Grand Junction City Manager - Mike Bennett - Full Circle Podcast with The Christi Reece Group

Grand Junction City Manager Mike Bennett joins host Christi Reece on the Full Circle Podcast to share what's happening in Colorado's Western Slope hub city - and where it's headed.

Now nearly a year and a half into his role, Mike talks through the city's updated strategic plan, a major leadership restructuring, and why transparent communication with the public drives everything he does.

In this episode:

Transitioning from Fruita to GJ — a budget and team 10x larger
Strategic pillars: core services, housing, fiscal responsibility, community engagement, communication, & continuous improvement
The new Matchett Park Recreation Center opening before year's end
Affordable housing efforts including the Salt Flats project
Single stream recycling coming to all residents by 2027, backed by a $9M+ grant
Water conservation through the DRIP partnership
Road projects, trail expansions, and long-term infrastructure planning
How to get involved and stay informed

🌐 Stay connected: www.gjcity.org | www.engagegj.org 

The Full Circle Podcast — compelling interviews and incredible tales from Colorado's Western Slope.

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Transcript

Christi 0:05

The Full Circle Podcast. Compelling interviews and incredible tales from Colorado's Western Slope from the mountains to the desert. Christi Reece and her team hear from the movers, shakers, and characters of the Grand Valley and surrounding mountain towns that make the Western Slope the place we all love. You'll learn, you'll laugh, you'll love with the Full Circle. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Full Circle Podcast. I'm your host, Christi Reece, and I'm really excited today to welcome back Mike Bennett, the city manager of the city of Grand Junction.

Mike 0:35

Well, thank you, Christi. Thanks for having me.

Christi 0:37

Yeah. So you've been on the job uh almost a year and a half, is that right?

Mike 0:41

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. December was a year, so yeah, pushing a year and a half.

Christi 0:45

Yeah, awesome. Um tell me what are the major changes you experienced from Fruta to Grand Junction?

Mike 0:55

Yeah. So I I would say that there's been a number of things. I mean, obviously the volume is much different in Grand Junction, much greater. Uh the budget is about 10 times the size. 10 times. Wow. The employee base is about 10 times as well. Um, there's a lot of similarities, which is which is great. And there's the opportunity to work with a number of partners that I already have been working with for the last decade.

Speaker 3 1:21

Yeah.

Mike 1:22

Uh but I would say just the the volume and the pace, uh, there's a lot going on, and that's that's a fun challenge. Uh there's incredible people to work with with expertise in so many different areas, and it's fun to build on those relationships and partnerships um from the last decade, but in a much bigger way.

Christi 1:42

And you, I think, had a reputation for really getting things done in Fruta and being very successful there. Do you feel that the systems are uh similar enough that you could have the same successes, or do you feel like, okay, I gotta I gotta do a new kind of uh what's the word I'm looking for? Not a vibe, but like a cadence.

Mike 2:05

Yeah, there's a there's definitely some similarities in the system, form of government, those types of things. But I would say that it it might take a little bit more time uh on some of the bigger projects, just because it's incredibly important to us as public servants to engage with the community. And so the community is much larger to engage with people takes a lot. It it takes more effort and and and maybe some deliberation or deliberate acts that you know we have to make sure that we are not rushing through something too soon and uh but still able to be nimble. So I hope that uh and I feel like we've been able to accomplish a lot in a year, but I look incredibly forward to uh the future because we're really set up now with a strategic plan and we've done a lot of restructuring and opportunities to really move things forward.

Christi 2:54

Well, let's talk about that strategic plan. You're um it started uh before you arrived as city manager, but then you kind of put a bow on it during the last year and a half. Is that right?

Mike 3:07

Yeah, we actually started it after, so I had already arrived, we had the election, and after each municipal election, we really dive into a tradition here in the city of Grand Junction, many other cities, where you dive into updating the strategic plan. And uh so I was here for the the entire process, and really we focused heavily on just starting, we had a facilitated process, and that was great. But some of the questions that I typically ask in those settings are, you know, why do we exist as an organization? What are we best at? And that really led to where those priorities as a council really dived into what they all saw and collectively through some exercises saw as the priorities. It really boiled down to first and foremost core services and the service delivery that we exist to provide to the community. And then housing, of course, was a high pillar. And then it really got into just the responsibility for our fiscal for managing the finances of the city, uh transparency, community engagement, communication, and then continuous improvement. One of our core values that the last pillar is really focused on that efficiency of the government.

Christi 4:16

Right. So can you talk a little bit about core services? I mean, I think most people understand the services that the city provides, but I bet there are listeners and watchers out there that really don't know everything that the city does, and maybe you don't have a list right in front of you, but like, you know, that it's a long list of um organizations and departments within the city.

Mike 4:37

It is. We're we're a full-service city, so from utilities, water, sewer, uh, solid waste, recycling, uh, then you get into public safety, police, fire. We're the largest municipality on this side of the state, and so we uh not only cover a lot of services within the city limits, but there's a lot of assistance and and and partnerships beyond it for the whole Grand Junction area. We also have, of course, community development and engineering, transportation, parks and recreation, a very large parks and recreation departments uh for this area. So there we there are so many uh services that we provide that it's fun because there's a huge variety. You get to work, I get to work with a team, and the city manager role is really over operations and working with those experts throughout the organization on the operations and then bringing recommendations for policy to the city council.

Christi 5:32

City council and the mayor, so you're at all of the city council meetings. Yes. Yes, liaison kind of.

Mike 5:39

Yeah, so my role is to participate in their policy discussions and bring the information that they would need for options and to make decisions. They all have, of course, careers outside of their roles on city council and and and who's the mayor at the time. Uh but so they rely heavily on on giving us direction to bring that information to them and have those discussions so that they can make sound decisions for a community, you know, 70,000 people that might not always agree on everything, right? And so there's that balance of trying to find those shared interests and moving forward.

Christi 6:15

I was at the Community Impact Council breakfast this morning.

Mike 6:18

Okay.

Christi 6:18

And um uh I believe it was John Marshall who was talking about, you know, we don't always agree. It was a pretty good-sized city, and we're not gonna agree on everything, but it yeah, it was a great talk. Anyway, um I in reading um in preparation for our talk today, um, I did notice your emphasis on communication um across agencies, but also with the public. Yes. Um, I know that's really important to you. How have you tried to improve the communication with the public in our community?

Mike 6:49

Yeah, this runs deep for me. I mean, my undergrad was public relations journalism, and then I went on for a master of public administration. But I find that in in community service and in public service, and especially as a as a municipality, people deeply care about what's going on, right? Especially because and and most everything impacts them in some way or fashion. Hopefully when things are going really smoothly, they don't have to think about it, but there's always something going on. And even though we might not always agree on things, I find that uh we want to earn the trust of the of the community by people understanding why we're doing what we're doing, when things are happening, strive as much as possible to avoid surprises and and engage so that we are being nimble and adaptable. And uh there's a lot of constraints and there's laws and there's you know financial constraints and all types of things. But I find that if the more we are open and transparent, and not just by the law, but by really striving, we can earn trust. We need that trust as a city. We need the benefit of the doubt when we try something, and it might not quite hit the mark. And we can admit it and we'll adjust that strategy so that we are focused on particular outcomes and that the community understands that. So some of the new things we're doing, uh, we we've definitely built uh um and and we just as of yesterday completed the hiring for our full communications and engagement team, which is an office in the city manager's office.

Christi 8:27

And uh wonderful.

Mike 8:28

Uh Kelsey Coleman is our communications and engagement manager, and she has an incredible team. She's an incredible leader. She came from CMU to the city uh this past year. And we have introduced things like uh just this morning, I was at Perdita's Coffee doing what's called community conversations, and so it's a it's a spin-off of the coffee with the manager that's been traditional, but we're adding more of those in in different settings, different topics, different uh locations.

Christi 8:57

And and also different staff, not just you.

Mike 8:59

Yes, and sometimes uh we have different guests, um, whether they're community partners or other staff members at the city. The city council is doing what's called the Meet You There campaign, where there are larger town halls that create a different atmosphere than three minutes at the beginning of a city council meeting to make comment where you can come and engage. And then smaller settings where individually those council members are meeting in different locations or within their districts to engage in in a more informal setting. Uh, plus, we we took what was traditionally a council briefing that not many people saw in the past, and we changed it to what's called the city update, and that's on our on gjcity.org, and we update that every two weeks or twice a month. And it's a great snapshot.

Christi 9:45

It is a great snapshot.

Mike 9:46

What we're up to, what we're accomplishing, a lot of operational updates, and uh so we have many more. I could just keep going on, but it's we are trying to really our our goal is to over-communicate and not assume that people know what we're working on.

Christi 10:01

Well, and I I like what you said about you're trying to be transparent, but I think it's also important that you have listening opportunities from from the public. Like you said, a city council meeting, if you get up to speak there, the time is very short, and there's so many different viewpoints generally being shared. And so having more forums for people to express their concerns or hopefully their kudos too. Yeah, that's always nice. So um what do you think are some of the biggest successes that you've had since you've been city manager of Grand Junction?

Mike 10:37

One of the things that I'm most passionate about and has been a success uh during this year, is is definitely just building on the good team that we already had and building that team. So we've done a lot of restructuring to be a little more nimble in decision-making and responsive, and that created a we created a deputy city manager, Kimberly Bolin, and there's a handful of departments that those directors now report directly through her. And then we have a CFO, a chief financial officer, Jay Valentine, who has a lot of experience with the city, and there's a hand, there's a few departments that report uh directly through Jay, and then the remaining uh report directly through me. And between Kelsey, Jay, and Kimberly and I, with a kind of our executive leadership team, we're able to work closely together, be on the same page, have those different perspectives, because we all have different perspectives, and then work with uh all the directors, which is our our broader senior leadership team at the city. And so uh we've been really focused on culture and and three things that we've been focused on over this year has really been building upon the uh core values, which is continuous improvement, where we are diving into many process uh mapping and uh process uh strategies and and finding efficiency in time and and uh those types of things. And then we have collaborative partnerships where we are really looking at how we find shared interest and and shared outcomes with either external partners, and there's many that the city works with.

Christi 12:11

For example, healthcare.

Mike 12:13

Healthcare, CMU, uh all of our economic development partners, like GJEP and the Business Incubator Center and uh the Chamber of Commerce, and so the the list is pretty endless. We have public land agencies and other, you know, the many, many different partners, but really aligning where we and and the county and other other uh government entities. So we really try to instead of focus on where we may not agree is where are those shared interests and how do we build on the momentum in those outcomes. And then uh exemplary service has been a big focus. That's our third uh core value, and that's really focused on how do we take, we have a lot of transactions, you know, transactionary, normal, day-to-day things that are happening with the city, whether someone's paying a bill or submitting an application or engaging with people out doing work in the parks or wherever it may be. How do we turn those into you know special experiences, right? And I know that might sound a little uh fluffy, but it's really important to us that uh people feel and see the personal side of the people that work at the city and their passion and their love for serving this community. And so highlighting those successes is part of our communication plan as well. We have four commitments that we are focused on uh to earn the trust of the community, and that's um how we act with purpose and remember that we are public servants that work at the city, that the community comes before self, that our collective goals are before our individual uh desires uh or interests. Uh how we uh communicate with clarity and over-communicate. We talked about that already. The the third is really um those uh how we how we collaborate with intention and that focus on on the shared interests and then focusing on outcomes. I hope that as we are communicating with the public over the years and the accomplishments we're talking about, they're not tied to what we spent on something, it's what the outcome of something was and what the effort was to get there.

Christi 14:19

No, I don't think that uh you said that it seems a little fluffy when you talk about, you know, having the city employees be uh I mean they are the um representatives of this city that we all take so much pride in. And and I'm sure as city employees, they take a lot of pride in it too, and it's really nice when that shows.

Mike 14:40

They do. And I actually I I push back when people say it's fluffy. I I don't I believe in it 100%. Uh what I spent time last week in front of about 600 or more of our employees uh speaking about these things and and uh you know what I what they can what they know I'm committed to as a CEO of the city organization with them. And I also uh talked about what the expectations of the the directors are and what the expectations of you know those four commitments that are expectations of all the all the employees in the city and I'm losing my head, my headphones here.

Speaker 3 15:20

Sorry, there we go.

Mike 15:21

Um but spending that time with all the employees last week and and a lot of sessions in the first year building up to it, it was just really focused on how meaningful the work is we do. It's not always easy, it's it's tough work, it's long hours. Uh you can't uh brainstorm without critique. I mean, we work in a fishbowl, um, but at the same time, it's incredibly impactful and meaningful and really go home on a tough day and know that you had a positive impact on the community. And uh we attract a lot of people that really believe in that, whether it's in the recreation field or public safety, police, fire, all the different uh service areas. And it is fun in my role to work with all of them and have that variety and also acknowledge I am not an expert at everything we do, but I'm gonna rely on this team of experts. And if we stay true to our fundamentals and our our best practices, our core values and those four commitments, we're gonna get through and be successful at whatever comes our way.

Christi 16:23

Well, what does your typical day look like? I mean, how many meetings are you in every week?

Mike 16:28

A lot. A lot of meetings. Uh, and whether that's one-on-ones with directors or or our executive team or one-on-ones with city council members or community engagements. Uh, today we've had a couple of those. Um, meeting with partners, uh, there's a lot of meetings in that fashion. I like to make sure to carve time to just stay uh caught up with you know your typical email and phone calls and those kinds of things. We have a lot of uh city council meetings, right? So at least for a month, but sometimes other types of engagements. And the preparation for those takes takes a lot of time, a lot of team uh meetings for preparing the information we're bringing or the presentations, what the discussions you know are are to be had. And um so a week like this week, you know, we have two council meetings, we've uh a number of engagements, a number of internal meetings, and but it's a it's a good variety. And sometimes that the day you planned is not the day that uh turns out, which I think a lot of people can probably relate to.

Christi 17:32

Right, in a lot of industries. Yeah, we were talking about that with somebody today. People and and properties, you just never know what kind of curveball you're gonna get. And who knows what's gonna come up in your world.

Speaker 3 17:43

Sure.

Christi 17:44

Um what do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing the city of Grand Junction right now?

Mike 17:50

I think I think there's a there's a few uh different challenges. One is one that we is a priority that we're working on, but it's not an easy overnight fix. And and we are but it's a it's a massive, detailed process when it comes to development, right? And we're working with a task force. You're on that task force, the the uh housing affordability task force, uh our staff team. Uh it's a detailed process when people go through development. So there's a lot that engineers, that partner agencies are reviewing to make sure that that plans meet what's on the the laws of the of the community, and we have to adjust those uh codes as we run into uh new scenarios and new technologies and new trends. And uh so that's a big area where we have room for more efficiency and turnaround time. And uh we're doing process improvement on that, we're doing code uh evaluations so that we can update the code. Um it's a new a new scenario with this this type of committee and used to have a planning commission and city council, and I think we've really narrowed down it took a little bit longer than we thought, but it took we've narrowed down a process, so there's some great collective d debate and discussion about what's the what's the overall best way to handle these situations because there's there's not one way with policy, and so that's one area.

Christi 19:13

Um Yeah, I'd like to speak to that a little bit because I think a lot of people um maybe don't know what we do in those meetings, and there are a lot of really experienced developers and builders in there that uh are bringing forth items that are holding up developments and making them take longer or take extra steps and things like that. So we're trying to refine the process and still make sure we are addressing the safety issues, um, the things that are mandated from the state or the feds, um, but trying to make the process a little bit easier, if can be. I mean, it's not easy.

Mike 19:47

And what's great about having those experts in the in the room is that we can still talk about okay, ultimately we all agree on this outcome, but maybe there's a timing shift in when something's required before the end result, and uh, and and understanding the construction side and uh the development side and having those perspectives mixed in with the review side can really help us identify, and I've seen this throughout my career, where you can, when you have those productive conversations, you can actually start identifying uh even sometimes minor shifts that still result in the same outcome, but in a much, a much more efficient way.

Christi 20:27

Um so housing is is high on the list. Um what other kinds of projects or collaborations are you working on to try to further some affordable housing options in our community?

Mike 20:40

Yeah, we work closely with the Grand Giant Grand Junction Housing Authority and then uh Housing Resources, Habitat, those are those are three of our more common entities or our really uh active entities in the area that are that are focusing on the lower AMI affordable housing type units, whether it's rent or for purchase. And I see that those partnerships only building over time. We have a project that's been in the works even before I arrived at the city. It's called the Salt Flats, and Grand Junction Housing Authority has a component working with a few developers on a portion of that land. Uh we went through an RFP process and we're working with a master developer, but there's multiple developers there with some for purchase and for rent. Uh those take a long time because each developer has to uh they have to complete that capital stack that's that's not only the cost of build, but it's the cost to keep the price low and uh or the rent low. And so that's a long term project. It's a it's a project where the city was able to obtain funding to land bank the or to uh acquire the land for only for a certain mix of affordable housing that met certain state requirements and has to be built out within 10 years. And uh this summer we should see some of the first units uh that are coming what from a group called House um uh rural homes and and they're uh those will be for purchase and the housing authority is gonna manage those deed restrictions.

Christi 22:14

That's exciting. Uh you know, it's it's not an easy fix, as we all know. If it was, uh all communities across the nation wouldn't be talking about the same thing.

Speaker 3 22:24

Right, right.

Christi 22:25

We're all in the same boat. Uh affordable housing is a big topic. Um, and especially in Colorado, and and I feel really lucky here, you know, when I travel, people say, What is it about Grand Junction that draws people there? And I said, Well, there's so many things, the recreation and the the beauty, but also if you want to live in Colorado and you can't afford to live in a ski town and you don't want to deal with front range traffic, we're your option, and we're a really good option, and I'm excited when people come discover us.

Mike 22:52

Yes, definitely. It's fun to hear those stories. So many people that are here that you know we're here for a vacation, uh recreation, passing through working uh as a consultant and falling in love and just making it their home for sure.

Christi 23:08

Um I I don't really want to talk about the downtown uh parking thing because I think it's been like beat to death. But uh what do you think are the biggest lessons learned?

Mike 23:21

Yeah, I think I think the lesson with that one is even though there's a lot of constraints, the engagement still helps, right? And what I mean by that is we hell we held a session before the holidays and then after the holidays with business owners. And and many came to those sessions and it was great. And while that system, of course, is is simply one that the fees pay for the costs and it's to turn over parking spaces, it doesn't mean that, and there's so there's constraints, right? We can't just if we go all free, that means uh in the majority of businesses share that sentiment that that means some of these spaces are gonna be full all day long and customers are gonna have some some challenges, right? But at the same time, that doesn't mean that because there's constraints, there aren't modifications we can make. And we received a lot of great feedback from business owners where we have made modifications since then. So we've we've changed some two-hour to four hour, we've changed uh created some more long-term parking, and it's not perfect, but I think we can constantly make some improvements. It's just the education and the understanding of there are some constraints to the system. Uh you know, have I that dialogue I think has been productive for sure.

Christi 24:39

And part of your overall plan to improve communication with the city. Definitely the community members.

Mike 24:47

Yeah, real engagement where we are listening and then applying everything we can. And if we can't, explaining why we're we're not able to.

Christi 24:57

One thing that we absolutely have to talk about is the new recreation center.

Mike 25:01

Yes.

Christi 25:01

That's getting close.

Mike 25:03

Yeah, we are we're very excited.

Christi 25:05

Yeah. It's been a long time coming.

Mike 25:07

It has, yeah. That's a it's a big center. If you've seen even now, uh FCI has been an incredible contractor on that, on that project. Uh we often get asked when the opening date is. It's before the end of the year. I know that. Um and and towards the end of the year, but we are they are making great progress, and it's fun to it's fun to see that progress. And I think there's a a lot of excitement to experience uh this center that's gonna be uh state of the art for municipal recreation centers.

Christi 25:40

We got to tour it earlier in the construction process, I think um maybe end of last summer. Um just so exciting to see all the elements and how the design has changed from the beginning concepts and so many wonderful things added, actually.

Mike 25:57

Mm-hmm. And it's it's amazing the views out there. You can see all the landmarks all at 360 out in that location as well, and it's it's great.

Christi 26:06

Thinking ahead on that, once that center is completed and landscaped and everything, what are the next stages for Matchett Park?

Mike 26:14

Yeah, that's a great um great question. We the first phase is actually funded with some success of the recreation department in obtaining a number of grants uh to match each other. That we have a first phase where there'll be an artificial turf filled, the multi-purpose filled, uh, more parking and and and an outdoor kind of event space that that comes out of the indoor event spaces that can open up almost like they can open up into that outdoor space. In the future, uh there's also there's also we're working with uh Cop MOBA right now, there are some trails and kind of a bike park that's out there. But in the future you'll see more uh filled space and and things like that. There's a number of phases. It depends on funding, it depends on community needs as well. Um, but it's a there's a lot of area to continually grow out there, and there's always a need for more uh youth filled space for different sports and things like that.

Christi 27:11

And I think I I hear things and I go, oh, I don't know if that's if that's reality or not. Oh, you know, they're gonna do a bike park or they're gonna do this or that, or and so is there a place where people can go and see status updates on those kind of things for that area?

Mike 27:27

Yeah, and if we don't have enough of it, we will add it. But we uh Engage GJ has a number of our bigger projects, and then we put updates related to those. And I know there's a match it park uh update, and I believe it links, and if not, we can get that added, but it links to some of the plans for the future. Now, those plans can adapt a little bit uh based on community need and funding and opportunities, but it gives you a good picture of what the hope is for that area.

Christi 27:55

Will you be in the gym working out first day of operations? I really should. I want to be there when it's opening.

Mike 28:03

Yeah, that uh that'll be fun. Yeah. And there's a uh and the multiple pools and they're gonna be beautiful. And uh the the view when you get up, if you if you want to do the water slide, you're gonna be way up there and see everything.

Christi 28:18

That's something to be really proud of. Yeah. Um in conjunction with that, can you talk a little bit about the Orchard Mesa pool and what the current status is of that?

Mike 28:28

Yes, yeah, that's that's one where our current council is is really interested in making sure that we turn over every stone and figure out any opportunity we have, whether it's some form of public-private partnership, uh, some way of figuring out if there's a solution or not for that pool long term. Uh that includes the fact that we know uh eight million dollars to get the pool up to a long-term position is a is is a big challenge, and doing it alone on our on our own as a city is not necessarily the the the focus that we have right now. Um but first and foremost, where we're at right now is is uh a request to uh District 51 uh to see if they have any desire in donating or selling the land and the and the proper and the building to the city or not. That would take more commu conversations. Um but we actually don't own it and uh we just we are the operator there. And there was a deal uh struck before I started at the city where uh there's funding set aside for demolition by Mesa County and the school district and the city of Grand Junction. But they gave us through the end of this year to continue looking at uh it was really to coincide with the the recreation center, and we won't get a good picture because the rec center won't open till close to the closer to the end of the year. Uh so we we'd like to have some more time to evaluate that, um, but there's got to be to actually seek out real partnerships. We have to we have to know if there's an option for us to own the land first.

Christi 30:11

So is the pool in operation currently?

Mike 30:14

It is in operation currently. Um we it's in a there are times where things go out and we we have uh we have uh paid to fix those and we're we're we're continuing to operate it.

Christi 30:26

But it's an expensive operation with the status everything.

Mike 30:30

We we do subsidize each user much higher than say Lincoln Park. Awesome.

Christi 30:37

Um I was reading about the sales tax revenue being up, which is really exciting.

Mike 30:43

Yeah, that's always exciting.

Christi 30:45

Yeah. When you look at uh the trends in sales tax, um what do you attribute that to mostly?

Mike 30:54

You know, we we've we we also watch consumer spending at a national level and over the holidays where our January sales tax numbers they reflect spending in the city in December, right? The collected at the at the storefronts in December, reported and collected to the city in January. And that's more than one twelfth of our revenue. And sales tax, uh, for those who are listening is is our largest form of revenue going back into these core services that we provide. So it's a big deal that we watch. It's a big deal because it means business is doing better, the economy is doing better locally, and local uh uh consumer spending was uh slightly outpacing national. Uh so that that really helped tip the scale for us at the start of this year. We you know, we've as you're aware, we in the grand junction area for a number of years we were seeing some tremendous sales tax growth. And so we were seeing double digit year over year percentage growth, and that was that was wonderful. And even through the pandemic, we had like incredibly good years. And uh where we didn't know what was gonna happen, right? And uh, but then it started plateauing, and that that's that's normal. There's usually those cycles. Then the the great thing is it didn't start diving.

Speaker 3 32:11

Right.

Mike 32:11

So it plateaued a bit, it was still it's always stayed a slightly higher, but now we're seeing you know four percent above the year before, and that we'd like to see that trend continue to go uh in the right direction there, but uh yeah, people were spending more money at in the in the local businesses, and that's great. Uh, we saw a five percent uh I think it was increase in just downtown, for example.

Christi 32:36

And do any of the business owners think that the warmer weather had something to do with I mean, obviously some industries suffered. It was a tough year for ski areas in our powder horn, which I love so much. Um, but it the weather may have brought more tourists into town?

Mike 32:52

I I don't I don't know for sure, but I would that is a a very educated guess, I would say, from from our standpoint. When you talk to someone like Brandon Stam with the DDA, he's gonna say that they they notice trends in general with weather in in the downtown, for example. And I do believe that uh, you know, we we've always seen upticks in those outside of maybe some holiday shopping, we've always seen upticks in this area when the weather's great and we have more people visiting. We've seen uh we've seen sustained uh visitor accounts, we've we've definitely seen uh a need, we we have a need for more hotels because uh hotel rooms are being booked at our uh in a in a good way. And so we're excited for um some new, you know, some of those types of developments to take place.

Christi 33:41

What um kind of issues is the city thinking about with the potential lack of water in our rivers?

Mike 33:48

So we are we are part of a partnership called DRIP, and that is Clifton Water, Ute Water, and the City of Grand Junction Water. And that partnership over the years has actually uh adjusted the structure of our uh the way we charge for water. So you use more water, you pay more, and so that that's built into the system in general. And then next week we have a press conference coming up where we'll as in a partnership with DRIP that is education and opportunities for people to voluntarily uh reduce the water they're using. Over the years, we've also adapted in our development to uh create opportunities for not just the traditional lawn that uses more water to other opportunities that use DRIP systems and things like that. And uh we have to monitor where we're at to make sure if we if if anything triggers uh you know uh mandatory restrictions. We get that asked a lot uh why aren't we doing that just yet? We haven't hit those types of markers, but we are gonna amplify the education and encouragement for uh using less water. And then uh again, that the the system at which people use and pay more does have some benefit, no, whether it's a good year or a bad year.

Christi 35:05

Yeah, it's scary to look at the mountain. Oh, definitely see how little snow there is.

Mike 35:10

Yep.

Christi 35:11

Um, all right. Topic on everybody's mind single stream recycling. Oh yeah. This is exciting.

Mike 35:18

This is. You know, I think the city had some great foresight uh again before I started, where really started looking ahead, uh, really paying attention to uh a group of uh large corporations that are giving funding to the state of Colorado, uh pla groups like Procter and Gamble, where they have found that in their business model it's cheaper to buy recycled goods and put money into recycling rather than creating from scratch, right? Some of their products. And that has led to the and the city was watching that, and that has led to the opportunity where we can expand and also get reimbursement for some of those uh costs. And we were very successful in uh this past year in getting the largest grant the city's ever received. So it was over nine million dollars. Our team did a great job seeking that grant, and then we have a public-private partnership with Brew and Waste, and what all this culminates to is a regional manufacturer, uh a materials recovery facility. We call it a MERF, and that is under construction. It's uh we've ordered very high-tech equipment with that grant with the grant funding, and that's enabling uh first and foremost this regional center where communities all across western Colorado and other providers, uh even private providers, can bring these materials here rather than trucking those materials, recycled goods to Salt Lake, Denver, or Las Vegas. And then they can actually be processed and put back in the market from Grand Junction, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 3 36:50

That's exciting.

Mike 36:51

But that's the private side running that, but it in but we are a partner, so it allows us now to take a small system we purchased as a city years ago, um, but did not have the capacity to serve every resident, one for just recycling, even when it wasn't single stream, but now be enabled by the end of 2027 that all residents will have that opportunity to have single stream recycling and those already experiencing recycling, if the changeover just occurred, right? So it's great.

Christi 37:19

Yeah. Any other um projects coming up that you want to share that maybe we haven't talked about yet?

Mike 37:27

Sure. Um one that I'm excited about is one of the first paved path on top of a canal that is under construction along Patterson. It's about a mile stretch. You see uh you can uh drive down Patterson, you'll see you know, and keep heading that direction. And you'll see um that can that trail being constructed, and that's a great partnership between the city and uh the Grand Uh uh GVIC, the Grand Valley Irrigation Canal Company. And um, and so that's been a long time in the making, and you know, there's uh and so we're excited about seeing this first uh stretch be a success and hopefully being able to build on that where there's positive impacts to to both the canal company, the city, the residents, and uh so we're excited for that. We have a number of uh road projects that are finishing up from the original uh vote in 2019 for extra bonds for projects. So the next phase of four canyons. We have improvements on a number of roadways. I won't go through the whole list, but um uh so that's exciting. And and those improvements are both for some of the a lot of those are for drivers, some of those are also for uh the multimodal components along those stretches as well. There's a there's a connection between kind of the rail yard uh Walmart area and downtown that's being on Crosby that's being worked on. There's a number of projects that CDOT's working on at the same time. So we have a lot of construction uh going on with roads. Uh we're excited about uh an a replacement and expansion project that started last year, and we're in our second year, just like the rec center, but with uh the Percico wastewater treatment facility. Not always what people are maybe from the clamorous. Yeah, but it's important that people realize that we are always planning ahead, just like with water. We're talking about water projects 2050 and beyond. We have to make sure that we have uh sewer capacity many years ahead so that we especially We don't want to get caught with our pants down.

Christi 39:29

No, we do not we do not. We've seen other communities happen. That's happened, right?

Mike 39:33

Yeah, nice fun.

Christi 39:35

Thanks. Well, I think that um Grand Junction is lucky to have you. And um I I think you're such an asset to our community, and I hope you will stay in this position for many, many years. And I appreciate your commitment to our community and and making it a better place to live all the time.

Mike 39:53

Oh, that means a lot coming from you. I appreciate it. I my family and I love it here. I think having the opportunity to move from Fruta to Grand Junction uh was a long-term move for us. And while you can't predict the future, we we're committed, we we we want to be here a long time. And uh the decisions I think we're making as an organization and and with our city council and with the community is you know, there's always that uh challenge of kind of the the immediate solve something, but also but we have to we always have to think about the long term. And so that's been that's that's a big focus of ours, and and uh making sure that we're setting that foundation so we're making long-term decisions in a way that uh is not reactive, but it's it's it's proactive in a way that benefits uh the community members here.

Christi 40:42

Yeah. Um so last time to kind of plug how people can communicate with you. Yes, uh, learn more about what's going on in the city. The website is gjcity.org. Mm-hmm. And they can go uh find about how they can have coffee with you.

Mike 40:58

The Yes, with a um community conversations, a number of at least one a month, if not more. Um and then the city update on the sit on gjcity.org as well. Of course, uh Engage GJ has uh project-based engagement and updates. But the city update is is a good way that people can just stay up to speed. It's easy to find on the website. Uh there's it's quick to scan. Uh, I think I I really hope people will embrace that over time, and we can we can adjust and make improvements as needed, but it's a team effort at the city putting that together uh and uh it's an opportunity for us to share what we're doing, what's coming up, and uh for people to feel involved as well. And then when they're engaging in all these other settings, you know, opportunity for us to listen and take that feedback in.

Christi 41:47

And there's always opportunities for people to get on boards and um volunteer organizations within the city. Yes, right. That information is on that website as well.

Mike 41:56

Yeah, if you want to serve your community, there's a number of boards in the community as well, but the city itself has a number of boards and commissions where people can serve in various areas that might, you know, be something they're passionate about. And so we always have openings that the city council is doing interviews and appointments for.

Christi 42:12

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here today. I know your time is valuable, and we appreciate you talking with us, and we love sharing uh everything that's going on in our great city.

Mike 42:22

So thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

Christi 42:24

Okay, thanks to all of our listeners and watchers. This is the Full Circle Podcast, and we'll see you next time.

Mike 42:31

Bye.

Christi 42:32

Thanks for listening. This is Christi Reece signing out from the Full Circle Podcast.