Mindy Leary, Gilpin County. Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners have approved the request to purchase a new Utility Task Vehicle (UTV) by a vote of two to one. The $27,000 UTV would be used by the Sheriff’s Office in the backcountry for patrols, rescues and other operations. It will have wheels and tracks, allowing it to be used any time of the year.

Tom Imhe, the division chief of Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office said, “I wasn’t here for the last meeting, but I understand that it was brought up as an unbudgeted and unplanned expenditure which it isn’t, I think it’s a misunderstanding. We thought it was discussed and approved.”

The current Snowcat Ranger is 42 years old and the whole plan is to get something that is smaller, faster to deploy, newer and more reliable.

A Command Van was sold last year for $23,000, which was put into the General Fund and Commissioner Linda Isenhart said, “I don’t have any objection to adding another four thousand to that.” Commissioner Gail Watson said, “I am certainly willing to approve the additional money that they need to buy the UTV if you use the balance of the seizure fund.” Isenhart would rather the $4,000 come from PILT funding.

Commissioner Ron Engels voted nay, saying, “I’m not in favor of approving additional funding for additional purchases for anybody for this budget cycle,” citing that this wasn’t approved.

Watson said she believed they did say yes and that it’s a necessary vehicle. The motion passed on the condition that the money will come from the sale of the Command Van with $4,000 coming from PILT funding.

The board made a motion to approve boundary line elimination, BLE #18-06 for Barbara S. Anton, who wished to consolidate two residential lots into one on Globe Flower Lane off of La Chula Road. The board approved the motion unanimously.

Alpha Omega Homes sought to get a temporary use permit for a 200-person wedding to take place in a residential area near Tchaikovsky Road in the Colorado Sierra Beta Subdivision. The application qualifies for a class B permit, as it exceeds the 150-person maximum daily attendance.

County Planner Dan Horn, presented the application, “The Class B event requires that we come before you, the commissioners would have flexibility to allow the parking on Tchaikovsky without impeding the intent of the ordinance.”

Timberline Fire was comfortable with the street parking so long as they kept to one side of the road. A parking agreement has been made for overflow parking and a shuttle from the Gilpin Community Center.

Preliminary site plans with descriptions were submitted for the event, including a DJ, a gas fire pit and two port-a-lets with hours of operation being noon to 10 p.m. on September 9, 2019. Emergency plan is to have two general First Aid Kits on-site, and they have talked with the Sherriff’s Department, Public Works and Timberline but are waiting to hear back from Medical Responses.

Board Chair Linda Isenhart questioned, “Have the neighbors been notified? I think the greatest impact really will be on the neighbors both for the parking on the county road as well as the noise.”

The applicants said the neighbors were notified by letter about 25 days prior. Class B events require a public hearing advertised at least 21 days in advance and the commissioners were not aware that this meeting was indeed the public hearing that was advertised according to the applicants. The discussion was then opened for public comment per requirement and no comments were made.

The discussion then moved to the subject of VRBOs (Vacation Rental by Owner) with Commissioner Gail Watson saying, “If it’s a VRBO, it’s a residential business. My real concern is that we have not gone full bore on the whole AirBnB/ VRBO issue.”

The way the ordinance is written says that the owner or operator must reside and maintain primary residence on site and this site is currently not being rented. County Planner Dan Horn said, “A full home vacation rental probably would not fall into that [category]. I wouldn’t consider that an in-home business.”

Commissioner Ron Engels said, “It’s a no-charge business event, it’s not a personal event and that’s where I have a problem. We haven’t taken on the VRBO issue which has been kind of boiling just under the surface in the county for far too long, and here it is staring us in the face.”

Watson replied, “I totally agree with you. We have to be the ones who revisit this. My gut feeling is that we should approve this because we don’t have our ducks in a row.”

Watson made the motion to approve this temporary use permit with the condition that they handle the parking through the community center and that it’s a one-time use and not for profit. Ron Engels seconded, and all were in favor.

Recently, the Colorado Department of Higher Education asked Colorado Mountain College if it would be willing to sponsor Gilpin County residents by way of the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative (COSI), which requires counties to authorize fiscal agents by way of resolution.

Linda Isenhart opened the issue to conversation and Gail Watson said, “I thought that we were aligned with Red Rocks Community College.”

Sharon Cate, the county clerk, responded that we did that with Red Rocks in 2016. The issue has been tabled until contact with Red Rocks and more information from CMC.

Human Resources Director Susie Allen presented to the board a draft job posting for a new county surveyor, as the position is currently vacant because no one ran for this office. Residency in the county is not mandatory. The responsibilities, qualifications and salary information were outlined, and a new county surveyor must be appointed by June 1, 2019.

Engels requested that the candidate also be available for additional contract services and asked if we could offer benefits as an incentive for this job as the salary is only $4,204 yearly. Watson responded that, “We should send this out now, see what kind of response we get, and then bring up benefits in our budget conversation for 2020.”

Isenhart suggested networking with other counties to find a surveyor and Engels said if we reach out to one contiguous county, then we should reach out to all. Engels also noted that this is actually an elected office position and that the prospective surveyor should be aware of this. The draft will be revised by Allen and the county manager and will be published upon execution.

The next meeting of the Gilpin Board of County Commissioners will be held on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, at the Gilpin County Courthouse at 203 Eureka Street, Second Floor, Central City, Colorado.

(Originally published in the March 28, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)