BOCC: New Tourism AG Effort, Money
for Nothing,  Epp and Politics

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary

The February 27, 2025 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting was held at the meeting room at All Aboard Westcliffe and started at 9 a.m. All three Commissioners were present: Chair Bill Canda and members Lucas Epp and Paul Vogelsong.
In Commissioner Items, Vogelsong said he had attended a Weed Board meeting. Canda noted that Road & Bridge is building a secondary parking lot next to the courthouse for employees freeing up space for visitors in the regular parking lot. Canda also said that the Public Comments segments are not for debate but for comments and he will be enforcing that.
Interim County Attorney Dan Slater reported that the county had
been served in a land partition lawsuit regarding the Trinity Ranch and based on the complaint, he did not see why. He said he will file
an answer.
In New Business, Accounts Payable was the first item. AP is now done in half month sections and the early February one was for $168k. This passed. Epp stated that going forward each credit card charge booked will also have the actual line item(s) it was expensed to.

Several Finance Resolutions were next. This was led by our Finance Director, Vernon Roth. Resolution 25-07, General Fund Wage Adjustment, was for $41k and that was compensation various county employees who have been underpaid with regards to fellow, equivalent jobs in the county. Resolution 25-08, Wage Adjustment for Road & Bridge was for a similar thing. That amount was $23k. Resolution 25-09 was to pay for the magical new $100k wood chipper that has been predicted will save Happy Valley from the Big One. It was for $50k as the state (ie, us state wide tax payers) was footing the other $50k.
The legendary Courthouse Side-walk Improvement project was the next subject. Epp talked about the CDOT/State grant scenario and said we had spent around $100k so far for the engineering and the construction costs will be about another $150k. Epp said CDOT advised him to apply for another $50k just in case the projected costs will rise. This he will do.

The Custer County Tourism crew were up next, and they came to the show talking about getting an agricultural collective grant which would help them build a marketing system for our local ranchers and farmers. They talked about setting up a very comprehensive website to market our local products and maybe even having a building to market and sell the products. They stated that they had received big time support from our local ag producers to proceed with this. This went on and on. They wanted the ok from the Commissioners to apply for a $4,100 grant from the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA). The mighty big wigs ok’s this.
Next was a request to create a yearly County Scholarship as there were some problems at the school in continuing some other scholarship. The Commissioners voted to donate $1,500 to this. After this, the Commissioners donated $500 to the school After Prom event.
The Work Force Housing long running drama was next. Epp said the County was coughing up $6k to it for this year.
Colorado’s Incident Qualification System (IQS) was the next subject. This is a state-run notification system for fires. It needs work here and that was approved.
A couple of folks from our local U.S. Forestry Service then gave the Commissioners their annual update. No big items there.
Public Comments was the final Agenda Item.

James Gilbert, our local democrat activist, then took the stage. Gilbert delivered a five-minute rage against the Trump budget cutting effort (DOGE) that is the last hope in saving America from bankruptcy. Since we really don’t have many minorities in Happy Valley, and the Unicorn Tranny crew have fled the jurisdiction, Gilbert didn’t have many victim cards left so he played the dems dependable last resort card, “the children”.
Gilbert lamented that the feds are cutting funds to various federal programs and those cuts will “negatively affect the county”. And, “Medicaid is going to get cut. This county depends on Medicaid for its funding.” Gilbert then reasoned that if Medicaid gets cut the “recipients might have to leave the county” for greener welfare pastures. And if that happens, “the clinic will go belly up”. (Really?) He then railed about cuts here and cuts there. Finally, he asked the Commissioners to contact our Federal Congressional reps
and complain about this. Gilbert finished with, “Tell the administration that you are hurting us and eventually killing us.” (No Gilbert, the corrupt liberal/democrat welfare state is killing us. It has bankrupted the country and has enslaved tens of millions of Americans into the economic death spiral of dependency. It has to go. )

(Editor/GG: One other thing. Of a political nature. At some point during this love fest, Gilbert talked about the Commissioners doing a Resolution about some-thing. He noted that the BOCC had made political resolutions before (re the 2nd Amendment and not being a sanctuary county for illegal immigrants) and that he wanted them to do one that he wanted. Epp responded with a somewhat philosophical comment about how he was tending to think that he (Epp) might only do resolutions that pertained to local county business, and stay away from political ones. Canda and Vogelsong were silent.
I’d like to comment on Epp’s proposed position:
Lucas, you are a local ELECTED POLITICAL official. OUR elected official. You are NOT a civil servant. Your job not only includes managing the county but also to push the agenda that got you elected. And what is the views that got you elected? Conservative. Republican. Christian. Transparency.
The people who got you elected expect you to forcefully pronounce these views at every opportunity including county political statements that tell the rest of the state what we believe in here in Custer County. You don’t see any democrat county commissioners keeping their yaps shut about guns, illegals, taxes or solar panels. You represent Custer County and especially the people who got you elected. We want warriors for conservatism, not head in-the-sand minions who won’t address the big picture. We need our leaders to SPEAK UP for what is right and not avoid the issues. Don’t worry about “offending” the libs in our county if you endorse a conservative, Christian viewpoint WE put you in that seat. The libs voted against you.
Stand up for what you believe and take the pathetic heat from our local libs. You will enjoy it.
Conservatives, Republicans, Christians, and right leaning Independents got you elected. We expect you to speak for us to people outside the county and reflect our values, politics, morals and goals. We are in this mess because of elected officials doing exactly what you are saying you want to do: Not publicly addressing the political, social and moral issues facing our country. WE THE PEOPLE have been silent for too long. God has given us one last chance this last November and we ALL need to do every last thing we can do to save our country. And that includes our Custer County Commissioners taking stands on political issues that affect our citizens. PUBLIC STANDS.
Believe me, if the libs were running this county there would be public pronouncements every day lauding their god, socialism.
We need Warriors, not people who are afraid to offend some-body. Don’t be afraid to take a stand, Lucas. We elected you to do just that. Stand Tall and do the right thing.)