La Jara Town Manager Larry Zaragoza is one of the Valley’s expert fishermen. As such he understands the patience required to land a big one.
Zaragoza is using those skills as he goes fishing for funding to pay for upgrades to La Jara’s municipal water system. The town estimates it will need $10 million to $12 million to lay down 32,000 feet of new waterlines and add a 300,000-gallon water tower to improve fire protection and storage as well as give a boost to the municipal water pressure.
“This is a critical concern for the town of La Jara, upgrading our infrastructure,” Zaragoza told members of the Rio Grande Basin Roundtable during a meeting this week.
The town, he said, has about 400 municipal water customers, including Conejos County Hospital, the Rio Grande Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center for senior citizens, and the Plaza Del Sol senior living center. There are also a few households and businesses on the east side of La Jara but not within the city limits that are connected to the municipal water system.
When La Jara had a water main break a few years ago, the entire municipal water system had to be shut down because of how it was built, Zaragoza said. Residents and businesses went eight hours without water that day.
“Water pressure is a challenge,” he said. “Our infrastructure has been a challenge over the past many years.”
At one point, La Jara added a water storage tank to its system. “Big mistake, big mistake,” Zaragoza said. The storage tank does just that, stores water but provides no water pressure itself which is why La Jara now wants to add a 300,000-gallon water tower to its municipal system.
So far, Zaragoza has found $60,000 from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs to get the engineering of an upgraded system completed. The project will have to occur in phases as money through state or federal government grants makes itself available.
Zaragoza noted for Rio Grande Basin Roundtable members that the town is adding new housing through two new planned developments, one an eight-unit project and the other four to six units of housing.
“They’re going to need water, along with wastewater services,” Zaragoza said. “The objectives that we have for the town are to improve our water pressure and performance of the water delivery.
“We do have some challenges down the road. We do need to upgrade our infrastructure tremendously, get away from shutting down the system whenever we have to do repairs.”
The fishing for funding continues in La Jara.