The Mayor's Mixtape
Mayor Heather Graham's weekly brief of current events related to the City of Pueblo.
The Mayor's Mixtape
The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 28
Mayor Heather Graham hosts Chief Building Official of Pueblo Regional Building Mark Guerrero. Mark shares the role of Pueblo Regional Building, the working relationship with the City of Pueblo and what the future of the organization looks like in the region.
Mayor Graham gives insight to the City Council meeting from September 8 and invites you to join one of her upcoming town halls in September. District 4 on Thursday, Sept. 11, District 3 on Tuesday, Sept. 16 or District 1 on Wednesday, Sept. 24. Find more info on the Mayor Heather Graham Facebook page for the details.
Email us your questions or topic suggests at mayor@pueblo.us. Thanks for listening!
Okay, welcome to the 28th episode of the Mayor's Mixtape. I'm Haley Sue Robinson, Director of Public Affairs.
Mayor, Heather Graham:City of Pueblo Mayor Heather Graham.
Mark Guerrero:Mark Guerrero, Chief Building Official for Pueblo. Regional Building Department.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, we have a guest today. We do have a guest today. Yeah, we're excited about that. So, before we jump into our conversation with Mark, I'd like to remind you that we're available on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Buzzsprout, and you can also watch this podcast on local channel 17. So there are lots of opportunities Like share, subscribe. And don't forget, if you have questions or want to suggest a topic for Mayor Graham to cover, you can email us at mayor@ pueblo. us. You want to get started?
Mayor, Heather Graham:for us, mayor, yeah, thanks. So today I wanted to invite Mr Guerrero to come to the podcast so we can talk a little bit about what you do at Regional, what Regional is and how Regional is essentially intertwined with both the city and the county at this point, and kind of what that looks like.
Mark Guerrero:Okay, so you know, 42 years ago the city of Pueblo and the county of Pueblo had this great idea economy of scale, every municipality needs a building department. So they signed what they call an intergovernment agreement to create Pueblo Regional. And another purpose of that is it was non-taxpayer based. All our revenue, all our sustainability comes from the permits and the plan reviews that we collect, and so there's no cost to the citizens, only those building. And so, if you think about it, we're a community service, you know, in a way, because the more you build, the better we are. You know, so we are. You know, basically, your success is our success. So we are pro-development, pro-building, pro that sort of thing. So it's been very great for the last 42 years and we're very excited about what's happening in Pueblo and so tell us what the building department does for a citizen.
Mark Guerrero:So I'm a licensed architect and I took the position as chief building official. And what I would do as a licensed architect all around the country is the first thing I would do is I'd go to the building officials in that municipality and the reason is I want to save money because I would have my plans reviewed by the building officials there because I would know that you know I'm not an electrician or mechanical or plumbing, but they have the qualified people that would review my drawings and I would make sure I would get my plan review set before I send them out to bid. And that would save my client money. And I've been preaching that with people here in Pueblo Come and talk to us first about your plans and all that you get, to introduce ourselves to the project and to the people and to make networks and contact. So again, when you hire an architect like myself and engineers, we're kind of like your teacher your quality control check which they do that correctly. As far as the code and we're checking the minimum code we don't have any opinions If it's in the book. You owe it to us, that sort of thing.
Mark Guerrero:And then the next phase once you pass plan review, that all your plans are set, we say okay, you're ready to purchase a permit and we require a licensed contractor to come and do that. And we do that for a couple reasons. I can't tell you how many times in my office I've had people in tears where they said I thought he was a contractor, I thought they got a permit and he took all my money. And so one thing that we do when we sell a permit is we make sure the contractor's license, he's insured, workman's comp, that sort of thing, before we send them out to your property for your project, because we know how important it is. So again, when I talk to different people I say you know we're a community service, we're a resource. Please come and talk to us. We hide out on 8th and Main, you know, and you can either come in or call us or email us, that sort of thing.
Mayor, Heather Graham:And people can go to Regional Build. They can just walk in the door and there's a person at the counter that can assist them. Yeah, they could call.
Mark Guerrero:They could come in. We like I like to call us. You know we're not the Gestapo, we're Mayor Barry RFD. So come in and talk to us and tell us what you're planning on doing. Ask for advice. I mean, our advice is free up until you buy a permit, you know, and actually you know it's like a garbage in, garbage out sort of thing where us helping you helps us, because then we get on the right track sooner. It's so much easier to do it that way than to say oh, you did it wrong and to have to do a U-turn and have to correct things that could have been caught on in the planning stages.
Haley Sue Robinson:Makes sense.
Mark Guerrero:Yeah.
Haley Sue Robinson:Mark, can you talk to us a little bit about how you and your department work with the city and the county, like that whole process? I understand I can walk in and speak to you, but how does that work with planning and zoning or how does that work with public works?
Mark Guerrero:Yeah, and so that's some of the things that we've.
Mark Guerrero:That's been a challenge here, but we, I think we've brought it along so much now and it's all about networking and I've had, you know, in the previous mayor.
Mark Guerrero:Nick Radishar was great, he was very congenial, but we've taken it to a new level of networking and so I've had a lot of access to the city staff and what I wanted to figure out is what were the bumps in the road that were causing the submittals not to be processed? And I think it's all about communication and collaboration and all of that. So I have a lot of the city officials on speed dial. We work hand in glove with the fire department, with the health department, planning and zoning, and we at Pueblo Regional do a quality control check twice a month, what I call the huddle, where I have all my chiefs in and we look at the latest submittals and if there's an issue, I can call an Andrew Hayes or a barrett odom or a barb huber and say, hey, uh, this one looks stuck. Can we talk about it? And usually that same day we're we're either working on it or we have it resolved.
Haley Sue Robinson:So I I really appreciate that that's really cool to be able to have those relationships and and then to better serve the public based on more information. You know to your point where are we in the process, Because sometimes a lot of folks will say, well, you know, it's just being held up and I don't understand why. So it's nice to hear that folks are talking together and working together, so that then the public can maybe understand the process a little bit.
Mark Guerrero:Absolutely, and I think one of the next deals is the first thing we wanted to do is meet with all of our partners, all of our routing partners, both in the county and the city. We represent them still, and I think that was a great routing retreat we had at CSU Pueblo, where everyone gave their flow chart and how they process things, and I think it was maybe some of the first time that people got to meet each other in person and that was amazing to me, that that networking had not been created yet. And so, with that strong bond, the next steps I feel are we need to maybe document our process a little bit more so it's very transparent. For example, just as an example for stormwater, you know, a stormwater engineer might get a report that's you know, miles thick and it's not going to take him a half an hour to research it. It's going to maybe take him five days or 10 days or something like that, plus all the volume that they got already.
Mark Guerrero:So I think our next step is to be transparent in the timelines that each department should have in reviewing something, and, if the timeline goes and comes, we also need to train our submitters that hey, it's time for me to light the fire under the reviewer and say what's going on, what are we doing? And they should have that openness and comfortable ability to come and talk to us as their partner. One of the things I was very proud of after I've been at the building department is one of our permit techs when they were greeting one of our customers coming in and says what are we building today? I said, yes, that's what we want to do. You know, we want to be your partner, we want to build it that way.
Haley Sue Robinson:That's a good feeling. This is a question kind of for you. Mayor Mark mentioned his process and meeting with chiefs across the city. I know you developed an internal meeting that included regional building and a lot of this kind of came to light with the closures of some of our hotels. Can you walk us through that process and what that's looked like with a partnership?
Mayor, Heather Graham:Yeah, so we meet the first Wednesday of every month. It's a regulatory compliance. So we go around the room, we have finance, code, enforcement, pd, fire, regional health department, sales tax all in the room and we talk about if there needs to be an inspection somewhere, if a permit is being held up. We've been talking a lot about compliance with the hotels in the city. So we might talk to our partners and say, hey, this hotel, like they're not licensed, they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing. So we formulate a plan, we go out, help those business owners get back on track to where they're supposed to be and if they don't comply they get closed down. So it's been great to have the communication with regional and with health department and all of our partners at the city to make sure that we are working as effective and efficient as we can as effective and efficient as we can, and it seems like with these meetings it kind of gives the opportunity for folks to understand process in other departments.
Haley Sue Robinson:I know for us here at the city a lot of our internal meetings is understanding what other department heads are doing or their priorities, and so then bringing in outside agencies like regional building or Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment. We all have different priorities Yet at the same time we all have the same, which is serving the public right Absolutely, and so then it's understanding what that process is for each one of us.
Mark Guerrero:I would agree, and a lot of times when I became certified as a chief building official, a lot of times, you know, as when I became certified as a chief building official, a lot of my studies were the legal aspects of it in protecting customer rights right. And so we have to strategize a lot of times and how we want to maintain that and do it in a legal way. You know, we're not just willy nilly, picking things out, but have they been in violation? What is our authority, that sort of thing, and questioning us, you know. And so in this procedural meeting I also wanted to say that you know the police are present and so is legal, and so we could have these active conversations so they can see where Pueblo Regional is coming from, and then all get on the same page for warrants, whatever we need in order to do it in the correct manner.
Haley Sue Robinson:And having everyone in the room then hopefully saves some time and energy rather than being on site and saying, oh, we didn't include one of our partners. That's great. Well, we've alluded to it a little bit at the beginning of this, but let's talk about what the future of regional building looks like and the future of the partnership with the city.
Mark Guerrero:Sure. So, as I mentioned at the start, 42 years ago we had this intergovernment agreement which created Pueblo Regional as a non-taxpayer based entity. Economy of scale. Taxpayer-based entity economy of scale, you know.
Mayor, Heather Graham:Can you explain when you mean non-taxpayer, because I think people get you know they don't know how you make. How do you make your money, mark?
Mark Guerrero:Well, by us selling permits. Basically, that's the only way we make money, or licensing fees too, so that's the only source of revenue we get. And if we were to look at the books which I have, 60% of our revenue comes from the city and 40% comes from the county.
Haley Sue Robinson:And when you say the city and you say the county, you mean the folks that are pulling the permits, not actually the government agencies. Those are permits pulled within city limits.
Mark Guerrero:Exactly right. So all the I should be more correct all the permits that were purchased in the city were a value of 60% of our revenue for Pueblo Regional, and all the permits that were purchased in the county value at 40% of our revenue. And so recently the county has had an idea that they wanted to create their own building department and dissolve the IGA, and so what the founding fathers didn't realize is when they do that, that terminates Pueblo Regional. In 2026, with my 27 lifelong, you know, puebloans like myself, we have to find another entity that will create this partnership, and so we're looking at neighboring counties and cities to help us with that, and we'll probably be. We'll have a new name because we have to close down the old name, you know, and then go on to the future.
Mark Guerrero:But we've had such steadfast support from the city, from Mayor Graham and our people on city council, that from day one we knew that the city wasn't going to do the same thing as the county, and I can tell you that provided a lot of comfort for my employees, you know, because they have families and they have kids and you know houses and mortgages and so forth, and all of a sudden, out of no, you know, fault of their own, their jobs are going to be dissolved, you know. So we've had strong leadership from the city that has said hey, don't worry about it, pueblo Regional will find a way to make this whole again, and so I just want to be very thankful about that and recognize that.
Haley Sue Robinson:And Mayor, why was there a decision not to make our own building department here at the city?
Mayor, Heather Graham:Yeah. So I mean it's to have that extra layer between the city and a third party to come in and issue permits. I think is very important. Being the sole head of the government, I oversee all of staff, right? So hire, fire, give direction to all staff members. Can you imagine a world where one person would then be the dictator of all the permits in the community? Right, Our phones would be ringing nonstop.
Mayor, Heather Graham:I want my permit, pass it forward, you know, even though I haven't done everything I'm supposed to do, and I think that that really takes away the check and the balance. So to have a partner like Regional Building come in, who are the experts in knowing the permitting process, the construction world, I think that that's an advantage for the community. It's an advantage to our city, to our employees. The city could never take on an entire department and control all of the permitting. I don't think permitting should be At the decision of an elected official, whether it's city, council or mayor. That's why we've chosen to go this route, to try to obtain a third partner to come in and form the IGA. So we're going to go talk to some communities, I think next week, right.
Mark Guerrero:That's correct.
Mayor, Heather Graham:We're going to go do some work sessions and try to find a new partner or several new partners that we can work with to make this process be a smooth transition.
Haley Sue Robinson:And I think one thing you both touched on earlier too that's important for folks to know is standing up an entire new department for the city would cost the taxpayers money and, as Mark mentioned earlier, the revenue that's generated at regional building. You're self-sustainable, so there is no allocation each year in a city line item or budget line. There wasn't one with Pueblo County. Your revenue is all self-generated and so if we were to absorb that, that would cost the city money.
Mayor, Heather Graham:Yeah, I mean we would get the revenue for the permits, but to have the oversight does not work.
Mark Guerrero:I think it's also important to note that we don't. You know our fees, our permit fees are not for profit. You know, they're just for us to exist. So on very good fiscal years we put that whatever extras in reserves, and so for bad fiscal years we'll cram out of that reserve so we can still maintain our staff. So all our goal is is to maintain ourselves. You know we're not here to create profit and so I always tell our staff we're here to do minimum code. You know what? What can we do to get this for this person successful? And out there, you know, and off our table that sort of thing that's great.
Haley Sue Robinson:Um, let's see, mark, I think here's a. Here's a good question for you what's one thing that is most misunderstood by the general public about regional building, and what would you like them to know instead?
Mark Guerrero:I'd like them to know that we're a community resource and a friend, and I'll give you a funny example. My mother, who's 88 years old, decided that she needed to remodel her bathroom because she had a bathtub versus a shower, which she was having trouble stepping over right. And so she was telling me how she's going to get a handyman and this and that. And I said, mom, you realize you're talking to the chief building official, right, and you're not going to do that. And my dad said, yeah, we're not going to do that. And so, basically, I had them hire a plumber that we trusted. You know that we knew. And it turns out that our plumbing was all cattywampus. And so our inspector, drew Malacusco, was over there with the plumber they're both master plumbers trying to figure out this thing. So again, we're a community resource where, uh, they figured out together what the best thing was, and my mom said, oh, now the dryer doesn't back up or the washing machine doesn't back up from what the plumbing they had, but it, you know, I think they were afraid that it was going to cost a lot of money, you know. And after my dad came down, he says is that, it is that? How much I go, yeah, anyway, and so they got so much service based on that, and I think that's a good story because, you know, my plumbers and all my uh inspectors have grown up together with a lot of the contractors that are in pueblo and they're friends, you know, and so they feel comfortable about calling each other, and so you as a homeowner or something I would call our Pueblo contractors, whether they're home builders or generals because they have a relationship, a networking relationship with us as well, and we get calls all the day that are non-permit related.
Mark Guerrero:For example, I do ride-alongs with my staff to make sure that quality control is going on, and they'll get calls and say, hey, I do ride-alongs with my staff to make sure that quality control is going on, and they'll get calls and say, hey, I'm bidding this project and I was going to use this material. It's like, no, no, don't use that. You need to use this as a minimum. Okay, thanks, I'll put that in my bid, you know, and we're giving advice like that all day long, and I think that's the appeal to all these other agencies that we're going to the municipalities is that they don't have that, you know.
Mark Guerrero:They don't have anyone to talk to. They don't have our appeals boards and those services, and so when we become a partner with those new agencies, they're going to have such a great resource in us by being able to pick up the phone and ask us questions about things that don't require being a permit. You know, having buying a permit yet. So that's kind of the things I want you to know is that come and talk to us. We're trying to promote our image as a community resource. You know when I first got here PRBD, we're going to be polite. We're going to research what you need. We're going to build a relationship with you and we're going to determine if we're going to research what you need. We're going to build a relationship with you and we're going to determine if we help you or not. That's what our customer service mission goal is I like that double duty with prbd right that's.
Haley Sue Robinson:That's great, and I think one thing for folks to note is that regional building is with with the story that you just gave us. You're here for the long haul. So whether I have a new build or I'm a brand new developer in in the city, or I'm a longtime homeowner and I want to make some remodels in my home, you're there for all of it.
Mark Guerrero:We're here for hot water installations. You know solar installations. Whether you're building a deck, but we're here for hot water installations, you know solar installations, whether you're building a deck. But we're here for the big Evraz steel plant too, or the solar farms that are going up, or the three fire stations that were built, or the jail, you know. So we do it all and I'm so proud of my staff because they were contractors before they became inspectors and they're masters in their trade. They're master plumber, electrical, mechanical and building. And then they took the ICC International Code Council certifications for both inspection and plan review. So my plan reviewers are my inspectors and so we have that cohesiveness as well. So I think Pueblo Regional I want it to be one of the best building divisions in the state.
Haley Sue Robinson:That's fantastic. So, mayor, you told us that you all are going to make some trips in the coming weeks and speak with some other cities or counties, and then what does that look like?
Mayor, Heather Graham:Yeah, so once we find a partner or multiple partners, we will come to an agreement through the IGA process, take it to city council and the commission, or whoever is on the other side of the county or another city, we'll do the same, and then you know, come January 1st, when the county exits the IGA, our new IGA will come into place between the city, regional and whatever other county, and so we hope to have a smooth transition and people can continue pulling permits within the city. If you live in the county, that's another story. You'll have to go through the county's building department, and so I think that the city and the county are just trying to have a smooth transition for developers, community members, maybe getting a hot water heater, whatever kind of permit you might be pulling. We're trying not to upset the process but make sure everybody is happy at the end of the day.
Haley Sue Robinson:Great. So at the end of the day, it's still about customer service and putting the public first. Great. Anything else that we didn't cover, Mark, that you think we need to know.
Mark Guerrero:You know again, just come and talk to us before maybe you start a project you might even inquire about. You know how the different ways you can do things as a licensed architect. I used to tell my clients listen, there's code and I'm going to try to get you off with parole versus life in prison. You know so there are different ways. In an office setting, you don't call it a kitchen, you call it a coffee bar. You know so. There are different ways in an office setting, you don't call it a kitchen, you call it a coffee bar. So there are different keywords and code that we can help you with. We live with the code every day. There's 12 or 15 books that we know that we've been tested on. So come and use us as a resource.
Haley Sue Robinson:That's fantastic. Well, Mark, thank you so much for joining us this morning. We appreciate you being here on the podcast and we look forward to an update of what the city and Pueblo Regional Building look like in the future.
Mark Guerrero:That sounds great.
Haley Sue Robinson:Thanks again.
Mark Guerrero:Thank you.
Haley Sue Robinson:All right, Mayor, it was nice to have Mark on to talk to us about regional building and give us kind of an inside look of what that process looks like. I know we've talked about the city's relationship with regional building moving forward, but I think it's always nice when we get to have a guest on the show. So last night actually was not as late as some nights have been for city council Last night actually was not as late as some nights have been for city council.
Haley Sue Robinson:Starting with the work session we had folks from Public Department of Public Health and Environment, pdphe, who came to join us and kind of walk us through the steps or the process with some of our homes and what that looks. Looks like specifically east route yeah.
Mayor, Heather Graham:So 1310 east route.
Mayor, Heather Graham:We've spent a lot, a lot of conversation um about this specific property that is privately owned um, that has burned multiple times over the last year, for a cleanup permit through CDPHE, which is the state right, right, state Health Department, to go in and abate the property.
Mayor, Heather Graham:Okay, so, remove the burned pieces Right, you know, make it a clean slate. But the property has asbestos, so it's a little bit more of a a tricky um plan that you have to put forward in order. Uh, you have to have a air permit um, because asbestos could be flying around when you're um removing everything from the property. And so the city filed for that permit back in April. We had PDPHE yesterday, pueblo Health Department, who's been in correspondence with the state. The state's going to hopefully issue the permit this week. Then the city will put it out to bid to have somebody who is a licensed asbestos abatement contractor come in um and remove everything from 1310 East route Um. So this has been a long, long, long going process, as every process is when you have to go through the state to get a permit um to remove a blighted piece of property.
Mayor, Heather Graham:Um there's no one that can do it faster, there's no one that can do it better. It's just the process, it's just part of it and it is what it is, and so hopefully we get that permit this week and we can start working on getting the house cleaned up.
Haley Sue Robinson:I know it's an issue of blight for the neighborhood, but it also kind of reminds me of the process that we had with the Albany building.
Haley Sue Robinson:I know that was one thing that folks kind of thought the same thing. You know this is blight within the city. You could see it from I-25 and unfortunately the city isn't just able to like go in and do what we want and say, well, we know this is an issue for neighbors. We know this is an issue for neighbors. We know this is an issue for business owners. It's an issue for us. We don't like to look at it so we can just fix it. Um, and so randy and his team walked us through that process to help us understand that unfortunately, as much as we want to will it into existence, we can't just snap our fingers and make it all work the next day type of thing yeah so I am glad to hear that we'll be moving forward in that process and yeah, there's several uh pieces of property all over town um that we have current permits in process with the state okay to um remove.
Mayor, Heather Graham:the city sets aside um a couple hundred thousand dollars every year that we put into our dangerous building demo. We also get federal fundings through CDBG to put towards removal of blighted houses and neighborhoods that qualify, and so this is just part of the process to be able to get these buildings down.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay great the process to to be able to get these buildings down, okay, great. Well, um, let's transition into the regular city council meeting. I think the it was covered in the work session, but then it it came over into the, the regular session was we had a big issue over roofing, yes, roofs yeah several roofs, so the roof at the ice arena and then multiple roofs out at the wastewater treatment facility.
Mayor, Heather Graham:So city council, these were one was a resolution and one was an ordinance the previous city council meeting both items were pulled and asked for further discussion. So we had our director of public works and our director of purchasing come in and talk about the bid process and how the city selects the contractor, selects the material that goes on the roof, what that process looks like. So it was pretty interesting. You know, since I've been the mayor, mayor today I was looking back we have redone seven roofs that city council has passed up until this point.
Mayor, Heather Graham:So it was interesting that these two roofs, or these two, agenda items were pulled specifically, so city council has postponed it again specifically, so City Council has postponed it again for another month.
Haley Sue Robinson:Until October 14th.
Mayor, Heather Graham:Yeah, in which they're going to have time to meet with the directors or go over the purchasing policy, review the bids. So we printed the actual full RFP bid documents for city council last night. So they wanted some additional time to be able to go through the entire process and and really see what's in the bid documents, see who was at the walkthroughs, see what other companies came to provide materials, what that looks like, and get a little bit more information moving forward so that they can approve what staff has already approved, what I have already approved moving forward. So we hope that in a month the city council does their due diligence, gets their questions answered so that we can get these roofs replaced, especially at the wastewater treatment facility.
Mayor, Heather Graham:We heard our director last night say that there's several leaks that could cause permanent damage to our lab or other parts of the plant, and then, obviously, the ice arena where we have the purple bulls and different events.
Haley Sue Robinson:so we want to make sure that these roofs are replaced the way that they should be um, and that it's fair and equitable and transparent for the community and it seems like the the biggest hang up for folks on city council is that local folks are not able to be awarded these contracts, and so I think one thing that our our purchasing director, naomi she's been on the podcast with us before is that we don't give preferential treatment. There's no preferential treatment to big companies or small companies, local companies out of state, whatever that may look like.
Mayor, Heather Graham:Uh it it seems like it is pretty black and white, lowest and best bid.
Mayor, Heather Graham:So okay doesn't matter if you're local, doesn't matter if you're from springs or denver, um, it's lowest and best. So if you can provide the city with the best value, uh, for the best price, that's who we're going to choose. And we have, um, we have a lot of local roovers who have been successful in winning the bids for many of the other roofs. Um, there's a couple that I can think of right now that city council had passed that we, you know, we heard this term Garland talked about a lot last night, and that's a producer of a certain material, material that the city likes to go on city roofs.
Mayor, Heather Graham:It's not the only material that we use. If a contractor wants to come in and suggest a different type of material, they can do that. We have that happen all of the time too. But when nobody else shows up, but Garland, garland is what the city is going to choose. We don't have anything as a comparable spec. So of course they're going to be on site, of course they're going to be there to answer questions. They're going to say why their product works, how it works if you're not certified, and putting their product down, they're going to help you to get certified, okay, um, so there are local contractors who are certified using the garland um material, material um, and we have roofs that have just been completed using the garland material by local contractors, local roofers so so this isn't a new material that the city's using.
Haley Sue Robinson:We've used it previously.
Mayor, Heather Graham:I think the director of public works last night said that we've been contracting and using garland for like the last four years. Um, it's not the only roof material that we use, but it's the one that we've been using a lot. It's not the only roof material that we use, but it's the one that we've been using a lot, because they're the ones that show up okay.
Haley Sue Robinson:So, um, next steps. I know there was some clarification uh sought by council last night of what the next steps look like whether it was to go out for bid again and reopen the rP process, which I think our director of public works, andrew Hayes, mentioned that that would take up to potentially six months, yeah. Or if it was to potentially look at these roofs, the ice arena and wastewater and approve that process and then maybe look at a new RFP process in the future for other roofs in consideration. But what we'll see in October is hopefully they they come back with their questions answered, yeah, and then maybe we'll have approval.
Mayor, Heather Graham:Hopefully.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay.
Mayor, Heather Graham:Hopefully we get some new roofs put on. So there was lots of talk about the city hiring a third-party consultant.
Haley Sue Robinson:I know that was offered by our director of wastewater Yep.
Mayor, Heather Graham:And it's you know. We have a professional engineer who the city contracts with through wastewater.
Mayor, Heather Graham:Who can review? But the review will be at a cost. Our public works director, as you heard, is a PE. Several of our other employees are also PEs within the public works department. Professional engineers we had professional engineers at the bid walkthroughs that are city employees. Engineers we had professional engineers at the bid walkthroughs uh, that are city employees. Um, so if we need to look for third party to say that we did what we did and it was all good, then we will 100 do that if that's what the city council um wants okay, great.
Haley Sue Robinson:So I guess we'll see what happens in october. Yeah, well, um, last week you had a successful town hall. We met in District 2, over at El Centro. I think we had at least 50 folks in the room, and then we had some folks that attended via live stream as well. And we'll have our District 4 town hall meeting this Thursday. And then we have additional town halls in District 3 and District 1. The one on Thursday is at the Rawlings Library at 530 in Brett Kelly Room B, and then we did have a location change actually for District 3. That one will be at the George L Williams Hall, that one will be at the george l williams hall. That's the hall um at the city park admin building. Yeah, and then our district one um town hall will be at the barkman branch library in the miniqua works um community room. So we hope folks will attend um they can get questions.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, bring, we had lots of questions last week. We did have lots of questions um seems like we pretty much had them answered, and then you had some district specific uh updates for folks yeah, so that's usually.
Mayor, Heather Graham:That's kind of what we've been kicking it off with. Um, we give a few crime stats, maybe some infrastructure paving information going on in your district, city projects going on in your district, cleanup stats, anything else notable kind of going on. So I'm kind of providing everybody a one-sheeter when we get there. Great Sales tax information is also provided. Neighborhood watch information is provided in case you'd like to join your neighborhood watch group, and then that takes about 10 to 15 minutes and then the other hour hour and a half. I've just kind of been opening it up to questions. So we had a good turnout, lots of good questions. Most of the questions were crime-focused. So we'll be prepared to answer questions for District 4.
Haley Sue Robinson:Great, I know. One other exciting thing that we talked about is Bonfort paving. That started this week and there are a lot of folks who are very excited. That's kind of been long-awaited. They were doing the curb and gutter earlier this year and now they've started the milling and then we'll see the overlay in the next couple of weeks, so very excited about that. Anything else that we need to know as we get ready for the rest of the week?
Mayor, Heather Graham:I don't think so.
Haley Sue Robinson:I don't think so either. Okay, great, Just a reminder. You can find us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify. You can also watch us on local channel 17. And like, subscribe, share the podcast and if you have questions or topic suggestions for the mayor, you can email us. Mayor@ pueblo. us, and we'll see you next week.