Board of County Commissioners Regular and Meetings - Special Meeting

Let's take this one. Oh, ready.

Hello and welcome to the regular meeting of the Lake County Board of County Commissioners. It's April 7th at 11 a.m. Please turn off or silence your cell phones. And we will start with the pledge of pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda for today's meeting? I will make a motion to approve the agenda for today's meeting.

Oh, sorry. Seconded. Two vote. I I agenda is approved for today's meeting and we will start with community information items. Elsa, would you like to go first?

Sure. Um, so in taking my tax workshop, I learned that, you know, Colorado has this legislation that removes taxes from groceries, medicines, all there's like a whole list of categories of products that don't have taxes. Um, that removes Colorado state sales tax. And then it's up to counties to adopt which of those products, all, none, or some, that have sales tax removed for county sales tax. And um we have some of those taxes removed, but in particular, I wanted to get onto an agenda in front of us in the future. um a removal of sales tax from period products and diapers which include incontinence products for all ages cuz currently we have a lot of sales tax removed from like medicines etc. Obviously groceries for our county sales tax but not those things and so um Matt suggested that I bring it up here to make sure you guys would be okay with putting it on the agenda for us to talk about.

You be okay with that? Yeah. Yeah. And I think we just need a resolution to to do that. It doesn't require an ordinance. So would be Could we ask for a fiscal impact or is it nominal? It's nominal. Nominal.

It's like $6 a year per leading person. I don't know what it would be for some. I'm saying and I'm saying $6 per per year for a bleeding person. So if you assume we've got like 2500 bleeding folks 2500 and let's say some of them buy their products in Lake County, which I don't. Okay. I just it's not a significant amount. Okay. Maybe we talk about that in the future. Is that good? Matt, can we get that on the agenda? Thank you. Agenda.

Since it's not a work session, I can't like put it into our work session things. Put in a request. Request made. Thank you guys. That's all.

A pretty cool week for fans of Easter egg hunts. If anyone wasn't paying a lot of attention to that, I thought what the uh the the group who usually runs the Easter egg hunt out at Cooper um what they did at the Ice Pals Park was really cool. The kids had a blast. There was 3,000 something eggs for the kids there all packed by hand. Um and since Cooper couldn't host the egg hunt, that adjustment was pretty cool to see. And I don't know if I've ever seen that many kids in this community turn out for one Easter egg hunt. So that was pretty wild. And what the sheriff's department did over the last week, I don't know if everybody in this room caught wind of that or not, but that was wild. They were hiding one egg a day that had a ticket in it that you could redeem at the sheriff's department for a prize,

and they would post one hint on social media as soon as the kids got out of school. So parents were like waiting for this hint to drop and as soon as it did, everybody descends on wherever the spot was that you know the hint alluded to and there's just kids running around like crazy looking for these things. The one down at Community Field, there's like kids out there in the snow and sle looking around crawling in the mud. It was awesome watching these kids get outside and get fresh air and just so I want to give a big shout out to the folks who put the Easter egg hunt at the Ice Palace Park. That was awesome. And then the sheriff's department for putting on the other Easter egg hunt. That was really cool to see. And I'd like to uh explore other ideas for the future of how we could keep something like that going because it was just a fun thing for the community. So that's all I have.

Cool. Well, I attended the Inter Mountain Transportation Regional meeting, otherwise known as IMTPR, and they wanted us to know that they're going to resurface uh Colorado 24 from the Leadville Junction at 91 all the way to the top of Tennessee Pass. Great news for everybody, especially cyclists. Hopefully, they can get Tennessee Pass to the county or to the next paved section, which I think is Rugcliffe. They also wanted to highlight their internship program through uh Front Range Community College. And so they're I mean if anybody has a senior in high school that's looking for a career in road and bridge, they are the Colorado Local Technical Assistance Program and they assist you guys in trying to find some workers.

Yeah, we actually do a bunch of our classes with them. Okay. We actually have two coming to Lake County in May. So, we're hosting two of their classes up there. Awesome. I thought that was cool outreach for the and specifically for seniors in high school, but we're trying. But it's basically for anybody, but yeah. Um, they do have a college degree now that you can get through LTA and Front Range College.

Very cool. Wanted to highlight that. And that's all I got. Candace, did you you was you you attended some sort of conversation about the repaving, right? Didn't that come up recently? The repaving and trying to manage the flow of traffic. Am I think I have something different? It is not ringing about. So, okay. They didn't call it repaving. You call it resurfacing. Resurfacing. resurfacing and they said they're gonna continue they're in the design phase of the roundabout down on Twin Lakes. So cool.

Oh, I was talking about the bridge at Redcliff. The bridge at Redcliffe. Yeah, I was like resurfacing. No, they are doing some work on the bridge at Red Cliff over the summer. Um I'll actually have like a whole report for you. been jumping on the I asked to be looped into the C do calls. So, I'd have a heads up before they're they're going to um be working on it all summer. So, that bridge area will only have one lane of traffic and then at some point I think they're to route people under. But I'll I'll try to do an update on that. Probably not today because then I will bump friendly. But I'll make sure I circle back.

I forgot keep mentioning that we said it's something we should push out on all our channels. So people become aware of it before they're stuck in a line of traffic waiting over there. Let people know to leave a little earlier for their jobs and whatnot. I was trying to let them put C do push out something and then us whatever their communication pieces. Thank you. Yeah,

all of our meeting recordings are available um and our work sessions, they're all recorded and available on the Lake County government YouTube channel. They're transcribed and indexed as well. The recordings can be watched at a time that's best for you. Subscribe and subscribe and stay informed on county decisions. Public comment is available for residents wishing to speak on an agenda item or another issue that is not on the agenda. To make a public comment, residents may request to speak by raising your hand in person using the raised hand feature in Zoom or sending a message in chat. Does anyone in the room have a public Oh, the chair. 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. Start with anybody in the room have a public comment? Hello. Um, just need to let you guys know that today I closed County Road 4.

From Abley parking to Aerman Pass that section of road is falling off. Uhhuh. What's gotten worse? It's invaded the safe lane. So, I really can't have traffic running on there. Okay. The downhill side. No, the uphill side. The side. It's It's moved over to that lane some more this last year, this last winter. Um, so I don't feel it's safe to drive vehicles on anymore. Oh wow. Um I will leave it open to um pedestrians or bicycle traffic because it should be solid for that.

Not that much weight compared to a vehicle or a camper trailer going across it. So we're looking at some options like um some grant opportunities coming up that might work towards that. So, it's just the Aly parking area, but you could go all the way around and still access. Yeah, you could go around the north side of the lake and still have access to Hagerman Pass once that's open. Okay. But it's just closed that one section on floor. Okay. Thanks, Michael. And it's closed until further notice. Yeah, it's not going to open for a while until we get something figured out with it. Okay.

Thank you, Michael. We'll move to online. I think Jean, I think you were first. Thank you. Jane Harelson, 172 Rafferty Drive. Um, a taxpayer named Juanita said, "My kids need the pool. My sister and I used to swim while my dad lifted weights upstairs in the gym." So many of you know that um from 1975 to 1999 we had the best rec center around and um with the kids and the school district consolidation moving the students out of that school next fall we the taxpayers have a excellent opportunity to uh revisit that rec center. So, I'd like to thank um Candace and Sandra for uh moving things around and putting PB Swims on the work session next week so we can discuss and consider the county's responsibility for the aquatic center. Um appreciate you all serving. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Day, you're next.

Sure. Good morning. um maybe maybe a little bit premature, but um on your agenda today there's the model traffic code ordinance, the first reading or whatever. I don't know what's what's in it. I expect there'll be a, you know, public public hearing on it in the in the future, but I just wanted to to mention that when the um the OBV ordinance was uh was passed, there were some items that were taken out of the of that didn't appear in the 24-01 ordinance that were in the 23-01 ordinance that were going to be moved into the model traffic code. And I haven't done my homework to identify which ones those were, but but I would just en encourage um whoever's working on this to have a have a look and see, you know, see what um you know, what came out of the 23-01 ordinance. Um and make sure that's in the in the model traffic code. and and might even go so far as to as to put all of the the traffic items um for for public for public use that appear in the in the OB ordinance and put those in the model traffic code. I expect Sheriff Specman and and um and and an um you know might might recall which you know what what this issue was about that there you know I think the model traffic code was supposed to be updated around the time the OV ordinance you know came into effect a couple years ago but that didn't happen so so there has been a lag but I expect people remember how that how that was supposed to work. Thank you.

Thank you, Peter. Thanks, Pete. Anybody else online or in the room for public comments? Um, can I just say, Peter, I know we'll talk about it later, but there is a lot of OV regulation in the traffic code that's been proposed today. So, hopefully we can get your input on that. Okay, great. Well, will that be published somewhere online? I I know it's appear in the paper, but we'll show up, you know, somewhere on the county website.

It should. I mean, uh, we can certainly get you a copy, Peter. It'll it'll certainly be published, uh, if the board passes the first reading today. Uh, it needs to be published prior to the second reading being adopted. If you could shoot me your email, I could make sure you have a copy. I think I'll give you my card. and do. Thanks, Peter.

All right. Well, moving on and speaking of the first reading and introduction of ordinance 2026-2, an ordinance for the regulation of traffic and vehicles by the county of Lake, state of Colorado, adopting by reference the 2024 edition of the model traffic code with amendments repealing all ordinance ordinances in conflict therewith and providing penalties for violation thereof. up. It doesn't say who this will be led by. I can go ahead and take the lead on this. Um,

since I drafted it, uh, I worked with Sheriff Specman pretty closely in developing this over the last month or so. Um, you know, the model traffic code basically tracks state statute and allows some of your revenues when traffic citations are issued to come into the county versus going to the state. That's one major reason why most local governments have dropped the model traffic code, uh, which essentially mirrors state law in terms of traffic regulation. Um, your pri your your current code that you're operating under is from 2010, so it's a bit outdated at this point. There's been a couple iterations of MTC's since 2010. Um, Sheriff Speckman, I think, is anxious to get this in place because there's been, you know, obviously these laws are always changing and evolving. And, um, I I I'm hopeful, uh, it sounds like they're wanting this new code, you know, and hopefully there will be some more traffic enforcement this new new code's adopted and his deputies have some better guidance on on sort of the laws and citations. um you know in terms of your all's discussion today where it would be helpful to have input um the model traffic code itself is like I said it's it's basically a a mirror image of state law so there's there's not a lot of discussion around there but there are things we added uh into the traffic regulations that are specific to Lake County um which Paul is mainly in section four of of the ordinance that was presented to you all today. Um the state highway restrictions regarding independence pass. Uh this essentially

mirror state law, but I carried this provision over from your last ordinance enacting the mile traffic code in 2018. Um, you know, I added a bunch in here about road restrictions and giving, you know, the public works director essentially uh authority to close roads and and and do other things effective around roads, which Sheriff Specman was really appreciative of because that takes a load off off his department. It's really what you guys are doing anyway. So to have that codified is uh I think really helpful for everybody. If stuff cars need to be towed because they're blocking a snowplow or what have you, this ordinance gives, you know, Michael the authority, whoever the public works director, the authority to tow that without involving the sheriff. Uh I don't know how it's happened in the past, but at least it's cleared now in terms of, you know, that delegation authority. So that's that's in there regarding county road restrictions, winter road closures, which is a big issue that we've talked about numerous times. Again, giving public works director the ability to close those roads. Um snow removal, uh special events, temporary closure, temporary road closures around special events, you know, all that stuff that's functionally probably been happening anyway. just clear that you know public works director has the authority to to do all that stuff. Um and that's in the final section 7 there's the enforcement authority which sheriff and the sheriff's deputies can enforce all provisions of the ordinance and then um what counties are allowed to do is delegate authority of of enforcement of ordinances to certain people department

outside of law enforcement. So Ann and I for example have talked about this on on some land use stuff. So that may just kind of create preloading something maybe in the future. But so for the public works, this ordinance says the public works director uh is designated as the authorized and first enforcement personnel for the limited purpose of enforcing provisions of this ordinance related to parking, towing and road management. Um and then um you know probably the larger issue like I said where it would be helpful to have some more discussion is uh there's we we added some things that I think mirrored a lot of what is in in ordinance 2301 regarding OV regulations. uh but also sort of tried to clarify some some issues that I've heard um you know expressed from you all in terms of concern around sort of the regulation. Um I think probably the larger one was this is in you know F number three the sort of the purpose meditation uh you know tried to clarify that yeah you can use county roads to uh to travel to recreational areas but you know the intent of the my understanding of the intent of the law originally wasn't to allow ow people to just travel on county roads uh you know for recreational purposes. It's like you want needed to go from you know your house to wherever out in the forest fine but yeah not to go grocery shopping and and things like that with so if that's not what was intended or that's what's

in here now is to prohibit that. So that's a discussion for you all. um you know the operational requirements I think kind of a lot of this carries over from state law um in terms of what's required what's prohibited uh we put some parking staging you know language in there that the trailers shall not obstruct traffic or create a safety hazard. Again, this ordinance gives you public works Michael the authority to enforce that piece of it. And then it sets up some separate violations regarded to OBUS. Um, under state law, the board has the ability to levy fines up to $1,000 for violations of its ordinances. So this is sort of a tiered uh fraction system for these violations of the OBV first offense 100 second offense a thousand you know third and subsequent offenses um not less than a thousand probably discretion of the the judge at that point. Um the violations in the penalties regarding the other traffic stuff it's all spelled out in the state code. So that's why that's not specifically in here. And the only one we're dealing with specifically is the HP

fines. Um, you know, then there's some parking regulations in here. Um um you know no no person shall park a vehicle within 5 ft of a driveway within 10 ft of a fire hydrant on sidewalks or pedestrian areas any location where signage prohibits parking. Uh these are kind of standard language that I you know I looked at a lot of other jurisdictions or ordinance is adopting MTC and pulled in a lot of that language here. Um again if it's you know leave it to you all uh to sort of give direction on that or ask further questions. There's section six deals with towing empoundment. I think that one's pretty standard as well. Whenever a person obstructs traffic, creates a safety hazard, violates an ordinance, or you have an abandoned vehicle, uh, which is defined as 48 hours, I think earlier in the ordinance vehicle, uh, that again, public Michael will have the authority under this ordinance to to deal with those and tow them and impound those vehicles that violate this ordinance. Um, that's a lot. So, I'll pause and see if you guys have any questions.

It's chomping up a bit. It's okay. I have mine written down. You can do um the uh you know, with the OV stuff, it's been on the books basically for a long time. This sim similar language about like, hey, if you're going to the the dirt roads, the jeep roads, or a trail, you're good. But I feel like especially with the advent of the UTVs, they've just become a joy ride device. And I mean, walking in today, there's a four-wheeler in the parking lot with a big flashing light on the front of it cuz I think the guy forgot to turn the LED light off and his battery's dying.

But does is this going to change anything with that? Like there's the enforcement aspect is still pretty much the same. Is this just give us if it being codified, is that going to allow the sheriff's department to be like, "Hey, you guys can't be doing donuts in the parking lot while kids are playing soccer, you know, like how does this change in real world anything for like the community and the people who are

Yeah. And I see Sheriff Spectrum is on online and I think he can probably better address sort of the the enforcement aspect than I can. My my hope in drafting this was to make it a little clearer. So So I think the other prior ordinance was a little vague in terms of how this was done and you know to the extent people see gaps here we can address it you know prior to the second reading and adoption but you know I'll let sheriff Specman speak more on the enforcement piece. Okay. Thanks.

Yes. Um this so this ordinance does give us some clarity and the enforcement actions necessary. Um so we can start enforcing the OB issue. I think we've discussed in the past too that you know we'll of course continue to have issues uh if if people are running from us when we're trying to contact them. Um it's going to be a continued issue as long as we allow OP use on roads. Um but this gives me a little more confidence than uh our last attempt. It updates things. Um, oh, not not a not a solid yes for you, Andy, but it it does help. Okay.

Okay, cool. Thanks. Um, section five uh seems um like a lot of good stuff in there, but I I didn't really see anything that uh addresses one issue that you know, we know how tough parking is along the main corridor. Is there anything we can add to that that will make it clear that um you probably should be like living in your Sprinter van during like major events on Harrison Avenue or like on Sixth Street? Like it's I don't Is that allowed? Is that like normal in most?

You could certainly designate roads and list them your ordinance to make them clear that it's you know prohibited camping. you know, overnight camping is prohibited on, you know, these streets. I mean, we don't have jurisdiction obviously in city, but you know, to the extent six or outside the city. Yeah.

It just feels like there's this sense of entitlement here that I don't see in other towns where like if someone has spent six figures on their van, they're like, well, I'm just going to park and stay in my van overnight, right? where everybody else needs spark and go to work here because they're not going to do anything about it. You know, it's a it's probably not this glaring problem, but I see it occasionally and it kind of drives me nuts about like, you know, where the most people in the community are trying to get by their day-to-day business and the parking is an issue and then you see the same decked out vehicle just there every single day, night in night out. you know, like they're like living in their van right there, like enjoying, you know, great come here, enjoy the recreation, beat the heat on the front range, but you know, maybe park behind the Taber Opera House or something, you know, like not like, you know, where everybody else needs to park and go to work. So, I don't know how we'd address that or how we'd write that in, but it doesn't seem like it happens really in like other communities, you know, they kind of patrol and enforce some parking regulations about you can't leave your car here for three days straight, you know. So, I don't know how that what that looks like, but I don't know if you guys agree it's something that

where there was that sprinter I remember in that sprinter van out front. Is that what you're talking about?

Well, that's one of them. That's one of the ones that I've seen. And it feels like during peak summer there's probably four or five of them that you know seem to frequent um where everybody else needs to, you know, and businesses can't need revolving parking spaces to keep, you know, dinner tables seated and things like, you know, it just it feels weird that there's something I don't see in any other community, mountain vacation type community, but we see it here a lot more than anywhere else. So, I don't know what that would look like if we make, you know, a main corridors, stay off that at least, you know, or I don't know, city limits. I don't know how that even would look. I guess it would take some more conversation, but if we could have something that would at least put it in writing that, you know, just posting up in your vehicle and camping out for, you know, a week at a time probably isn't ideal in most areas where there's high traffic.

Yeah. And I don't know. Sounds like most of the issues you're seeing are within the city. Yeah, definitely 100%. So maybe we should put that on the city. I guess we can't. Yeah, I mean that's their jurisdiction control that issue in the city. That's a good point. Okay. We could certainly bring up a race series and ask them to ask more than likely it's racers. I guess because it's always around the race season. That's just a guess. I don't know. We could bring it up with her and ask her to get the word out. But, uh, you know, if you're camped in some in front of somebody's house, I mean, that's that's kind of good.

I don't know. I guess it doesn't bug me that much, but now that you brought it up, I'll probably notice it more. It's a big conversation. Yeah. Hey, people park there, you know, then they go surf on the on the wave and they're changing, you know, on the street, shower on the sidewalk, you know, but yeah, they they do allow it there, but it's it's it's a topic of conversation. Okay. Well, maybe it could be something. It doesn't I might even have a place to sit, but just a separate resolution instead of this where we just take it to the city and see what they think. Oh, this is probably the better option. Um,

I know they they have a parking task force, don't they? They've got like a group that talks about parking quite often, so maybe it's something that you could ask to be part of. Yeah. I bet they'd be down with that. Yeah. Um, the last uh part of this um in the spirit of spring cleaning is um is there any room in this to add some more teeth to littering finds? I I looked at that and thought about that uh commissioner and I think that really needs to be addressed in a separate uh ordinance. Okay.

Yeah, it's I mean I I get it's related to traffic on probably a lot of times, but there's a lot of times people litter that aren't nothing to do with traffic. It's hard to find it. Yeah. So I think to the extent you want to address littering, we should do that with a separate ordinance and not mix it up in the model. Cool. Fair enough. I believe there's already an ordinance for that. Okay. For illegal dumping and littering, $1,000 fine, but to get accords to enforce it was really difficult.

That's something I'd like to dive into. Why? is I I don't think I've heard word of mouth of anyone I know in this community in 27 years I've lived here of anyone getting actually fined for dumping or littering. There was one person because I turned them in. One person. All right, we got one. I know for sure. Okay, cuz the basically the the um ordinance says that the fine will be split in half. the sheriff's office would would get half of the thousand dollar fine for enforcement and um whoever turned them in got the other part for turning them in. It's like a fine

and I had to donate mine to the landfill cuz I'm an employee of the county which I did without a problem but um Wow. Wow. Wow. The parents made the kid pay the fine because I guess he had a party at his parents' house and was trying to get rid of the evidence. I remember. Yeah. Okay. They got into the field and I able to track we were able to track down who it was. I I just I think we're at a point where, you know, it just feels like there we're harboring a culture of it's okay to just throw something out the window.

And it's you look at where we live and it drives me nuts that people think that's okay. You're just trashing up the sides of the roads. And it it would be nice to see, you know, if not just major dumping. If it's like if you're throwing something out your window and you're somehow held accountable or caught or documented doing that or, you know, then there should be it would be really nice to see some kind of penalty for that that is enforceable and isn't something that the sheriff's department feels they have no teeth with or anything like that.

Sheriff Speckman, do you have something to contribute to this topic? Yeah, we can address the littering charge through CRS. It's a title 18 code that we have the ability to summon somebody to court through. So, uh it wouldn't be very fitting for the model traffic code, but we so we do have teeth on that one. Okay. Well, I'm sure everyone's seen the the bumper sticker that says keep Leadville trashy. That's not what it says. What does it say? Pretty. Don't make me say it. Am I wrong? Yeah, it says keep bloodville shitty. Oh, you got me. That's what it says.

Gosh, I I was in the Twilight Zone. I wonder if that's part of it. Maybe we need a bumper sticker that says keep our bill clean. I don't know. Is there any way we could use I guess we don't have a jail anymore, but you know, use our jail down there like a crew. Some kind of crew that well works the ditches. One of the judges, one of the judges thought that that was an exorbitant amount of to find somebody for littering or trash. Um, and I was like, so I I offered to have them work at the landfill. Yeah. To pay it off. To pay it off. Yeah. Or, you know, do community service enough out there to understand Yeah.

what throwing their trash in the forest does, you know, they can go help clean that up, too. But, you know, and what goes on at the landfill.

Yeah. Well, there have been studies to show that there's correlation between um people with positive outdoor nature experiences taking better care of the environment. So, also projects like goal would be changing an actual culture where you're spending time out in nature, you're going to want to take better care of it because you're actually out there. So, I agree that like there are a lot of different levers to pull, but I think that it's yes, enforcement, yes, penalties, but also creating a relationship to the outdoors that makes you actually care about it and not want to trash it. So, I think that it has I think there are a lot of ways that the county is trying to work on this and I wouldn't want to just focus on one,

but I'm down with doing a separate ordinance. Sandy, if you want to signage, what would it take to get some signs up at the exits of entrances of town that says remember the signs used say littering is a $1,000 fine? I mean, there used to be some around them. We can do that. That's uh I think a lot of people either don't know or that's substantial. And I didn't know you get half of it. Yeah. that the sheriff basically it's for whatever they want for training or whatever. I know it's too hard to prove.

Well, I mean, everybody's got a phone these days. You're driving behind someone. I would imagine everyone in this room has been driving behind someone who they've watched throw something out the window, you know, and I've never seen it. If it's if it What? Are you serious? Wow. I've seen things accidentally blow out of the backup trucks. I mean, it also boggles my mind about thinking that styrofoam cups or whatever are just going to magically stay in the back of your truck when you're going 70 down the road. But, um, I watched Wow. Okay. Really? Yeah. I've seen people throw multiple things out. Per Well, I didn't know. I got my phone out and started it,

you know, which I guess is I would have told my passenger to get their phone out and record, not me while I'm driving. That's right. I mean, that sounds profitable, frankly, instead of like a part-time job. Okay, I have a couple questions, man. Um, my first one is the 48 hour like abandoned vehicle. 48 hours feels really small to me, especially when it's when we have big I know it doesn't happen this year, but when we have big snowstorms,

like clearing around your vehicle and actually moving it. Um, is that really standard 48 hours in these mountain communities? And is that And then Michael, does that seem like something you would actually enforce is a 48 hour some cars that don't move forever, right? Yeah. Um, I think it's 48 hours and usually what happens is they get a tag. Okay. Saying you're, hey, your car has been here for for 48 hours. Move it within the next whatever. Otherwise, it's getting towed. You know those little red tags you see? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, I think and I initially had it drafted at 72 and talking with sheriff's back. He thought 72 was too long to put the tag.

Okay. Which starts the time for actual what is the difference between the tag like what is the notice? If it's 48 hours to get the tag, what does the tag say then? The tag says then you move move your move your car or it's going to get towed. I mean, unless it's an emergency and she just gets towed right away. Sheriff can ch

Yeah, that's um you know, in mountain communities, I don't have a good answer for you, but uh what are other local authorities with especially with the state patrol, they use the 48 hour uh notice also and it is almost every single time it's uh we've been given notice of a vehicle has been at a certain location for multiple days. it needs to be moved and then we put the tag on there which starts the 48 hour clock once we place the tag on there and that that time is recorded then we give them an additional two days. Um and oftent times we don't want to tow it. So if if there's if it's in front of somebody's house we have the ability to go knock on the door give them a heads up. Um it's easy for us if the owner moves the vehicle. So it really is a last resort.

Okay. Yeah. I'm just thinking about times where I've been like extremely sick or just given birth and like I have not left the house for longer than that. So just trying to just trying to think about the impacts of how difficult I would be in some situations especially as a single parent. Um okay but you try to make contact with the people when you can. Yeah, absolutely. That's the easiest solution. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Usually when we sign the street, you know, for the next day plowing. Sure. Um I know in the past deputies have gone out at night time. Mhm. You know, to make sure that people are home and they know it is going to be open or going to be closed for tomorrow.

Yeah. All vehicles will be out for them. Yeah. And then there's some that, you know, people haven't been even to the house in months. Totally. Yeah. That are parked on the street. So,

yeah, that's different. Okay. Um and then my other question is around section oh jeez section 4 all our little additions our local editions um F3 it's the proposed limitation unlawful acts around OVs specifically. And man, I think I'm just not reading this with a turned on brain. The way that I read this, it's like you can only move on county roads, if you're going from one place to another to go to um uh trails, etc. We don't actually have any offh highway vehicle trails. Um, so

let's just read it together. Okay. Operation of motorized off highway vehicles on county roads or other own or other county owned property is strictly limited to travel reasonably necessary to access off Highway routes. trail systems or areas where OP use is otherwise law for Yeah. So there So just pause there.

We don't have any like trail systems or off highway routes that aren't county roads that are permitted. So how does that this reads antithetical to our offway OB permit? Yeah. I mean I I I struggled with this section quite a bit to be honest. So um to the extent we can kind of word smith a little as long as the sort of the intent I think everybody's on board with to to make it clear but

um yeah I I I spent quite a bit of time with how to word word smith this and you know maybe it's not quite there yet but I think you gave a fair point there. Okay. I uh because my understanding of our current OBV permitting is that it's all on county roads. We don't we're not permitting them to use anything but a county road on the east side for commercial, right? Yeah. Um

and this they're not going from one place to they're not going to a place that is not a county road. So they're only on county roads for commercial use. So, how do we write it in a way that's Well, I think your existing ordinance is uh 2301 allows designates certain roads right to be used for OV use. Um um so unless other so that would be sort of the authorized OV system. Um but see Heath has got his hand up. got some insight on how to better phrase this.

Yeah, we don't we don't have a trail system on any sort of county property. Um, but we do have forest service roads which we can use our county roads from four to get to forest service roads. So, I think that's what it's referencing. Say you're going to Herman Pass, right? Or, you know, we know basically if you're going to dirt and going to recreate with your machine in a responsible way somewhere where it fits, cool. Like if you're doing laps around town, that's where the, you know, we know the intent. I just don't think we don't have anything legit as a county to fit this, but maybe we will someday. Yeah,

which would be cool.

So, okay, I'm going to read it again. Operation of motorized off highway vehicles on counter county roads or other county-owned property is strictly limited to travel reasonably necessary to access off highway routes, trail systems or areas where OB use is otherwise lawfully permitted. So that would be saying it's lawfully permitted on county roads on the east side. under which laws that are not commercial permits? Like the everyday person going up there? They're not traveling to another place. They're just using county roads that are otherwise lawfully permitted, right? That's why we would be like, "Yeah, it's okay to go drive up there."

What law permits those roads to everyday people? Uh, ordinance 2301. Okay, cool. So that makes it okay. But then and we can make that clearer too. I think there's room for more clarity. Okay. For sure. The but like what Andy was talking about going and doing donuts over at Community Field. You're not reasonably traveling from one area to another where it is lawfully permitted.

Is it lawfully permitted to be under 2301? And and then I think you got to read the whole section. That's why it's quite a bit longer. It says so after that first sentence we we it states um use of county roads by OPS for any purpose other than such access is prohibited. Prohibited uses include without limitation travel to or from parks, schools, residences, retail or commercial establishments, post office disposal sites, including a dump or any other destination unrelated to lawful offway use as well as general circulation within the county or use as a substitute for primary transportation. So, I mean, that's a lot there, but it's just

tries to put a little more clarity about what's allowed and what isn't allowed. Yeah. Okay. So, I'm so sorry, but my logical brain is getting stuck. Can you do donuts anywhere? No.

Yeah. No. Heath says no. Well, on private land, uh, you know, like the, uh, ATV or or the, um, motocross track, for example, where they authorize that type of riding. Um, but there are, you know, even on on private land, there's still some traffic laws that we can enforce. And so, especially on public lands, if there's any sort of reckless driving, then that would be the appropriate charge for doing donuts at the community field. um where our ordinance doesn't necessarily need to address that action where we have state law where we can enforce those actions. Okay, cool.

Okay, thank you. So, we're saying you can do it anywhere where it's allowed and our other ordinance says where it's allowed, which is on all county roads, right? Okay. Then it's the third sentence, the prohibited uses also that I I personally don't want traveling the use of an OV you at the bottom for general circulation. We're still in three. Okay,

we're still in three. It says prohibited uses include without limitation travel to and from parks, schools, residences, retail or commercial establishments, post offices, blah, you know, it says all the things that you can't do as well as general circulation within the county or use as a substitute for primary transportation. I don't that's not important to me and I don't think I would I'm okay with people using ovs as to travel around because that's what they're doing anyway. So to go to the post office to me is not a difference than going up on the east side. And I also think that these things are cheaper to buy than a vehicle. So, I can also see why somebody would be have more access to an OV than a reliable vehicle to go get groceries, etc. Regardless, it just seems like pretty arbitrary to me. And so, I am not I would be interested in striking some of those uses, if not all. Do

you guys want to talk about that? Yeah.

Um, well, structurally I feel like part of number three could be in number five because that's where we're listing out the prohibited uses, but three goes into that's that's probably six to one half dozen the other. I guess it's not a big deal. But but the problem I guess that you know we've seen in the last handful of decades is that where do you draw the line between the people who are you know just zipping up to the post office real quick to grab something or the you know how are you going to delineate between are you are you saying we should basically just like look at their behavior while they are driving around and if they're being reckless and it's like

and then that's covered by the all of Heath's traffic, all of Heath's goats and lost. Whereas to me, I don't think that it matters what kind of vehicle you're in to do your everyday things or to do recreational things. What matters is how you're using that vehicle. And so I'm this Yeah, that is exactly what I'm saying. Feels arbitrary to make it an OBV prohibition. What is the difference? They're not registered vehicles.

They don't have license plates or blinkers. Um, some dirt bikes are street legal because they have blinkers and license plates and headlights. Some of the OVs have blinkers and license plates. So, I guess I'm not clear.

Rural like like I think I get what you're saying. Like I like the idea of retaining the rural charm and like hearkening back to the old days of like, you know, we're still a little bit wild up here. You know, if someone's riding their four-wheeler on the street to go do something, that's a lot of rural towns still have that, you know, like that's not unheard of in Colorado. Um, if we start putting the hammer down on that stuff, where does it where are we drawing the line? And and there are people I mean from a parking standpoint it's good for parking if someone can take their little little dirt bike to the post office instead of you know I

yeah I guess I'm saying like why does it matter to us to this board whether people are going to get groceries or if they're going to rip around on the east side. What is the difference to us? because we're already dealing with such a large component of the bad apples that have zero regard for how they're driving around town. And I don't know if opening up the floodgates like, hey, yeah, you're totally allowed allowed to do this just encourages more of that when it's already such a challenge to hold people accountable when they aren't behaving, you know, like these guys can't chase a kid on a four-wheeler. No.

And go after them. And if we're just like, "Yeah, you can go wherever you want. It doesn't need to be to a trail." I feel like the way it's been set up, like you just if you're going to a trail, cool. If not, it's like the happy medium that sort of

strikes a balance between, you know, and I'm sure if like someone pulls up to the post office and it's like, "Hey, I'm just on my way home from the trail." That might come across a little different from an enforcement aspect. I don't know how this really works, but I think what we're trying to do is find some kind of balance in really uncharted waters. And the bad apples, unfortunately, are out there. And they're all anyone pays attention to. Most people don't really pay attention to the guy who stops at every single stop sign and waits for traffic to go. And you know, the responsible riders aren't the ones that people remember. It's the people, you know, like helmetless kids on clapped out 80s going up and down the street all day driving people nuts. and you know like scaring people while they're trying to drive in their vehicle worried about hitting somebody or you know or the ones kicking up a ton of dust while the kids are playing soccer you know stuff like that

so I think that the the intention is to find balance in a in a really uncharted waters and I don't know whether a major change would be pretty detrimental to some of the negative aspects increasing or not if it's a matter of like uh Heath's enforcement. Heath, does this does this allow you to en enforce bad behavior or uh yeah, enforce that's weird. Enforce bad behavior more easily.

Um no, I would say we we already have those tools. uh when it comes to the bad behavior side of things. So, no matter what somebody's driving, like if they're driving an OV that's not registered, you have all the tools you need to enforce reckless driving. Yes.

Okay. So, then in my mind, this feels like why he has everything he needs to to manage the bad actors. This just says we're going to stop this use period whether you're a bad actor or not. And I guess that's where I'm like I don't feel the need to do that. But if he needs more support and his enforcement, I'd love to talk about that. I would just envision with with my history with OVs and what I what I would what I know is that changing the rules from okay, you can go to the dirt and get back from the dirt

um and keep it chill. If it's like you can run errands, it just I feel like it opens the floodgates of more people using responsibly and the accompanying bad apples who are not going to I feel like it's just going to increase the volume of good and bad along with it. Are they already doing that though? Like isn't that already allowed? Yeah, it's already it's already happening, you know. It's not allowed to go to like the grocery store. Yeah, but it's already happening, you know. So I feel like it's already at a level where we get complaints.

I think all of us have gotten emails from people who are not super stoked on how UTVs in particular are being operated around town. And I haven't gotten those emails. I haven't gotten them about like people doing daily tasks with them. I've heard them about kids ripping up reckless riding, right? And that will any type of You know, I feel like going more loose with what we've already got in place, I think, is going to see a rise in both categories. Your average person running an errand and the people would think now it's okay to do wheelies up and down Six Street. Just, you know, they're not allowed to, right?

No, absolutely. Even if this isn't in here, but it's going to Even if this isn't in here, they're not allowed to do that. No. So that's I mean the state is I guess going to say you know you have reckless driving. Yeah. Um I don't know. I agree with Andy. I think most communities would just ban it entirely

now that we're growing. We're not the old west anymore. Kids are still going to do it. Are they going to run up to safe on their dirt bike? Maybe. Is he going to enforce it? Maybe. I mean, heat is, you know, not going to be here forever. So, I I kind of like that it's gray and it's not totally prohibited, but it's not it's not encouraged or or totally legal. Sorry. This does totally prohibit that. You're right. So, I'm just wonder I

The gray area is Were you heading to a trail? You have to stop by a gas station. I don't know if you're elder. So that's the question. I mean, it's kind of up to it's up to Heath and his department and the police to It is pretty gray. Wouldn't you agree, Sheriff Speckman? Go get gas and get a snack way of the trail.

Yep. No, that's the confusing part. If we're allowing it um but we're only allowing it for wreck reasons. And again, like your your example is perfect of they're just stopping to get gas and then, you know, that's that's our discretion because, okay, yeah, that that makes sense. You stop to get gas and you're going to the the Forest Service or going up on the E side. Um, but technically, you're not supposed to do that. You're only supposed to go directly from your house to um so there is that there's some gray areas with that. Um, if we're going to allow OD use and we want to limit it, it does make it more complicated. Um, I I think I would favor uh my opinion would be one or the other. We either don't allow OVs or if we do, we allow it for uh uses on county roads with the limitations of proper driving.

Yeah. So I guess the other so the other consequence that I think would be real is there are folks in our community who cannot afford a vehicle and they have OVs and they do use them for getting around town to basic to do basic chores and this would prohibit them from using that and we don't have a reliable transportation method in the future. So this I think that that's a real consequence of saying you cannot use ovs for anything but wreck or golf carts. I mean that'd be a nice way to get around town. That'd be awesome.

So you to be clear what you're saying is you you're not a big fan of this gray area. You'd like to see it either allowed or or not allowed. Period. Yes. Correct. Correct. Well, if I got to go, if I'm looking at simply those two options, I'm for open the floodgates and hopefully people don't take advantage of it and turn them into Mad Max crazy land. Does this open up like kids riding their dirt bikes to school and to practice? I mean, in a way, that's pretty darn cool. That's awesome

for those kids. And if they're not doing it properly, Heath has all of the tools to say you can't do that. We don't have the capacity to enforce and and babysit the entire community like that. That's what I'm worried about. Yeah. How we are right now, I feel like we're already kind of at a threshold of where some lawlessness is happening. And these guys just don't have the they don't have the numbers to keep it in check, you know? And if we open the floodgates, that's why I said Mad Max, cuz I feel like that's a potential negative repercussion of us trying to do the right thing here. Yeah.

But not, you know, I feel like this it's might not be ideal for heat, but this kind of gray area balance of like you can only go to dirt and back is sort of a the happy medium. I I I have some concerns and I you know I'm I I want to do everything I can to help the OHV community and uh I don't know if this is the right way to do it. I mean, the the the risk, you know, there's both the upside you're talking about Elsa, and then there's the risk that Andy's talking about.

If you know, if that happens, then you're potentially in the position of having to ban them out, right? if you get enough community people that are just outraged that so you know so your your guys call I can see from his perspective enforcement perspective it's always better to have clean lines and this one's hard but like Commissioner Bullock said a lot of communities have just put the ban hammer down and you know it's nothing so that's my

concern is by trying to help out certain segments of folks we'd almost be making it worse in the long Also from a risk perspective, if some licensed unlicensed uninsured vehicle screams in and hurts some some accidents, you can imagine whatever accident. And they point to this ordinance and say, "Yeah, I didn't have insurance. I didn't have a license." County said I didn't have to. So, well, the state

the state says you do. If you're going to operate on any roadway within a state, you need to be basically set up like a legal driver. You should have insurance. You should have driver's license. You know, at the very least, your HV needs to be registered with the state, but you need to be an insured licensed driver, I think, to operate on any roadway in the state. And I don't think that would change on county roads technically. Um, even off-road stuff, I'm pretty sure the Forest Service has like H limits. So, when we're talking about kids going to school on dirt bikes, I don't think that would be legal per the state. Um, but you know, again, I think we're in just such tricky uncharted water with this that what might sound good right now could have some farreaching and unintended consequences. I mean, Sheriff Specman and I also talked about sort of reg local registration system, which is what some localities do, which would mitigate. I mean, that concern is making sure people that are on these using the roads, do have insurance, you know, are registered with the state, are do have spark arresters and all that other equipment you're supposed to have under state law. Um and and I think uh yeah, some localities do that and we just felt it was too much to even try to approach that in this in this ordinance. Yeah,

that was that was exactly what I wanted to build too was I want to keep it. Yeah. But if there's a way that we can help mitigate risk by not prohibiting use Yeah. which to me is the registration process, that's what I want to get to. But I was trying to build revenue for HB trail systems. Yes, I'd love to see even if those people aren't using our trails, we could be generating but that's too much. Heath, where how far are we from being able to do something like that?

Uh we started talking about it at the office. Uh a lot of the feedback I was getting was kind of feel like capacity administratively right now to create a program and maintain that program. Um so I think it's not out of question but for us we would have to find greater capacity to be able to uh develop and manage a registration program. Is that something that ever goes to the clerk and recorder office?

Uh that was just an examination of our office. If there's another office or department that's willing to to pick that up then yeah I think it's still a really good idea. I mean, since they're already handling vehicle registrations, it seems like they would be a great partner to try to help make something like that possible for our community. Maybe we could all have a maybe we could have a work session about trying to do that if somebody from uh the state in to Yeah.

see how that would match with state ovaries. Um typically the registration on OV is given out by the state caller parks and wildlife. The only thing that um the DMV here cler's office does for OVs is title. So that's all that we do for and OV titles didn't start till 2015. Anything older than that doesn't need a title 2015 does. What are there other are there other clerk and recorders who do manage the local? Not that I'm aware of. Okay. Well, okay.

But is it possible? Yeah, it'd be cool. Is there a deadline for adopting this ordinance or can we we can adopt this as it is and then if we want to make changes to the OV ordinance that would maybe some of this other stuff would live under Yeah, there's there's no deadline. and it needs to be scheduled for a second hearing. I mean, my sense from the sheriff is he'd like to get an updated model traffic code in before at least the summer tourist season.

Uh, we don't have a meeting in two weeks. So, I don't know. I just think this issue needs to be thought about a little more carefully so we don't Nelson brings up a big point. I could go either way, but if I if I lived in town, I'd love to have a little golf cart to go to Safeway. I don't think you can license a golf cart for the roads. Doesn't have lights, but I don't know. Elsa makes a good point. So does Andy. I I think this is with the whole I want to pass the model traffic code and I think this is my only big sticking point is how it will change the culture and how it will have impacts and it would be awesome if we could have a registration system open and to be able to everybody comfortably say like yeah we don't need to prohibit use because we're managing use in another way. So if we have to pass it with this cuz we're not ready.

I don't know. I guess I open to it. I just don't want We could certainly pull that O piece out. I don't know what share spec thoughts are about, but you know to the extent you're not ready for that piece of it, we could pull that out and sort of te that up a separate discussion. Well, we're not making a decision today. This is the first reading. Well, if you all want this pulled out, we would pull it out and then publish, you know, tee it up for the second reading out section. Yeah. The language in this doesn't change anything as it's existed already. It just it was meant to clarify

with the OVs. Yeah. Um it's already kind of in the the MO and I how to say it. Um, yeah, the gr I like the gray area in there because it kind of gives, you know, it's not ideal for ETH, but it does give them some discretion as to, you know, we see stuff that is technically against uh the rules that have already been happened. At least I do personally with my own two eyes.

No, me too.

Happening enough to allow some folks who might really need to get to the post office the ability to do so. Um once we start unpacking that can of worms, um things might change. And for right now, I feel like I'm okay with this as it is. It basically just mirrors and clarifies what we already have in place. And then if we were to want to maybe amend this down the road to allow for a permitting process to maybe look at a safer way to enhance people's ability to run an errand or use a golf cart or something. Uh, it's just it's a lot and I don't know how we do it within this, you know, without really delaying this by a long time.

Well, it's up to us right now if we're going to keep it in for second reading or if we're going to take it out for second reading. Like, that's the decision point we're at right now. I'm I personally of the mind of leaving this as it is because it's basically a continuation of where we've been for a while and I'm I'm pretty good with where we're at at the moment. Not that there doesn't need to be changes, but I don't I'm hesitant to subtract or add anything major because of unintended consequences that we could see that I would hate to see damage the OBV community further because they're already fight and lose in battle. What we can do is take out the sentence that says prohibited uses include because that's explicit. This is this is making explicit what you cannot do. And that but what we leave in is travel on county roads must be direct and reasonably necessary for access to lawful offhighway use. That leaves discretion and greyness in. So what has been added is the explicit prohibited uses and that does change what he has to enforce. Whereas if we just take that part out there's still there's still heat's ability to

Yeah, I see. Okay, I get that. I see what you're saying. To make a reasonable determination whether it's a reasonable use or travel for now, which I know he he wants some cleaner lines, but that would buy us a little bit of time while still allowing him to enforce this. Keith, does that do you think I'm representing? Well, what section are you referencing? Sorry, I was looking for it. It's F3. F3.

I think it's the third sentence in F3. Section 4, section F three,

page five. Elsa, you don't have to repeat all that, but could you summarize what talked about in some paragraph that you want removed?

It's one sentence. It starts with prohibited uses include and ends with as well as general circulation within the county or use as a substitute for primary transportation. I said if we take that sentence out the next sentence sentence travel on county roads must be direct and reasonably necessary for access to lawful offhighway use still allows you enforcement so you can make the determination as to whether it is reasonably necessary but it it does take out some of those explicit prohibitions to bite us some time.

Well, I I think my general feeling is going to be that I think realizing that by allowing OB use uh in our county is is is probably more complicated and takes more attention and we're trying I think it's we're trying to get away with some easy answers here. Um I I wouldn't be opposed. The original idea was to try to get this uh as part of the model traffic code. So I I wouldn't be opposed of removing this section until we develop those details, especially if we feel like a registration program is pretty essential to the safe operation of OBS in our county that we don't delay the model traffic code by trying to solv.

I agree. Yeah, totally. That's what I'm kind of trying to buy some time with is to get this approved, try to have as much of the OBV in here as possible, but to buy us some time to try to maybe set up a registration program because we are allowing OVUs. Mhm.

I mean, my suggestion, if you're all on board with it, since it really was intended to supplement and clarify, you know, ordinance 23 and 2401, that we just pulled subsection out entirely, which is related to OV, and you know, table out for a separate, you know, further discussion and then we would do an amendment to the traffic code. Yeah. Okay. I like that idea. Yeah, I'm okay with that. I'd like to talk I feel rushed too about taking that out without really weighing, you know, the unforeseen consequences and all that. So,

and really talking to Heath about it cuz ultimately we, you know, I guess safety, I don't know, there's one aspect. Yeah. There's a whole lot of them and uh unintended consequences. Yeah. But I really like what you're saying. It's a great community when kids can take their dirt bike up to the grocery store and get a pack of smokes for mom. Matt, same freaking page. Filter filter's got a little in the room, dude. Public health week.

Health fun. But that will segue nicely. Great. I don't have any other questions or comments about the monot traffic code. Nor do I. Um I So we've agreed we're going to pull that whole section. Well, the next reading we'll have further subtract section out. Mhm. with further discussion, a work session, maybe some some community partners, uh, people who Yeah, people participate, tell us what they think. Yeah. Is that okay, Matt? It's perfect. Okay. Okay.

Thank you. I'm just going to apologize to everyone in the room because when OV stuff does come up, we dive pretty deep into it and it's uh a a multiaceted and and pretty complicated subject for this community. It's like an important part of our culture, I feel like, and there's and it's worth us giving the time. So, absolutely. Yeah. I'm glad we do. We just need more trails and more windows in this room. Should we move on? Yeah. Thank you, Matt. Let's move on to item number two, the first read. So, you got you got to make a motion. Oh, we do. To pass the first reading and then with the amendment. I'll do it, Andy. I'll do it.

Okay. Okay. I move to pass first reading. Just read the ordinance. I don't I move to approve or what is the motion? Yeah, we're not approving that. Move to approve first reading. Move to approve first reading.

I move to approve first reading of the Lake County, Colorado Board of County Commissioners, Ordinance Number 2026-02, an ordinance for the regulation of traffic and vehicles by the county of Lake State of Colorado, adopting by reference the 2024 edition of the Model Traffic Code with amendments, repealing all ordinances in conflict therewith, and providing penalties for violation thereof. I will second that extremely long motion as as amended. As amended removing section as amended. Apologies I did not to removal of I I

All right. This rate we will be done tomorrow morning. No, we'll go quicker the other ones. The other ones will be quicker. Item number two, first reading and introduction of ordinance 2026-3. This is an ordin ordinance concerning fire restrictions, open burning, fireworks, and fireband stages in unincorporated areas of Lake County, Colorado.

Uh, I'll go ahead and take a lead on this one, too, since uh drafted it again with Sheriff Speckman's help. Um, just try to pull pull it up a second. We're all looking at the same thing. So, I put a couple uh couple versions in your inbox. Uh, I had put one uh or not your inbox, but your your meeting packet for today. Uh, I put one in there Friday and then Sheriff and I had some further conversations and I I redlined changes. Let's uh look at the red line. Is that 260405? Not 260330.

Yep. Yesterday. Cool. Thank you. Oh gosh.

So, currently my understanding from what I could find anyway, there there's no uh ordinances or resolutions dealing with fire vans in Lake County. Um, and talking with the sheriff that created a little bit of an enforcement issue for his department in terms of, you know, enacting fire bands but then having no legal ability to really enforce them. Um, so this ordinance again, it's pulled from various counties. We pulled pretty heavily for Boulder and Chaffy County. Um um and it basically sets up a couple uh a few things. One, it it gives both the BOCC and the sheriff to declare a fire ban. Uh so under my read of the the state ordinance, which is CRS 3115 401 subsection 1 N.5. Uh the board has the ability to declare or modify fire bands in Lake County. Um what this ordinance does, it also gives the sheriff the ability to make those determinations, which is functionally, I think, what has been happening anyway. And then once that determination is made, it needs to come back to the board to to ratify that decision to uh really make sure you tracking uh you know this state statute properly that the it's really the board that has the authority to declare this. It's not clear, you know, whether that authority could be outright delegated. Um J is delegated entirely to the sheriff. Um,

most counties haven't done that. Most counties, it's either the board or it's a some hybrid model, which is what LOL has done. This sort of allow the sheriff, but then allows it to come back to the board for um, you know, either ratification. So, any any fire ban according to state law needs to be based upon competent evidence. And there's all kinds of language in here about what that means. Um and it also allows uh fire bands, you know, it was meant to sort of mesh our fire bands with what is happening at the federal level too and the federal partners. So in terms of these stage one restrictions, uh stage two restrictions that a lot of this language really mirrors uh what the federal folks do with their fire bands. uh you know the stage two restrictions are obviously the highest level. Um it also allows no burn days to be declared when you know they're having a high wind day. Uh, so not an outright fire ban, but just a hey, today we're not going to have a burn. And um, you know, so I think you probably want to talk about, you know, the violations and the penalties again up to $1,000. The way this is structured is, you know, 250 first, 500 the second, a,000 to the third. Um, you know, I I myself have a question whether that's, you know, sufficient, but that's for all you all to decide. Uh, um, some some counties in their stage fire band vans, I didn't put this in here, just recognizing where we are, also prohibit uh, you know, discharging firearms.

Oh, yeah. So, that's not in here. Um but again just wanted to flag that issue for you all in terms of the discussion. Um um I think that te's it up. Maybe maybe Sheriff has something to add a little bit. Um but I think that te's it up from my perspective. Thank you. Matt Keith, would you like to join in?

Yes, definitely. Um, no, I appreciate all the work that Matt Cammy did on this one. I know they did a lot of research into other counties and so really grateful for that to really put together a first good product here. Um, yeah, I don't really have much else to add. I think it is worth considering the firearms aspect. Um, I think I want to say Summit County might have that in theirs uh if that's worth exploring um to see what theirs looks like. Um, I did have a question on the on the uh timeline component. I don't recall reading in there if there's a timeline to ratify if I put in a fireband on how long it takes for the BOCC to to look at that.

We could ratify that remotely, can't we? Like just 24 hours. I'm trying to see what there. It just says so promptly schedule a business meeting

uh to ratify. So it's there's really no timeline. Um, but I think this is very uh necessary, especially from the enforcement standpoint. This is something that we, you know, surprisingly haven't had in place. So, better late than never. I'm glad we're addressing it now, but this is hugely important for us to be able to enforce these fire bands. Um, I do appreciate the language in there that um, you know, makes it important that we do um, make decisions based off of um, the the information that we have, the intelligence that we have on the matter. uh that we're, you know, in in alignment with our federal part partners. I think those are all important because we have so much federal land in the county. Um and then one other project that I wanted to bring up that we'd be working on also along with this is gettingus with our federal partners as one of the projects that we want to work on. So if we can uh you know help enforce their fire bands on their lands that are in alignment with ours, I think that would really help uh our our entire county quite a bit. Heck yeah. Do we not have those? We don't have any of those in place right now.

Not not specific to uh uh fire brands. No. Okay. But do we have that in place for like law enforcement with CPW? I'm assuming. Um not CPW. Um in the past we've had anou with Forest Service to patrol their their land um for like overtime stuff. So it's not specific to fires, just to make a presence on on federal lands. So that's something that we've had in place in the past. How does that work on BLM land? Is that a similar situation with the Forest Service?

Correct. Yeah, we need an MOU with them also. Um, in the marked up version, Matt, uh, under the open fire bands, where all the markup is, why is that section taken out about the whenever a danger of forest and grass fires is found to be high, blah, blah, blah. Is it the biggest section that's stricken? Why did that get taken out? Um, so you're looking at section 3A kind of. Yeah, three.

I think it's I think it says the same thing. I think it just clarifies sort of the the role of each board. So So 3A sort of is just a general declaration of an open fireban. Mhm. Um and then the really the mechanism of how those fire bands happen is in is in section B. Okay. Uh which is the stage one, stage two, no burn days. Yeah. So it was just sort of cleaning up. Okay. Different way of saying the same thing essentially. Cool. Is there a cap on how much we can charge for

$1,000? Okay. Yeah, that's just a general what I mean I I know that this has been talked a lot about for years in Colorado, but like when somebody actually creates a forest fire and the cost is massive, do we have any ability to penalize higher for like larger Well, there there's consequences

under state law. There's recovery mechanisms under state statutes and there's also I think there's a section five in here uh duty to pay fire response costs. So uh yeah, it speaks to that issue. Exactly. If the person actually starts causes a fire that they're going to be responsible for for the cost, but that's already built into the state law as well. Okay. It's under section five, the duty to pay fire response cost. It says this section, question mark, question mark, is intended to supplement other penalties.

Yeah, I need to clean that typo up. So section five, but yeah, drafting when I was I had settled on the section numbers yet, so thanks for point out. No, I'm sorry I pointed that out. That's a tiny little thing. I just didn't know if that was like is there another section where we can charge people more? It's referring to section five. I just saw it as soon as I started talking. Sorry. Sorry.

Um the definitions for open burning. Uh regarding section 4, um it doesn't say like the size, you know, it's just like slash um or a grassland fire, which no one up here I don't think is really going to be doing. But um where where's the threshold of that? Like for someone who's just burning a bunch of branches, they cut off a dead tree in their backyard versus, you know, ne cuz it's it sounds like it requires a permit to do open burning. And so if someone's trying to burn up a bunch of dead, you know, slash in their yard, is are they going to need a permit for that? Yes,

I would assume so. I think probably the sheriff, he'd probably have some thoughts on this, but I would think uh I I would, you know, so you don't have people calling in like the fire department and said, "Hey, I see smoke." And that's the whole reason for having people pull permits for their open. Okay. It's like a six It's like a $25 permit fee for a six foot wide splash pile. That's kind of what I was looking for. What are the thresholds? And then a fire pit can't be more than 3T in diameter. Okay. So that's your that's your stuff up to 2 ft 11 in and all your branches and get it in that fire pit.

Got it. But it's really cheap to get the permit. Um Keith, what do you think about the firearms issue? Most of the I mean could we say obviously no firearms in the forest or woods but the ranges are pretty fire resistant aren't they? Or would you want to advise us on that at all?

Yeah that's so that might be a point of confusion too because I don't believe that's in um forest service firebands. Um, so if we if we create a firearms limitation on during a fire ban, we wouldn't be able to enforce that enforce service if that's not part of their uh fire fire restrictions. Um, so it would just come down to to county operations. And so yeah, I think that would be part of it is to examine our uh current ranges. We're comfortable with continuing um shooting at those ranges uh during a maybe a stage two ban. Um, I I think they're they're pretty well built, but there's always the the, you know, the chance of uh a round going over one of the BMS. Um, you know, at the public range where there's not as much oversight as there is at the private range. Um,

do we have a ban on tannerite? Right. The tracer rounds. I think that's the only time we've had a fire at the gun range is somebody using tracer rounds. Yeah. went over the BM. Yeah, it's pretty big B. I'm not aware. You got to be that's and Eagle County's had issues with that as well, but wildfires started from that specific use of that type of round.

He I do understand what I read from the Forest Service is that they will allow hunting hunting rifles or anybody actually out hunting with a license. But anybody out target shooting just in the forest would is not allowed with the fire. With the stage one.

Yeah. During the current fire band. So maybe we just leave that leave that out. My other question too is the other fire that I'm familiar with is the train sparked a fire of uh Buck Buckeye

treasure the treasure fire. So, do we need to make special provisions for them so they can operate because in the in the stage two? And I mean, I know they're falling with a water truck, but I just wonder if we need to address that cuz this may prohibit it the way it's worded. I think it started with a spark off of the wheel or something like that. What's that? It started with a spark off of the wheel or something like that. Yeah. Which section do you think prohibits it? Um, spark producing equipment. Spark producing equipment. I mean, is that spark producing or did that produce a spark,

right? I mean, the same thing, right? So, that's that's a header. Uh, I think you got to look to the actual operational language, which is one and two. uh operation of internal combustion sound engines without properly installed maintained spark artor welding cutting griding or similar spark producing activity. Well, it didn't come from the motor. It came from the wheel. Yeah.

And it started hours after the train had come by a spark. I mean my my read of it is not the fact the train would be in their best interest to mitigate that as I think they do when it's when it's dry. Just curious. I think by nature the train operates in a fairly safe area. You know if it were running down around Leadville North or something like that, you know, we'd be needing to really go over that with a fine tooth comb. It is close to your house. Sorry about that. There's a lot of dry sticks up there.

But there I feel like what we saw with the treasure fire was it just went up and had nowhere else to go. Yeah. Not that I'd not that I'm having. I don't want to spend too. What do you say, Andy? Damn. Yeah, that's fine. Let them let him run. Um, yeah, there's higher risk areas. I think I would if we were going to get in the weeds on something. Let's not get in the wheat. It's a great ordinance. Yeah. Do you want to make the motion, Andy? Yeah.

Um, I will make a motion to approve the first reading and introduction of ordinance 2026-3, an ordinance concerning fire restrictions, open burning, fireworks, and fireband stages in the unincorporated areas of Lake County, Colorado. Seconded. Do you want a vote? Hi. Hi. Hi. Does anybody need a break? A five minute privilege break. Or is it just me? It's been an hour and 40 minutes. We're getting older.

We have nine items on the agenda. I'm not I'm not getting older. So we'll take a fiveminut point of privilege break and resume here in 5 minutes. Welcome back everybody. We are resuming our April 7th meeting at 11:47 a.m. and moving on to 12:4, excuse me, 12:47. Moving on to item number three, presentation of the Lake County Treasures semianual uh report. Um, and this is led by Dedra, not Patrick. Patrick. Okay, go ahead.

It's just the semiannual report. It should have been presented to you guys in December. Um, for July of last year through December, Patrick was on vacation, so that that's why it didn't happen. So to make sure that we get it in front of you guys for the that time period that way you guys look at it, approve it and we could get it posted and and published in the paper. We need two. Okay. Has there been any movement? I know we talked about this a little bit earlier, but maybe you can just expand on those lura funds and the difficulties you're having with the the lura.

Yeah. So with the state breakout this year with that school non-school taxing two different breakouts is not um wasn't able to get set up properly in Tyler. We're working with Tyler um and they are also working with the state and waiting to hear from the state on how everybody else is that has any type of urban renewal um is dealing how we can deal with the breakout and to get it set up properly in our thing. We've also reached out to Christine, our accountant, so we can see what has been distributed to Laura so far this year for the first two months of distribution. We're working on the third month now for month end versus what they should have been distributed. Um so that we have a clear on how we're going to move forward until the state gives us guidelines with everything. Um it just wasn't able to get set up properly in Tyler. Tyler's having an issue with that. So, we'll have to do some manual journal entries to make sure that we're distributing them what they should be getting. So, it's in the process. It just hasn't it's not like a quick fix right now.

Okay. All right. Thanks for working on it. Sounds complicated. Okay. I move to approve the Lake County Treasury semiannual report. You have to second. Oh, yeah. Second. I will second that. Now I'll do a vote now vote. Sorry I I I am just not hearing stuff. Hold on. I got my ears here. Exchair. Chair. Well, thank you DJ. You're welcome.

Appreciate it. Keep up the good work. Second or uh we move on to number four. Fourth item in our on our agenda is discussion and consideration of the proclamation and recognition of April 6th through the 12th as National Public Health Week. And this will be led by Elena Nieros, public health deputy director. Why are you laughing? Did I So funny no one's ever pronounced it like that. I speak a little Spanish. How do you Maduros Maduros? Yeah, it's Portuguese.

Great.

Good afternoon, commissioners. Um, so yeah, public health is requesting a proclamation from our local decision makers um to declare this week, April 6th through 12th, to be recognized as public health week in Lake County. Um the American Public Health Association along with communities across the country um has celebrates the work that public health's done and continues to do by dedicating the first full week in April um as national public health week. Um this year's theme is ready set ready set action and calls on communities to recognize how public health has improved our lives, safeguarded our families, expanded our lifespans and strengthens our community. um our local public health staff um would find it really valuable if our local leaders recognized it as well. Um their commitment and daily efforts to protect and promote the health of our community. Um shows through, you know, every day and you know through our accomplishments and I feel like public health staff is often unsung heroes. We do a lot of work in like the prevention space. Um so something like this would mean a lot to us. I will proclaim that April 6th to 12th be our national public health week here in Lake County.

I'll second that. Two votes. I I I is hereby proclaimed uh that April 6th and through April 12th is National Public Health Week and we appreciate public health. So Brooklyn, you got it. Congratulations on being the best department. Also, thank you. Yeah, I almost included that in our proclamation. I know. I was surprised not to see it. I didn't want to like brag too much, but I mean it's nice do it. It's nice that the community is also recognizing the work that you all do. Yeah, it felt amazing. So, you deserve it.

Congratulations. Thank you guys. Like reading them. Moving on. Item number five, discussion and consideration of file 26-05, a commercial recreation permit for ebike shop to conduct electric bike tours during the summer operations starting May 15, 2026 and ending October 31st, 2026. This will be led by Melissa Kendrick, community planning and develop development deputy director.

All right. Good afternoon. Um, thank you for that introduction. Mike Mat is sitting behind me and he is the owner of Ebike. And as you read, this is an uh renewal, our first renewal of our first commercial w permit um here in Lake County. And it is not an OV because these are electric bikes, so levels one and two. And so those are um really simply considered bicycles here. So I just wanted to point that out since we had a healthy conversation earlier today. So um I think you did a pretty good job at the summary of what is being proposed. They're continuing um two routes. One is Trail of the Silver King and the other's around Turquoise Lake. understanding bikes can go by even though cars cannot. Um, so they're two trips per day or 10 people per day. Um, these are seven days a week. Um, they they run at 10:00 a.m. and at 2:00 p.m. So, we have found this to be a pretty light touch. Uh we did refer this out to our partners and we're not aware of any incidents, accidents or other types of behavior that we would be concerned about and going forward. Um they uh like they did last year they really meet the requirements of the ordinance. Um, they have lots of operational practices in place. I think I have assured their success and Mike can address those if you have questions about them. But um, based upon the findings in the staff report, we are recommending this favorably with two conditions. um one is that they maintain

the the permit um in good standing as they have done and then anything else that might be represented today. So that's it. Okay. Mike, would you like to add anything to the presentation?

Uh we applied earlier this year get our permits. We've applied for about 140 to 150 permits a year from probably 50 to 70 different jurisdictions. This one's just out of sync since it came upon us last year in July. So, we moved it up to be our normal permit. So, we're just we're going early so that it matches all of our other permits that we operate.

Nice. Well, I really liked what we uh you know, we got really ind depth with this last year and everything seemed really good. You know, like I liked all the stuff we discussed at that, you know, with your emergency preparedness and things like wag bags and all that stuff. So, there's no major changes. I'm good. Yeah. Me, too. Me, too.

Okay. I move that we conditionally approve file 26-05 ebike shop commercial recreation permit pursuant to the standard and approval criteria of ordinance 24-01 multi-purpose use on county roads that they have been met as evidenced in the staff report dated April 7th for file 26-05 and is conditioned as follows. One, the owner maintains a commercial wreck permit in good standing with the county. And two, that all statements and representations made by the applicant through the application and hearing shall be binding and considered as conditions of approval. I I will second that. I I Good job.

There you go, Mike. Thank you. If I can make one thing on your litter, um we pick up a lot of litter. We probably make uh on our behalf probably six to 10 runs a year. Litter is uh now being put inside the abandoned mine sites. So it's being hidden from the public. Yeah. So just know that a lot of it's on private property. Um but the we were just up there scoping it out. Tires and all that are rampant again this year. Mhm. Um and um people that live up there uh with nonp permitted have already started moving back in. So it will be a long summer for tour operations up there. So

on the east side, okay, they've already moved back in. So yeah, it's warm enough. The roads are not as muddy since we're up there daily. It pretty much takes it all over. But the trash is this will be our worst year of trash because we'll make our first pickup as soon as the roads are dry because it's the number one complaint from our tours from our people we sense. Well, thanks for doing that. Yeah. So,

appreciate chipping in and uh any kind of observations you guys can make. Takes a village. We need all the help we can get with figuring out who's repeat offenders or you know I don't know if there's an ideal spot for a game camera or something recommendations we'll be more than happy to provide that. Okay. Thanks.

Moving on to item number six on the agenda today. Discussion and consideration of individual product order IPO-01 with Kimley Horn for the county road 4 and Arkansas River bridge replacement project. This will be led by Michael Irwin, our public's director, public works director. Yes. So, this is an IPO for the next bridge in our grant process with the NR funds. Um, Kim's done all the for the other ones, so we just like to use them again for this one. It's in our budget. Go ahead. I have no questions.

Neither do I. All right. Uh, I will make a motion to approve the individual project order, our IPO 01 with Kimley Horn for the County Road for and Arkansas River bridge replacement project. Seconded vote. I All right. Thank you, Michael. Thanks, Mike. I get that from you. Mike, can I just ask you a question? Did you say you closed County Road 4? Yes. Okay. It wasn't a dream. Why did you close it?

Um, I can send you the email that I'm going to resend everybody. Okay. Thank you. With the pictures of it. It's flooding off the hillside. Oh, that Okay. In my mind, I kept thinking County Road 4 from the cemetery down to the No, the bridge. Got it. from Aly to Hager and pass. Thank you. It goes a long way. Yeah. Okay, cool. That makes a lot of sense. The rest of road for is fine. Yes. Yep. Okay. It's going to be a tough fix, isn't it? It's so steep. Yeah. The um engineering that was done in 2013, actually we got the final report in 15. Um they're suggesting a bridge to span it. Wow. I remember talking about that before.

Yeah. like 12 million back then. So, there's a couple of grants coming up that are a possibility that we can look at. One is federally funded and could get some um congressional help. That would be great. Wow. What are we going to do like with the race series? They don't do that section. They do the north section. I know they do try to do some stuff like one way through there, but well the the big worry is going to be instead of the other side of the lake getting one pass from every bit of traffic now they're going to get double the traffic. Yeah.

Since it's an out and back and everything from Heerman Pass, you know, every That's a long one road. And the other side of that road has some spots that are Yeah, we I was looking at those yesterday to see what we could do to help those out this summer when we're paving. Maybe it might be well asking if the race series could move the aid station to the other side of the lake like when you first come in and make instead of

Yeah, I know. I would I did copy her too. Not a lot of parking, but the road is yet. I'm not sure why. It's major changes this summer. We got empty reservoirs. We've got red bridges going down. We got our own major recreational loop around the lake. Wow. We'll sort through that MSA. Fun. Stuff is going. It wasn't closed last year. Driving up there. I didn't realize it was closed. It was early in the morning and just the little thing that closed that side. You didn't have any notice to ride on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Take a picture. There is a is a sign around the corner before you get there. One of the first things I was like, Michael, can we put a sign on that? Mainly I almost hit. There's actually a sign on both approaches here. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael. Thank you. Moving on to item number seven, discussion and consideration of a supplemental request from the clerk and recorders office led by Candace Bryan's county manager.

Um so, uh Tracy reached out a while back and asked if she could put in a supplemental request. She is, um trying to make some changes to her office since we're not doing any major remodels. Um, and this is just a really lowcost solution to um change where the driver's license office accesses relative to the secure voting area. Um, and so what she would need is $2,000 for partitions and then another $2,000 for an electronic security camera which is required for people to do their voting. Um, and so what she is seeking is board direction and approval uh on the supplemental.

I'll move to approve the amendment to the Oh, no. I'll move to approve the supplemental request from the clerk and recorder's office. I will. Sorry. Oh. Um, just Will you second that so we can talk about it? Yeah, I'll second that. Um, why is this needed suddenly now as when we've already been operating? I mean, I can actually, you know,

yeah, I can I can tell you. So, um, as you know, the driver's license office is that first little room there on the left, and there is a secure door there that is required by by state law for elections that um, holds all our equipment. Um, it's also where all the counting is done for the at when elections are actually happening. Um, it's in the back behind the like go in and look, right? So, it was insanely I mean, Jordan's trying to do her job and she couldn't even do her job during election season because we're constantly in and out of there. Judges are constantly in and out of there. Okay. Gotcha.

Now, that space does need a camera. Um, so that would be the $2,000 for that new camera by state statute. It needs to be there. Yeah. And then um uh she is going to be partitioned in the back corner, which is also safer for her simply because people just wander into her office and a lot of these folks are mad because they they lost their license due to DUI or whatever it may be and just not to help. So yeah, it gives her a little bit of space too for some for some safety reason. Cool. So this like really enhances our DMV. Okay. Yeah. Sweet. Great. It's all I need to hear to a vote.

Hi. Hi. I'm just going to put it out there. We we did one posting about supplementals. We mentioned today. We also mentioned that staff supplementals will be later uh in the month. Um we do supplementals quarterly, but Tracy needed to order these items in time. Yeah. Uh to get them here. So, that's kind of why we have some up just so you know. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, guys. You're welcome.

Moving on. Item number eight, discussion and consideration of an amendment to the lease agreement with St. Vincent Health for the Coroner's Facility. And this will be led by Matt Hobs, our county attorney. Um, so this be amendment was designed, as you may recall, there were earlier you approved reflooring the facility, the corner to actually use it. Um, there was a little bit of sidebar discussion during the break, which Stuart was still here whether this lease is even making sense for the counter at this point.

Good question. because it hasn't been really used at all. Um, so probably my recommendation would be we go ahead and approve this lease amendment subject to legal review. Um, and then sounds like there's going to be some further exploration of whether uh this lease is even making sense at this point

before the the $30,000 gets spent to um, you know, fix the floor. Um, one of the issues I had with the lease agreement that I struck, you know, there was language in the the amendment that county was responsible for basically any latent defect that was uncovered during the floor. I'm like, no, agreeing to fix your entire building if we uncover some major defect. So, that's really what's getting negotiated in this lease amendment right now. Stuart has not heard back from him. Um we struck that provision but um yeah I would just ask them to be approved subject to legal review and the understanding that there's further issues uh involving an or facility that are happening.

Great. You seem to know about this. How come I don't know about this? I'm just really curious what it's being used for based on how many deaths we have and the fact that we can't do autopsies in house etc. I'm just really I've been really curious as we did this why why is this necessary and are there other ways that we could actually be having like potential use with surrounding counties the way that we do with the jail etc etc. So I've just been really curious about the coroner's facility to begin with. But Matt, you stated he's not using it at all. My understanding it hasn't been used yet.

It hasn't been. I can give a little context. It's actually one of the first things I did was go and walk and see where we what we are currently doing. It's just in um one of the public works whole buildings in the back. Doesn't even have a real floor, which is really not ideal cuz then you're trying not to contaminate drop anything. Yeah. And it's so tight to get the vehicle that you have to unload individuals from. Yeah. And into the cooler that we have. It is It's not great. And it also just feels really not

respectful. So that's why we explored the other, you know, options. I know that we used to have Chaffy handle these for us because we didn't have a corner for a while. And it just sounds like from a cost perspective, having someone else come up to to to get people and then take them out somewhere else was pretty cost prohibitive relative to just having a space. And also just trying to get a hold of somebody, you know, 247 when there is an issue I think was really a challenge.

Just having I just think that there's more there and maybe but I hear that we needed a new facility like where our coolers were was unacceptable. But if we haven't used it yet and like are there other options as opposed to a whole facility which we're actually trying to unbburden ourselves from a little bit. And then just like how the coroner's offices run based on not being able to do autopsies, you know, just like just I'm really curious how we're using a facility and if we haven't used it yet, what are we doing? Well, we're going to ask in Steuart to explore could we do something different since we keep hitting all these roadblocks.

Yeah. So here and the lease amendment doesn't change anything fiscally or anything. It just allows us if we do go forward to you fix the floor. Yeah. Yeah. Are we able to get out of the lease or is it a turned lease? Uh we're going to look at that. Okay. Wow. It sounds like uh we're spending some money on something we didn't have to cuz he's still using the the cooler still up the hill. Yeah. Dirt and public work. Yeah. I mean, that's what we've always done, but it's not really We need to do something different, even if it's not this option.

Yeah. And it's your turn to make a motion. Yeah. Um, okay. Well, I make a motion to approve the amendment to the lease agreement with St. Vincent Health for the coroner's facility. Seconded. Subject to subject to legal review. Second to a vote. I I I Thank you, Matt, for working on that. Yeah. Um, let's see. Mr. Wadssworth going to join us. Grab him. Grab him.

Thanks, Bryce. It looks like you got an email back on the mineral rights subject of the assessors and that seems resolved. I think so. Okay, cool. Should I pause for a minute? 81.

Matt's just grabbing his lunch battery.

Hello, Mark. Welcome. This is here. Yeah. Hey, Mark. How are you, sir? All right. Feeling better? Yes. That was horrible. I never get sick like that. Yeah, that doesn't happen.

Yeah, we'll do this. Uh I don't whatever you guys have that this is the other one. So that's that's one property and this one is the two, but only one of them is actually over 10,000. So, but they're the same problems. Okay, let me uh open this up. Uh item number nine is discussion and consideration of abatement of the following. Account number R002756, Bird's Eyee Land and Water LLC. Account number R002757, Bird's Eyee Land and Water LLC. and account number R008135, Marcus McCarthy. This would be led by Mark Wadsworth, our county assessor. Um, the reason that we are having this is because this abatement is over $10,000 and to get it approved, it has to go be approved by you guys first and then it goes to the state to the director of the division of property taxation. And he says, "Yeah, that's that's fine. We made an evaluation there. The tax return or the tax amount is over 10,000." And then when it gets approved by the the division, it gets sent back here and that's when we actually process. Um these the first ones are Bird's Eye Land and Water LLC. They're they're in a conservation easement and for the tax year of 2023 and 2024, they were not they were valued. Um, for instance, the very top, the very first one, it was valued at $934,974,

which is equal to um 8,118 an acre. And for some reason that that year when I came in, they had 100 acres and over valued higher at on a dollar per acre value than things that were smaller. So that that kind of added a little bit of I didn't insult the injury with that value being 900, you know, a million bucks because the only sale that happened in the time period for 2023 and 22 24 value that was vacant was a $2 million land sale was is now Angel View. I mean, you know, that guy paid a huge pre premium for that. I don't even know where they got that dollar per acre because this was kind of set it was set before it came into office. Um but when you calculate it how it should be and this is my methodology I did on this is when things go into a conservation easement and their agricultural use at the time the assessor in the state is to value that that land as agricultural. Um these the two of the three that are on this list were not um I believe that bird's eye land acquired them and put them in the easement um too quickly to get agricultural status. They're used all of those lots the same and I and these the particular one the ones that's the worst off this nine the one that's 1098 James pler the 115 acre on the top that one is the

majority of it is is wetlands but they that conservation easement I read through that several times and it is more lax I guess than what I'm I'm used to seeing if they're going to live the agreement that they do have three building sites within that entire strip that they can put houses they can build a house on. So they have some some development potential. Um they're not restricted on outbuildings as long as they're not, you know, bad on the environment. They do have access public has access to fish there. I don't see where he's granted that. But but that you know these things would impact if he was to sell it. He can transfer his property. That was one of the things that I was kind of surprised to see too in the conservation easement that bird eye land can can transfer and sell and sell that property. But the fisherman can only fish on the north side of of Jackaw River. Apparently this the way it's written everything from Arkansas South is is off limits. He he can block the public from that that conservation eastman is mostly to conserve on the water quality of water and be a few ships. But taking that into account and the way that similar properties are valued in this in Lake County and in throughout the state because of its, you know, so heavily restricted on its use and and the resale potential. It's like, you know, I wouldn't want to buy it because of all of the, you know, wouldn't it wouldn't be a typical buyer that would buy the property like that cuz you can't do really much other than build a house. You're going to have people if you the

building envelopes are on the north side of that Arkansas River. So, and you have to give that's the whole reason for it too was that what you said and that fisherman access was a big deal on it. But I don't think that he gives anybody fish access. CPW came and talked to us about this parcel in particular. Oh, really? And they do have fishing access. There's even a sign. Oh, yeah. See, learn something new every day. Just don't hang out on 91 as much as two two access points. Yeah. Oh, that's right. They also said that um I didn't know that conservation easements look like every single one of them is different. It's different. Yeah.

Yeah. And this one in particular, the the land owner only wanted to give it in a certain location and blah blah blah. So, he did address this with us. Gotcha.

Yeah. And yeah, and what the way the way I valued it is is there is a statute in the state that if you're have agricultural status and you're not an intricral part of the ranch or the farm. Um, this was designed for people that bought a second home on 40 acres and they have a lease with a with their neighbor for a cow and they don't really they want to access that as but so the portion of that land can be valued at full market just to cover the residents. In this situation, it was 115 acres. I figured a 10 acre spot full market would be fair and the rest of it should be agricultural that it and when I coat it like this that will pro pre prevent 950,000 from coming up again because it's going to be coated as the larger part of it's going to be agricultural

and so it that would that would stop the the problems. So if you if you do that in the 10acre parcel sales back then they're pretty hard to find. They're mostly mining claims that are um backount zoned and there's about 40,000. There was two that were developable parcels ones down the boulevard and you'll see on the map on the second page. Those are the two that I kind of leaned in on because they don't have access issues. And there's already homes built on those two because they were sales. These are sales before June 30th of the 2022 that I was looking at. Um, and I came up with a median dollar per acre of 10,000. and $714. So that that portion of it, you would come up with $17,000 for the land value. Then you'd add in the agricultural that's done off of a of a formula. And back then it was $18 or $166 an acre. Total value was reduced to 124,683. And that's that's way more in line. He waited a long time to even bring this in. And then it that's why it's late. Um the 2023 value was was should have been changed, but it never even approved yesterday and it kind of fell through. But we're looking at an abatement amount of 18,759 30 36 cents for 2023 2024. The difference is the mill levy a little bit and the assessment rate changed is

20,19143 and the total on those two is 38,950.79. That one hurts. I've never done a payment that big. because it's vacant. So that assessment rate everything was working against it. So how does somebody get so there's this process question mark? How does somebody get an abatement even if you don't protest? You don't go through the whole process cuz I thought that was the opportunity. So how where is this opportunity for

it's that you get the you can file for an abatement in years that you do not appeal. If you appeal and you do not go further than the CBOE to the PAA, don't don't take it as far as you can. I can't grant them an abatement in that year. I know it's it's really it's it's just messed up the way that but that's how the law is. It's But people that don't protest timely. Yeah. They go through the obeyment process. Okay. I know it it doesn't make sense, but that's that's how it works. Do you know what the the pay actuals on 22 were on this property? The what

the actuals like what were their property taxes in the 2022? Oh, 2022. I have the values there just for like for reference. They had 20 23,000 and I I can't tell you where they where they got that. Oh yeah, see the valuations. cuz I was just wondering what they Oh, I would think that the Well, the I did look and one of the mill levies was 84 mills that year

compared to Oh, that was Sorry, that was 2024. Um I would I would think that they would probably be pretty close to this to the same taxes that there have. So then So then what's our rule? What is our role? We approve the abatement or not? Yeah, you I don't know what would happen if you deny it. Do we lower or raise the abatement? Like where is our jurisdiction that? I mean, Mark, are you making a recommendation? I guess. So, you're making a recommendation to approve to approve the suggested levels. Yeah.

Yeah. I think if the board denies it, it just doesn't it needs to be approved by the SEC to even get forwarded to the state property tax administrator. Um, how common is that to say, "No, you have to go through the process." I I don't know. I never heard of it. You've never heard of the BOCC denying an abatement? No, I haven't. Well, not denying not denying one that was being recommended this this high of a number, you know, that sort of thing. I' I've surely seen commissioners deny the abatement.

Um, on the map we're looking at is the little section in blue separating our 2756 and 2757. And that's the blue the blue is is 2756. And then

those other yellow parcels are also owned by them. Um their their level of reduction is less than $10,000 especially on there on those two accounts. The other one's right below it. I I put it on there um cuz I was working them together and uh there was there was an adjustment factor that was in the Tyler system on that one that reduced that land value by 50%. That's another thing that Tyler if somebody goes in there and just decides to put 50% in into certain place in an account they will reduce that value by 56 or 50% until somebody else goes in there and finds it and gets it out of there. There was no notes or no comments or anything. I don't I don't know why that they would put a 50% reduction in one account and not the other. Okay. Should we do one at a time or should we go all through all three of them? Through all three of them.

Probably all three.

Okay. So, that's 56 and 57. Should we talk about 81 and 35? This one is vacant lot that is owned by Marcus McCarthy out of uh Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And it's a real real similar thing happened for those two tax years. He received a value that was really really really high and got he has 35 acres outside of Silven Lakes and his value was 1,62,868. This is a really unique situation and I nobody could answer the question. He wasn't getting notices of value from my office. since he bought the land in 2017 and he since he lives in Florida. He just figured the taxes were high or whatever, but you know, he called me up and I'm like, "Well, this is not not accurate." They part of Conway subdivision and that's what happens when you subdivide something that's right next to a subdivision with smaller lots. And you know, this in 2001, I think They used all they used the land code from Silven Lakes to value this guy's property. Living lot in Silven Lakes owns about $130,000 for the land value. He has 35 acres. That's why you ended up with a million dollar value. And u and that's why I didn't catch it because

when I came in in 2023, it was apparent that in 35 acres and above were overvalued in this county. And I and I equalized all of them, but the land codes at Southern Lace and not at five 510. So I was able to catch almost all his 40 acre tracks all countywide. But I sw because I do some lakes and I can't answer. I can't I don't know what he's the only person in the entire tax role that didn't get a tax bill or tax notice or was it in the office that I can tell and you can see in your records when somebody doesn't get

I can see when someone does never there's like the document each year. Yeah. And you can see when the notice of value if they protest there's a protest in there notice of determination all in that one folder for that year. He doesn't even have it. And so what you're saying, he paid taxes though. How has he paid? He's paid them. Um I told him to keep current on He's paid them, but without he's never received the notice of value. Notice of value. He's got to be getting the tax bill. Yeah.

He never has gotten I can't I couldn't produce like you can just print somebody's nice value. And as soon as I must have closed that account and held my mouth right or whatever because he's got one last year, he's getting them now. He's getting he's getting the mail from us. I don't know why he wasn't before cuz we weren't producing the document. So you you want to bring the $1.06 million 35 acre value down to 441. Yeah. And

I in that time period I had well that land sale of that's Angel View and the other 40 acre tracks. There's one right outside of Mountain View East when you hit Escandido Flats. There's a 40acre track sale there for 240. There was another one that was um down tracks and that was 260. Arkansas River Valley, whatever that is. There's a little that skinny strip goes down in the river. There was one in there and that was 235. I mean, these are tight and they're different places, but I think that 441 is a better refle reflection of the value for this parcel because it is in a premium location and it does have a a water on it. It's got a It's got a pond on it. And that premium was um three 35%.

And that's based off of a sale. I have that 400 $400,000 sale that has the Tennessee Creek that runs through it. And that's where that's where kind of where I got that41. Okay. But this one's large, too. It's It's 12 It's almost $12,000 per year that is over tax.

So, are we disobeying this one year or are you going back? No, two two years. You'd be too bad. this 8135. My understanding is that it would be closer to $32,000 of abatement. Oh, I'm sorry. His corrected taxes would be 12,000 a year instead of Yeah, different tax. The abatement would be 32,00 like 32,000 and then okay this is as much as the other the abatement for the other one would be closer to $14,000 142.

Yeah. Okay. So his his property is being valued by these calculations at $30,000 an acre. There are smaller parcels right next to them selling for $130,000 an acre and you're saying that the $30,000 an acre is still too high. Plus, we had a smaller parcel like a stones throw north of that that just sold for more than $500,000 and you want to take them down to $441. We're looking at sales that occur higher June 30th of 2020. Yeah. within the window. That's quite a while ago.

Which I feel like prices have come down a little bit versus 3 years ago.

But wouldn't they go up again for this next for this valuation you just did? Um the based on sales. Yeah. like even at the adjacent sales that you site, there was a sale that that you may be looking at that's the entrance to Cooper Meadows and up to to Webster's gravel pit. Y

that's there's some real iffy stuff that happened with those. Um her name was Sandra Dirks owns a bunch of 40 acre parcels there. She sold one and it was ended up to be being the wrong the wrong parcel, whatever that means. The guy that bought it sold it back to her. Then they that one that's the where the road's going up there that created three parcels out of one. Split it up.

And I just I'd have to really kind of look at the transfers and how that sale went down to see what exactly they bought. And it was something Murphy is 8135 subdividable and buildable that one it would be hard to subdivide I I would think because it went through a subdivision um already because it's sub lot two of Conway sub um Conway had a 40 acre and he planted lots one and two 35 went to him and he kept five

but I you know that's a land I just think so I'm not real, but I think you would have more hard times than sub. I mean, I just this is where I'm always looking, you know, and it's like I just feel like 441's really low for a 35 acre parcel with its own pond. And I mean, that's like a dream property. You put that on the market 3 years ago within that window, that thing's going to sell like yesterday, you know, like a heartbeat for that price. It feel it feels like undervalued to me, but I'm also just going off of like a, you know, hobbyist real estate listing you type of thing.

Well, that's how it that's why he has to look at actual sales, right? I'm just reading that this cash eat your heart and you can alter my understanding on this. 39-10-114 says that subsection G says or refund of taxes must not be paid based upon the ground of overvaluation of property if an objection to protest to such valuation has been made. Okay has been made and no decision. So they they you're saying they haven't made the protest. Yeah. Right. Never mind. Answer my question.

Nice when you read stuff. Preaching the choir. Yeah. Okay. Well, fun. So now our job is to say yay or nay to either of these. Right. This is very elementary question. I wish I didn't have to ask this in a public meeting, but it means we're going to give them back money. Yes. And the amounts that we're going to give back are that are proposed to give back are 389 14,000 70,000 and 32.

Well, thanks for cleaning it up. Well, the one that one thing I know that that that at least a one out on 911. As long as nobody goes in there and changes my code in there, that one will never be overvalued. Again, not if it is, it's not going to be erroneous like this.

And the other one I had I took that land out and it's going to be valued as regular 35 acre parcel, not in a sub not in some s Um, Mark, when somebody I'm sorry, I can't remember, but when somebody gets their taxes, does it I know it shows you how much you owe, but does it does it show you your valuation or is that completely separate and only tax? This is the first time I've ever seen a tax notice go out by the treasurer not have value on it

for this for this year. for this year. The ones the tax notices that just went out don't have the values on there. So I have to send out notices of value in May to everybody. Yeah. Yeah. So it cost us a bunch of money and premium, you know. So here's my clarifying question. So in 2020 for us paying our 2025 taxes, that was the first time where the valuation was not connected to the T, not on the tax notice. as far as I I that every year prior the value that was of your house would be on your tax. So this friend here who said they were not getting a valuation of tax a valuation of their property. Yeah.

You're saying that actually in years before for 2023 and 2024 before those valuations were on they were he was getting tax that value was on that tax. Okay. So, so he might not have gotten your notice of valuation, but he did know how much his property was being valued at to assess the tax if he raised. Well, he got he got it, right? He got he did get the value because that's what I hear you bringing up is that this person didn't know when actually he did know. Well, he I didn't say through his taxes. He didn't get his bill, you know, and then it's kind of nice when you know NOB because the protest procedures are outlined on there and all that stuff. Totally.

But but they he didn't he didn't he didn't protest. He didn't protest. He did not come until after 2 years of this value. Yeah. Okay. So, just wanted to clarify that this person has been getting it bird's eye. They've been getting their notice evaluation. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And he Yeah. So across two years in all three of these properties, we're looking at $90,000 that is currently sitting in Lake County. See what happens when you make a mistake. Tax rolls that we have to that you're suggesting we get back. It's not that much. 32 + 14

both years all three properties about 90,000. No. Total amount of abatement here 38 + 14ish plus 15 + 16. You're right. Yeah. And this can be traced back to the state making a lot of changes to this Tyler system and how things are being reported and well it's prior the calculations being done in this computer program that are not boots on the ground reality. It was bad coding in Tyler by prior appraisal staff. This feels like this

and but you know it's my responsibility. I certified the tax role but there's no way I wouldn't be able to catch every single one of those. Yeah. No, I get that. What do you think the state would say if we just put this in their hands?

Does it go to the state after us? Yeah, I'd have the the state anything over 10,000 in a year is um needs to be approved by the director of the division of property taxation who is a brand new director that and Joanne retired that turned 20 some years. Matt, should I just be looking at what I have in front of me and not doing like devil's advocate of like what happens if we don't? Are they going to sell the property to someone who's not going to honor past things and like try not be going down that road? My head. I'm just trying to keep my thought process with this within boundaries where in the role that we need to stay in. Yeah, I would probably confine it to,

you know, the legal process, not kind of a bunch of whatifs. I'm just kind of looking at the statute as we're sitting here. And

if you I don't know if this is an option or not. If you you can go back more than two years in any reappraisal cycle to look for sales. I I don't have a 40 acre or 35 acre sale that has a lake or a river really in that time period where I'm looking at the one in Conway sub and they asked for me to go back and give them a better report cuz I didn't go back in time. I just used the two years that was that's you know

well I think the statute requires the taxes be levied erroneously or legally. Sure. Uh I'm not sure that not getting evaluation is an erroneous or illegal notes. What is I mean just because you can go through this separate process of abatement versus protest. Protest.

Yeah. Does that mean that we have to like approve the abatement process? I take umbrage with it, but I don't know if I'm allowed to make a decision. Well, you had the opportunity. The taxes have been levied erroneously or legally, then you know, a they've been overvalued like some of them have. Like there's a hex for different reasons. you know, this one didn't get his notice. Uh, you know, I think taking these up separately and yeah, that way, but

it's a it's a bit of a wonky process for sure to to not protest and then have this sort of backdoor mechanism for essentially protesting. Yeah. After they receive the funds, what happens every time the taxes go out. Yeah. I hadn't done a lot this year, you know. Yeah.

Okay. So, let's address them one at a time, shall we? Should we do the bird eye first? Okay, sure. What do y'all think? You're going to make a motion, so let's do them one at a time. Yeah, one at a time. Okay. The top one number 1098. James Placer 070979

002756. Yes. R 02746. I move to reject the abatement.

Second that to discussion. um with what I have in front of me looking at it go from $233,000 value to $934,000 value that feels like a big jump to me then something we got some wires crossed in our software that took some calculations into account that um now that said It's 115 acres in the Arkansas headquarters and there are building sites on the property even though it is being used for an conservation easement um which is stated in front of me here on these forms. Um, I I feel like that one throws the conservation easement really throws the curveball in this property at me and I don't understand uh enough at this moment sitting in this seat of how that would affect the property value. Well, even 10 acres 10 acres it seems like should be more than 120 or 107,000 to value the land at that is

it does not feel justified. Okay. So move let this one pass on up the ladder. Yeah. Do you know Mark? Do you know what timelines are on these things once this is out of our hands into the state? What would be like a window of of you think it's a 90day?

Okay. So that is um okay this is uncharted territory for me. I'm just going to be fully honest. The two sales mark for this one that you you're citing. Yeah. What did you

The reason I use those is because they are somewhat restricted. Um they don't it's not a five acre lot in mountain pines. I didn't want to use those because there is absolutely no restriction on vacant. I mean they they have plowed streets and so I mean this this is an conservation ement and there is the other three are valued total at like 17 grand. Yeah. But what is the I don't understand how 10 acres is restricted. The windows is up above the dump. Uh-huh.

So that's seasonal that Well, it's not seasonable because there's a house right there. Yeah. But it's it's not an easy build. It's that's what he paid for. It's 120 grand. And you know, I'm talking about the actual bird's eyee property. How is that restricted? Like how is that comparable

to Well, it's kind of touched up to say why, but the conservation easement has a lot of restrictions on it. He can if he does things that are going to be deemed as destructive to the environment in any way then conservation whatever that is central Colorado upper Arkansas sure they inspect his property every year to make sure that he is not violation of any of the agreements that are in that conservation and it's a it's a 85page document

and it's he can't subdivide it anymore. And I don't know where the three building sites actually are. And they say they they are defined, but I never saw where they were mined. Um, as far as cutting down trees, he still is this the least restrictive conservation eman I've ever read. Not that I'm an expert by any means, but but the he has access from all sides. He can put a road through there if he needs to. Yeah. He has buildable land within the 10 acres and three

Yes. The house the house sizes were not very restrictive at all. You can build three 3500 foot homes. So I Yeah, I guess it feels too low to me and I don't think that the I'm looking for like a market price and would Yeah. the conservation easement have an impact on the marketability and sales price that he would be given if that was to be so yeah my impression is would the director of the division of property taxation be able to weigh in on that I don't know I've never had one

and what are our timelines with this like how how long do we have to um look into this and then do homework. It's up to us, right? There's probably timelines, windows that we have to work within, I would imagine. But I I'm sure that almost a year late that you could they'll wait a month.

Oh, Bryce, do you want to contribute? Yeah, I can just speak a little to the conservation easement side of things. So, that was put on by Land Trusty of Arkansas, now Central Colorado Conservancy. And a lot of their conservation easements allow for future building. You can designate future building sites, but it's always for a super low intensity use. And the purpose of these conservation easements was to take these away from intense development. These are right on the river, right on the highway. essentially they were prime candidates for pretty intense development like condos or something and that's what upper ar was trying to get

you know preclude that happening. So the gul of value between how you could sell the value the property now as is with the restrictions versus what it could go for under the market with the restrictions is pretty wide. Yes, absolutely. But still the ability to build a build on it a massive home these I agree that there are restrictions and there's a difference in the market value but I don't think that the comparable sales that have been presented signify similar restrictions that could give us a market value indicator is my that's my yeah in

you're not going to find a sale with a similar restriction. No, I know. I would love to, but it is, you know, when you look at as a whole, it's 100 acre. These tracks are

Mhm. I mean, I think one option would be to table this particular one and we can certainly dig in this a little more, see if we can answer some of these questions. Yeah, this the maintenance statute is quite sorry. That means it's a letter a lot of reading for the people we need to to speak that language.

Sorry, I'm going to resend my motion. Is that okay with you, Andy? Yes. Great. I will second your reindication. Do you know that you're okay with that? Okay. Um I will move to table R00 2756 to our next regular meeting. I will second that to a vote. I I Okay. Then R002757 this is the agricultural land. Am I understanding that right Mark? It was improp improperly coded on this cottonwood.

No, the second parcel of birds. Oh, yeah. Um, yeah, that's that's the stuff that should have been in the ement. Yes. Yeah. Okay. I will move to approve the abatement for R002757. I will second that and go into discussion. Yes. Um shouldn't we treat these similarly since they are very similar properties even though they do have different issues with the valuation change. Is this one more cut and dry for you guys? They hope you'll

This one should have gone into a This one should definitely not have gone up. It went into a land trust or a conservation easement. So, I think it's pretty easy to say, "Yeah, that was a that was a mess up." Okay. The entirety of 2757 is the conservation easement. Yeah. Yeah. The top one was the 10 acres. The bottom one is the top one says 115.175 acres. The bottom one's 114 acres.

But the top one is the one that's pulling out the tent. Yes. But the issue in the change of valuation is that 10 acres should have been to developable land. The rest of it not disagree. I'm disagreeing with the I was disagreeing with that valuation. this one. I'm like, "Yeah, that wasn't anyway." I feel like I need more information on on all on both of these parcels and Okay. Um I would not agree with just moving forward with one and not the other.

Okay, I'll resend my motion. Do you want to make a motion? I will make a motion to table the uh abatement decision on R002757 to the next available need regular meeting. Regular meeting of the Lake County Board of County Commissioners. I'll second that to a vote. I I Okay. Now to our friend R008135.

I will make a motion to deny the abatement of R008135. I'll second that.

On what basis would you like to deny that? just just don't want to drive. Yeah, it's probably helpful to have some discussion about your basis. Um because I feel like if the valuation of the that was sent to them for a 35 acre parcel based on the information I have in front of me and the neighboring uh lots um that $30,000 an acre seems reasonable to me. So, so you're saying there is no air or legal taxes essentially.

It just didn't get us noticed. Yeah, this is this is

I I I I don't the the corrected value feels very low to me for what during the time frame that we're allowed to look at what a parcel like that would be valued at um in our allowable window. That just seems really low. And I'm not saying the initial value sent isn't too high, but I don't think what is what I have in front of me, that's almost too big of a jump. Yeah. All the other parcels of similar size we're selling for the mid twos. 260 280 I heard.

Mhm. Just because it has a because it has a pond. If it's a natural pond, I don't know. I feel like I feel like it's fine. I feel like I want to trust Mark on this one. And uh it it's uh it seems fair to me, if not a little bit high cuz he bought it in 2017 for 300,000. Things definitely went up over that period.

Um The houses that were $230,000 in 2017 are now worth $600,000. Parcels all over the county in 2017. I mean, we're not really I'm only going to address that because it was it was mentioned. I think we have to just stay within focused within the time window that we're allowed to. And uh I felt like within that window if that parcel went up for sale for this this price here I think that would have been an insanely low price for a 35 acre parcel there in uh two years ago. I understand it's fair. Okay.

I think it's very fair. It's undeveloped. It's of course we're leaning on Mark's expertise. He's the one that did the comparisons. can't just feel our way to up or down. I mean,

yeah. No, fair enough. Um, I think we're just we're markets throwing all these curve balls from the the Tyler accounting system that's selling them crazy high stuff and crazy low stuff, and I'm just going with what I've seen and felt as a as a shopper. So just different perspectives which is what makes us good and balanced. So

Mark um on your facts sheet you said that the typical land value in Silven Lakes estates for which have smaller parcels is approximately $130,000 total. Do you mean for the entire parcels or are you saying per acre? No, for per lot. Per lot. Okay. Okay. And do you know what the typical size of lots in Silven Lakes is? I I don't one.

Is that a Is that one of the metrics you can use? I know we talked a lot about this last year, which is that you can't like you can't scale things the same way once you get above a certain acreage. Totally get that. But can you use that as a little bit of a determinant to kind of right size the work that you do when you are looking for sales of large parcels which are fewer?

Can you use that as a determinant? The only way that I know how to do that is to use a linear model or not a linear model or curved estimation which is important to regression analysis. That's using stats. I did build a model for 2023 using land cells. Yeah, I was not able to implement that model that I can build because I I built it before I knew China would not handle such an equation.

Okay. Okay. But it would come in. But if there was no sale, I could show you guys the whole the whole sales list and there was nothing even close to a million dollars. Yeah. That was 40 acres. I mean, there was only one sale that was almost angel Q southern, you know, open and that's and that's developable. Like that was Yeah, that's a substance. I hear that argument with this. Absolutely. And with the other one, frankly.

Okay. Well, I significantly have distaste in my mouth for this process. And if I could reject it on the basis that you did not take the opportunity available to everyone to protest, I would reject this. But I don't think that that's actually a an avenue available to me. So I'm going to have to vote against our motion. Okay. Fair enough. Do we need to take that motion to a vote? Yeah. To a vote. Nay. I nay. Okay.

Okay. I will move to accept the abatement proposed by our Lake County assessor for R008135. I will second that to a vote. I may I team. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Thanks, Mark. Nothing personal. No, no. I got you.

Thanks, man. Thanks, Wow. That property is a unicorn, dude. I mean, I just got this dude's got five acres. I have been hunting nonstop for a bigger property in district one. You can't get them. Well, maybe you can get that for a lot cheaper than it was based on assessed value.

We're going to move on here, folks. It's getting late. Uh going to move on to item number 10, county attorney updates. Uh, you know, I think mainly what I've been doing, you've already addressed on the two agenda items. I spent a lot of time in the last couple weeks on those two ordinances um that we thoroughly discussed earlier. Um, give you an update on sort of the land use litigation. We had a trial initially set for this Friday, I believe, on one of the cases with Mr. Conler who was actually uh zoomed in here earlier. Uh but he's looking for an attorney now and um the court allowed him to continue that case. Uh that's just how litigation goes. Unfortunately, there's a lot of stops and starts stops, starts, and pauses before you finally get to an end point. Um the case from Tina to canc as you all know was dismissed uh by the court uh all the claims were dismissed. The the claims against the former county commissioners were dismissed with prejudice. They can't be refiled. I always thought those were probably the weakest of all the claims. um you know just for the fact that they're former county commissioners and they can't they can't order an audit. You know they're no longer sitting where you're all sitting. So they're they're a little bit nonsensical the claims to be honest. Uh um and the court did give Mansik and Mr. Martinez the opportunity to refile their core claims. uh which I don't suspect that she that they will,

but uh we shall see what uh they do. That case is now officially over. Um you know, they're in their appeal period. I I'd be surprised if they appeal the judge's ruling. It was it was a pretty solid uh um updates. Matt, um can you give us an update on the RHA IGA?

I can. Um I've been proddding the city for well since we had that last one community meeting. I talked with Lori and I finally got a draft from the city. Um and I I talked about it this morning. I I can't remember when the city sent it to me, but it was it was I think late last week when I got there. So, I read my job. So, so we will be able to finally, you know, review that and you know, hopefully get to that with the city. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

Thanks for all your hard work. Um, item number 11 is county manager updates. Candace fin. All right. Um, today marks one year that I've been the county manager. That's wild. Congratulations. On behalf of Lake County, thank you. Yeah, it's been a dynamic year. I've worn a couple of hats. Um, couple thousand

couple couple hats here and there. Um, I'm really grateful that for the experience and to have really awesome staff on board now and to be able to really work together um to just make some really cool cultural shifts. Um, which is possible now that I've got other people helping wear hats. So, that's great. Four heads.

Um, we're heads for hats. Uh, one of one of the heads that will be be here for a hat on May 18th is we submit the offer for our OEM in addition to a gentleman named at Dan. I'm going to refrain from saying his last name just to make sure he's gotten to communicate that. I think he has. Um, he accepted the offer last Friday and we are so pumped to have him come on board. Um Josh and I will be attending the Colorado City and County Managers Conference in Glennwood the 14th through the 16th. I'm really excited. I applied for a scholarship uh because we had budgeted one seat with rooms uh as part of my contract, but I was able to get a scholarship to cover a second seat um and room and board for that. So was excited to get that so we can slowly get everybody on board. Um we uh are likely depending you know decisions made tomorrow on the on the courthouse um well actually I think we'll be doing this anyways but on the underfunded courthouse grant we were awarded $500,000 with a $ 1.5 million match. we think that we can move towards actually making some of those uh uh changes to the space in terms of how it's oriented regardless of what we decide to do if we can get that grant match reduced. And so uh Heath um uh had been looking into that and he and I are going to be trying to work with the courts to file documentation to get that map dropped. Um the core transit the youth ride for free program was going to be cancelled this year. They didn't have um the match uh to the grant that covers that. So Gypsum pitched in a bit more uh than Lake County and Leadville, but the city and us we split that second half of the

match so that that program is going to continue. That means anyone 18 and under can ride transit for free. Um, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

We were awarded the an EMPG grant, which we didn't know if it would continue or not from FEMA, and this covers a a big chunk of that emergency management director's position. So, that's awesome. Um, our auditor is going to be here April 29th and 30th doing a site visit with our finance team. Um, our goal is to have our papers, which as soon as you hand your papers off to the auditor, that's when the audit starts. They, you know, you can't change anything from that point on. We are shooting to hand those off by the end of May, beginning of June, unless something crazy comes up that we aren't expecting. Um, so that's pretty exciting. We have been handing off our papers, you know, much much later than that in the past. So, we're excited to get that cleaned up. Um there is a Polar Plunge event uh that uh Keith and his team will be putting on. Um it is um the Polar Plunge event has a sauna and soup at the natural boat ramp at Turquoise Lake on April 25th from 11 to 2:00 p.m. And this is going to be a fundraising event to start that life jacket loaner stations. So, we as a county know we can't man them for liability reasons, but we wanted to be a part of being able to help support funding those. Um, so we are going to be working to raise or I should say he is his team is going to be putting that on. Um, and we just want to get the word out so everybody else can show up. do some cold plunging. Huh.

I'll be out there cheering my feet in. Um, last thing I have is I want a little bit of guidance. I've had some interest expressed in resurfacing with skate park and I just want to have a collective board uh direction on whether you'd like us aka us stewart to go and explore options for what it might cost. And the only reason I would like for it to be a group direction is that we don't have it budgeted. So, you know, if we can handle it in the house and it's low cost, great. Uh, but we are going to have to come back and do a supplemental. So, before we spend time researching, just kind of want to get a sense for we're all good with the exploring those options. Then we'll come back and bring them to you. You can make a decision for supplemental.

Yeah. Okay. Great. Well, I got pictures of what it looks like if you guys need to see why. I'm in there. Okay. That's it. That's all I have. Thank you, Candace. Thank you, Candace. Thank you. Yes. Let's search the skate park. Can we get a paddle ball court too? Paddle ball. A tennis court. Just kidding. Hello. Cool. Let's fix what we have. Okay. Got room. Give me the skateboard. What do I get? Whatever wants.

Cool. Just checking in. Am I still out of tab with this crew? I'm sorry. That's okay. It'll come up. Okay. Uh let's see. That concludes this portion of our meeting. The next portion is uh executive session. Can we take five? Yeah. Oh, sure, sure, sure. Could we move to go into it and take five so that it's all together? Sure.

Everybody probably makes some sense. And then Yeah. I'm going to move to go into executive session pursuant to CRS24-6-402 section 4B for the purpose of receiving legal advice from the county attorney regarding water rights, water service, and related legal issues associated with the Mount Massive Club and pursuant to CRS 246 4024E for the purpose of determining positions and instructing negotiators regarding the lease agreement with the Mount Massive Club. No formal action will be taken in the executive session. I second to hold that. We want to read 13 as well because we'll discuss that and then as well.

Yeah. When we come back. Okay. Can we go to a vote to a vote? I

I Okay. Water. Um, a motion to go into executive session has been made and seconded and and approved. We will now go into executive session pursuant to CRS 24-6-424 B. For the purposes stated in the motion, no adoption of any proposed policy, position, resolution, rule, regulation, or formal action will occur during this executive session. The executive session will be electronically recorded as required by law unless the county attorney certifies that the matter constitutes a privileged attorney client communication and therefore is not subject to the required recording requirement

and maybe you want to make a record chair of who all is an executive session since we have quite the uh quite the crew today. I'll note uh for your information that Maline Wallace Gross is present on Zoom. She's our water council from Lions Gatus. Um and then Bryce P could introduce your your folks. Sure. I have Adam Kmers and Sky Zilox. They're here. They are our engineers with Brown and Caldwell that handle all our water engineering.

Okay. Also in this executive session are Commissioner Tharp, Commissioner Lee, and Commissioner Bulock, County Attorney Candace Bryan's. No, it's hard. This is the hardest thing to do. I'm going to write this part down. Training wheels. County Attorney Matthew Hobbs. the county manager Candace Bryan's Bryce Olrich, our water management supervisor. How about that? How about you introduce yourself? Yes. John Becker, deputy county manager. Deputy County Manager. Rachel Cer, assistant county manager.

That That's the easy way to go. Okay, that does it for introductions.

Okay, now I'm going to make a certification. And we are now in executive session pursuant to CRS 246424B for the purpose of receiving legal advice from county attorney regarding the m massive golf club its lease and and water rights. Uh that the golf club is now acquired and our own water rights. I hereby certify that all our portion of the matters we discussed in this exe executive session are protected by the attorney client privilege. Therefore, pursuant to CRS 24-642 subsection 2D5 subsection 2B, the electronic recording of this executive session may now be stopped. We will now come out of executive session.

Wait, is anybody ready? Yeah. Okay. Sorry. fast. The board is now out of executive session. Has returned to open session. For the record, the board discussed only the matter matters identified in the motion to enter executive session. No formal action was taken. If any members member believes discussion went beyond the scope of the motion, please state that concern for the record. Now

hearing none.

Is there any direction to staff or motion related to the matter discussed in the executive session? There is some direction and I will uh direct staff and our representatives to relay this to the golf course board. Um, we're feeling like in this dry year, we're coming from a position of scarcity and our our our main goal at the county is to protect our water rights and also monetize the water rights. Um, we'd like to reassert our ownership of the well on the golf course property and also the water rights contained within the well. That being said, we like the idea or we're open to the idea maybe on a temporary basis. And so what we'd like to explore is moving forward with the the proposal for one year and and make sure that the golf course knows that, you know, this would be this is a really big decision for them and could affect the future of the golf course if the deal that they proposed doesn't work out. So, um, at the next meeting, I think we outline risks and strategies and see if we can come to terms with some sort of temporary agreement, maybe a one-year agreement, so that we're not, you know, we don't want to lose the golf course. It's the last thing we want.

Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Sky. Really appreciate it. Thank you all. Thanks all. Bryce, we'll reach out to you and figure out where what if anything you want us to do to help facilitate the direction. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move to approve this consent agenda. I will second that. I would like to say I'm really happy to see all the life leville lifetime units on here and early not in June. So, thanks for doing that and uh I will take that to a vote. Hi. Hi. Hi.

Let's see. Are we going to close this and move into a board of health meeting? Yeah. Okay. This concludes the Lake County Board of County Commissioners meeting. It is 3:53 April 7th. Thank you all for coming. Thank you, Chair. Thank you,

I Okay, welcome to the board of health meeting. It is uh April 7th at 4:00 p.m. and we will now open the board of health meeting and our only and first and only agenda item is a discussion consideration and findings of fact and conclusions supporting the previously approved variance for Alpam Flow's vault privy on-site wastewater treatment system or OWTS. This is led by Matt Hopps, our county attorney.

So, this is pretty much what the draft that uh you all had looked at before. I did I did run it by an and she had some input and uh we we revised it a little bit based upon her input, but you know, all the conditions are the same, the conclusions are the same. Uh we just kind of tweaked a little bit of the language. So, um, Matt, are we supposed to do a Are we supposed to approve a findings of fact every time? It's best practice. Okay. I don't know if we ever have. Okay. Great. I was like, why is this one different?

And there's growing times I'm doing it and times I'm not, you know, uh, just based upon time and everything else. But uh yeah, best practice is is to do that every time. Certainly I've been focusing my energy on sort of the more controversial applications when I've been doing it. Oh yeah. And you're still fairly new. I'm just saying we've never done it. Okay. Wonderful. Well, I will move to approve the findings of fact as and conclusions supporting the previously approved variance for Alvin and close vault private on-site wastewater treatment system. I will second that

to a vote. I I I Cool. Yeah. That concludes our board of health meeting at 4:01 p.m. on April 7th. This is a reminder that all packet materials for agenda items are available upon request. To subscribe to email or to text notifications, please visit our Lake County website. Okay. Thank you, chair. That's it. Thank you,