A deluge of fees

A recent story in the Durango Herald discussed stormwater infrastructure. In that article, our director of public works, Bob Lowry, stated that over the last 10 years, $2.8 million has been spent on storm drainage, but he says the City should be spending $2.5 million per year. (Yikes, that’s a huge increase).

The drinking water infrastructure needs to be completely dug up in town, too. Another article revealed large holes in those pipes. Cha-ching, a fix increase for us once again.

I get it, town dwellers don’t want flooded streets in their neighborhood when new grates could keep to-go coffee cups and other debris from clogging up storm drainage outlets, and who wants contaminated drinking water out of our taps? What I don’t get is why residents in town are expected to hold the bag. Tourists use the same pipes and pay a large fee above the cost of their stay. Some, not all, of that fee could help us out.

Powers that be: consider the folks living here who have house or rental expenses going sky high and manage the money better, please, so we don’t have to move.

– Sally Florence, Durango