While the Berthoud Board of Trustees has had a relatively quiet summer in terms of taking direct action on policy initiatives, the Town of Berthoud has remained busy at work on a number of endeavors across a broad spectrum of matters pertinent to the town.

The resignation of former Trustee Lonnie Stevens in late May, and the nearly two-month process the board undertook to fill his vacant seat with new Trustee Jeff Butler, the board elected to hold off on making major decisions until a full board was in place. According to Town Administrator Chris Kirk, the next couple of months will see the board tackle major initiatives related to parks and recreation, development of downtown, infrastructure and oil and gas regulations, among others.

“We thought it made sense to wait to have a full board and get everyone set before we brought these bigger policy issues back before the board,” Kirk explained. “I think we would have tackled a couple of these items a little sooner, it was perhaps only 30 days or so, so we’re not too far behind but the next few months will definitely see a lot (of action).”

Street and sidewalk upgrades and repairs are currently underway across town, in accordance with the plans set out a couple years ago to spend $1 million annually to repair dilapidated surface infrastructure. Kirk confirmed the work will continue for roughly the next six weeks.

Furthermore, Kirk stated that, come fall, the town will embark on a significant road striping project. “We are getting it out to bid in August and then will be getting the work done in early fall that will create new bike lanes all over town and new bike routes and widen some pavement in strategic locations,” he said. Additionally, work continues to upgrade the water plant and bring the water tower back into operation. The upgrades to the plant will increase the efficiency of the plant in addition to improving water quality.

As earlier reported by the Surveyor, Berthoud currently has a little over $2 million dollars of federal funds in the bank from various pandemic-related relief initiatives. Kirk stated, now that the specific details of how the funds may be spent have been finalized, staff is going to recommend it go to the proposed redevelopment of the 3^rd Street/Massachusetts Avenue area. Last month, the board received some initial design concepts for the area that outlined the redevelopment for which they offered feedback on some parking concepts but appeared to like the overall plans.

“The board gave us some input into how parking should look, the consulting team is going to be able to present us with some updated concepts in the next week and we hope to get those back before the board in August,” Kirk said. “3^rd and Massachusetts is where we want to spend the COVID money, we have talk to the board, but staff recommendation is going to be that we spend that money on that downtown project.” The project is estimated to be in the $4 million range.

A project in the same area – the redevelopment of the old town hall site – is expected to be back before the board in the very near future with the final design concepts being presented after some legal maneuvering and negotiation between the town and the developer take place. Kirk said it is very possible that work on the project can begin early next year.

“That will be a real major development project will a really cool future for the site,” Kirk said, adding that developer Mike Schroetlin, “Has been great to work with, he really understands Berthoud and he wants to be part of helping strengthen that part of downtown.”

Once the June financials are completed, the town will bring the mid-year budget adjustment report to the board. Kirk said the town remains in excellent financial condition stating, “From a revenue and expense standpoint, our revenues are on par with our budget and our expenses are under budget. There are a handful of line items where we spent more than we expected but the vast majority we spent a lot less than we expected. The same is true at the rec center … we are doing better than we planned.”

Another major initiative that will soon be brought back before the board will be setting the town’s overall policy on metro districts as well as ironing out some details on the proposed Turion development at the Highway 56/I-25 interchange.

“We just met with Turion again about their water situation, a project of that magnitude is going to need to bring water to the town and we have some plans in place about how to do that so that it won’t impact our existing water supply,” Kirk explained. “We are working with them on the metro district policy in parallel, the policy is nearly complete draft condition, there is a unique form of an agreement that would be required to be signed by a developer that our attorney is working on about how those districts are managed in the future to address some of the concerns we’ve heard from the community, it should be back before the board in August in well.”

Kirk stated that the board will soon be tackling the issue of oil and gas regulations within town limits, a decision that could have a significant and wide-ranging impact on a number of financial and environmental concerns. Kirk confirmed that former State Senator Mike Foote (D-Boulder) is continuing to work with the board and town staff to develop the policy.

The board will soon see the final design concepts for Town Park redevelopment, a project that, if approved, could begin as early as this year so the park can open in 2023. Preliminary design concepts for what would be a major project to develop the proposed Richardson Park, located in between Berthoud Parkway and U.S. 287 just north of Loveland Reservoir will also be presented soon.

“We’re excited about what we’re putting together there with a destination level playground, incredible splash amenity rocks and water falls and water towers, it’ll look really great and it’ll be a lot of fun,” Kirk said of the soon to be seen final concepts for Town Park.

Kirk explained that updated design concepts for Richardson are extraordinary. The plans call for a four-field softball/baseball complex, additional multi-purpose athletic fields and a destination waterpark amenity in the initial phases. The waterpark amenity, Kirk noted, would be regional draw with multiple large slides, lazy rivers, lounge pools and the like, something that would draw residents from other towns and could be a money-maker for the town.

With a full board of trustees now seated, the group will hold their annual retreat with Kirk and his staff where strategic direction of the town will be decided upon. As Kirk explained, “There are 1,000 things we can do every day, but we have the capacity to do about 10 of those so, at the retreat, the board can give us some direction as to what they want us to focus on.”

Said retreat is tentatively scheduled for September.