Englewood Herald - DeGette Meets with Sheridan Officials

News Article

By Tom Munds

About a dozen Sheridan officials and residents had lunch with Congresswoman Diana DeGette, D-Denver, on March 10.

DeGette regularly visits suburban communities she represents, and this is the first time in a few years she has visited Sheridan.

"I am interested in hearing about what is going on in your community, your concerns and what I can do to help you," the congresswoman said.

She said congressional funding opportunities are less than they used to be, but said her staff would be pleased to help Sheridan write applications seeking grants from federal agencies for city programs.

The meeting was informal as Sheridan officials talked about the programs in their city and challenges they faced.

"A primary focus of the city is doing something about our streets that are in really bad condition," City Manager Devin Granbery said. "We did an assessment, and the estimate is it will take about $40 million to do all the needed work on streets, roads, gutters and sidewalks."

He said the city doesn't have the money for the project, so the city council is considering seeking voter approval for a property tax increase. The city would sell bonds for the infrastructure repairs and repay the bond investors with the money generated by the tax increase.

Granberry added that, even if the voters approved a property tax increase, the assessed property valuation in Sheridan is not sufficient to produce the money needed to sell $40 million in bonds for road and street repairs.

The city manager said the council is looking at possible sources of new revenues, including discussing whether officials should reconsider the city's probition on all medical and recreational marijuana outlets. He said the ordinance prohibiting marijuana outlets expires in 2016, and the discussion is about whether that date should be moved up.

In the meeting with DeGette, Granbery said Sheridan is concerned about the potential loss of revenue generated by the city's photo radar and red light cameras. Sheridan has had a red light camera at Riverpointe Drive and U.S. 285, plus a mobile photo radar van that often is set up in school zones. The estimated 2015 revenue from the photo radar is $326,220.

"It appears the state is considering a ban on photo radar. The revenue from photo radar is about 10 percent of the police department budget," he said. "We probably will have to lay off police officers if the state passes the photo radar ban."

Another police issue is equipping officers with body cameras. Granbery said Sheridan doesn't have the funds to purchase cameras and the equipment to store the data from the cameras. He told DeGette financial help is a must if Sheridan is to equip police officers with body cameras.

DeGette said she was concerned about the loss of methods to provide federal funding for worthy local projects.

"Congress eliminated the earmarks. In past years, I had used earmarks to provide funds for projects that were worthy of support," she said. "So, I am looking for other ways to help communities in my district. For example, I would like to find a way to help Sheridan provide body cameras for its police officers."

She also talked about a bill she is sponsoring to support biomedical research and lessen the time proven treatments and medications are approved for use.

"I am co-sponsoring the bill with a Republican senator to try to streamline the National Institute of Health procedures," she said. "The institute was established more than 100 years ago and wasn't set up to deal with modern medicine."

One proposal would be a central database of information about research projects and advances. She said it would provide a one-stop location for research data, instead of the current situation requiring researchers to deal with a number of agencies to get the information.

Sheridan resident Cecilia Carpenter was the only person at the luncheon who wasn't a city official, representative or employee.

"I thought the meeting was great and it was very informative," she said. "The congresswoman was open and talked to us like we were old friends."

The Sheridan city manager had similar comments.

"I appreciate Congresswoman DeGette telling about her work in Washington," Granbery said. "I appreciate her listening to us and I like the fact she said her staff would try to help us with some of our issues."

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