BOARD00444

• Board Meeting Date: 1/11/1961
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

today or to come up to our off~ce or to the
Bureau office at any time to discuss the matter
in greater detail.

We feel that, because of the long delay
on the Narrows Project and the great interest
now in the South Platte Valley, we should push
this project just as rapidly and as hard as we
knowhow. We concluded that within a period
of two years we could have a new plan to pre-
sent to the Congress, if the state would demon-
strate sufficient interest to put up a share
of the cost. Probably the cost will run some-
where in the neighborhood of a quarter of a
million dollars or more. I said then that I
would bring before our Board the advisability
of requesting $50,000 a year from the Legisla-
ture for the next two years, starting with the
next fiscal year July 1, 1961, to complete this
project within the next two years. That means
it will be ready to go to the Congress and
thereafter, if authorized, to construct. That's
as fast as we can possibly move on it, and only
to that extent if funds are furnished by the
state. We have some doubt as to whether or not
the federal government wishes to pursue this
matter any further unless the state makes a
concrete contribution, because the federal
government already has over a million dollars
invested in the old Narrows site.

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That essentially, Mr. Chairman, is the
plan and we hope that the Board will approve,
so that we can then form our necessary work
groups and start immediately upon this investi-
gation. As the scope of the investigation is
determined, that is, the scope of the area is
determined, we would expect a conservancy dis-
trict to be organized in those farming areas
that would receive benefits from the project.
And unless that conservancy district is formed
in the near future when we have an idea of the
plan of the area, then we would not pursue the
irrigation aspects any further. So it would be
contingent upon the willingness of the people
in the service area, as soon as we can give
them a tentative project plan, to take upon

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