Mindy Leary, Gilpin County. On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, the Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners met online for their regular meeting at 9 a.m. Commissioners Gail Watson, Linda Isenhart and Ron Engels were in attendance, as were County Manager Abel Montoya and County Attorney Bradford Benning. Highlights included a discussion on road closures, virtual town hall and approval for new county positions.

The road closure actions taken by the Board of Health was spurred by an abundance of people recreating in Arapaho National Forest. Due to lack of resources like recovery and sanitation services, several county roads like Tolland Road, Apex Road and the road to Columbine Campground have been closed to non-county residents, said Sheriff Kevin Armstrong. Gilpin follows other counties like Gunnison, Summit, and Eagle in limiting outdoor recreation en mass. 

The next Town Hall will be on April 6 and 20 which will be virtual due to county building closures until May 1. Public-facing departments like Parks and Recreation, Clerk, and Assessor will be present to address questions from the public. Virtual meetings are recorded and a motion was passed that that they be posted online for future access on Open Gov website for at least 90 days. 

Human Resources Director Lori Schrayer requested approval for new positions and presented a spreadsheet on current available positions in the county and their salaries. Interviews would be virtual and onboarding is also being made electronic. Employee training would also be made available by video to avoid in-person contact. Some positions, like custodian and lifeguard, cannot be remote, Watson noted but Schrayer’s requests were approved.

The Gilpin Day Camp normally hosted at the Recreation Center is being evaluated as an essential service. Guidelines are being made at the state level that require only the same ten children in ratio to the same adult counselor in a singular room during care, which might prevent the county from providing this service.  

The County Manager Status Report by Montoya discussed finishing the letter to Gilpin County small businesses about SBA loans. Watson spoke of SBA loans defined as forgivable are actually grants and the importance of letting small businesses know about this resource.

Finally there was an FAA Metroplex update presented by Benning. Preliminary deadlines have been issued with a briefing scheduled for May 8 as our petition moves forward that negates that there is no new impact from the new flight paths.

(Originally published in the April 2, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)