The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 54

Mayor's Mixtape Episode 54 answers some of your questions about Advance Pueblo. Director of Public Works Andrew Hayes joins Mayor Graham to talk about who is Advance Pueblo? What are they? Where is housed and how does it work? Let's talk the future of economic development in Pueblo and how Advance Pueblo fits into the plan. 

 Like, subscribe and share the podcast. Don't forget to email your questions or topic suggestions to mayor@pueblo.us. Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Welcome And Where To Listen

Haley Sue Robinson 0:07

Welcome to the 54th episode of the Mayor's Mixtape. I'm Haley Sue Robinson, Director of Public Affairs for the City of Pueblo.

Mayor, Heather Graham 0:14

Heather Graham, City of Pueblo Mayor.

Andrew Hayes 0:16

Good morning. Andrew Hayes, uh Director of Public Works.

Haley Sue Robinson 0:19

Awesome. Thanks for joining us this morning, Andrew. I want to remind our listener that you can find us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, BuzzSprout, wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on local channel 17. So there are lots of opportunities to find this podcast. And don't forget, if you have questions or topic suggestion, you can email us at mayor@ pueblo.us.

What Advanced Pueblo Means

Haley Sue Robinson 0:44

So Mayor Graham, you wanted to talk about Advanced Pueblo this morning. So we invited Andrew Hayes to join us for that. Let's first start with an introduction about who or what is Advanced Pueblo.

Mayor, Heather Graham 1:00

Go ahead.

Andrew Hayes 1:01

Sure. So Advanced Pueblo is essentially an extension of the mayor's office. It is kind of the brand image behind all of the economic development efforts that the city is doing. So essentially anybody looking for economic development related support, project support, would come to the mayor's office. But uh this Advanced Pueblo brand is kind of what is uh the group of all of the various coordination and facilitation services that are being provided. So um but we work very, very closely with other partners outside the city like Urban Renewal, uh Black Hills, Excel, uh Waterworks, uh all of the various utility departments, uh Southern Colorado Regional Building, so excuse me, Southern Colorado Building Department, uh, and uh other stakeholders in the development process to help projects uh move forward. So anything involving uh private development or uh public incentives for projects, those kinds of uh activities would be centered here in the Advanced Pueblo office.

Haley Sue Robinson 2:00

Okay. And so it's Advanced Pueblo isn't a person, there's not a particular uh set of folks that it's just like stationed to. It's pretty much um an offshoot of the city of Pueblo, correct?

Andrew Hayes 2:17

It's very much a collaborative effort, I think, between all those partners we've talked about. And again, trying to find ways to make projects uh and development happen more smoothly here.

Haley Sue Robinson 2:26

Yeah, okay. That's great.

Commitments To Growth And Retention

Haley Sue Robinson 2:28

Um so last week on uh the Advanced Pueblo social media pages, um, there was a statement about commitments for economic development, and those include um helping existing employers grow and add good paying jobs, uh supporting new businesses who are looking to invest in Pueblo, uh coordinating with development stakeholder groups so projects move forward most more smoothly and predictably. Um so I wanted to know what does that exactly look like, or what can it look like?

Mayor, Heather Graham 3:00

It could look like a already existing business expanding. Um it could look like we just changed the criteria ordinance to include economic leakage and um economic catalyst, so a large sales tax driver, so the city incentivizing uh maybe a retail uh store to come into the community who's a large sales tax driver um or incentivizing a business that Puebloans leave the community um and go spend their money elsewhere because we don't have that uh certain business or that certain resource within our community.

Haley Sue Robinson 3:37

Okay.

Andrew Hayes 3:37

You hit on a point too about uh not only new businesses coming, but also retention of existing businesses. And so that's an important element of any economic development strategy for uh any city, but specifically here in Pueblo. So there are existing businesses seeking to not only uh expand um but grow grow not only their outputs, but uh bring bring additional jobs in to those existing businesses. So that's an element we don't want to overlook either.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:02

Yeah, so maintaining our good relationship with uh local businesses who have been established for maybe a couple of years or even for decades and ensuring that they stay here in Pueblo and don't look elsewhere for another place to locate to.

Andrew Hayes 4:19

We love it when they call Pueblo home.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:21

Yeah, absolutely.

PEDCO Split And Press Conference

Haley Sue Robinson 4:23

Okay. Um Mayor, I thought I would bring up the fact that um you held a press conference about a week and a half ago regarding the city's relationship with uh Pueblo Economic Development Corporation or PEDCO and the termination of their contract. Um I think one thing that has been asked is um we did learn that day that the city um received a lawsuit from PEDCO, and so I was wondering was that press conference in response to the lawsuit, or why did you hold that press conference?

Mayor, Heather Graham 4:53

So the press conference was in response to PEDCO withdrawing their settlement agreement.

Haley Sue Robinson 4:59

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 4:59

Um the settlement agre agreement had uh been made, been agreed to. It was on city council's um agenda. It had to be pulled the following uh Monday night, and so I thought it was an opportunity. The community has been asking for a comment on the breakdown of the relationship with the city in PEDCO, and I thought it was time that people knew why. Um in fact I didn't even know that we were being sued um until about 10 p.m. that night. Um and I actually was not served until the next morning around ten o'clock, so was not in response to um the lawsuit of the city was served.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:43

It was pre-planned.

Mayor, Heather Graham 5:44

It was pre-planned.

Haley Sue Robinson 5:45

Got it. Yep. Okay.

Incentives The City Can Use

Haley Sue Robinson 5:47

Um also there are more questions, um, shifting gears back to Advanced Pueblo. There are um questions about the types of tools or incentives that the city can use um working in economic development to attract businesses and to promote growth. Um a couple of those things include uh maybe waiving TAP fees or using TIFF or half cent sales tax incentives. Uh what else is included or what other mechanisms does the city use or can use um for economic development?

Andrew Hayes 6:25

Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 6:25

Planned acquisition

Andrew Hayes 6:25

There's a whole range of things.

Mayor, Heather Graham 6:27

Yeah. Infrastructure.

Andrew Hayes 6:28

Yeah. I mean the biggest one that wasn't in that list was obviously the uh voter-approved half-cent sales tax fund that supports economic development. Um that's a very unique tool that the City of Pueblo is one of the only cities in the state that. I don't think she said that. I was gonna say,

Haley Sue Robinson 6:45

I'm not offended. I'm good. It's okay.

Andrew Hayes 6:49

That's a huge one. Uh obviously that's the the primary one that uh folks think of, I think, when they think of city help, but there are a lot of other things, the acquisition of land, uh installation of infrastructure, uh the the uh collaboration and uh uh partnership we have with Pura in offering uh tax increment funding uh incentives. All those are huge tools that can help bring a project, large or small, to the city. Um coordination with uh again, building permits, sure, uh you know, facilitation of discussions with utilities, any anything that helps a project move forward is is certainly uh on the table for discussion with um with development partners. So that's those are all services and things that the city can bring uh and tools, the tools that we can bring bring to bear to get these projects moving forward.

Haley Sue Robinson 7:38

Sure. So when you talk about uh like land acquisition, is that um something that we used with like the Convergys project? Is that an example of land acquisition or what can that look like for uh incentives for developers or

Andrew Hayes 7:55

I mean one place it it's come to pass is in in the uh establishment of industrial parks, right?

Haley Sue Robinson 8:00

Got it.

Andrew Hayes 8:01

Particularly where you're trying to establish uh uh job creation that is in a manufacturing sector that requires space in a specific zoned area for that. Um those industrial parks are uh obviously set up with infrastructure to be able to support those kinds of development activities. Um it might look like that. Uh we have the St. Charles Industrial Park down on the south end of town near uh Greenhorn Drive Lime Road area. We have the airport industrial park as well. So there's uh properties and parcels out there that are available for development and redevelopment. Um so those those areas are obviously set up in a way uh in partnership with the city to, again, incentivize those types of uh industrial developments.

Utilities Coordination For New Projects

Haley Sue Robinson 8:44

And then uh Andrew, you mentioned earlier that we have good relationships with our utility partners. Um what do those conversations look like for new businesses coming in and how does the city facilitate those relationships or conversations?

Andrew Hayes 8:59

Yeah, every business has its own unique needs. Uh but if there's a business, for instance, that requires uh you know large amounts of power, for instance, uh has has large power demands, uh we certainly set them up with Black Hills to have conversations about uh uh their Black Hills' ability to serve those needs. Um there may be uh areas of town that are better suited than others for a given pr type of project. Uh but the same thing could apply to water or sewer or uh gas as well. Um frequently it's it's us uh uh I guess aligning the developers and the utilities for conversations about specific needs for those projects. Um we're always exploring ways to you know help advocate for um better policies that uh help development here in Pueblo also uh among the utilities and uh from a regulatory perspective. Uh so there's there's a number of ways the city can engage on those fronts and try to try to help these folks out.

Why Advanced Pueblo Was Created

Haley Sue Robinson 9:55

Sure. So uh uh mayor, why why was advanced Pueblo started and where did this concept come from? Um I guess why did you see there was a need for it?

Mayor, Heather Graham 10:06

Yeah, so when I first became the mayor, one of the um things that I saw just from being on city council um and being a business owner is the lack of communication. Um, you know, whether that's picking up a routing sheet and routing your your own business, which you used to have to do in the city, um, or looking for some kind of incentive, um coming and talking to the city and the departments, uh, then working with regional building, working with the utilities. There was a lack of urgency um and communication. And if that was happening for a small business, I couldn't imagine what that looked like on a larger scale. And so one of the things I did when I came in is I wanted to create a department of economic development within the city. Um like a concierge service for developers or business owners to be able to um call somebody up, figure out, you know, where do you submit your plans, what does that look like. Um and then it evolved over the last couple of years that it was much larger um than just bringing a a department into the city. Um you needed to be able to have uh relationships within our own city departments like public works and planning, wastewater, stormwater, because all of those things fit um into the entire plan for a developer. Um but you also need to be able to have communications with the utilities, uh, Black Hills, Excel, Pueblo Water, and I didn't feel like that communication was happening. So about a year ago, we started um a weekly meeting with the Urban Renewal Authority, PEDCO, the county, and the city, um, where we would meet every Tuesday and talk about um any businesses or any big projects that were coming to the community and kind of put our heads together and and and close the gaps on where these people weren't getting the answers that they needed, things were taking too long, um, and that's kind of where Advanced Public came from. It was really an internal uh internal focus on how could we better uh serve the community, um developers and businesses coming in um internally. Um at the time we still had PEDCO who was doing um economic development for the city and uh trying to attract businesses from outside. Um but once they get here, once they they pick Pueblo, it's really an internal function of the city um to be able to get their plans processed, uh cut the red tape, and make sure these people can open their businesses. Um several different pieces that we don't believe we're ever collaborating uh together. And that's really why we've started this uh internal function of Advanced Pueblo.

Andrew Hayes 13:03

It really breaks down the silos, I think, helps communication between those agencies and departments. Um that's it's uh it's a new dynamic. So anybody who has um experienced challenges in the past should come back and and re-examine what's going on now. There's uh there's certainly a lot more positive handoff between departments. There's uh you know uh I guess better coordination on those fronts to make sure that folks are getting what they need to get their projects moving.

Haley Sue Robinson 13:26

So it kind of sounds like you took the model that you had for uh local small businesses or existing businesses with that group that you established that included um some of our internal partners like uh police, fire, uh code enforcement, sales tax, and then it included uh Southern Colorado Colorado Regional or Southern Colorado Building Department, um the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment, um sometimes it includes parole or the sheriff's office, and you kind of made that same sort of model but for attracting or retaining uh businesses.

Mayor, Heather Graham 14:12

I think that you should have one point of communication, um, especially for people who don't live in our community, who don't know who we are. Um every community is different, and so to continuously expect someone to pick up the phone and and call around to the building department, the city, the county, um, looking for cash incentives, uh looking for water fees to be waived through wastewater. Um I think that that's also part of uh why people wanted a strong mayor. They wanted to have one point of contact for the government, right? Um so it makes sense that that is happening out of this office that you call here when you want to bring your business here or you want to expand your business. And our job is really to facilitate what that looks like and to pass you to which departments you need to go to. Um, make that connection with the building department. Uh we've had a a pretty interesting year uh with the building department. We've have a great relationship with the building department. Um and so it's it's to the benefit of the community for the city to be able to call on our partners um and say, hey, we have this b big business coming to town, or we have this small business who's interested in expanding. How do we make this happen and how do we get it done quickly?

Haley Sue Robinson 15:35

So that's kind of where the um slogan or idea of Pueblo is open for business has come from.

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:42

Yeah.

Haley Sue Robinson 15:42

Yeah. Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 15:43

Not that it wasn't before, but uh I mean, we spend a lot of time every week focused, right? We have our Tuesday meeting, we meet every other Friday with our committee. You spend a lot of your time just during the day, um, even just being the director of public works facilitating um the plans and uh economic development issues within our community. Um before I before I was the mayor, I don't think that that happened. Um or the first year I was the mayor, I don't think that that happened. And so um I think that it really is making a difference uh when it comes to to bringing businesses to our community.

Andrew Hayes 16:29

Yeah, it's breaking, like I say, breaking down those silos and the facilitation that didn't exist before is there now. Uh the communication between departments makes a huge difference and it you know, projects aren't getting lost in the white space between things. Um that's been the biggest, I guess, consistent concern that's been raised by developers both in town and

Why Pueblo Stands Out To Developers

Andrew Hayes 16:50

outside. Um folks from out of town do see a lot of opportunity here that they don't see in other communities. Um Pueblo doesn't currently have impact fees, which is a benefit to developers who don't have to pay those fees up front. It's a challenge sometimes on other fronts.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:05

What's an impact fee?

Andrew Hayes 17:06

Sure. Uh so an impact fee might be hey, good question. An impact fee might be uh, you know, some communities have impact fees related to traffic.

Haley Sue Robinson 17:14

Okay.

Andrew Hayes 17:14

So uh every development would pay in on some some basis for uh collective improvements to the transportation network within the city. Uh we don't have that here. Uh generally speaking, we we work with developers of individual projects to um bring up the upgrades that need to happen uh to support their project. Impact fees provide another source of funds that allow for facilitation of things in some ways. But there are also a lot of developers that come in from like Denver Springs or out of town that are surprised by the fact that we don't have that. So that's a cost savings in many cases to them. Um there's there's a lot of opportunities, I guess, where Pueblo shines uh in the state. And um though though there have been challenges in the past, I think, with this coordination and communication, uh I think we've come a long, long way in this past year.

Haley Sue Robinson 18:05

I think the other thing that um I've heard a lot from folks who are not from Pueblo or move here or bring their business here is how many people are surprised the fact that our uh residents are willing to tax themselves for the prospect of economic development. That um taxing yourself to begin with, uh not super popular, right? But then taxing yourself uh with our half cent sales tax, and for as long as we have, there's a lot of people who are very surprised by the fact that uh voters continually um approve it, and then um we have the opportunity to use that as an ins as an incentive. And that's one thing that I think is also really unique to Pueblo that other communities don't have and we have to our benefit.

Andrew Hayes 18:54

There's it's a huge benefit here. Um I think it speaks volumes to um I guess uh people's understanding of the importance of this in making their communities better, right? That's the whole goal is to make Pueblo more livable, uh a better community for uh quality of life, for uh attracting other business, uh all these different things. And that that incentive supports that. Um if if people are willing to see that value, that just speaks volumes again for the importance of this one tool. But there are many here in Pueblo.

Haley Sue Robinson 19:27

So Right.

Fixing Permitting Bottlenecks With OpenGov

Haley Sue Robinson 19:29

And one thing that you touched on um that I I think we should just reiterate though, too, is um you know, you mentioned the coordination that we have with Advanced Pueblo and the groups there, but I I spoke about it a little bit earlier. That streamlined process of permitting and um the routing sheet. Talk a little bit about how that process kind of came to be for you in this office, Mayor, or or why you felt like it was important. I I heard you speak about it as a business owner, but what kind of feedback did you receive from some of our partners and and how have we made it better um in the last couple of years? What does that look like?

Mayor, Heather Graham 20:12

Well, I mean, so when I started my business, this was like ten years ago. So you literally used to go and pick up the sheet of paper, and then you, the business owner or your contractor, would go to uh the building department, the fire department, planning, and you would have to get individual sign-offs.

Haley Sue Robinson 20:29

You would like physically go to these places? Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 20:32

And um you would have to get the sign-offs for whatever you're remodeling, you know, you're getting a liquor license, you have to have um all of this additional stuff. Now it's it's routed uh on the backside through OpenGov. So that makes a difference. That that was done before my time. But a lot of the time it gets stuck because it's not people doing it, right? Like it's a computer system, um everybody at the city is very busy, our partners are very busy, and so maybe you don't see um that somebody is ready for a sign-off. And if the system isn't telling you, hey, go in and look at this particular license, they need to be signed off, they could be stuck for like three weeks, right? Um and that's fresh.

Haley Sue Robinson 21:19

So they're just sitting in limbo and not knowing.

Mayor, Heather Graham 21:22

Could be, could be that a department who normally doesn't have to sign off on this type of thing or has no no relevance, you know. Uh it just sits there. And so what usually happens is one of us get the call um and then we pick up the phone and call the department and like, hey, you need to sign sign off on this. Like these people have been waiting for 10 days or or whatever. Um and so when now when we know that um a business is going to apply um for whatever kind of a permit that they need, we're kind of watching that on the outside to make sure that the process Uh gets through quicker from start to finish. Okay. Because we know how important it is and how costly it is, especially for big developers that are coming into the community.

Haley Sue Robinson 22:12

Well, and then that helps the like business license renewal process for current businesses, right?

Mayor, Heather Graham 22:18

Yeah, that's all done, all in the back end.

Haley Sue Robinson 22:21

Okay.

Andrew Hayes 22:22

Yeah, there's been a lot of deliberate effort, I think, automating some of these processes, right? And getting them into an electronic system certainly helps for their efficiency. Mayor's right, obviously, as we're creating those workflows and steps, uh, we're tweaking those all the time too to try to make sure that the process is continually improved. Uh but the the fact that we've got those systems in place lets us be able to do that and keep moving forward.

Who Approves Deals And Public Funds

Haley Sue Robinson 22:44

Great. I think uh another question that folks have is um who has final approval of economic development? Is it here in the mayor's office? Um who is part of that process of approving growth within city limits?

Mayor, Heather Graham 22:59

City council.

Haley Sue Robinson 23:00

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 23:07

City Council is the end all, be all so they have to, if there's cash involved, right? So if you just have um you d for example, we have a a Longhorn steakhouse coming um to the north side of town. So they came to visit us about six months ago. They were having um some issues, uh, needed some incentives. So we were able to direct them to the Urban Rural Authority. Urban Rural Authority, it's in a TIFF district. Um, they were able to help them with some of their dirt and infrastructure.

Andrew Hayes 23:38

Yeah, they had some site issues they were working on.

Mayor, Heather Graham 23:41

Needs. Um, so that was a facilitation through this office of um contact pura, uh, you know, maybe there's some help there, right? It really didn't meet half cent sales tax um at the time. Uh so that is just gonna be up and running, no city money is exchanged, right? So city council doesn't approve anything on that. But if you are actually coming to the city for cash incentives, uh for waiving of TAFF fees, uh City Council has to approve all of that.

Haley Sue Robinson 24:15

Okay. So it's not just here in the mayor's office or it's not just with advanced pueblo. Ultimately, city council has the approval for.

Mayor, Heather Graham 24:24

Yep. So we like to get the packages ready, um, and then we take them uh with a bow to City Council saying uh yay or nay. Um so we're gonna have our first uh incentive package on April 6th. Um we'll be taking it to City Council and executive session to um potentially ask for uh property. There's some property involved in this one, um, and see what they say.

Andrew Hayes 24:51

Yeah, ultimately those those approvals again, council is the um arbiter of the uh public funds, right? They allocate and uh appropriate funds uh by our charter. And so if it's public money, uh city money, uh council's got the ultimate authority on that. But even development agreements, right? I mean it still has to be approved by an ordinance. And so uh it's not just uh one person or one even small committee making a decision here. Uh mayor did mention our committee earlier that reviews these applications and you know it's made up of a cross-section of staff and city council members and uh partner agency uh heads as well. And so we're all reviewing those applications to kind of determine uh does it does do these applications uh align with city ordinances? Are they uh aligned with city objectives? Um and then based on you know those reviews and the information provided by the applicants, uh that committee makes a recommendation either for or or not for uh approval. But everything is going to go to city council for some direction.

Haley Sue Robinson 25:53

Well and and I think uh another piece of that too is uh like our planning and zoning, right? So uh when businesses come in, it also goes before planning and zoning, which then ultimately uh comes before city council too.

Mayor, Heather Graham 26:06

And we have a city councilor on planning and zoning. So he gets to see it a little bit before everybody else.

Haley Sue Robinson 26:12

Multiple layers of of review um before this comes forward is basically what I'm hearing.

Andrew Hayes 26:18

Yeah, these are very public processes.

Haley Sue Robinson 26:19

Yeah.

Andrew Hayes 26:20

They're not there's not somebody in a cubicle somewhere making a decision for sure.

Haley Sue Robinson 26:23

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 26:24

And you know, even the the ones that we don't recommend to city council, they will be fully briefed on, hey, this doesn't meet the half cent sales tax. Um they're still far out in their application process, we're waiting on more information. So city council will be briefed um on every single project uh just in case something comes along the way where, you know, maybe the city receives a grant or something that could help one of these businesses. Um we want to make sure that city council is aware um of everybody looking for incentives or wanting to grow their business in the community.

Haley Sue Robinson 27:01

And ready when the when the timing makes sense.

Mayor, Heather Graham 27:03

And I think it also um plays to what the need is in the community. You know, I know that we have some applications this week to review that have to do with infrastructure that is going to help with uh affordable housing developments. Um and so although it's not a direct tie to a primary job, um, you're putting heads in beds, right? Um and you're growing the community. So will city council um agree that that is some kind of economic development? I don't know, we'll see. Um, but that typically hadn't been done uh previously, looking at different types of what economic development is in total. Maybe you know, housing, maybe infrastructure needs that was never contemplated uh before. Um and maybe it's not cash, maybe it's tap waivers. Um all of that we we think is economic development. So all of that goes to city council's economic development.

Andrew Hayes 28:08

And the applications also coming in now get, I guess, a more thorough look too about are they a good fit for this tool or this tool or this tool or all of them.

Haley Sue Robinson 28:16

Sure.

Andrew Hayes 28:17

And so it's it's a more holistic look.

Mayor, Heather Graham 28:19

And some of these, you know, developers, housing developers, they don't know all the different types of incentives that the city has to offer. So it really gives us um an opportunity to then sit down and have a one-on-one conversation with whoever it is uh trying to do something good for the community.

Haley Sue Robinson 28:38

Yeah, so it could be uh a local contractor that maybe has never come before the city to ask for those things, or it could be a brand new developer coming to Pueblo and not familiar with what we have to offer. Got

Projects In The Queue

Haley Sue Robinson 28:51

it. So you've alluded a little bit to um what citizens can expect to see as far as economic development in the future, but are there any specific projects that you maybe want to talk about? You mentioned like Longhorn, uh potential housing, anything else that uh maybe citizens can look forward to or be excited about, um, or things that you are hoping to bring in the future that maybe aren't quite ready.

Andrew Hayes 29:19

So

Haley Sue Robinson 29:19

that are a loaded question.

Andrew Hayes 29:21

Sure.

Mayor, Heather Graham 29:21

Yeah, there's a lot going on. Um there's some blighted properties that I will say in the community that are getting some attention um from outside of the community that uh we there might be some kinds of announcement soon. Um so that's exciting for the community.

Andrew Hayes 29:40

So council also, you know, has approved funds in the past for demolition of the dog track, for instance. That that is a um uh long-standing kind of eyesore on the community that uh you know the city's approval of funds for that is one one step. Uh but we're working with that developer. Correct. And so that developer is working with the city right now to finalize an agreement to get that uh taken down. If that uh opens up the door to to new opportunities there at the South End, um that that would be a a great opportunity, I think, for folks on the south side looking for some new uh commercial retail restaurant type development as well. Um there's there's

Mayor, Heather Graham 30:18

new development on uh boulevard across from the jail.

Andrew Hayes 30:23

Yep. That's right.

Mayor, Heather Graham 30:24

Meeting today about that.

Andrew Hayes 30:27

We've got uh you know again, a range of different things from residential, commercial, industrial, um, you know, primary job creation, um sales tax generation. I mean there's a there's a whole range of um economic development activities that need to happen. Yeah.

Mayor, Heather Graham 30:43

Da Vinci Museums about to

Andrew Hayes 30:44

how good grief, that's gonna be amazing.

Mayor, Heather Graham 30:46

Yeah, open soon.

Haley Sue Robinson 30:47

We have uh Da Vinci Museum and Boathouse opening.

Mayor, Heather Graham 30:51

The Riverwalk is going to be very, very busy this summer.

Haley Sue Robinson 30:55

Very exciting.

Mayor, Heather Graham 30:56

A potential hotel.

Haley Sue Robinson 30:57

Ooh, okay. Yeah. So there's a lot to look forward to, is what you're telling me.

Mayor, Heather Graham 31:02

There's a lot of projects that are in the queue. So we're working as quickly as they're submitting and uh we're we're excited.

Haley Sue Robinson 31:13

Okay. Great.

Misconceptions And Doing More In House

Haley Sue Robinson 31:15

Anything else that you think the uh listener needs to know? I know I asked you a lot of questions, but I might have left something out.

Mayor, Heather Graham 31:23

I think really, you know, I asked Andrew to come on today because there's like this misconception of what Advanced Pueblo means. Advanced Pueblo existed before PEDCO, Advanced Pueblo will exist after Pedco, hopefully it will exist after I'm gone. It is an internal function of the city, right? It's collaboration, you can call whatever you want to call it, but um it's us working together to make sure development isn't uh left behind. Um and right now, because we don't have an economic development partner, we're also taking on um all of the inquiries, all of the questions being asked uh within the community. So um we're really doing the best job that we can, right? Like it's the mayor, it's Andrew, who's also the director of public works. I have one part-time employee who is here three days a week helping to do marketing and advertising um for the city because obviously that wasn't going on um previously. Um and so I understand that there's you know some criticism out there about what I've done um with Pedco and what we're doing in the city when it comes to economic development. Um but I assure the community that uh the future is bright uh for Pueblo and whatever happens with economic development and whether we are successful in finding a new partner to bring to our community, um, we just want the citizens to know that we're not letting the ball drop, um, that we're on top of it, um, and we take this very seriously.

Andrew Hayes 33:03

The mayor's uh leadership, let's call it, has really kind of steered the ship in the right direction here because uh we talked again about the lack of coordination between departments, between agencies. I think we're all we all know what the objective is now. We all know where we're headed. Um and within the city there are so many opportunities uh just within the city departments to be able to help facilitate development. Um layering that on with extra coordination from those outside entities as well. If we're all pointing in the same direction, we're gonna achieve the objectives of making Pueblo the best place in the state to live. So that's where we're headed.

Haley Sue Robinson 33:39

Who can argue with that?

Mayor, Heather Graham 33:40

Uh a lot of people.

Haley Sue Robinson 33:43

Okay.

Mayor, Heather Graham 33:44

Well we're we're ready to argue back because the work that we're doing is important. Um and if you drive around the community, it doesn't go unnoticed. Um whether that was a lot of, you know, a lot of the the build that you see going on right now, that wasn't just my administration, right? It's previous administration, it's things finally getting done. Um, but today we have a gentleman coming in who did the apartment complex on um the boulevard, right? So he's done with phase one. He's already ready to do phase two. So um we're looking at what that looks like in order to help him. Um he's also looking at bringing some businesses uh over in that area, and so you can see that um he is an outside developer um bringing his money into our community uh to make it a better place. And he's obviously coming back here uh to do phase two for a reason, right? So um those are the kind of uh partners we want, um, and that's what we kind of want to see moving forward.

Haley Sue Robinson 34:51

Great. Okay. I think that was a good addition. I'm glad I asked if there was anything else you can do.

Mayor, Heather Graham 34:58

I'm glad you asked too.

Haley Sue Robinson 34:59

Yeah. Okay.

Community Events And Sign Off

Haley Sue Robinson 35:02

Well, um we have a couple of upcoming events. Uh we have a wastewater community meeting on Wednesday, April 8th at 5 30 at the YMCA, uh, which is located at 3200 East Spaulding Avenue. And you can learn about the sewer system rehabilitation program on the west side of Pueblo. We also have a District 1 Town Hall meeting on Friday, April 10th at noon with District 1 Councilor Diane Danti and at-large city counselor Selena Ruiz Gomez. Uh that town hall will be at the Barkman Library in the Minnequa Works Credit Union community room. Um Andrew, just want to say thank you for coming on the podcast this morning and thanks for helping answer the questions about advanced pueblo, who, what, where is advanced pueblo, um, and all things related. And why. Yes, and why, absolutely. Um and I'd like to remind our listener that you can find our podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Buzzsprout, um, wherever you get your podcasts, you can also find us on local channel seventeen. And maybe you have follow up questions about Advanced Pueblo, you can email us, mayor @pueblo.us, and we will see you next week.