by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The March 20, 2025 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) regular meeting was held at the All
Aboard Westcliffe meeting room and started at 9 a.m. All three Commissioners were present: Chair Bill Canda and members
Lucas Epp and Paul Vogelsong.
In Commissioner Items all three Commissioners reported attending several meetings. Canda noted that he is setting up a town hall meeting with the Upper Arkansas Water people to discuss Upper Ark’s plans for our county (including raising the water lever at Lake DeWeese).
First up was Elected Officials reports. The Sheriff’s Office report was written. Of note, the SO got a $140k grant for court security.
No surprises in the written Treasurer’s Office report.
Next, Coroner Brad Baltzly gave his report. Brad said that the county had only one death in January, one in February and then five in March. With four of those being in less than a week. Brad said his office spent four days at the fatal house fire death this month. He commented that the cause of the fire will probably be listed as unknown but he thinks it might have been electrical.
Staff Reports were next. Human Resources Director Bob Smith gave the report. Bob covered a lot of topics including an issue where some part-time employees didn’t have their retirement fund deductions made and HR is going through their pay records and correcting that. (Remember, HR is now doing payroll. It used to be done in Finance.) Bob said they are continuing to work on the CIC personnel module and they are “getting there.”
Vernon Roth gave the Information Technology Department report. Vernon said they are doing an internal audit of their inventory. He again mentioned that the upcoming head of the department, the newly hired John Mapes, is doing an excellent job. Vernon said they have spent a ton of time trying to make the new Microsoft software updates work on the county’s computers. Vernon noted that the updates “have been a nightmare”. Vernon commented that the IT Department is going to have to make some changes in the future as the software world “is not the same as it was ten years ago.”
Epp gave the Finance Department report. Epp said they were creating “outlines” of the relationships with Finance and the other departments they work with. He said “a lot of audit prep work was going on”. The Finance Department’s consultant, Redlands Accounting, has been working with our auditor, Epp noted. The county will be ready for the auditor on April 1st but due to the auditor’s schedule, they won’t be able to start until
April 28th.
The Veterans Service Office Report was written. It was the usual good news as more veterans are being helped with claims.
Vogelsong gave the Human Services written report. He said there were 73 child support cases and the monthly collections for these are around $14k. The department is also under budget so far.
The Road & Bridge report was written. R&B is very happy with the used belly dump trailer they bought. The report noted that at the fatal house fire in March, two Wet Mountain Fire vehicles slid off the icy road and suffered some damage plus a Sheriff’s Office Deputy slid off.
Vogelsong did the Planning & Zoning report. He said the Commissioners had a workshop with P&Z regarding Round Mountain Water’s sludge disposal proposal. P&Z revenue was
up and down according to what metric was measured but total permits were up from 2023 (17) with 24 so far
in 2025.
The Airport Report was made by Canda. Canda said the airport land survey was done and the three airport entrance gates were upgraded to prevent critters from getting into the airport.
The Landfill Report noted that the state has approved our new areal fill Phase One (just in time).
Recycling had a good report. They made 43 total bales through the end of February with 33 of them being cardboard. YTD sales were $6.3k.
In New Business, Kelly Camper, Custer Clerk and Recorder, said that she obtained a $144k grant from the Electronic Recording Technology Board to assist in the digitizing
of records.
The last item was Epp announcing that the BOCC meetings will be moved to Wednesdays starting in a month. The current Thursday date is causing a lot of conflicts with other meetings.
Public Comment was interesting. Jimmy “The Plumber” McMahon brought up the Round Mountain sludge to fertilizer controversy. He was dead set against it. He talked about all the damage this process has caused across the country and implored the Commissioners to get on top of this and “report back to us”. Jimmy said if it costs the “two towns and the water district a lot of money it doesn’t matter”.
He then asked the Commissioners when did they first hear about this issue. They all said about a week ago and that Dorothy Carsten from P&Z alerted them after being contacted by the consultant Round Mountain Water hired (Denali) to do the job. Canda said they then called an “emergency” meeting with Round Mountain to get the facts. Canda said Round Mountain wants to do the spreading in May sometime. He said the Commissioners are having a big BOCC meeting at Lange Hall on March 27th at 5 p.m., with Round Mountain and the consultant (Denali), to get the facts. Canda wants as many people as possible to attend.
Jimmy then brought up an interesting point: He asked the Commissioners what legal vehicle would they use to stop Round Mountain’s plan, if the Commissioners decided to prevent it. The Commissioners danced around this a bit, but with Jimmy still prodding, they finally stated it would be done through Planning & Zoning and the county’s Zoning Resolution.
Epp also said that he had asked our Public Health Department to look into this and get back to him. Epp said that the landfill is prohibited from taking this sludge. He further noted that the contractor, Denali, had to pay a $600k fine in one state re a nitrate disposal violation.
The discussion would not have been complete without our lovable favorite, James Gilbert, giving his two cents. His comments were a little surprising and note Gilbert has a science background. Gilbert said human waste has been used for fertilizer “forever” and that replacing some of the artificial fertilizer that the ranchers are using with the sludge fertilizer “could have a positive impact on the county”. Gilbert commented that the artificial fertilizers used by our ranchers are “contaminating Lake DeWeese”.
Canda made an interesting comment during this discussion. He stated that the “forever chemical” levels in Grape Creek now are higher than the Round Mountain sludge. (Grape Creek is the major waterway in that area.)
And that was that. We will “sludge” our way to the next episode.