Politics
Small US Town Abandoned After All Elected Officials Resign
A tiny Colorado town has been declared abandoned after every elected official walked away, leaving residents stuck with a failing water system and no local government capable of fixing it.
Hartman, a southeastern Colorado town of about 30 people near the Kansas border, was formally deemed abandoned this week by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.
The decision followed a public hearing that found the town had no board of trustees, no town clerk, no way to hold an election and no functioning authority to run the water system.
Deputy Secretary of State Andrew Kline said the move was necessary because Hartman’s residents were trapped in legal limbo while the town’s drinking water posed a health risk.
“Importantly, not determining that the Town of Hartman is abandoned as contemplated by § 31-3-201(1)(b), C.R.S. (2026), 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,” Deputy Secretary of State Andrew Kline wrote in an abandonment order. “Abandonment is the only legal mechanism in Colorado statute that creates an avenue for residents of the area to receive clean water.”
The collapse came after Hartman’s three remaining trustees resigned in January, one day after a brawl broke out between four women following a board of trustees meeting, according to The Denver Post.
The mayor had already resigned in October.
The town had also been dealing with embezzlement allegations, restraining orders and years of local dysfunction.
“Our safety was more important than having a government,” Pam Packer, one of the trustees who resigned, told the newspaper.
The result was a town with public responsibilities but no public officials left to carry them out.
In mid-June, Hartman resident, landowner and voter Jessie Simmons applied to the Secretary of State’s Office for an abandonment determination.
Kline wrote that Simmons alleged the town had no trustees or clerk, could not hold an election and still owned and operated the water infrastructure needed to serve residents.
She also said the water situation had grown dire.
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“Ms. Simmons further asserted that as of time of her application, the Town of Hartman had lacked chlorine in its water for over one month and the water was not potable and ‘smells horrible.’ She stated that the Town of Hartman had been under an order to boil water for months,” he wrote.
At a July 13 hearing, Eric Bergman, director of the Division of Local Government for the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, testified that state officials had been working with Hartman for years.
Kline wrote that Bergman had a regional manager in southeastern Colorado who had worked extensively with the town for the last five or six years.
“Mr. Bergman also testified that since 2022, DOLA representatives have been in the Town of Hartman over 30 times helping with elections, turnover, recalls, resignations, budgets, audits, grant administration, and training of new officials. In January of 2026, DOLA received letters of resignation from each of the town’s then-Trustees. Since the resignation of these elected officials, no government officials or government remain in the Town of Hartman,” the order stated.
Without officials in place, the town could not approve contracts, spend money, appoint replacements, certify elections or make decisions about the water system.
“There are no government officials in the Town of Hartman who are authorized to approve contracts, spend funds, appoint replacements, certify elections, or make decisions regarding the Town of Hartman’s water system. Mr. Bergman testified there is also no clerk or governing body to call, conduct, or certify a municipal election,” it continued.
The water problem made the government collapse more than a paperwork fight.
Hartman had been under a boil advisory since October 2025, and the system needed testing, chlorine and major repairs.
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“According to Mr. Bergman, the Town of Hartman is facing a public health threat. Mr. Bergman testified that the Town of Hartman has been on a boil advisory since last October 2025, and the water currently needs testing and chlorine. The water tank is compromised and needs repair or replacement,” Kline also wrote in the order. “There is no one operating the water system at this time. DOLA, along with the Colorado Department of Health and Environment had previously provided grants for more than $1 million to the Town of Hartman to work on the water system. Those funds were reimbursement-based. However, without government officials, the Town is unable to enter any contracts that would enable it to access the grant funds.”
That meant more than $1 million in water-system grant money existed, but Hartman had no government left to sign the contracts needed to use it.
The abandonment order now shifts control away from the hollowed-out town government.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said existing streets, avenues and alleys not owned by a third party will be vested in the Prowers County Board of County Commissioners.
Ownership of critical water infrastructure will also move to Prowers County, which must transfer it to an entity whose primary purpose is water treatment or delivery.
The unusual case shows how quickly local government can collapse when a tiny town has aging infrastructure, public infighting and no one left willing to serve.
For Hartman residents, the label “abandoned” is not just symbolic.
It is the legal step needed to get someone else in charge of the water system.
After months without a functioning town government, the state’s order gives Prowers County a path to take over the problem Hartman could no longer legally fix itself.
