From The Pueblo Chieftain (Matt Hildner):
The historic mining town west of the San Luis Valley is in line for a long-awaited fix to the flume that carries Willow Creek through town.
The Colorado Department of Local Affairs awarded $1 million to the town of Creede Tuesday to fix the stone-masonry structure whose potential failure was regarded as a flood threat to much of the town of 425 people.
“This is something we wanted for a long, long time,” Town Manager Clyde Dooley told The Chieftain Wednesday.
The 1.1-mile flume that catches the creek as it tumbles out of a steep canyon was built in 1950 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Homes and businesses back onto the flume. Four street bridges, eight foot bridges and water mains also cross the flume’s path.
In a 1989 report, the corps found the structure was nearing the end of its life cycle, with deterioration along the flume’s toe — where the side walls meet the bottom of the flume.
But the town struggled to find matching funds for repairs in the 1990s and when the corps made its regulations more strict following Hurricane Katrina, the deteriorated state of the flume left it outside the agency’s funding stream.
The town also made an unsuccessful attempt to insert a fix into a 2010 federal bill for water projects.
Enter the state’s Department of Local Affairs.
“This just turned out to be perfect timing,” Dooley said. “DOLA is the hero here.”
Dooley also credited Randi Snead, the town’s clerk and treasurer, for developing the current proposal.
The town will contribute $520,000 from reserve funds for construction in addition to budgeting $5,000 annually in the future to meet maintenance demands.
The repairs will fill voids and cracks in the flume and see the installation of concrete curbing along the toes of the channel.
The town hopes it can complete the repairs in August and September to avoid spring runoff and impacting the bulk of summer tourists.
