Prepare for another marathon.
During tomorrow’s Longmont City Council meeting, several polarizing topics will come before councilmembers. The seven-person team will…
Decide whether to accept grants from the Federal Aviation Administration that would fund the reconstruction of taxilanes at Vance Brand Municipal Airport.
Decide whether to add a question to November’s ballot that would ask voters to implement ranked choice voting methods.
Decide whether the city should buy Longmont’s YMCA building.
Let’s break it down.
Airport grants:
This is a deceptively tricky one. Two of VBMA’s taxilanes are at the end of their serviceable life and need to be replaced. Taking free money from the federal government always sounds like a good idea but…
If Longmont says yes, the city becomes obligated to uphold certain federal guidelines. Most notably in this case, the grant language mandates that no DEI programs can be in use.
But if Longmont says no, the city will be on the hook for the full cost of the $1.5 million reconstruction. And city council isn’t exactly sure where in the budget they would find that money.
City council is also waiting on results from a study that would reveal other methods by which the airport, which Longmont owns, could begin collecting more revenue.
Ranked choice voting:
You may remember a similar idea coming before all Colorado voters in 2024, but flailing like the U.S. in a World Cup. Now, Longmont may see if its voters feel differently.
RCV asks voters to rank more than one candidate for an office in order of their preference.
If no candidate gets a majority of votes in the first round of counting, then the lowest vote-getters are eliminated round-by-round.
A vote cast for an eliminated candidate is redistributed to the voter’s next most preferred candidate.
But, there are some hurdles if city council moves forward…
Implementation in the first year alone would cost $60,000-$80,000.
There would be limited time to educate the public on the issue. Even if city council moves forward tomorrow, the proposal wouldn’t be finalized for a while. It would need to return to council on August 11 and August 25 for first and second readings.
The YMCA building:
This one’s less dramatic. The City of Longmont announced Thursday it reached an agreement with YMCA of Northern Colorado to buy the Longmont YMCA property. But, city council needs to give the greenlight. The importance of the acquisition is twofold for the city:
There is an urgent demand for more childcare services in Boulder County.
Community surveys and recreation master planning have consistently identified the need for additional indoor recreation space.
But, the 60,000-square-foot building needs about $8 million worth of repairs in addition to a $4.5 million purchase price. Not to mention, YMCAs have been struggling to stay profitable. In addition to the Longmont location’s woes, branches in Denver and Cheyenne, Wyo. were forced to close after financial challenges.
Check out the full city council agenda here.