State may help Fountain solve erosion problem

The Riverside Mobile Home Park has been gradually eroding into Fountain Creek for decades but state money could save what’s left of the park.

The city of Fountain has applied for a $720,000 grant to protect several dozen homes on a bluff above the creek on the south side of Fountain along Interstate 25 and Crest Drive.

Duane Greenwood, the city’s engineer and public works director, said he should know in a few months whether the city gets the grant. If so, work would begin next fall.

“There’s a lot of fill material that would have to be brought in to rebuild the slope, rocks and rip rap to keep it from washing out,” he said. “And there’s also some minor realignment of the creek.”

The row of homes nearest the edge of the bluff moved several years ago because erosion undermined the foundations and utility connections there. The situation now threatens a second row of homes.

Tommy Skinner moved into a home on the second row two years ago and says creek flooding has changed the creek’s flow and sped up erosion.

“Last year, with all the rain, the burn scars and the flooding that we had here, it was extremely noticeable,” he said. “That’s when the river actually, literally changed course by almost 100 yards.”

Skinner said he and other neighbors are worried about the situation affecting their homes.

“I didn’t have any problem moving here,” he said. “But I would not buy here because here isn’t going to exist.”

Greenwood said there are other neighborhoods on bluffs along the creek that eventually will face erosion danger. He said paying for those projects will require successful passage of November’s regional stormwater initiative at the polls.