Jacqueline Hart Gibson, Black Hawk. The regular meeting of the Black Hawk City Council was called to order at 3 p.m. on February 26, 2020, at 211 Church Street in Black Hawk, following the ringing of the bell. Mayor Spellman, the Board of Aldermen, City Manager Cole and City Attorney Hoffman were all in attendance. The Pledge of Allegiance was observed and there were no conflicts of interest brought to the council’s attention. The minutes from the previous meeting, held February 12, 2020, were approved.   

In public hearings an ordinance amending the City of Black Hawk 2020 Pay Plan carried unanimously. The plan approved calls for two salaried positions to be added to public works; Maintenance Service Manager and Civil Engineer. Public works has also been restructured into three divisions, and changes were made to job descriptions. 

The first action item, a resolution approving the first amendment to the license between the City of Black Hawk, Colorado, and Monarch Growth Inc., carried unanimously.  The amendment adds four feet of air rights to the original amendment.

The second action item, a resolution approving the agreement of lease between the City of Black Hawk as lessor and Basin & Bend as lessee, carried unanimously. The property on the lease is at 460 Gregory Street.

Before adjourning, City Attorney Hoffman reported that in the packet was a correspondence the City had received from the City of Central in response to the City of Black Hawk adopting the Resolution of Substantial Compliance related to the RSM Annexation indicting their preliminary objection to the proposed annexation.  He said that he at least strongly disagrees with the position City of Central has taken, but nonetheless, the City did have a productive meeting with Central yesterday and are continuing to discuss the matter with them. 

Mayor Spellman added that Council does believe that the County Commissioners are in support of the annexation, so he has reached out to Commissioner Ron Engels and invited him to the public hearing on March 25 to speak in favor of the annexation as the Commissioner from District 1.  Mayor Spellman said he believes Commissioner Engels is the appropriate commissioner to come and speak in favor of it and he thinks it is consistent with the County’s plan and goal to diversify from gaming, so it is a good opportunity for the County to support this project and the project will certainly drive additional assessed valuation their way, ideally drive more visitation to Black Hawk, and drive gaming revenue, so he said he thinks the County realizes what a win-win this is not just for Black Hawk but also for the County. 

The meeting adjourned at 3:12 p.m., followed by an executive session. 

(Originally published in the March 5, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)