Our History
Welcome!
In 1962, the Crestview neighborhood along with Terry Shores and other properties along Highway 1 had no sewer service. Orm Sherwood was developing the Terry Shores area and BF VanSant and Howard Sipple were developing the Crestview area. They, along with Don Vessey, a resident of the Crestview neighborhood, decided to create the Cherry Hills Sanitation District (CHSD). (The city of Fort Collins didn't want anything to do with it because it's all rock and hard shale in that area.)
The original Board Members: Howard Sipple, Don Vessey, Orm Sherwood, and BF VanSant began in 1962 and hired an Engineering Firm, Parker and Underwood in Greeley, to design lines for the sewer system. The first lines were installed in 1965.
Originally CHSD discharged into the North Fort Collins Sanitation District, which had a small processing plant by the river on North College. CHSD had 2 lift stations: one at Tavelli and the other at College and Willox (because as you know sewer runs downhill and when it doesn't you need to put in a lift station). However, in 1968, the City of Fort Collins wanted to build a new processing plant and in order to access Federal funds, they needed a much larger population to service. So the city made a deal with CHSD as well as several other small districts throughout Northern Colorado to accept their discharge.
In 1968, the subdivisions of Lindenwood and Adriel Hills joined CHSD. Then city of Fort Collins wanted to develop the land between Vine and Lindenwood and asked CHSD to take that in also. So CHSD built another lift station for this new area. The development never occurred but the lift station is still in use to this day. In 1970 Terry Point and Evergreen Park wanted to join the District but also needed lift stations. Because CHSD now emptied into the city of Fort Collins, the original CHSD lift stations were dismantled and sold to Evergreen Park, where they remain in use to this day.
By 1970 CHSD had grown to ~650 taps. This remained largely unchanged until 1972 when the Board of Directors for the North Fort Collins Sanitation District disbanded and turned the area over to CHSD along with Nedrah Acres. Previous to this point, CHSD had no maintenance people of their own, though Don Vessey, his son Chuck Vessey, and Bill Wallen would contract to perform maintenance when needed. Don Vessey passed in 1982 and Chuck took over management of the District. He contracted Bill Wallen Sr. to do the maintenance for CHSD as needed.
From 1972 to 2000, CHSD grew from 650 taps to over 1600 and maintenance became too much for just one person, so in 2004, Bill Wallen was brought on as a full-time maintenance employee for the District and in 2005 he was joined by his son Billy and then Greg Bodnar in 2006. In August of 2018, Bill Sr. retired and Bill Jr. took over as Maintenance Supervisor.
At this time CHSD has close to 1700 taps and 6 lift stations. We are run by a board of 5 directors, a manager, recording secretary and 2 full time maintenance employees. Usually in the summer we try to add a third employee to help hydro-clean out all of the main lines. (If you happen to have your service line cleaned out please call us because that will be going into the main lines and may create a blockage down line to your neighbor.)
Chuck Vessey