A politician never wants to miss an opportunity to tout their record and remind voters about the good job they’re doing. Keeping with the tradition, President Biden visited Pueblo—the first by an American president in 60 years—to do just that appearing at CS Wind, the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world, to talk jobs.
“Jobs,” said the President, “that’s what climate is about, not only just saving lives and saving the environment.” At CS Wind, a manufacturing plant just south of center city, both are at the forefront. CS Wind has anchored in Pueblo with a $200 million expansion and more than doubled its workforce to 800 jobs with as many as 500 more still planned.
“It was exciting for the whole community,” said Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar. Not only, he said, was the President’s visit the first by a chief executive since John F. Kennedy visited in the summer of 1963, but he came to demonstrate the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which budgets tens of billions of dollars for green energy incentives.
Besides the IRA, the President also signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last year and Pueblo, said Gradisar, was awarded $16.8 million from the bipartisan legislation. A major portion of that grant is targeted for work on the city’s west side, a part of the city long overdue for upgrades on everything from sidewalks to bridges and to make it easier for residents to connect with the rest of the city. “We’re also going to expand the sewer system.” Gradisar believes these improvements will usher in a new and positive focus on the area.
Gradisar thinks that as Pueblo’s west side gets these planned improvements and CS Wind boosts its workforce, it well may be where new workers and others decide to live. “Housing,” said the mayor, “is one of our top priorities.” There is already talk, he said, of building as many as 600 units of affordable housing in the community. Gradisar wants a combination of housing for fixed income residents as well as for younger people who want to stay and live in Pueblo.
With younger workers coming in as CS Wind expands and the city continues to grow, Gradisar is hoping that developers see Pueblo as an opportunity for new business. He wants to see “new complexes where people want to live…older people who are tired of doing yardwork and want nicer places.” The city, said the mayor, doesn’t have nearly enough options.
Pueblo City Council member Dennis Flores says one of the city’s top infrastructure priorities is the Union Avenue bridge that connects the city’s historic Union Avenue with a part of the city known as the Mesa Junction. Flores said the bridge has undergone countless cosmetic improvements, including new sidewalks and repaving, but its time has come and gone. “It does need replacing.”
Flores, who has served on both Pueblo’s school board and city council, says the CS Wind expansion has already put the city on the map. Now the big challenge is making sure it can provide housing for projected new workers and their families. “One of the biggest problems is bringing in a company like this and then asking ‘where are these employees going to live.’” Right now, he said, the city is going to need at least 10,000 new hous- ing units in the next ten years.
The President did not leave Pueblo without making a joke about Congresswoman Lauren Boebert who represents the city in Congress and voted against the IRA. “She called this law a massive failure,” he said. “Tell that to the 850 Coloradans who are getting new jobs in Pueblo at CS Wind.” In mentioning Boebert’s name, he simultaneously made the sign of the cross. It’s one of the President’s reliable laugh lines used when mentioning Republicans who voted to kill the legislation but tout its benefits when they campaign back at home.
