draft language.”
Nelson will bring it back for formal approval.
Once that happens, he said trustees and town staff members are allowed to provide information about the proposal, but they may not promote it for approval.
In other action, trustees approved La May’s recommendation of Bechtolt Engineering to do the engineering and project management to replace the two old bridges on Bayfield Parkway this year.
Replacement costs are estimated at $3 million to be paid with money the Colorado Department of Transportation paid the town in 2011 to take over control and maintenance of the parkway, formerly called U.S. Highway 160B.
CDOT paid the town $6.8 million. Other road projects have reduced that fund to around $5 million. The town has received two grants that will cover $1.38 million of the bridge replacement cost, freeing some of the CDOT money for other road projects.
In related action, trustees voted to have the town’s contract engineer prepare bid documents for this year’s street-maintenance projects, one bid package for resurfacing and one for crack sealing.
The 2014 budget reserves $669,559 for road work. That amount will be increased to around $1.3 million with the money freed up by the second bridge grant.
The board directed the engineer to include additional work in bid documents, with the engineer’s fee for the new work authorized up to $24,247. Trustees also authorized La May to negotiate a contract with Bechtolt.
According to a street inventory from 2013, the town has a $2.3 million backlog of maintenance needs on town streets.
