Bayfield town trustees approved ballot wording on Sept. 2 seeking voter support to raise town sales tax from 2 percent up to 3 percent. The question will be on the November general election ballot.
The vote to send ballot wording to the county clerk was almost anti-climactic after a presentation by Town Manager Chris La May on projected costs versus revenue for street-related maintenance and other transportation-related projects.
Costs tend to spike every 10 years or so, because major maintenance work like paving has about a 10-year life span, he said.
The town got $6.8 million in 2011 from Colorado Department of Transportation for the town to take over and maintain Highway 160B, now called Bayfield Parkway.
That year the town spent $1.2 million of that money to pave the parkway, plus Mill Street, East Street, and Elm circle. That maintenance spike comes around again in 2021. It will use up the last of the $6.8 million with a $714,700 deficit, according to La May's presentation.
The town maintains 17.39 miles of roads, he said. In 2013, the town's contract engineer identified a $2.3 million backlog of street maintenance and reconstruction projects. The town spent $200,000 toward that in 2013 and is spending around $1.3 million this year. That leaves an $800,000 cost in 2015 to finish off the backlog.
For the next few years, maintenance costs will drop to around $40,000 to $50,000 before the cost spike in 2021, La May said.
Separately, the big hit on the CDOT money is the estimated $3 million cost to replace the two green bridges on Bayfield Parkway. The main work on that is likely to be next year. La May said the town got another $1.386 million in CDOT off-system bridge money for this project.
By the end of 2015, about $1.3 million should be left from the CDOT money.
La May's focus was what happens starting in 2021. He proposes to start transferring $200,000 a year from the capital improvements budget to street maintenance in 2021, but without new money, there will be an ongoing street maintenance deficit of $200,000 to $2 million, he said.
"We looked at a property tax to generate around $200,000 a year," he said. That would mean doubling the town's current 5.95 mill levy. It would mean only town residents would be paying the extra cost, instead of all the other people who use town streets, he said.
The sales tax increase is more equitable and will bring in around $260,000 a year. It would bring total sales tax (town, county, and state) paid in Bayfield to 7.9 percent, the same as in Durango.
"If we don't start addressing this, we're likely to get into the scenario of deferred maintenance and a large chunk that has to be addressed all at once," La May said. He cited a statistic that every dollar spent on keeping a road in good condition saves $6 to $14 later on when the road has deteriorated and needs reconstruction.
With current street work being paid from the $6.8 million, La May said, "I think there's a perception that we are flush with cash. That's not sustainable. It goes away."
He said some people have suggested getting grants for street maintenance, but he advised, "Grants for road maintenance are pretty much non-existent."
Mayor Rick Smith commented, "The pie is only so big. If we live off the CDOT money and transfer money in, that comes from something else. I'm uncomfortable with that. ... I don't want to get behind or ask people to give up a service."
Trustees voted unanimously to approve an ordinance creating a new budget street fund for the additional sales tax money, contingent on voter approval of the increase, and a resolution setting the wording for the ballot question.
The two green bridges were supposed to be replaced this year, but the project has been complicated and delayed by various issues, including how to deal with utilities attached to the old bridges.
The latest complication that La May reported last week is whether the work will be affected by listing the Mexican jumping mouse as an endangered species.
"It's a mess," he said. "There's no evidence of the mouse at the bridge, but there's habitat that could be conducive."
It could involve replacement of habitat. "It will probably delay the project. We were hoping to go to bid in January. Now we are told it will take around 135 days to make a ruling." So bidding might be in late January with construction starting in March, "but that's getting into high water. If it goes too long, we'll probably postpone it to next September," La May said.
