John Scarffe, Black Hawk.   The Black Hawk City Council approved an agreement for design of the Green Lake Headgate project during a regular meeting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, September 26, 2018, at 211 Church Street.

The council also approved a change order for the St. Charles Carriage House to install a License Plate Reader Parking Management System, revised the police sergeant job description and appointed two directors to the Business Improvement District.

Staff member Jim Ford, who rang the bell to start the meeting, introduced an agreement with Merrick & Company in the amount of $77,467 for the design of the Green Lake Headgate Project. “This is the last big piece for the Green Lake project,” he said.

Green Lake was purchased in 2008 and is jointly owned with Clear Creek County, according to the request. The city’s share of the reservoir storage is 63 percent, and the county’s share is 37 percent.

“The existing headgate that diverts flow from Leavenworth Creek into the Green Lake Pipeline is well beyond its useful life and is unable to divert our allocated water,” states the request. Requests for proposals were sent to a select number of consulting firms who specialize in water resource projects similar to this.

Black Hawk will administer the contract, make payments to the consultant and Clear Creek County will reimburse the city for its share of the project. The city’s share will be $48,775.52, and the county’s share will be $28,691.48, according to the request.

After review of the proposals, Merrick & Company was determined to be the most qualified consultant to perform the design services. Ford said this firm was the most responsive, and he has confidence in this group.

They will complete the design this fall, into the spring, and construct it next year. The council approved the agreement.

Staff member Matt Reed introduced a resolution approving Change Order #9 for the St. Charles Carriage House in the amount of $64,749.46 for installation of a License Plate Reader (LPR) Parking Management System.

The city has requested pricing for a parking management system that would deter users of the St. Charles Carriage House from staying for long periods of time.

Extensive research was performed by the police chief, and it was determined that an LPR system is the best option. A total of six high-resolution LPR cameras will track both incoming and outgoing vehicles at each point of access.

The system will allow users to park free for up to four hours; if a vehicle remains in the parking structure after this grace period expires, a bill will be mailed to the owner of the license plate. Additional costs for data storage, system subscriptions and payment transactions would be handled under a separate contract between the city and the LPR system vendor.

Reed said the system is well automated. Plate numbers go to the police and then to the Division of Motor Vehicles. Mayor David Spellman said the council can determine duration of parking and costs. Reed said that signs will be installed at every stall.

Spellman said this is far better than putting on officers to patrol the parking garage, and the council gave authorization for the change order.

Black Hawk Police Chief Stephen Cole presented a resolution revising a job description for the sergeant. The current job description for the rank of sergeant within the Police Department only allows the chief of police to consider internal candidates holding a Level 3 or Level 4 designation to fill vacant sergeant positions, according to the request.

The job description does not allow the chief the flexibility to consider other potentially qualified candidates who may be working in the department, or qualified applicants from outside the organization. Although it’s desirable to promote applicants from within the organization, situations may occur where qualified internal applicants don’t meet the job qualifications, or the chief desires to consider applicants from outside the organization.

A change in the current sergeant job description will allow more flexibility in selecting qualified employees for vacant sergeant positions, according to the request. In addition, the Level 3 and Level 4 reference will be changed to the language police officer 3 and police officer 4, consistent with other job descriptions in the department.

Chief Cole told the council that the current job description is pretty restrictive and prohibits the department from hiring someone besides an officer, and this will let us look outwardly if no one internally is qualified.

The council approved revising the police sergeant job description.

City Attorney Corey Hoffmann introduced an ordinance appointing two directors to the Board of the Black Hawk Business Improvement District (BID). He said that when this item was first created, the BID recommended one appointment and then later had a second recommendation, so the two appointments will fill both vacancies.

The BID currently has a vacancy on the Board of Directors that is required to be filled by the City Council, according to the request. Based upon the recommendations provided by owners of taxable property in the BID and other information available to the City, and finding that there are presently two vacancies to be filled on the BID Board, the City Council appoints Rodney C. Turlan, general manager of the Eldorado Isle Casino Hotel and Eldorado Lady Luck Casino, Black Hawk, to replace Brian Watts of the Isle Casino, and the second was for Brandon Lenssen to replace Walter Northscott Grounsell of the Mardi Gras Casino to the office of Director of the BID.

(Originally published in the October 4, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)