Prowers County Commissioners Discuss Recent Town of Hartman Abandonment Legislation Decision

The ongoing controversy concerning the Town of Hartman and its ongoing water issues is something that most people in Prowers County are aware of. The sudden January 2026 resignation of all its elected officials necessitated the State of Colorado to step in to consider a ruling that would legally consider the town abandoned.  The issue has been a hotly debated topic fueled by rumors and allegations shared on social media. On July 28, the Colorado Department of State issued a formal determination that the Town of Hartman has been abandoned pursuant to 31-3-201 C.R.S.  This determination followed a public hearing held on July 13.  If readers are interested in reading the details of the public hearing, they are available on the Secretary of State’s website.

I met with Prowers County Commissioners Roger Stagner, Ron Cook, and Ty Harmon as well as Prowers County Administrator Don Wilson on August 11^th to learn more about the ruling, and what it means to the residents of the now-unincorporated community of Hartman as well as the other Prowers County residents.  “It doesn’t change a lot for the county. The roads were already being taken care of”, said Cook.  Harmon added “Law enforcement was already taken care of as well. Our initial concern to start with is the water system. Colorado Rural Water Association was in town last week and this week and they got started right away. The first day they were here they were just assessing everything and seeing what they needed parts-wise to get it up and going”.  He confirmed that the water system does have chlorine now, although that doesn’t yet render the water safe to drink. “They will do an initial test, which is just a baseline and then they will go in and flush the system which will open the fire hydrants.  They figured it would be another week or so and then they will go in and do another test to see exactly where they are at with the chlorine” said Harmon. Stagner added, “The main thing this did (the legislation) was open it up so they could go in. Nobody could go in and do anything until it was declared abandoned”.

Wilson said “Nobody had control over Hartman’s water system except Hartman.  With nobody in place, there had to be legislation to allow somebody to help them.  That legislation allowed for the Colorado Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to contract with a water provider entity (which is Colorado Rural Water) to maintain the system until a permanent solution is found and, like Commissioner Harmon said, they hit the ground running.  They’ve had more progress in the past week and a half than has been seen in an entire year”.  Harmon said the commissioners had heard rumors of Hartman’s failed infrastructure which he said were not true, saying “They had a grant back in 2000 and used it to replace the entire underground system with PVC which is only 26 years old”.  I asked about the water tower and was told it was a big concern, along with other rumors of holes in the well casing – all of which will be addressed during the assessment process.  Wilson added that Hartman had a grant from DOLA (Department of Local Affairs) that they never used – DOLA pulled back that grant as a result – but said “They will probably grant that again and we may be the pass-through but those funds but they won’t be ours (the County’s) to take those steps to do an overall evaluation”.

Cook said “It’s unfortunate, because before this decision, Hartman had the opportunity and the funding to fix this system if they had only done their audits.  Without these audits they couldn’t get the DOLA money.  DOLA spent a lot of time in Hartman trying to help with the audits but were never able to get it cleaned up enough to get them done. DOLA has helped them in prior years trying to straighten out their elections and their community”.  Because of the years of unfiled audits, Prowers County is legally required to hold the money collected for property taxes and Highway User Tax Funds.  The commissioners all praised DOLA, saying they’ve been fantastic to work with.  Cook said

When asked if the majority of Hartman residents are upset with the decision, I was told that it’s only a few that have been vocal about it.  “I’ve been there quite a bit in the past few weeks and every time we’re there 5 or 6 people have stopped by to say ‘thank you for what you’re doing’ – it’s only 2 or 3 people taking issue with it” said Harmon. I asked if the residents, other than not being able to have drinkable water, are able to bathe and otherwise use the water as it is now and was told they can use the water for uses other than drinking. “They have not, despite what some people have alluded to, been without running water” said Wilson.  He then said “We’ve had so many state agencies involved with this – we’ve had the governor’s office, we’ve had the CDPHE, we’ve had the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management – but to what Commissioner Harmon said, the county and DOLA have been the constant in working with them and getting to a solution that is beneficial to Hartman.  There had to be legislation developed that did not harm any municipalities, did not put liability on any other counties to get to this point. That took a lot of work by our commissioners, by DOLA, by CDPHE, CML, CERSA – all those people weighed in so that we could get Hartman going in a direction that was productive”.   The county held two community meetings with DOLA in Hartman prior to the legislation.  “They understood that this abandonment was a much simpler way of achieving what they were needing” said Wilson, adding that the majority of the people understood and were in favor of that.  All three commissioners praised Senator Rod Pelton and Representative Ty Winter for their involvement, saying that they’ve been very open to the Hartman residents about the whole process.

I asked if the abandonment decision affected anything besides the water situation for the residents.  I was told that their records will be kept by the county and that town limits will need to be eliminated since it’s no longer a town but county property. “There’s a role for the Clerk and Recorder, the Assessor, and the Treasurer.  Some of those things will need to worked through since this is uncharted territory” said Wilson.  None of these are the priorities of the commissioners at this time because the water issue needs to be resolved first.  Wilson said they aren’t yet sure if the water tower needs to be replaced, saying they are hoping that the solution can be simpler, such as repairs to the current one.  If a new tank is needed, it may not have to be another tower – it could be a tank that could supply adequate pressure and sits on the ground.

“A big point to be stressed is that this will not be a burden to the other residents of Prowers County – it is handled by the State of Colorado. DOLA has given Prowers County a grant to cover incidentals, and the Colorado Rural Water Association is being funded with that, along with the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.  The legislation has laid out how much money can be used for a water provider. The commissioners, the county and DOLA have done a lot of work on this and collaborated to get everything on the right track and I think it’s impressive how quickly things have started moving in that direction”, said Wilson.

“We’re not trying to take over Hartman” Stagner said. “We’re just trying to fix their water so they don’t have to boil anymore, have a reliable water source and can go on with their lives”.

By: Barbara Crimond