The Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners approved an extension to the suspension of new short-term rentals during a regular virtual meeting at 9 a.m. on May 17, 2022. The Board also approved Stage 2 Fire Restrictions, Public Works Equipment Requests and heard results of an online survey on Food Pantry locations.

County Attorney Brad Benning requested that the Board extend the moratorium on accepting new applications for short-term rentals until September 7. The Board is allowed up to six months to extend it without a public hearing.

The Board may not need all that time, but the County has applicants for renewal, whose timing would lapse before the moratorium expires. Human Services Director Robert Gutierrez said the County has eight renewal requests in July and eight in August, which are expiring. He would like permission to re-issue those according to existing regulations.

The Planning Commission will be considering short-term rentals on June 14, and a Town Hall meeting on short- term rentals is tentatively scheduled for July 5, but the Commission is waiting for a recommendation from the Planning Commission, and hopefully on July 19 the Board can make the decision.

Staff will bring the Planning Commission recommendations to the Board. The Board approved the suspension of new short-term regulations through September 7 while allowing renewal applications to be processed as long as they qualify for the permit.

Benning introduced a resolution imposing Stage 2 Fire Restrictions in Gilpin County. Gilpin County is currently under Stage 1 fire restrictions, The extremely dry fire conditions prevailing for the past month have not improved and instead have worsened, increasing the risk of fires and increasing the chances of an emergency in the event of a fire during this extreme fire danger.

The Board has deemed it necessary and appropriate that temporary Stage 2 fire restrictions be imposed upon determination of such emergency by the Gilpin County Sheriff effective at 8 a.m., Thursday, May 12, 2022, Benning said the County is at Stage 1 and as of May 12 will move to Stage 2.

The County can’t control regulations from the U.S. Forest Service, BLM and the Parks and Wildlife, so visitors should look at their websites. It would include no smoking outside. Commissioner Linda Isenhart said she is alright with this, but Commissioner Web Sill said it is too tight.

The Board approved the resolution with Commissioner Sill voting no.

Public Works Director John Combs requested the purchase or lease of a new front end loader, because the 2006 loader engine is failing. It has run for 9,800 hours, and 6,000 is the normal turnover. The machine costs more to keep than to trade it in.

Combs has quotes from John Deere and Caterpillar. One John Deere is hybrid but is twice the amount for the Caterpillar. For safety reasons, he recommended the Caterpillar. The County has three front end loaders but the newest one is with Solid Waste and is a Caterpillar loader.

Combs said they use their motors every day to haul material and take it to a job site, cleaning ditches and keeping drainage open. During the winter, they take a loader to Rollinsville and haul snow to Rocky Point.

Commissioner Web Sill agreed on the Caterpillar and likes the lease option this year and then in 2023 purchase it. Prices have increased from $258,000 in 2020 to $329,000 now. He has found funds in the budget, and with ARPA funds can move forward with a purchase or lease.

Commissioners said they don’t want to use ARPA money, but agreed about the need and approved moving forward on the Caterpillar 950M for a lease this year and full buy out next year. Combs said it should be delivered in August.

Administrative Analyst Sam Bower presented a survey on the Food Pantry location, which was put together by Laura Solomon. The survey was provided on a number of sites and distributed to the public in paper and on the Web.

The two locations that received the highest number of responses were the Human Services building, which would be a one-stop site for persons needing those services, and it doesn’t crowd the Justice Center. It would involve a higher cost of construction, and staff have concerns about safety.

The Justice Center site would be adjacent to gardens and volunteers and is walkable, but it is not nearby human services. The water supply and cooler would need to be updated.

The survey received 129 responses and 49.6 preferred the current site. County Manager Ray Rears said they would have a future discussion on the site at the June 7 Commission meeting, because the survey ended today. Responses were fairly even for both sites.

ThenextmeetingoftheGilpinCounty Board of County Commissioners will be on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, at 9 a.m. For more information go to https:// gilpincounty.org/public_ meetings/ bo_ c_ c_ meetings