Mancos signs off on its water plant and opts in to Proposition 123

Mancos trustees closed out two pieces of business at the end of October that had been hanging over the town for weeks: the paperwork finishing a multi-year water plant project, and a state deadline on affordable-housing money.

The approved minutes of the October 28 meeting, which the town posted to its documents page this week, record both resolutions passing.

The water plant

Resolution 10, Series 2026, formally accepts the completion of a construction contract with TKF Contracting Inc. of Lewis. Trustee Ed Hallam moved it and Trustee Corey Jabour seconded; the minutes record the motion as passed.

The work renovated the town’s water treatment plant and added a water tank and other improvements to the water system, paid for with a loan from the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority. The agenda packet the town published before the meeting put the resource impact at approximately $2.6 million and described the resolution as the final project and loan close-out, a step the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment requires once construction is finished. The Current’s preview of that meeting has the detail from the packet.

The minutes do not record a dollar figure for the acceptance itself.

Proposition 123

Resolution 11, Series 2026, establishes expedited review policies for affordable housing projects — the commitment the state requires of a local government opting in to Proposition 123, the 2022 ballot measure that set aside part of state income tax revenue for affordable housing. Trustee Max Loving moved it and Trustee Daniel Hennek seconded. The motion passed.

Town Administrator Heather Alvarez had written in her staff report that the board had to adopt the resolution by October 31 to stay eligible for future funding. Opting in commits Mancos to producing 14 affordable dwelling units over three years, against four that currently qualify; Alvarez wrote that she was asking the state for a good-faith waiver to reduce the number, and that missing the target carries no penalty beyond waiting for the next round.

Bear-proof cans, a walking-and-biking grant and a dark sky project

The announcements section of the minutes carries three items the board was told about rather than voted on.

The first is a Colorado Parks and Wildlife Bear Smart grant written on behalf of the Mancos School District, which brought 19 bear-proof trash cans to the schools and brought them into line with the town’s municipal code. The minutes record the total cost of the project as $33,000, covered entirely by the grant, “with no out of pocket from the town or the school.”

The second is a Safe Routes Activating Communities grant of $10,000 through the Colorado Department of Transportation. The money pays for technical assistance and planning work on safe walking and biking routes to places such as the library, the school and the grocery store, over roughly 12 months, with the Mancos Creative District as a partner.

The third is a federal capital improvement grant that is no longer available to the town: the minutes say it was written when the program served the whole county, and that Mancos alone is not eligible.

Staff also told the board that work had begun on an International Dark Sky designation for the town — a multi-year program that goes well beyond the dark-sky requirements already in the town code — and that deep cleaning and maintenance at Town Hall over the coming months may close the building on some days, with notice to the public.

What else happened

The board approved its consent agenda, carrying the October 14 minutes and a SWORD committee report, on a motion by Mayor pro tem Brent McWhirter seconded by Trustee Andres Esparza.

A discussion of the town’s comprehensive plan produced no action.

Mayor Cindy Simpson called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. with all seven members of the board present. An executive session on the town administrator’s evaluation was removed from the agenda at the start of the meeting and moved to the next board meeting. The board adjourned at 7:11 p.m.

Before the business items, the board heard a housing needs assessment from Shak Powers of Region 9 and a presentation on the Mancos Summer Hub from Katie McClure.

During audience business, five residents spoke. One raised infrastructure and an easement on his property and asked for a meeting with the board; another raised the town’s municipal code on accessory dwelling units and concerns about the Mancos United pool proposal; three others spoke in support of that proposal. The Current does not publish the home addresses the minutes record for people who speak at public meetings. Mancos United’s case for a recreation center is covered in a separate story.

Source: Town of Mancos, approved Board of Trustees minutes for October 28, 2026, posted to the town’s documents page on November 12, 2026; the October 28, 2026 agenda packet.