Town pulls out of Mormon Canyon project

By: 
Gregory Hasman, gregory@glenrockind.com

The Glenrock Town Council decided not to move forward with constructing a biking and walking path on Mormon Canyon Road after all. 

The path would have been built where the road intersects with U.S. Highway 26 within town limits and end at the turnoff to the South Rec area.

The council voted 3-2 against moving ahead with the project at its June 28 meeting.

Councilman Roy Kincaid and councilwoman Margaret Nunn voted in favor of it, while Mayor Bruce Roumell, councilwoman Annabelle Faunce and councilman John Moulton voting against the path.

While the council members all agreed the project was a good idea, they also said the money could be better used elsewhere in the budget, on other projects which had priority over extending the path to South Rec.

Several weeks ago, the town verbally agreed to allocate $55,000 to go toward a study of the path, but since then council members said they were informed an additional $96,000 would be needed – and that was just too much, the officials agreed.

The town does not have the sales tax revenue to help support the project. Officlas have said that funding would have had to come from reserves. 

The project is in the county and the town should concentrate on projects within the town. For example, it needs to figure out a way to pay for $5 million in water and sewer line projects, Roumell said. 

Converse County Commission Chairman Jim Willox said he was pleased that the council had at least made some kind of decision as, “we now know how the path will go.”

“The biggest thing we wanted was for the town to make a definitive decision. Personally, I am disappointed because I think it would have been a good improvement for the community of Glenrock, but they have their priorities,” Willox stated.

The rejection of the bike/walk path will not impact Converse County’s plan to reconstruct and pave almost two miles of the northern end of Mormon Canyon Road. 

“I just wish they could have not spent so much time not deciding,” Willox said. “We lost this construction year for the road.”

There are likely to be some modifications made to the Mormon Canyon road design to account for the change in plans but “I don’t think it will be a complete redesign,” Willox said. 

 “We will get the design buttoned up in the next couple of months, then we will go out to bid in the off-season for construction next year,” he said.

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