Drainage fund will finance ditch work
July 22, 2009
By JoAn Bjarko
The Wellington
Wellington (Colorado) will spend up to $15,000 to improve a drainage ditch on the south side of the Ace Hardware store in hopes of preventing ditch water from backing up onto the business’s property.
The town will finance the work from its new stormwater utility fund and from the budget of the public works department, which will do the grading, town administrator Larry Lorentzen said. Improvements should be completed in August, he added.
Apart from what the town does to regrade the ditch along Jefferson Avenue, Ace Hardware will be responsible to make sure its on-site drainage system functions as designed. The store opened in August 2008, and stormwater has failed to drain efficiently from its detention pond several times during the past year.
The town board made its decision to finance the project after a two-hour discussion at its July 14 meeting when board members, engineers and attorneys debated the best solution while acknowledging that any of the options are temporary fixes.
The decision came in the wake of escalating tensions between town government and business owners Doug and Vicky Andersen over who is financially responsible for the problem. In May, town attorney Brad March started proceedings to pull the business’s letter of credit from its bank to pay for drainage improvements. That request has since been rescinded.
March advised the town trustees at the July meeting that “this is an economic issue.” Developers, he said, are generally responsible for stormwater drainage.
Board member Jack Brinkhoff, however, pushed for having the town pay to regrade the borrow ditch so that water will flow east, away from the store, toward a natural drainage area. Because water and gas lines are buried under the ditch, the ditch will have a minimal slope, although in the right direction.
The town’s decision to improve drainage in the borrow ditch means it will also have to be diligent in keeping the ditch clear of weeds and sediment in order for water to flow east.
Early in the meeting, Ace Hardware’s attorney Blair Trautwein and its engineer Aaron Cvar argued for a solution to drain excess water to the south into a pond on the former Wellington Downs property, which is still vacant. That option would carry more water, they said, and provide greater safety for people using Jefferson Avenue during a storm when water flows over the roadway.
“In my opinion, go to the east and within a year you’re not very happy with it,” Cvar told the board.
The town’s engineering consultant Don Silar listed numerous legal hurdles that could delay completing the option to move water south. Among them were the need for lenders to sign off on easements and for the state engineer to agree that retaining stormwater in a pond would not require a water augmentation plan. Board members feared that process could take up to a year.
“I want to work on going east first, while Aaron looks at the Ace Hardware detention pond,” Brinkhoff said.
Doug Andersen noted that either solution is a “fix that could have been done with money we’ve already spent” on attorneys and engineering studies.
All agreed the solution is temporary because Jefferson Avenue and its drainage system will be improved as more land develops east of the interstate. Utility lines will have to be moved at that time. The first development to move forward will be responsible for improvements, Lorentzen said. Potential projects include Cottonwood Park, phase two of Park Meadows and commercial development on the Wellington Downs property.
