Alexander Joseph, Central City . The regular meeting of the City of Central Council began at 7 p.m. on February 2, 2021. Roll call was taken and in attendance were Mayor Jeremy Fey, and council members Jeff Aiken, Jackie Johnson, and Kara Tinucci. Also in attendance were county commissioners Sandy Hollingworth and Web Sill, the latter of which was there in person. After the Pledge of Allegiance and with no additions or conflicts of interests to the agenda, the City Council then moved onto the consent agenda which consisted of Regular Bill lists through January 5 and City Council minutes from January 5, 2021. The consent agenda was passed unanimously.

There was no comment in the public forum participation section and the council moved onto Resolution of No. 21-05, a resolution approving and adopting amended and restated Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws of The Belvidere Foundation. The resolution passed unanimously.

Next, the council moved to the second action item for the evening, which was Appointments to the Belvidere Foundation Board. There were nine individuals who put their names in for consideration of the board. A discussion ensued as to if the board should approve all nine of these candidates for appointment. These candidates include Peter Droege, Jack Hidahl, Kathy Heider, Patrice LaBlanc, Barbara Thielemann, Eric Chinn, Dr. Charles Smith, Jonathan Morrison, and Betty Mahaffey. It was decided that the first five applicants on the list will serve three year terms on this board and that the latter four will serve two year terms. These appointments passed unanimously.

Next, the council moved onto Resolution No. 21-06, a resolution approving the Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Central and the State of Colorado to allow use of the State Department of Revenue’s Sales and Use Tax Software (SUTS) System. This resolution was passed unanimously.

There were a few staff updates, including a question to Sheriff Armstrong in regards to a Covid-19 update in Gilpin County. Armstrong detailed that since the beginning of the pandemic there have been 148 cases and eight in the last week. There have been 459 first doses of vaccine given and 187 of the second dose to Gilpin residents. Next week vaccines will be available to teachers and citizens 65 years of age and older.

City Manager Miera updated the council on the 5 Star program for local businesses, which is progressing smoothly and in the process of being finalized. During the final public forum County Commissioner Sandy Hollingsworth shared the growing interest of local businesses in the 5 Star program and Web Sill shared his commitment to showing up to every other city council meeting throughout the year.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m. 

The next meeting will be held February 16, 2021.

(Originally published in the February 4, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)