Growth and development has long been at the forefront of issues facing the town of Berthoud. While opinions on the subject matter span the entire spectrum, the simple fact of the matter, according to Berthoud Town Administrator Chris Kirk, the entire Northern Front Range is a booming area because it is such a desirable place to live. Kirk also explained that growth, specially in Berthoud, can and, he believes, has been managed in a fashion that has been beneficial to the town.

Growth, both residential as well as commercial, provides a windfall of tax revenue to the town. After being very nearly bankrupt just a decade ago, the town is now flush with cash and, as Kirk explained, continues to budget very conservatively while providing an ever-increasing number of services and amenities for residents.

The town will again this year spend $1 million on street repairs and upgrades in accordance with the plans set forth by the infrastructure upgrade plans which prioritize the areas where the state of disrepair is most serious. Kirk said the residents will continuously see upgrades to roads and streets for the next several years as well as continued improvements, particularly downtown, to sidewalks.

The proposed Turion development (formerly called Wilson Ranch) at the intersection of I-25 and U.S. Highway 56 recently came under the scrutiny of the town board. To clear up any misconceptions that may exist, Kirk explained the board last month rejected a request put forth by the developers to amend the already existing metro district service plan.

“The first and important detail was that the board didn’t reject the project, they did not approve amendments to the existing metro district service plan,” Kirk explained, stating the development has an approved PUD and metro district dating back nearly 20 years. “For all intents and purposes, it’s pretty far along in the development process and has been for two decades, but a lot has chanced in the last two decades, so they were requesting some changes to their metro district governance structure and their ability to issue long-term debt, not a change to their approved mil levies. Nevertheless, the board wasn’t comfortable with the changes to the service plan for their metro district and so they’re kind of in a holding pattern until we can clarify the pathway forward through this metro district policy.”

Regarding the metro district policy, the town board participated in a work session initiated by Mayor Pro Tem Maureen Dower. As Kirk explained of the work session, “Mayor Pro Tem Dower did a nice job summarizing her vision for MDs and how they might operate and function in the town using some communities around us as a guidepost.” The board gave direction to town staff to undertake a “rigorous review process,” that Kirk said will take a few months and will be brought before the board upon completion.

As the population in the town and surrounding areas continue to increase, the opportunities for more commercial development will likewise expand. Developments on the northern side of town near Heron Lakes, Prairie Star and on the western side of town at the Mountain Ave/287 intersection, are all progressing with multiple companies expressing interest to the developers.

Said Kirk, “We hear a lot of comments about ‘we want a certain kind of restaurant or a certain kind of retail establishment and why don’t we have those here?’ but the reality is the town doesn’t build those, the town doesn’t build retail establishments, we don’t build restaurants but those businesses that are often cited as desirable, they want a big population base.”

In other news, Kirk said town staff is aware of some complaints about the water temperature being too cold at the rec center pool. Kirk said the pool using a sophisticated temperature control system that maintains an 86-degree water temperature in the leisure pool and the lap pool is a few degrees cooler.

The Berthoud Area Chamber of Commerce elected to move the Berthoud Day festivities from the traditional location at Town Park to Waggener Farm Park this year. Kirk said that, since Waggener lacks the mature trees that provide shade at Town Park, the town will be providing some large, 40’x’60’ shade structures for people who wish to avoid spending their entire time in direct sunlight.

Lastly, the town will soon be undertaking more robust efforts to communicate with citizens using several different approaches. Town staff from the across the more than one dozen departments will all be taking part. Said Kirk, “We want to engage with the public a lot more, we want to get more feedback, we want to share a lot more, over the next few months folks should see a fairly significant increase in the way that we communicate.”