Town of Meeker plans public meeting to discuss proposals from Better City

MEEKER | The Town of Meeker will hold the first public hearing regarding the establishing of the urban renewal authority (URA) on Feb. 21 during its regular meeting and will host an informational public meeting Wednesday, Feb. 22 to address questions and concerns about the Better City proposals. Representatives of Better City will be at both meetings. Details about the Feb. 22 meeting are forthcoming.
“The creation of the URA is driven by the Better City projects, but it’s entirely separate,” said Mayor Regas Halandras, adding, “It’s something that could have been done years ago.”
The public hearing for the URA will be limited to discussion about the URA.
“We’re not going to discuss the Meeker Adventure Center at the URA hearing, those are totally separate animals.”
Questions about the proposed Meeker Adventure Center will be addressed at the Feb. 22 meeting, along with the other components of the Better City proposal. No decisions will be made at the meeting. Residents are encouraged to submit their questions in writing prior to the meeting, if possible, to help avoid redundancy.
Town Attorney Melody Massih said a motion has been filed to dismiss any claims against the Town of Meeker related to the ongoing lawsuit against the Meeker Housing Authority (MHA).
“The town is not the housing authority, doesn’t direct it, or do anything with it except appoint the board members,” Massih said. The lawsuit was filed in September 2016 in federal civil court by tenants of federally subsidized housing claiming the MHA’s rules prohibiting companion service animals are in violation of their civil rights.
The board of trustees agreed to donate $500 to the Wagon Wheel Rendezvous OHV Club to help with trail maintenance and improvements and insurance. The county also donated $500 to the club.
The board awarded a bid for the purchase of a new pickup to Northwest Auto of Meeker after a lengthy discussion about the merits of prioritizing local bids over the lowest bids. Two bids were received for the truck, one from Northwest Auto and one from Weld County Garage in Greeley. The Weld County Garage bid was lower than Northwest Auto’s bid by “about $1,000.”
The town used to have a policy that provided a 5 percent difference for local bidder preference, but that policy was taken out when the town revised its bid policies. The board agreed that a standard needs to be established again and will discuss that in a future meeting.