A water dock to replace the one destroyed by vandals last month is set to open Monday.
Users will find some differences. The new enclosure is of sturdier construction, will have a security camera and will not accept money.
Instead of coins or $1 bills, users will have to acquire a debit card, available in any amount, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at Durango City Hall, 949 East Second Ave. A card holder can add money to the card, get a receipt, track purchases and check balances at www.durangogov.org/waterdock.
Users also can add money to their account with a credit card, cash or check at City Hall.
When the card is swiped at the dock, water begins to flow. When the stop button is pressed, the amount of the purchase is subtracted from the card.
“We don’t have to worry now about money being stolen,” Steve Salka, director of utilities, said Wednesday.
The water dock, the only one in Durango, was vandalized at 5 a.m. Oct. 16, the time being recorded when the vandals cut the data-link wires to city offices.
An estimated $100 to $300 in $1 bills and quarters was taken.
Salka said the price of the debit-card swiper was $10,000, the security camera cost $1,000, electrical equipment was $900 and metal fabrication was $913.
“A money changer would have been the same price as the debit-card swiper,” Salka said. “But now we have a system that has no money to steal.”
The water dock, which replaced the one at Chapman Hill when the roundabout there was built, was used largely by residents of unincorporated areas.
Salka estimates the dock supplies 100,000 gallons a week in the summer.
daler@duangoherald.com
