From the Pueblo Chieftain (Peter Roper):
At its regular meeting, council approved an ordinance giving the city 14 small parcels of railroad property running along the railroad right-of-way that extends from 24th Street south to the low-lying neighborhood near the train yard at Midtown. Peppersauce Bottoms has been drenched in storm floods in past summers, but city officials are planning to build several detention ponds to halt flooding. Dennis Maroney, director of the city’s stormwater utility, said the land negotiations had taken nearly two years, but the city will take possession of the land at no cost. Once the paperwork on the land acquisition is completed, the city will begin an environmental review of the sites, to make certain no unanticipated problems exist. What the city intends is to build detention ponds on the former railroad land at 24th Street, 22nd Street, 18th Street and then an infiltration pond closer to the neighborhood. Maroney said all of that work would be completed for the $800,000 that council has been budgeting for the work since 2007.