July 17 BOCC:
Fire Suppression Ponds,
Day Gets His Big Grant,
One Finance Director Applicant,
CC Claybusters Shot Down

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The Custer County Board of County Commissioners regular weekly meeting on July 17, 2024 started at 9 a.m. in their throne room across from the county courthouse. All three commissioners
were present: Bill Canda, Lucas Epp and Kevin Day.
In New Business, Day announced that his primary project during his entire 3.5 year stint as commissioner was coming to fruition as he has obtained tax money in the form of a grant from the grant machine, the Upper Arkansas Area Council of Governments to buy playground equipment “for the children” in Wetmore. However, this grift money needs county matching funds so we are all on the hook for half of this.
Budget Resolution 24-17 was next. Our Veterans Service Office honcho,  Dominic Edginton requested a loan of $5k to “kickstart” a $50k grant he is getting for our Veterans. This will be repaid as soon as the grant money is received. This passed.
A big presentation by various people including state and local offices was next concerning establishing three “fire suppression ponds” on the valley floor. The locations are at/near the Beckwith Ranch, the Rusk Ranch and the “Coleman Pond”. As with anything concerning water and the State of Colorado, it was a long and compli-cated presentation with a ton of red tape and bureaucrat nonsense needed to get it done. It was decided that the players involved would proceed with the attempt.
Epp was next with a proposal to combine two county positions, Maintenance and Custodial, into one job. He noted that the Maintenance contract with an outside contractor is expiring soon and we have an opportunity to streamline things a bit. Epp estimated that the two jobs would take around 50 hours per week and that a full-time person and a part-time person could handle the job. The rate would be $22.50 per hour.
In Additional Items of Business, Epp said we have only received one application for the Finance Director’s job and that was sent to the screening committee for review.
(This is after months of advertising all over the state and country. The problem is the salary is way too low and the commissioners don’t have the cajoles to raise it because it would be way higher than any other county official.)
Epp then said the six-month budget review will be next Wednesday (July 24) at the SAR building.
In Public Comments, Jerry Tracewell from the Custer County Claybusters Club (a local club that teaches clay and trapshooting to our kids and they also go to competitions) made a statement that all the equipment that they have at the Sheriff’s Office shooting range came from donations, mostly from the Friends of the NRA. He said rumors that the school paid for anything are false.
Then the real subject came up when Day told Tracewell that the club can only use the range during the school year as the school has insurance for the training. Once the school year ends, Day said “you are not welcome” as the club, apparently, has no other insurance. Day said it was a county owned range, on county property and the club has no Memorandum of Understanding with the county and they “have no insurance in place”. This set Tracewell off as he and a bunch of volunteers have spent a huge amount of time and effort in getting the club going and this would end the effort for the kids to learn and compete. Tracewell said,
“I have put hundreds of hours into this. You have wiped it out.” And that is how it ended.
And that was that. Another day in Happy Valley.