Rep. Neguse visits Eagle County to check on investments in clean water, transportation and child care
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
A check for nearly $1 million is always a nice thing. Now all Gypsum needs is another 84 of them.
Rep. Joe Neguse paid a quick Wednesday visit to the Vail Valley, starting in Gypsum at the town’s wastewater treatment plant. That plant is the very definition of “sticker shock.” A new facility in 2019 carried an estimated cost of roughly $35 million. By late 2023, the cost had ballooned to $120 million before settling at $85 million. That’s better, but still a staggering increase.
Neguse and several staffers came to the plant with a big cardboard check for a bit more than $950,000 from the final 2024 federal budget.
Gypsum Mayor Steve Carver quickly handed over explanation duties to Town Manager Jeremy Rietmann, who talked about the skyrocketing cost of the treatment plant’s costs.
Most of that cost will be covered by existing ratepayers, as well as increased wastewater tap fees for new homes in town.
Support Local Journalism
“Just keeping the plant compliant with regulations, that’s shared by all ratepayers,” Rietmann added. “We’re doing both.”
State regulations require entities that run wastewater plants to start planning new ones when existing facilities reach 80% of capacity. Rietmann said Gypsum’s plant isn’t yet at that point. But, he added, the current facility — which is about 20 years old — now processes around 1 million gallons per day, and is currently running into the 70% range.
One of the biggest current problems, Rietmann said, is meeting new state requirements for discharge into the Eagle River.
“Let us know if we can be helpful with respect to your interactions with (the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment),” Neguse said. “We’ve done that for a number of other communities.”
After a brief tour of the wastewater plant, Neguse and his small entourage took a quick drive to the Eagle County Regional Airport, where officials asked for his support for an international inspection station there. The airport is set to receive an additional $500,000 in funding for this project.
After the visit, Josh Miller, Eagle County’s Assistant Aviation Director, talked about the effort to get that facility created.
Inspection stations are required for any flights coming into this country from other nations. That could be either commercial flights or private aircraft. Miller said over the Christmas holidays, he’s counted 10 or more private aircraft from Mexico or other Latin American countries on the tarmac at the Vail Valley Jet Center. People on private aircraft can now pass through a small inspection station at the local airport. A larger inspection station could open the local airport to flights from Aeromexico or similar carriers.
Airport officials know where they want to put that facility — on the west end of the current Vail Valley Jet Center. That 13,000 square foot facility would be expanded by another 7,000 square feet or so, in order to handle the federal minimum of 250 passengers per hour.
Miller said Aeromexico has provided a letter of support, and airport officials have sought support from Neguse. But more difficult will be finding ways to pay for the facility. Funding will be something of a puzzle, Miller said, using a combination of grants, federal, local and public-private partnership money. Neguse said he’ll support those efforts, and take the ideas back to Washington D.C. If everything comes together, Miller said construction could start in 2025, with the station ready to open in time for the 2026-27 ski season.
Neguse’s final Vail Valley stop Wednesday was a tour of the Edwards Early Learning Center, which will receive $850,000 in funding for renovations to “help the center serve an additional 129 students,” according to a release from Neguse’s team.
“This investment will support the completion of the center by adding preschool classrooms and expanding its capacity to serve a greater number of local infants and toddlers,” the release stated.
