by Mary Pat Haddock
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Ridgway’s Streetscape Committee offered two meeting times on Monday for local business owners to give their feedback on the project. Committee members heard drastically different comments from the participating business owners in the two meetings, due, at least in part, to employing two very different strategies in facilitating the two meetings. The committee will recommend to Ridgway Town Council that the plan be further studied and revised.
To begin the first meeting, Mayor John Clark briefly gave background on the history of Streetscape; explaining that the initiative began in 2005 to “fix up the town in the name of economic development.” Business owners who wished to speak were then given two minutes each to state whether they were for Streetscape as it stood, against it entirely, or for it with some changes. Speakers were encouraged to give reasoning for their stances.
After three business owners offered the same perspective—their businesses could not survive another tax increase in this time of recession—committee co-chair Paula James asked the committee and the participants if she could share information about how Streetscape would affect everyone’s taxes. Loud voices, unanimous in their response, told James she could speak at the end, this was the time for the committee to listen, not talk.
Speaker after speaker told the committee they were firmly against the plan because they could not possibly afford it. Audibly struggling to keep their voices even, business owners who paid the cost of their own sidewalk repairs and landscaping asked why they should now pay those same costs for other businesses. Many of Ridgway’s business owners do not live in town and therefore cannot vote in the event the Streetscape project proceeds to a bond election; the majority of this group voiced their objection to being taxed without representation.
One speaker who did support Streetscape, Wyatt Gubelmann, emphasized the current low loan rates and called the plan “a big step in the right direction.” However, Greg Doudt’s comments were more representative of the group’s overall sentiments. Doudt, owner of San Juan Liquors, said, “I am totally against spending that kind of money in this kind of economy. I think that’s half the problem we have with our country right now, is that we’re spending money that we don’t have.”
Kate Leonard, of Kate’s Place, asked what would happen to the parking in front of her restaurant. Other objections to the plan included a concern that paving the streets would hurt Ridgway’s branding, that the plan focused too much on beautification and that it seemed urban.
When all business owners had been given their two minutes, James presented the tax information she had been given by the Ouray County tax assessor. The assessor projected that due to a decline in market values of Ridgway real property over the last two years, property taxes are likely to go down in 2014 and 2015 by 16-20 percent. James argued that a Streetscape bond and mill levy would not result in businesses paying more in taxes than they currently do, because overall taxes will decrease much more than they will increase because of a Streetscape bond.
Mayor Clark informed the group that $2.5 million of the project’s $3.5 million cost is designated for infrastructure, the one area all agreed needed some form of improvement. Some owners questioned how revenues from the 0.6 percent sales tax enacted in 2006 had been spent. Town Manager Jen Coates told the Plaindealer that by the end of 2012, $665,000 will have been collected and $443,000 spent, and the fund balance will be about $222,000. Thus far, $161,400 was spent on design and engineered drawings in 2006-08. The engineering project was put out to bid and no local companies submitted a bid. Since 2008, the balance of the $443,000 has been spent on sidewalks on North and South Amelia, the crosswalk at Amelia and Highway 62, Clinton Street signage, a sidewalk at Cora Street and Highway 62 and the sidewalk from downtown to the 4H Center.
James’ and Clark’s explanations were too little too late to win over any of the attending business owners at the first meeting. It ended with one business owner telling the committee it was alright to just start over.
For the second meeting, committee members established a more authoritative role as meeting facilitators. Clark included an explanation of streetscape’s emphasis on infrastructure in his initial comments. James took the floor to explain her tax outlook before the business members spoke. This dissemination of information appeared highly effective, as the second meeting brought forth many more comments aimed in the spirit of compromise than the first.
Ideas suggested in the second meeting included privatizing elements of the plan, scaling back the beautification aspect of the plan, reaching out to local contractors to get a more Ridgway specific landscaping concept, using eco-friendly material on roads instead of pavement, installing narrower sidewalks than the proposed 16’ sidewalks and delaying the realigning of Railroad Street. The necessity of establishing a functioning drainage system to avoid having dangerous icy areas throughout town in the winter was brought up by several speakers as a reason to pursue infrastructure improvements.
Dan Zaugg, a landscape contractor, said, “I think there is talent right here in this row that could do much as far as taking our branding and working it towards specifying and tweaking the design where it actually fits Ridgway a little bit better.”
The committee met Tuesday evening and agreed to present a recommendation to Ridgway Town Council that further study is needed. The recommendation was to be made at a workshop on Dec. 5. The committee’s report said it would like to refine the plan “by paying more attention to parking, cost/financing, signage, and other improvements.” The committee foresees getting more input from residents and presenting an improved plan to council for consideration of a bond election in fall 2013 or spring 2014.
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