Council tables Ballpark Road project
DOLA grant part of funding; staff fears that rejecting it would endanger future grants for the city
What was supposed to be a routine approval of a sewer line expansion became a bone of contention between members of the Sterling City Council during Tuesday’s regular council meeting.
The council was set to approve a resolution accepting a bid from Dream Builders, Inc., to install a larger sewer line along Ball Park Road to serve properties south of West Main/highway 14. Dream Builders turned in a bid of $998,000, of which roughly onethird is covered by a grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, and the rest is already budgeted by the city.
The sewer line project was first discussed in May of 2022 when Ballpark, LLC, asked the city to share in the cost of extending an 18-inch sewer line to serve the former site of First Christian Church on the southwest corner of the Highway 14 and Ball Park Road; Ballpark LLC now owns that property and had suggested a number of commercial uses for it. The city council at the time decided to move forward with the sewer line expansion, since the property had been annexed and zoned and should be serviced by city infrastructure.
Tuesday evening Councilman Dean Haynes questioned whether the expansion is really necessary. Haynes said he’d heard rumors of development on the intersection, but hadn’t heard anything about any real development of the property.
“What if we do this, and then nothing happens (on the Ballpark property,)” Haynes asked. “We’ve just wasted a bunch of money. I’d like to see some plans, something that says this is really necessary.”
City Manager Kevin Blankenship explained that the project is no longer just for the one property,
but that it would open the possibility of development for between 200 and 300 new homes south of West Main Street in the Highland Park area and along Ball Park Road. Blankenship added that if the council were to turn down the nearly $400,000 DOLA grant, it would be an embarrassment to the city and DOLA would be reluctant to consider future grants for Sterling.
“If we turn this down, I’m not going to ask DOLA for more money, I just can’t,” he said.
George Good, Sterling’s public works director, said the sewer line expansion would relieve some of the load on another nearby line, which already is at capacity. Trae Miller, executive director of the Logan County Economic Development Corp., told the council there have been numerous inquiries about development west of the city limits, but those have been discouraged by a lack of infrastructure to serve that area.
Haynes then turned his objections to the bidding process and seemed to be focused on possible change orders. The Dream Builders bid was $128,000 lower than the only other bid turned in. Haynes said he wondered whether Dream Works had left items off of their bid in order to come in low, only to add change orders later.
Blankenship, Good and Councilman Albert Delgado each explained to Haynes that the request for proposal is very specific in what is to be bid, that the two bids had identical line items in them, and the city always has the right to refuse change orders. Haynes insisted he wanted to see the two bids before voting to approve the project.
Councilman Kellan Rafaeli moved to table the resolution until the bid could be reviewed by all of the new council members. Councilman Luke Janes said he would vote against tabling because there is a need for the project and the previous city council was satisfied with the bid process. The move to table passed with Mayor Matt Foos and council members Haynes, Rafaeli and Delgado voting yes while Janes, John Haynie and Megan Wolf voted no.
Blankenship said he hoped to be able to bring the resolution back by the council’s next meeting in two weeks.