Limon – Someone’s looking out for the Eastern Plains.
A mysterious benefactor has offered millions of dollars to Limon so it can buy new ambulances and firetrucks and build a recreation center.
The way Limon Mayor Del Beattie figures it, his little town must have rubbed someone the right way. He just isn’t sure whom.
“I can think of some people that would do something like that, but I don’t think it’s any of them,” Beattie said. “Probably everybody in town knows but me.”
Tongues are wagging, for sure, but everyone claims to be in the dark about the wealthy donor.
Limon will get at least $4.5 million – $1 million for ambulance and fire equipment and at least $3.5 million for a recreation center and swimming pool. That’s a lot of money for a town with an annual budget of $3 million.
Limon has had its share of tough times. In 1990, a tornado nearly wiped it off the map, demolishing the town hall, police station, post office, newspaper, and three banks, and leaving 150 people homeless.
The town rebuilt but has faced lean times the past several years. In 2001, the town collected $850,000 in sales-tax revenue.
By 2004, that dropped to $774,000.
“We certainly have to be much more frugal than we were in 2001,” Public Works Director Dave Stone said.
That goes for Limon’s 2,300 residents, many of whom work at the state prison. Last year, residents rejected a proposal to build a recreation center. They liked the idea of a recreation center, some people say, but not the tax increase that was needed to build it.
The offer immediately begged the question: Who has that kind of money? Stone has an idea of who it might be, but he’s not saying.
The donor wants his or her identity kept secret, and Stone wouldn’t want to jeopardize the gift.
Still, theories abound. Dominant among them is the idea that the benefactor is someone who once passed through Limon or perhaps lived here.
The fact that the person seems to have a particular affinity for public-safety departments isn’t lost on them.
“Probably it was someone who came through and had an accident,” speculated Tammy Blankenship, waitress and bartender at the South Side restaurant. “That’s the only thing I can think of.”
Another clue: It’s someone who knows Limon has been trying to get a recreation center.
“It’s from someone that is definitely aware of the goings-on here,” said Beattie.
Cindy Johnson isn’t sure she wants to find out. “It’s kind of fun not to know,” she said. “But we also need to thank this person.”
