Bayfield voters will be asked to increase the town’s sales tax to 3 percent from 2 percent.
The additional revenue will be dedicated to street maintenance and transportation-related projects.
Ballots for the Nov. 4 election will be mailed the week of Oct. 13. And the sales-tax measure will appear as ballot question 2A.
If approved, the additional tax will start on Jan. 1, 2015. It will bring the total sales tax (town, county, and state) in town to 7.9 percent, the same as in Durango. The ballot wording allows for a maximum $285,000 of new revenue in the first year.
The same ballot request was rejected by a vote of 66 yes to 75 no in the April town election. Town trustees opted to try again.
In early September Town Manager Chris La May told the Town Board costs tend to spike every 10 years or so, because major maintenance work like paving has about a 10-year life span.
The town got $6.8 million in 2011 from Colorado Department of Transportation to take over and maintain Highway 160B, now called Bayfield Parkway.
That year the town spent $1.2 million of that money to mill the old asphalt and re-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 the backlog.
For the next few years, maintenance costs will drop to around $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 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.
An earlier version of this story included an incorrect percentage for the current sales tax in Bayfield. The town’s current sales-tax rate is 2 percent. The error was made in editing.
