Sidebar: Abandoning Hartman
A public feud, a failing water system and a century-old law collide in a Colorado town fighting for survival.
Editor's note: This episode contains some explicit language. Listener discretion is advised.
A town with no mayor, no trustees, no clerk, and no publicly funded water system.
In our seventh episode this season, we travel four hours east of Denver to Hartman, Colorado, where a modern-day "Hatfields and McCoys" feud drove the entire town board to quit.
After years of bitter infighting, contested elections, financial disputes and a physical altercation at a town meeting, the tiny plains community's government effectively collapsed. Hartman has become an unlikely case study in how a century-old abandonment law leaves residents to confront what happens when a town can no longer govern itself.
Can Hartman be saved, or has it already become a ghost town in waiting?
Sidebar tackles the top stories you need to know from the legal world. Join reporters Hillel Aron, Kirk McDaniel, Amanda Pampuro, Kelsey Reichmann and Josh Russell as they take you in and out of courtrooms in the U.S. and beyond and break down developments to help you understand how they affect your day-to-day life.
This episode was produced by Kirk McDaniel. Intro music by The Dead Pens. A transcript will be available later this week.
Editorial staff is Ryan Abbott, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross.