Town Council - Regular Meeting

Six we please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance All right, well our town clerk please take roll I

Council Member Pessimarelli.

Present.

Council Member Behr. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Bell.

Here.

Council Member Hoback.

Here.

Council Member O'Connor.

Present.

Council Member Mortallaro.

Here.

And Mayor Moore.

Here. All right. Sounds good. I'm going to pull one item off the consent agenda. That's the 2026 Juneteenth Proclamation. Council Member Barrow will be reading that tonight. So I'll see if there's a motion to approve the agenda with that one changed. So I'll move. Second. Motion and second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. All right, motion carries. We do have an agenda. I do want to say that there is an executive session for negotiations for leasing, transfer, sale of real estate. All of that, it has got nothing to do with the Draco mineral rights. This is a different item entirely. All right, with that, I will go through the consent agenda items. The first one is item 2026-371, approval of the May 12, 2026 town council meeting minutes. Item 2026-54, a resolution of the town council approving a lease agreement with CoCreate Erie, formerly Erie Makerspace. Item 2026.3.13, a resolution of the Town Council of the Town of Erie approving a purchase agreement with Robert V. Michael and Christy J. Michael for the purchase of three Colorado Big Thompson units. Item 2026.3.22, a resolution of the Town Council of the Town of Erie approving a grant agreement with the Division of Aeronautics for Erie Municipal Airport pavement maintenance. item 2026 3 item 2026 326 the resolution of the town council of town of erie approving a construction contract with cr contracting for the airport pavement maintenance item 2026 352 a resolution of the town council of the town of erie approving the construction contract with colorado boring company for the fiber from the water plant to take tank site project item 2026 355 a resolution of the town council of the town of erie approving an agreement with the traffic signal controls incorporated for the purchase of traffic detection equipment. And the last item is 2026.356, a resolution of the Town Council of the Town Area approving the first amendment to the construction contract with facilities contracting LLC for the area maintenance storage facility expansion project PR2517. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say no. Motion carries. All right, we'll move into public comment tonight. Do we have anybody signed up?

We have five people signed up.

Okay.

Can I read the comments?

Yes, I will read the script. please remember the public comment is not an interactive question and answer forum but rather a time for you to state your comments on a particular item or issue public comment provides the opportunity to discuss items that are not public hearings please sign up using the kiosk in the lobby if you have a handout please give it to the town clerk to the left they will distribute it to the council included into the meeting record when called upon please state your full name and location for the record Public comment is limited to three minutes per person. You'll be given a 20-second warning when your three minutes are almost up. At the three-minute mark, you'll be asked to wrap up your final sentence. All opinions are welcome. Please be respectful of each speaker. To ensure everyone feels welcome to share the comments, please refrain from any cheering, clapping, booing, or otherwise disruptive behavior.

First speaker is Steven Drew.

Hi, this is Steven drew. I'm up in Collier's Hill in Erie. And I love this town. It's really well done. So thanks for the work that you do. I think I do have three comments and they should go relatively quick. I had submitted some information prior to this meeting as well. Once again, the information is only through publicly available sources. So it's going to be potentially off a bit because of the amount of information executive sessions that I'm not privy to nor others. for executive session tonight one of the questions or requests I do have is if this is related to anything related to any of these contracts associated with our consultant RFP processes or the avoidance of RFP processes I would request that there is this be brought out in the open in an open session discussion rather than something that goes within a an executive session The rolling executive sessions up to this point have held information that is both typically non-confidential and confidential within that loop of therefore it's confidential. It's just time to bring it out in the open. I know that there have been promises made by members of this group that we would get things out in the open.

There's no more time.

There's no more rolling executive sessions to put things in. Let's get the information out in the open. That's a request. Don't know what the session involves, but let's talk about two other topics real quick.

Just for point of order, the item tonight in exec session has nothing to do with Draco in any way, shape, or form.

Or the contracts associated with consultants. That's fine. That's fine. You guys can make that assessment. I'm assuming you know what you're going to have this evening. The second aspect is, you know, I use the term breach of contract, but it's a legal term and I'm not a lawyer. But clearly, after June 2nd's meeting, it's very clear that Alameda Minerals Partners did not conduct a competitive bid and solicitation process, which is a very material part of this agreement. Irrespective of how that arrived at that moment, the value of a competitive bid and solicitation process, I've talked about this for months, is that you have comparative bids. Whether what you have in hand is worth it, It's a negotiation tool where you can sit there and go back to partners and parties. It appears, and for June 2nd, it very much appears, this was a sole solicitation where Owens did not conduct a bid and solicitation process. Went ahead and put it in there, looks also for the terms of the agreement. Any verbal, hey, you don't need to do that, is not appropriate as well. That's something that should be addressed by the town council ahead of any vote. It should be addressed in public as well. I don't know whether that can be addressed before the 16th, but really that's going to be a material issue and a fiduciary duty issue for each member here to make sure that compliance is there. The whole, boy, do we have a good deal, doesn't cut it. This is a contractual issue. We can get into the legal aspects if you want to dig in later about what your duties are and what they're not. But no matter what, he did not complete his contract in a material way. I do have some things in here, and there's probably a much broader scope as well. I think the second is on June 2nd, there was an issue related to whether Owens should have been brought in through an RFP, $4.5 million contract, sole solicitation brought in by unknown parties who may or may not be affiliated with the people sitting here. That is another fiduciary duty issue. And I know that that was something that was brought up. as it looked like it was a town policy violation. I believe that discussion is something that should be made in public and it should be a discussion. What are the ramifications? Well, now we have a sole source non-RFP consultant who delivered us a sole source agreement when he was supposed to do a competitive bid and solicitation process. We talked about this hot mess of a situation back in March. Here we are, there was plenty of time to fix this before now. so the point in all this is bring it out in the open ahead of any vote because when you have a source that is coming up in front of us for a vote that it broke the rules associated with that contract number one this guy doesn't get paid number two take a look and get legal guidance on whether you should be voting for such a contract as well not just within the rules of the town but get some guidance external about the state issues associated with this too. And the third is your fiduciary responsibility is a very broad topic, but you are leaving a lot of money on the table associated with this deal if you blow past all of these issues. I think that is pretty much what I was going to cover on this one. If you have any questions, I think you have my notes, but I think that should be under three minutes. So I appreciate your time. Just want to make sure we get this out in public. Thank you.

Thank you. Steve, can I ask you to do me a favor? In that little box, can you put it up on the edge? There you go. I can see the lights that way. Cheers. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Marcy Lord.

Hi. My name is Marcy Lord. I live in Erie. I've been up since 4 AM, and I didn't prepare any notes. So I don't know how eloquent I'm going to be, but I'm just going to talk. Okay, so I'm here to speak on the sale of Erie's mineral rights. I was at the study session last week, and I'm here again today, and I read the documents that have been put online, and I couldn't really make sense of anything, but that's, it's kind of, I guess it doesn't really even matter if I can make sense of it. I really want to, like, give my blessing. I really want to be, like, cool with this stuff, because I'd just be the path of least resistance, right? But it's really hard to give my blessing and be happy with the potential sale when there's no environmental studies done yet. And I understand that if an agreement is going to be made, it's going to be conditional on any kind of environmental impact studies that come along with it. But what's to say, like, those could say things are going to be bad. And then what happens? We just move forward anyways. It's up to some people's opinions whether or not. I can't fully give my blessing and be happy with it and feel comfortable with it until we see environmental impact studies done on the potential sale of anything. And I guess I'm just very surprised, after all the outcry over the Draco pad, that this is even on the table. And when I just think about what kind of justice a rape victim could have, you don't get much justice if you consent first. So these are just some things that are popping up in my head, and I don't want to get down to the logical fallacy of the slippery slope where, okay, people are selling land for data centers and everything, and this is creating a huge issue for people. Who wants a data center here? I'm not saying this is the same thing as a data center, but it feels kind of like selling the heart of what we need, really, in this community for maybe some money. I mean, obviously for some money, but money for what? Do we need money? Obviously. Who doesn't want money? Do we owe a debt to someone? What is this money going to get us other than, I don't know, some improvements in some things? So that is my, I guess what I'm saying is I implore you guys to really think about what the real true impact of any sale of areas mineral rights could be before agreeing to do so. Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Our next speaker is Jordan S. Good evening.

My name is Jordan. I'm a resident of Erie for the last nine years, and I do thank you all. This is a great community, and we've loved it.

I'm here to speak about the Erie Pride flag issue.

And I understand the rationale for the city hearing the arguments for flying pride flags as to promote unity and inclusion. I encourage the council to reject the idea of flying the pride flag on city property for three reasons, practical and legal, medical and biological, and moral. The practical and legal issues are straightforward. Who gets to decide which flags can fly? Would a Confederate flag or a Turning Point USA flag be allowed? Why or why not? Will the city budget for the legal challenges that will surely come due to viewpoint discrimination? Concerning the medical and biological issues, I look at one aspect of the pride flag, the T for the trans community. As a physician and surgeon who participates as a physician for female Olympic athletes, four of whom meddled in the recent Winter Olympics, I have grave concerns about promoting or condoning the trans community as it pertains to involvement in women's sports. Gender dysphoria is a mental illness and the city should not be indirectly giving its blessing to an illness and ignoring biological reality. Finally, the moral issues to me are the most compelling. Pride is described in the Bible as the original sin. I do not have personal animus towards those represented under the LGBTQ plus flag, as we have friends and close extended family members with these identities. This was a theoretical issue for me until a month ago when an immediate family member began struggling with gender identity, and it has torn our family apart. This issue is anything but unifying. As the Erie Council debates on unifying themes for our community, focus on what you are already doing, community parks and trails, safe streets with excellent police presence, welcoming local shops, unifying community events, and flying the U.S. and Colorado state flags under which we all identify. The pride flag, however, when it lands on this issue, invites only controversy and division. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Emily Brecht. Oh, so you're Laura Brecht? Yeah, she's Laura.

OK. All right. OK. not a good public speaker it's okay but i have extra time so i can go a little slower than i did previously um my name is emily brecht i live in erie i'm a resident um and i technically i live on canyon creek in canyon creek after the study session last week i felt guilty opposing the deal with SM Energy. I'd finally seen the maps, and the mineral rights in question surround my neighborhood. However, I was asked, would I still oppose this deal if it was someone else's neighborhood? And the answer is yes, no question.

This is not a good deal.

Let me rephrase that, sorry. This is a fantastic deal for SM Energy. They get free reign over our town. but is it actually a good deal for us? SM offered us monitoring with no additional power of enforcement. They offered us land they don't care about, but I think the mayor wants maybe to build a road. They offered to plug their own dangerous leaking legacy wells. They could cap those wells now, but instead they're smacking us in the face and saying that only with this deal Can we stop hitting ourselves? I will not be gaslit. I don't think we should be. They've offered a share of the profits, which ties our town's budget to an unsustainable industry and finite resource. You've previously said the payment structure for our consultant, where he only gets paid if there's a deal, aligns his interests with our town's interest. You said it incentivizes him to work better and harder for us. If you apply that same logic, the profit-sharing payment structure in this mineral rights deal aligns the town of Erie's interests with SM Energy. Well, I don't want my elected representatives to work better and harder for SM Energy. measure of good representation is not who sells us out the best council members please do not capitulate to sm energy's pressure our health is not for sale our environment is not for sale our open spaces like thomas reservoir are not for sale i see a deal that puts our town's community interests behind the interests of big business i see a deal with long-term consequences and short-term profit. In 15 or 20 years, who will play you in the Netflix original movie about what SM Energy did to our town? What is your legacy? That's all I have to say.

All right. Oh, actually, sorry.

I support the pride flag, and I think it brings unity and diversity to our town.

Thank you. All right.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Brianna Brown.

Welcome.

Brianna Brown. We're not stating our address anymore.

No, just your location. You could say you're in Erie or not in Erie.

Compass neighborhood in Erie.

And if you'll pull the microphone a little bit closer so those at home can hear. OK. Hi. Thanks.

okay um you know i'm here talk about compass as i often do um just to refresh everybody on our issue is that we are a neighborhood that we are completely isolated from lafayette and erie we have no safe access by trail or sidewalk to anywhere outside of our neighborhood this causes safety concerns as our kids are trying to get to meadowlark k-8 school that's in flat iron meadows groups of teens are riding e-bikes along 119th at rush hour because they want to get to school um and i appreciate the work of some of the council and some of the town staff for hearing us out and Looking into options for putting some sort of sidewalk or safe trail along 119th, there's a 0.3 mile stretch. That's all we would need. to connect Compass to the rest of the towns. So I really appreciate people's attention to that matter. And I hope that there could be a way forward. I feel like it's pretty low hanging fruit to have a huge impact on our neighborhood. And Parkdale, once they get finished in their development, that they would also get connected to their school and other parts of the area with that. access. Also, I'm aware that the Compass Park drawings are progressing. Last I heard, they're at least 50% done. We're really grateful for that. We're very excited to see The construction starting on that we've been waiting 10 years. And again, that will have a huge impact on our neighborhood since we're so isolated. We don't have anywhere to go in our neighborhood and we have no way of getting out of our neighborhood in a sense that every other community in Erie does have some way either to gather or to go somewhere together. Lastly, I was realizing I just wanted to take a moment to honor our good friends and our neighbors who passed away two years ago tomorrow. I was here last year on the one-year anniversary of their passing. killed in a car accident. So this is Derek and Catherine Moffitt, who lived in my neighborhood. And I just want to take a moment to just honor them. Two years ago yesterday, they were hit by a driver asleep at the wheel.

20 seconds.

It's just part of why I have a heightened concern for road safety and why I no longer will ride my bike on the side of the road, even for that 0.3 miles. I do not want my kids riding their bike. And I just, this is part of why this matters to me. So I want to remember these people who are very dear to us and, um, Thank you for your effort and time. Thanks.

All right. Thank you.

That was the last of our speakers.

All right. Is there anybody else in the audience who would like to address us tonight? OK. Seeing there is none, we will move forward in the agenda. All right, I think what we're going to do is start with the Juneteenth proclamation. This is item 2026, 320, 2026 Juneteenth proclamation sponsored by council members O'Connor, Pestromelli, and Behr.

Thank you so much. It's my honor to read the Juneteenth proclamation this year. I feel like it's very important for us to recognize and note and commemorate the end of slavery in 1865 and to note that that freedom didn't start for all Americans on that day. And so Juneteenth is the important holiday for recognizing and celebrating um that we're not free until we're all free and i am sad that this year we will not be flying the juneteenth flag in the town of erie um but i am honored to sponsor and read the proclamation along with my fellow council members Whereas Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day when enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom more than two years after the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. And whereas communities across the nation observe Juneteenth through education, reflection, service, cultural celebrations, and dialogue that foster understanding and unity, And whereas, while significant progress has been made since the abolition of slavery, black Americans continue to face inequities, discrimination, and systemic barriers. And Juneteenth serves as both a recognition of those ongoing challenges and a celebration of the resilience, strength, and lasting contributions of black communities throughout our nation and whereas juneteenth reminds us of the importance of continuing to build a community rooted in dignity respect fairness and belonging for every individual And whereas this year's Juneteenth theme, honoring the past, serving the present, and inspiring the future, recognizes the importance of reflecting on our nation's history, supporting and uplifting Black communities today, and continuing to build a more equitable, inclusive, and hopeful future for generations to come. And whereas the town of Erie encourages residents to learn about the significance of Juneteenth and to reflect on the ongoing work of advancing equity, understanding, and justice within our community and belonging. And whereas Juneteenth traces its origins to the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 and the eventual enforcement of freedom for enslaved people in Texas on June 19, 1865, and was later formally recognized as a federal holiday through the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, signed into law by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2021. And now, therefore, the Town Council does hereby proclaim that Juneteenth will be celebrated on June 19, 2026, and calls upon all residents in the Town of Erie to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs. Thank you. All right.

Thank you, Council Member Behr. Okay, we'll move forward to second proclamation tonight. It's item 2026341, the Loving Day Proclamation, sponsored by council members O'Connor and Behr and myself as mayor.

and with this i'm going to turn it over to council member o'connor thank you um so just to give a little background um since this is the first time reading up the loving day proclamation by a council member i wanted to um just provide some information back in december of 2025 town staff asked council if any member would like to add a proclamation to the list the 2026 proclamations, I suggested three, and there were no objections from the other members of council. Loving Day is the first one of these proclamations, and reading about what Richard and Mildred Loving endured had me thinking about the married family members that I have, neighbors and clients, whose marriages would have been illegal and they could have been possibly jailed in some parts of the United States prior to the Supreme Court decision in 1967. I believe it is important that we remember history, both good and bad, which is why I felt it was appropriate to bring forward the Loving Day Proclamation. As a side note, I drafted this proclamation based on a proclamation from Caroline County, Virginia. That was the county where the Lovings were convicted. So here's the proclamation. Whereas until 1957, the state of Colorado banned interracial marriages between white and black residents, and whereas Richard and Mildred Loving were natives of the Central Point area of Caroline County, Virginia, who were arrested in 1958 for violating Virginia's felony law against interracial marriage. Whereas following their conviction in the Caroline County Circuit Court, their sentence was suspended provided they did not return to their Central Point home or the Commonwealth of Virginia for 25 years. Whereas the Lovings fought their way to the United States Supreme Court, and nine years later, on June 12, 1967, their conviction was overturned, and all anti-miscegenation laws nationwide ended in a case known as Loving v. Virginia. And whereas... Chief Justice Warren wrote in the court majority opinion that marriage is one of the basic civil rights of man fundamental to our very existence and survival. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversed of the principle of equity at the heart of the 14th Amendment, is surely to deprive all the state's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The 14th Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by individuals' racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry or not to marry a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the state. whereas Loving vs. Virginia had significant real and symbolic meaning to all who wish to marry the person they love, no matter who they are. Now, therefore, the Town Council of Erie does hereby recognize Friday, June 12, 2026, on the 59th anniversary of the unanimous Supreme Court decision as Loving Day in the Town of Erie, and we call this observance to the attention of all of our residents.

Very good. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to item 2026-358. It's a 90-second celebration video. We're going to bring up Julian Jacquin, our Economic Development Director.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council. Good evening. I'm Julian Jacquin.

I'm the Towns Director of Economic Development.

I won't speak much. I'll let the video do the work. I know Adam has it primed up and ready to go. Tonight, I'm actually here on behalf of our new legislative action team. As chair of that new group, I'll actually have a few of the people in the crowd today are within that team, so I'll ask those here to stand up quickly. Luke, Erica, Josh, Dave, Meredith, you're not off the hook. So I think all of us know the town's legislative action team was formed to be more active and proactive in legislative activity at the Colorado State Capitol. We know bills move pretty quick and the nature of the legislation changes the nature of our business every day, with or without us. We learned a long time ago that it's important to have a seat at the table or else you're on the menu. So we've had a really good involvement this year. The team's been really active in making sure we track legislation, get involved with our partners, get involved with testifying at the Capitol. I think our team testified to maybe six or seven bills just as staff this year, which is really important. So we did a video to highlight those efforts. I also sent everybody a post-session legislative report last month. If you want more detail, it's in there. But take a look at the video. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thanks, guys. Great.

Thank you.

This year, the town of Erie launched its first legislative action team to create a more coordinated and proactive approach to legislation impacting the community. Before the legislative session began, the town council approved Erie's 2026 legislative agenda. That agenda established priorities on issues including housing, transportation, economic development, local control, urban renewal, water, and public safety. To help implement that agenda, staff from multiple departments met regularly throughout the session to monitor legislation tied directly to their work and areas of expertise. This group included representatives from economic development, planning and development, transportation, police, parks and recreation, sustainability, communications, and town management. Together, this team tracked 60 of the over 700 bills introduced during the 120-day legislative session. This year, Erie also became more active in direct legislative advocacy. Town staff testified at committee hearings in the Colorado House and Senate on legislation impacting local zoning authority, redevelopment financing, transportation, retail crime, and development regulations. Staff also coordinated with regional and statewide partners and worked directly with legislators on amendments and bill language tied to Erie's concerns and priorities. This year also included Erie's first day at the Capitol, attended by members of the Legislative Action Team, Mayor Moore, and Councilmember Pessaromelli. The group visited the House and Senate chambers, observed live committee hearings, and met with Erie's state representatives to discuss legislation impacting the town and local governments. In its first year, the Legislative Action Team established a stronger and more engaged presence for Erie at the state capitol. Thank you to all staff, council members, and partners who helped make this effort possible.

very good thank you to the team for making this happen and at least for myself being down at the Capitol with this group seeing what's happening it was a it was a really good day so thank you for doing that as well okay let's move on to our first and only public hearing tonight it's item 2026 344 a public hearing and ordinance of the Town Council of the Town of Erie amending chapters 6 and 11 of title 10 of the Erie Municipal Code regarding landscaping And the public hearing is now open. I'll turn it over to Dylan King, our sustainability and water conservation specialist. DYLAN KING, Well, thanks for the introduction.

Don't even have to do it myself. Good evening, Mayor, Town Council. Like has already been said, I'm here to talk about proposed UDC changes to Title X. The request is the adoption of an ordinance amending Title 10 regarding turf and landscaping. This updates the code around non-functional turf, artificial turf, invasive species, and water-wise alternatives. It's primarily a state alignment update. Really quick, just to tell you where we're headed, give a quick background, talk about what's being proposed, and then get to a decision. So the state law requires municipalities prohibit non-functional turf, artificial turf, invasive plant species from being installed on applicable properties. These applicable properties are CII properties. So that's commercial, industrial, institutional. It also applies to property within common interest communities. So think HOAs. So HOA owned and maintained common areas, rights of ways, parking lots, transportation corridors, and also multi-family units containing 12 or more units. So just a quick background around the definition of functional turf. Functional turf is turf in areas regularly used for civic, community, or recreational purposes. So examples of this would be playgrounds, playing fields, picnic grounds, grounds around amphitheaters, public spaces. The ordinance does not eliminate grass where it's serving a real public, community, or recreational purpose. Non-functional turf is, I think, decorative turf largely. So this would include turf and street right of ways, parking lots, medians, a lot of the spaces that we've talked about already. However, the use of native grass or grasses that have been hybridized for area conditions are still allowed to be used in these areas. So the goal isn't bare ground or rocks or things like that. The goal is to try and have water-wise landscaping options that are thriving in these spaces. Which brings us to the proposal. So there's essentially four main changes. Prohibit invasive species, non-functional turf, and non-functional artificial turf on these applicable properties. Allow grass cedar saw that is native or hybridized for arid conditions in these spaces. And correcting internal code references and things like that, as well as adding definitions that bring us into alignment with state law. Which brings us to the decision. Criteria is for 1078. So this is what needs to be brought up for these amendments to happen. So staff finds that the amendment promotes the health and safety and general welfare through water conservation and responsible landscaping design. It's generally consistent with the comprehensive master plan and the UDC purposes. And it's necessary and desirable. Like I said, it's bringing us into alignment with state law. So the public notice process was completed. Public notice was published in the Daily Times Call on May 22nd of 2026. A neighborhood meeting is not required. And the Planning Commission reviewed this back on May 20th and unanimously recommended approval at that time. So when we think about next steps, obviously we need to communicate these changes. So if adopted, the next step would be preparing FAQs, which we've been working on, suggesting native and arid adaptive grass options, so making sure that we give people a place to start. and starting to do stakeholder communication, building out websites and things like that. We wanna make sure that this information is readily available to the public and easy to find. And then ultimately the goal is to make sure that people understand what's been changed, right? So we don't wanna leave anyone in the dark and show what kind of options are available to meet those changes. And then finally, the staff recommendation is the adoption of the ordinance. So amending chapter 6 and 11 of Title 10 regarding landscaping. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions y'all might have.

All right. I think I'll first see if we have anybody signed up for public comment.

We do not.

All right. Then I'll bring it back to council. And we'll start with Council Member Barron. We'll just work our way around.

thank you thanks for the presentation i'm excited because i think we should have and i think i've heard a lot from uh developers and from people that they just wish there was guidance on on what to what a waterwise landscape looks like in our area i'm curious um who this applies to um so if we have is it just moving forward um as we're building out neighborhoods or will it be for existing hoas yeah so existing landscapes won't be subject to these rules so it'll be for new development moving forward and it'll just be good guidance if you have an existing yard or existing right-of-ways that you're looking at redoing i know we just did that in um vista ridge and it's mostly rock um but you know i think this would have been handy um for for vista ridge but Okay, so it'll be moving forward. Any developments? What about the ones that are in process, like Westerly, Erie Highlands?

Yes, so that's a good question. I don't know for sure. I think it would have to do with which part of the process they're in and what's been okay thus far.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thanks a lot. I think this is a very good step in the right direction to help certainly with water, etc. So when will, does this get implemented in the next 10 days? Or when does this start? Is it immediate or? yeah it's my understanding that once adopted it would start from there okay great and who is is it primarily developers that are affected or could be any uh landowner that was putting in uh you know an area that's going to be considered right away or

Yeah, so it'd be whoever is developing or owns any of the applicable property types. So whether that be commercial, industrial, or institutional, or HOAs and stuff like that. So it's really who's who, right? Who is making sure that this new type of development is happening? So yes, probably developers, but it could feasibly be anybody that owns the land.

and do those right away and whatnot? Require applications? I mean, would the town staff already be notified that this was occurring in a certain area and that they're in compliance with the ordinance? Yeah, it's my understanding that this would just be a part of the overall planning review process.

Great, thank you.

Mayor Mrakas, Thank you, this is a great step towards becoming more water wise and we just need to keep on that direction, and thank you very much, and I have no questions, thank you. Mayor Mrakas, I don't have it okay.

Mayor Mrakas, My one question had been answered via email, and that was. That was for the link to that list of what's considered, was it noxious?

Yeah, the noxious, yeah.

Okay. I think that also would be helpful for if it isn't, I might have missed it, but if it's not already out there, even as homeowners are doing their own landscaping, that that list is in with information that they might find on the town's website too. you know so they know what to maybe not plant yeah that's a great suggestion i think that that would definitely be a resource we would add to the faqs and just other resource lists that we would be offering on the websites and elsewhere okay and um kind of a follow-up to council member bear's question how would we work through that with like if we're half if a development's halfway completed one way i mean

yeah good question i i can definitely chase it down for you uh i haven't been super involved in the conversations about what we're doing with the people that are in between and stuff like that so um i can definitely get together with our planning folks and start to figure out what that process would look like and try to untangle what happens with developments in various stages of the planning process okay all right thank you of course thank you i think i only have a couple questions here um

The first would be, can you explain to me, I understand most of this, but what is the reasoning behind the prohibiting of non-functional artificial turf?

Yeah, so it's a more holistic outlook. So it's not only for water conservation purposes, but we're trying to say that with artificial turf does come some drawbacks, whether that's infiltration of stormwater, it increases runoff, whether or not that runoff may have plastics in it. Obviously, there are more and more products out there that are advertising that they're free of those forever chemicals and stuff like that. Beyond the stormwater implications, I think it's also important to recognize heat island effects and things like that. So artificial turf will get really, really hot during the summertime and it becomes dangerous for small children and pets and things like that. So there's a multitude of different drawbacks to artificial turf.

the state has provided some guidance saying hey you know maybe let's think about the use cases for this and it's definitely still a great use case for turf or athletic fields and things like that but yeah okay yep yep thank you uh and then my other question is um is there any consideration for um irrigation on public right-of-ways for example like i know the work we're doing like around the roundabout i noticed like you know we're doing a lot of that that low maintenance uh landscaping around there but um there were like it looked like we just had regular oscillating sprinkler heads as opposed to drip lines that use yeah less water usage is there some thought and eventually go into that or yeah so i can't speak to that situation directly um but i do know in conversations that i was a part of when we were talking about

how this would go, that we did want to make sure that we were encouraging best management practices when it comes to irrigation types. It's an industry standard at this point to use drip lines for these types of landscapes. So while I don't believe this has any sort of irrigation standards built into the ordinance, I would think that it would be, it's just an industry norm at this point. So I think that it will kind of take care of itself.

Okay. Yep. Thank you.

Thanks for the presentation.

All right, I don't have any additional questions, so I'll close the public hearing, and we'll move right in to see if we have a motion to approve ordinance 2720. Oh, hold on. There's a resolution and an ordinance, so I'm guessing we do the resolution first.

The resolution is from the Planning Commission when they considered this, so the matter before the council is just the ordinance.

Okay, very good. So do we have a motion to approve Ordinance 27-2026? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Motion carries. All right. Thank you. Thanks, everyone.

Have a good night.

All right, our next item is item 2026362, Erie Chamber of Commerce, 2026 Action Plan. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

Thank you so very much for having me here today. I am Pat Vero. I'm the Executive Director of the Erie Chamber, and I'm here to give you a rundown on all of the town sponsorship that we receive, what we're using our funds for, and then I'll take any questions after. The Erie, our big mission is to support, promote, and grow the current and future businesses of Erie. the whole community through leadership, community service, development, networking, and we bring our community events into that.

There we go. Sorry about that.

So we just finished the town fair and that was on May 16th and we couldn't have had a better town fair in the last several years. The weather was beautiful. We must have had anywhere between 12 and 14,000 people come through. We started out with 280 vendors, and that was everything from our local businesses to all of our community members coming in and having booth spaces, artists, crafters, food booths. So those 280 booth spaces this year grew because we added in a kids market. So the kids market was ages five through 17. And these kids came in and sold the crafts or the food or whatever they've made. And it was a spectacular addition to the event. So that brought us up to just about 330 booth spaces this year. We were sold out. And so we also had people wanting to get in, and it was too late. We featured this year a lot of kids' activities, inflatables, a ninja course. We had a concert in the park where we had Bennett's Karate come in. We had the jazz band from Erie High School. a local band called Rockin' Horse, and Chris Daniels, along with a beer garden. And I believe that evening we had several thousand people that had come from the event and they were relaxing. We had food trucks that stayed. So there was plenty of food. So basically new this year that we had added altogether was this kids entrepreneur market. And we are already signed up for them to come back again next year. We did a large balloon meister area with several local pilots to increase insight on the upcoming balloon launches. We also had an author, Megan Dungan, and she did an author, she authored a children's book on ballooning. The car show this year, well, it says here 40, I think he said we had 58 cars. so the town supports the chamber in in the town fair for ten thousand dollars upcoming we have our next event is the balloon festival and the balloon globe and this At one point in time was a pretty big event, and it dwindled down. We're back to say, we have 30 balloons registered. We have a waiting list of, I can't even tell you. But the 30 balloons are coming. We were very surprised last year with the glow by having 10,000 attendees. So we get anywhere from two to four in the mornings and 10,000 plus for the balloon glow. So that's July 10th, 11th, and 12th. This year we're adding a lot of new activities. We have two balloons that are going to be doing tether rides. in the morning and in the glow, and those will be like $20 cash, and you'll get to go up and do the teller ride. We have special shapes coming. We have a fishbowl, a crab, and then we have a bee. And the bee is piloted by a paraplegic, and he is phenomenal. So he's coming in, which we are going to incorporate Erie's new bee. So they're going to come in and do a photo shoot on Friday morning to incorporate RB into that. We're going to be doing a balcony decorating contest at Elora at Collier's Hill, the apartments. and then i just talked to miguel the erie bee will be on uh we will have the erie bee we're just working to see if it's going to be running in the mornings or just for the balloon glow we have highland school we have the rec center for locations that they'll be able to pick up And we will have coverage on Nine News. Greet Magazine just did an article. The Broomfield Lifestyle just did an article. We were just contacted by a group of bloggers or influencers, I guess you'd call them, who have over a million views. And they're coming in to do a story. So they'll be here for the whole event. So we're really excited. This, the town supports us with $30,000. And for us, this is a community event and we have no financial gain from this. We also do our concerts in the park. I apologize, it says 2025, but July 25th, 2026 is the first concert. We will have kids activities, food trucks, beer garden. Our performer this year is not Chris Daniels. It will be Boogie Machine. So with Boogie Machine, we'll be getting everybody to dress up. We're going to be doing hula hoop contests, kind of trying to bring the community in to have some fun with us. We'll do a best 70s costume contest. So the town supports us for the concert for $10,000 We will be bringing back face again on August 22nd. It will be the same with the kids activities food truck beer garden Face usually brings in somewhere around four or five thousand So we're looking forward to them coming back and the town supports the chamber with ten thousand We have the Erie Brewfest coming up October 3rd. This is a ticketed event, and it highlights regional craft beer with all of our breweries here in town. Some come as far away as over the past, so we're hoping to have 28 to 30 i think we'll cap it at 30. we do have some distilleries coming in we have scissors and scotch coming in uh with some of their bourbon and so it'll be good we sold we've sold out on this event for the last several years um we'll also be having some oktoberfest games silent disco so a lot to do we get support from the town of sixty seven hundred dollars Then we have the Parade of Lights that has grown incredibly. That will be on December 4th. There's nothing like seeing these floats come down Briggs Street, and the residents come out, and it's pretty grand. We have hot chocolate and cider, free hot chocolate and cider, Mr. and Mrs. Claus. We are going to limit the entries to 45, 50, because I think it was getting a little too large. We will have, again, street music, expanded choir, orchestra. I believe it was an estimated of 10,000 that came last year, the year before. The town supports us with $7,000. We do a Dave Stone scholarship. Dave Stone was a gentleman who lived here in Erie, and he was big on community service. So we give out normally two Dave Stone scholarships for graduating they have to be an Erie resident. They can be attending another high school, but they do have to be an Erie resident. And we give those two scholarships at $2,000 a piece. This year we were able to add a third scholarship because everybody loves to tip at the beer garden. So we've used our tips to increase that scholarship. So the town supports us on that at $2,500. Other things that we do that the town supports are seminars. Last year we did cyber threats, tariffs, AI, marketing, how to run your business, assessing business success, and we had a women's motivational speaker come in. This year, we've had a state of the town. We've had AI part two. We just had Levana Roth with Ignite Your Leadership Shine. In the works, we have a networking roundtable with the Louisville Chamber. AI part three, speed networking, how to be effective with your home-based business. This will be presented by Jesse Esparza. And so those are the ones we have so far. The town supports us there with 2,650. We do allow non-members to come to a lot of these events, so it's not just strictly chamber members. We value the town partnership that we have with you because it allows us to do these events that we would not be able to do if it wasn't for your funding. With the attendance, we try to fix and plan anything that's happened in the prior year to always make it better. And we are always open for suggestions. And my dedicated staff, Right there, Corey. So Corey and I put these on, and she does a phenomenal job. So our goal here is to really bring people to Erie. We want everybody to know what Erie is, where Erie is, and what we have to offer in Erie. And we always, at every one of our events, we put on posters, everything. Visit your local stores. Visit your local restaurants. It's really big. We want people to come. They're not going to visit them that night, but they will come back. And so... This is just a quick list of our 2025 sponsors. I won't go through all of them, but we had quite a few sponsors for last year, and we're doing pretty good this year. Our funding that we received broken down is your $475 worth of dues. Our general operations is 7,000. Davestone scholarship, 2,500. Educational seminars, 2,650. Town Fair, 10,000. Balloon Launch, 30. Both concerts, each 10. The Beer Fest, 6,700. And the Parade of Lights for 7,000. And so your funding to the chamber is 86,325. Thank you.

All right, great. That was an energizing presentation. I know all the stuff you do, but to see them all in one presentation, it's like, whoa, you guys really are involved in so much of what we do. And I think when I think of the small town feeling, a lot of it is these events, right, that people get to come down and be a part of.

And everybody's loving the bridge. Yes. We were lucky this year to have the bee was the first big event that the bee came to. And that is, I'm going to tell you, that is a wonderful addition to this town.

all right i'll bring it back to council see if anybody has any questions or comments um we'll start with uh councilmember vera thank you um thank you yes i rode the b to town fair and home again this year and it was so great to have that there but um i got to hug your neck in the middle of it and i appreciate you and corey because i know you guys were walking around with with clipboards um it's you know one thing to see it on a slide but to recognize all the work that you guys put in you really do such a kindness and a service to the community and not just our community i saw my friend mayor brockett from boulder and jim couch from Superior who's a trustee and just tons of people from all over coming to Erie to see what we have and that's such a sort of intangible and unmeasurable benefit so I just it was a blast we had so much fun and I really appreciate everything and let me know how i can continue to support i'm so excited about the balloon fest because i know you guys are going to do an amazing job with that the tether rides are something we've heard for years they're going to be so excited our balloon meister tamlyn grace is incredible and she's got connections all over the country and in canada and

She brought in the tether rides and we're just really excited because there's so many people that would love to see what it's like, but they don't want to go past the few feet that they go up.

Yeah, that would be me. Keep it low. um yeah and then also the the um having the ribbon cutting for the bridge was really fun that morning um there were a couple hundred people i think really honestly they were just waiting to get across the bridge to get to town but they were like sure we'll take a noisemaker on our way so that was super fun but great job as always i really appreciate you guys hey council member martellaro yeah pat i don't know how you and corey and the team do it i mean i'm just

blown away by all the work and what you do for the town and to create community and promote Erie. So thank you for all that you guys do. I love going to as many events as I can. I was there at the town fair. I thought I'd be there a couple hours. I think four or five hours went by and I was still there. So yes, so appreciate all the effort. that goes into it, and you must have an amazing volunteer team.

We do.

I think we needed 80, 85 volunteers for town fair, and of course my husband does wonder, but we call him the chamber husband, so he's always there lifting and helping people direct, and so yes, and so with the balloon launch coming up, so if you want to come and you really want to learn about ballooning this is your chance to come down and help crew it's a fascinating job you get to help that you'll be assigned a pilot in advance so you'll know where you're going to go you will help that pilot unload that balloon lay it out blow it up get it in the air oh very cool so um what are your biggest challenges Well, volunteers always are a big challenge because we do so many events that our volunteer pool starts to go down. However, the Boy Scouts has helped with that. They come to every event. They clean. They do the trash, they're always there and that's one thing we couldn't do if we didn't have the Boy Scouts coming in. The volunteers are probably one of the top and funding because everything that was a few years ago is now and you know we we need to keep sponsorship low we need to keep booth spaces low you know i refuse to to look at some of these events where the booth spaces are just outrageous this allows more small businesses and small companies to be able to come in so i would say those would be our two um

thanks a lot and thanks again for all you do we funded a part-time position for volunteer coordination although we haven't had an update so look into our acting town manager and at a future meeting we'll have to find that out for you the idea behind that was that the town could coordinate a volunteer list that could be used for many of the events exactly yeah and then it would be a place for people to go to just say i want to help and away you go all right councilmember hoback anything oh thank you very much pat i enjoy many of the events that are put on including some of the you know simpler ribbon cuttings that you oversee each week so um that's great

With the parade, the Holiday Parade, Parade of Lights we're calling it, limiting the number of involved, are there going to be criteria that help tighten that down, or is it going to be first come, first serve?

Probably first come, first serve. There's going to be a lot of changes this year. It's gotten pretty big. I believe we're one of the only chambers around that do the parade and most parades are done by the town itself. And so one of the things that we will not be handing out candy anymore because that definitely creates thousands of children in the street and we just can't have that. So we're working on different ideas to make the parade better. is there a better route we could do you know where we're really just trying to figure that out but as far as um spaces you guys will always have one so you don't have to worry about getting in soon but yeah probably first come first serve or if there was anybody that did not behave in the past parade then they're not invited back rules us out

Thank you. All right. Thanks for everything you do. I had one question on the scholarship. How much was the amount for each one?

We do, they're $2,000 a piece. But then this year we were able to add that second one in. And what we've done is in our beer gardens, we've done the tips all go towards the Dave Scholarship Fund. So we were able to fund that third one.

So which is 4,000 plus two, so 6,000.

We've done 6,000, yeah.

Thank you. That's useful.

Council Member O'Connor.

Thank you. Pat and Corey, thank you for all you do with the chamber and for the town. I'm looking forward to all of these upcoming events. I have to say we have a great time every time my wife and family go down there. And the kids market, those kids produced some pretty awesome wares to sell.

It was pretty incredible. We didn't know where to put them in that originally they were going to be in Tom Gold's lot.

Okay.

And they're like, we need more. So that's when we decided to open up Moffitt. And the kids had a great time.

It was fascinating to see what they created. So thank you for everything you did. Thank you. Okay, Mayor Portempo.

Thank you. Yeah, Pat and Corey, thank you so much. One of the pleasures that I've had in the time I've had up here, I think when your leadership team came on, it was about the time that I had started and we were coming out of COVID and you guys had a real clear vision on, what needed to be adjusted. Cause I, I think you were taken over for something that, um, I know for the town, it was, uh, maybe too much for us. And I know it was too much for you guys. And so we got it streamlined to, um, events that were kind of the heavy hitters. And, um, and that's what I, I mean, being a guy that's in quality management that, um, uh, you know, I always say quantity or quality over quantity and, and that's what you guys have done. And, Um, I think another thing that I really appreciate with, uh, the balloon fest is, um, you know, it seemed like we had buzzards locked back when we had it in May and you never know in Colorado what you get with the weather. And so you guys thought outside the box. And, um, so, you know, so we move the event and, and, um, I'm going to be so happy to see, see what's coming forth with this. Um, unfortunately I was, uh, uh, during the, um, uh town fair i was moving my son out of college in grand junction so i was not there at the bridge opening but i've since taken a walk across there and i really i watched all the online videos i really appreciate you guys being out there and all the ribbon cuttings that you guys do and you put in a lot of effort and um uh just real quick um because i know um and i know i talked to you guys about this before but um with the with the town partnership and um uh i know like one of the zero waste things because i don't think the public realizes the logistics the coordinations around getting all that to work is that are you guys finding that You've got the right people involved with that to help make those work, or is there things that we could be doing better to help you guys?

Starting, I mean, this was great. We would have cardboard boxes, cardboard trash cans, cardboard recyclers, cardboard composters. Waste Connections came in this year and brought us 40, or so, 20 rollable 95-gallon trash twenty recycling bins and then for the compost we put the compost for food scraps only in the food area by the tables where people are eating and they can put their food scraps in there so i would say this year it was probably the smoothest we've ever done with trash recycling compost it was incredible and they're coming to the balloon launch they're dropping off the bins they're going to come and they're going to dump them um after the saturday morning uh launch so friday saturday morning then they're going to come and dump them so we'll have clean trash so this because that has always been a problem and it like i said if it wasn't for the boy scouts who took every one of those trash bags and boxes and everything, and we had a good team that we hired this year to help clean. They were actually, and those... dumpsters were filling and they were actually taking them over to the roll-offs dumping you know dumping them and then putting them back so but i do feel that this uh this was our first time where corey and i weren't just going oh the trash the recycling what do we do all right well thank you appreciate uh all you guys do and uh one one quick thing and that is because i know like for the for the public when they see your building we're at

One thing I always felt bad of is that, you know, I know how important having a workspace is for you guys, but I also know that all the problems in that building. So sadly, this is my last year on council. So mayor, I'm begging you on the next council and whoever the future town manager is, We need to make it a priority in our capital improvement plans to do improvements on those historic buildings. Because when you're having to keep the back doors open to ensure there's enough heat so the pipes don't freeze. Yes, you've been in there. Just please don't call OSHA on us.

Well, we love our buildings. So, you know, we have heaters over here and fans. And, you know, we'll do what it takes to stay in the buildings.

There you go. Thank you. Part of the small town charm. Exactly. All right. Well, thank you for coming out and giving us an update. We appreciate it.

Thank you all.

All right. We're going to move on to our next item, which is 2026-363, the We Love Erie Business Collective 2026 Action Plan. Welcome.

Thank you. Hi, everybody. I am Ron Degrassi. Thank you for having us. I'm on the board of directors for this group. You have always known us as Erie Economic Development Council, EEDC. But we actually literally started economic development in Erie because back then the town didn't have any staff yet. So we've been doing it for a long time. It's our local businesses that got together to help each other to bring in other businesses to town and we still do all that. But now the town actually does have staff and they use the same name and that's been causing some confusion amongst the residents and the businesses. So we decided to rebrand and now we are the We Love Erie Business Collective. You can see our little logos up there and We've got stickers and different things all over town and name tags now, so it's a lot of fun. This past year, we spent some time conducting a survey, a professional survey that was very intense and in-depth to better understand what the local businesses wanted with three of our groups, between the town, the chamber, and us. We have that online, and I can send it all to you, but it gave us a lot of information, and it redefined how we move forward our action plan this year. We literally act as advocates for the businesses in town. We help them with everyday issues. Not many small business owners have peers that they can turn to that know the answers. So we are that group. We give them a chance to talk, we really listen, and we have the resources to help them when it comes time to get something done. i am not following every little slide we have here because i'm not going to read you everything it says i know it's been in your packet um and victoria is helping me she's on the board as well and does a ton of work in the background we'll go to our board page okay so our board consists of great volunteers We do hundreds and hundreds of hours annually and this is a lot of free talent that you have access to, that our businesses have access to. We have experience and depth and vision and it makes a difference when people are talking to us. It's very valuable. As far as promotion goes, We do a lot of different things, which is great, but really, this is about connecting to Erie residents, our customers. That's what makes a difference to all of our businesses. They need people to come in, they need to eat in our restaurants, visit our retail, and it makes a difference when we make those introductions and have that one-on-one connection, because that's how the word spreads. We are Erie's central business hub. We lead business advocacy with the town and hope to make policy reforms. As you guys have ideas about what you're doing, we beg you to talk to us first because you don't know how it might affect a real business. And staff doesn't know that either, right? They work for the town. They get a paycheck based on sales tax or any tax revenue coming into the town. They never had to generate that revenue on their own. So that makes a big difference. Our social platforms are growing. People want to hear more from us this way. It was one of the biggest things in the survey. Keep reaching out because they say they don't see everything. They don't always have time to look. So post it, post it, post it, so eventually they see it. We need to adapt to new technologies. That's a big part of our action plan. How AI is being incorporated into everything, how we can reach more, how we can do more with what we already have, and don't be afraid to change. Help them get past the, no, I've always done it this way. We don't want anything to be stayed. We want to stay dynamic. For business promotion, all of this is real, but marketing effectively is so time consuming and difficult as an individual business. To stay on top of it each and every week, all on your own, is hard. We can do it collectively and that's making a big difference for people. We make it easy and we're consistent for them. So that's getting their message out and putting people in their places of business, exposing their services to those who need them.

So the connection is a big deal, guys.

We always want to be part of the community. We're mostly young families. They want to be outside playing with their kids. How do we connect to them more and more? How do we bring in the groups that we're not connecting to that aren't just young families? We have vision and ideas. Implementing that is part of our next strategy. I'm a big believer in events. I've been doing them, I don't know, for probably two decades at least. I know events can pay their own way and really bring in revenue when they're consistent that the community loves. They love to be outside and playing. So let's talk about what we can create together. We definitely need staff to help with this. Economic development staff does certain things. And I know they have an idea about which way things should go. But I've done more. with economic development on almost a shoestring or no budget to create and generate so many visits and so many businesses that other businesses were literally knocking on my door saying, help me find space. I need to be there too. This is the place we want to be. I'd like to bring that energy back to Erie. For engagement and community connection, again, it's all about reaching our community and our customers, but it's about the relationships we create. Because that's real. I know people look at their phones a lot these days, but a real sit down with somebody, taking them to coffee, having breakfast, an afternoon cocktail, and literally talking to them makes all the difference in the world. We do a shop small event. the Small Business Saturday of Thanksgiving, you know, big weekend. This is something that brings everybody to town. We bring in reindeer, Santa, we have live music, and Aura DJ. We have happy families running around. It's amazing. Santa literally walks in all the restaurants and stores and visits individually with people, so you're not always just standing in line. We have a tree lighting, and this year we also had a home-based business fair that was so successful that we're inviting them all to be a part of this downtown. They will be outside, weather could possibly be an issue, but already some of the local businesses have offered to have them inside their businesses as well. So a lot of cooperation and generosity going on there. We also bring in the horse-drawn carriage rides for the holidays. It runs mostly right after Thanksgiving through Christmas, through the end of December. Very, very charming. Picks up right outside of Erie Social Club, right outside the ice rink. It's absolutely amazing. And there's a line that's nuts to get on this ride. It's very, very charming. It's what sets us apart, I think, from some of the other towns. We want to expand on that this year. So our Shop Small business fair, I mean our home-based business fair, a lot of people have only home-based businesses. They're not out in the community at all. There's no brick and mortar at all. We invited them only to have their own showcase spot at Aspen Ridge Elementary. It was a banner day, and it happened to be Saturday before Mother's Day. I was shocked how many people sold out of everything. It was a really fantastic day. the as we're acting for advocates we also have a lot of larger corporations now in erie and they're also looking for a way to connect they want to be involved and supportive of all these local events and festivals we get them excited to reach the community they serve and that we love so it's important that we keep building on events the more we can do We just need staff to help us is really what it comes down to. The Chamber talked about volunteers. I've done it forever, and I just know it works so much better when there's somebody in charge. And then one of the last things is the Sundance Film Festival is also coming the last 11 days of January in 2027. This is one of the most celebrated cultural events in the country. It's very exciting. I went to the first meetings along with Pat, but we didn't know each other was going to show up. We just took it on ourselves. Every surrounding town in the whole front range that's part of Boulder showed up with their economic development teams, with their downtown development teams, their business improvement districts. It was amazing. I think we were the only two. Town staff, I don't know if you guys didn't know about it, but it's a big deal. There's going to be so much overflow. Boulder can't handle it all by any stretch. So how do we become the spot that... has so much excessive hospitality that these people want to be here. There are spots that we can sign up. Let's see. We can invite them down. I want to ask you guys if we can have the ice rink for special events while they're here for those 11 days, make short-term rentals not be a problem. We're trying to get the horse-drawn carriage ride to stay for those 11 days or do more so we can offer that. We can make special reservations in our restaurants and hold parties out here. There will be more than 100 film crews alone that need a place to have meetings, coordinate, and literally party afterwards. So we can offer... a special spot on their site to say, pick Erie. And if we're exceptional, this is a first impression moment. Let's make it great so that they want to look for us next year. I know you are reviewing budgets, and we want to do more. If you're willing to do more, we have ideas about collaborating with you guys about messaging, creating more special events. We can do it different than the surrounding communities, and we should. We want to be the place that sets the next standard, that creates the next best thing. I don't want to follow the leader. We are the leaders. We just have to act that way, and we have great vision to help you guys get there. Let's see. I know that the value you guys get from us is pretty much measurable. You can probably see it in the businesses that want to move here and how buildings don't have vacancies in the area. how we need more space and more growth. We are your senior cheerleaders, basically, and we have the expertise to back it up. We're trustworthy to the businesses that are looking for us, and we really want to thank you for all you've always done to be supportive and helpful as we help others navigate the town processes. I think you can measure it in even sales tax that's generated, the property taxes that you might be collecting, how all these businesses support all the schools and the programs and the sports and the arts that happen. There's a lot going on there. I think we need to identify some of the barriers that exist with the town through policy, but Once we do that, we have this big economic opportunity that you won't even recognize how much it lifts everybody. The local businesses will be happy. The residents will be happy. When they have a certain amount of pride, it reflects on the whole town and on you. So thanks for all your support. We appreciate all you've always done.

All right. Thank you. And Victoria, I don't know that you actually got introduced. Maybe you did right at the very beginning. Yeah, please do.

I'm Victoria Meyer. I'm also on the board. I'm the treasurer. So if you have any questions, we didn't prepare any slides for that. But I do have some stuff here if you have any questions about how we spend our funding.

All right. Sounds good. And owner of Paripi.

I own Paripi, yes, and the building it's in.

Yeah. So first off, I just appreciate what you're doing with the events you're doing with the businesses, right? I think this is a little bit unique. I learned a little bit here tonight as well. One thing that I'm a bit confused on is where are the borders, right, between the chamber, between you, between what Julian and his team do?

does i'm not asking you to answer that tonight no it's not it's not hard and that's why we did the study we wanted to know what the community the business community thought were and it turned out that they didn't understand it so it's a really smart question um my perspective is the chamber is more business to business a lot of business networking who else is out there and how can we network together We love Erie. The Business Collective is more about how can we connect the businesses to our community, to the customers they need. How can we help grow their business right here? The Chamber will bring in anybody. They don't care if it's a business from Broomfield, Boulder, Longmont. We focus on Erie, period. And the town helps with a lot of When there are issues, we go to economic development to say, okay, this is working or this is not working, or how do I get around this? How can you help us through this grant process or this policy? Can you help us get us through planning? So it's more of a direct relationship with the town. So we're the advocate for the businesses to help get them through the town process.

okay that's helpful i think this is um as erie grows there's more and more opportunities right for each of each organization to be involved and to do more right i think of the chamber with all the big events you're doing right you're bringing in a lot of people to old town you've got some events but i understand it's more the business to the people um and getting that connection i gotta process this a little bit but i'm hopefully there will be i know there'll be more conversations

Yes, and we're happy to sit with you. We're happy for you to attend our meetings, ask any questions you want. I think we used to have a liaison, and I don't think we had a liaison for a long time. But yes, we can help fill your mind with good ideas, listen to your good ideas, and let you understand how it helps build on everything. Because a good event, and the chamber can't do everything alone, right, but a good event will literally have people knocking on your door to come to you. Yeah.

And this is, for me, is part of the small town feel, these events, no matter what they are. And whether everybody goes to every event, we know that doesn't happen. There's too many, but there are certain events that people love to go to, and they will always go to those events. And that kind of creates that culture.

And creating new and different ones, that's the next step. That's where we will lead.

All right, cool. I think I'm going to go to my right this time, and we'll just loop around the other way. So maybe, Jim, if you want to kick us off.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the presentation. So on the kind of relationship with the town and staff and things like that, so for businesses that are members that you work with, what are some of the biggest struggles that maybe they have in trying to, you know, To reach out to the public, you said, to get to their customers, to get maybe their things running the way they need to.

Sure. Some of the feedback we got was really about social media and marketing. Marketing in general, whether you're mailing something, whether you're putting something online, if you don't know how to do that, that's difficult. If you don't know how to have your search engine up there, that's difficult. So reaching out to people is probably one of the hardest things. With the town, sometimes they don't know what permits might be necessary, how to get the right signage so that somebody might see it. So you hit these little obstacles. Just about a week and a half ago, I got a call because somebody had a bench on Main Street and town staff was walking down saying, well, if you're going to have a bench here or an umbrella there, you need to pay us $50 because it's an easement you have to pay for every year. So people are like, I didn't know about that and why. So you have these barriers that just pop up. One, people don't know about them. And two, they're kind of offended by them. Well, I'm doing all this. Isn't that good enough? And sometimes those kinds of things make it charming, make it pretty, make it appealing. What do you want, a blank sidewalk? You don't really want that. You want color and happy and something that draws people in. So navigating that with town staff is something that we have to help with sometimes.

thank you um thank you for the presentation i uh i didn't know or haven't followed your social media um pages so it looks like you have we love erie and downtown erie is that we have a couple different ways that people can find us sure okay okay it's it's curious that downtown erie has almost 3,000 followers, almost three times as much as We Love Erie.

Well, We Love Erie just started about nine months ago. Okay. So downtown Erie has been around a lot longer.

I figured it was the timing. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to have to check that out. Thank you. I appreciate you highlighting it there so more of us know about it.

Yeah, I think we have just about 85 members in our group that pay dues to help us accomplish the things they want us to accomplish.

Yeah, you just answered my question. Is there a membership fee?

Yes.

There's a fee. It's a range. And so people can come in at a very low cost just so they can be a member.

And how do people know about you? Do you publish or do you have?

Through the social media, I would say, is our main way. Right now, it's only social media. And for me, it's...

The new businesses in town. Okay, all right.

And I also walk around town, literally knock on doors, introduce myself and say, hey, thank you for doing business in Erie. And most of the time, they've never heard that in their career.

Right.

So it makes an impression.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much for the informative presentation. I don't have any questions. Like what I've seen.

Ronda, Victoria, and your team, thank you for the passion that you guys bring to the community, to the town, and helping with other businesses and bringing them in. I look at that as kind of the heartbeat of of Erie in the fact that it brings people into Erie, it gets people out of their homes and downtown, and it's invaluable to me. I see that there's a huge opportunity. I just started noticing your reels on Facebook. Is that new or am I just catching up?

Yeah, we started it this year, I think, yeah.

yeah so so those have been been great they show up in my feed all the time which i love that well and i must compliment you you guys were an inspiration because the police department has the best yeah so i like that woman every every every i just love that yeah fantastic move yeah informative and entertaining exactly yeah so um and then uh you know Sundance coming up and how do we help support that and bring that in and maybe that's something I know we have a packed schedule and whatnot but maybe look at a study session for Sundance and other you know in addition other things we can do to help your team and in your community I know Julian and Stephanie you know are you know help you guys out a lot and work closely with you but um you know is there more that that we can do and get that maybe get them help or

Sure. I don't know that you need a special study session. I know you have a lot of meetings, but I promise to keep staff informed. I know they'll keep you informed, and we'll just come up with an action list of if something's going to happen, this is what we need it to look like.

and maybe look at liaisons from staff and from council to help if you currently don't have that because again what you guys do for the town is huge I would say everybody loves open space but everybody loves the activities in the community as well and i'm you know liaison on open space and you know i think what you guys do is equally as important as some of the other you know boards that we have and whatnot so maybe we can do something there and i know signage is something that you guys have been you know advocating for for a while and so i'm hoping that we can make some progress on that as well yeah we have some great ideas and it'll be fun it'll be different and it'll be fun Thanks again.

You're welcome. Thank you so much for this presentation. Shout out to Amber Luttrell, our PIO at EPD. You guys can't compete. She's so good. I think she won an award, like the best PIO in the state or something, which is public information officer. And also Kelly Block. I think you guys should leverage her because she's putting out some really funny reels for Tape and Twine too.

Yeah, she's on a two-week vacation right now or she'd be standing here.

right right yeah um and she and i actually had a conversation i think like four or six months ago and she was saying that she needed a liaison from the council um and asked if i could do it i i have quite a few um but i i am an advocate for that so that we can stay connected um and you know nobody wants to take more of your time i totally get what it takes but we can tell you when it's important to be there you know yeah and and maybe that's good enough yeah um also the uh sundance is that's a great note and i know that we would talked about that before you know malcolm well malcolm was still here and that was a priority and we've had to shift our plans for the work plan but i i would love to have maybe like a task force or something to figure out how we can help support um i'm not sure what staff capacity is like you know we're running thin but um i think it would be really great because i hear from folks in the community even that they're asking me if there's a website that they can sign up for short-term rentals put their house on short-term rentals and if we have any support for that and i know other communities do and there's lots of exciting things happening and um leveraging, I think we love Erie and their passion and energy may be a good way for us to be able to participate in that. I'm interested to see where that can go, but I think that that's a unique opportunity for us to have Sundance here. So I would like to see something happen with that. And let's see. think that was that was it i just i don't i don't want to volunteer staff for anything especially julian and stephanie stephanie i know that you guys work so hard and just so you know they're already at our beck and call they work so hard and they take good care of us yeah good i know they're so great um so anyway i'm happy to support however i can support but i'm you know just just one of all of the council members i think all they need to hear

is now that you are supportive of Sundance, and as long as we communicate and said this is the next steps, they'll help us get through it. And if there's something questionable, they're gonna let you know.

All right, wonderful, thank you. Thank you, guys. Appreciate the update, yeah. All right, we're gonna move on to Councilmember reports and announcements.

How about we start at the far end this time with Councilmember Pesterovalli? I don't have any updates.

Okay, Councilmember O'Connor?

I've got a couple tree-related ones. Through June 15th, just a few days away, the Tanaviri residents may be eligible to receive up to $200 credit on their utility bill for qualifying purchases of one tree. To be eligible for the program, tree purchases must be made during the optimal planting period, which ends June 15th. For the spring program, there are a list of qualifications that must be met to receive this rebate, and those can be found on the town's website or by visiting erico.gov forward slash trees and look for tree planting programs on the left column. There are also other programs for HOAs, schools, nonprofits, if they're interested. And if you do miss the spring window, the fall program is open from September 1st through October 15th. And my second tree, uh, announce related announcement is on June 11th at 6 PM. You can join the town forester and the tree board for a tree walk at the boneyard, uh, at reliance park, the dog park, uh, bring your dog for a walk and, uh, check out the trees, um, in the dog park. Very good.

All right. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you. Um, just one thing real quick. And, um, David, can I have your assistance for a second? Thanks. Questions real quick that came up online. Yeah, so I want to go up here because even though my degree is in CS, even though my job title is engineer, I'm not an actual engineer. There's a difference between me. professional engineer or so. But regarding the ponds at Vista Ridge, so I think I know the answer to this, but I just wanna ask you so that I can have somebody actually in this background that understands. So my understanding, those ponds are detention ponds, correct? Correct. Yeah, and so can you explain the difference between a detention pond and a retention pond?

Yeah, great question. A detention pond, is a pond that has a designed outlet structure designed to release at specific rates. A retention pond holds water in perpetuity. So it's basically a designed constructed facility that would have a liner of some sort to help keep water within the pond infrastructure.

Yeah. So with the work that's being done out there, Since those were engineered as detention ponds, they were not functioning as they were designed. Correct. Yes. Okay. So I think there was some confusion in the public because there are a lot of people saying we're removing the ponds. We're not really removing them. They're just I think some people refer to them as dry ponds too, right?

Yeah. Typically, you're not going to see any standing water in detention ponds unless there's a rain event. So, yeah, it'd be a dry pond unless there's a rain event in place.

Yeah. And the other thing I want to ask is a lot of people talked about it being a wetlands area. Now, my understanding is that actual wetlands area, I think the Army Corps of Engineers has to define the –

perimeter area for those and there's nothing like that that's happened here correct correct yeah it's not uncommon for uh detention or retention facilities to grow uh wetlands plants yeah um cattails things of the like but um to your point yeah say defined wetlands is something that's defined specifically by the army corps of engineers and by the state yeah okay so and then the last question because it came up i guess there were some some bird nests out there and the town reached out to the department of wildlife or the so correct moving those so yeah yeah so uh it came to our attention um by staff and by our contractor that there were some nesting migratory birds within the pond 819. once we were notified that that had happened we reached out proactively to the state and to the federal u.s wildlife service and talked with them about what possible next steps are and have discussed internally as well and made a decision to hold off on disturbing those until the nesting season has ended. We do have some other work we can keep proceeding with at this time, but that specific piece will be delayed for a little while.

Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah. So just for the public, I just wanted to just, Be careful with what you read online, and I know our staff is always happy to answer questions. Absolutely. Yep. Thank you. Appreciate that. Great.

That's where we're at.

Yeah, thank you for that. Thank you for watching us through that. We get a lot of questions about that. Detention versus retention. That's good vocabulary for me. um okay so shout out to our legislative action team um that you guys did a great job first year doing that and i was um really pleased with how that went and i know that it's a lot i was the second vice chair for um the legislative committee for colorado communities for climate action and i'm still tired like it was so much to to keep track of um and thank you for all the reports and updates and and the kind of the final catalog too of where we ended up um there is a juneteenth celebration on juneteenth um from six to eight pm in front of bridge market bridge refill market come out buy some food from stacy's kitchen and uh there's music hope the community will be there um to see you on the dance floor Pride was awesome this last weekend. So much fun. So great to see everybody out there. And just the community showed up again. And it was really wonderful to celebrate together. I was the bouncer for the Shirley Delta Blow, who's our drag queen story time. And I think I'm three feet shorter. So that was kind of funny. But we had a blast. um and then the epd ceremony that we had last week we gave three awards life-saving awards to officers and we swore in six new officers in town and then also debuted our honor guard, which was really awesome. I'm so glad that I didn't realize we didn't have one, and now we do, and that was really great. At NADA this last week, our transportation division came out and did a presentation on the interchange study on I-25. I learned two new acronyms, TAS and TMD, T-A-Z and TMD, and I have to look them up. TAS, can I phone a friend? Nope, here it is. TAS is Transportation Analysis Zones, and TMD is Travel Demand Model, or TDM. I wrote it down wrong. So what this study has highlighted is that the state numbers may not be reflecting our actual lived on the ground experience. And so that was an interesting part of the random part of the interchange study that may be affecting a lot of communities. And so there'll be more to come on that as we kind of dig deeper into those numbers. It's something that I think a lot of communities have known for a long time. And like at Dr. Cogg, we talk about this a lot. um and so through this study we're kind of beginning to pull back the threads to see where that's origin where the trouble is originating originating from um and then also thanks to drastic director pasic today we had a meeting regarding 287 design with cdot and our transportation commissioner just to ensure that we are seeing the safety improvements out there with the grant that we were able to secure, not the town of Erie, but CDOT security grants. So exciting things are happening. Numbers for the B are great, and everyone should use it. It's a great service. So that's it.

All right.

Council Member Mortallaro.

All right. Just a couple things. One, I want to thank John and David and the team for 111 and Arapahoe. I know that was a very big project and a very, very busy intersection that creates all kinds of challenges. So I know, you know, but you did a great job. I travel that intersection every day, and it Yeah, there were some delays, but done really well. I did try and stay away from, I listened to the signs and I stayed away from evening rush hour, but I was there in morning rush hour. And like I say, all in all, I think it went really well. I appreciate all the folks working it and all the safety precautions that were put in place to make sure that it went as smooth as possible. So thank you for that. and also i want to reiterate what pat mentioned about the collards hill bridge i've been downtown a couple of times since it's been open and it is getting a lot of traffic you see it's great seeing families and you know parents and kids you know going across it and coming into town so um you know great job on that as well

um thank you uh pride was a lot of fun a lot of good music dancing food joy and i heard a lot of good comments positive comments about the banners along brick street so kudos to anyone involved in that um and to add on to council member bear's comments about the police department um swearing in we swore in an erie high school graduate officer janet russell i believe so that's that's exciting to have a hometown person on the on the force As some residents are now aware, a special session has been called for next week and added to the council calendar to accommodate a vote on a contract with SM Energy for the sale of town's mineral rights. Unfortunately, I cannot be there. For over nine months, I've had travel plans to attend my son's graduation out of state, which will keep me from attending. I requested to the mayor that this very important agenda item be delayed so that I could be in attendance. The response was that because it was already widely communicated, the change would be significant and suggested that perhaps I could attend remotely. Widely communicated in this situation amounts to an announcement made only one week ago, and I cannot attend remotely. To say the least, I find it disheartening that this item is being rushed, especially after listening most of the past 18 months that we should not rush decisions along with the enormity of input we have had from town residents on this issue. So it will have to be through other avenues that I will submit my thoughts and concerns on the facts of the contract, the ethics of its negotiations, and legal concerns that have been voiced both by residents in the community and legal professionals outside the community, and challenges to the interpretations of land use. Stay tuned. Stay informed. Thank you.

all right um that comes back to me i know we've got an exec session so i'll go through this uh fairly quickly uh metro mayor's caucus was last week always fun to get with the pure mayors many similar challenges we're going through it's kind of a support group too because we're all dealing with so much so time always well spent there I've been talking with many residents on both Water and Draco. When you put a blog out and you say, contact me, get ready. And I was happy to see how many people did actually reach out and appreciated the conversations that I was able to have for that. They're always informative. We hosted the CML District 2 meetings here a couple weeks ago, great turnout for that and was happy that we were able to do that in Neary and staff did a great job putting it on, very professional. People were impressed with the rec center and what we have there so that we can have these community gathering spaces. 111th and Arapaho I need to say that one as well because I live over in that area it's awesome and I didn't mind the traffic delays as it was going through but that left-hand turn lane is already has changed the the whole dynamic of the of what's going on out there so thank you for that Let's see, I've asked our acting town manager to look into a proclamation for the nation's 250th birthday and Colorado's 150th birthday. And I've already got a draft back, and so I'm hopeful to get that on the last agenda here for us as we close up June. And then last, on the Draco, if anybody thinks we've rushed this, we've been working on it for basically over a year. We've had two study sessions on it, bringing everything forward and to light. And there comes a time where you've got all the information and a decision needs to be made. i was unaware 10 months ago or 12 months ago whenever you said you knew about this that council member hobart could not be there it was just brought to my attention even though this has been known on the advanced agenda since the end of may So, you know, it is what it is. I know sometimes we take vacations. I've missed meetings. It happens. And we always do have a remote option for any of us to be able to call in and participate on these meetings remotely when possible. So, all right. With that, I'm going to look to the Mayor Potem to take us into executive session.

Thank you, Mayor. Sorry.

What about announcements from... Oh, sorry. I missed two agenda items.

They were probably going, oh, thank goodness. Yeah, no worries. Point of order.

Thank you. I'll turn it over to Meredith Muth, our acting town manager.

I do have a report from an earlier question you asked about the volunteer coordinator position that we have. That position was new this year and it's really designed for us to get volunteers for town events and town programs. It's not a position for town-wide, unfortunately.

Interesting. I remember the conversations. When we do the budget this year, let's have that conversation again. Yeah. Okay, and our town attorney?

I can read a room, so no announcements. Thank you. All right.

Now I'll look to our Mayor Pro Tem.

There you go. Thank you, Mayor. I move to go into executive session to discuss item 2026.372 to determine positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, develop a strategy for negotiations, and or instruct negotiators. pursuant to CRS 2464024E, and to consider the purchase, acquisition, lease, transfer, or other sale of real, personal, or other property pursuant to CRS 2464024A, for which a topic cannot be disclosed without compromising the purpose of executive session.

All right, do we have a second? Second. All right, motion is second. All in favor, say aye. Aye.

Pardon me, Mayor, don't we have to have a roll call vote for this?

I don't think so. to go into executive session? Yes, I believe we do. Okay, we probably have been not doing the right protocol now for some time, if that is the case. If not, I'd like to call for one. Okay, fair enough. All right, well, the town clerk, please take a roll call vote.

Council Member Behr? No. Council Member Hoback?

No.

Mayor Pro Tem Bell?

Yes.

Council Member O'Connor?

Yes.

Council Member Pessimarelli? No. Council Member Mortallaro? Yes. And Mayor Moore? Yes.

All right. So the motion fails to go into exec session. The topic revolves around the airport, I believe. And so I'd like to ask Council that voted no not to go into exec session just what the reasoning is.

Because I don't want to put staff on...

If they were expecting to have confidential conversations for negotiations, I just want to understand that.

Understood. It was just placed on the agenda. No consultation of council as to why it needs to go to executive session. And right now, the community is a little uneasy with going into executive session. I think we need to bring more transparency into it as to what these are for and why executive session is called for.

So I'll look to our acting town manager.

I'd rather not create a process on the fly this evening, but I'm happy to work with the town attorney to come up with a process when we have items that we feel qualify for executive session, that you guys get a way to know what they are in advance, and we can discuss what options there are for being transparent, to what extent we can be transparent with what the topic is. But if it's okay with David, I'd say we postpone this item tonight and come up with that process for future executive session items.

Okay, and I'm okay with doing that as well. Certainly if we're negotiating something with regard to the airport, that's exactly the reason we have executive session for negotiations.

I would point out we received... believe there was a memo that yeah went out everybody should have been well aware what the subject of this was so I'm really confused and I made it a point to the mayor because I do know that people were concerned about us potentially discussing Draco I said to the mayor before the meeting I think there's because the language of this is the same for every whether this was like when we bought a the Regency property for King Soopers when we bought Cheeseman. The language is always the same. You can go back to every single executive session where we have or we do a property transfer, the language is all the same. So it's imperative on us to read emails, ensure that we're up to speed on things. And I think it's a little disingenuous to, now the appearance is that we're trying to hide stuff and the reality is is that these, we have these for the purpose of ensuring that when we have a negotiated process, that we can't have good negotiations where we're trying to potentially get a deal with something to have that in public. So I think I would ask for one of the three that voted no to reconsider the motion so that we can discuss this. Because this is an inconvenience on staff, David's,

here tonight to talk about the airport i appreciate the concern for inconvenience um i do not appreciate once again time and time again being called disingenuous or doing a stunt no you let him get away with his crap mayor they're tired of it i understand and i hear you

Do you? Yes, I do hear. This is not the time to have that debate. I'm going to adjourn the meeting. We will reconvene at a time when our emotions can just be calm and we can do it. And David, I apologize. You sat through the whole meeting for this exact session. All of us had the information through an email to let us know.

But we didn't know why it needed to be an executive session.

Yes, and we all have the email, and we all have an obligation to ask questions. because we had that quite some time ago. And we all have access to our attorney. We all have access to our acting town managers. So I encourage you, if you don't want to go into exec session, be transparent with staff. Be open, because now we will put this off, and we have wasted time. All right, with that, I adjourn the meeting.

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