BOCC: Big Sheriff’s Office Report, County Maintenance Proposal,
Two STRs Approved,
County Attorney Resigns

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
February 7, 2023 BOCC Meeting:

The February 7, 2023 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting started at 9 a.m. with all three royal commissioner musketeers present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Traitor Tom “TT” Flower.
It was the usual blah, blah fest during Commissioner Items.
Staff Reports were next. The Veterans Service Officer reported that the Veteran Trust Fund is no longer operational in the county as there is no volunteer administrator available to run it. Fund was $75k a year and will be sorely missed.
Sheriff Rich Smith was next. He said the closing of the jail went smoothly. He noted that there were ten transports to/from the Fremont County Jail and they were nicely done by the Posse. Smith said 16 other Colorado county jails have also closed due to the new insane jail regulations from Denver. He also told the muskies that bond hearings in Custer can be done via video to the Fremont jail which eliminates the need for a transport.
Smith also said that they had completed the yearly mandatory Evidence Audit and in 2022 there were 25 pieces of evidence missing, mostly “electronic” evidence like body cam footage. Smith told the muskies that every vehicle the Sheriff’s Office used now has a trauma kit and that all the Posse members now have rifle rated bullet proof vests. He thanked local Mike Pennica for donating money for the SO’s canine bullet proof vest.
Sheriff Smith said that they will have a mounted Posse this year as three local “cattle women” have volunteered. He also said he will be reviving the SO dive team. A new transport van has been ordered that will give good gas mileage.
Smith noted that the Override Emergency Notification system has only about a third of the county signed up and he will be making a big push to get more people enrolled. Smith said there will be a Tip A Cop fundraiser for the vest fund Saturday, February 25th.
And he announced the hiring of the new Undersheriff Susan Barnes.
Road & Bridge reported that they have hired Colorado Crushers to crush 30k tons of stone for them.
Planning & Zoning reported that they received $381K in revenue in 2022.
February 8, 2023 BOCC Meeting:
In the Airport report, it was noted that they are still working on the electrical system for the new 12,000 gallon fuel tank.
Human Resources reported that the SNAP additional benefits will end in February and there has been a lot of requests for emergency grants.
Vernon Roth from Information & Technology said he will be spending a ton of time implementing the new Fremont Dispatch system at the SO.
New Business:
It was announced that our County Attorney, Clint Smith, has submitted his resignation. This was due to health issues. (We’re gonna miss you, Clint. You did a good job.)
The next item of business was the proposed County Building Repair and Maintenance Service. Canda has been spear heading this. He wants the county to have a contractor to handle all the repair and maintenance for the county’s buildings. This will be a fixed cost manager type job where the person will act like a general contractor and have subcontractors (electric, plumbing, HVAC and general carpentry/construction). The actual repair work will be on a time and materials basis. (This is sorely needed as when a repair comes up now, it takes a LONG time to get somebody to fix or replace the item.)
Canda explained the basic outline of the proposal and that the muskies should have a workshop to work out the details. For some reason, Traitor Tom was openly hostile to Canda about this and nit picked his proposal for a LONG time. He said he “struggles with the whole scope of work concept.” This went on and on even though the muskies will be having a workshopon it.
Finally, after about 40 minutes of harassment, Day said let’s schedule the workshop. This of course took a while but it will be February 28th at 1:30 p.m. Day then went on about what kind of workshop it will be as the Day and Flower don’t want any citizen input at this time. So it will be a meeting in the public but not open for public comment.
Planning & Zoning then proposed adding Carol Vayhinger to the Board of Zoning and Adjustment. This passes.
P&Z then said the Planning Commission has unanimously recommended that the Curtis Short Term Rental (STR) application be accepted by the mighty muskies. This passes. TT then spends the next ten minutes of precious time trying to precisely locate the STR on his county map. Strange. The Yoder STR was then also approved. Flower again wastes time trying to find where it is on his map. Finally Day has to come over and show him. (More strangeness.)
And that was that.