John Scarffe

Gilpin County

A proposal to revise the County’s burn permit ordinance passed its second and final reading during a regular meeting of the Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners at 9 a.m. on January 9, 2018, at the Central City Hall. The Gilpin County Courthouse, the Board’s usual meeting place, is under renovation.

During the discussion of Commissioners’ annual appointments, Chair Gail Watson said that Ron Engels should be chair and chair pro-tem should be Linda Isenhart. Engels agreed and said the chair pro-tem should be the chair elect.

Engels took over the gavel, and Isenhart thanked Watson for her service as chair. Directors retired during her term, and they were lucky to hire a County manager, but during the interim, Watson stepped up.

Engels said that on second reading of the revisions to an existing ordinance regarding the open burning permit system, the Commissioners understood the ordinance, and made it all encompassing to replace the old one. The Board passed the ordinance on first reading on December 5, 2017, and scheduled a public hearing for January 9, 2018.

At the Board’s November 14 meeting, Gilpin County Sheriff Bruce Hartman told the Board that the County’s burn permit ordinance needs to be updated. “Some people think they can burn in the summer, but we wanted to reinforce that they can’t, and maybe it was time to redo the ordinance.”

Uniform permit applications will be provided to all fire districts in the County. Applications will be reviewed and permits issued by the district with jurisdiction over the burn site.

A proposed revision would add: “All applicants must obtain an ‘Open Burning Permit,’ from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment prior to applying for a County permit.” The ordinance specifies slash pile construction and changes the maximum size from eight feet by six feet to eight feet by eight feet.

Slash pile burns cannot occur during fire bans and can occur only with a minimum of four inches of snow cover. Burning slash during a snow event is encouraged as a means to manage smoke emissions, according to the current ordinance. A revision would add that piles should be ignited between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and extinguished by sunset.

County Manager Leslie Klusmire proposed putting out a request for proposal for an independent study to look at jail expansion options. She has floated the idea by other county managers and they have completed the necessary studies. She is waiting to be sent the results.

The County needs to identify the current situation, document statistical data, project 20-year growth scenarios and options for cost and staff. If you expand the jail bed count, you will need extra staff and the waste water treatment question will need to be addressed, Klusmire said.

Also included must be the transport of prisoners to surrounding facilities, if those facilities meet our needs and operations standards. Klusmire said. It will take time. The cost will depend on the situation.

Engels asked if there is any way they could include working with the courts to understand what diversion systems are available. Klusmire said that other county managers have included that in their RFP.

Captain Tonia Kapke said she had a big meeting with the judges, and they understand that and are working with us. Sheriff Hartman thanked the Commissioners for looking at this and trying to move forward.

“I want you to be very aware that we could come here for $100,000 for the immediate need for double bunking,” Hartman said. “We have some very serious bad guys in our jail, and it could get to a point with homicide suspects that the intensity of what the staff has to deal with daily, is ramping up significantly.”

Isenhart said she hoped an RFP wouldn’t cost $100,000. Klusmire said: “I’m going to guess 40 or 50 for the study,” and the Board approved directing the County manager to prepare an RFP for a jail capacity expansion analysis.

The Board approved a staff accountant proposal and two part-time positions. Finance Director Clorinda Smith proposed adding the staff accountant position into the pay grade. The position has already been approved in the budget.

The pay grade runs from $46,200 to $69,200 annually. The accountant performs detailed accounting duties including payroll processing backup, preparing annual salary accrual entries and W-2 preparation and submission.

Isenhart said this looks like it will be a hefty job, and Engels thanked her for uploading all this stuff from her. “I don’t know how you were doing what you were doing.”

Smith said that the employee in charge of the web, communications, facilities and reservations will be on leave for six weeks beginning January 24. Staff is requesting part-time help of about 20 hours per week and is requesting this support for seven weeks, so the employee will be able to train the part-time worker to perform her tasks.

The salary range would be $11.20 to $15.72 an hour. Due to the increased work load, staff also requested the use of a part-time employee to assist with copying and other simple tasks throughout the year at a rate of five to 10 hours per week.

For Public Works, Smith requested coverage for a woman who will be out for at least 40 hours. The office assistant will be on leave for two weeks beginning January 15. The job duties are similar to a receptionist position.

The next meeting of the Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday, January 23, 2018, at the Central City Hall.