The Mayor's Mixtape

The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 15

• City of Pueblo

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Episode 15 Mayor Graham hosts Chief of Pueblo Fire Department Barb Huber and Pueblo Firefighter and Public Information Officer Tim Trujillo. Chief Huber and Tim talk water safety and swift water rescue with the exciting new WaterWorks Park amenity in Pueblo. Always wear a personal flotation device or life jacket while in or near water. Interested in checking the water level? Visit riverapp

 Mayor Graham also gives a recap of the City Council Work Session from June 5 and talks about upcoming events in Pueblo. Participate in Bike Month in June and don't miss out on the exciting programming with El Centro del Quinto Sol.

 Email your questions or topic suggestions to mayor@pueblo.us. Like, subscribe and share the podcast with your friends, family and neighbors! 

Haley Sue Robinson:

Welcome to the 15th episode of the Mayor's Mixtape. I'm Haley Sue Robinson, director of Public Affairs, city of Pueblo, mayor Heather Graham, and we are going to have two special guests on the show today. But first of all, I want to say thank you to all the downloads last week. You can find us on Apple, spotify, buzzsprout. You can also find us on Local Channel 17 and on YouTube. Don't forget that. You can email us, mayor@pueblo. us, for questions or topic suggestions and share this with your friends or your neighbors, for all the topics and coverage that we have of city events. And with that, we're going to welcome our new guests. Okay, so we're here to welcome two of our guests from the Pueblo Fire Department. Chief Huber, you want to go first?

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

Good morning. I'm Barb Huber, Fire Chief for the City of Pueblo.

Fire Fighter, Tim Trujillo:

And I'm Tim Trujillo, firefighter. Public Information Officer City of Pueblo.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Great and, you know, part of the reason that we have you here is because we have this amazing new amenity in the City of Pueblo and it was actually an $11 million project Waterworks Park, right behind City Park, and it's a new recreational amenity. But over the weekend we heard a lot about folks who were struggling, who were not wearing proper life safety vests, and it caused some concern for rescues. So we wanted to invite you on to the show to talk to us a little bit about water safety. So do you want to share with us a little bit about what to do when you're on the water, whether it's the river, whatever recreation?

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

Yeah, excellent question, and I'm so glad to have the opportunity to talk about the safety, because it is an amazing recreational area and we do want people to enjoy it it, but we also want people to go home every day, so I'm going to let tim lead off the list and then I'll piggyback on anything I think we need to catch up on yeah, and as an asset to the city of pueblo and the state of colorado.

Fire Fighter, Tim Trujillo:

actually, we see people coming from up north.

Fire Fighter, Tim Trujillo:

It is going to be one of those assets that's going to be here for a really long time and it's something that we need to talk about safety-wise how we should be using that resource, how we should stay safe in that resource and how we should continue to enjoy it throughout the summertime, and that's by wearing personal flotation devices, being on approved watercraft.

Fire Fighter, Tim Trujillo:

If you're on a watercraft down there a tube or a boat or a kayak you should probably have a helmet on. When that water is low, you could tell that there is it's a boulder field and it was designed to be that way to control the flows of that water and so, understanding what that is, not getting in beyond your level, your swimming level and understanding that if we're going to put our kids in a life jacket and let them float away, we should be ready to come and get them right I think that that's an important part of it, too is that, if we're going to sit on the shore and enjoy that waterway, that we should have that ability to get in there and get our kids out, or at least be aware of the things that are happening around us.

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

And with that that's an important point is, you know, scoping out the river ahead of time? Where can I safely get in and get out of the river if I do get floating away? Or the fact that when we do float away, we need to pick our feet up and not put our feet down, because foot entrapment is a big deal yeah, and so, uh, understanding how that should work.

Fire Fighter, Tim Trujillo:

Right, we could watch youtube videos on how to fix our car or or work on our fireplace, and we should probably look at some of those on what we should do in the water if we're going to be in the water, and so, uh, butt down, feet downstream, keeping our feet up so they're not getting caught up on something. Um, one of the big things that we've seen down there lately is tying our kids off with a rope and then holding them on shore. That's one of the most dangerous things you could do. That river is designed to eddy and spin you back around. The hope is that you don't get swept too far down and that you have the ability to at least swim into the eddy to come back up, and so tying off is a really bad idea.

Fire Fighter, Tim Trujillo:

Like I say, not being prepared for the water. The cold is one thing too. That, like I say, not being prepared for the water, the cold is one thing too. That water will shock you. The kids could be in there playing and we all know that they don't feel that cold water temperature, but as adults, we have that reflex and that bit of shock, and that's always a hard part too, and so, just like chief said, being in a flotation device above the water where you could see and at least have an idea of where you are. So I know, once you get underneath the water and you tumble around, you lose all sense of direction, and that's an issue in itself, right. We don't know where the shore is, we start to panic and the first time even for me, the first time my feet don't touch the ground, it gets a little hairy, right, you got to get your butt down and start to float and figure it out. So having that plan before you get in the water is a big thing.

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

And having a partner. Yes, don't go alone.

Haley Sue Robinson:

So, chief and Tim, we were down at the river with you yesterday and, chief, you actually pointed something out to me that I wasn't super familiar with. You had a whistle on your life vest. Can you talk to us about why you would have a whistle Like? What is that for and how do you use it?

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

Yeah, whistles are great tools. I mean, they're great for hiking, they're great for the water, because when you're in the water you really can't yell. So a whistle allows you the opportunity to get people's attention. Three loud blasts means you need help and it just gives other people in the area a heads up that you're in trouble.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Okay, that's great.

Fire Fighter, Tim Trujillo:

And I think that's a good warning right to our first first responders down there, who are our swimmers and our kayakers, our surfers.

Fire Fighter, Tim Trujillo:

Those folks down there are down there to recreate. They're down there to have a good time. They're really wise in how that water geology works and what it's doing, and they're the people who pull a lot of people out before we even get down there, right, and so they know what the blast from the whistles mean. They understand what the water is doing, the hydrology of it and how the yetis work, and so we're really thankful to have them down there. We're really thankful that they're always willing to support and lend a hand, and so it's important, like I say to to understand what's happening down there and to be aware of your environment anytime that we're in waterways, even dry riverbeds. Now we're in the rainy season, we could be looking at some flash flooding, standing water like the reservoir, personal flotation devices, life jackets are going to save your life, and there's nothing that we could say that we'll take away from that another thing you all watch pretty regularly is something called CFS.

Haley Sue Robinson:

So for lay people like myself, what is CFS and why do I care about it?

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

So CFS is cubic feet per second and if you were to take a box and put a basketball in it, that's one cubic foot per second. So if you've got like this morning because of the rain, we got 2000 CFS, that's 2000 basketballs a second going through an area, to just give a visual on that. And the higher the CFS, the more dangerous it is because of that reason.

Haley Sue Robinson:

So then, how do I track that? Like, where would I go to know what the CFS is down at the new Waterworks Park?

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

There's a river app and I think that literally is the name of it that you can download and it'll keep real-time data on what the flows are, what the temperatures are. It'll give you a lot of good information is the name of it that you can download and it'll keep real-time data on what the flows are, what the temperatures are. It'll give you a lot of good information. The height of the river.

Fire Fighter, Tim Trujillo:

And we'll share that link too here with the podcast it's important to look at. Right now it's about 2,000. If anybody was down there the other day for the water festival, it was at 600. That was a pretty mellow river. It was pretty calm, people got, even us. We got a little bit comfortable there. But today it's at 2,000. That's a completely different environment.

Haley Sue Robinson:

So another thing that's happening this week is you all have swift water rescue training. I know we have some recruits that are about to graduate, so what does that training look like and why do you do it?

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

Absolutely so. The first year you go through it, you get certified at the state level. And why it's critical and why every crew has to do it every single year is because it's what we call a high-risk, low-frequency thing, when we don't do things a lot, but they're risky, we need to train on them regularly. So today they're going to learn the safety features of getting in the water, which is the life jacket, the helmet, having somebody down river, the communication pieces. Then from there they'll learn how to get in the water safely, get out of the water safely, catching a rope if a throwback is tossed to them while they're in the river, and just all those techniques, because there's numerous techniques for getting people out, depending on where they're stuck. So they're going to learn all kinds of different techniques and then they'll reach to the point where, if we had to put a raft in the water, how to hook up the rope lines and things like that and move that raft across the river different ways.

Fire Fighter, Tim Trujillo:

Yeah, it's a super technical class. They're going to learn a whole bunch of things. The river culture in Pueblo is different than it was decades ago. We have the kayak course, we have the new wave course up there at the water park, and I think that's important for the people of the city of Pueblo to go down there and enjoy it. And then it's our responsibility to go down there and make sure that everyone stays safe if something goes bad.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Great, that's exciting. And, speaking of recruits, they're actually going to be graduating on Friday. So, chief, why do we have these new recruits and how many do we have that will graduate on Friday?

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

We're excited to be graduating 13 on Friday and a big part of that number is due to the opening of an 11th fire station, which is a new fire station over on the west side. That station is just about done. By the time they're done getting their hands-on trading and the station will be ready to open. Everything will come together at the right time. There's some attrition involved with that, but there was also a lot of expansion that the city's approved over the last couple of years to get the department to where it needs to be for response.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Cool. Well, we're excited for that. We have three new fire stations coming online, so I know these recruits are really important, but we're looking forward to celebrating their graduation.

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

I'm looking forward to it too, and seeing them hit the floor.

Haley Sue Robinson:

It's a great career, so anything else that we need to know about water safety before we say goodbye to you two.

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

The biggest thing is a flotation device letting people know if if you're not going with somebody. But to go with somebody, if you do get swept away, pick your feet up and try to find an eddie yeah, and that is important thing.

Fire Fighter, Tim Trujillo:

Like chief said, let somebody know where you're going, even if you're down there by yourself. Um, talk to the people around you. The, the culture had been down there's pretty neat. We've watched the surfers and the the wave surfers help each other out. Um, the people on the shoreline have been friendly and welcoming and just not going in the water alone when no one knows you're there. Right Once you start to tumble or you get into that white water, those rapids, it's hard to see visually, it's hard to hear. One of the reasons we talked about the whistle is once you get on that river's edge, and we learned that yesterday that sound doesn't travel the same way that it does outside of that river, and so, even as loud as I am, you could be down there screaming and hollering and nobody's going to hear you. And so it's important, like Chief said, to make sure that you go down there with someone else, where those flotation devices, helmets, approved watercraft, and understand the risks and the fun that you're going to have when you do get in that water safely.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Thank you for this opportunity. Yeah, thanks for joining us today. We appreciate it.

Fire Chief, Barb Huber:

Thank you.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Okay, great. Well, it was nice to have Chief Huber and Tim Trujillo to give us a little bit of water safety. I know it was a little bit scary over the weekend. We had quite a few rescues and just worried about drowning and with all the rain that we've had, it's just good to know what Water's high, yeah, and how to be prepared. yeah, and how to be prepared. Well, mayor, let's talk a little bit about last night's work session. You shared within the city update some information related to Pura. Did you want to talk a little bit more about that?

Mayor Heather Graham:

Yeah, it was just I had some council people ask about the special meeting that was called last Thursday and what was done at the special meeting. So the Urban Renewal Authority purchased a or is going to be purchasing a property for the art center outside of Urban Renewal District, and so that was really my concern that I shared with the city council. So city council has requested that Urban Renewal come and give more of an update on what their plan is for this specific piece of property. Councilor Maestri asked for an update on Dillon, where we see some new development going in. I think that that's also going to be a TIF district and so we're going to be inviting Urban Renewal to come in and update the City Council.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Great. So we'll see a work session that explains a little bit more about those plans and what we'll see coming forward. Correct, okay, good. And we also heard from a developer on the west side. I know President Aliff kind of expressed some, I would say frustration with the process of, you know, ARPA funds American Rescue Plan Act funds have been allocated for infrastructure. But he feels like it's taken quite a bit of time. But we did hear about the updates to the west side. I know last week we were driving and we saw lots of development. So is there anything you wanted to add to what we can see on the west?

Mayor Heather Graham:

side or anticipation there. This specific development, I know that it's been in the works and it's changed quite a bit, and that the city did allocate 1.7 million dollars in ARPA funds to complete a road that they needed access to. So I think that that was the frustration with the city council, that was that years ago they had used the money and that we still don't see any development from this specific develop developer. Sure, um, but just down the road you're.

Mayor Heather Graham:

So you see the kaiser, the new kaiser, um, and then you see the cottages, um, so those are what we went through the other day and those are going up very quickly and so we're excited for those rooftops, because rooftops bring more commercial development in the area and there's a lot of commercial sites that are available over there, so I know there's a need for a grocery store, so we're hoping that that will spur some additional development with having those new rooftops.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Sure and you know, obviously we just had Fire Chief Huber here and and that's part of the reason why Station 11 is coming on board is because of how much development we have on the west side.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah. So I think it'll be interesting to see what it looks like moving forward. But I mean, this is the first time, I would say, in my lifetime I've seen that type of development over there. You saw some of like the YMCA and a few of those things happened over the years and it was kind of stagnant, yeah, and they were more single construction or one-off type of projects rather than full-scale development in that area.

Mayor Heather Graham:

I think the jail and the Medal of Honor Road are also really driving factors, because you're going to have an easier connection to Pueblo West now and I think that's going to bring a lot of people into the city. Yeah, absolutely.

Haley Sue Robinson:

So another thing that was talked about last night at the work session is Andrew Hayes gave an update about parking and how you know, at one time that was, I would say, maybe not in the grand scheme a revenue generator, but a higher revenue generator than it was um or is right now. So at one point in 2015 it was seven thousand dollars a year and we're yeah about three thousand.

Mayor Heather Graham:

Those are for those 26 meters. So in one of the garages and then on third street um. But I think that you also see that kind of fall because there's um. The call center was right in that area at that time and you had a lot of people um in and out, so there was a need for the metered parking. I don't know how many people are utilizing it in that way down on third street, but the majority of our parking enterprise fund comes from parking permits that are issued in the garages.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Okay, and that was another thing that was was interesting is just kind of the change in paid parking near the convention center to the free parking and what that brought to Pueblo or how that was managed. What do you think the future of parking looks like in Pueblo?

Mayor Heather Graham:

I think we're going to have to wait until we're done with the Union and Main Street redevelopment, because that's going to change the way that people are able to park in the downtown corridor. So I don't think that we can really judge what the parking situation is going to be until that's completed. So I think that's kind of what we're holding on well it.

Haley Sue Robinson:

It'll change the landscape of how people access Pueblo, so we won't really know right the demand or or even, I guess, how people operate downtown, because it could be totally different absolutely okay, I think too, you know, when we.

Mayor Heather Graham:

The Da Vinci Museum is going to be a large driver for tourism and for people getting on and off, and hopefully that parking garage will be very well utilized for people coming to visit the city and the museum.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Well, and I know for us internally at the city, at one point you could just register your vehicle for the main street parking garage, and now we have a whole permit system. That came on board in the spring, and so it just seems like we're trying to streamline the process a lot more.

Mayor Heather Graham:

Yeah, exactly coming into the 21st century, as Councilor Latina would say.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah, absolutely great. Anything else that you want to add from the work session last night?

Mayor Heather Graham:

I don't think so. We had a great visit from PDI and they're always a great partner with the community and it was good to see their video.

Haley Sue Robinson:

I like their presentation because, it's very interactive. It's a little bit different than what we normally see, with a work session with multiple videos and maybe not quite so PowerPoint.

Mayor Heather Graham:

death by PowerPoint, yeah, more lighthearted and the council enjoyed it and we enjoyed them. It's good to have them come last night.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Well, and it was really also nice to hear from counselors just their own experience with PDI and being able to say that they have family members or friends that they know who have been part of PDI for a really long time. I think that kind of speaks to this.

Mayor Heather Graham:

Yeah, I think I might have missed it too, but did they say President Aliff was going to do Dancing with the Stars next year?

Haley Sue Robinson:

I heard that yeah, I heard yeah, so from afar, so we're gonna hold them. I was just gonna say I think we're gonna have to make sure that that actually happens. Definitely, yeah, I'm looking forward to the dancing with the stars. I'll be the MC this year, um oh, I didn't know that, yeah, it's gonna be fun. It'll be really fun myself and, uh, terry boffman, so nice yeah, you were. You were a star once. I was. Yeah, four years ago the the first that PDI that took it over okay um, I had an all women's group.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah, we danced. It was really fun. I wasn't a very good dancer, but I had a lot of fun. I remember that differently. Oh, you do, okay, okay. Um, well, mayor, we have a a lot of upcoming events. Um, it's it's bike month. We've talked about this a little bit, but if you haven't received your bingo card, you can get one here in the mayor's office. You can get one at Parks and Recreation. There's multiple locations all over Pueblo. Bike to Work Day is June 26th, so that'll be exciting. We also have the Public City Park and Arkansas River Master Plan open house this Thursday. That's from 4 to 6.

Mayor Heather Graham:

And that's really important because that's you know, with the water parks opening we have a lot of comments. People concerned about parking, bathrooms, trash cans. They're in the bell parking bathrooms, trash cans, so it's really important if you're going to be using the area to come and facilitate and have conversations with our master planners.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Yeah, so this open house we had a survey that was open in April. This is the beginning of their suggestion for the master plan, and so we're hoping that folks will come give feedback. There's four main areas that they're focused on. Um, but it'll be at the uh city park main administration building, um at goodnight avenue 800 goodnight avenue, and that's from four to six. So it's a, it's a drop-in. You can just come and check it out. We'll also have information on the website um, but, like you said, it is, it's really important. So it's a partnership with the parks and recreation and the public conservancy district. Great um also.

Haley Sue Robinson:

This is one of our favorite events the el centro summer kickoff on fr. We made slime last year. We did. Yeah, we had a good time with the kids. They were showing us their skateboard tricks and we made slime with them. They have free hot dogs and drinks and it's always a good time. I think you might've challenged a kid to pick a basketball game, so we have a good time with with that, and that's from noon to two over at el centro um, so we're looking forward to that as well. And and actually, if you check out parks and recreation either facebook, instagram, uh, the website. They have tons of programming throughout the summer. Um, and especially at el centro, I know, um, they have some computer games, they have basketball, they have programming every single day, they have a reading program and then they also have a couple days that they walk to the pools and have free entry to the pools too. So it should be a really good time and it should be a really fun summer.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Anything else that we need? Oh wait, I have a really important one. So we did the cleanup this weekend. Yes, um, we are sunburned. My, I was. My neck was really sunburned. I did put sunscreen on three times, but it was pretty intense. Um, we had, uh, 1900 people that were served by that, and I think this was one of our biggest. It was definitely all three locations recycle works, state fair, csu, pueblo, but it was very successful.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Um, we did have quite a few people, though, that said, well, hey, I missed it. Now what do I do? Um, we have discount days through the South side, uh, wasteions landfill. That's June 2nd through June 14th. Just have to show a ID or a utility bill and it's 50% off a load. A lot of people ask what is 50% off of a load. I don't know how much your load would cost, but let's say you're, they would weigh your load and it would be forty dollars. That means it's twenty dollars. For thanks for doing that math. Yep, yes, well, no, just because folks are like, well then how much would it cost? And I'm like, well, I don't know how much your load weighs. So, um, whatever it would normally be, it's 50 off. You do have to have a covered load, um, and that's one thing that sometimes we see at the cleanup is oh yeah you know people don't cover their loads.

Haley Sue Robinson:

And then you see tree branches or a tire on the side of the road and it's like, oh man, they drop their stuff on the way here. So please cover your load, otherwise you'll be charged double at the gate. Um, but this is for city residents, no businesses. But if you miss the cleanup then you can still come dump your trash.

Mayor Heather Graham:

And we're going to have another cleanup in October. Yes, but don't hold your trash until October.

Haley Sue Robinson:

No, please don't Cause. Uh, it's going to get really hot over the summer and smelly and gross yeah. Use, use the discount dump days. Okay, uh, lots going on, very exciting. Lots of rain, lots of rain, yeah, rain all week. But it's good for the grass. It's good for the grass and the flowers.

Mayor Heather Graham:

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson:

Okay, great, thank you, mayor. Thank you. Don't forget that you can find us on Apple, spotify, buzzsprout, youtube Channel 17.

Mayor Heather Graham:

Oh, and what's the link you're?

Haley Sue Robinson:

going to share for Tim oh, and I will share the River app link so that you can check the CFS cubic feet per second. That's a good thing to know, don't forget. You can email us, mayor@ pubeblo. us for topic suggestions or questions, and we will see you next week.