Board of County Commissioners Regular and Meetings - Special Meeting

Good morning, everyone. It's September 1st at 11 a.m. We'll now start the regular meeting of the Lake County Board of County Commissioners. This is a reminder for everyone to please turn off or silence your cell phones. And we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. into the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, so we start with the approval of the agenda.

I will make a motion to approve the agenda.

Second.

Two votes.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Next we have community information items. Elsa, do you have any community information items?

We are interviewing people for the planning commission, and there's still time if anybody wants to apply for the planning commission. And we also have We have two positions on the Regional Housing Authority that are open if anybody wants to apply for the Regional Housing Authority. It's a rolling application for the RHA. That's it. Excellent.

Christian Lee? I got nothing today. Nor do I.

This is a reminder that all regular meetings and work sessions are recorded and available on the Lake County Government YouTube channel. They are transcribed and indexed, and the recordings can be watched at a time that's best for you. Subscribe and stay informed on county decisions. Now moving to public comment. It is available for residents wishing to speak on an agenda item or on another issue not on the agenda. To make a public comment, residents may request to speak, excuse me, by raising your hand in person or using the raise hand feature in Zoom. and sending a message in chat. The chair will call on the public in order. Comment is limited to three minutes, not including board questions. Action, if required, will be assigned to county staff. The chair may also ask that public comment on specific agenda items be held for later in the meeting. In certain instances, public comment will not be accepted, such as on public hearing items noted on the agenda. We'll start online. Anybody online like to make a public comment? Use the raise hand feature. Okay, we'll move to the room. Just state your name. We're not asking that you state your address. I think that's pertinent as long as you live here. Who'd like to start?

And just tell us your name, please. I'm Travis Moss.

Okay.

And I live at 1845 Ridgeview Drive. And just to work on the end, I just want to read a paragraph real quick. This letter is in regard to the failing system that we are witnessing here in our own backyard. As the local governments keep growing and taxes continue to rise, the market is crashing. Local businesses are suffering, and our infrastructure is deteriorating. City and county payrolls have gone off the charts over the last 15 to 20 years, all while the working class has called this place home for generations. Elected officials have been working for years to manipulate the real estate market with government-owned low-income housing, restrictions on the rental market, and more red tape on new buildings than ever, even bolder. I'm not sure if they're running running on emotion, or if they even care at all. We should never judge a program by its intent, but rather by its outcome. That being said, their programs are not working. The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different outcome. They tried these exact policies in Aspen and Boulder, failed several of the other mountain towns, and we still face the same problem with jobs, housing, and expanding given Bureaucracy. The proof is right in front of the real estate market. There are currently over 110 properties for sale in Leadville proper. About 250 in Lake County and prices crashing with cuts of $10,000 to $20,000 to $70,000. There are 45 rentals available in Lake County right now, 40 of which are Leadville proper. All this is happening as the city and county make it harder and more expensive to build. We are facing endless red tape policies that failed in Boulder and now are being implemented here, even as Boulder itself reverts to its old policies. Business can now open and operate due to the unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles that cost $10,000 before they even get started. It now costs $100,000 before you can even break ground on a home. This brings us to the issue of property tax revenues. The existing red tape continues to hinder the business growth, placing an unnecessary burden on property taxes. Furthermore, as property values fall, assessors' values will suit, resulting in lower property tax revenues than expected next year. With property values declining and construction costs continuing to rise, it is only a matter of time before these economic pressures create significant impact. How did we get here and what can we do differently moving forward? We can and must be better.

All right.

Thank you. Thanks for that.

Who'd like to go next? State your name, please.

Hi, I'm Jane Harrelson. And also, all three of you as candidates reportedly for a swimming pool back in 2024. And I know you have a different view and you've learned a lot since before you were elected. But I respectfully ask you to please put a swimming pool on your list of priorities. The public, the taxpayers have for five years stated they wanted it. We've spent between the city, county, and school district over $500,000 in plans and surveys. These consultants have given us mechanisms to raise the funds for the capital expense of a swimming pool. So I respectfully request that you start working toward a 2027 ballot initiative to put in front of the voters whether they are willing to fund the capital expense of a swimming pool, and whether they're willing to fund renovation of what we have or a new build. I thank you all for serving.

Thanks, Jane. Who's next?

Do I have to come up there? You don't have to.

My voice counts.

First, I have a question. How many employees are in the rec department?

This is public comment. This is in the back and forth.

I can't answer my question.

On Friday... You could send us an email.

On Friday, the Sixth Street gym was closed for the seniors exercise program. Our teacher is on vacation for two weeks. On Monday and Wednesday, I led the exercise. I've taken the class since its inception. I didn't change any exercises. There's no reason that gym should have been closed to us. It's a public building that all our taxpayers pay for. And I know that, OK, it might be a liability issue. We've all signed a waiver. And you guys carry insurance. So there are issues that happen when people stop exercising. You lose your oxygen. Your max oxygen drops, which at our elevation, after 10 to 14 days, it drops. At our elevation, that's important. Also, for the rec department to notify us by putting a sign on the door. is not cool. For one thing, they should have a database of everyone's number that works out on Monday and Wednesday and Friday. And they should call us ahead of time. How many people drove their cars polluting our atmosphere that you all are so concerned about and wasting gas to find out that there wasn't a class? So their notification is terrible. The generation that's in there, the seniors that are doing this class, they're not litigious, unlike our younger generations. If they twist an ankle in this class, they're not gonna be suing the county. They know it was their own fault. And you know, Everyone that came to that class when I volunteered my two days, they chose to work out with me. If they were uncomfortable with me leaving the class, they didn't have to be there. I have been here 50 years. That 6th Street gym, Michelle Clapper, you probably don't even know the name, used to volunteer her time. And there were a bunch of people that would go into the gym and exercise with them. Michelle, it was all volunteer. Maybe the money that you're spending on the rec department, since you have previously said that it's not an obligation for the county to provide recreation, maybe that money should be spent towards the pool. And You know, I went, no one was in the office Friday after walking up there. I'm lucky, I live in town, I can walk up there. No one was in the office at 8.30 when our class begins. It was probably quarter of nine. Oh, they'll be in at nine. I came back at one. There was one person in the office. I don't know, did they work a four-day work week? I'm just very dissatisfied. And I think part of your job is to oversee the different things like recreation, unless you want to get rid of it. That's all. OK.

Thank you. Whose name? Your name, please.

Tina Tancig?

Nope. No. The other one. Previous speaker, what would you say?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Lisa Downey. OK.

Thanks, Lisa. Who would like to go next? Go ahead.

State your name, please, for the record. You guys all know me. I've made a shirt showing famous words of the commissioners is don't believe Facebook, ask us.

So I'm here to ask.

I've asked, I don't know, maybe right two years now, even asked you two when yous were running to look into things that were important. And you guys told me you were going to change at the meeting time, you're gonna do all this. But then you got bombarded or maybe somebody pulled your strings that you guys couldn't do it. So I'm just asking with all the questions I've asked, everything that's put out there on Facebook is fact. I've asked for everybody to rebuttal if they can, nobody will. So back in September 30th, there was a board of equalization meeting October 1st, I wrote a letter asking when that would be published. Almost a year later, I haven't responded. So my thing is here is you guys are running it. I'm here to ask if we can do a meeting to address all these issues on our time, a time that people can come and not in these meetings when people can't be here. I think you guys owe it. There's a lot to address, and it's just frustrating that a dummy like me can understand county government. And it's like, you're going to keep going and going until we have no money. There's no growth of 7,000 people that we need all these people here. County manager, her position was funded by a grant you guys said in the meeting. When the grant funding quit, you guys would look at all of these positions. How many people are in that office? And what are they doing? Your finance is another thing. You're paying $160,000 to CBS for accounting services, but yet you've got seven people in there? It's like, come on, guys. Would you run your business like this? Would you, Elsa? No. It's our money. You guys work for us. We don't work for you. So I'd appreciate you guys setting up a meeting so that the public can come and address the issues. Thank you.

OK, thank you. Who would like to go next?

Hi, my name is Jeff. I assume you guys already know me, considering you sued me about six months ago. I've been trying and trying to get my shop developed since you guys sued me. And all I get is red tape after red tape after red tape. It's been almost six months and no lock consolidation's been done. Finally got an email from them yesterday. No site plan review, they keep changing it. So my shop alone will bring the county Hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue if it works. I don't know, maybe we could ask Elsa what Freight brings in every year for tax revenue. And maybe that'll put in perspective what I'm trying to do. And you guys are sitting here just getting in the way. It's crazy. Trying to sue me, trying to do all this, that, and the other. You look confused like you didn't even know. Oh, I knew. Okay. This isn't a back and forth. Just make your comments. Okay. So what I'm saying is as tax go up, property values are going down. Your revenue next year is not going to be what you think it is. The people want a pool. You guys turned your back on us. We don't want all these nonprofits. We don't want all this crap. We want stuff for the people of Leadville. We want you guys to assist us in trying to get our properties developed instead of red tape. What's six months of holding costs? Rhetorical question because you guys don't know. You're talking thousands, tens of thousands of dollars holding the property waiting for Ann to get her shit together, pardon my language. Trevor was 100% correct in this paperwork he turned in. If you look here, He turned in paperwork, and it's on the record now, 19,000, 20,000, 14,000, 76,000. These are all price cuts, and the houses still aren't selling. So as the prices go down, you guys are writing checks that your butts can't handle. Just remember that here in a few. Give the people what they want, like a pool. Quit giving away our money, acting a fool. Assist people that are trying to better the community. instead of getting in the way. And then maybe this place could be better for all of us instead of just your friends. Thank you.

Thank you. Who's next? State your name for the record, please. Bill Perkins. Go ahead, Bill.

Seven years ago, I approached Commissioner Sarah Mudge, informing her that the Mineral Belt Trail Committee was regularly violating Colorado open meeting laws. She said she would get right on it, and never did, partly because her husband Sterling has a full-time salary running a bike club. He was getting everything he wanted at the time in terms of land on which to build new trails, use of existing venues. And it left him beholden to many parties. So she didn't want to make waves. The problem is that once we got through the COVID episode, that activity resumed. And not only was the Mineral Belt Committee not following state law, they were not following their own bylaws. Directors are appointed to three-year terms, reviewable and renewable by you guys, county commissioners. Somehow Howard and Loretta have appointed themselves to eight consecutive three-year terms, unchecked. They know that they hold, or were holding, the legal meetings. They no longer care. They'd welcome the public to their meetings if they cared about our thoughts and ideas. It's clear that they don't, and Myself, Don Quinn, and Mike Kerrigan, original members of the group, resigned in rapid succession after five years of service. 50 or so people have come and gone from that committee since then. Same intent, generally. They want to be of some help. They love the trail. They want to improve it in any ways they're allowed to. They're not being allowed to. The violation of open meeting laws really is affecting the community because it disenfranchises us from the trail of blood. We're not allowed to be informed or influential in the affairs of the trail. And the trail's in a world of hurt right now. We have a tendency in this county to squander our assets, which is why we have a pool that we can't use, a turquoise lake road we can't use, a $400,000 building at the ice rink that's open seven weeks of the year, a snow-capped lot for the county by enthusiasts like myself that we don't use. Use it or sell it.

Well, your 30 minutes is up if you want to just wrap it up. Please welcome to have my time.

Bill, if you want to wrap it up quickly.

Yeah, you're welcome to have my time. Is that possible? No, we're going to stick to the meeting agenda, please.

So yeah, to wrap it up, I've been presenting a sustainable, comprehensive grooming plan regarding the Mineral Belt and other trails for about two years now. And it really needs a closer look by you guys, because you're the ones who will decide if we can utilize one third of the money donated by enthusiasts over the years tab to $130,000, and I'm asking that we invest a third of that, rather than using any more tax dollars to fund grooming when enthusiasts have been trying to fund grooming at all our efforts. Mine, my colleagues have been ordered.

Thank you, Bill. I'm going to have to cut you off. Three minutes is up. Thank you for your comment. Anybody else in the room? Go ahead. State your name for the record, please.

My name's Tom Charles. I'm a local here for a number of years and I'm here basically to listen to the airport long-term lease discussion today. I'm a flying enthusiast as of five or six years ago and I try to fly four or five times a week and I absolutely love it. You guys have a wonderful asset out of the airport that I'd like to have a hand in helping develop and I've been working with Josh ever since I started. I've been trying to get a hangar built for four years and I've run into several roadblocks and we're still not at a good spot to build one and I don't want to lose another building season. So I'm asking for some help. I know the RFP went out but that seems like that was to bring in a big developer and not just a local Joe Blow. So I'm just basically asking for help to see what we can do come to the table and get a good lease built and it'll help free up space for josh to actually draw in more revenue than just uh tenant rentals so that's why i'm here today anybody else have a public comment this morning any yeah i'd like to ask state state your name for the record

What's that again?

Please state your name for the record. Michael. Chairman.

You know what? I have an issue, and I'd just like to know if we, what we're going to do about opening up, like, Haggard and Pass, that with the fire stuff in other areas. I'd prefer a hunting license.

Yeah.

And, yeah, I'd like to go hunting. Not all of us are able to go out Ike the mountains, Ike the mountains, so. I like that, that makes sense. Does your eyes know what's going on?

You missed the beginning part of my speech here. This is a public comment. It's not really a Q&A session, but if you'd like us to follow up, we certainly can.

Do you want to write an email down, and we'll have the Office of Emergency Management Director get back to you with the details on that?

Oh, see, that's another thing, too. I also have a problem with office management, okay? I had an issue on my mom and dad's house with a propane lake. I don't know if you guys heard about it, but I've never gotten back to it with nobody from the fire department. These guys that are paid I don't know what their job is, what their job title is, but nobody come and notified us about what's going on with the propane leak or the gas leak. I just want to know who's in charge.

So when it comes to gas leaks, the Office of Emergency Management doesn't handle that piece. Fire generally responds to this.

So it's separate, it's a separate department. The fire department would do gas. What Andy's offering is our Office of Emergency Management within the county. They have been working directly with our federal partners and state partners to manage the fire, so that is the person who would have the most up-to-date information about access for hunting. And can we get you in touch with that person?

Yeah, give me an email address. That'd be great. I think also it's you guys' job too to, you know, shoot me an email.

I'll plug you into it. everybody we need to to make sure we get the right answers for your questions it sounds like you might be talking about some of the forest service decisions too so i can get you in touch with pat mercer and he might have a better idea about forest service land if you're talking about hunting permits but you know we'll look at where you're talking about and whose jurisdiction that lies on there because i can't tell the forest service what to do unfortunately but you know we'll see where things lie

Well, yeah, that's the thing.

You know, with my property, you know, I just don't understand how the fire department comes out, shuts off my gas, and then nobody comes and notifies me. Fire department, nobody.

Okay.

Okay. Okay, your time's up, Vic. Thanks. You can follow up with that. Well, I was kind of late today. I thought I was really busy, too. But I'll be back at the next one, and I'll be a little more prepared. Thank you.

Yeah, sure. Also, Michael, right? Yep. The fire department is under the city. So even though you're not within the city boundaries, if you wanted to go talk to the fire department about what's going on or who's managing the fire department, then it's worth checking in with the city, too. Good.

Also oversee the fire department?

We pay for it. We do not oversee it. You don't? No. We pay 70% of it, but we do not oversee it. Okay. Do you want us to put you in touch with the city about it, or do you want to do it yourself? Okay, great.

Okay. Anybody else?

Okay. I guess so, yeah. I wasn't planning on talking.

Go ahead and state your name for the record, please.

My name is Miguel Martinez from Stringtown. So I wasn't planning on talking, but a lot of the things I heard I felt like I could offer some insight on. And I'd like to just, you know, making it through the fire. That was the first time in my life we had to experience something like that. I know I went through that before, and it's just not great, so. I heard a lot of the problems, but I also know the solutions, and so the Mineral Trail, you know, that was never done correctly, like many things, right? There was never an eminent domain taking, is it Matt Alexander? Matt Hobbs. Matt Hobbs. There's never a proper taking of that property, right? There was a letter rating, and so that's a dirty secret, and so what you do, you know, we have to do better there in allowing more people in, to that fold and not keeping everything hidden, communication would be probably the best way forward. You know, a little light on the shed. To do things right, how about that? Because that's what I pushed for 15 years ago. But I also pushed against the TIF and the diversion of tax money that, how much was the diversion? $400,000 this year that's getting diverted, right? And I know some of you people might get some of that money. But another thing, you know, nice hat. I like your hat, right? Where did you get it? It's interesting to me, you know, we talk about business and taxes. We can build a lot of houses, but it doesn't help if we divert $400,000 back to the developer because that property tax generated is around 8%, right? And so what you do with that, you have to now service the whole new subdivision of people. Well, now you have to raise taxes or you don't have the money to service those people, right? And so that's the wall you're facing. And I was the only person voting against it, right? On a stock board. Some of you might have been on it. It was, you know, the records there, I was a half large member for the city. And so the solutions, you know, that was another thing that potentially was never done correctly. It's interesting that maybe some of your friend group might have given you that hat and now they own it, right? Something that was never permitted to be built, something that had never been taxed, explain that, right? So when you're talking about doing things correctly, you need to expand the conversation likely. But the solutions are all there, look at that map. All of those colored pieces, I'm not against you, you can go ahead and actually do something to help the community and look. All those colored pieces there can be rezoned, but again, with your private friend group, we did a rezoning, but only for our bike club buddies, right? Which maybe formerly I was one of them, but we should have opened that rezoning up to everybody because with that rezoning, what happens is the value, the numbers of the time, goes up from $800 an acre in that area to over $800,000 an acre of value, and it's all based on use rates, right? And the people that did that knew that because I told them that. I pushed for a larger expansion of that to let people opt in. Why did that not happen?

That's three minutes, Miguel. Gracias.

Good job. Any more sentences to wrap it up, or are you good? No. Thank you guys for your service. I know it's not easy. I'm not the enemy. I have some solutions. I know that I've offered that many times and been denied, but I'm going to call away.

Reach out.

hey man that's what i'm here i was here to listen but uh it's been very informative um thank you for the time thank you miguel yeah thanks for the fire yeah staff did their best and i think they did a good job all right i guess that does it for all public comment okay

Let's move on to item number one on our agenda, discussion and consideration of Resolution 2026-33, a resolution rescinding stage two fire restrictions and ratifying stage one fire restrictions in the unincorporated areas of Lake County, Colorado. This will be led by Candace Brines, our county manager.

So, Heath, I think it was early last week. I'm not incorrect. Moved us down to stage one fire restrictions. And when he moves us down to stage one fire restrictions, we really have to do a resolution to make that actually happen. And so I'm bringing that resolution forward today to you all to accept. He and I have chatted about the stage one fire restrictions and how long we anticipate they would be in place. And I would anticipate that we keep stage one. And of course, you can change based on, you know, if he gets different information. But the conversations we've had are to keep stage one in place until we're fully into, like, snowfall, especially since we still have a fire actively burning. So this resolution is just to move this down from that stage two to the stage one restriction.

Yeah, it's crazy looking at the fire services' informational updates. clocking thousand-hour fuels and all the other metrics, and that we're still in exceptional drought levels. I think the entire county still falls within exceptional drought, which is wild, because you see how much it rains every day, and it doesn't even barely move the needle. So, yeah, I don't, you know, I understand why we're coming out of stage two, but I equally understand why we gotta stay in stage one, at least, until some massive deluge of, precipitation or snow, whichever comes first. I'll make a motion.

Okay.

To approve resolution 2026-33, a resolution rescinding stage two fire restrictions and ratifying stage one fire restrictions in the unincorporated areas of Lake County, Colorado.

Seconded. Two vote. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Okay, we'll move on to item number two, discussion and consideration of Lake County Airport non-exclusive hangar use license agreements for the following. Milestone Aviation LLC, Seafield Trust LLC, Peter Farbish, Stephen Frakes, 10-2 Adventures LLC, 10-2 Adventures LLC, Ty Hall, first one being Tom Charles.

There's a little bit of a, so the last one is a duplicate. Tom said that one that's for 10-2. There's, Tom said that that's a duplicate of the one for Tide.

Just because it's a shared lease?

Sure, but we're not, Tide and I are not getting charged.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, we'll clarify that.

This will be led by Josh Adams. Morning.

This should be pretty simple. We're just updating some of our agreement documentation at the airport. Stuff hadn't been updated in, well, really since I started. We're trying to just make sure we have good agreements in place. So this is our agreement to let people keep their airplane long-term in our county-owned hangar. These are all 12-month leases currently, so we'll revisit them 12 months from now. A lot of planes are registered under LLCs, but these are all individuals that own these planes. Tom owns two aircrafts outright, and then has a split one with Ty Hall, which is why you see Ty Hall's name on here. So that's our agreements right now. We'll have some more coming, because we're working through some tenants that are a little more short-term. not a 12-month agreement, so we're working through some of that paperwork. But these are the ones that are ready to go right now, and these will be 12-month tenant rentals in our hangar. Any questions on that stuff?

Yeah. I was trying to figure out the differences between the 450 and the 250 rentals, and I was looking at the dimensions of planes and everything else until I saw Tom this morning and he's like, oh, that's the same plane, it's split. So the leases, the storage fees will be the same for every plane pretty much across the board, unless they're splitting?

So we own two hangers. Yeah. So the 250 is a cheaper rate in the smaller hanger.

Okay.

Because it's uninsulated, it doesn't have heaters, it's more rudimentary. Not climate controlled, got it. No, it's much smaller, it can only fit very, It's a very small aircraft in it. We have two in there right now. And that's why that rate is cheaper because it doesn't have the service level that the big hangar does.

Okay. And that's what you guys were just alluding to is that as it reads, it looks like they each have a $250 share, but they're splitting $250 to use the non-climate control hangar?

Correct. So that is one agreement for that aircraft. So that fee, that $250 fee, will be solely for that aircraft.

Okay. So it would be like $125 each of them, or both their names will be on one?

Correct. The agreement will just state that for that aircraft to be stored in the hangar, it will cost $250.

Okay.

Cool. And then the other ones are $450 for the large hangar that is climate-controlled and heated and nice.

Heated and nice. That's good for them. Thanks. All right.

That's all I have. Thank you.

No questions.

I have a question about the hangers in general. What were the obstacles to us not getting any RFPs back?

So we talked to, we got a new engineering firm in the spring. Bolton and Mank came on board, replaced Kinley Horn. Kinley Horn has been with us for, I think it's been like 15 years. They've been there for quite a while. Their level of service was really starting to lack. They're quite a large firm. I think they're a fortune. company if not 500 they're huge but their aviation size much smaller and they tend to serve like large airport clients and I think there was kind of we were being the small fish frequently so we went out for we had it was actually the five-year stint was over the contract so we actually went out for proposals or requests for qualifications for another engineering firm which is Bolton and Bank And they have staff, people I know from before that work specifically with small airports. They have several in the state now. They do a great job. And they kind of gave us some guidance about why our RFP might be not attracting proposals, particularly because we were putting out an RFP in hopes to get submissions from people like Tom, like individual plane owners, to build their own hangar. But the RFP, as it read, the first time I put it out, I got some feedback that it seemed it was more dialed for a developer to come in and do the whole thing, or that we were looking for that. And it wasn't clear that we were like, hey, we'll take individual submissions, four hangers. So we changed some language in it, put it back out. I guess it still wasn't clear enough, or it was too much of a hurdle to, Or scary, that's kind of a word that engineers use, but it might be like, oh, I don't understand that. That seems like a lot to somebody that just owns a plane and wants to build their own hangar. So we haven't gone back out for RFP. I think the process right now, this isn't solidified yet, is that we're going to put out a checklist on the website that has an application form on it, and it's open to anybody that wants to find it. and they can submit an application which triggers a process that this checklist details that Bolton and Mike gave us about how to start this process to get us going for a hanger lease and then eventually hopefully building the hanger on that leased ground. So that's kind of where we're at right now. Roadblocks in the previous years were for countless, numerous reasons. I won't take everyone's time here today but I think we're in a decent spot right now, but we're still, like, we got to get, like Tom said, we just miss build seasons, and we're really trying to make sure, because this process can take a while. B.B. has been through it, and Salida, and I had a gentleman talk to me that it took him six months to get through Salida's process just to kind of get the lease so that they could break ground, because they were working through it kind of the same we are, and then, oh, there's a new step that you have to do, but I could have found, like, If I'd known two weeks ago, I could have done that and just speed things up. So I'm trying to build or trying to build a process that we are hopefully we get out in front of a lot of those like hurdles that we don't even know about yet. Because we have so much data from around us of how people do it. But that's where we're at right now. We're working through that checklist just to make sure it aligns with the rest of the county because community planning development will be involved. you're building a structure things like that so we're trying to make sure that that's solidified I will say there's we do have an application form on it though that if if that's possible we can review it obviously but if I get that out on the website as we continue to work through like I said we can be making ground while we're still working on some stuff that's way further down the line I think that'd be really beneficial because I know Tom's like I not not But Tom nags my ear a few times a week about like what's going on, what do we have with the process. And I love, he's such a great tenant out at the airport. He owns three aircraft out there. I would love to continue to see his business out there. And we have other suitors asking about hangar development and stuff and building their own hangars. Also some feedback we got is they, Bolton and Mank works with Spanish Peaks. I think it's in Walsenburg. But they did the same checklist, dialed for their county, but they did the same checklist. They got it ground broken, and within a month, they had another person like, oh, you're building? Came in and asked for it, and they got that one going, and then they got another one because people see that stuff's happening. And a lot of that painful beginning hurdle, pushing the boulder over the top, was done already. So we're close to the pinnacle here, but that last 100 feet can be really, tiresome, and that's what we're trying to get it across right now.

Can I just add, too, on a timing standpoint? So we had a meeting set up between the airport, CPD, tourism and economic development, and then plans to fill in public works, because we really do want to get that checklist out for what it takes to build a hangar in Lake County. Yes. Because a lot of the feedback we've heard from Mr. Charles and others is it's complicated. We don't know what the order of the steps are. We don't know the things that we can be doing concurrently to help us save the time and get through that short building season. So we want to have that very clear for people before they start through the process and then have to deal with frustrations of, OK, we're just realizing that this is something we should have thought on the front end, but we're going to need to work through. So ideally, that will be where we're at. I think we had that meeting scheduled for July 6, and something happened in the county in July that pulled us all away from that. The RFP process was truly about, you know, equitability to ensure a fair process for people who wanted to pursue development at the airport. But what we're understanding working with the engineers, having had a few discussions with Matt Hobbs, is that as long as we have a clear process for anyone who would be interested may solve the problems and get rid of some of those more extensive hurdles in the process. What's that?

In the end phase of accepting, I'm like, as long as it's open and people know about it, like it's on your website and stuff, it's first come, first served. And it is a business deal, so you can't pick and choose who you deal with, and it's not a good business partner, things like that. It just can't be, as they describe it, unjust discrimination, which is the normal, if they're whatever skin color, you can't say that, oh, we're not giving them a hand. Things like that. So the FAA is supportive of this process that we're moving to, hopefully.

At the current amount of contracts for planes we have stored there, I'm guessing we're maxed out on space.

We're pretty close. We try and keep a spot or two for a transient aircraft to be stored in there. We've had a few transient ones that have been, they're kind of regulars, but they come in, they have a house in Bragg or along those lines and their plane will sit in there for a month or something but they don't have an agreement like a long-term agreement they pay a little bit more because it's transient so we keep a couple spots but otherwise we're pretty tight in there most of the time now and we're looking at probably getting a helicopter in there too for the next few months Tom is that how you understand it would you like to

add anything for the record or anything? You asked us for help, John.

Well, for the record, we're kind of running up against discrimination type things for the county, to be honest. All the aviation attorneys I've talked to, you know, dealing with this for four years and the closest I've been was in 2022 with Tim Bergman. I got a lease that we kind of negotiated through and we were right there and then all of a sudden It went to Chris Floyd, and she wrote a novel out of it. And, you know, and then things have been tied up since. We kind of always use the taxiway as a, let's wait until this is in, and now it's been in for two years, and there's still, I can, three? Yes, thank you. You know, I can go to the neighboring airports and get a lease across the counter, and I can come to you guys, and we can negotiate that lease, and I'll be damned, I can start building a hangar. And so we've made it a very complicated process, but we can all sit down at the table and figure it out. We just need to take the time to do it.

How's this afternoon looking for you? I can make time. Just kidding.

I could do it.

We've got to get one job done in those weeks. Got you.

Got you. Kim, I have a question. Do you know what the over-under is on the airport? Just off the top of your head. And this year, I'd have to pull the budget and see where we're at.

in general we're like we're not quite there for the airport actually making its way no well most years i'd say we're within we're plus or minus 50 so yeah it's kind of 50 that's usually some years better years yeah so i i'd like to justify and i will say our airport making profit at all any year is remarkable um there's 74 public use airports in colorado and Depends on the year, but it up to some years 70 of the 74 operated a loss Yeah, so like if that gives you an idea of the fact that our tiny little airport here makes a revenue at all some years It's pretty good. Yeah Most most places kind of just assume that it's it's a public utility It's an infrastructure piece like we're gonna fund it for its firefighting purposes or its medical unit purposes and they get funded by the municipality, whatever that is. So the fact that we're doing that is pretty good, and we do it on three people total work there. We're close, but there's a few step changes we have to make, I think, in levels of service for us to kind of push ourselves beyond, which is we have big ones like de-ice for the winter. No, we know.

Can't wait.

Yeah, I can't say I want to spray de-ice fluid. No.

I don't want you to either. Somebody else.

But it will bring us a lot of revenue.

I also think it's important to share the work that you've been doing with SBDC to actually have a business plan to make our airport at a minimum cost neutral.

Yeah.

Things that I don't think we really sat down and looked at at that level of having a real business plan, actually trying to get to where we can have people able to get their hangers done. But those are really big things that Josh and Josh have been working on with dedication and that is part of having each of us have departments so we could actually make changes in those departments that are gonna move towards being a little more cost neutral and just making smart decisions because you actually have someone to help support you in why don't we create a business plan explicitly if it's a department that has the ability to bring So Josh has been doing a lot of that work alongside Josh this year.

Yeah, and it's pretty close. We're still working through some of the, like, inputting some finance stuff in it. And then, yeah, like, inputting, like, kind of, like, the future piece of, like, where we want to see it grow. Because we kind of just, right now, it's like, hey, this is what we do every year. Right. Now let's build it out with the future plan of, like, what happens when we introduce.

Yeah.

like DI's per se or whatever other service we start to offer. We get a base jet tenant that buys an extra 1,000 gallons of fuel per week or something. That helicopter I mentioned, they said that they could be purchasing up to three truckloads of fuel, so 2,700 gallons of fuel a week. And if you do our, at our current gross fuel sale price, it would be $392,000 by the end of the year extra. we if that helicopter buys that much i don't know if that's going to happen but that was mentioned so like if that gives you an idea of like it doesn't take a lot to really start to jump in revenues and the airport to be much more viable um next summer i would say 2027 is gonna we're gonna make money because aspen's closing from the middle of april until the week before Thanksgiving. I already had a company contact me about flying charter helicopters to fly people from Leadville to Aspen. So that's been discussed, I don't know where, it's in their court right now. So that's been going on. That summer will be like, I have a feeling we're going to make as much money as we have room for on the ramp because that is going to cause chaos amongst the very wealthy people of Aspen.

Yeah, yeah.

Josh, I assume everybody does oil changes out there. If there's a plane that needs more than that, is that not allowed? Or is there ever a time in the future where there'll be a mechanic's garage out there?

Oh, there could be. Currently in our hangar and on our ramp, we limit maintenance to what we consider routine maintenance. I was an aircraft mechanic for 10 years. I worked on jets and stuff for a long time. There are certain pieces of maintenance like plane restoration or overhauls that kind of move out of that realm of like, oh, I can fix my plane in a few days or maybe a week or two. The issue you run into with like major repairs is that the plane is often immovable in those times, which makes it very inconvenient especially if it's on the ramp or in the hangar like you have to consider long term like where that aircraft is going to sit because it's going to be there for maybe months maybe years um depending on who's doing i worked at a what we call the major repair and overhaul facility and like that was like a strategic plan and we had 13 hangars that we owned the company on that they would plan where jets were going to sit because they had a two-month extent where they're not going to move and it became like hey we got to get this plane put back together so we can move it so we can put another one in its spot because that's the schedule where we just don't have the capability in our current facility to do that now if someone wanted to like if someone built a hangar their own or rented a hangar from somebody that built one and wanted to open our maintenance facility then that we absolutely can allow that because that's the intent of that building where our building is designed for aircraft storage with allowed routine maintenance. I'm sure this isn't brought up because of a certain person that has an aircraft at the airport right now that is going to take a considerable amount of maintenance to get it back to where it would ever fly again. We just can't have it at the airport because we have to be able to move the plane. That's kind of where we're at with that right now. But we could absolutely have maintenance there. I hope to see it someday.

Can you define ferryable?

That's a, basically you get a permit from the FAA stating that, yes, we know your aircraft has a, what we call a downer or a downing condition that would make it so it doesn't fly. It's not allowed to fly. You can get a permit to say like, oh, it's a one-time ferry permit to fly that aircraft to a maintenance facility. Um, for, you know, we had a plane that crashed at the airport a few years back. Um, it was still flyable, but it had enough damage where it needed a major repair to the wing, but you could still fly it. Um, they came up, they changed the propeller on it, and then they kind of put like a bandaid on the wing. I think it was like a, I think they cut a pop can and taped it to the wing.

Okay, Josh.

Um, which is a real thing, but, uh, Nate. They flew it down to Denver because that's where the maintenance facility was. But he had to apply for a ferry permit with the FAA to do that. The rules for flying aircraft are much stricter than ever owning a car and stuff. There's a reason air travel is so safe because there actually are robust and strict rules on aircraft maintenance and maintenance intervals and checks. That's kind of where that comes from. That's all from the FAA. Good question.

And one last question. Do wings, if someone had an aircraft there, do wings come off of every, like how would you get it down the road?

Oh, they come off. Most aircraft, their wings are unremovable. I mean, I helped Tom put a wing on a few weeks ago. I helped lift. I didn't do any maintenance. I was simply a still man. But, yeah, they come off. Certain aircraft, granted, it might be a more of an involved process. I don't know in this particular aircraft what that process would be because I've never worked on that. It's quite an old model of airframe. I think that one's 1951 when that plane was built. But most aircraft, the wings do come off. And then you can reinstall them and they just have to be inspected and checked by a licensed airframe mechanic in that sense.

Do they ever, instead of pop cans, use beer cans?

Another joke, sorry. I worked on C-130s in the Marine Corps and we had a very large fruit bat go through the wing of a C-130. What? Yeah, they're huge. I know, how did it go through the wings? It hit it in flight. That metal slipped in, right? Yeah, the bat wasn't flying fast enough, the aircraft was. And it went, we found it in, it was in there, and it was pretty. But one of my friends, an air framer, he, we went and got, I don't remember what type of, but beer can, pop can, whatever it was, but that aluminum's not far off the thickness of what an aircraft aluminum is. And we, it was a ferry, this high speed tape called speed tape. And then we flew it back to Okinawa, Japan from Thailand. Duck tape. It's an expensive foil tape.

You see it on a wing and it's like, that can't be good.

It's real. I've done it. Cool. I love this.

C-130s are like fuel, they're transport carriers aren't they? It depends on the purpose.

The ones I worked on were aerial refuelers. We refueled stuff in flight. I feel like I've seen those in and out of here. That's the biggest aircraft we'll take at the airport is the C-130.

Oh yeah, we get them every month or so. It's like the biggest one, you know, like you just said. It's always shocking when you see one coming in over town.

Yeah, they're mostly Air Force birds. I had a crew a few months ago that with some Marine Corps guys that actually, you know, they were still flying. No way. That was kind of cool. That's awesome. I really do want to see a C-1. Also, if you didn't know, Airbus has been there. They're going to leave soon, so I'd come down. But Airbus has been there testing a prototype helicopter, which is like two of three in the world right now.

I've been hearing it.

Yeah, if you hear like a weird leaf blower sound, it's that helicopter. So if you want to come see it at the airport, you're more than welcome.

They've been flying a bunch this last week, right? Yeah. Yeah.

They've been getting a lot of flight time in too. Yeah. I don't know.

There's something airport related but a little bit off the topic of contracts and storing planes is Could you educate us a little bit on issues surrounding rental car companies being on airport property? I'm trying to find it in my notes, but this came up at a CCI meeting and it was like flagged as something that could be a real liability risk for most counties because the way the state laws are set up. Sure.

We used to have herds there.

And it was like they didn't have And I might need help with the taxi service as well. And how, like, once they're on airport, you know, FAA-governed property, like, they don't have to, there's no law that says they have to follow the rules that they should be following. Am I remembering this correctly?

I don't remember the specifics, but I do remember them saying that, like, if there's going to be a taxi, if people want to pop up taxi services to manage the Pitkin shutdown, They have to be licensed by the FAA to come on.

And there was no laws in the state of Colorado that backed that up. And I think that they were running into problems that there were taxi or car rental services that were operating on the airport that didn't even know the basics of what they should have been doing. So is there anything on that subject that you can like educate us on? Cause I remember hearing this in conversations and being like, Oh, like, I need to ask Josh about that sometime. So here we are.

So my initial thought is speculative. I don't know this for sure. But Aspen's a part 135 operator, or 139 operator, sorry. That's a FAA. You can look it up. But it's basically the commercial service level. So you jump into this realm of TSA and maybe customs, things like that. You have to have... authorized training programs for people that drive on airport surfaces. So like the runway, not on the runway most likely, but the ramps, the taxiways, anything that aircraft also operate on, those airports you have to go through, they have to have a training program and implement it and badging and all this procedures basically to let people operate on the field. We don't have that. because we're not a part, we don't have that requirement because we're not a part 139 operator. It's nice because we have less really, I mean, the rules jump a lot. If you go to DIA, you understand what it looks like there. That's my guess is what they're running into is that they have, they had a taxi driver that worked for a company that has operated there before, but they have a new driver or something and they have never been trained to operate. So they don't have the right.

Yeah.

the right qualification to operate or the permit to operate on the airport. is my guess.

I can add some additional context around the piece of legislation.

You were in the CCI meeting, and I'm trying to find that, I keep pulling up the agenda, I can't find the list of proposed initiatives suggested for CCI to carry forth, but it was in there, and it went into a better description than what I just... Yeah, so the context is around commercial activity at the airports, and there was a ground

this came up through Routt County there was a ground transportation company that was not following airport rules and regulations and they were told to cease operations and they then filed a complaint with the Public Utilities Commission saying counties don't have the authority to oversee commercial activities at the airport because it's governed by the Public Utilities Commission and so The text of this language was to amend some legislation to give counties authority to regulate common carriers who would engage in that kind of commercial activity.

Thank you.

That's it. Thanks, Josh.

You were so close, Andy.

I think, if I remember, I think route is commercial service airport, if I remember right.

Okay, so this doesn't affect us. Yeah, it's the Hayden one.

It's the Hayden one, which is commercial, because that's, like, the airport that serves, like, Stevie. All right. That's where people land if they want, like, to fly United or whatever into there. I don't know. That could still, like, somebody could still complain, maybe, at our airport, if that's just the case of, like, who has authority. But I'm guessing also is that... Usually bigger airports like that run under an airport authority. So they're a separate, almost like a municipality. If I was my own airport authority, I wouldn't have to go through you guys anymore in regards to writing my own checks and payments and things like that. I don't want that burden yet. That's a long ways down the road. That could also be like, hey, the county was like, oh, you can't operate there, but it needed to come from the airport authority or that, like you said, that public utility commission or whatever, whoever has the authority over the airport had to come from. So that could have been part of it as well. So it certainly could be something though, I'll do some more research. We don't have to worry about it too much right now because we don't have a lot of like, we could use some. It's another problem I have is somehow attracting like a rental car company to, They shouldn't be an issue, really. They don't operate the car on the airport. They just rent the car. Other users, potentially, but we're not quite there yet. We get a few, like, we'll get, like, there's one called Ski Lift. That's like a shuttle service. They'll show up. And they always, we just have them check in with us. But right now, there's, like, if you ever go out, there's no fence, really. You can kind of just drive out there. But that's a project we're looking into doing next year with funding is to put in a secure a people fence to keep people off of the surfaces without authorization. Because I think it's just a matter of time before some local yahoos figure out there's a nice piece of asphalt out there.

I don't have any further questions. I do just want to say that I think anything we can do to expedite or encourage and help staff with making things happen up at the airport, I think all three of us have expressed interest multiple times in trying to reduce hurdles for airport expansion in any way, shape, or form. So just keep us posted. Let us know what we can do to help you guys, help staff, and anything that you need and then anything that the public has to bring to us like hey here's what the boots on the ground this is what i'm seeing from my end you know like let just let us know and then we'll keep having these conversations and trying to get everybody in the same room so that we can hear everything you know as a group and try and hash things out because i feel like that's when that's when a lot of progress happens is when everyone's in the same room all talking together and not screaming or yelling I agree, thank you.

Yeah, just a housekeeping thing on the lease agreements for today. So typically, moving forward, the airport lease agreements will end up on your consent agenda for these meetings. The reason we wanted to put this as a discussion item is that we're really overhauling all of the agreements at the airport. So there was a large, a big grouping of them. So we wanted to kind of raise your awareness is that we're generating consistency around the hangar lease agreements. We've got some other, things in the works related to using hangers for event space. There's books that pay the county to park their cars there throughout the year so that when they land they've got a vehicle to pick up and go ski or whatever they're intending to do. So moving forward those agreements will land on your consent agenda. This is why this one's discussion today.

Cool. So technically do we move to approve each one individually or can we move to approve all of the

I think you can really do it for all the ones that are on the agenda. I would just list them out in your motion.

List them out in the motion? Yeah.

Cool.

All right, I will move to approve the Lake County Airport non-exclusive hangar use license agreements for the following. Milestone Aviation LLC, Seafield Trust LLC, Peter Farabish, Stephen Franks, 10-2 adventures LLC.

Before I second that, can I ask if we need to amend either of those ones that say, those two 250s that look like they add up to 500 but are actually 250 split? Do we need to change any of those?

It's just that last one that's on there is the duplicate.

so i think since she didn't you know i think in the motion that's probably the plan right now it's just the llc or versus yeah the individuals yeah okay so it's we just take it'll just be llc one of them yeah cool um i will second that motion to vote hi hi hi thanks so much all right thank you thank you for seeing you josh

And Josh also used it.

Thank you, Tom. Thanks for your help there, Josh.

Yeah, we can always use more Joshes, Matt.

I had two Joshes at the airport for a while.

That was really good. There's only two of us. That guy talked to you on the phone. I was like, I don't think he did. Thanks, man.

I guess we'll move on to item number three, county attorney updates.

I just got a few things. I'm starting to slowly get caught up on things. I think you all saw that memo on the courthouse monuments that we've been kind of chatting about for a while. But feel free to provide any feedback on that. We'll get that teed up for one of these regular sessions here. Going forward, I think the memo or the policy kind of deals with a lot of different issues. It deals with the issues of monuments, temporary signage, and sort of separating out and keeping the parking lot area and the sidewalk area available for public. We're really kind of reining in the lawn, essentially, in terms of, you know. So I hope that sort of gets you where you all wanted to be. If not, give me some feedback and we can...

i read through it i mean it felt thorough it's also like in that language that you speak that i'm not super fluent in you know um but it felt to me like it checked all the boxes so i agree um the other thing that i spent quite a bit of time on the last probably month is getting that sort of summary legislation put together um that was beautiful man yeah

so i don't know if you all want to have a work session on that or i don't i mean i'm happy to do that it would be a little bit redundant i think but um you know that uh hopefully it's helpful for everyone in the county because there's there's you know there's a lot in there i i gave it to all the elected officials as well because there's changes for their departments particularly the assessor and the you know the treasurer the treasurer has a a totally new treasury screening process in terms of how that gets done. There's always changes affecting elections, as Andy probably knows. The largest issues were DHS, it was just the lion's share of stuff, and I think that's probably gonna continue going forward, because there's just a lot of money there, and a lot of money that's not gonna be there anymore, so I think it's gonna be a challenge with the state and the counties to continue dealing with the modifications of HD1 and how that's all going to shake out. The next policies I want to get teed up are a records policy. It's sort of been on my to-do list for a bit. So I'm hoping to get that done in the next few weeks, a draft of that and dealing with records retention here and emails and everything else. And then one gentleman mentioned the mental belt. That's obviously been a topic of conversation, and I've been working on that as well. And hopefully I'll have something to bring to you all in a little bit in terms

Do you think any of the domain issues that were mentioned have any traction?

I'm skeptical. I don't know exactly what, you know, it's hard when people make these sort of blanket statements that aren't really backed up by much. It's easy to make those kind of statements and when you start digging into them they generally fall apart. I think my understanding is there's some easements that have been granted. through a lot of the property that's not actually county property on the middle belt so where there's an easement that granted it there's no need for eminent domain because there's permission that's been granted to the easement so yeah and even if there hasn't been it's been in use enough to be a prescriptive certainly yeah yeah Yeah, I mean, that didn't give me a lot of points.

Persuasive. We do remember that.

I was too confused until the words came out of my mouth. I'm paying attention.

I'm listening today. Thank you, Matt. Sorry.

Yeah, it's okay. That's all I got. I have a question. Yeah.

How's the office search going?

Candace and I are working on it. Okay. So we're going to meet this afternoon.

Great. Okay. And we have until the end of October, is that right?

We have until like mid-October. So my plan would be to be out of there by the end of September. Just it's cleaner that way and we don't incur another month's rent. But we'll see if that can happen or not.

Thank you, Matt. Shall we move on to county manager updates?

We just had our staff appreciation. get together last week and we were really excited to do that and recognize some great work our staff have been doing. Currently, we've been working on the budget and I am going to focus my updates primarily on that right now. I am really excited we have Randy with DOLA coming back just to refresh for us what are statutory requirements, what are the priorities that we set, Um, I think it's really important. Um, as we discussed the budget, when you heard today, we have a plethora of opinions, um, about budgets and where we spend our money, but I think it's really important. Um, for us to continue to focus on the fact that the deferred maintenance, we are all the, uh, recipients of and have inherited didn't start two years ago that they started decades ago. And as a county, I think we've really matured and it's really important to benchmark against other counties. Local governments provide services to the community and those services are delivered through staff. We are not outside of the percentage range for counties and what they spend on staff to provide services. We actually fall right within the benchmark that other counties do. Regardless, we're going to be taking a deep deeper look into what do we budget, what do we actually spend, what do other counties budget and spend in terms of staffing. I think it's also important as we talk about the budget to understand that DOLA provided the grants to the county and the city so that we were making decisions based on facts and data with the outlook of managing from the standpoint of you know, real factual decisions and not just emotions, which it seems like a lot of decision making that we've inherited was made based on emotions. And so I really am excited to have Dylan here to talk about, you know, what we're required to provide because we provide a whole host of activities that aren't what we're required to provide because people have not wanted to continue doing them. So we've just picked up a lot of things. And I think as our budgets get tighter and as we have to really figure out how are we going to address deferred maintenance we didn't create but did inherit, that we have to be honest with ourselves about what is it that we are required to provide, how can we afford to provide it, and how can we start to think about other ways of funding the extracurricular activities we've picked up are going to be really important. and to actually get to work on our budgets from a place of actually having our books closed, actually knowing what our fund balances are, actually being able to say here's what the cost of services are and here's how we will provide more revenues is gonna be really important as we talk about what will our budget be for the next year. And so I'm excited to really be able to look at that from the standpoint of actual data to inform our decisions Um, rather than, you know, emotional responses, um, which is just part of growing up, right. And being professional. And I'm really excited to be able to bring that information forward so we can be making decisions from that lens. So that has been a huge lift to even just get us to the point. I think you all know when I came on in 20, the last month of 24, we were two audits behind. Um, Demetra, our auditor will be coming to present the audit to you all, um, by the end of September. Um, he's been out of the country for a month, so I'm, I'm just really excited to know how far we have come so that we actually have the information that we need to make good decisions. Um, so that has been a huge lift in a lot of the work we have been doing. We lost the whole month of July. So now we are having to do all of that budget work in a pretty condensed period of time. Um, but excited to get that in here and to really start to make decisions, um, get a town hall scheduled. So once we have that prelim adopted, we can bring it out to the community, let them have the opportunity to ask questions. Um, so that's the biggest thing I think we've been working on and then refilling some roles, um, that have vacated over the past few months. Um, so I think we've gotten a few things posted that like have been sitting vacant for a while. Because we actually had time to write the job description and be intentional about what we what we want to accomplish with that position.

I think you know like we listen to during public comment about how like we need to sit down and be able to ask these questions and that's literally what our town halls are for, you know, so I really encourage anyone watching this later or you know everyone in the room like show up to the town halls you know like you want that space like that is that's the vehicle like come in you know aside from us being you know email or call us anytime it's there's also like a specific dedicated forum for those kinds of questions and concerns from the community to ask us those questions that are just burning and you know yeah i think that's why we're very intentional to do the town hall because we know

know this is in the middle of the day it's not the time everyone can come but we try to really do that budget town hall so it is an evening event so people could come after work can walk around learning to ask questions we'll follow the same format as we did last year we'll present the budget we'll present all the information and then we'll have people set up at tables again so people can walk and ask specific questions about budget items when will that happen um i don't have the date yet but we're trying to get it organized for october um it'll be after the 15th the 15th is the statutory deadline for the prelim to be accepted but from october 15th all the way up until the first week in december when we adopt the budget changes can be made based on the input we get from community members but if they've got your email address i can make sure that we email you the budget town hall date once it's set

You know what? I'm glad that I came today because I think it's very important for people like me to be involved.

Yeah.

You know? And we need to talk at a good, you know, management level. We don't ... We're a team, led by a team. That's what I want to be.

Well said, Michael.

You know? Let me tell you one thing. I'm a fifth generation, going to be a fifth generation, born and raised in Langville. I don't want to see like that, get trumped on. I want to see this town survive through a lot. It's survived through a lot. And I've seen a lot. So when I'm just done, I do want to have an opportunity to come in and speak, you know, certain things and, you know, So I have a business and I got to live by my budget. I can't go over budget or else my business would be done.

Everything costs more all the time too. So that gets harder every year. We're actually in the same boat. I know. It's harder for us too. Inflation is just...

Thanks, Mick. We should make everybody aware that if you get on our website and go under finance, It's really interactive. It's really clear where all the money that we talk about transparency and that's come a long way since Candace has been here and you know, I would also say publicly that you guys are doing a great job. We can take the pressure. I don't like it to see you guys getting pressure. But when I look at the finance page on our Lake County website, there is no gray area. I mean, it's just absolutely laid out. You should check it out, Nick. Oh, I did. And anybody else online should check it out too. And you can see what we're up against. There is no frivolous spending. And for people to come in and say, you should spend money on this. And then in the same breath, say you're spending too much money and that there's going to be this and that it's just, it's just not true. So, you know, we're doing the best that we can with what we got. And, uh, And it gets tougher all the time, just materials and labor, everything, real estate taxes. So I just want to say thanks to you guys and everybody in this room. And I also didn't get a chance to thank everybody at the county at our little barbecue the other night. And next time, I won't because everybody takes a lot.

lot of crap here at the county and I just see a bunch of people trying to make everything a little bit better every day so yeah I own a business in this county and I know you know I think there's even some value in um you know we all know that there's a handful of people who just um always are gonna find fault with what we're doing. And no matter how hard we try, they're gonna look for the missteps. No one's perfect. I think what staff is doing right now is amazing, and it gives me a lot of hope for where the county's heading into the future. We've really tightened belts. We've gone on a huge, huge diet as a county. I mean, the amount of money that we've cut out of possible projects and things that we got handed the reins to, is is sky-high number you know somewhere around half of what our annual budget would be but I'm gonna say personally that I'm a little bit grateful for the people who are constantly badgering us and looking for our faults because it helps us look for ways to we can get a little bit better like you know what people aren't understanding this so how can we explain this a little bit better so that you know maybe not certain specific individuals but anyone who was who was thinking the same thing is going to understand next time so you know despite how hard it is to have people come in and misrepresent what we're doing or you know get all over our staff thinking they're not doing their jobs it does give us a little bit of like ammunition to be like all right like Here's, here's where we might find a little bit of low hanging fruit or some room to improve some outreach. So that stuff's super hard. And I don't think a lot of people get it, but like, you know, I want to really echo what Matt said about how good of a job you guys are doing, you know, all of you and that I want to really. lean into how we can make sure the Community knows that as well, because if they really saw all the changes that we made there's a checklist that mile long of all the things that have happened. That we've gotten a front row seat to that you guys have started or that you know we've helped us with you know we're vice versa, and I think. We could get, you know, if we can get those messages across, it would go a long ways towards helping people who live here understand how much work's being done in there every day.

I'll just be excited to do budget town hall. I think that's the best place to understand what are we planning for? You know, how much does it really cost to do those things and to get input before we're at that final adoption. Um, so I think you gave him your email, correct? So we can make sure we get that out as soon as we get the date set. But it will be in October. It just has to be after the 15th when we've done the prelim to have something to present to people. But I think that's the whole point of a budget town hall is to let people ask questions, to make sure people understand. And a big part of that is having the dashboards and information that is really, for all intents and purposes, as transparent as you can be. So I am excited for that, but that has been a huge part of our work the last month. Usually you start your budget process at the beginning of July and us losing a full month with the deadline, the October 15th, pretty huge amount of work to meet with every single department and look at the past few years. And we did a five-year projection this year, which we haven't had in the past. Um, so just a lot of work being done on the budget end and that involves every director that involves finance that involves, you know, all, all of us meeting. So excited to get that done. And then we'll get that data for October. And that's all I have for updates. That's all we've been doing is budgets. It's the fire ended. Thanks Candace. Yeah.

Thank you, Candace. Okay. motion to approve the consent agenda I will make a motion to approve the consent agenda seconded to vote aye aye aye just a reminder that all packet materials for agenda items are available upon request you can subscribe to email or text notifications please visit our Lake County Colorado website this concludes our Regular board meeting September 1st at 1230 p.m.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Commissioners. Thank you, staff. Thank you, public.

Thank you.

Yep. You got my email.

Do you want to write yours now?