BOARD02112

• Board Meeting Date: 1/9/1978
• Description: Agenda, Minutes, Resolution
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

Company and the Denver, Rio Grande & Western Railroad. They purchased
a section of land. Those black marks actually indicate wells or the.
approximate location of the wells that have been drilled to date.

With that explanation, Mr. Chairman, we will get to the agenda item for
which a memorandum was sent to the board.

I

In conformity with the priority list adopted by the board at its last
meeting,.I submitted the annual report of this board on the status of
the construction fund to the Colorado General Assembly.: Copies of that
report were-sent to the board members.

We followed that up with an analysis as to the potential construction
schedule, showing the schedule that could be carried on with current
funding and another schedule showing the construction schedule_ if, in
fact, the sum of-an additional $3 million-were appropriated annually
for the next ten years. If the sum of $30 million is appropriated in
the next ten years, this will bring the.original capital. investment of
the fund to $50 million. The other twenty will come from funds that we
already have or_which will be coming in annually from the Mineral
Leasing Act. With the $50 million capital investment, we believe that
the fund can become self-sustaining so that no future appropriations
will be needed from the General Fund. However, if we get into multi-
million-dollar projects, projects costing $10-100 million or something
of that nature, the fund would not be self-sustaining.

I have discussed this with Mr. _Sherman and with the Governor's office
and with various legislators, most of whom are in complete sympathy with
the program that we have set forth.

As I indicated in the memorandum, the question of metering throughout
Colorado has come into focus. This board, when it first issued its
guidelines on the use of the construction fund, stated that metering
must be accomplished if state funds were used when the board deemed that
such metering was feasible. With the money that we have put out-to date
with one exception, that exception being in the Allenspark community,
we have required the installation of meters if we rehabilitated or
assisted in the reconstruction of municipal or domestic systems.

I

It is our understanding that the federal government has adopted a
similar policy in recent months, particularly the Farmers Home Admin-
istration which is the biggest loan and grant agency operating in
Colorado.

As a result of the drought, the Governor has been impressed with the
policy of this board. Some criticism over the years has been levied at

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