The Gilpin County Commissioners (BoCC) convened a regular meeting on Tuesday, April 30. Commissioners Susan Berumen, Marie Mornis, and Sandy Hollingsworth all attended, along with County Manager Ray Rears, County Attorney Brad Benning, and other County staff.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mornis made a comment clarifying the letter she sent to the local papers about the Black Hawk IGA offer. She said that she was not asked for her opinion on the offer and that her voice is not being heard. She would have asked for an estimated expense sheet and a sunset date of 2-3 years for the IGA.

Hollingsworth replied that all the commissioners received the draft letter by email and were given the opportunity to comment.

Kathleen Balfour added a comment in response to Mornis’ comment, asserting “We have got a little democracy going on here. The definition of democracy in this case would be two wolves voting on what’s for dinner and one sheep.” She felt that Mornis’ words were not heard.

A “Shout Out” award was given to George Baker, who on March 15 assisted the Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office and Alpine Rescue by opening 1.7 miles of Missouri Gulch Road to help rescue a stranded resident. Baker had responded to the emergency with a chained-up front loader and, for over 2.5 hours, plowed through five feet of snow.

The Board thanked this employee for his exemplary work.

Kara Campbell, Manager of Mountain Services for Jefferson Center, thanked the Board for their proclamation of Mental Health Month. She highlighted the need to raise awareness and combat stigma.

Hollingsworth moved to adopt the proclamation for May and all were in favor.

Cody Carroll, Gilpin Ambulance Authority Chief, presented the Authorization to Operate letter from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, adding that there is a substantial set of new EMS regulations that will go into effect on July 1 this year.

He encouraged the Board to opt to allow only certain transport providers within Gilpin County. A resolution will be presented in July.

Steve Coffin, Executive Director of NoCo Places, presented the NoCo Places 2050 Mapping Project Update. NoCo is a collaborative of public land agencies that has come together to address the challenge of increased visitation to the northern central Front Range mountains.

The collaborating agencies include Gilpin County, Clear Creek County, Jefferson County Open Space, Boulder County Parks & Open Space, Larimer County Natural Resources, The US Forest Service, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, and Rocky Mountain National Park.

The project has gathered data from recreational visitors to the area. Coffin encouraged the commissioners to look at the data for Gilpin County.

Theisdata can also be accessed on the County website at https://gilpincounty.colorado.gov/elected-officials/boardofcounty-commissioners/nocoplaces 2050.

At 9:49 a.m., a public hearing was held regarding Resolution TUP-24-1, Approving A Temporary Use Permit for the Gilpin County Historical Society’s Annual Cemetery Crawl.

This will be the 35th annual cemetery crawl. It will be held at the Oddfellows Cemetery in September, and will last several hours.

There was no public comment. Mornis congratulated the Historical Society for the accomplishment of 35 years. The resolution was approved.

Another public hearing was held respecting Resolution TUP-24-2, Approving A Temporary Use Permit for the Fjallraven Classic Event, a trekking experience, which is scheduled for July 23-26.

The event route will traverse Rollins Pass on a rolling start and will cover roughly 30 miles, mostly in Boulder County. The event will start and end in Gilpin County at the Jenny Lake Trailhead off Rollins Pass Road. Participants will be shuttled to and from Rollins Pass Road. Resolution passed, 3-0.

A final public hearing was held at 10 a.m. concerning Resolution 24-71, Approving a Special Use (SUR-23-1) for the Church of the Front Range. Applicant Tim Rasmussen has petitioned for a Special Use to operate a religious organization in the Resource Residential (RR) zone.

The Planning Commission had held a public hearing on SUR-23-1 on April 9, and had voted 8 to 0 to certify a negative “DO NOT PASS” recommendation to the BoCC.

Staff do not believe that the applicants have adequately demonstrated that their proposal will promote the welfare of the area and adjacent properties because they have not demonstrated that they will be mitigating the potential adverse impacts of the development.

All of the commissioners voted to deny the application.

Chanda Johnson, Human Resources Director and John Combs, Public Works

Director, presented Resolution 24-76, Adopting Two Seasonal Road & Bridge Worker Positions.

These two positions would be hired annually as full-time, seasonal, non-benefited positions not to exceed six months’ employment.

The primary duties of these two positions would be to assist an Equipment Operator with cleaning, maintaining, repairing, and installing culverts around the county.

Gilpin County is currently responsible for maintaining county culverts. At the present time, the county has 600 culverts that need attention, repairs, or replacement. Combs added that it has been 12 years since the County has had a dedicated culvert crew.

The resolution passed unanimously, with an expense limit of $42,494.40.

Janey Barker, Human Services Director, presented Resolution 24-75, Amending the Veteran’s Services Officer Position. Gilpin County’s current Veterans Services Officer works approximately 700 hours per year. In order to meet the requirements set by the state of Colorado this position must have an increase in time, to at least 1000 hours per year.

The expected increase in salary is approximately $13,000 per year at the current Veterans Services Officer’s level of pay.

All were in favor.

Joe Allaire, Finance Director, introduced Resolution 24-77, Allocating and Spending the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATCF).

The LATCF received by the County needs to be allocated and spent or the County risks forfeiture of the sum of $100,000. It is imperative to spend the money as soon as possible. Staff proposed that $65,000 be spent on electric vehicle charging that will be complete in 2024, while the remaining $35,000 be spent on the Dakota Ridge Tower. The Dakota Ridge Tower repairs could possibly extend into 2025, needing to come back to the Board for review at that time.

This allocates County funds to be used for these projects, said Rears. Allaire recommended spending the funds sooner than later. All were in favor.

Allaire then presented Resolution 24-78, Adopting American Rescue Plan Act Allocations. ARPA funds need to be allocated by the end of 2024 and spent by 2026. After 2023, Gilpin County was left with $203,601 unspent of the grant of $1,212,630. In order to ensure the funds are not subject to forfeiture it is necessary that the funds be spent in 2024.

Allaire said the County is on a deadline to spend these funds. There was discussion on how the County can distribute the funds. Allaire believes the funding could be adequately awarded to the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). The commissioners spoke about giving some of the money to the Belvidere Foundation.

Mornis moved to allocate $2,135 to the Peak to Peak Rotary, $143,579 to the CWPP, $15,000 to the Belvidere Foundation, and $42,886 to the GIS contract. All were in favor.

Gabrielle Chisholm, Parks & Recreation Director, discussed Resolution 24-69, Authorizing the Acceptance of Additional Funding for the Substance Abuse Block Grant (SABG) and Associated Compensation Adjustments.

Chisholm requested the transition of a current full-time Recreation Generalist to become a full time Child Program Coordinator. There has been a steady increase in enrollment and participation in Youth Camp and Eagles Teens over the last three years. The Child Program Coordinator will help in dealing with the increase in child care regulations (water testing, radon testing, health/sanitation procedures, background checks, etc.), and corresponding workload to maintain compliance.

In addition to the annual $150,000 funding through the SABG, $127,101.73 has been offered to facilitate this transition and fund other existing youth programs positions. The SABG has also been extended by one year, now set to expire on June 30, 2026.

Rears said the grant management policy requires the Board to make the decision. The commissioners discussed at length the intricacies of the situation. Ultimately, all were in favor.

Sahari McCormick, Clerk & Recorder, and Jamie Boyle, Grant Manager & Writer, presented Resolution 24-74, Authorizing the Submission of a Grant Application to the Electronic Recording Technology Board to Move Tyler Technology Clerk & Recorder Data from On-Premises Hosting to Software as a Service.

The Recording Department is seeking a grant in the amount of $89,933 so that they can move to a hosted environment with Tyler Technology. McCormick explained this will make their records more secure.

The fees for transferring to the cloud would be covered until 2026, with an annual cost after that of an estimated $22,000 to $38,000. Many bigger counties are already online. McCormick said the transition could be completed by the end of the year.

Mornis moved to adopt the resolution, Hollingsworth seconded, and all were in favor.

Then there were five resolutions about amending the Master Policy and Procedure Manual. The amendments concerned the Procurement Policy, Contract Management Policy, Grant Management Policy, Funding Outside the Organization Policy, and the Letter of Support Policy. All were approved, some with minor edits.

Benning introduced Resolution 24-70, Authorizing the Execution of Real Property Lease Agreement with Gary Gambino. Benning said it is necessary to use and prove use in order to retain water rights in the State of Colorado. Since Gilpin County does not use the four inches of the Church Ditch water rights that they own, historically they have leased it out to Gary Gambino and five other landowners who need it for irrigation. This is the annual lease for the four inches of the Church Ditch Water rights for the 2024 growing season.

Benning explained that the resolution is cost-neutral. All were in favor.

McCormick issued an Election Update. With the election approaching on June 25, McCormick said the election workers pass a background check and are bipartisan; the election equipment is secure. Ballots will be mailed on June 3.

During the County Manager’s Report, Rears noted that there will only be one BoCC meeting in May, with a long agenda. On May 14, there will be a jail tour at 3 p.m. after the regular meeting. There will be a work session on May 21. There will be a legislative work session on June 4. The June 25 BoCC meeting will be located at the Community Center, since the courthouse will be used for the election.

Lyndsey Denton will be leaving her post as Deputy Clerk and will be moving to the Financial Analyst position. Melanie Bleyler has agreed to fill in until the County fills the open position.

During public comment, Donna Okray-Parman said that, as the founder of the Gilpin Light, she is relaying concerns on the proposed food pantry. She said that people want to know the cost estimate of the design the Board chose.

Hollingsworth said there is a Q&A on the County website that has some information but they do not have an estimate of the cost yet.

Okray-Parman said some people want to know why the new building cannot be located in the location of the old food pantry. She expressed frustration when the three-minute timer ran out. Hollingsworth said Parman could have 30 more seconds. She then asked Hollingsworth to remove the final line of the Employee Handbook to respond to people’s questions about the election.

The comments went on for more than six minutes, with Okray-Parman speaking over the commissioners after being asked to conclude her comments.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:37 p.m.

The next regular meeting of the Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners is scheduled for May 14, 2024, at 9 a.m. and will be held in person at the Historical Courthouse, 203 Eureka Street, Central City and online via Zoom.