Jacqueline Hart Gibson, Black Hawk. The regular meeting of the Black Hawk City Council was called to order at 3 p.m. on March 11, 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. No conflicts of interest were reported or changes to the agenda proposed. The minutes from the previous meeting, held February 26, 2020, were approved. There were no public hearings scheduled for this meeting. 

There was a single action item on the agenda, a resolution approving Amendment No. 5 to the construction manager/general contractor agreement executed on February 27, 2019, between the city of Black Hawk and Roche Constructors Inc., increasing the guaranteed maximum price (GMP) by $297,700. for the purpose of installing rock slope stabilization measures along the north side of the Gregory Street Plaza. 

This item brings the overall Gregory Street Project GMP to $13,536,052. The rock slope recommendation comes as a result of a rock slope stability report prepared by Terracon Consultants Inc., submitted February 7, 2020, and addressed the steep rock face exposed following recent excavation. The resolution carried unanimously. 

Before the meeting was adjourned for an executive session, Mayor Spellman addressed all who were in attendance to follow up on the Lake Gulch annexation issue from the council meeting held February 26, 2020. The following is Mayor Spellman’s verbatim release to the press. 

Mayor Spellman wanted to mention that at the last meeting he announced that he had invited Commissioner Ron Engels (Gilpin County) to the Public Hearing on March 25 to see if the County Commissioners would speak in support of the annexation in the Lake Gulch area; he is pleased to announce that Commissioner Engels did get back to him and stated that he did talk to his two fellow Commissioners and they certainly thought it was appropriate that he come to the meeting on March 25 to speak in support of the annexation in the Lake Gulch area. Mayor Spellman said this was good news that the Commissioners are looking out for the best interest of the County and what this project would mean to the County as far as the additional revenue, a good positive, he said. 

Mayor Spellman said he then talked to Commissioner Engels, who also sits on the Board of Directors for the Central City Opera House Association, and asked him if he would like to get approval to speak on behalf of the Central City Opera House Association, or if someone else could attend from the Association to also speak in support of the project because he believes there is a relationship that could be built between Proximo Spirits and the Central City Opera House Association in the future. Commissioner Engels said he would ask and get back to him, but in the meantime, he has confirmed that the Commissioners are in support of the annexation, and he plans to attend the Public Hearing on March 25 to state their support. Mayor Spellman thought it was important to have that in the record.

(Originally published in the March 19, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)