City, county will work out agreement over hookup

El Paso County and Colorado Springs Utilities will work out an agreement over a water and sewer hookup charge for the new detox facility that initially caused a standoff.

The problem arose when the city wanted the county to pay $233,000 to hook up the detox center to an existing water line serving the Criminal Justice Center, an amount Sheriff Terry Maketa called "shocking."

When city-owned Utilities balked at lowering the charge, county commissioners voted to reconsider their action Tuesday to grant an easement for a Utilities sewer line in Bear Creek Regional Park for an unrelated residential development.

While easements are usually given by the county at no charge, County Administrator Jeff Greene said this easement could become a bargaining chip.

Although Utilities spokesman Steve Berry at first said there was "no way" to waive the $233,000, county spokesman Dave Rose said Thursday night a deal is pending.

"They're confident they can work out a mutually beneficial agreement next week," Rose said.

"Using that (easement) as some kind of leverage isn't going to work," Berry said, "because we don't have the authority to waive the fee. Nobody does, unless the City Council decides to change the rules and regulations."

The county is building a detox facility next to the jail on East Las Vegas Street after the detox portion of the Lighthouse Assessment Center closed in February.

Funding comes from the county's Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract to house illegal aliens. Maketa hopes other agencies help fund operations when the facility opens next fall.

Meantime, he wasn't expecting a quarter-million-dollar water and sewer hookup charge added to the building's cost of $1.2 million to $1.4 million.

"That's ridiculous," Maketa said. "I was shocked by the amount. That charge goes on top of a facility that's going to benefit the city." He said the new facility's lines will be connected to a line the county extended from Las Vegas Street when the jail addition was built about four years ago.

After Greene found out about the fee Tuesday, he asked commissioners to vote to reconsider their action to grant Utilities the easement, needed to install a sewer west of 21st Street and south of Lower Gold Camp Road to serve a proposed city development of seven high-end homes on 10 acres.

Commissioners did so and were slated to take up the matter today.

But the item was pulled from today's agenda after city officials told Greene they couldn't alter the detox hookup fee.

Greene said the county has granted the city numerous easements at no charge and benefitted by building trails on the easements. In fact, the county granted the easement in question in August with a condition that .08 of an acre of park land be deeded to the county by Nov. 1. The land wasn't deeded until Nov. 28, which the county said voids the earlier approval.

"I'm saying we should be working together," Greene said, "because this (detox facility) is a benefit to the entire community." He said the biggest beneficiary is the city, owner of Memorial Health System, which has been the de facto dumping ground for drunks when a detox facility isn't available.

The developer, Mike Bonicelli, was caught off guard by the snafu, even as crews are building the first home in his development, which depends on the city's getting its easement from the county.

"It would be a major problem because without that sewer line, you won't have anything," he said. "It's not good news."

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