County Spending on Target,
Airport Runway Weight
Capacity Study, Bennet to Set up
Office Hours in Custer County?

Board of County
Commissioners (BOCC)
—June 8, 2018
WESTCLIFFE, Colo.
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.
Chairman Flower remarked on the passing of Allen Butler, saying that there were a lot of heavy hearts today. “May he rest in peace.”
The agenda was changed to remove Hank Miller of Westcliffe Meats and to move the discussion of the runway testing up on the agenda.
Commissioner Items
Commissioner Printz had EMS Director Beth Archuleta address the Board about getting a letter of support for a grant that would pay half of the upcoming EMT class. Ms. Archuleta reported that her goal is to get more local EMT’s and that they’d listened to the community during the recent election. The Board agreed and a letter will be put together.
Commissioner Canda attended an Action 22 meeting. He spoke with the airport board about ways to honor Allen Butler. He reported that the testing on the runway will begin on June 14th.
Chairman Flower had nothing new since yesterday’s meeting.
Attorney Items
Mr. Smith reported meeting with Jackie Hobby.
Administrative Items
Ms. Brenda Gaide got a call from Dwight Gardner from
Michael Bennet’s office. He wants to set up office hours in Custer County and is looking for space to do so.
Staff Reports
Airport – Bob Jolley reported that one of our local pilots, Bill Geipel, crashed on his way home for the Butler memorial service. He is hospitalized in Albuquerque. Traffic is up for summer at the airport and they must purchase more fuel. In order to bring more public awareness, the airport will be putting a monthly tidbit in the local paper.
When asked which paper he was planning to put this in, he replied the Tribune. The Board reminded him that the Sentinel is the paper of record and that he should put it there first. Mr. Printz stated, “Their price is considerably less, but their circulation is considerably less too.” (Editor/llv: After only five years of publishing, the Sentinel’s mailed subscription numbers are quite close to those of the Trib. We would not characterize the difference as “much less”, but that of course, is Mr. Printz’s biased viewpoint. And we are the paper of record for the County.) Mr. Jolley agreed and they will put the piece in both papers if they can.
The Airport Board is considering giving local pilots a price break on fuel. Next came a discussion on the testing to determine the runway’s load capability. The Watts family representative spoke with Commissioner Canda and asked the county to foot half the $14K bill to get this done. Currently no one knows the weight capacity of our runway. Mr. Canda suggested that the $7K come out of the economic development budget since the airport is a boon to economic development in the county. Mr. Printz was against this suggestion and felt that, if the county pitched in, the money should come from the airport budget. He stressed that this was supposed to be paid for totally by the Watts family and was not pleased that this had changed. Mr. Canda reminded him that this was vital information for the airport to have and that getting half the cost of the study was a win for the county. The Watts have already shown a desire to become giving members of the community. Mr. Flower expressed that we needed to be more forward thinking and that might mean taking a leap of faith now and then. Eventually, Mr. Printz conceded the point and again stated that if there were further requests for economic development money, the Board could just move funds around. Mr. Flower suggested that if there were further economic development requests, the Board could simply say no. The Board voted to pay half the cost of the study, funded from the economic development budget.
Treasurer – Virginia Trujillo gave her standard report.
OEM – Cindy Howard reported on grants and meetings and also mentioned getting started once again on the next Hazard
Mitigation Plan.
IT Department – Vernon Roth reported that both BOCC video and audio are now archived on the website. There is a section on the tower project and minutes from various county boards. After getting three bids, he brought his recommendation for the new telephone system for the courthouse. The Board approved contracting with Clover Technologies from Pueblo.
HR/Finance – Dawna Hobby reported that we are right on target for revenue and spending. She is working on the preliminary budget.
The Board approved the IGA Huerfano County/Custer County Weed to use their weed manager/sprayer.
The Board approved Resolution 18-10 which vacated the road in the Lake DeWeese area, splitting the road deed with Kohl and King as was previously approved.
Fire Chief Kit Shy briefed the Board on 800MHz radio usage in the county and the possibility that a paging service using cell phones might be a way to supplement. He recommended that the Custer Emergency Services choose one paging service for all entities. Whether consensus can be achieved on this is questionable. Shy also noted that fireworks are ordered for July 4th, but that it remains unlikely that the display will happen. We will wait and see.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.