John Scarffe, Gilpin County.   The Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners approved contract awards for archeological and structural surveys of Russell Gulch during a regular meeting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, October 9, 2018, at the Gilpin County Courthouse. The board also rescinded fire restrictions and authorized a firearms exchange for the Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Bruce Hartman told the board that Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle reached out to him on Friday about rescinding current fire restriction, and Clear Creek is rescinding fire restrictions at Noon today.

Hartman said he feels more than justified doing it in coordination with Clear Creek, and the board approved.

Community Development Director Stephen Strohminger introduced a resolution awarding bids for the Russell Gulch Survey Phase II for archeological and building surveys. The county received a $24,914 grant in July 2018 to conduct Phase II of the Russell Gulch Survey, according to a memo to the board from Strohminger.

The county received only one bid for both the structural and archeological surveys from Three Gables Preservation and Flattops Archeological. This is a 100 percent grant with no local match required, Strohminger said. The firm will be going through to find anything that is archeologically significant, such as a mine or a water tank that would be structurally significant.

It will be a whole survey of what’s on the ground and in the ground to preserve it. We will have this document, and it gives us a record of it, Strohminger said. The board approved awarding the contracts to Three Gables Preservation and Flattops Archeological.

Sheriff Hartman introduced a resolution authorizing the exchange of firearms by the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office has firearms they can’t use which were obtained through the courts.

“We’re basically trading these for more useable things. Those firearms are seized as evidence. With all the peace officer shootings, I want to get a few department sidearms so we can instantly issue them in those circumstances,” Hartman said.

The office does provide shotguns and AR15s but does not provide sidearms. They also need to replace shotgun barrels, so they will do it through a licensed firearms dealer. “We don’t sell them. It’s an exchange,” Hartman said.

The list of items to be exchanged includes pistols, revolvers, a .22 caliber rifle and a .58 caliber muzzle loading rife. Hartman said he hasn’t gotten an estimate yet. In the event they have a surplus, Hartman proposed just getting ammunition.

The board approved the resolution authorizing the exchange of firearms. The board also approved a boundary line adjustment (BLA) for Lucas Little, Dori Little and Kelley Sineni in the Meadowlake Mountain Acres Subdivision at Meadowlake Drive and Gap Road.

The applicants would like to reconfigure three existing lots into two slightly bigger lots. Lot 4 will be dissolved into lots 6 and 7, with lot 6 gaining .72 acres and lot 7 gaining 1.23 acres.

Human Resources Director Susie Allen continued the discussion from the previous meeting regarding employee medical and dental health insurance plans. She presented two choices for dental insurance, the current plan or one with increased benefits. Both would be a decrease in cost.

The commissioners approved the upgraded dental plan with a 2.2 percent decrease. Allen said the board had a work session to discuss health plans.

They have a choice of staying with the current policy, which is grandfathered in, or going with a new plan, which is not grandfathered in.

Commissioner Linda Isenhart said she is moving toward the non-grandfathered plan. Board Chair Ron Engels said that regardless of what plan they chose they’re going to see an increase in costs.

Staff did a survey and got a good response. The consensus was that everyone understands this is a good plan that benefits them, Engels said.

“Maybe it doesn’t make sense to change this plan, and then have that strategic planning session to have an understanding where we want to go.”

Isenhart said that the non-grandfathered plan has the flexibility, and the grandfathered is kind of locked in. Commissioner Gail Watson said the grandfathered plan is incredibly restrictive, but if you move away from that, you can’t go back. She agreed that looking at the big picture is the way to go. “Change is difficult, and we need more time, and the employees who were here said stay with what we have.”

Allen said that staying grandfathered gives us a year to talk about wellness programs, and it would be all encompassing and inclusive to all the employees. The board approved staying with the grandfathered plan for one more year.

(Originally published in the October 18, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)