Public works prepping for summer

MONTE VISTA— The Monte Vista Public Works Department is in full gear preparing for the coming summer months. The parks and community are being cleaned and trimmed for the benefit of citizens and summer visitors. Public Works Director Rob Vance addressed the city council at the Thursday, April 18 regular session to update on that progress and other important items related to his crews.
“The streets crew has been busy working on pre-summer items. This includes patching potholes, trimming trees and sweeping,” said Vance. He shared that a sweeper had recently been taken out to clear out debris from the streets, but the regeneration part of the engine had to be replaced. This sweeper has given problems before, Vance recommends it be removed from the fleet. He plans to address this issue with the city council in the future.
The parks around Monte Vista are also being prepared for the summer. “Vic (Samora) has been raking leaves and doing regular trash runs getting things ready for summer,” he said. Seasonal positions to help maintain the parks throughout the summer have been advertised, and these employees will begin their positions in May.
On the water and sewer sides of things, seasonal changes are also taking place. “April is the first month that we actually shut off water due to non-payment. During the winter months December through March we do not actually turn off water because of the freezing temperatures,” stated Vance. He continued that the city is finding many citizens take advantage of this generosity and simply do not pay their bill. Then when April comes they have too large of a bill to pay, and as a result many residents have their water actually turned off. Vance said that because of this situation the practice of not turning off water during the winter months may need to be revisited and reconsidered.