| 1/15/2007 8:59:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Water district considers Lake County
by Jason Starr
Mail Staff Writer
Representatives of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District made a recent overture to the board of Lake County Commissioners as part of an ongoing discussion about including Lake County in the district.
UAWCD manager Terry Scanga reported particulars of a December meeting with Lake County officials Thursday during the district's regular board meeting. Lake County officials have been considering joining a water district since voters gave them the go-ahead in a 2005 ballot question.
After the question passed, Lake County citizens formed a water advisory council to study the possibility of joining a water district. The group has since opened a dialogue with the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District and the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District in addition to the UAWCD.
The UAWCD meeting in December produced a productive and open dialogue, director Jeff Ollinger said. Ollinger, Scanga and board chairman Glenn Everett represented the district at the meeting.
"We didn't go up there trying to sell the district," Everett said. "We just let them know the door is open. It's up to them."
Joining the district would require a petition campaign to get a question on the ballot and a positive vote of Lake County citizens. The time line for accomplishing those tasks is undetermined.
Everett sent a letter to county commissioners in Chaffee, Custer and Fremont - areas covered by the district - requesting input about the potential inclusion of Lake County.
Chaffee County objected in 2005 when citizens of eastern Fremont County attempted to petition into the district. They argued for a buy-in from eastern Fremont County to offset the assets Chaffee County has provided to the district, and they worried that the balance of power on the board of directors would shift to Fremont County if Cañon City and Florence were added.
In an interview Friday, Chaffee County Commissioner Tim Glenn said he does not have as strong an objection to a Lake County inclusion. However, commissioners have not had a chance to respond to Everett's letter or take a position as a board.
"I would have a little bit less of a concern with a Lake County inclusion compared to eastern Fremont County because you are not tripling the population so you are not slanting the control of the district," Glenn said.
He is concerned about what assets Lake County would bring to the table and whether or not a buy-in would be part of the inclusion, he said. But Lake County, at the headwaters of the Arkansas, has more in common with Chaffee County than eastern Fremont County does, he added.
Everett said he assured Lake County Commissioners that no buy-in would be required.
Glenn said he appreciated receiving a request for input about the potential inclusion considering the acrimony that followed the eastern Fremont County inclusion attempt.
"One of the reasons we sent this letter is to head off what we got into with eastern Fremont County," Everett said.
Also Thursday, the board of directors discussed purchasing and installing three weather observation sites in Buena Vista, Salida and Custer County at a cost of $8,000 per site with $1,000 in maintenance costs per year. The sites will measure temperature, wind speed, precipitation, humidity and solar radiation and help the district estimate evapotranspiration, which is a combination of evaporation and water loss through plants that increases with warmer weather.
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