BLACK HAWK – The Black Hawk City Council is getting into the Halloween spirit in a big way this year. At its October 8 meeting, the council approved a resolution to purchase life-sized decorations that will turn Gregory Street into a spooky “Halloween Street” for the rest of the month.

Mayor David Spellman described the setup with enthusiasm, saying the City scored “a smoking deal” on the commercial-grade pieces, which include a seven-foot-tall werewolf, a 12-foot-long skeleton carriage, Frankenstein, and Dracula. The council unanimously approved up to $100,000 for the Halloween decorations.

The shipment is arriving on a dedicated semi-truck from Tennessee and will be installed right away, starting the week of October 12.

“I think you’re going to find that our tenants along Gregory Street are just thrilled that we’re doing this,” Spellman said. He added that, in the future, the Halloween decorations will go up the last week of September.

While the decorations were the most hair-raising topic of the afternoon, council members also handled a full agenda of City business.

City Attorney Corey Hoffmann presented Council Bill 10, an amendment that lets the City order short-term rental platforms to remove illegal listings. As of February, 2024, Black Hawk passed Ordinance 2024-4, which prohibits new short-term rentals in the city. Existing short-term rentals that were licensed before the adoption date may continue as legal nonconforming uses until the properties they operate from are sold or abandoned.

Hoffmann explained that Airbnb and similar services can only take down a listing if a local ordinance explicitly requires them to do so.

“This gives the City the remedy of simply notifying the vacation rental service that they are violating the code, and then the vacation rental service will take the listing down,” he said. The bill passed unanimously.

The council also approved a budget amendment moving about $1.6 million from the City to the Black Hawk Housing Authority to fund residential rehabilitation projects. A related resolution transferred the general contractor agreement for 134 Chase Street to the Authority, which will oversee the work.

Another procedural move allowed the council to finish platting Gregory Street by having the City issue quitclaim deeds to itself to clean up property title records.

The council also approved updates to the Residential Exterior Paint Program to simplify the guide and clarify eligibility for homeowners.

In infrastructure news, the council passed change orders totaling $46,988.88 for the Hidden Valley Water Treatment Plant expansion. They also approved a $260,000 change order for additional paving at the Detention Pond Conversion Project.

The project will transform the existing detention pond near Hidden Valley into a paved parking and storage area once construction is complete.

City Manager Stephen Cole closed the meeting by announcing that the proposed 2026 budget will be distributed electronically by October 15, with a workshop on November 12 and final adoption on December 10.

The next City Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 23, 2025, at 3 p.m. at Black Hawk City Hall, 211 Church Street.