[BoulderCouncilHotline] Orchard Grove water issue and staff response

[Weaver, Sam]

Fellow Council Members and HOTLINE Followers,

I just made a site visit to Orchard Grove, and wanted to share with you what I learned.  For those who might not know, the Orchard Grove mobile home park (NE corner of 30th and Valmont, 215 units) has experienced a series of water line breaks, each of which requires shutting off the water to the entire park for repair.  The residents of the park have been mostly without running water for 6 days.  Potable water is being supplied from one central location, which is quite a hardship for many residents.  Not being able to easily flush toilets is another hardship.

State, County, and City agencies are actively working to improve this situation, which is exacerbated because the company which owns the park and the utilities, Riverstone Communities, does not have a functional map of the park plumbing utility system.

Once I found the currently active repair site, I spoke with a City worker diligently assisting the Riverstone contractors, as they were re-pressurizing the park system for the 7th time of this event.  I spoke with him, and learned that the City and the contractor had recently found some utility facilities in the park (a PRV no one knew about) that made them hopeful that this time the re-pressurization would hold for the night.

In addition to these line engineers, I then bumped into Jeff Arthur, head of the City of Boulder Public Works for Utilities.  Jeff was helping coordinate strategy for fixing the immediate crisis, and thinking of ideas for preventing future such events.  We were shortly joined by Kurt Firnhaber, Director of City Housing and Human Services, and Maryanne Weideman, Assistant City Manager and Mike Chard with the Boulder County Office of Emergency Management.  These three staff were making contingency plans for assisting residents if the water service was not restored tonight.  The plan included ensuring that the central water truck was available and full, having the Red Cross called out to identify and prioritize vulnerable residents, to move these residents to a hotel if they desired, and to provide access to the Boulder Rec Centers for other residents.

I was extremely proud of City staff for their efforts, many of which are outside of their official duties.  Helping private contractors figure out how to repair a system on private property with no design diagrams, and coordinating human support responses with other state, county, and non-profits is important work, and the City staff were extremely responsive.  Kudos to our staff for their dedication, and responsiveness over the weekend.

Next steps are to consider at the Council Agenda Committee adding an emergency meeting at the beginning of the Feb 12 study session at 6pm.  If it occurs, the meeting will be to get an update on the Orchard Grove situation, ask about potential next steps, and perhaps to hear from Riverstone Communities representatives.

All the best,

Sam Weaver
Mayor Pro Tem
Boulder City Council
weavers at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:weavers at bouldercolorado.gov>
Phone: 303-416-6130

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