Manitou Springs is getting ready for the wet season

Since the Waldo Canyon fire in 2012, businesses in Manitou Springs have seen devastating flooding several times.

For one business it’s been a long road back.

Amanda Shotts is part of one of those businesses. She’s hard at work Wednesday.

“I think we’ve probably touched every square inch in here with either paint or doing the ceilings and getting all the dust off,” she said.

Even though she’s a glass blower by trade, construction seems to be taking up a lot of her time these days – thanks to what happened here nearly three years ago.

“We had water 6 inches over the top of the ceiling in the basement,” she said.

The infrastructure in Manitou Springs wasn’t built to withstand the rush of water from the burn scar.

Fountain Creek filled with mud and debris that poured into homes and businesses.

And it’s something that continues to be watched.

Issac Brisk, a flood construction recovery observer for the City of Manitou Springs says, “That’s always a constant struggle and so far it’s in great shape. Since 2013 to now we have cleaned it. (Now) the creek’s looking real good.”

The flood recovery team has several projects underway, including bridge maintenance, cleaning culverts and the reconstruction of Williams Canyon.

“We have Williams Canyon phase three coming up which is going to be around 2017,” said Brisk.

Commonwheel Artist Co-op remains closed, but now thanks to lots of mitigation work, it’s getting ready to reopen.

Shotts likes what she’s seen so far from the mitigation work.

“I think they did a wonderful job in Williams Canyon,” she said.

And if it all works out, sandbags won’t be needed again.

Shotts says Commonwheel will have a soft opening around March 5.

In the meantime, the city has received a grant to help private landowners with mitigation.