Town Commissioners — 2025-08-04

The Queenstown Commissioners held a work session on August 4, 2025 to review bids for the Water Infrastructure Project, discuss bulk and brush collection rules, and to hold a closed session on a personnel matter. Rauch Inc. (Bob Rauch & James Cook) reported bids far above the engineer’s estimate — the lowest bid from Lindstrom Excavating was $8,290,530 versus the engineer estimate of $5,902,435 — and said the water-tower portion (and Wall St. tower remediation, up from about $135,000 to $800,000 due to lead paint) were major cost drivers. Project costs were reported broken down as 53,297,590 supporting old town exclusively, $3,899,700 supporting Wheatlands exclusively, and $371,000 supporting both; Rauch suggested Wheatlands developers take on Wheatlands-only items, and Town Attorney Lyndsey Ryan and Mr. Cook will discuss with USDA whether the project scope can be reduced to old-town-only to match funding. On bulk and brush collection Commissioners discussed adopting Ridgely/Denton-style guidelines, a proposal from Commissioner Callahan to allow an outside entity to collect scrap metal and to strictly enforce existing rules, and agreed to pilot Callahan’s collection method for a month before changing regulations. The board entered a closed session at 5:04 p.m. to discuss a personnel issue with the Town Attorney and returned/adjourned at 5:45 p.m.; attendees included President Al Hardee, Commissioners Tom Willis and Bryon Callahan, Town Manager Amy Moore, Town Clerk Aaron Horney, and Town Attorney Lyndsey Ryan.