John Scarffe, Gilpin County.  Gilpin County has a new County manager. During a special meeting at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, July 13, at the Gilpin County Courthouse, the Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners hired Leslie Klusmire as the new County manager.

The Board passed a resolution to appoint Klusmire as its County manager effective July 24, 2017. Klusmire was one of two final candidates for Gilpin County manager who met with the Commissioners, County staff and the public on Wednesday, June 21.

Klusmire is experienced in local government management and has specialized in historic small town economic development, tourism, budgeting, utility rate management and enterprise zone financing, strategic planning, growth and quality of life preservation issues, according to her biography.

She has served as manager for Colorado small towns and was a local government and project management and planning consultant for Telluride, Gunnison, Carbondale, Aspen, Craig, Castle Rock and other cities and counties in Colorado and Utah. She spent four years as a field manager for the redevelopment of Mammoth Lakes Ski Resort for a group of Canadian developers.

Klusmire started her Colorado career as community development director in Glenwood Springs, where she completed the downtown redevelopment and two pedestrian bridges over the Colorado River, according to her biography. She started the first transit connections to Aspen, the first affordable housing project, rebuilding a failing water treatment plant and building the first phase of the river trail system that now connects to Glenwood Canyon.

She has knowledge of the day-to-day operations and administration of public works, building, finance, recreation, law enforcement, health and human services, human resources and utilities services, according to her biography. She can prepare a conservative budget working as a team with department staff to fund essential needs, monitor spending and execute projects in a timely manner.

Authorizing the employment for Klusmire was on the agenda for the Board’s regular, July 11 meeting, but Chair Gail Watson announced that negotiations were ongoing at that time.

During that meeting, the Board discussed an issue with drones flying above area houses and met with U.S. Senator Corey Gardner’s regional director, Andrew Dunkley.

Commissioner Linda Isenhart said that yesterday she met with residents in the Wheeler Subdivision off South Beaver Creek Road. The residents said that a neighbor is flying a recreational drone over their homes.

The man will fly it several hours at a time and let it hover over people’s homes, they told Insenhart. One fellow was going to shoot it down. “It’s an invasion of their privacy, and they feel like he’s stalking them. It’s like a buzzing bee over their homes,” Isenhart said.

The Sheriff’s Department did come by, and the deputy said they don’t have a county ordinance in place for enforcement. Isenhart said she would look into it to see what she could come up with, and she has sent out an email to other counties to find out if they have ordinances about drones.

Drones are interfering with firefighting, etc., but this is an invasion of privacy, Isenhart said. Federal level and Academy of Aeronautics regulations exist. “That’s where I’m at right now. I don’t want neighbors shooting each other or shooting drones down.”

The Board will have a Coffee with Commissioners at the Wondervu Café on July 25 at 6:30 p.m., and Isenhart encourages people to discuss this situation then. In the meantime, she will do some investigating and collaborating with other counties

Sheriff Bruce Hartman said he received an email about the subject this morning and has yet to have a chance to reach out to the district attorney’s office. Most rules and regulations about drones are handled through the Federal Aviation Administration.

“I don’t know about private residences. This isn’t the only issue but we’ve had limited things. If we do a resolution it would help us here,” Hartman said. He will get in touch with the DA and do some research.

During a work session, the Commissioners welcomed Andrew Dunkley, regional director for Senator Gardner. He has been hearing from counties, cities, sheriff’s organizations and fire districts to come up with priority spending for the U.S. budget.

“I can almost guarantee that the budget will be cut, but I’ll take down requests and pass them along to the senator,” Dunkley said. Commissioner Ron Engels said that Sheriff Hartman has talked about issues that are concerns from all of us. They are very nonpartisan.

Isenhart said she has left voice messages with Senator Gardner’s office in opposition to alternatives to Obamacare until there is something better. “Where is Senator Gardner on that issue? We have a group of people who rely on Medicaid.”

Dunkley said Gardner has put out a letter in support of Medicaid matching health care, and he wants to make health care sustainable. “The state has a 2.7 percent unemployment rate, and 1.3 million of those people are on Medicaid. That is definitely unsustainable. We will continue to work on that provision.”

Engels said that the United States is the only industrialized nation on the planet that treats health care as a commodity. Other nations have some form of universal health care, and he would like to see the senate move toward that kind of solution.

Isenhart said: “We’re very successful in this county with the republicans and democrats and health care is a huge part of it. That has the possibility of coming back to the county in terms of human services, and we don’t have deep pockets. We’re looking to Senator Gardner for thoughtfulness and not just trying to appease big corporations.”

Dunkley said they are getting a lot of pressure from people in Colorado on both sides of the issue. Senator Gardner realizes Obamacare has also hurt a lot of people. He hears from all of them on both sides.

Board Chair Gail Watson said that the things that are pushed back on us we have to come up with funding for. It’s better business to have health care in place so you don’t have to pay for catastrophic events.

Engels said that the return of federal lands to state and local control for anyone here is not a good situation. “Here, locally, we have a good relationship, and we don’t want to take over any more management of federal lands. It will result in a patchwork of control.”

Hartman said the area has a problem with ATV’s because we are so close to Denver. Central City just blocked off an area and forced ATV’s to move, and now the Forest Service is starting to work with the County.

“We’re never going to get out of dealing with people using the public lands, whether it’s ATV’s or mountain biking. The Forest Service doesn’t seem to be very active, but now they’re at the table and we’re working with them,” Hartman said.

Watson commended Dunkley for being easy to contact and for being here to help facilitate things. Dunkley said he will be here from time to time and is more than willing to work with the Board. “I can’t communicate clearly enough to call or email me.”

On July 12, the Board called the July 13 special meeting to hire the County manager.

The Commissioners also signed a letter offering land for Gilpin County senior housing and a proclamation for Lincoln Hills.

Watson said the Commissioners have been working with senior living and agreed to give them space by the Gilpin County Community Center, but the seniors needed some kind of commitment, so she drafted a letter indicating their willingness to do this.

The letter states that the Board supports the actions and intent of Gilpin County Senior Living to provide affordable senior housing in the county. The County has agreed to provide land on its campus at 250 Norton Drive via a 100-year lease for $10 per year.

Watson said she used $10 because it was a nominal amount. The Commissioners agreed to change the amount to $1 per year and approved the letter.

Watson said the desire to support Lincoln Hills resulted from a tour with Judge Harry Jackson. A new museum did not include Lincoln Hills in its black exhibit, and she thought it was a sad state of affairs and would like to see the area’s inclusion in the country’s history. She hopes they will be able to find funding to help preserve historical places in the county.

The proclamation states: Whereas, the preservation and celebration of our rich history is important to our county and country, and, whereas, the Lincoln Hills Historic District preserves the mountain resort community built and enjoyed by African-Americans during the shameful years of segregation, now, therefore, the Board of County Commissioners proclaim Lincoln Hills and Winks Lodge historic treasures of Gilpin County.

(Originally published in the July 20, 2017 print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)