SAN MIGUEL COUNTY BRIEFS

TELLURIDE – The San Miguel Board of County Commissioners approved three separate agreements last week to solidify construction agreements surrounding the approved Lawson Hill Underpass project. The underpass, when built, will allow pedestrians and bikers to travel below Highway 145 at its busy intersection with Society Turn.

The first agreement the commissioners approved at last Wednesday’s meeting was with the towns of Telluride and Mountain Village, allowing the county to relocate a Telluride waterline and adding a manhole to a sewer line that belongs to both towns.

Second, the commissioners approved a Transportation Enhancement Contract, which formally accepts the Colorado Department of Transportation enhancement funding for the project. Within that particular document is a resolution appropriating matching funds.

Finally, the commissioners approved the license agreement that allows the selected contractor to work in the CDOT right-of-way.

According to Kari Distefano, of the county’s Open Space and Recreation Program, bidding for the project will begin this fall. Construction could begin as early as this fall, with moving the utilities, if agreements with CDOT are made. Otherwise, the bulk of the construction will occur early next spring.

Distefano said the current estimated price of the underpass is $1.2 million. Because the project is so dependent on oil (asphalt and material hauling), that number is a moving target. The county has already received a $140,000 grant from CDOT, with two grants still pending that could provide an additional $500,000.

Program Would Reduce School Traffic

With the Telluride school year in full swing, San Miguel County, The New Community Coalition, Sheep Mountain Alliance, and the Telluride School District are partnering together to create a new program where students and businesses can take an active role in reducing the carbon footprint of everyday traffic to and from school.

According to the National Safe Routes to School website, 20 to 25 percent of morning traffic nationwide is attributable to parents driving their children to school. In Telluride, particulate pollution increases sharply at peak commuter times. A reduction in school related commuter traffic would have a positive impact on the particulate pollution.

Although specifics of the program have not yet been worked out, with a launch date yet to be set, the Yes Club will teach students how to calculate their own carbon footprints, and with the support of local businesses, work to reduce them.

Students will track the total pounds of carbon emissions they eliminated by walking, biking, riding the bus, or carpooling to school on a weekly basis. Businesses that wish to become a “Green Star Business” will purchase carbon credits ($20 offsets one metric ton of carbon) to coincide with the tracking of the students’ carbon reductions.

“This could reduce the congestion around the schools,” Kari Distefano, of the county’s Open Space and Recreation Program, said at last week’s commissioners meeting. “We have come up with a program that is incentive-based and the goals are to reduce the carbon emissions.

“Based on a calculation, if businesses were to pay 20 cents per kid to take alternative transportation, it could reduce a ton of carbon every single day,” she said. “Our hope here is that businesses will support the program by donating $20 to the green program.”

All three commissioners agreed that Distefano should play an administrative role in the program. It is unclear when the details of the program will be completed or when it will begin.

More County Approvals for Gold Run

In continuing its partnership with the Town of Telluride to build more affordable housing in the region, the San Miguel Board of County Commissioners approved the shared development agreement, the final plat document and the authorization to proceed document for the Gold Run affordable housing project, which will be located on the eastern edge of Telluride.

Wednesday’s approvals give Town of Telluride building officials the go-ahead to begin advertising requests for qualifications on prospective architects and contractors to build the project, which could include at least 15 single family detached dwellings on the site that straddles the Town of Telluride/San Miguel County line. The county commissioners approved the annexation agreement to move the land into the town’s ownership on Aug. 6.

“We are happy we are moving forward in this partnership,” Commissioner Art Goodtimes said after Wednesday’s unanimous approvals. “I hope we can continue it.”