City investing $1M in road projects
Hospital, Mill, Samples among areas being addressed yet this summer
A conservative approach to addressing the condition of thoroughfares in Brush is beginning to pay off.
“We’ve saved for a few years and now we are spending the money (on road construction),” City Administrator Monty Torres said last week in a presentation to City Council.
Some residents may have noticed the repaving project on a portion of Hospital Road.
“We removed two to three inches of asphalt and then overlaid it,” Torres said. “The work I’ve seen so far looks really good.”
A project on Mill Street is also underway, Torres said, and road construction on a block of Samples Avenue will also be performed.
The projects represent a little more than a $1 million investment, Torres said, funds derived from saving until projects could be funded.
“Part of the jobs we will be doing this summer is painting work,” Torres added, including that some painting of crosswalks will occur at schools.
“This has been on of City Council’s priorities,” Torres said.
Work will be performed on a three to five-year timeframe, he said.
“We are trying to spread it around town,” Torres said, so residents may mutually benefit. “There is some frustration because we have to close the roads.”
Parade Water Fights discussed
A balance between good, clean fun and potential danger will need to be struck in the future related to Brush’s Independence Day Parade, some members of City Council have said.
“It was a great parade, and a long parade,” Torres said. “It went well, I though. We did have questions as to water cannons and water balloons.”
City Councilor Alison Gorrell reported that one member of the Brush Fire Department was significantly injured when hit in the eye with a water balloon.
Traditionally, firefighters and residents exchange turns hosing each other with water, but the issue, Gorrell said, is water balloons being fired toward fire engines and firefighters with extreme force.
“I’m upset because a firefighter was injured,” she said. “Also, we have our firefighters’ kids riding on the engine.”
She indicated the issue was water balloons coming from the parade observers.
“I feel like the public is responsible,” she said. “How do we keep people safe?”
She also renewed an old argument that some on the parade route don’t want to be sprayed, while others wanted to be targeted.
“We have two issues,” Gorrell said. “There are people in the parade that don’t want to be sprayed and people watching that don’t want to be sprayed.”
She was careful to note she didn’t want the fun of water fights to end.
Added Mayor Pro-Tem/ Councilor Larry Lundstrom: “I don’t remember a parade when there wasn’t a water fight.”
Others on City Council also supported the call to avoid future injuries to anyone related to water fights.
Gorrell, who was among the judges of the parade and had a good vantage point, also complained some motorists failed to observe caution when entering an area where parade-goers were located.
“We had some driving the wrong way down the parade route,” she said. “I hope we can all have a collaborative conversation about this.”
The issue, she has said, seems to be motorists that reach a street that should have been closed and which was barricaded, but which they traveled down at a rate of speed not conducive to the situation, placing children in harm’s way.
“I did want to thank the chamber of commerce for a great parade,” Gorrell said.
Report on Rodeo
While the rain made an annual appearance, it didn’t dampen the success
of the Brush Rodeo, members of Council were told last week.
“It went fairly well,” said Brush Rodeo Secretary Joanne Gosselink. “We had about the same number in attendance as we have in the past. Everything went smooth.”
She indicated attendees may have noticed more vendors and better variety than in recent years.
Also, she commended Chuck Miller for the work he performed toward improving the process for the Watrous Pioneer Award.
“We asked if he would
assist with the award and help us make it what it used to be,” Gosselink said.
“Last year, we didn’t have a nomination and this year we had three.”
Added Gorrell: “I think it was a great rodeo, even with the rain.”
Torres noted one clarification based on some impression the City of Brush operates the event. The Brush Rodeo is operated by a board that will be headed up by David Sharman in 2023.
“We don’t run the rodeo,” he said. “We support it as much as we can.”