The city of Glenwood Springs is doing a series of presentations for residents called “Make it Make Cents,” explaining their approach to infrastructure replacement and repair and where that money comes from. The most recent in the series took place on July 15 at the Glenwood Springs Community Center.
The city currently has a half cent sales tax for every dollar spent in Glenwood Springs that funds all infrastructure, which expires in 2026.
But it’s not going to be enough money to fund all of the city’s maintenance that needs to happen over the next 20 years.
“Nothing is cheap, and it’s just getting more and more expensive,” said Matt Langhorst, the city’s public works director.
Langhorst said the city has a few different options to continue funding its infrastructure. The first option would be to extend the half cent tax.
The second option would be to ask voters to increase the sales tax to three quarters of a cent. Langhorst said that would be an approximately $1.8 million increase over the half cent tax’s revenue in 2024. If the math is correct, Langhorst said they’d be able to touch pretty much every street in Glenwood in some way over the next 20 years. The half cent tax would only account for 11 years of construction.
A third option would be to ask voters to increase the tax to a full cent for every dollar spent. That full cent, Langhorst said, would allow the city to not just do road replacement and repair projects, but also to do all of the associated water and sewer improvements and replacements that come with road repair.
The city estimates that construction costs have gone up about 8.7% each year from 2006 to now. Langhorst said builders estimate the increase in cost is closer to 7% yearly. Either way, it’s an industry that’s only getting more expensive, and Langhorst expressed concerns about the city’s ability to keep up with everything that needs to get done.
He said one aspect they consider when they look at projects is “bang for your buck,” or how much repair work they can get done as construction costs increase rapidly.
But it’s only one piece of the puzzle.
“We have a lot of different things we look (at), like when we decide when and where to replace streets,” Langhorst explained. “How is the water infrastructure? Can I provide life safety from that water infrastructure? How is the roadway? Can I provide life safety with that roadway?”
He said when the city does big projects like replacing or repairing roads, they’re also looking at ways to make roads more accessible for pedestrians and cyclists, and to keep all road users safe. One way they can do that is by narrowing certain roads.
“You can definitely reduce maintenance by narrowing what you have, because every square foot is going to cost you in the long run,” he said. “We’re trying to traffic calm, still make it usable and plowable and maintainable for us.”
Monday night’s talk at the community center was the third of four “Make it Make Cents” presentations. The first two took place at Sopris Elementary in South Glenwood and the Hotel Colorado. The city will be presenting the same information over Zoom and live on Facebook next week, for anyone who missed the first three talks.
Registration and more information on road projects underway are available online.
