Bruce Smith has lived a life holding the reins of small-town government, and it has made him friends and enemies.

“Working for a small town is good, and it’s bad; the same thing that is good is bad. Everything is personal,” said Smith, De Beque’s first full-time town manager.

Smith and De Beque’s new town clerk Shirley Nichols worked together in Collbran, where residents have no shortage of opinions regarding the two. They left in 2005 amid a tumultuous time for town officials and employees.

“(Smith) is just not a community man. It seems like it is all for him,” said Gene Scott, who lives just outside Collbran’s town limits. “We have had a lot of trouble with him.”

Judy Weimer, a former trustee of the Collbran Town Board who resigned under public pressure with four other trustees in 2005, said Smith got a bum rap. Smith was the face of town government, Weimer said, and in that capacity he often had to tell people no, and people do not like being told no.

“They were great assets to the town of Collbran, although a lot of people didn’t agree with that,” she said. “Bruce is one of the smartest people I have ever known, and Shirley is a walking encyclopedia for municipal code relating to state regulations.”

She said Smith accomplished much in his time there.

“We had a new water treatment plant, paved roads, a storage facility for water, a new Town Hall, new sewage treatment plant, new facility for maintenance equipment. ... And all of those things — and I know there were many more — were supplied without raising taxes to the town,” Weimer said. “There are those critics in the town that unfortunately didn’t appreciate Bruce for all that he did.”

Smith said he has developed a thick skin over the years, and he has his own unique way of answering his critics.

“They haven’t dealt with the crooked (people) I have in the past,” Smith said. “If you are stealing, you want to stay away from me.”

Eric Bruton, Mesa County road and bridge supervisor, lives about two miles away from Smith in Mesa. He has known Smith for more than 20 years.

“He’s kind of a go-getter kind of a guy. I guess you would say not your typical town administrator,” Bruton said. “He is always out looking for ways to get the town money, and Bruce sometimes rubs people wrong doing that.”

Tammy Entwistle, a former Collbran trustee who worked with Smith, had mixed opinions.

He is smart, but headstrong, she said.

“When he gets it set in his mind to get something done, he doesn’t always go through the right channels and that is something we found in the town of Collbran,” she said.

For example, Entwistle said. the town board found a bike trail project to be in disarray after Smith resigned.

“We didn’t have the easements that we were told that we did as a board,” she said. “If I was a resident of De Beque, I would make sure that I was at every meeting. ... I wouldn’t take him by his word.”

Smith is earning $78,000 a year and gets an additional $8,400 a year for travel and work-related expenses within Mesa County.

Nichols is earning $4,000 a month as De Beque’s town clerk.

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E-mail Le Roy Standish at lstandish@gjds.com.

• Radel annexation — 5.87 acres next to the proposed Kum and Go store at 45 Road and U.S. Highway 6 and 24, proposed to have two-story hotel and two-story business park, annexed Nov. 19, 2007

• Kum & Go Store annexation — 1.5 acres on the corner between 45 Road and north of U.S. Highway 6 and 24, annexed Nov. 19, 2007

• Canyons at DeBeque, annexation — 525.9 acres, south of Interstate 70 at T Road, proposed to have 1,260 homes, some retail, commercial and open space, annexed Dec. 10, 2007

• Vaughn parcel and CDOT right of way — 5 acres on the north side of I-70 at T Road and a 2 1/2 mile stretch of I-70 frontage roads from De Beque to T Road, annexed March 10, 2008.

• Beers Truck Wash and oil fill — 12 acres, occupies the 600 to 900 block of Roan Creek Road, annexed 2006.

• Riverbridge Industrial Subdivision — 55 acres, 4695 U.S. Highway 6 and 24. Annexed 2006.

• Radel annexation — 5.87 acres next to the proposed Kum and Go store at 45 Road and U.S. Highway 6 and 24, proposed to have two-story hotel and two-story business park, annexed Nov. 19, 2007
 
• Kum & Go Store annexation — 1.5 acres on the corner between 45 Road and north of U.S. Highway 6 and 24, annexed Nov. 19, 2007
 
• Canyons at DeBeque, annexation — 525.9 acres, south of Interstate 70 at T Road, proposed to have 1,260 homes, some retail, commercial and open space, annexed Dec. 10, 2007 
 
• Vaughn parcel and CDOT right of way — 5 acres on the north side of I-70 at T Road and a 2 1/2 mile stretch of I-70 frontage roads from De Beque to T Road, annexed March 10, 2008.

•  Beers Truck Wash and oil fill — 12 acres, occupies the 600 to 900 block of Roan Creek Road, annexed 2006.

•  Riverbridge Industrial Subdivision — 55 acres, 4695 U.S. Highway 6 and 24. Annexed 2006.