Hearing to condemn property cancelled

Hearing to condemn property cancelled

November 29, 2001

Sanitation district seeks help with rules

The Cortez Sanitation District board is seeking citizens to help it review the district’s rules. Reviews will be performed on the "Rules and Regulations" and "Pipeline and Manhole Specifications" manuals.

Help is sought from persons in the construction industry, plumbers, and interested citizens. Anyone interested in volunteering for one or both of these committees should send a letter of interest to the board at Cortez Sanitation District, P.O. Drawer 730, Cortez, Colo. 81321. Deadline is Dec. 18.

By Gail Binkly
Journal Staff Writer

Land-condemnation proceedings against an 85-year-old Cortez woman have been averted, at least temporarily.

A condemnation hearing set for Tuesday morning against Aileen Maxwell, who owns land that the Cortez Sanitation District wants to use for its new sewer plant, was cancelled after Maxwell met with members of the new district board Monday.

"We all got together on Monday and had a meeting with that new board and I think we’re going to come to a peaceful solution," Maxwell said Wednesday.

The district board met Tuesday night with engineers from Arber & Associates, the Denver-based firm that is designing the new plant south of Cortez. Chairperson Bob Diederich confirmed then that the hearing had been called off.

"We have averted the condemnation," he said, adding that there was still an outside chance that court proceedings might be needed if no firm agreement could be reached. "But we’re optimistic. We don’t like condemnations."

Prior to a Nov. 6 recall election that resulted in the removal and replacement of three members of the district board, the district had offered Maxwell $63,000 for 4.67 acres of a 120-acre parcel she owns along South Broadway near McElmo Creek and the Glade trailer park. Her land surrounds the sanitation district’s office and southwestern plant.

She was reluctant to accept the proposal because it would have left her only a 60-foot-wide strip of highway frontage, and because she thought the price was too low.

She said she made the district a counter-proposal but received no reply. However, then-Manager Bill Smith, who resigned after the new board took over, said it was Maxwell who did not respond to the district’s proposal.

The district then sought to start condemnation proceedings against her for the 4.67-acre tract.

But the new board was eager to seek to work with Maxwell to avoid the condemnation.

Maxwell said she, her family, and her lawyer had met with the district’s lawyer, one of the engineers, interim Manager Jay Conner, and two of the new board members, Fred Blackburn and Norm Hall.

"I think it’s going to be settled," she said. "I’ve been willing to be friendly with them and talk to them, but that other group wouldn’t even talk to me, and these people, we all sat down like human beings and discussed it."

Maxwell offered the district a different proposal that includes some land to the south and a wider strip of highway frontage. Tuesday night, the board said there are some problems to be worked out with her proposal, because the land to the south will have to be tested to see if the soil is adequate to allow buildings to be constructed on it. Otherwise, the land might be useless.

However, both the board and Maxwell were pleased with the compromise on highway frontage, which would let her keep 150 feet instead of 60 or 100.

"I wanted 200," she said, "but I’m willing to compromise, too."

She praised the new board and said the meeting had been very productive.

"I asked things like, how are you going to get into your place? Will you tear down my fences? How will you leave my land when you get through with it? They went through a lot of these questions I had.

"They were very friendly. They were willing to listen to me, so much more so than the others. This is all I wanted all along — somebody to sit down and explain to me what they’re doing and why and let me tell them what I wanted. That other board wouldn’t listen and these people do."

At Tuesday’s meeting, the board also:

Approved an increase of $41,677 in the district’s contract with Arber and Associates because of inflation and extra expenses caused by a delay of approximately one year in the start of construction on the new sewer plant. Engineers from Arber said Tuesday that construction costs for the new plant, originally budgeted at $8.9 million, have risen to approximately $10.8 million because of 4 percent inflation, a redesign of the new district office that added $900,000 to its cost, shifting $500,000 from the second phase into the first, and other expenses. The board discussed options for speeding up the process, such as pre-qualifying contractors who will bid on the project. The board hopes that construction can begin in the summer.
Voted 5-0 to release Jim Kreutzer, developer of the Southern Bluffs Subdivision, from $11,513 remaining in a letter of credit the district held.
Noted that the new date for regular board meetings will be the third Monday of each month rather than the third Tuesday, beginning in December. Meetings begin at 7 p.m. in the sanitation district’s office at 2902 S. Broadway.