Ancient runes in Gunbarrel...?

Several weeks ago, Gunbarrel Estates residents noticed several workers, along with their trucks, marking up the street. Thoughts immediately turned to street repair and the hope that Boulder County finally was going to do something about the deterioration of county subdivision roads.

Unfortunately, actual road repair is not in the current picture, according to Communications Specialist and Public Information Officer for Boulder County Public Works Andrew Barth.

"We like to keep an eye on basic quality of all the roads we're working with in case we do need to work there," Barth said. "We routinely go in and check, even subdivision roads, for conditions and what you saw, subsurface conditions. You have to know not just what the asphalt looks like, but what the ground underneath it is doing."

Barth said that some unincorporated Boulder County subdivisions have asked what would it take to repair their roads? Barth said the information collected from field reports, as was done in Gunbarrel Estates, will give a more accurate cost for repairs.

He restated that the bottom line is the county will help with preliminary estimates of cost and designs, but county subdivision homeowners are responsible for footing the bill, per county policy.

As the Courier reported in the Sept. 4, 2019 issue, there is a movement for a ballot initiative to create a Public Improvement District (PID) to fund subdivision road repair in Boulder County.

Pinebrook Hills resident Peter King-Smith has helped to establish the Subdivision Paving Coalition (SPC). SPC is a group of residents, companies and various organizations that want to "renew focus on resolving (the) seemingly never-ending quarter-century old issue of funding for subdivision roads in Boulder County."

The group is looking "to secure fair and affordable County-wide funding, including potential ballot initiatives, and to assist the County Commissioners and Transportation Department throughout the planning and implementation of rehabilitation and maintenance for Boulder County subdivision roads."

Smith-King said while his number one preference is for the commissioners to provide funding for road repair in any county-wide measure. Failing that, he wants public works, formally known as the transportation department, to include funding for subdivision roads. If both of those measures fail, Smith-King feels the only other choice is to put together a ballot initiative as they did in 2016.

In February, Smith-King was told that neither the commissioners nor public works would include the requested funding, but that both entities would work with him in creating a ballot initiative.

"We haven't really gotten together with them since then basically due to the COVID pandemic situation," Smith-King said.

Smith-King said the primary goal is finding a source of funding. There was talk of funding by a sales tax and other means. He said, "I think the way this would work is that it would be funded by a property tax, but it would result in a PID." Funds paid into a PID are tax deductible, which Smith-King views as a major advantage.

While the funding requested for the 2016 ballot initiative was $6.25 per $100,000 of assessed property value, in the next initiative Smith-King is looking for $8 per $100,000 of assessed value. He would not support public works if the county came back asking for $10 per $100,00 of assessed value.

Since there are several large tax measures going on the 2020 ballot, Smith-King is looking at a ballot initiative in 2021 or, failing that, 2022.

He hopes the SPC is able to create a member list of individuals and entities that will actively support funding. Smith-King said, before the pandemic hit, "We ended up with like 15 or 20 of the largest subdivisions, they're primarily the ones with HOAs, because not all (subdivisions) have that. ...Everyone we approached has joined and is pretty actively involved in the SPC.

In addition to the subdivisions, the SPC has contacted fire departments serving unincorporated Boulder County and anyone that is concerned about public safety. While recruitment has slowed down due to COVID, the goal is to have a representative from each of 120 subdivisions in unincorporated Boulder County along with public safety organizations.

With two of the three commissioner's seats up for election, Smith-King said the SPC's goal, prior to the election, is to meet with each of the candidates and force them to take a stand on repaving. Those answers will be published when available.

In terms of total cost for road repair and the cost of the diagnostic work being done in Gunbarrel Estates, Barth said, "I was told the number hadn't been updated in a while and would take some work to formulate, so I don't have anything at this time. The company we're using for advance design work has a general 'not to exceed X dollars' contract that is awarded annually to assist with this specialized type of work that we cannot complete. We're billed for the services after they are completed, so I don't have that number either."