Westminster leaves Rocky Mountain Greenway intergovernmental agreement, Indiana bridge will be installed
Story by Monte Whaley, September 24, from Westminster Window
- 4-3 vote to abandon IGA signed in 2021
- Remaining 0.4 miles of connecting trail in Westminster to remain unfinished
- The Indiana Street bridge overpass is scheduled to begin in January 2025
- Mayor Nancy McNally, Mayor Pro Tem Sarah Nurmela, and Councillor David DeMott dissented, noting the impact on IGA partners. McNally also noted the vulnerability to lawsuits (such as the breech of contract suit filed by Jefferson County and Arvada against Broomfield concerning the Jefferson Parkway).
- “All the councilors said huge signs should be posted to warn of the dangers of possible radioactive contamination from hiking and biking on the path from Rocky Flats.”
“A majority of councilors said they no longer wanted the city to be part of the project over concerns that any foot traffic along the trail into Westminster will stir up deadly plutonium linked to the shuttered Rocky Flats facility.”
This vote has been expected since March. Despite having been swayed by anti-nuclear arguments that are not compatible with measurements near and within the Refuge, the Westminster City Council should be complimented on a careful process.
Added 26 September: Amber Hott, one of the Westminster City Councillors who voted to leave the Greenway project, has been a member of the anti-Refuge and anti-nuclear Rocky Flats Downwinders facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/rockyflatsdownwinders since March 2023. Surprisingly, she did not recuse herself from the vote.