Board of County
Commissioners (BOCC)
—November 1, 2017
Westcliffe, CO
by Jackie Bubis
The meeting started at 9 a.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance and Roll Call. Introductions of the public in attendance followed.
Commissioner Items
Commissioner Printz had an email report from Ruth Spaar on the Wetmore Community Center. Instead of reading it to them, Commissioner Kattnig asked him to hold it until the “reports” time.
Commissioner Hood is looking into a failure of one of the panic buttons in the building not working and suggested that all of them need to be checked on a regular basis. Per an email from Clerk Camper, the lights installed in the back parking lot are not working. These lights were installed by Dark Skies but since none are working, it is suspected that there is an electrical issue. The maintenance man will look into it and call an electrician if needed.
Mr. Kattnig spoke about the “negativity” present at the Wetmore meeting and while he did state that “Jack” Spaar was not polite, he also stated that Spaar, a former master sergeant, did apologize afterwards. Kattnig stated that he was not taking sides. He also reported on a meeting he had with the Forest Service. The Forest Service has two primary objectives: mitigation and harvesting.
Recreation is a low priority because there is less money to keep campgrounds open and hence many are being closed. Mr. Kattnig believes that campgrounds are good for tourism and calls them jewels in our county. Also, he reported that the proposal of the Forest Service to transfer two of five of Colorado’s firefighting units out of state is on hold for the time being.
There were no attorney items or administrative
assistant items.
Staff Reports
Treasurer Virginia Trujillo came to the Board regarding the money from the old account to be transferred to the Affordable Housing account. She instructed them on how it needed to be done. While she was there, the Board approved a transfer of $10K from PILT funds into the general fund.
Mr. Printz read Mrs. Spaar’s report from the Wetmore Community Center. They are hard at work getting the kitchen in order and she reported on a chili cookoff that was well attended.
Bob Senderhauf gave an update from the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. He reviewed what the UAWCD does and has done over the years then presented a proposed purchase of a ranch in the Buena Vista area as a multi-use project.
The Road and Bridge report followed by Supervisor Gary Hyde. Nothing out of the ordinary is going on. They have been checking into several unpermitted culverts. And he gave a report on the options for the Hermit Bridge project. With the CDOT funds, the county would only have out of pocket expenses of $28K but there are many hoops to jump through – and the possibility of the road being closed for an extended period. With the DOLA funds, there would be a 50/50 match that would raise our expenses to about $70K. He will also get bids for equipment – some of which may be purchased yet in 2017, the rest is in the 2018 tentative budget.
Rusty Christensen gave the landfill/recycling report. He needed a signature on a consent for Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to have access to the landfill. Mrs. Hood reported that she had a contact for someone who does electronics recycling that may work with the landfill to take electronics. She reported that she had paid Oak Disposal $19 to recycle a fax machine and hoped that this program might save the citizens money. (Note: It is somewhat questionable for government to take business away from private business in this way. There are other instances of this in Custer County.)
Dawna Hobby reported for HR/Finance. The Board discussed the budget being put into a spreadsheet program and that this would solve problems in the future.
The VSO report was given by Tim Swartz. Mrs. Hood commended him on the town hall meeting he had last month. She said that some of the attendees seemed to be in “la-la land” trying to make sense of the presentations and wondered if there was a way for Mr. Swartz to outline the processes in simple brochures. He responded that even the quick guide the VA hands out is about an inch thick. Mr. Kattnig stepped in to say that having the human element (the VSO) there to walk people through the process was the answer. The database has now grown to 410 veterans. Mr. Swartz does still have tickets available for the dinner at Tony’s Pizza on the 11th. Mrs. Hood said she would be donating to the cause.
The OEM report was presented by Cindy Howard. The E911 draft resolution is finalized and will be presented this week for approval. The Custer Emergency Services Resolution was approved by the Board.
With regards to the $1750.57 that needed to be transferred to the Affordable Housing account, the Board passed the transfer to the General Fund and into the correct account unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 11:05 a.m.