Estes Park Town Board approves consent agenda after pulling waterline contract for separate vote

The Estes Park Town Board voted Tuesday to approve a modified consent agenda after removing one utility construction contract for separate consideration. The bundled action approved expenditure bills, the June 9 Town Board meeting and study session minutes, a landfill-remediation grant amendment for work at the Elm Road storage facility, and a change order for final design work on the Fall River Trail.

Mayor Gary Hall read all five original consent items into the record before asking whether any board member or member of the public wanted one removed. Hall requested that Item 4 — Resolution 75-26, awarding the Mall Road Waterline Project contract — be taken off the consent agenda and considered separately. Trustee Chris Eshelman then moved to approve the modified consent agenda with Items 1, 2, 3 and 5 remaining, and Trustee Frank Lancaster seconded. Hall then announced the consent agenda was approved.

The approved package included Resolution 74-26, authorizing an amendment to a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment closed-landfill remediation grant agreement for stabilization work at the Power and Communication Elm Road storage facility in the amount of $332,051. It also included Resolution 76-26 approving a $21,606 change order with OTAC Inc. for design of the final segment of the Fall River Trail.

The item removed from the package, Resolution 75-26, was later approved on its own after questions about the project contingency. Hall said the contingency amount for the Mall Road Waterline Project seemed high, and Trustee Bill Brown noted it was 30%. Eshelman said the contingency was increased above the town's typical 20% because of higher-risk work areas including crossings near the Bureau of Reclamation siphon, the Big Thompson River and Highway 34, as well as a high-pressure gas line in the area.

Hall said the waterline project would be "a real value" to the water system and the community, while Trustee Mark Igel called it "a huge asset to get that done." After that discussion, the board approved Resolution 75-26 separately.