City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, quick reminder to sign up for public comment if you haven't already done so. Thank you. I call to order the Foreign City Council regular meeting for Monday, July 20th, 2026. Please rise for the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

Roll call please.

Councilor Van Houten. Here. Councilor Stiefel. Here. Councilor Mergelman.

Here.

Councilor Gardner. Here. Councilor Stone. Here. Councilor McKinnon. Here. Mayor Wolf.

Here. First order of business is our presentations tonight. We have on the agenda your presentations of the 2025 audit, but beforehand, City Manager Lori Culver would like to make another presentation.

Thank you, Mayor. I actually have two I would like to do the first one. Carlin, can you come up here for a second? Happy we'd like to recognize courtland on five years of continued outstanding service to the city of florence in that time she has started from entry level to cmca certified clerk we are so proud of her i am so proud of her i was there with day one so i uh I'm happy to have had this journey with her. And it is really fun seeing her come in and grow and develop. And this is a community that she loves and she's grown up and she wants to be here. So we wanted to make today special because Cortland makes sure everybody's anniversary is special. So we cannot forget about her and all she does. So Cortland, thank you. And the next, Erin Wood, come on down. This is super exciting too. As you all know, Kevin Wurtzbaugh, he retired after a very long career in water in the last several years here with us in the city of Florence. Kevin has retired to spend time with his daughter and gallop around the world. So we're very excited for him, but that left a big hole, and that big hole was filled to Aaron Wood, our brand new assistant water superintendent. Very good. And like Cortland, Aaron has some very deep, deep roots in the community. He, like me, left and came back because this is his home, his community. He came back, brought a lot of experience, came back to the water plant, and he just hit it hard. He hit it really hard and he's worked hard. He is dependable. He is everything that we would want in this very important role. As you know, water, well, it's important to all of us. And I will tell you, during the fires, Aaron, was a fixture at that water plant, ensuring things were done. He was there between him and Brandon and John and all the other guys. They kept that plant safe. Even though there wasn't nothing right there, man, nothing could have hit that. It was a fortress. So I am really proud and very happy to say with his promotion, there's going to be some good things out of this guy. He is a great partner and a great leader, and we are excited to have you, Mr. Wood. And he's so calm. He's so calm. thank you did you want to say anything or i'm just so excited the opportunity to grow in florence is here so everybody take that work hard uh do a good job be a positive role an impact and one day you'll be uh aaron

Thank you, Coraline, Lori and Coraline and Aaron. And I just like that Coraline too. Cause I know when I come in as, you know, council member and mayor, and I know these guys will say it too. You got so many questions, procedural questions, and she's always been there. And if she didn't know it off top of her head, she'd look it up. But I can say now is that that's the growth I've seen. It's like, yeah, it's right there. No knows all the, the procedures and everything we have to follow the law right, so thank you. All right, next presentation, 2025 audit. City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. The presentation of the 2025 audit will be conducted by Uli Keeley, our CPA with Perspective Business Solutions. She will present the results of our Florence statutory required annual audit. Uli came down and performed our audit, I think it was April, although days are running forward. She completed it, prepared our financial statement, and now she's ready to report it to you, council. I am very proud to have her present that. There is some good news, but I will let her do that. Uli, I'm looking for you, even though you're on file. Uli was not able to be here in person, so she is here remotely. and council just while she's getting that up we will post it to the website tomorrow it of course was the completed audit was in your packet and you all have a copy of it we will also post it on the website tomorrow or tonight we may i may get that on there tonight after the council meeting uli can you hear me

Uli, can you hear me?

Uli, I think you're on mute.

Force her off.

Does your mic need to be on?

No, mine does, though.

While she gets that going, I can, I can fill some time and talk about it. Technology, we love it when it works, and it's uncomfortable when it's not. As you know, Jean? Can you hear me now?

Uli, you're muted.

Can you hear me now, Uli?

Well, council, if you turn to the mail, I'll get started and I'll cover the highlights and then Uli can go in and because as you know, the financials are my favorite part because that is our report card to the citizens for our financials. The MDA, if you turn to page, as you know, the city of Florence has a business type activities and it also has government activities. Those are two funds. So the audit is broke into those two separate funds. So I am on page three of the MDA. So you're too far down. Okay, where it says business type activity. Is she on? Okay. I can keep talking, that's my favorite thing. Okay.

Here we go.

Just a quick introduction.

My name is I am the city of Florence's auditor and I am here to present the 2025 audited financial statements. First and foremost, I'd like to give a big thank you to the business office staff, Lori Cobler and her staff, who do a wonderful job in keeping the city's finances in order throughout the year, preparing for the audit, and providing all the information that we are requesting. So a huge thank you to the staff. It's always a pleasure working with the City of Florence. So having said that, first and foremost, the results of the audit, we have issued an unmodified opinion. As part of the audit, we have made just one minor audit adjustment to the beginning fund balance of, I believe it was the water fund, very small adjustment. Those things happen every once in a while. When year end close from the previous year where the system does a hiccup, it's not a huge thing. So other than that, we have made no audit adjustments to any of the city's balances on the balance sheet, the income statements. So you as a council, can have a great confidence in the financial information that you are being presented throughout the year as things are accurately recorded, timely recorded, and no issues noted from an audit perspective. So we also do not have any recommendations and his significant findings in terms of internal controls and the processes that are in place at the city. So that is wonderful news as well. So I'd like to talk a little bit about the results and the numbers in the audited financial statements and just kind of give a quick walk through the financial statements and how they're set up. no major changes to the way the financial statements are set up from the prior year to this year. So for those of you that have looked at financial statements previously, you should maybe see some familiar setups. As I mentioned, first and foremost, the independent auditor's report. This is where you find the opinion that we as auditors have given on the financial information of the city. As you can see in that second paragraph, we have issued a unmodified opinion, and that basically means that the financial statements as they are presented in this report are fairly stated within all material respects. So that is the opinion that you want to see on your financial statements every year. Following the opinion, you will have the management discussion and analysis. This is a document that is prepared by the finance department every year and gives a high level summary of information that is presented in the financial statements that are to follow. So as an auditor, I always recommend council to read through the MD&A. It gives a great summary. It provides some additional insight of balances and why balances have changed and what possibly causes any significant changes in balances. Following the MDNA, you will find the financial statements, the financial statements of the city. And the way these financial statements are set up is they go from a very high level and a very summarized level into more of detail. So I'm kind of following that process. So as you see numbers here on these statements, you will see more information in the footnotes and then the statements that follow in the back of the report. So first statement you are looking at right here is the statement of net position. That is the statement that summarizes the financial information of the city as a whole. So the governmental activities include all of the city's funds, The business type activities include all of the city's business type funds, in your case, the water fund. And it gives a net position on a full accrual basis at the end of the year. And as you can see, a healthy net position of $8.7 million in the governmental activities and almost $19 million in the business type activities. And another thing I'd like to point out here is that the city has a very healthy cash position of almost $16.5 million, of which about $5.7 million is held in all of your governmental funds and $10.7 million is held in your business type activities. Following the statement of net position is your statement of activities. And that statement summarizes how the statement of net position that you saw on page one, how that changed year over year. So it's essentially an income statement on a full accrual basis. Again, it lists the governmental activities and the business type activities separately. And then also lists, let me back up a little bit here. It also separates your revenues in charges for services and then operating and capital grants and contributions. But the bulk of your revenue for the city is recorded under general revenues. And as you can see here, the bulk of your revenues are sales and use taxes of almost $1.9 million for the year. and that was followed by property taxes of about $820,000 for the year. The change in net position, so here you will see an increase in net position year over year of $376,000 in the governmental activities and $326,000 in the business type activities. Now we're getting into a little bit more detail. So first up would be the governmental funds, which would be part of the governmental activities on the first two statements. And here you will see how your governmental funds are broken out. You have what we call two major funds, which is your general fund and your street improvement fund. And then you have several smaller funds that are summarized in this statement in the column that is titled Other Governmental Funds. And here, again, you will see cash position very healthy, the $5.7 million. And then fund balances in the general fund, $3.9 million. The street fund, $905,000. And then the remaining smaller funds have a little over a million dollars in fund balance. On the income statement side, on the governmental funds, this again shows you how did your fund balance change year over year in the different funds. First up again, the general fund, you can see the general fund increased its fund balance by about $192,000. The Street Improvement Fund decreased its fund balance, but as you will see when we look at the budget to actual statements that are later in this report, you will see that this was a planned reduction, largely due to capital outlay expenditures, as you can see in this line. Capital outlay, lots of infrastructure improvements that were completed in 2025 and you will see those expenditures in that fund. Other governmental funds, not a significant change in overall fund balance of about $4,400. The water fund, which is presented in this statement of that position for proprietary funds. Again, this is exactly the same information you saw on page one. of the audit report with the water fund's asset largely held in cash and capital assets. And its fund balance sitting pretty healthy at 18 million, almost 19 million dollars. And then the same thing on the income statement for the water fund. This is the same information that you saw on page two of your audit report on the statement of activities. And here again, you will see Um, you know, the largest revenue source obviously is your charges for services in your debt retirement and your largest expenditures are, you know, largely personnel and then, uh, depreciation on the operating side and, uh, interest expense on, um, the, uh, expenditure side. Again, you will see this change in that position, $326,000. bringing the net position of the water fund to about $18.8 million at the end of the year. I'm not going to cover much on the cash flow statement, but I'm happy to answer any questions on that. Following these summarized statements, pages 1 through 9, now you will see notes to the financial statements and the notes. describe the different items that you will see on the balance sheet and on the income statement. It gives an overall summary of accounting policies. It gives information about what measurement focus meaning full accrual or modified accrual is being used for the different statements. It talks about You know the different funds that are presented it talks about the different balance sheet items and so forth. So there's just a couple of footnotes. I'm going to touch on briefly and that would be the cash footnote as you can see again for the for the city as a whole the cash position at the end of the year was about 16 and a half million dollars and bulk of this money is invested in Colorado Trust, as you can see here under the investment line, which brings a healthy interest income to the city year over year. And the other footnote I want to touch on a little bit is capital assets. As you can see, capital assets, the footnote is split between the governmental activities, so all of the assets that are held in the general fund and your other funds versus the capital assets that are held in the water fund. And in the general fund, you will see your largest assets are in your infrastructure, in your buildings, and then closely followed by your machinery and equipment. And on the business type or in the water fund, again, you see your largest assets is or all of your distribution lines and your regional assets. Then on the debt side of things, your governmental funds doesn't have, you don't have any outstanding debt other than your compensated absences, which is a fancy name for your accrued vacation and accrued sick time. But on the business type activities, you still have, The revenue, refunding bonds that are outstanding, so the city is following the debt payment schedule and is slowly but surely paying off those bonds. The city did, and you'll see that in the next page, did pay off some of its debt last year, so slowly but surely you are chipping away at that debt. You can see here in this footnote here on page 23 that there was a 2003 loan and a 2005 loan that was paid off during the year. So you have the 2009 loan still outstanding. That loan does not carry any interest. You pay it off at $100,000 a year. back up a little bit, and then the revenue refunding bonds, as you can see, the final payment on those is due in 2033, which is probably going to come sooner rather than later. Following the debt footnote, you have several pages of the defined benefit pension plan footnote, which gives all the information related to FPPA pension plan for police and fire. I'm going to skip through that. And then there's just a couple more statements I want to touch on briefly. And that would be the budget to actual statements. The budget act to actual statement for the general fund, you will see the budgets as they were originally adopted and the final adopted budget on the revenue side. You will see you have a negative variance there. You estimated revenues to be just a little bit higher than they actually were for the year by about $400,000. And then correspondingly, on the expenditure side, you budgeted $4.2 million Actual expenditure was only 3.7. So you had a favorable budget savings of about $572,000. And here again, you will see that change in fund balance that you saw on the previous page, on the high-level page, of $192,000, which brings you to an ending fund balance of about $3.9 million. And then as I mentioned on the Street Improvement Fund, You see again that decrease in the fund balance, which was budgeted primarily in capital outlay. You budgeted actually $173,000 more than you actually incurred. So I guess if you had spent all of the amounts that you had anticipated, then your change in fund balance would have been slightly higher as well by that $173,000. And that's the high level summary of the city's report. Unfortunately, I cannot hear anyone, so I don't know if there are any questions that you may have that I could possibly answer.

You guys have any questions? I'm a really good typer. I'll type them out.

Okay.

Okay, I just got a notification. No questions. So thank you again. Thank you, Council. Thank you to the city staff for all of your help in getting the audit completed this year. It's always a pleasure. And I'm always available to answer any questions if you think of any after the fact. So thanks again and have a good evening.

OK, thank you. Next up, we have public comment. Reminder, three minute time limit.

State your name and your address, and we'll hear your comments.

First, Susie Berardi. It says here, grant awarded to the Florence Museum. Is your microphone green? Make sure the button is green. Push the button.

Thank you.

Okay, start over there.

Susie Berardi, 561 North Robinson Avenue, Florence resident. You awarded, I'm representing the Florence Pioneer Museum and Research Center. I'm a volunteer there and I'm the one that wrote the grant proposal that you awarded. And our committee is very pleased. We have moved through each of the items you approved, with one exception, the three computers. We narrowed it to what we were going to do, and then we learned, actually from a visitor from New York University, a doctoral candidate that was visiting the Museum for Research has an undergraduate degree and a master's in film and media. They saw our setting where we have set up our oral history, where we're recording stories, visited with me about the equipment we were gonna buy that the public would actually use, the kiosk where they'd come in and listen to the stories. They recommended something different. So we've researched it. We have one of our committee that's gonna actually go and see in person the kiosk. but they've recommended that instead of our two laptops, we purchase an iPad. The difference would be somewhat like you saw tonight, a little bit of troubleshooting to get things working on a computer versus an iPad, which will have icons. You walk up, you see the narrative stories, you just press, you listen. And I advise the committee that we come before you to ask if we might have permission to make that change from the two computers, the laptops, to the iPad. It would not change our monies. We're staying within our allocation.

No legal objections. I mean, purely as long as the intent is there, nothing from my end.

It sounds like a great deal, because I know the iPad's much more intuitive and easier, and kids two years old can come in and use it.

That's right.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. Next, Kathy Young, code enforcement.

Hi, Kathy Young, 220 East 6, Florence, Colorado. So four times I've contacted code enforcement. And Lori, I've also talked to you about this issue. Right around the corner from me is a guy named Ed. And Ed has parked a fairly large, I'd say, 8 by 12 shed right in the easement road. So this easement road allows access to the backs of the properties that line petroleum between 5th and 6th. It's the only access that those people have to the backs of their yards. So Ed has done this in the past. He had that same shed parked there about three years ago, was told by a council lady could not do that. moved it to a neighbor's yard, and I think there was some agreement about what he would do. Evidently that wasn't done, so it got moved back to the alley. or easement road, I'm sorry. So like I say, I've talked to code enforcement about that. Steve, I sent you pictures, because code enforcement said they couldn't even find the shed. Hard to believe. The other thing is that Ed has pampas grass, huge thing of pampas grass growing over the sidewalk. And I have neighbors that have a new baby. They would love to walk that baby down the sidewalk to the farmer's market every Thursday. Can't do it. They have to walk in the street. So every year Ed has this pampas grass going over the sidewalk, does nothing about it. So those are two issues I'd like to see something done about it. I never hear anything back from anybody. And I realize there was a fire. I understand that. I tried to give people, you know, leeway, time. I get it. The other thing I sent are pictures of this new internet system that goes behind all the houses. And what there is is a stanchion and then there's wire. And evidently how they hook people up is they string that wire behind their fence and then under it to somehow get to their houses so people aren't doing weed abatement in the alleys because the wires are there. So I don't know if you all need to talk to the Internet company or who, but it's an issue.

I know some people where the company told them that's a temporary solution.

Okay, hopefully.

Hopefully, yeah. All right. Thank you, Kathy, for that information. Okay. We'll be talking.

Okay.

Next, Sue Kinsner. Bears. The Bears.

Hi, Sue Kinzer, 302 Wilson Avenue, Florence, Colorado. And I'm going to talk about two things. The first thing is our water. through Pathfinders is just so murky you can't see a thing. And the fish were jumping the other day. They're not even jumping anymore. So I'm worried that we're getting so shallow that the fish don't have holes to live in or anything. So that's a worry. The other thing is, I called Division of Wildlife about a bear over on my side of town, over by Triangle Park. And it was a big bear, and he's been coming out from Oak Creek. And so yesterday he came out, broad daylight, and... kind of strange you know he only reads the trash cans at night so apparently it's it's not just a he it's a she too because there was a cub and the cub went up the tree so i'm just want want everybody to be aware the bears are out they're starving they're looking for anything to eat if you're going to be out at night after dark wear a bell so that you're making noise you'll scare them off and don't ever try and pick take pictures of the cub when Because you know, there's a mama bear around so just thought I'd let everybody know Thank you sue and the discolorations from the two nights of rain up at Salida that'll clear up Next order of business consent agenda I

Approving the minutes from last regular meeting. Approving city expenditures. We have a temporary use permit for the Florence Pioneer Association. Consider authorizing the Pioneer Day Association to utilize CERSA special event liability insurance coverage with full cost reimbursement. Consider approving the revised temporary use application for America's parade committee at this time Do any of the council members wish to pull any of those consent agenda items? I would like to pull item e Any others All right, could I have a motion to approve consent agenda items a B C and D I

We'll make a motion to approve consent agenda ABCD.

Okay, do we have a second?

I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, motion carries. Consent agenda, the temporary use application for America's Parade Committee. Rudel.

The only reason I pulled it is because being involved in a lot of events around the community, I know there's problems of conflict. And I knew the fair was going on, the county fair. So I went out and talked to the people at the county fair. And I said, I think it was one of the extension agents. And I said, were you aware that there's going to be a parade in Florence during one day of the parade, of the fair? And they didn't. And I said, so I looked at it beforehand. It happened to fit a day there's hardly anything going on at the fair. And I said, I don't see any problem with it at all. There's some meetings and stuff before each families and other than that there's nothing and that's the day of their sale and The first big things at two o'clock and the parade will be over So we visit a little bit and they said no problem and I just want everybody to know We knew there was a conflict and we did talk to the county and they're fine with it So that's all I wanted to get on the record All right, thank you rule any other questions

Okay, would somebody like to make a motion to approve consent agenda item E?

I'm sorry to interrupt really quick. I just want to make sure that everybody in Florence is aware that this application and this action is for the parade only. The city of Florence postponed their July 4th festival, and due to the kind of short notice, we were unable to kind of pull that festival together in two weeks' time. So there will be no activities in the park, but we do plan to participate and celebrate in America's parade. Don't anticipate food trucks, events, free pool admission. We are rescheduling those movie nights into October when it's kind of cooler. Maybe things kind of slow down and quiet down a little bit. So just wanted everybody to be aware of that.

All right. Thank you. Any other comments? All right. Now can we have a motion to approve consent agenda item E?

I'll make a motion to approve the revised temporary use permit for the America's parade committee provided provide the parade with special event coverage pride provide street closure set up breakdown police officers President highway 115 entry closure points and collaborate city resources with the committee volunteers.

We have second.

I'll second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. We'll look forward to the parade. You bet. All right. New business. Consider adopting ordinance number 6-2026. It has to do with local historic landmark. City planner. City planner.

Good evening, council. This ordinance is to designate potentially 201 East 2nd Street. The Florence Arts Council, who is the owner of this property, applied for designation. The building was constructed in 1898 and originally served as the first Baptist Church of Florence. Today it is commonly known as the Bell Tower. Under municipal code, a property may be designated as a local historic landmark if it meets at least one of the established designation criteria. This criteria is historic significance, architectural significance, or listed on another recognized registry. The Historic Preservation Commission held a public hearing on June 30, 2026, to consider the application and voted unanimously that the First Baptist Church of Florence, known as the Bell Tower, met the finding of facts related to historical and architectural significance criteria for local historic designation and recommended that city council approve its designation as a local historic landmark. Did you have any additional questions pertaining to the staff report or the information therein?

Before we have questions from the staff, I'd like to open up. Is there any public comment on this proposed ordinance? And again, state your name and address and make sure the green light's on.

Green light's on. Beverly Little, 1504 Woodlawn in Canyon City. I'm a volunteer at the Bell Tower. I was asked to come and present the work to get the landmark designation to the historic preservation. I made a hash of that. I'll probably make a hash of this. But they did pass us. The historic significance of this building is that it was built in the nine acres that James McCandless purchased when he plotted the town west of Coal Creek. It's right there, right next to Coal Creek. It was a working class church built by the men of the working class in a working class town. It has stained glass windows that are still original and they are not of the highest stained glass. They were ordered from the Watkins Glass Company in Denver. They're not the quality of the Watkins Stained Glass Glassworks windows that are in the State Capitol or in the Brown Palace Hotel. These are... windows that are productions and bought by, oh, I need 16 of those, and fitted into the building. So they're working class. They do have the marks of the decorating thing of the time, which was opalescent glass. And opalescent glass is a special kind of glass supposedly invented by Louis Comfort Tiffany, though he sued somebody else for the rights. It's a special glass that has two different layers of glass in it. It's not translucent. It reflects the light back at you. At the same time, it bounces light inside the glass. If you want to really see a good example of this, you go to Canyon to the Staples Center. Their big windows are practically all opalescent glass. If you want an outstanding example of how it reflects the light back, stop and look at the windows in the daytime at what used to be the First Methodist Church there. We have a dove, an open book, and a candle. In the daytime, when the light is on it, they stand out from the other windows. If you go inside, there's nothing remarkable. At nighttime, with the inside light reflecting, they stand out proud of the rest of the glass. It's a prime example of what stained glass people call the opalescent age of glass. We never were a wild west town. We were oil town. We were industrialized town. We were a mining town, railroad town. And all of that part goes into the largest steel mill west of the Mississippi, only 50 miles down the river. But this is where, in the Gilded Age, they used to have a problem in New York. That's what the book's about. Problem between old money and new money. The new money in the Gilded Age book by Mark Twain was a railroad man.

Can we think General Palmer?

Now, we didn't have that problem here because this is where the Gilded Age was financed and built. These are kind of town. Any questions?

Thank you for that. Was that always a Presbyterian church? Pardon me? Or a Methodist church? It was a Baptist church. Was it always a Baptist church?

It always was a Baptist church. The Presbyterian church has windows from the same maker. It's a private home now. It has windows from the same maker, but they're a slightly higher quality because they had a slightly more wealthy congregation. If you really want to see what happens when you have good money, go to Canyon to the Episcopal Church, and you can see what happens to the windows. Anything else?

Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Can I turn in a motion?

I'D LIKE TO MAKE THE MOTION THAT THE FLORENCE CITY COUNCIL APPROVE THE FIRST READING OF ORDINANCE NUMBER 6-2026 DESIGNATING THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF FLORENCE OR THE BELL TOWER AS A LOCAL HISTORIC LANDMARK AND LISTING IT ON THE LOCAL HISTORIC REGISTRY BASED ON THE FINDINGS OF FACT OUTLINED IN CHAPTER 15.60.080 of the Florence Municipal Code and in consideration of the recommendation of the Historic Preservation Commission and the testimony during the City Council public hearing. Second.

Councilor McKinnon?

Yes. Councilor Stone? Yes. Councilor Van Houten? Yes.

Councilor Stiefel?

Yes.

Oh, so sorry.

Council Murgleman? Yes. Councilor Gardner? Yes. Mayor Wolf?

Yes. All right, next. Consider adopting Ordinance 7-2026, dealing with local historic landmark for the Lobach block.

Yes. The owner of 125 East Main Street, which is the Lobach Block, submitted and applied for a local historic designation. As stated before, it has to meet certain criteria, historical significance, architectural significance, or on another registry. The Lobach Block was built in 1898 and has served as a location for numerous businesses since. Again, the historic Preservation Commission held a public hearing June 30th to consider the application and voted unanimously that the Lobach block met the findings of facts related to historical and architectural significance for a local land for local historic landmark do you have any additional questions pertaining to the staff report or any information that I

Hearing none, do we have any public comment on this one also? All right, hearing none, do we have a motion?

I'd like to make the motion that the Florence City Council approve the first reading of ordinance number 7-2026, designating the low back block as a local historic landmark and placing it on the local historic registry based on the findings of fact outlined in Chapter 15.60.080 of the Florence Municipal Code and in consideration of the recommendation of the Historic Preservation Commission and the testimony during the City Council public hearing.

Do we have a second?

I'll second that.

Can you roll call, please?

Councilor McKinnon? Yes. Councilor Gardner? Yes. Councilor Van Houten? Yes. Councilor Mergelman? Yes. Councilor Stone? Abstain. Mayor Wolf?

Yes. Okay, motion passes. All right, our last new business. Consider adopting Resolution 9-2026, Resolution Establishing a Drought Response Plan for the City of Florence, Colorado. City Manager.

Right. Thank you, Mayor. We are asking you to adopt a resolution for the revised Drought Response Plan for the City of Florence as presented. As you all know, on October 6, 2026, the City Council unanimously adopted the City of Florence Drought Response Plan. This revised plan has one revision. As this is a living document, we are constantly looking at how to conserve and protect Florence's water. so there is one revision in this that we are asking you to include and it is around the bulk water station we spent a lot of time looking at the bulk station and how that how to better utilize that customer for their water needs plus also to protect Florence's water source. So the revised drought plan includes the following modification, consistent bulk water station services. Previously in the city drought response plan turned the bulk water station off at level four. This version of the drought plan ensures qualified zip codes will be able to obtain water from the bulk station regardless of the drought plan level, unless there is a natural disaster affecting the city of Florence's water supply and or delivery capacity that would pose a risk to the water overall. So what we did is we looked at the zip codes, where they're coming from, and we implemented that pin system, if you remember. Well, I just checked today, Brandon, 222 pins is what I've seen you guys have. And we're able to really track where that water is going and how that is being utilized. And we felt it was important. And it really was only about a tenth of the total and correct me if i'm wrong brandon but a tenth of the total water used so that's where we felt come come back up and correct me but we felt that the amount of water that was being used out of that it was uh we needed to re-look at it again so that's what we did give the numbers brandon so uh i looked at the

bulk water station's highest year in the past 20-some years. And I compared that to the water produced at the water plant. for our entire regional water system that same year that the highest usage of the bulk station was. And I ran the numbers and it ended up being 1.5%. The whole year was around 10.5 million gallons, which on a hot summer's day for us is about five days of water that we produce. So it really is a drop in the bucket. to keep this station open for the surrounding community that hauls water that really needs it and has no other options. So, you know, just being good stewards of the community, we kind of rethought things and thought it would be almost criminal to shut this down from those people that haul water for their cisterns and whatnot.

And when we looked at it, we really was looking at the usage and I apologize, 10%, I meant 10 million. Thank you, Brandon. But it really was just basic needs. It wasn't an influx of water going out. So when we looked at it, we thought that's where this modification came from. And then, of course, with the fire and some of those, those were their basic water needs.

Yes.

So to completely turn that off when it was such a minimal part and was something that we thought was important to bring back. So it's really good news if it's passed for those users that rely on that. And the caveat in there is we do have to look at natural disasters or things that happen because we just experienced one. So that in there will be something that will only be used in a disaster situation.

Correct. The only other addition was, besides essentially never closing it, was in level four now, which is when our water right gets called out, when Florence's water right gets called out. we are limiting it to just the surrounding area codes. All the area codes that touch 81226. And we're not limiting to a radius within those, you know, within so many miles of Florence. We're just limiting it to just those area codes. Because at that point, If we don't even have enough water for our own citizens, we shouldn't be selling water that's, you know, two zip codes away.

Just as a point of clarification, zip codes, not area codes, correct?

Correct. I'm sorry. I said area codes. I meant zip codes. Sorry about that. You were using five-digit numbers, so we were following. This heat is getting to me. Yeah.

So that is the only modification we are asking at this time. And we still continue to ask for patience because I will tell you, there is still pin numbers coming in daily to get into that. Brandon is doing an excellent job, Cortland, mail of getting those numbers processed as soon as possible um there was a lot the influx of it with uh the fires when people got to go back home that needed water it really was an eye opener for us so we want to ensure and let everybody know we're doing it as quickly as possible brandon is by a computer constantly yeah filling out those because you know water is water is life

And the bulk water, as we go up the levels, they're subject to the same price increase as everybody else.

Yep. We're in level 2, so they're already experiencing the 20% increase. Level 3 will be double the normal price, and level 4, triple.

Any questions? All right. Entertain a motion.

Thank you.

I'll make a motion. We adopt resolution number 92026, a resolution establishing a drought response plan for the city of Florence, Colorado, as presented.

I'll second. All right. Roll call, please.

Councilor Mergelman?

Yes.

Councilor Van Houten? Yes. Councilor Gardner? Yes. Councilor Stone? Yes. Councilor McKinnon? Yes. Mayor Wolf?

Yes. All right, next. Council reports. James. I have nothing to report. Okay. Rudel.

I did attend a meeting with the FEDC, the regular monthly meeting, and then we had another meeting with that group. The one thing I want to tell everybody, because I've been involved in it, is it's the start of the Fremont County Fair, which is right half a mile out of town here. And it's already started with the shooting sports, but through the next week, two weeks, It goes clear to the end of the month. So take part of the fair, and I hope maybe some of the people leaving the parade, if they want more activities, they can pull in there, because they run all day long.

I attended the 62nd birthday at the Pioneer Museum on Saturday, and good job, ladies. It was really nice. And I am like a kid in a candy store because chip and seal has been done. And if anybody... Can't be more excited. When they came on my street Friday, I was jumping up and down, just like nine other streets in Florence. So ride around and look at it because it's wonderful.

Okay. Thank you. Tammy.

Yes, the museum puts on a very good birthday party. Also, the city is doing a 250-150 celebration along with the historic preservation and the archives. So these buildings for the local register that we have just voted on, there's going to be a big party. It's going to be the 28th of August. Ashley, you want to talk about it? No, me. Okay, well, we have flyers that are gonna be put up, but it's gonna be the 4 p.m. on August 28th at Pioneer Park.

All right, very good. Gail?

Nothing.

Okay. The only thing I did, I stopped by the museum this week, and that was it for my report as the manager.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple couple of things I want to touch base on. I was Aspen Fire reached out to me today and there they changed some communication strategy, which is good news because I got a little panic when I heard him on the phone. But this is good news. So they pulled the bulletin board off of City Hall and Superfood. She says that's good news because they've got it contained. to over 60%, so it's not gone, but they felt the need that that communication did not need to be needed there anymore. Still use trusted sources for your information. They're still putting out information, it's just not on those two sources anymore, so if you're looking there, go to the Fremont County Sheriff's page, emergency management, and that, it just will not be posted there, because it was at Superfoods and here. So I just wanted to touch base on that. We have a town hall on the drought, me and Brandon, and any council that likes to join us on Wednesdays. So please, if you have questions on the drought plan, wanna talk about the drought plan, want to go over it, if you have questions, please attend that town hall with myself and Brandon. We'll do these periodically to have these conversations to keep everybody going. I know some people are struggling with not knowing or saying, not that we're gonna have a flyer, Cortland and all her magic with flyers, she's making a flyer, we'll have that to give out to touch points on it. But we do wanna get out in the community and have some conversations. about that the pioneer park bathroom we had to update the grand opening please don't show up friday because they they're not ready that when they did the building inspection it found that they needed one more week and I thought let's have it perfect other than opening that sucker too soon. So we're gonna do it on the 31st. Please come and enjoy this bathroom. A lot of people worked really hard to get this. Oh, I know. don't enjoy it too much yet just enjoy it being brand new so july 31st is that we're also going to do our podcast on the drought plan so lots of communication coming out about that and also we're trying something new we're going to come to the farmers market We are gonna have a booth at the farmer's market. We're gonna try to see, we're gonna get out there, a different director, council person will be manning that, and it's just to come talk, ask questions, get resources, make a connection. We'll be there. It'll be different people each day, but we'll be able to at least get you some communication and get to know people and i just made a note kathy to put matt on that rotation so he will be there he doesn't know this yet but he can be there with me um so he can start having some conversations because it sounds like there's a little bit of communication stuff there so he's added to my day so you can have us both So we will do that. We'll put it out on Facebook, the days and who's there. Subject to change, because you never know what's happening, but somebody will be there. Super excited about that. I'm probably the most excited about that. Other than that, council, did you guys have any questions on any of my report?

I don't even answer them all during the council meeting.

Any questions? All right. Having no questions, anybody need an executive session?

Hearing none, do we have a motion to adjourn?

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? All right. Meeting adjourned at 7.35.

Oh, it's hot. Thank you.