DEL NORTE—For the last few weeks Del Norte residents and businesses may have noticed a brown tint in their water supply. This may be due to increased chlorine levels according to a report given by Public Works Director Kevin Larimore at the Wednesday, Oct. 11 meeting of the town board.
Several business leaders reported noticing the issue including the Rio Grande County Hospital, Windsor Hotel, Three Barrel Brewery and Family Dollar.
“We’ve flushed the entire system a few times over the last two weeks. It may be a chlorination issue. I think the chlorine may have been a little high. After we flushed it I’m hoping the water will be better. I can’t quite figure out exactly what’s going on, I think chlorine may have been high and was breaking debris loose,” said Larimore.
Trustee Sam Scavo stated he had noticed a strong pool water type smell coming from his water pipes. He asked Larimore if a water sample had been conducted to ensure that nothing out of the ordinary was in the town’s water supply.
“I’ve been taking samples. We’re dealing with a distribution system that’s 50-60 years old. The pipes are a bit rusty. Maybe we can look into cleaning them in the future. The chlorine seemed a bit high. I’m hoping this issue goes away soon. The water samples I’ve taken this year, and I’ve taken a bunch, the results show everything looks crystal clear, clean and great,” said Larimore.

Police
Chief Bobby Fresquez gave his montly update to the town board. “Things seem to be slowing down except for drugs. We had some overdoses and had to administer naloxone. We are seeing meth and heroin. This is Valley-wide issue though not just here. We also got some calls in from Monte Vista because they were brought to the hospital here. We also had some calls for marijuana at the school but that’s typical of school-related calls. Burglaries and thefts are down but we’ve still had a few. They’re still there, but not like they were. Criminal and traffic cases have also gone down. We have a new officer that started last week and now have a full force,” said Fresquez.
During another portion of the meeting Mary Asplin spoke up regarding some of the statistics. “You’re actually all doing a really great job here. Even though there’s some minor issues we’re definitely in a better place. You should be proud. For example, Kids Connection from Monte Vista has brought their kids here to our North Park for certain programs because them finding and running into needles was a concern at the Monte Vista park. There’s not any needles in North Park. It may sound bad what Bobby said, but you’re ahead of some of the battle and that’s a good thing,” he said.

Upper Rio Grande Economic Development
Asplin and his wife Bonnie Asplin, co-directors of Upper Rio Grande Economic Development, gave an update on their activities and asked for the town board to commit to continue supporting the group and their efforts.
“The hospital has closed on their loan with USDA and they will start construction on the expansion in a few weeks. That will be more jobs in Del Norte. They are expanding a larger conference room. It was built as a $5 million hospital and it’s now a $25 million hospital. There’s going to be cardiac, respiratory, occupational therapy. They are also remodeling the clinic so it will be team-based care,” said Asplin.
“They are also connecting the hospital to the clinic and exapnding the emergency department,” said Bonnie Asplin.
“In the emergency department there will now be walls instead of curtains so no one knows what’s going on in the different rooms next door,” said Marty Asplin.
“We’re also here to talk more about your commitment to URGED. We have presented you with information on the goals and accomplishments we have made in the last three years. We accomplished most of what we set out to do in the first year and a half. For the next year’s we are moving towards more workforce development. We realize we need to start in our secondary schools. There is a problem throughout the Valley in that employers cannot find employees with the necessary skills. We will be working to develop the Valley’s workforce. We ask that you continue to be an investor in URGED,” said Asplin. The town board unanimously voted to continue being a member and support the efforts.