Town Hall held in Pueblo West Tuesday night to discuss infrastructure issues – including roads

PUEBLO WEST, Colo. (KRDO) - Pueblo County Commissioners hosted a town hall in Pueblo West to talk with citizens about concerns they have - including concerns about the roads.

On Jan. 1, 2023, the Pueblo County Government became responsible for the maintenance of all the roads in the Pueblo West Metropolitan District. This came after Pueblo West voters approved a ballot measure in November 2022 that will allow the collection of a $0.01 sales tax for road maintenance. In January, Pueblo County Commissioners told KRDO they believed the ballot question passed because of the growing frustration residents had about road conditions.

Even with the $0.01 sales tax going to road maintenance, County Commissioner Deneya Esgar told KRDO Tuesday that the money collected from that tax is a fraction of what it will take to address the issues right away.

"Honestly, the amount of money that that sales tax is going to collect is $1.8 million right now, we need absolutely over $100 million to be able to tackle the stormwater issues that are in Pueblo West right now," Esgar said.

Other issues are being addressed, like treating for dust and adding gravel to roads. According to a handout from the event, the metro district has added more than 7,000 tons of gravel for storm drainage and treated more than 15 miles of road for dust.

"We are doing everything we can to get caught up on the 400 miles of road out here and to improve the roads as we're trying to figure out what we do about stormwater and how we can best implement new ways to make things better as we can afford it," County Commissioner Deneya Esgar said.