The city of Grand Junction has denied allegations made by the Grand Junction Peace Officers’ Association that the city and three individuals mismanaged an employee retirement fund and misled its
With a flurry of new fire stations being built in Grand Junction, one local contractor said the cityâs bidding process has unfairly excluded him, but the city says it is making the best decisions it can for the taxpayers.
PNCI Construction Inc. President Frank DeSantis said his company pursued the contract for Fire Station 6, which opened last November at 729 27 Road. It was the first of several new fire stations to be built in the next few years after the passage of the 2B First Responders Tax in 2019.
DeSantisâ company did not get the contract, which used the Construction Manager/General Contractor (CMGC) method. A CMGC project does include discretion on the part of the city to include metrics other than price to determine the winning bid, which in the case of Fire Station 6 went to FCI Construction. DeSantis said that wasnât fair to his company.
The Grand Junction City Council approved a contract with FCI Construction to build the new Fire Station 3.
Fire Chief Ken Watkins explained to the City Council, which was holding its first regular meeting with three new council members, why the city is replacing this station at 582 25½ Road.
âThis is our oldest fire station,â Watkins said. âItâs actually over 45 years old. It has a number of maintenance and capital needs. Weâve done an evaluation to determine whether we could have done a more cost-effective remodel, and that didnât look to be successful.â
The station is about half the size of the new stations the city has been building. It also had a number of other issues, including no gender separation in the facility for privacy.
The Grand Junction City Council held a lengthy discussion at its Monday workshop on how to move forward with developing ordinances to regulate the newly allowed marijuana businesses.
One of the main topics under discussion was over how to further engage the community to get input and feedback on those regulations. Interim Mayor Pro-Tem Chuck McDaniel said he felt the council needed significant public engagement.
âMy strong preference is to get this matter fully vetted among the public and listen to anyone who wants to say something about it,â McDaniel said.
Senior Planner Lance Gloss gave the council a presentation laying out what work had been done on the marijuana regulation issue including the past public engagement.
Four Grand Junction City Council members were sworn in Monday morning for new four-year terms after winning their elections on April 6.
Rick Taggart was reelected, and Abe Herman, Randall Reitz and Dennis Simpson were elected for the first time. The new council members met at City Hall in front of a small gathering, which included city staff and the three City Council members who were not up for reelection.
The new council started off with a work session Monday evening, which included discussion about allowing marijuana businesses in the city.
According to the agenda, discussion items were to include whether regulations should be put in place, the timeframe for licensing new marijuana businesses and whether to establish a cap on the number of certain marijuana licenses.