August 19 Town of Westcliffe Meeting: Alta Beer Cave Ok’d, Tourism Market Plan for Winter, Starlink Plans, Lighting Ordinance Enforcement Postponed

Town of Westcliffe
Meeting Report
by Laura Vass
The August 19, 2025 Town of Westcliffe Trustees meeting was held at the Westcliffe Town Hall and was called to order at 5:30 p.m. followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.All Board members were present.
Recognized visitors included Dan Findley, new lawyer, representing the Board, Deb Adams and John Van Doren – representing CC Tourism, Sean Austin and Bianca Trencker, lodging owners, Bob Walsh, Erick Messick -Dark Skies local chapter and on Zoom, Trey Peters, Chris Medina with Alta Convenience, Debi Van Doren and Anita Gragg, with CF Altitude and Alta.
Under Old Business, Alta Convenience’s modification of premise was finally approved.
Lawyer Dan Findley was asked about issues brought up at the last meeting. In response he said that he has not seen anything that would enable the Westcliffe board to interfere with Alta’s rights to operate. Since the existing business had a liquor license and it remains current, harm to competition and change to neighborhood arguments do not apply.
The issue at hand is approving the already constructed Beer Cave, so that it can operate. Alta has all required certifications approved by the State and holds a liquor license and the Board voted proceeded to approve the modification of premises at the Alta Convenience Store.
Under New Business, John Van Doren  gave an update on Tourism. This also developed into a discussion. He said Tourism’s Marketing Plan included plans to work toward having an appealing, safe and inviting downtown in the winter months. He explained that the marketing plan is divided into three areas 1) Market to full time Custer County Residents 2) Reaching out to part-time residents and 3) Marketing weekend getaways.
The focus presented was how to increase activity downtown in the winter months by making the area safe (work on ice build-up issues), and to make the town look less “closed for the winter” by light decorating and activities that would draw people to town.
Mayor Wenke interjected that when there were lights downtown the (now five years defunct) Chamber planned it and locals, including himself, did the work and helped finance it.
During the discussion, a request for the Town to work on solutions to the downtown ice problems, for cooperation for decorating, event collaborations and some financing from the Town of Westcliffe were requested. Mayor Wenke did stress that while the Town is not adverse to helping with this, the business owners need to be willing to contribute as volunteers to get the work done and as financial contributors.
Deb Adams reminded the TOW Board that their own master plan includes specific efforts and cooperation to improve winter tourism. (Deb said tourism is also asking for TOW financial contribution to the plan.)
Mayor Wenke suggested they bring a proposal to the Board.
Trustee Christy Patterson noted that it gets really frustrating from the town government standpoint when downtown businesses want something to happen but want other people to pay for it or someone else to do things and there’s no one offering to volunteer for the work. “A little reciprocity will be helpful.” She ended saying, “I don’t think this Board is against it, at all,  but it’s a give and take.”
Deb Adams feels that the current business owners are very willing to collaborate.
Mayor Wenke suggests that they work on a plan over a period of years on this, so that Town contribution can be fit into the budget starting with holiday lighting.
Someone asked if the money in the Façade grant could be used. That discussion did not end with a definitive yes.
Another trustee said that grassroots fundraisers like the one supporting 4th July Fireworks might be the way to go.
In summary, there were several stances taken on the shared desire to improve downtown appearance and events in the winter, starting with Christmas.
A workshop will be planned for further discussion.
The old “Light up the Valley” efforts included lots of volunteers. Black Hills Energy provided electricity for the downtown lights, which included the top edge of buildings for free.
Maintenance said half of the poles have electricity for connected decor-ation. Some of the trees still have lights on them.
Resolution 2-2025 to amend the Town Policy Handbook with an addition of a distracted driver clause was approved.
Consideration of a request to change the Town Office internet service to Starlink, was approved. Hilltop is used currently, but with frequent outages. Starlink will be less per month but will cost $2K business equipment.
Through Resolution 3-2025,the Board voted to change the authorizer for phone service to Erin Christie. This passed.
Consideration of a request for the Town to enforce its municipal lighting code §10-4-3 was on the agenda again.
Under Discussion, began with research being done by Christy Patterson which would inform the Board about what other communities are doing and help the Board make changes to the code.
Patterson is doing research on all the dark skies communities with ordinances and creating a data table which she will be able to present in September. This will show what codes, lighting descriptions and definitions, etc. are used elsewhere to make code compliance and enforcement clearer.
The request to enforce the Lighting Ordinance was related to the WMV Saddle Club. This issue is ongoing. In summary, part of the Board wants the Lighting Ordinance violations enforced. Others on the Board want the ordinance to be examined and possibly altered, arguing that the code is difficult to comply with and relies on an outside organization to advise on complying in each situation.
This month’s request to have the issue on the agenda was from Chuck Jagow who is both on the TOW Board and a
member of Dark Skies Westcliffe. Chuck Jagow and Robert Wolf want the Board to enforce the existing code and point to several violations by the Saddle Club that include not having a special permit for light non-conformity for Thursday night events this year and not applying for a special permit for Stampede activities.
There are problems with clarity and the ability to comply with the lighting codes and Mayor Wenke and Trustee Christy Patterson, along with the town lawyer, were in consensus that it might not be in the best interest of the Town to enforce a code that has issues. WMV Saddle Club did get advisement on the lighting they chose, but Dark Skies says it’s not compliant and also causes light trespass. Several Dark Skies affiliated people in attendance voiced similar opinions. The Board voted to table the enforcement request until a workshop is completed.
Compliments were given to Parks and Recreation on parks and sidewalks.
Mr. Wenke said the town has three engineer proposals on the
Infrastructure Project (Water/Sewer to Town lots.) He plans to meet with Round Mountain on this so the project can be done before winter frost hits. And he’d like to get the property appraised after that, so that it’s available should a private developer for housing development approach
the town.
Under public comment, an attendee spoke about the lodging tax, saying that the State is looking to raise the tax statewide and reminded the Board that the county meeting (now past) was going to vote on raising the Lodging tax percent and its allocation of funds.
Reporter/Editors Note: As presented in public comment, it sounded like the Lodging Tax was one state-wide increase with the County Board voting on the taxes. The County Board only vote(d) to approve getting ballot language approved in order to place the proposed increased tax on the fall 2025 ballot. The proposed tax amount and the allocation of the tax is determined in each county using State guidelines. The citizens of Custer County will decide by vote whether or not to increase the lodging tax in Custer County.