BOARD02497

• Board Meeting Date: 7/14/1971
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

I~LI

Chatfield Dam ~uilt.

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Then as yo~ all know, in 1965 came the
disastrous flood. We were very severely
damaged, the whole lower part of our community,
by this flood. The neighbor that I have now
next door to me lost his home, all his belong-
ings, family heirlooms and everything. We
never saw his house again. That was one of four.
In addition to that, there was some 17 or more
others that were very, very severely damaged.
Some of those people are in this audience today.
Most of us worked a total of eight days out here
digging silt out of these homes. So we are very
vitally concerned.

So when there was a meeting held in 1966 or
the latter part of 1965 in the Denver Public
Library we were interested. At that time the
Corps of Engineers presented this entire thing
again. And believe it or not, there were some
in that audience that wanted no Chatfield Dam.
But, it was Columbine that spoke up then, and
that was the beginning of the 'Dam the Platte
Committee' which carried through a series of
hearings. And we now have the Chatfield Dam
under construction.

We have been planning this channelization
to prevent floods for a number of years. Now at
the last moment we have certain ones that don't
want channelization.

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As far as Columbine is concerned, I can tell
you unequivocally that we are for channelization
and there will be nobody, politically, or other-
wise, to stop Columbine from having the channel
opposite its boundaries to save this community
from further harm. We have had floods since
then. We have built a dike. Our opposite
neighbor across the river who is in the gravel
business, has now one higher than us. He has
built a levee right out into the river.

As Mr. Sparks was telling the group yesterday,