As they enter the Municipal Building, people attending Loveland City Council meetings probably walk past the plaque that bears the names of former Loveland Mayor Don Riedel and his City Council colleagues who persevered through a contentious time in city politics in the late 1980s.

But those aren’t just names on the plaque; they’re the city leaders who hashed out the plan that brought the Civic Center Complex to fruition, five of whom faced and won a recall election spurred by people who didn’t think all the city buildings should be grouped together downtown and who thought the cost too high — it was $19 million, Riedel recalls.

“I learned to have a real thick skin,” he said of that era.

He said almost everyone in town seemed to know where he worked and they weren’t shy about stopping b

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