Pueblo adjusts mayor's ability to declare temporary weather emergency during cold weather

Pueblo City Council approved an ordinance on Oct. 23 that backdates the mayor’s ability to declare a temporary weather emergency so religious institutions can use their buildings to shelter people in need.

Councilors unanimously passed the emergency ordinance that now allows the mayor’s office to make that declaration before Nov. 1 each year and suspend city zoning and building codes so churches and other religious edifices can be used as temporary warming shelters.

It’s an amendment to the ordinance, which previously only allowed the mayor to make that declaration once November started.

Emergencies were called last year when temperatures were expected to dip below 20 degrees. That approach will continue this year, said Haley Sue Robinson, the city's director of public affairs.

It’s the second change in as many years to the ordinance. Last year, council backdated its start date to Nov. 1 after the mayor’s office was unable to make an emergency weather declaration in the middle of that month when temperatures dipped well below freezing.

Mayor Nick Gradisar at the time was not legally allowed to do so because it was not yet Dec. 1, the date when prior iteration of the ordinance became active.

Why the change was made

City Council President Heather Graham told the Chieftain she was worried Gradisar would face a situation similar to last year's and thus requested to amend the ordinance to include October because of how cold it's been this month.

“It’s the last two weeks of October where it does get colder and so that ordinance needs to be adjusted from now on and we shouldn’t have to do it through an emergency ordinance to make sure people aren’t freezing,” Graham said.

Pueblo this month has experienced temperatures just above 30 degrees at times, most of which occurred overnight.

Even colder weather hit the Pueblo region over the weekend: Sunday saw snowfall and overnight high temperatures in the teens, according to the National Weather Service.

Where people can go if they want to shelter from the conditions

It's unclear when Pueblo Rescue Mission's new warming shelter will be ready but the organization is expected to shelter more people who want to escape the cold at its current facility until then. The city at times last year opened the Pueblo Transit Center, but doing so this year will depend on capacities at other shelter locations, Robinson said.

Crazy Faith Street Ministry, which partnered with the city to operate a warming shelter at its facility last year, does not have a building to shelter people at this time but plans to continue its outreach and help the city's unhoused this winter, said Tammy Kainz, who runs Crazy Faith with her husband, Lonny.

Efforts to secure a building to help shelter some of Pueblo's homeless are ongoing, Tammy Kainz said.

More: Pueblo's first snow of the season could come as early as this weekend

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo backdates temporary weather emergency law. Here's what to know