The Western Slope’s energy boom has returned to De Beque’s doorstep.

Almost 26 years after the oil shale bust hit the Western Slope, particularly Parachute and Rifle just to the east of De Beque, the Piceance Basin is bustling with natural-gas drilling.

The energy development that has long affected Garfield County is now affecting De Beque because of looming residential and commercial development. The town of approximately 500 people is luring energy companies such as Williams Energy Services, EnCana, Schlumberger, Chevron and Shell, which need to set up shop and house employees.

To guide De Beque through this bustling time, the town sought out a familiar face, 59-year-old Bruce Smith.

Smith’s first stint in De Beque, as part-time town manager, started a few months after the 1982 oil shale bust. Since then, Smith has headed the Copper Mountain Consolidated Metro District, the Battlement Mesa Consolidated Metro District, the town of Palisade and, for a second time, the town of Collbran.

He was part-time town manager of that community at the same time he was part-time manager of De Beque during the early to mid-1980s. Smith’s second stint as town manager in Collbran ended when he resigned in 2005 amid allegations of mismanagement. Along with Smith, the town of De Beque hired Shirley Nichols, Collbran’s former town clerk of 22 years, in August.

Nichols and her son-in-law, Erick Lloyd, Collbran’s former public works director, resigned in July 2005 during the same closed-door meeting at which Smith tendered his resignation.

Their leaving came during a tumultuous time for Collbran, when two other employees quit and four Town Board members resigned in he wake of a recall election.

No criminal charges were lodged against Smith, Lloyd or Nichols. They were accused by townsfolk of nepotism and other questionable hiring practices, purchasing questionable insurance policies, approving irregular employee overtime and questionable bidding of town contracts, according to Daily Sentinel reports.

Three years later, as Smith sits at the helm of De Beque’s surging economy, he is sticking by his guns, defending his record in Collbran.

“Let me tell you, they brought it on themselves,” Smith said, leaning forward in his chair. “The biggest problem I had in Collbran was trying to keep everyone from going wild. They wanted to build everything at once.”

In De Beque, everything seems to be happening at once.

Anticipating an influx of as many as 5,000 people during the next five years, the town has begun a series of annexations for business and industry, which would stretch its boundaries south and east across the Colorado River and Interstate 70.

New water customers

The town is applying to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs for grants and loans to refurbish its water plant and install new lines across the interstate along V Road. Future water customers could include a hotel, a restaurant, and a convenience store and gas station, all of which have been proposed, and Schlumberger, the oil field services giant that has purchased 350 acres for its North American service center.

A final decision from the Department of Local Affairs is expected in April.

Town officials expect Schlumberger to use about 80 acres for equipment storage and one of the largest truck facilities on the Western Slope with 30 to 40 bays, and for housing for some of the more than 200 people who would work at the service center. The development could include a store and restaurant.

There is talk of a railroad spur for the Riverbridge Industrial Subdivision and perhaps a new highway interchange at T Road.

In town, there are some new enterprises such as Beers Truck Wash, and the new 24-home Wildhorse subdivision.

De Beque residents have long hoped for retail development and could get it because of the energy boom. But how to diversify the economy and protect against the bust that hit in 1982 is the million-dollar question.

“I don’t really think (a bust) is going to happen this time. People are more cautious than they were last time,” said Red Berry, a 66-year-old De Beque trustee running for re-election in April. “I don’t know what we would do if it wasn’t for the gas companies.”

And so the town moves to embrace the gas companies.

“My philosophy is I want to see everybody else making money, because sooner or later it will rub off on me,” Smith said.

The plan for how De Beque will grow has yet to be written.

“Where’s the plan? Well, it’s in my head,” Smith said, pointing to his hairline. “It’s what (the De Beque’s trustees) have told me.”

Interim Mayor Rita Baker said the community had been working on a development plan, but she described it more as a wish list for a swimming pool, a park, a recreation center and walking trails, not as a document that establishes general zoning criteria and examines appropriate and best uses of land as determined by the community.

Like Battlement Mesa

Berry said the town will have to grow on the other side of the freeway and, in time, most likely will annex all of the Blue Stone Valley south of town.

“That is where we are growing,” Berry said. “We don’t want it in the town.”

Berry said De Beque could develop similarly to Battlement Mesa, which developed across I-70 from Parachute because of energy exploration in the area.

“I think that is what is going to happen to this town, too,” he said. “I hate to think that is what is going to happen, but we (have) no other place to go.”

People with experience in community planning are keeping their eyes on De Beque.

“We do have some concerns with the annexation patterns that we are seeing there and what infrastructure is being proposed to support that,” said Jon Peacock, Mesa County administrator. “We want to coordinate that so that De Beque and the county have a coordinated development plan that benefits our citizens.”

It is not just Mesa County officials who see the benefit of a plan.

“It sure seems to me that part of the reasons for incorporating is the additional infrastructures and services that a municipality can provide,” said Chip Taylor, legislative director for the Colorado Counties Inc. “A plan would help you at least try and guide how those investments are made.”

Having a plan does not necessarily limit property owner rights.

“You can do a general master plan: Here’s the values that we want our development to epitomize, without saying to anyone in particular that your property is going to be commercial and yours has got to be residential,” he said. “I don’t think you should be doing any annexation if you don’t have an idea of where you are going, what you are doing.”

Having the community’s input is as important as having a plan, Taylor said, adding, “I don’t know how you do any of that stuff without having the public involved.”

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

A TOWN GROWS
• Kum & Go Store annexation, Nov. 19, 2007: 1.5 acres at 45 Road and U.S. Highway 6.
• Radel annexation, Nov. 19, 2007: 5.87 acres next to the proposed Kum and Go store. The development would include a two-story hotel and two-story business park.
• Canyons at DeBeque annexation, Dec. 10, 2007: 525.9 acres south of Interstate 70 at T Road. The proposal includes 1,260 homes, retail and commercial development and open space.
• Vaughn parcel and CDOT right of way, annexed March 10: 5 acres on the north side of I-70 at T Road and a 2 1/2-mile stretch of I-70 frontage road from De Beque to T Road.
• Beers Truck Wash and oil fill, annexed 2006: 12 acres in the 600 to 900 block of Roan Creek Road.
• Riverbridge Industrial Subdivision, annexed 2006: 55 acres at 4695 U.S. Highway 6.Smith worked for the city of Pueblo as an administrative assistant in the public works department’s engineering division from January 1978 to Aug. 23, 1982, said Debra Hill, public information officer director for the city.
In 1982 he came to work for De Beque and Collbran part time until 1986.
In 1986 he went to work in Palisade as the town manager on a full time basis from July 2, 1986 to Oct. 11, 1989, said Tina Darrah, Palisade town clerk.
Smith was employed full time as the district manager for the Copper Mountain Consolidated Metro District from 1989 to late 1994, said Norma Sundin, district clerk. 
The district was established in 1972 to provide town like services at Copper Mountain Resort.
While at Copper Mountain, Collbran courted him back on a part time basis in 1991, Nichols said.
He stayed with Collbran until resigning July 15, 2005.
By 1995 he moved back to Mesa and while working for Collbran part time he was also the district manager for the Consolidated Metro District in Battlement Mesa. 
He was employed on a part time basis at Battlement Mesa from the summer of 1996 to September 2006.