Oct 8 BOCC: DOLA Childcare Grant Strategies and SO Vehicles

by Reggie Foster
October 8, 2025
BOCC Mtg. Report

Commissioner Epp spent a day with the CCI legislative group which is made up of many county commissioners. Their discussion this past week centered around items that will impact counties in 2026. Clawing back monies was a priority, Epp used the examples of getting monies designated to care for park entrance roads back to counties and implementing excise taxes for counties to which that would apply. The group should have a list of tier one and tier two priorities within a week. Budget hearings have been completed for all elected officials, the Sheriff and Road & Bridge.
Commissioner Canda mentioned the Upper Ark meeting coming up next week and receiving complaints about TV Channel reception not working properly. Technical problem be-tween Colorado Springs and the Valley that Hilltop is working on. The County will likely have some cost in the fix. Canda also praised the elected officials, Vernon Roth and department heads for the budget work that has been completed to date. The landfill will need a scraper at some point. Right now the County is renting it and all involved believe the County should discuss buying a scraper instead. The issue was placed on the October 16th agenda.
Attorney Dan Slater worked with PDS’ attorney to align the outsourced IT contract. The new contract will not cover all printers and devices. Secondary and back-up computers, printers, etc., used
by county employees will be serviced by John Mapes, County GIS and IT. The Master Client agreement was approved unanimously. The commissioners also approved the Custer County Extension Office’s request to apply for the 2026 NRA grant for 4-H Shooting Sports. This grant provides supplies and equipment instead of dollars. There is no matching of funds requirement.
Stacy Terrill, Director of the Custer County Kids Council (CCKC) submitted an application to DOLA for a local childcare grant. The organization reached back to Terrill for needed clarification on strategies to support the local childcare grant if received. DOLA requested that the strategies be more clearly defined and that the BOCC must then commit to adopting one or more of the specifically identified strategies. DOLA requires this action as a show of support to the CCKC in doing this work. The strategies actually become the work CCKC is asked to do through the grant.

Terrill met DOLA’s request by creating three strategies from which the Commissioners could choose. Terrill first presented the financial support strategy which read, “A program will be adopted during the grant period on how to utilize any new revenues generated that are specific to supporting and or expanding childcare and coordinated with CCKC with the BOCC as the fiscal agent. If a new local funding stream gets approved, like the one on the ballot, then the Commissioners would support [Terrill] in adopting a program and in utilizing those funds specific to childcare.”
The second childcare strategy is Terrill’s reason for writing the DOLA grant in the first place. It read, “During the grant period of this DOLA local government childcare planning grant program, A Custer County childcare and early childcare needs assessment will be done utilizing a third party contractor that specializes in early childhood and childcare areas. With this assessment action, plans and policies can be looked at and implemented to promote childcare development to families in Custer County.” According to Terrill, the main reason she wrote and submitted [for] this grant was for funds to hire a third party to do a Custer County focused and specific childcare needs assessment which would provide the county a baseline of information and need(s) requirements.
The final strategy written and presented by Terrill was; “The CCKC, with the support of the BOCC, will commit to attending quarterly the Custer County planning and zoning committee meetings to ensure that there are no regulatory barriers to the creation or expansion of home based childcare.”  This third strategy is specifically to address any potential barriers to home childcare within Custer County.
DOLA needed an official commitment from the BOCC on one or more strategies in order for the grant to continue through the process. When asked which strategy was the most important to Terrill, she replied, both 2 and 3. Strategy one can’t be determined until after the Vote on November 4, and the grant will be awarded before that day.
Terrill has requested $20K of the $75K available from DOLA. She believes that the county data substantiates the need for such a large percentage of what is available to complete a needs assessment. There has been no childcare needs assessment since the inception of CCKC. Terrill clarified that other philanthropies and CCKC’s fund under the WMVCF will be the sources of the required matching funds.
Slater highlighted that Strategy number one directs the funds if the ballot initiative is passed but the BOCC has not yet determined what would happen with the dollars gained if ballot initiative 1A passes. Epp motioned to adopt strategies 2 and 3 as discussed in support of CCKC going after the DOLA grant. All were in favor.

Resolution 25-38 was presented to accept the deuce and a half which was donated to the Sheriff’s Office into the County’s fixed assets. Minutes later the Commissioners voted to sell the unique deuce and a half, along with a 2016 Dodge Durango, two 2017 Dodge Durangos, and a very well driven Chevy van for a total of $49,500 back to the county.
The SO was only temporarily out five vehicles, as Chief De Laurentis, stepped up with his negotiated list of replacements from the Lake Mary Florida Police Department. The Florida department made a fair deal for two 2017 Ford Explorer’s. One will be the Undersheriff’s ride while the second, which is equipped with an approved transport cage, will become a transport vehicle. De Laurentis said they also scored an unmarked AWD pickup which goes to Road and Bridge. The
county detective will get a nice 2017 Ford F150 supercab, while a. 2017 Ford Taurus, will be the administrative wheels for Chief. There isn’t much more undercover than a 2015 Ford Fusion. The good news is that the SO is now absent a handful of 100k mileage vehicles which have been replaced by a few good sets of wheels with 60K miles or less. The goal in managing vehicles this way is to save the county money in the long run. With outfitting costs of law enforcement vehicles rapidly increasing, being able to acquire the already outfitted Lake Mary police vehicles is a financial help to our county.
Copper Gulch was mentioned as the most traveled road in Custer County, with all the looks and feels of being such. So, the
Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt resolution 25-39 for Road and Bridge Fund appropriation to move $19k from the cash reserves to the budgets line for the purpose of trying a new product to harden up a mile of Copper Gulch past where the chip seal ends. The meeting was adjourned.