Westcliffe Town Meetings: Hedberg Lawsuits  Settlement, Grant Funded Water/Sewer to Move Forward on Town Lots for Workforce Housing, Dark Skies/ SJO Requests Improvements, Board of Trustees Searching for a new Attorney
by Laura Vass
During the Westcliffe Board of Trustees April 15 meeting, the trustees went into executive session to discuss settling the two lawsuits by Jordan Hedberg concerning open meeting violations and executive sessions which he wanted the records/recordings to. The trustees settled the two lawsuits by releasing the recordings requested and paying $6,000 for Hedberg’s lawyer fees.
The town attorney, Clay Buchner, remarked that “there will always be the Hedbergs of the world that file lawsuits for gain.”
During the April meeting the Board voted to allow the Farmer’s market to use Jesse Park this year but it looks like, from press releases from the Market, that the location will remain north of Jesse Park. We shall see.
The Board also voted on the Contract for the town lawyer. However, the town put out an RFP after a special meeting on the 30th of May, in search of municipal attorney. Clay, who accepted a position with the 11th District Attorney’s Office months ago, and represents other municipalities as well,  will stay on in his capacity as the town does its search.
With County Commissioner Canda point-ing out that the county had dropped $40K into the pockets of Round Mountain to help with the sludge removal project, Westcliffe’s board agreed to put in $10K.
In  the May 20 regular meeting, a few agenda items were tabled: The IT Report and Consideration to rezone a lot in Shadow Ridge subdivision from commercial to single-family residential, the latter of which must be open for discussion for one month. His request for rezoning started late March, so this was a surprise.  Both will be on the agenda for June.
The Board discussed and voted on candidates for the Planning Commission opening, deciding on Brian Clince (Antler Liquor and Motel) for the position and the other two applicants, Leslie Parkes and Nadine Petersen, would be alternates.
Next was an update on the workforce housing. The Board did get the grant for infrastructure (water tap and sewer) to the property the town owns and has purposed for workforce housing. They’ll need to take bids on that soon. The grant for obtaining an economic assessment was also awarded to the towns and county and Community Attributes, Inc. has been commissioned to do the  assessment. They were scheduled to come on the big snow day in May and will be up to meeting business folks and join in some focus groups June 2 -3.
An update from Barry Keene, who is part of the county’s Workforce Housing Committee, was next.  He said that Charles Bogle had gifted them the non-profits, Custer County Economic Development Corporation (CCEDC) and a sister non-profit, which gives them a non-profit with longstanding to set up a Housing Authority which in turn can be a  clearing house for grants, loans and managing housing projects later. (Neither the county nor the towns of Westcliffe and Silver Cliff want to be in the business of managing rental units etc.) The CCEDC would need a Board, an office, personnel and other set up. No plans or deadlines were given for this, but Keene said he’d have something together by week’s end. He also wanted the towns and the county to put up some money to go with an 80/20 grant he’s looking at to set up that Housing Authority.  Mayor Wenke suggested a workshop (scheduled for May 30) to get more information on this.
Erick Messick, local Vice President of Dark Skies, was there to approach the board about improvements.  Apparently, the Smokey Jack Observatory (SJO) at The Bluff is on property that the town owns and the town is responsible for some improvements.  They would like to put some more seating in which would require some dirt moving. They also are concerned about  visitors using the drainage area (which is full of rock) as a pathway—which might be a good way to get injured, especially at night. Methods were discussed  for  blocking it off in a way that Dark Skies can still use the drainage area to drive a truck in and out when they have activities to set up.
This lead to a few questions. Mayor Wenke wanted to know who would be paying for improvements/changes. A discussion ensued about the property transfer agreement from the Land Conservancy several years back and who is responsible for improvements and if there was any money left from that transfer agreement. At one point Mayor Wenke suggested Dark Skies charge for their activities, which have always been free. The Board agreed that they need to research the documents on the transfer by the next meeting to determine responsibility for costs, etc.
This went from  discussion of safety to the issue of the area not being very ADA compliant and the question of whether, as part of the city’s Bluff Park, it has to be ADA. The town lawyer was asked about it and he said ADA compliance  is very complicated, and he didn’t want to speak to the issue without looking at the area and investigating it further.
In Public Comments, someone complained about the Saddle Club having their ‘non-compliant with Dark Skies ordinance’ lights on.  Board member Mr. Jagow, who is president of Dark Skies, did say that it’s a problem and wondered if the town could lose its Dark Skies Designation.
Mayor Wenke said it was his understanding that they can have the lights on in the Arena/parking lot  for 11 days a year which is enough to cover the Rodeo/4-H week and the gymkhana events. They are supposed to get a special use permit each time, however.  This discussion, not on the agenda, could not go anywhere for
this meeting.
The Board set up a special meeting for the morning of May 30, to consider putting out an RFP for a town attorney. They did agree and issued the RFP announcement to be published. There was mention but not actions on Mr. Wenke and Mr Fulton meeting with Round Mountain and DOLA to figure out the Engineering needs for the infrastructure grant before creating an RFP for that. Mr. Wenke said he would like to get the sewer/water put in before a fall freeze.