CoCPN Council has an opportunity to invest in the future of the community, rather than expending a large sum of unbudgeted money for legal fees incurred in pursuit of the Metro District. Is there a better use of the money? New designs in sprinkler heads are 30% more efficient than traditional heads which mist, subjecting water used in outdoor irrigation to wind and evaporation. (There are several manufacturers. One example can be found at http://www.hunterindustries.com/products/mprotator/) The new heads, generically termed "rotary sprinkler nozzles", sell at local retails for about $7 each.
CoCPN has +/- 3,374 built units. If each unit uses 20 sprinkler heads for outdoor irrigation, the community has about 67,500 installed sprinkler heads. If that number of rotary sprinkler nozzles is purchased at retail, the cost of replacement rotary sprinkler nozzles is $472,360. If the heads could be purchased in bulk at $5.20 each, the cost is $350,000 - about the mid-point of the estimate of the cost of legal fees to pursue the Metro District. Would it be possible to arrange coupons through local retailers to purchase these rotary sprinkler nozzles at reduced costs? Yes. At most, residents would have to go to the store, or the Metro District Building, or the city offices to pick them up. (Speaking of EcoDevo, if you want to take another step, create summer jobs for high school and college students as installers.) So, what would a reduction of 30% in the amount of water used in outdoor irrigation mean to the residents of CoCPN?
a) Approximately half of our water consumption is used in outdoor irrigation. This means a 30% reduction in outdoor irrigation results in a 15% reduction in overall water usage.
b) Unlike many communities, residents of CoCPN already have a drought reserve called the Denver Basin Aquifers. The Metro District is currently purchasing surface water assets to move away from annual reliance upon our drought reserve. While this dependence is a regional issue with regional solutions, cooperative leadership to take action on the demand side of this issue could be a gold star in the crown of CoCPN. (Town of Castle Rock already offers a rebate of $5 per nozzle to its citizens, as does Denver Water to citizens of Lone Tree. Let's do our part!)
c) The delivered price of a water solution may run to $15,000 per home. However, the core cost of the water itself is about $8,750 per built unit. A reduction of 15% represents $1,312.50. Would you be willing to reduce costs by $1,312.50 per built unit for an investment of only $104.00 per built unit? Crunch the ROI on that! There are also additional annual savings to be gleaned from reduced energy costs associated with moving and treating irrigation water.
d) $350,000 is a lot of money. Saving $4,078,375 net of this investment is a lot more money - other people's money. We hear about saving ten thousand dollars a month from consolidation. It's right to try to save taxpayer money every chance we get. But wouldn't you agree $325,000 is better spent on our future than on attorney's fees?
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Mark,
ReplyDeleteTo date the City has probably spend a couple of thousand at the most on saving residents $1.2 million per year in taxes. The investment seems rather worthwhile. The CPN MD is, however, on track to spend around $120,000 this year to PREVENT the residents from saving $1.2 million in taxes and fees. Hmmm...Something seems amiss here!
The example of Lone Tree is a good one. At the time of incorporation, according to Jack O'Boyle, the existing metro districts came to the city and offered to start in a process of voluntary dissolution. Instead of spending $120,000 per year in legal fees to prevent residents from having integrated governmental services, the metro districts in Lone Tree found a way to work alongside the city.
I can only hope that our metro districts would follow the path. Just think what we could do with the $120,000 the CPN MD is spending on legal fees. That would certainly convert a lot of turf to xeriscape and save us $$$ per acre foot in water we would never need to buy.
Doug Gilbert
CPN Ward 3 Council