Lifeline or death knell? Colorado bill to speed abandonment of town with failing waterworks advances

DENVER (CN) — It’s up for debate whether the collapse of Hartman’s government is unique, or a canary indicative of the pressures facing rural Colorado towns. It’s still unclear which past board of trustees put Hartman on the path to collapse and who could save it now. And it’s not even known whether the town’s water pump will shut off in June or August.

On Wednesday, however, the seven members of the Colorado Senate Committee on Local Government & Housing unanimously voted in favor of the Determination of Town Abandonment bill crafted to accelerate the secretary of state’s ability to declare Hartman, Colorado, officially abandoned.

“Statute prevents Hartman from just holding an election, or the county from holding an election while it’s a statutory town,” state Senator Rod Pelton, a sponsor of the bill whose district includes Hartman, told the committee. “This helps crack that nut and maybe, down the road someone can petition for the town to be a town again.”

Located 10 miles from Kansas and 200 miles from Denver, Hartman remains home to 30 residents and several beloved dogs, a New Deal-era gymnasium, two vintage but sturdy playgrounds and a 100-year-old water tower in desperate need of repair.

While residents have long disagreed with one another on how to run the town, the last government meeting devolved into a physical fight on Jan. 23, prompting misdemeanor charges, hospital visits and the board of trustees to resign.

Without a mayor, a board of trustees, or a clerk to hold an election, Hartman has no functioning government. In efforts to preserve local control, neither the county nor the state is authorized to run municipal elections.

Current law also prevents the secretary of state from holding official abandonment proceedings for five years, starting at the date of the town’s last election. There is no exception for a town like Hartman, leaving it unable to hire a water operator or pay the bill to run the groundwater pump.

As it stands, the money paid in advance to cover the electric bill will run out as early as June, leaving the town’s elderly residents without running water. Urging residents and agencies to come up with a permanent fix, Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, promised to send a water truck in if the worst-case scenario manifests.

For the last four months, Pelton, a Republican, has worked with the Prowers County, the state Department of Local Affairs, the state Department of Public Health and Environment and the nonprofit Colorado Municipal League to find a way to bail out Hartman.

With three weeks left in the legislative session, Pelton’s bill has a long road through two chambers and across the governor’s desk before it could kickstart a new process.

Rather than make the town wait five years to enter abandonment proceedings, the bill would allow a landowner or voter to petition for a town with critical water infrastructure and no elected representatives to be declared abandoned regardless of how recently it held its last election. In addition, the bill would allow the county to hire a water operator for six months and appropriate $100,000 to maintain the water system in hopes that would be long enough to officially abandon the town and establish a new water authority.

Without the bill, Pelton said, “nothing can be done.”

During a community meeting on Saturday, Prowers County Administrator Don Wilson urged residents to take the lifeline.

“I know you are looking at this as a bad deal, but the state legislature is leaving in three weeks and without it, you’re stuck for five years,” Wilson told two dozen residents who gathered in Holly, Colorado. “Abandonment sounds harsh, but the town will not go away, you’re still going to live here.”

Around the table, three generations of Hartman residents aired old grievances and spoke over each other, but ultimately agreed they didn’t want to live without running water.

“We have to focus on this proposal,” 18-year-old Emilee Selman said, cutting through the fray. “I don’t want to have to move, and this is how we stay here.”

While the bill promises to secure Hartman’s water supply for residents, it does not solve all of the town’s problems, including how to cover the cost of replacing aging water infrastructure, when to reincorporate a new town and whether it’s too late to make amends.

Jammie Darrell, who lives in Denver and owns her elderly mother’s house in Hartman, worries the bill leaves too many problems unresolved. Darrell sees no path forward without elections being restored and believes the narrative of infighting is being used to force the town to take the bill. Accompanied to the Capitol with her mother, Darrell was the only Hartman property owner to address the committee and the only person who spoke in opposition.

“Recent acknowledgment, not knowledge, has revealed statutory gaps in real support for failing towns,” Darrell said. “This bill fails to examine the broader pattern of statutory failure. It gives no evaluation of current aging, low-income and extremely fragile towns under similar risk.”

Sixteen Hartman residents — and five people residing in nearby Holly — signed a single-page handwritten petition emailed to the committee in support of the bill.

“The majority of residents of Hartman are in favor of the bill SB-157. They want to be assured that we have water until a long-term solution is found,” the residents said in the petition.

Maria De Cambra, executive director of the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, said the agency has traveled to Hartman dozens of times since 2020 to provide training and support. She personally led a town meeting last week to engage with residents on the bill.

“The bill intends to get ahead of the crisis as the water infrastructure continues to degrade,” De Cambra said. “It’s unprecedent to be honest, but we believe with the information we have that this is the best path forward.”

In a petition filed last month, resident Dawn Railsback asked the Prowers County District Court to take up the issue, submitting as evidence the paperwork of residents who tried to file to run for election before the town government resigned. In her complaint, Railsback asked the judge to order an election to resuscitate the town.

“Without a governing body, no one has authority to operate, maintain or fund the town-operated water system, pay the electric bill for well, or perform required maintenance,” Railsback warned the court in her petition. “This creates a foreseeable risk of the town eventually running out of water.”

But the court does not seem inclined to take up review. On Monday, 15th Judicial District Judge Tarryn Johnson issued an order giving Railsback 30 days to file a motion explaining why she shouldn’t dismiss the case for failure to prosecute.

“Not everyone is totally happy," Wilson said before the committee vote Wednesday. “But we came to a good conclusion with this bill.”

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