Board of County Commissioners of Lincoln County

Agenda for January 29, 2009

9:00 Call to order and Pledge of Allegiance

9:05 Discuss the procedure to appoint members to the Lincoln County Tourism Board

10:00 Bookmobile Director Katie Zipperer to discuss the bookmobile budget and payment of bills

1:15 Develop an Economic Development Policy for Lincoln County

1. Approve payroll and expense vouchers

2. Approve the minutes from the January 13^th meeting

3. Revenue the December 2008 reports of revenues and expenditures for County General, Library, Landfill, E911, Road & Bridge and the individual road districts

4. Review the December 2008 report from the Veterans Service Officer

5. Review and sign a lease agreement with Laurel Kubin for the N1/2 of Section 28-T9S-R55W, less a 40-acre tract for the county landfill

6. Review and sign an agreement with the State of Colorado for Community Development Block Grant Award #09-085

7. County Commissioners’ reports

8. County Administrator’s report

9. Old business

10. New business

a. Discuss the annual Christmas party

The Board of Lincoln County Commissioners met at 9:00 a.m. on January 29, 2009. The following attended: Chairman Ted Lyons, Commissioners Steve Burgess and Gary Beedy, County Administrator Roxie Devers and Clerk to the Board Corinne M. Lengel. Kay Christie with The Limon Leader and Eastern Colorado Plainsman was present until noon.

Chairman Lyons called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of Allegiance, and then discussion was held regarding the procedure to appoint members to the Lincoln County Tourism Board. Mr. Burgess felt the first step was to determine who to appoint, and then thought that the new board should develop their by-laws and whatever else they may need. All Board members agreed that it should be a five member board with one representative from each of the five communities in the county. Several names were discussed; both people who had contacted members of the board expressing interest, and people that the board thought might be good options for areas where no one had expressed interest. Mr. Burgess also said that they would have to establish term limits; such as one, two and three year terms, and Mr. Beedy said that the tourism board could determine which of their members served which terms. The Board will contact the various people and will designate members as soon as they have at least one interested party from every community.

Mr. Beedy made a motion to approve the minutes from the meeting held on January 13, 2009, as submitted. Mr. Burgess seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

The December, 2008 reports of revenues and expenditure for the County General, Library, Landfill, E-911, and Road & Bridge funds were reviewed, as well as those for the individual road districts, and the December, 2008 Veterans Service Officer report.

At 10:00 a.m., Bookmobile Director Katie Zipperer met with the Board to discuss the bookmobile budget and payment of bills. Ms. Zipperer explained that the Brodart bill; one the Board felt had been received by the accounting department three months late, was actually for 2009 subscriptions, and that the company bills three months in advance. After some discussion, Ms. Zipperer said she would contact Brodart and ask them to submit their bill either in the current year or closer to the end of the year, rather than in October. Mr. Burgess told her that the county would pay two bills in one year if necessary to get it straightened out, and would then just do a supplemental appropriation for the budget. Ms. Zipperer said she usually gets a statement and Mr. Burgess asked that she give the Board a copy of it.

Ms. Devers told Ms. Zipperer that she needs to keep a closer eye on her expenditures, as she would have gone over her 2008 budget if her payroll time sheets had been turned in on time in December. Mr. Burgess added that it created problems for everyone if she did not submit her bills and payroll on time, and included that the auditor may require additional work to be done, as well.

Mr. Lyons said that it seemed she was spending quite a bit of time in the office, according to her time sheets, and it would seem that if that were the case, she should be able to submit her bills and things in a timely fashion.

Mr. Burgess said they were trying to find a way to increase bookmobile participation and were considering trying to stop in Agate again. They did not want to take the bookmobile back to Chaparral on bad roads, but if they can find some way to help offset the costs, they may have better luck with the budget not going over in the future.

The lease agreement with Laurel Kubin for the N2; Section 28-T9S-R55W, less a forty acre tract for the county landfill was reviewed, and Mr. Burgess made a motion to sign the lease agreement. Mr. Beedy seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

Also reviewed was an agreement with the State of Colorado for Community Development Block Grant Award #09-085. Mr. Beedy made a motion to sign the agreement, Mr. Burgess seconded the motion, and it carried unanimously.

Mr. Beedy reported that he attended the LINCing Dads and Early Child Development Council meetings on January 15, as well as the Economic Development Council budget meeting that evening. On January 16, he attended the STAC meeting, as well as CCI. On the Twentieth, he attended the Plains-to-Peaks Retac meeting, on the Twenty-first he and the other board members toured roads in District Three, on the Twenty-second he attended the Clean Energy Development Authority meeting and participated in a CHP conference call, on the Twenty-sixth he met with Becky at Colorado East, and on the Twenty-eighth he attended the PUC Transmission hearing. CCI asked him to attend that meeting to discuss local government involvement regarding land use, as they would like to come up with better working conditions among the counties. He asked that they consider earlier communications regarding designated routes so that counties have more time to understand impacts to their areas. They are also organizing the CCPG – Colorado Coordinated Planning Group – that will meet approximately three times each year. Mr. Beedy also learned from the PUC members that RES is still planning to go ahead with the building of the wind farm.

Mr. Burgess reported that he attended the fair board meeting the evening of January 13, but that he would let Mr. Lyons explain what had been discussed, and the Centennial Mental Health meeting in Sterling on the Fifteenth. On January 19, he received a phone call from a party complaining about the new landfill rates, and then took a tanker truck from Stones to Karval to help supply fuel for firefighters there. That evening, he stopped by Anderson Motors to look at a van, which the Social Services department ended up purchasing. He said it does have some minor problems, but felt that the savings in price far outweighed those problems, and thought the county shop would be able to fix whatever was wrong. On January 21, he toured roads in District Three with other board members, on the Twenty-second he toured roads in District Two, on the Twenty-third he discussed county bridges and having to do a watershed study with Skip Nesbitt, and on the Twenty-eighth the road districts decided to combine their efforts to grind asphalt and concrete from the Limon airport.

Mr. Lyons reported that at the fair board meeting on January 13, the board agreed to increase the fees of the fairgrounds facilities by one hundred dollars per category. If the Ellis Allen building is rented, the cost will be one hundred dollars more, if the arena is used, the cost will be one hundred dollars more, etc. Increasing the cost will help to offset the increased costs of utilities for the facility.

Mr. Beedy made a motion to increase the rental rates of the Lincoln County Fairgrounds facilities by one hundred dollars per category, effective February 1, 2009. Mr. Burgess seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

On January 14, Mr. Lyons checked roads in his district, as well as went by Rob Raines’ property with Mr. Burgess to see if they could determine where the correct boundary line was.

Mr. Lyons also made a visit to the radio tower out south of Hugo to look at it, and Lynn Stone told him that the tower either needs to be painted or strobe lights installed on it. On January 15, Mr. Lyons attempted to call the State Land Surveyor regarding Rob Raines’ property boundary dispute and was told that there is no such thing as a state surveyor. He had a phone call from the Elbert County Surveyor who told him that the county line would remain where it was. On January 16, Mr. Lyons met with Chris Monks, on the Nineteenth he checked roads and received a phone complaint regarding the plastic blowing from the Genoa off-load site. He also went by the state ponds and checked on prairie dogs on the game preserve and spoke with Ms. Devers, Mr. Monks and Mr. Burgess about the fire in Karval. On January 21, he toured roads with the other board members in District Three, and on the Twenty-second he attended the hospital board meeting. They still have not received approval of the plans on the generator project from the state, so they contacted Representative Cory Gardner, but had to leave a message. Mr. Gardner is supposed to call Mr. Schreivogel at three-thirty this afternoon, and Mr. Lyons will meet with Mr. Schreivogel this evening to see what he found out. On January 27, Mr. Lyons received a phone call from Scott Ravenkamp letting him know that they are receiving information from the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority, so he felt it had been a good idea for the county to join. On the Twenty-eighth, Mr. Lyons talked to Lynn Stone about the tower at Cedar Point. Mr. Stone does not believe that Kit Carson County will be willing to lease it, and he also commented that that tower will need to be re-painted or have lights installed on it, as well. According to Mr. Stone, it will cost about $15,000 either way.

Ms. Devers asked if the Board would like to re-arrange their schedule for the meeting on February 5 so that they can attend the Regional Renewable Energy Strategy Session from 10:00 a.m. until noon in Flagler. The Board agreed to keep the meeting time flexible depending on appointments, but they scheduled a tentative start time of 8:00 a.m.

Chris Monks stopped by to show the Board the new sign decal he had received for one of their old Yield signs that would meet the new federal retro reflectivity standards. The Board agreed that the sticker looked good and seemed to adhere to the sign extremely well. Chris said he had forty-to-fifty signs at the shop that he didn’t want to have to throw away, and explained that he’d been told he wouldn’t be able to put stickers on any old signs that were cracked or otherwise ruined, but that there would be no problem with putting them on the new signs that he had on hand.

Ms. Devers went on with her report, stating that Kristi Gay with RC&D told her that the engineering on the fairgrounds parking lot would be done when the engineers have time to do it. They will give her notice of a week or so. As for the development of an overall design for the fairgrounds, all that the county would end up with would be a drawing on paper, but the Board still needs to determine what their plans are for the future facility.

Ms. Devers handed out some information regarding wind energy sessions, and then explained that Paul Engle with Ennovate Corporation wants to meet with the Board regarding energy conservation. The Board agreed that Ms. Devers should find out more information about what he does, since they do not want to spend more time or money on studies that have already been done.

Mr. Burgess made a motion to increase the limit on Social Services employee Lauren Lyons’ county credit card to $1,000, as she now has an out-of-state client. Mr. Beedy seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

Ms. Devers asked if the Board intended to proceed with the GOCO grant for the restroom/shower facilities at the fairgrounds, as the deadline for the grant application is March 2. Feeling that there was not time enough to design and approve plans prior to that date, the Board decided that it would be best to wait and try to catch the next round of grant applications instead. They scheduled a time on February 18 to begin working on plans. Ms. Devers will have Mike Mosher get bids for the lights on the Ellis Allen building.

Since a total of $1,803.10 was spent on fuel to fight the fire in Karval on January 19, Ms. Devers asked which budget the Board wanted to take the total from. Sheriff Nestor offered to pay for the gas, which was a total of $174.44, and the remaining diesel that was pumped into the storage tanks for District Three came to a total of $1,399.72, which Mr. Beedy said he would take from the District Three budget. That left a total of $228.94 for diesel fuel. The Board agreed to take the total $403.38 from the District Four budget and not ask the sheriff to pay for any of it, especially since he did not want to bill the various agencies that helped since they have mutual aid agreements in place.

Ms. Devers asked if the Board wanted the Department of Revenue, Field Audit Section, to audit any businesses in the county, but they did not.

There was no old business so Mr. Lyons called for new business. At the department head meeting on January 6, the departments requested that the annual Christmas party (and spring picnic) not be held on commissioner meeting days. There was also some discussion regarding closing the courthouse later in the day for the employee recognition ceremony/Christmas party, rather than holding it at noon, and the Board said they would consider it.

Mr. Burgess said he spoke with Travis Miller and asked him to have the overlay project manager call him when they begin the project west of Limon on Highway 24, as there may be a way for the county to get asphalt for a cheaper amount.

Mr. Burgess also said that the commissioners had decided to take back the purple van from Social Services, so the car that they have been using will be back in the pool for departmental use.

At 1:15 p.m., the Board began work on developing an Economic Development Policy for Lincoln County. County Assessor Estelle Thaller and Chief Deputy Treasurer LaRay Becker-Patton were also present for the work session.

The Board approved the January, 2009 payroll and expense vouchers for the month and then, with no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned until 9:00 a.m. on January 30, 2009.

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Corinne M. Lengel, Clerk to the Board Ted Lyons, Chairman