County agrees to help with flume diversion

CREEDE— Creede City Manager Clyde Dooley and City Trustee Frank Freer attended the first of month commissioner meeting on Monday, Feb. 5 to ask for the county’s help in widening a culvert to allow Willow Creek to be diverted while work is completed on the flume. City officials have been working on plans to have the flume resurfaced for several months, and with the help of funding from an Energy and Mineral Impact grant through the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) have been able to make the plans into reality.

Dooley began by explaining that he is working with Road and Bridge Supervisor Danny Rogers to find a way to increase the size of a culvert that goes under the road and parking lot at the Mineral County Health Clinic. “There is currently a small pipe that allows water to flow through the ditch along Rio Grande Avenue. We are asking if the county would help us by installing at least a 30-inch pipe to allow more flow for when we need to divert the water out of the flume for repairs,” explained Dooley.

Rogers agreed that the project would be easy to complete and would only cost the county the price of buying a new pipe. While investigating the project, Dooley and an engineer working on the flume found some 30 to 40-inch pipe at the road and bridge yard, but Rogers stated that he thought a plastic pipe would serve their need better than a corrugated metal pipe they already had. “I can find out how much a plastic pipe would cost and then we can go from there,” said Rogers.

Commissioners agreed that having the pipe installed was the least they could do to help the city finish the flume repair project and agreed to have a pipe put in place as soon as possible. Dooley continued, explaining that the diversion would begin at the top of Loma Street where the ditch branches off of the main flume and would need to handle the amount of water that comes down from the northern part of Creede. “The engineers say that when the water is diverted it will only take about two weeks to complete the work on the flume, but we will need to use the ditch periodically every five years as per our agreement with DOLA,” said Dooley.

In the agreement the city agreed to make sure to keep up on repairs on the flume at least once every five years, when the water out of Willow Creek would be diverted to the ditch. Dooley finished by stating that they were currently in discussions with CDOT about the portion of ditch that travels under Highway 149 at the ballpark. “They will be sending engineers of their own out to make sure that no damage will be done to the highway when the amount of water flowing under the road is increased. After that we will know for sure that this is the route we will take,” said Dooley.

“I think that this is the very least we can do to help get the flume repaired,” stated Commissioner Scott Lamb. Commissioners voted to approve the project and directed Rogers to price a plastic pipe in order to get it done before the water needs to be diverted in August.

 


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