John Scarffe, Black Hawk.  The Black Hawk City Council agreed to move ahead with building a wall during a work session at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 9, 2018, at 211 Church Street. Mary Hart, with Hart Design, told the Council she has been working with Mayor David Spellman and City Manager Jack Lewis to take a closer look at Gregory Street.

Hart said they want to enhance program elements and pedestrian connectivity and focus on the Bobtail Mine exhibit. They would also like to have space for events and would need vehicular access.

They could set up tents and walk around them. They would like to take advantage of historic areas and evolve them for commercial interaction, Hart said.

The Americans with Disabilities Act plays a big role with existing slope conditions, Hart pointed out. Now we’re zooming in and looking at a different idea about how to move forward.

According to the ADA Act, in outside public spaces, a 5 percent slope is allowed to enhance accessibility for people in wheelchairs, the elderly and families with strollers. When the slopes exceed 5 percent, then you must have hand rails, landings and other safety features, Hart said.

Currently, Gregory Street is an 8 percent slope, so it’s a ramp by Mountain Village until it starts to straighten out near the parking garage. A concrete culvert follows the slope of the road, and the grade is about 8 percent, so pedestrian areas need the hand rails and safety features.

In order not to exceed 5 percent, Hart tries to balance cuts and fills, but in this plan, you can’t cut because you get into the concrete culvert. Starting at the culvert, they can slope 5 percent, chasing this grade.

“At some point, I want to catch up, so we will do stairs to catch up, and in addition we might have a ramp with the landings and hand rails, and then chasing the grade again at 5 percent,” Hart said. She is looking at options.

Hart also looked at options without vehicular access to event space, such as an elevator with a big wall.

According to the studies they have been doing regarding Mountain Village, the question is, “How do we get people up there who want to visit?”

This could be an elevator tower with a little bridge and stairs. The plan has a ramp up to get into the Bobtail Mine exhibit and then walk down stairs or ramps to the shaft.

It could be a walk-in kind of experience, Hart said.

“What other displays could be done at that level?” Hart asked. On top of the wall, the City could have a mining display with artifacts, history and a burro petting area.

In answer to a question about whether the Mountain Village has ADA, City Attorney Corey Hoffmann said these questions were asked after Mountain Village was done. A lot of the standards went into effect long after the village was done. In 2010, the design laws went into effect.

“The statute says ‘to the maximum extent possible,’” Hoffmann said. “There is an economic feasibility to this.

The courts so far have said nothing is too steep to be fixed. That’s a concern. That’s a high standard.”

Moving to the area adjacent to Gregory Street proper, the road is sloping down at 8 percent, but the plaza is at 5 percent. The City could display fire trucks here, so the plaza is about the trucks, Hart said. “You will need an eight-foot tall wall at the edge. You have a stairway and a ramp. It takes three ramps to get down.”

They will need a little stairway to get up to the display and will be caught up on the slope at the bus stop.

They will be trying to keep the bigger area at 5 percent and then 5 percent down to Church Street, so the City will need a wall.

The City’s historic buildings are there, and they can move the chicken coops here as public restrooms, Hart said. With this grade, they will have to do back fill against the church.

Spellman said it works out better for the church because they won’t have a set of stairs. He wanted to get Council feedback to move forward.

When the buildings on Gregory Street get remodeled, they will have to bring them up, not by moving location, but by raising them up, so hopefully they will not be lowered in historic status. One building needs to be elevated by six feet and the other by seven feet to bring them up to the plaza level, Spellman said.

The City can create an outdoor gathering space, cross walk and then a big grade change to deal with. It’s nine feet off, so that brings up the idea for an elevator tower with a stairway. The wall at Liverty is very similar.

To do the renovation of the historic homes, we have to raise them. Council needs to make a decision soon, Spellman said.

That means we’re committed to that new wall, and Public Works Director Tom Isbestor will ask if we want to address the old flume. A new box flume would drive up the cost, Spellman said. Can we build the wall and then have access to build the new building?

Hart said another option without the elevator would be sloping and stepping down and taking smaller bites, but that doesn’t allow vehicular access for bigger events. Alderman Benito Torrez said it needs a lot more room, and Spellman said it is probably more expensive than building the big wall.

Hart said she would recommend bringing the entire plan further along on design, blown up to a bigger scale, so we know exactly what elevation it has to be. The next step is to get this CADD. Spellman said that to move forward on the homes in 2019 they need to get the elevations right.

Alderman Gregory Moates asked if there was any possibility of building a wind tunnel. This can create an issue with 50, 60 and 80-mile winds, because you’ve created a tunnel. Despite the wind problem, the Council agreed to work on the wall.

The Council’s regular meeting followed the work session. The Council approved a lease agreement with the City of Northglenn Society that allows the use of the City of Black Hawk’s Church Ditch Augmentation Station.

The quid pro quo augmentation station leases will negate the need for the City’s current agreement with Westminster for Big Dry return flows. This lease agreement is for five years which may be renewed annually after the initial five year term.

Jim Ford told the Council that the City has a brand new augmentation station and has an agreement with the historical society to deliver one inch back from Church Street into Clear Creek. This lease would be for $500 and would negate the need to have a lease with Westminster for water in Big Dry Creek, and the water attorneys are okay with it.

Isbester presented a change order amount of $176,000.00 for the City Hall Façade Restoration. The previous restorations of the stone facades appear to have only addressed the exterior edges of the mortar joints.

The existing mortar between the joints appears to only be ¼ - ¾” in depth, according to the request for Council action. The remaining mortar joint behind the surface has reverted back to basically sand providing no structural support.

This condition was not exposed until some of the mortar joints were removed for repair. In addition, the chimney on the south face was originally called out for removal of the parget coat and repair.

Upon removal of some of the parget coat, it is apparent the entire chimney will require reconstruction.

Reconstruction can be either brick or stone to match the rest of the face.

Once these faces are reconstructed, the recommendation is to seal the entire face with a penetrating sealer, similar to what the brick face is slated to receive. This should protect the building envelope from needing any exterior attention for the foreseeable future.

Isbestor said staff have been working on the front wall of the Black Hawk City Hall, and some of the mortar is chipping off. Nothing is behind it, and they didn’t realize it was a very thin coat with sand behind it, so the stone side is laying against the building.

Spellman said the City originally had $4,000. Isbestor said that there have been so many different people making patches. The chimney on the south side was hard coated, so it needs to be rebuilt in stone or brick.

The Council approved the change order.

(Originally published in the May 24, 2018 print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)