Westcliffe Town Meeting
—February 5, 2019
by Lisa Frank
The meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. and took place in the new Westcliffe Town Hall located at 1000 Main Street. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited, and roll call taken with two Trustees absent; Trustee Audrey Gluschke and Trustee Elizabeth Cole. The visitors in attendance were recognized and the Consent Agenda passed unanimously after a motion and second.
Old Business
Consideration of request to move forward with the 3-Mile Plan – The State requires the town to meet annually to update the 3-Mile Plan for annexation. Mayor Wenke posed the question of what is the next step the Town must take to Mike Carter Building and Zoning (B&Z) Official and Street and Park Supervisor. Carter stated that the Town needs direction from the County Commissioners to move ahead and that the Planning Commission Board and Town Board have read and approved the writing. Motion made and seconded, passed unanimously.
Consideration of retaining SBrand Consulting LLC (Sheryl Trent, Owner) of Fort Collins, CO, to create long-range Strategic Plan – This has been thoroughly discussed at several meetings and the County, Silver Cliff and Westcliffe are all considering hiring this company to help them develop cohesive Master Plans for the three governing bodies. Motion to sign a contract with SBrand Consulting LLC was made and seconded, passed unanimously.
New Business
Sheriff 2018 Fourth Quarter Report – The Town of Westcliffe had 662 calls for service in the fourth quarter of 2018, making up 35% of all calls to the Sheriff’s Office (SO) in the fourth quarter for the county. The highest percentage of calls were wildlife related, second highest were calls on dogs, followed by calls regarding theft. There were 234 Traffic Stops and when asked the Sheriff guessed that 60-70% of the stops were not attributed to residents. There were a number of Civil Service and Civil Standby Assists, followed by Consensual Contact Stops which are preventative conversations with persons as to their welfare and status. Sheriff Byerly updated the Town Trustees on the new EMS System that allows for additional reporting and actual oversight of that reporting. Oversight will be conducted by Dr. Jeremy DeWall M.D., an emergency medicine physician affiliated with Penrose-St. Francis Health Services in Colorado Springs. Emergency medicine specialists diagnose and treat patients with life-threatening conditions like heart attack, drug overdose, shock or massive bleeding. Dr. DeWall will review the logs and organize the data, once a month, in order to prepare dispatchers for better reporting on medical emergencies to the Ambulance and Flight-for-Life crews. Sheriff Byerly reported there were 10 DUIs in last year’s fourth quarter bringing the total for the year to approximately 60 DUIs. Byerly spoke to the potential disaster the county could face if this upward trend continues and reiterated his desire to get the establishments involved and working together to prevent further deaths. There were four deaths in 2018.
Update on the Custer County Kids Council – Kathy Clark, Coordinator, Custer County Kids Council (CCKC) gave her report to the Town Board. You can learn more about this non-profit by visiting their website at wmvcf.org/funds/custer-county-kids-council.
Consideration of choosing a trash disposal company – Bids from P_O Disposal and Oak Disposal bids were opened and P_O came in lowest and was chosen. Town Clerk Kathy Reis reported that she has spoken with Oak Disposal and they will continue to provide Port-O-Potty services to the Town at a discounted price as before, even if they did not win the bid. Kevin Patterson of P_O Disposal was in attendance and came before the Board to report that the lawsuit his company was facing has been settled out of court and was no longer pending.
Discuss commercial fire safety inspection – This item was delayed
Consideration of request to approve Ordinance 3-2019 amending Title 6 – General Police Regulations, adding Chapter 9 – Residential Growing, Cultivating and Processing of Marijuana – Mayor Wenke read the entire Ordinance aloud to the audience and afterward there was discussion and several questions posed. Town Attorney, Jay Printz answered the questions and a few changes in the verbiage were made. A motion was made to approve the Ordinance (with the changes), seconded and passed unanimously. MORE INFO
Additions to Agenda – Mayor Wenke reported that the amount of money received through sales tax, as of the end of November 2018, was $375,000. He is confident that with December’s sales tax receipts the town could
potentially net $400,000 in revenue.
Staff & Committee Reports – The staff for the Town of Westcliffe were not given the opportunity to report on their successes because the February Town Meeting was held in the very proof of their dedication. Westcliffe’s new Town Hall is quite beautiful and they worked very hard to accomplish this. The Board complimented their work and also noted a debt of gratitude to First State Bank of Colorado for helping the Town achieve the building. Westcliffe’s old Town Hall will be closed this Friday, February 7th, and Monday, February 10th, for moving. Mike Carter reported to the Board that the town’s safe had sold for the sum of $1,500.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:23 p.m.