Central City deals with issues

Ben Dugan

1/27/2005 - The regular meeting of the Central City Council took place on January 18, 2005 at City Hall. Call to order occurred at 7:00 pm. Alderman Ron Slinger, Mayor Buddy Schmalz, Alderman Francis O’Neill, and Alderman Chip Wiman were present as well as City Manager Lynette Hailey and City Clerk Wendy Heffner. Alderman John Starkey was recovering from surgery he had earlier in the day. Contents of the meeting are separated as follows:

Historic Richville House - Early in the meeting there was discussion regarding the Richville house that is sitting vacant and abandoned on the Chain O’ Mines tailings site near the Central City Parkway on Nevada street. The possibility of using HPC funds to determine the best course of action regarding the historic house was addressed and the issue was tabled for future discussion. This same subject matter and discussion was also addressed in the spring of 2004. There was a big debate on whether to sell the house for $500 to a council member or to transfer ownership to the Central City Opera Association, which already owns approximately forty-five properties in Central City, and have them move it to a vacant city lot for repairs and restoration. These were the only two responses after a period of advertising in the local newspaper for public bids.

Term Limits for HPC appointees - Term limits for the Historic Preservation Commissions were then discussed. Alderman Francis O’Neill favored term limits while Mayor Schmalz was diametrically opposed and stated that it is not fair for a good committee member to be dismissed from the committee just because his/her time is up. Alderman Wiman was asked his opinion and he stated, “Its political” and an effort to move out the current historical preservation committee members. Mayor Schmalz stated that, historically, whenever there had been a vacancy few people ever applied to fill the open vacancies. Currently there are three applicants for the single opening on the committee. Alderman O’Neill stated that it was an application of fairness and inclusion as a community and should apply to appointed members as well as elected members. They receive a $55.86 per month stipend for their participation. O’Neill continued that he has spoken with a lot of disgruntled people out there. Schmalz pointed out that good members could be re-appointed by the council and ineffective members would not. He also added that there are some disgruntled people out there but there are many who aren’t. Bob Spain came to the podium and stated that they have been working for two years on a new sign code and to replace the current members would mean starting all over again. He also added that Central City is historic and that it belongs to the city residents as well as Colorado and must be preserved, as it is history. It was then noted that any new ordinance would not be retroactive and the term limits would begin from the time it was passed.

CC Parkway and Casino Parking - City manager Lynnette Hailey discussed Annie Oakley’s owners Don and Havana Boring’s request to address parking issues at the Bridge Street intersection. The Borings are not happy with the new road and the confused parking situation. He previously stated that he spent 8 hours on Christmas day on the street guarding Annie Oakley parking spaces. He also stated that people are very confused and that the council and the city is alienating at least 10 casino patrons a day.

  People are very angry about being ticketed for parking in front of a casino and the city just raised the ticket price to $30. Havana Boring has stated that the parking situation needs to be re-looked at as “we had an 11 year pattern established that was taken away without any discussion, literally almost overnight.” She added that the signage is ineffective, the patrons don’t read it, and then they get a ticket. Mrs. Boring doesn’t feel that’s the way to treat the visitors to our city. Manager Hailey stated that as a point of clarification parking tickets were $10. This discussion occurred at the January 4, 2005 meeting and it was decided at the January 18, 2005 meeting to review and discuss it further at the next meeting.

Water Rights - The council then discussed and rejected a request to sell City property on Fall River Road as presented by manager Hailey. Central City owns certain water rights in the Fall River area (Northwest of Idaho Springs) and various options have been proposed including the possibility of a pipeline. This issue and future development of Hidden Valley near Central City Parkway’s access junction to Interstate 70 was added for further discussion at the next meeting when Alderman Starkey will have returned. The next regular Council meeting is scheduled for February 1, at 7:00 p.m. in City Hall.