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Gypsum Loan Feasibility Outline <br />CWCB Water Project Loan Program . <br />Page 8 of 33 <br />2.2 Proiect Snonsor <br />The Town of Gypsum is a Colorado home rule municipality, chartered under the <br />Municipal Home Rule Act of 1971, and located in Eagle County, Colorado. The Town of <br />Gypsum Water Activity Enterprise is the funding mechanism. <br />a. Entitv Description. Town of Gypsum: The Town of Gypsum was formed by a <br />commission duly elected on Apri16, 1982, under the Colorado Constitution, Article XX, <br />and then approved by special election held on September 14, 1982. <br />b. Ini~ation in Gy~sum. Gypsum's system provides water for 250 acres of irrigation. <br />Gypsum also leases several water rights for irrigation use to properties in its service area, <br />and has contractual obligations to provide 100 AF of irrigation water that supplements <br />the irrigation of 200 additional acres under the H.O.R. ditch. Future growth is estimated <br />at a fairly high rate, and the LEDE Reservoir is necessary to provide adequate storage <br />releases for changes in irrigation rights, stream flow maintenance, and direct diversion. <br />c. Gvpsum's Historv. The first settlers appear to have arrived in Gypsum in the early <br />1880's. Many of these folks located south of Town in the Gypsum Creek Valley, <br />establishing homesteads and ranches. The ranchers slowly began to convert the brush <br />covered valley bottom areas for agricultural purposes, but their success was hampered by <br />the lack of natural precipitation. Before long it became apparent that some kind of <br />irrigation system would be necessary. A series of ditches were laid out in order to <br />capitalize on the abundant water available in Gypsum Creek. With plenty of water made <br />available for agricultural use, many ranch operations began to thrive. <br />O. W. Dagget and Sammuel Olesen were some of the first settlers. Sammuel Olesen and <br />Hans Olesen, Sr. immigrated to America from Germany, establishing successful ranches <br />in the Gypsum area. Gustavius Ulin worked off debt at various ranches in the area, <br />eventually earning enough money to establish his small ranch. Frank Doll, with the help <br />of a wealthy Chicago brother, established a successful business raising racehorses in the <br />Valley. He sold racehorses to wealthy Denver society folk and several other well heeled <br />families back east. He was also one of the original appropriators in the LEDE reservoir <br />project (L. is for Lundgren, E. is for Erickson, D. is for poll and E. is for Engstrom). <br />d. Water Infrastructure Fundin~. Gypsum's municipal code requires all development to <br />provide water rights or "in-lieu fees" for water right dedication. The code also requires <br />tap fees to be paid, which in turn funds infrastructure. In addition, the town historically <br />requires landowners that annex to provide additional water, infrastructure, money and/or <br />some combination of these. The in lieu fees for annexation and water right dedication, <br />and tap fees are held by Gypsum's Water Enterprise. Finally, Gypsum collects monthly <br />service fees for water use, also held in the Water Enterprise. <br />e. Current Water Facilitv Descrintion. Gypsum's current water service area is shown on <br />the map attached in Appendix 2. Currently, 250 acres are irrigated by various water <br />