Aspen City Councilman Bert Myrin wants to know why the new police department building is slated to run on natural gas.
The $22.5-million new building for the Aspen Police Department will not be powered by the city’s all-renewable energy grid, but rather run on natural gas boilers.
City facility manager Jeff Pendarvis told council earlier this week that cost and “undue burdens” on neighbors are concerns. The building will need to be operational 24 hours a day, and Pendarvis said this makes electric power cost-prohibitive.
At Monday’s council meeting, Myrin made it clear that he isn’t buying it.
“Except in the '70s when people actually used electric and it actually worked for some reason,” he said. “I don’t know why it worked 40, 50 years ago, and now we have to burn dinosaurs.”
Myrin is now pressing City Manager Steve Barwick to review the decision for the new city-owned building to use fossil fuels.
