Tag Archives: BOCC

2025, BOCC, Uncategorized

April 24 BOCC:Tons of Policies, Silver Cliff Gets Some Free Land, RMWSD Donation Confusion

BOCC: Tons of Policies, Silver Cliff Gets Some Free Land, Round
Mountain Donation Confusion

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The April 24, 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.
Not too much in Commissioner Items. Epp said the ARPA and LATCF yearly grant fund reports were done and submitted. Canda said the Commissioners had a “good” meeting with our local dems. (The local Polis, Biden, AOC, Pelosi loving Custer County democrat party asked our Commissioners to show up at a “round table” so they could question them about what is going to happen to Happy Valley when the fed and state grant money disappears, and the children will be starving.)
In New Business, Accounts Payable was up first. Epp gave the run down. (Epp does good with this. He reviews, during his presentation, all AP items over $5k. Very informative. Of note, interim County Attorney Dan Slater got a $6.8k check and they finally paid for the infamous Rolls Royce level chipper with a $98k check.) The total AP for the last two weeks was $372k.
Next was a proposal to approve a proclamation for Family Crisis Services to proclaim April Sexual Assault Awareness month. Family Crisis Services does a lot of good stuff including safe houses for abuse victims, therapy and counseling. Last year they served 274 clients. The proclamation was approved.
The Mayor of the Town of Silver Cliff, Buck Wenzel was next at the royal table. He said the County and Silver Cliff had an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) regarding a piece of land the county owns but Silver Cliff uses and maintains. It has signs on it and it is a trail head. Buck wanted the BOCC to deed the piece over to Silver Cliff to make things simpler. This was approved.
Human Services was next with nine policies that the state requires and the County hadn’t adopted them. This was supposed to have been done in 2022 but it wasn’t. The Commissioners approved all the policies.
Next up was Human Resources Director, Bob Smith, with the newly revised Records Retention Policy for the County. Bob has sent it around to the various department heads for review and made some changes based on that input. The Commissioners approved it.
The final New Business Agenda Item was about setting up a procedure so people could donate money to help the Round Mountain Water and Sanitation District pay for the construction of their new waste treatment system. (Remember the County donated $40k recently.) Canda led the discussion. He wanted to set up an account item at the Treasurer’s Office to take the donations which would allow the donations to be tax deductible. It was asked why can’t Round Mountain do it and Canda said that under their statutory regulations, they were not allowed to do that. County Attorney Slater said that was wrong and Round Mountain, like a bunch of other local entities, by statute can accept donations and have them be tax deductible. This went on for a bit. Finally, Canda said he would go over and talk to Round Mountain to find out one way or the other.
No fireworks. Of note, however, Chair Canda is letting people, one person in particular, interrupt the Commissioners discussion of items instead of waiting for the Public Comment interlude at the end of each Commissioner discussion. Very disruptive and rude.

2025, BOCC, Uncategorized

April 17 BOCC: Grant Money, Coroner wants a Cooler, Tourism Director Wants Pay

BOCC: Grant Money Drying Up,
Coroner Wants a Cooler,
Tourism Volunteer Director Now Wants Pay

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The April 17, 2025 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) regular meeting was held at the historic 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, Epp foreshadowed the coming dramatic drop in grant money coming to the County in announcing that the (total waste of money) courthouse sidewalk “improvement” project funding “may be pulled back” as the Colorado Democrats Colorado budget is ONE BILLION DOLLARS over budget and they are cutting a ton of things to save the money for their welfare state bribes.
Canda spoke about local realtor Bob Senderhauf’s effort to raise money to help Round Mountain Water & Sanitation District’s wastewater treatment project. Bob is opening donation accounts in both local banks and is encouraging various groups and entities to cough up some moolah to help out.
Interim County Attorney Dan Slater said he had settled two Planning & Zoning lawsuits against local property owners without going to court. There are still a bunch of lawsuits pending.
Epp talked about the new state Fire Resiliency Board and how each county, by law, is supposed to have a comprehensive plan in place this summer. This would affect home construction (it would be a form of building code for new home and business construction) and as we don’t have a building code in Happy Valley this will be a problem.
Elected Official Reports
First up was Custer County Sheriff Rich Smith. He had two main issues to bring to the Board. First, he is selling two Dodge Durango police vehicles and he figures he can get about $20k each at auction for them. However, the City of Walsenburg is starting up a brand new police department and they are desperate for vehicles and they offered $26k for each one. Rich wanted to know if he could sell them to Walsenburg without going through an auction. It was decided later in the meeting that County Attorney Slater would draw up a contract to sell the two vehicles to Walsenburg.
The second item concerned the new jail standards the libs in Denver are issuing which will dramatically drive up the cost to house inmates. Rich said this is going to raise our cost big time. He is also looking at a grant to get closed circuit security cameras installed at the courthouse.
The written Treasurer’s report was briefly reviewed. No biggies there.
Coroner Brad Baltzly gave his office’s report. Brad said he wants to get a 20-foot metal shipping container and put a cooling system in it to store the deceased when it is not possible to immediately bring the bodies to a funeral home or to an autopsy. He said it would take about $6k to do the job.
Other Reports
The Veteran’s Service Office report was given by the Director, Dominic Edginton. He said he had 47 scheduled visits last month and 32 walk ins. Plus he filed 19 new claims last month. Dominic noted that since he took over, he has filed 437 claims for our veterans and has gotten over $3 million in compensation for them. He said there are 581 Custer County veterans registered in the VA system, plus there are a bunch more not registered.
Bob Smith gave the Human Resources report. He said the RFP for county insurance is out and he is talking to five brokers about it. Also, there are three open county positions currently posted.
Finance Director Vernon Roth delivered the Finance report. Vernon said they are working on a bunch of procedures while he and Redlands Accounting continue to work on various issues like grant management and audit data. He stated that CORA open records requests consume too much of his time and he would like to see some changes there. County Attorney Slater is working on revising the County’s CORA policy. Epp noted that an RFP for a new County auditor is going out August 1st.
Epp then reviewed the Information Technology (IT) written report noting the IT employee John Mapes is doing a great job. Epp stated that they will be issuing an RFP for “contract services” to help in the IT Department. (IT is severely understaffed considering the amount of work in the county now.)
No big news in the written Human Services and Road & Bridge reports.
The Planning & Zoning Report was written. All types of permits are up dramatically from last year, showing good growth in the housing market. Total income for P&Z, YTD was $117k.
The written Landfill report noted that in the first quarter 4,816 cubic yards of trash was delivered to the landfill via waste collection companies and 2,837 bags of trash were brought to the landfill.
The Recycling written report stated that they made a total of 23 bales of all materials in March with 15 being just cardboard.
In New Business, our Tourism Board Director, Deb Adams, had a proposal for the BOCC. Adams first spent a fair amount of time reviewing the things she has done with the Tourism Board since she became the Director a few years ago. (She has done a good job.) (The Tourism Board Director and all the Board members are volunteers. It has always been that way.) Adams then segued into what she was really there for: she wants to get paid for the job now. Adams argued than since she puts a lot of time into the volunteer job that she should now get paid. She wants her new job to be called the “Destination Management Director” and she would become a county employee. (It sounded like it would initially be a part-time position but that was unclear. The issue of county benefits, insurance, retirement, were not discussed.) Canda said she needed to produce a job description, and this might be a new County “department”. Epp stated the job would have to be posted for competition. The discussion ended with agreement
that Adams will produce a job description and no decisions on actually doing this were made.
(Well, it is always the money. Remember Adams ran for County Commissioner a while back looking for that county job and was beaten badly by Canda. So, no county paycheck there. We don’t like this new paid position proposal for a variety of reasons. First, it is a volunteer position like the dozens of other volunteer boards in the county. Just because one is doing a good job in those positions doesn’t justify that position getting paid. It is a volunteer position for a reason. Second, this would set a bad precedent for other boards: If Adams can get paid why can’t I? Third, it is unnecessary. Things are going fine with the current setup. She has a whole board of people helping so no need to spend a ton of time personally. (Delegation is the word here.) It is her call on how much time she spends on the job. If it is too much for now, cut back and have others help you. Why do we now have to pay for it out of tax money? It is a VOLUNTEER position. She has plenty of resources available.
Fourth: The last thing the County needs now is to add more “optional” employees. The County is going to be in a ton of trouble in the near future as the fed and state grant money dries up (and these fund over half of the County’s budget). And we should be looking at downsizing County government, not growing it. Fifth: The three conservative, small government, Republican County Commissioners ran on being FISCAL CONSERVATIVES. Which means SMALLER GOVERNMENT, not growing it. Remember all governments tend to grow like a cancer eating up our tax money and sending us taxpayers to the poor house. Governments grow incrementally and then all of a sudden. Each new proposed job must be totally analyzed to see the impact on the county’s future financial liability. There is absolutely no need to create a new paid government job when it is currently being well handled on a volunteer basis. It is a total waste of money.
Commissioners: You were elected to be fiscal conservatives. And this is an easy one. Do what you were elected to do. NO GO on this. You should be REDUCING the County government’s financial footprint, NOT INCREASING it. And no offense against Adams looking for a county paycheck. I guess it is human nature, and the County is the biggest fat cat in Happy Valley. But Adams signed on knowing it was a volunteer job. No need to change that. There are plenty of true volunteers willing to fill that position.)

2025, BOCC, Uncategorized

BOCC: Big AP Amount, Annual Clean Up Day, STR Moratorium

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The March 27, 2025 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) regular meeting started at 9 a.m. at the All Aboard Westcliffe meeting room. All three Commissioners were present: Chair Bill Canda and members Lucas Epp and Paul Vogelsong.
In Commissioner Items, Epp said he attended a Colorado Wildfire Fire Protection Plan meeting where the attendees reviewed maps and zones in Custer County. County Interim Attorney Dan Slater said another ex county employee is suing the County. He doesn’t think this lawsuit “has a lot of merit”.
In New Business, Accounts Payable was first up. Epp led the discussion noting that this AP (which covers just the first two weeks of March) was high due to a lot of normal, annual expenses that come in around this time. Epp reviewed all the expense items greater than $5k. The total of $567k was approved.
Next was the announcement that the annual Towns of Westcliffe and Silver Cliff Clean Up day will be May 10th. Residents of the two towns can put out items on the curb to be taken away. No batteries, tires or household trash. No appliances that use freon. All county residents can bring their electronic items
to the Dome in Silver Cliff to
be recycled.
Eight County Resolutions were next. These supplemental resolutions were to approve money to pay for expenses that were above the budgeted amounts. The Commissioners
Health Insurance got $13.6k. The VSO got $6k for training. The VSO got another $20.8k for the new assistant. Road & Bridge received $66k for the newly acquired used roller/compactor. $49.5k was allocated for the infamous chipper.
The County Clerk got $69k for recording services and the airport was on the receiving end of $125k for improvements to the
fuel system there.
The last Agenda Item was a Resolution for a Moratorium on
new Short Term Rental applications and permits. This would last until December 31, 2026. Planning & Zoning needs time to adjust the regulations based on issues that came up in the last few years plus new state laws are coming down. (A new state regulation will control the size of the STR septics and will use the number of beds, instead of bedrooms, as the measurement tool.) The Resolution was approved.
And that was it.

2025, BOCC, Uncategorized

March 20 BOCC: Some Fatal Fire Facts, P&Z Stats, Sludge/Fertilizer Comments

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). Continue reading March 20 BOCC: Some Fatal Fire Facts, P&Z Stats, Sludge/Fertilizer Comments →

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February 27, 2025 BOCC: Tourism, Finance resolutions, Politics

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

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary

Screenshot BOCC
L to R Vogelsong, Canda, Epp

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. Continue reading February 27, 2025 BOCC: Tourism, Finance resolutions, Politics →

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BOCC: County Attorney Showdown

by George Gramlich, News and Commentary

The February 13, 2025 Custer County Board of County Com-missioners’ (BOCC) meeting took place at the All Aboard Westcliffe meeting room and started at 9 a.m. All three Commissioners were in attendance: Chair Bill Canda and members Lucas Epp and Paul Vogelsong.
In Commissioner Comments, Epp mentioned a bunch of meetings he attended since the last BOCC gabfest: CCI (a lobbying group for counties who are a member), a wages workshop with Human Resources, a Public Health meeting to talk about the impact of grants disappearing, met with CDOT on the courthouse sidewalk project and with Redmonds Consulting re: audit strategy. Epp noted as part of the courthouse sidewalk project, a new county employee parking lot will be built which would help with citizen parking next to the courthouse.
In New Business, the monthly Accounts Payable amount ($291k for January) was approved.
Resolution 25-03, Moving $146k
from the Tourism Fund to the Tourism Board was approved.
Next up was Resolution 25-04, approving $5,560 to the Airport from the Capital Improvement fund was ok’d. This was for the three airport gate upgrades.
Vernon Yoder’s Short Term Rental (STR) application was then approved.
The Horton STR application was recommended to be not approved by the Planning Commission, but the Commissioners approved it anyway. Some of the issues surrounding the application was that there were too many STR’s already in the area, the septic size and the shared driveway access. Continue reading BOCC: County Attorney Showdown →

2025, BOCC, Uncategorized

Jan 30 BOCC: Lawsuit, Roth Get FD Position, Attorney Drama

Decline Rumblings,
$60k Lawsuit Payment, Roth Gets the Finance Director’s Position, More County Attorney Drama

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The January 30, 2025 Custer County Board of County Commissioners’ (BOCC) meeting started at 9:01 a.m. at the All Aboard Westcliffe meeting room in Westcliffe. All three Commissioners were present: Chair Bill Canda and members Lucas Epp and Paul Vogelsong.
In Commissioner Items, Epp said the Commissioners were “mandatory” reporters for the Department of Human Services re child protective services and they must undergo training because of that mandate. Epp also said he had talked to our Public Health Department about their grant funding and what level of services that could provide if their state and federal grant for income declines. (And it will. All of Custer County’s departments and offices should prepare contingency plans for a probate grant income decline.) He noted that the Upper Arkansas Area Council of Governments (UAACOG) (a government grant dispensing non-profit machine in Cañon City) might also have some serious funding issues going forward. Epp commented, “Grants are up in the air. If certain things go away, what are we going to do and what is it going to look like?)
( It’s called small, efficient, prioritized government focusing on the essentials.)
Canda chimed in, “Fed funding is the issue. We need to know what grants are federal.” (Note a LOT of “state” grants are actually fed money that was given to the state…)
In New Business, Accounts Payable was first up. Epp stated that the monthly AP amount was high as it is in the beginning of the year and also it contained a $60k bill from the county’s insurer (CTSI) for the deductible amount we have to pay for the settlement of the tasing lawsuit brought by a minor who
was in custody by the Sheriff’s Office. (This was before Sheriff Smith came on board. Rumor has it the settlement was for around $700k.) The incident occurred in 2022 and involved alleged excessive force. The total A/P for January was $365k and it was approved.
The next report was from the Wet Mountain Fire District. It was reported that the District received the most calls for service ever last year, 340 calls. There were 16 fires responded to.
The Tourism Bureau’s report involved a slide presentation. They said they were doing a good job as the Lodging Tax was up for last year. The online Zoom system went out during their report so much
was missed.
Our County Clerk and Recorder, Kelley Camper, then was up requesting the ok form the Commissioners to apply for a $144k grant from the state fund that grabs $2 from every electronic document recording the Clerk’s Office does. The Commissioners gave their approval.
Brian Anderson gave the Airport report. The $650k eight-foot fence that a donor put up and paid for was about completed. However, the three access gates to the airport need to be upgraded to keep deer and other pesky critters out. The Airport has a $50k grant it can use. They received a local bid to fix the gates for around $21k. This passed.
Next Agenda Item was, “Consideration of the Finance Director’s Position”. Epp handled this. (As you know, we haven’t had a Finance Director for over a year after the big County Manager debacle. The Commissioners were only offering $125k for the job and the real-world price to get anybody decent is over $200k. Vernon Roth, our IT Director has been basically doing the job (with help from Redlands Accounting) and all reports say he is doing a great job. So, after a year, something finally happened….) Epp kind of laid out some background on where we are re the position saying we had an employee (Roth) in this position (on an interim basis) now for a year. Epp proposed to “move that employee into this Finance Director’s position” and we “will keep Redlands or another consultant here as backup.” Epp proposed a salary of $95k. Epp then read a letter from a local citizen who is a very high-speed accountant saying Vernon can do the job. Vogelsong commented that if we bring somebody new in it “would be a big learning curve.” A couple of peasants then spoke up supporting Vernon. The vote was then taken and all three Commissioners voted to give Vernon the job. (Good move. Vernon is super smart and a very hard worker.)
The next subject was pretty controversial, “Review and Consideration of the Contract for County Attorney”. (Remember there was a personnel issue with our County Attorney, Dan Slater, and a county employee. The Commissioners voted to fire Slater for it. They took away Slater’s contract with the department where the issue occurred but kept him on for the BOCC and the Sheriff’s Office until they found a replacement. Until now, they haven’t found anybody.
This Item is Canda’s baby. He said he has an attorney, Rachel Maxam, who just moved here and has a practice in Colorado Springs and she wants the job. She wants $5k a month and $100 per hour for
extra hours.
Canda went on a bit about Maxam then Slater rose to his defense saying she would cost 43% more than what he was getting. Epp said he thought her flat fee was way too high and was concerned that we would normally not use that many hours. Slater said his average monthly fee for 2024 was $3,290 per month and her proposed contract doesn’t cover “litigation” which his does and this could cost a ton more. Slater then said he “continues to have questions to why you still want to change.” Epp responded something about, “legalities of conflict of interest”. At some point in the discussion, Slater said the “issue” had been resolved (so no point in trying to get rid of him.) This went on and on. Finally, as it is a personnel issue, the Commissioners decided to have an Executive Session on it (date to be decided). So, Slater is still our County Attorney. (Well, Slater was removed re his “personnel issue” from one of his contracts with the county and apparently the “issue” is resolved now. The problem is, getting an attorney who really knows county/municipal law is difficult. And the gov’t legal arena is complex and complicated. You need a lot of experience to get good at it. Watching Slater now for years, he knows his stuff. The only real blem on his work here was the County Manager vignette where he did not give the Commissioners proper advice on how to follow the law regarding setting up a County Manager position and filling it. Other than that, he has done a good job. He had his hand slapped over the personnel issue. It is going to be real difficult to find someone with his experience who will charge us a reasonable rate….  Maybe change your minds mighty Commissioners and give him a second chance?)
And that was it. Pretty good drama quotient. Stay tuned for the next chapter of “Happy Valley”. Continue reading Jan 30 BOCC: Lawsuit, Roth Get FD Position, Attorney Drama →

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BOCC Jan 23: Suicides high in 2024, Auditor Change Delay

BOCC: Coroner: A Lot of Suicides in 2024, Auditor Change Delay, P&Z Activity Down

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The January 23, 2025 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) regular meeting took place at the All Aboard Westcliffe meeting room.
It started around 9 a.m. and all three Commissioners were present: Chair Bill Canda, and members Lucas Epp and Paul Vogelsong.
Before Commissioner Items, Canda
asked the Board whether the Commissioners should verbally summarize what was in the written reports submitted by various officials and department heads. (Instead of just reading them silently in front of the audience). Epp concurred. (This is a good thing as the public didn’t know what was going on. And, as shown below, it worked quite well. Thank you, Canda and Epp.)
In Commissioner Items, Vogelsong noted that he and Epp went to CCI for Commissioner training.
Staff Reports were next. First up was our Veterans Service Officer, Dominic Edginton. Dominic said he had 39 scheduled appointments in December and eleven walk-ins. He filed nine new claims and had a total of 366 claims filed last year. He said at the end of 2024, our veterans were getting an increase of $160k monthly. Also, since he started about 18 months ago, he had gotten $1.2 million in retro payments for the veterans. And, at the end of 2024, he had managed to get a total of $2.4 million in payments.
The first Elected Officials Report was from the Sheriff’s Office (SO). Epp gave the highlights: the Posse members donated 5,663 hours last year with 404 hours being prisoner transport. The SO also finished the year under budget. There were 966 traffic stops in 2024 with 142 tickets being issued. Forty-one traffic accidents occurred last year which was a 41% reduction from 2023. There was one traffic fatality.
Treasurer Virginia Trujillo gave the Treasurer’s report. The usual stuff. All good.
The Coroner’s Office report was delivered by Coroner Brad Baltzly. Brad opened with the 2024 death totals: 13 natural, 1 accidental, 7 suicides, no homicides and no undetermined. Brad noted that the suicide number was more than double from 2023 (3). He said there was “no specific demographic” and “They were all over the board.” So, there was a total of 21 deaths in 2024 compared to 18 in 2023. (Hospice deaths are not counted.) Brad reported that the Coroner’s Office was under budget for 2024 by $47k and that his autopsy costs have risen to $1,750 per autopsy. He also remarked that two of the suicides were out of town people. Only one suicide was a veteran. Brad said the latest suicide was a “transgender” person and there were some difficulties with that person’s real name. He noted that “transgenders have a lot higher rate for suicide” than non-trans people and that, “Those folks are more prone to that for some reason.”
Human Resources Director Bob Smith then gave his report. He stated the county employees Annual Open Enrollment period is over (for benefits). Bob said there are currently four open workers compensation claims. HR’s new Technician person, Monique Reed, has started and she is a big help. Bob then talked about his work on department policies and procedures. He wants a work session with the Board on his draft of the new county employee handbook. He is also working on a uniform “wage structure” for the county.
Epp then reviewed the Information Technology Department’s submitted report. There is a new IT employee, John TXXXX who is doing good and getting a lot done. IT did a lot of work on the Sheriff’s Office “Tyler” communication system which has had some issues. It looks like this might finally be working well.
In Finance, Epp reviewed the written report. Most of it was noting the items worked on by our accounting consultant, Lisa Hammon, from Redland’s Consulting. At the end of the report, citizen Jimmy “The Plumber” McMahon asked how long has our current county auditor (DiNardo) been auditing the county’s books. Epp answered “10 years”. Epp then said the “state” says five years is the max and they will be looking for one August 1. Epp said they tried to get a new one for this year, but they started too late and everybody they talked to was booked. Jimmy asked about how much our auditor has been charging us and Epp said last year it was around $80k and normal should be about $20k. Epp also stated that he wanted to keep Redland’s Accounting around as “watch dog” over our Finance Department and our auditors. (Good idea.)
The Human Services report was the usual stuff. Epp reviewed that.
The Planning & Zoning report showed a slowing down of activity over 2023. The report noted that there were 172 “compliance issues” in 2024 and 15 have been sent to the county attorney. Of the 172, 76 have complied. 2024 permit revenue was down last year, and the Use Tax was also down by $155k. Last year there were 107 septic permits, 91 dwelling permits and 71 non-dwelling permits. Total 2024 permits issued were down a lot from 2023. County Attorney Slater than reviewed the status of the 15 he received for action. He said he sent “letters” to all of them and eight have reached some sort of “resolution”. Slater said he just filed two suits in county court and will be filing the other five next week.
Canda then reviewed the Airport Report. He said the Jet A fuel tank Is there and it still needs some work to get operational. He noted that the land survey of the airport is underway. The new “gang fence” surrounding the airport to keep out large animals is about done. It was totally paid for by the Ought Six Ranch. The cost was $650K. Some of the gates though still need work.
The Landfill Report was brief. Their 2024 budget was $399k and they bought in $313k in fees. The state inspector was there recently and there were no violations.
Not too much in the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) (grants, grants, grants) and the CSU Cooperative Extension (lots of programs, 78 kids in 4H).
In New Business, the first item was the Managing Commissioner Departments/Boards assignments. Here’s who got what:
Vogelsong: P&Z, Human Services, CSU Extension, Weed Board, Useful Public Service, Human Resources, Landfill.
Epp: Finance, CC Kids Council, Workforce Housing Board, Upper Ark Water, Recycling, Public Health, Grounds, Tourism Board.
Canda: Road & Bridge, IT, Fair Board, Airport Board, EOM, and BOCC Admin.
The Board then went into Executive Session over some personnel matter.
The reconvened after the ES. The meeting took over four hours.
Another chapter down in the Happy Valley saga. At least no rudeness from the lefties in this one. See you next week.

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Custer County: Now Under New Management

Paul Vogelsong being sworn in by County Judge Mike Halpin.
Paul Vogelsong being sworn in by County Judge Mike Halpin.
Lucas Epp being sworn in by County Judge Mike Halpin.

Custer County: Now Under New Management
Commissioners Vogelsong and Epp Sworn In 01/14/25

New Commissioners with the honorable Judge Halpin.
New Commissioners with the honorable Judge Halpin.

by Fred Hernandez
In a simple ceremony at Lange Hall on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at 10 o’clock in the morning, County Judge Mike Halpin presided over the official swearing-in of the commissioners elected in the November 2024 Election.
First up was Lucas Epp who had already been serving as commissioner, having won the seat following the recall of a former commissioner. After swearing in, Commissioner Epp made a few short remarks to remind his supporters that he is a working man who dresses simply and works “in the trenches” to solve problems. He received a warm applause from the audience of approximately fifty county residents.
Paul Vogelsong was next and after swearing in he also spoke briefly to assure his supporters that having sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution many times in his career, he has every intention of doing so as Commissioner Vogelsong. He also received a warm round of applause.

Among the dignitaries who were present were County Commissioner Bill Canda, Sheriff Rich Smith, Coroner Brad Baltzly, County IT and interim Finance Director Vernon Roth and county business owners and residents. The quick ceremony was over in twenty minutes and the attendees were treated to refreshments of fruit, cake and coffee. The County welcomes the new team of commissioners and sincerely wishes them all the best in their work for the community. Congratulations!

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BOCC: Epp Makes a HUGE Finance Director Position Move, Chaos Ensues

BOCC: Epp Makes a HUGE Finance Director Position Move, Chaos Ensues

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
Custer County Board of County Commissioner’s (BOCC) first meeting of the new year took place at the All Aboard Westcliffe meeting room in downtown Westcliffe. The January 9, 2025 meeting started at 9 a.m. and all three Commissioners were present: Bill Canda, Lucas Epp and Kevin Day. Continue reading BOCC: Epp Makes a HUGE Finance Director Position Move, Chaos Ensues →