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Election: Shadow Mountain improvement district approved by voters

Erin Fenner

Voters approved a measure that will allow Moffat County to increase the county debt to make improvements to the Shadow Mountain modular home development.

Only Shadow Mountain residents could vote on the measure, and of the 155 people who voted, 76 percent voted in favor and 23.9 percent voted against.

This will be a great step for the community, said Director of Moffat County Development Services Roy Tipton.



“I think it’s a good deal for the people living there,” he said “Something needed to be done there.”

Shadow Mountain, built in the 1970s, has a deteriorating sewer system and the county can’t build new roads and sidewalks until the water lines are changed out. Moffat County agreed to pay $2.4 million on the project while the city of Craig is putting in $1 million. Because it passed, homeowners will put forward about $1.23 million.



Residents will shoulder that cost on a month-to-month basis. It would be about $4,300 per resident and cost them roughly $20 per month.

The rest of the funds for the $6.3 million project will be sought out from the Department of Local Affairs grants.

DOLA would not have considered the grant application if residents of Shadow Mountain hadn’t approved of the improvement district, Tipton said.

“That’s one of the stipulations of DOLA,” he said. “They needed to see that it was approved.”

Not voting for the improvement would have been a devastating financial choice for individuals in the area, said Ray Cartwright, a resident of Shadow Mountain who has been outspoken in his support of the improvement district.

“To each individual to do something like that themselves would have been out a price range for people,” he said.

It would have ended up costing individuals close to $10,000 to fix their pipes, Tipton said. That would be an up-front cost, unlike the county’s proposal.

Cartwright acknowledged that this still could be a financial challenge for some residents.

“I know it’s going to be difficult. We have a number of people out here on fixed incomes,” he said.

But it is a crucial step, he said.

“To me it’s like a lot of the safety issues out here that need to be taken care of,” he said. “I’m happy that people saw the future and that the city can move forward with their project.”

Erin Fenner can be reached at 970-875-1794 or efenner@CraigDailyPress.com.


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