Walsenburg Still Searching for Administrator

by Brian Orr
WALSENBURG- The Walsenburg City Council moved forward in their quest to find a new city administrator, stated interim administrator Lew Quigley.  Ads are being placed, with the hope that the council will be able to interview candidates in February, and having someone start in the position by April 1.  No foolin’.
Quigley mentioned he has had people call for more information, but to date, no one has applied.
LiveWell Administrator Cindy Campbell told the council about a meeting LiveWell and CDOT are holding at the Huerfano County Community Center to get community input on a million-dollar grant to build bike lanes and safer crosswalks throughout Walsenburg.  The meeting was held Wednesday night, after presstime.
Planning and Zoning member David Roesch told the council the Tiny Homes neighborhood project, set to build in the football field behind the Spanish Peaks library, is still on track to break ground in the spring, with a future problem being a planned six-foot wide drainage pipe needing to be sized down into the city’s three-foot wide drainage pipe.  Problems with the size reduction would be rare, but with a massive storm, it could lead to flooding issues downhill.
Council members ended the meeting with general grousing about trains in the Walsenburg area, with their new habit of stopping, then backing up, then stopping again, then slowly going forward.  It was mentioned that the tracks in town are literally coming apart, and the railroad ties are rotting away, forcing the trains to slow down to 10 miles an hour.
The tracks are managed by Union Pacific,which have not returned the city’s calls about what is going on.