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Time for a truce Page 1 of 2 The Pueblo Chieftain Online 3 Select file then print to print this article. Publish Date: June ,t2002 Time for a truce EDITORIAL The Pueblo Chie ONE OF the best concepts included in the Pueblo City Charter has been the independent Board of Water Works. During the charter convention of 1954, the delegates determined that the business of managing the city's water should be placed in the hands of an independent board. As John Ladd, a member of the convention, put it last week, water is a specialized subject and it takes a long time to understand the issues involved. City Council doesn't have the time to do it and the water board does. Indeed, because the decisions governing the city's water supply have been kept out of the sometimes highly charged atmosphere of City Council, those decisions basically have been businesslike and sound. For example, when it became apparent that Pueblo could not grow without a more adequate supply, the Board of Water Works went about increasing that supply during the late 1960s. Thus it is no accident that, even during the current drought, Pueblo water customers have not had to be placed on rationing like most other Front Range communities. Last year, when the water board wanted to enter into an agreement to lease a modest amount of water to Pueblo West, things began to unravel. The water board asked City Council to approve an ordinance allowing for the arrangement. Council refused, with a majority claiming that supplying Pueblo West with water would harm the city because Pueblo West is the municipality's "competition." As one result, the city and the board have a lawsuit pending over the meaning of the City Charter. The Charter reads in part: "Title to the properties of the former (water) districts is now consolidated and any property of the water works is in the City of Pueblo. The entire control, management and operation thereof shall be exercised by an independent Board named `Board of Water Works of Pueblo, Colorado,' over which the Council shall have no jurisdiction or control, but shall adopt all ordinances requested by said Board which shall be reasonably necessary to assist the Board in the management of the water works system and property ... " Part of the management of Pueblo's excess water has been in the form of short-term leases to farmers in the Arkansas Valley and a long -term lease to the city of Aurora. The deal with Pueblo West would have been another form of that management. The water board has not sold any of its water, though. Last week City Council adopted on first reading two proposed amendments to the City Charter. One would require City Council approval of any future lease or sale of water outside the city. The other would require the water board to provide water and fire hydrants for fire suppression, and water for public parks, greenways, athletic fields and swimming pools without charge to the city government. http: / /www.chieftain.com/ print /archive/2002 /june/30 /edi4.htm 7/7/2002 ' d 821809201L. i '3 PioJeH eat, =60 20 8o inr