by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
All three mighty musketeers were in the house at the April 4, 2023 Custer County Board of County Commissioners meeting: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Tom Flower. The meeting started at 9 a.m.
After some time-wasting banter, Staff Reports were up. Reggie Foster from the Extension/4H Office reported that 4H had a great membership drive with 116 total members. She said the shooting sports program has a big enrollment and that there are two robotic teams formed.
Sheriff Rich Smith was next. Smith said that after consulting with the usual suspects, he declared a Stage 1 Fire Restriction for the county. He said they had four fires last month and two were “careless homeowners disposing of ashes on their property.” (At least one was charged with arson.) Smith noted that the bill from the Fremont County Jail for February was $12,000 and at the end of March there were only three Custer County prisoners there. In a side comment, Smith said that the Custer prisoners don’t like it there and one frequent flyer said he will not get arrested again because he doesn’t want to go back there.
Smith went on to describe the Sheriff’s Office vehicle issues noting that two new Tahoes will be coming soon. He then gave the status of the FreCom dispatch service we use that is based in Cañon City. He said there was an unexpected charge ($50,000) that came up for the system and they are looking into that.
Flower then interrupts Smith and says he is looking at the SO Accounts Payable list and says, “You are buying new uniforms?” Smith responded that some of the deputies shirts are worn out and he spent $600 to get new ones. Flower then pesters Smith some more about some very trivial items.
Day then asks Smith about his relationship with the District Attorney’s Office. (With regards to the serious issues happening there re: evidence sharing and judge deterred, dismissed or reduced offense cases because of the DA’s malfeasance. It really does
look bad.) Smith responded that they are bringing in a new Assistant District Attorney and that he has no issues with any late or missing evidence. Smith then spent a few minutes explaining to the muskies how evidence and data flow from the Sheriff’s Office to the DA and then to defense attorneys.
Planning & Zoning was next. Dorothy Carsten, P&Z honcho, reported that her office did 16 septic inspections last month and issued 16 new dwelling permits. She said she sent out a total of 124 violation letters and wasn’t getting a good response volume back. She asked the commissioners about possibly creating a monetary fine/penalty for not responding. This set the muskies off for a bit. They finally decided to bring it up at a future Planning Commission workshop.
Under New Business, it took the mighty muskies 30 minutes to decide whether to grant a Short Term Rental license for the Nemith Property. What caused such a time waste? The property owner was not finished with installing stairs and handrails on a newly built rear deck which, for some reason, triggered the long discussion.
And that was that.