The office of Colorado's secretary of state, Jena Griswold, announced on 29 July that Hartman, a town in south-eastern Colorado, had been declared abandoned after all of its local public leaders resigned and its drinking water became unsafe. The declaration came under a Colorado state law allowing for the dissolution of incorporated communities that can no longer maintain a government.
The announcement came a little more than a month after the office had been advised in writing that the town "had lacked chlorine in its water for [more than] one month and the water was not potable and 'smells horrible'", according to public documents. Hartman resident, landowner and voter Jessie Simmons had also written that the town "had been under an order to boil water for months".
The documents added that Hartman "had no board of trustees or town clerk, was unable to hold a [local] election, and owned infrastructure critical for the treatment or delivery of water to residents". Barring a successful appeal, that infrastructure would become the responsibility of the surrounding Prowers county government.
Infighting and a failing water tower
Hartman had fewer than 60 residents at the time of the 2020 US census, and its administrative failure was described by the Denver Post as having "no analog in recent state history". According to the Post, political infighting, accusations of fraud, a physical fight at a governing board meeting and a worsening drinking water supply crisis combined to doom the town.
The town's water tower spent years needing substantial repairs that never came, as feuding kept any water operators who could step in to assist at bay. The Post compared the quarreling to the 19th-century rivalry in Appalachia between the Hatfield and McCoy families. Residents were under a boil-water order throughout the year preceding the abandonment, during which all of the community's elected officials resigned from their posts.
Request for abandonment
Simmons wrote to Griswold's office on 17 June requesting the formal abandonment of Hartman. In a 15-page order granting the request, the secretary of state's office wrote: "Not determining that the town of Hartman is abandoned … would leave the residents in further legal limbo during a health hazard, with no authority to conduct business, hold elections, or fix their water infrastructure so that clean water can be delivered to the town residents."
The order added: "Abandonment is the only legal mechanism in Colorado [law] that creates an avenue for residents of the area to receive clean water."
Opposition
At least some in Hartman objected to the abandonment despite the conditions there. Resident Shawna Casey said: "Hartman is not a failed town. Hartman is a town that was failed by the systems designed to protect it."
