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Granby Board approves $17k Grand Elk road safety request

Board talks railroad museum, mural festival in busy meeting

One of the murals of RKY MTN WALLS on the back of the Granby Visitor's Center.
Emma Trainor / etrainor@skyhinews.com

Tuesday was a busy night for Granby’s Board of Trustees as the board dug into a series of topics from the long awaited Moffat Road Railroad Museum to another discussion of the town’s recent controversial mural project.

Granby’s Board of Trustees got down to business with a lengthy list of agenda items, including three discussion items that garnered significant talk amongst town officials and community members — the Moffat Road Railroad Museum, road safety measures in the Grand Elk subdivision and Granby’s recently completed mural festival.

GRAND ELK



Granby’s board approved a $17,294 supplemental appropriation request from the Grand Elk homeowners association. The funds will be used to purchase and install a series of roadway safety features within the neighborhoods of Grand Elk. The issue initially came before Granby’s board late last summer after members of the Grand Elk HOA independently placed a speed bump on Thompson Road due to concerns about traffic and pedestrian safety.

Granby initially rebuffed the HOA and required the removal of the speed bump. Over the intervening months, Grand Elk’s HOA has worked to develop a comprehensive roadway safety plan for the subdivision located a short drive west of City Market.



Tuesday night several members of the Grand Elk HOA presented their safety plan to Granby’s board.

The plan includes the installation of two solar-powered flashing light speed radar signs on Thompson Road, installation of seven crosswalks within Grand Elk’s neighborhoods and the installation of four speed bumps on roads other than Thompsons Road. Under an agreement Grand Elk has with Granby the subdivision’s HOA is responsible for all road maintenance within the HOA. Granby’s trustees agreed, however, that the supplemental appropriation was a valid request considering the public safety nature of the issue.

Granby Town Manager Aaron Blair told the board to be prepared for a similar request in the future from the Granby Ranch subdivision, which he predicated would soon presented a similar request to the town for funds related to roadway safety features.

MUSEUM

For the last several years, Grand County’s Model Railroad Club has spearheaded an effort to create the Moffat Road Railroad Museum. The museum is a labor of love for Model Railroad Club Director Dave Naples and others from the local community who have sought to preserve Grand County’s historic connection to the early 20th century push by railroad pioneer David Moffat to build a rail line connecting Denver to Craig.

The museum has been an occasional point of contention for the Granby Board as Naples has sought assistance from the town in his efforts to establish the facility south of the Union Pacific railroad tracks and directly west of the Kaibab Park baseball fields. On Tuesday, Naples gave the Granby Board a presentation on the current development status of the museum and what work is outstanding before it would be ready to open.

Naples estimated that the railroad museum needs approximately $730,000 in additional funds to complete the full scope of work Naples and others currently envision for the facility. Board members inquired as to the current status of the museum development and what work needs to be completed to open the museum on a permanent basis. Local citizen Frank Delay, who sits on the museum’s board, told Granby’s trustees that the museum is working on finishing water and sewer work on the property that, once completed, “will allow us to be open full time,” Delay said.

“It is a long process, but the progress that has been made is pretty astounding,” Delay said.

Naples informed the board that he has been in communication with other museums in Grand County about the potential for the establishment of a museum district, a special taxing district, within Grand County. The establishment of a museum district would provide a guaranteed source of operational revue for the museum in Grand County, though the act would inherently require the establishment of additional mills for property taxes.

If the Moffat Road Railroad Museum and other museums within Grand County do seek to establish a museum district in Grand County the question would have to come before voters as a ballot question. Naples said he hopes to have the issue on the 2020 ballot.

MURALS

Granby’s recent controversial mural festival was once again a topic of discussion for the Granby Board. Granby’s Trustees initially planned to hold an in-depth discussion about the topic, including the potential for development of a public art policy for the town or a public art committee of some type Tuesday night.

However, due to the relatively full agenda the board otherwise dealt this week the topic was continued to July 23.


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