Board of County Commissioners of Lincoln County

Agenda for April 30, 2009

9:00 Call to order and Pledge of Allegiance

9:05 Dean and Nova Waite to discuss their job description, evaluation and to review the cleaning requests by department

10:00 Social Services Director Colette Barksdale to give her monthly report

1:30 The Commissioners will conduct a Board of Equalization hearing on a Petition for Abatement on the valuation of assessment for personal property presented by Sang No with MS Hospitality of Limon, Inc.

1. Approve additional expense vouchers if necessary

2. Approve the minutes from the April 29^th meeting

3. County Commissioners’ reports

4. County Administrator’s report

5. County Attorney’s report

6. Old business

7. New business

The Board of Lincoln County Commissioners met at 9:00 a.m. on April 30, 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. County Attorney Stan Kimble attended in the afternoon, and Kay Christie with The Limon Leader and the Eastern Colorado Plainsman was present until noon.

Chairman Lyons called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of Allegiance, and then janitors Dean and Nova Waite met with the Board to discuss their job description and to review the cleaning requests submitted by the various departments in the courthouse. County Assessor Estelle Thaller was present, as well. Mrs. Waite felt that with only four hours per day to work, they would not be able to complete the assigned or requested tasks, and Ms. Devers pointed out that after the revisions to the job description, they would actually be required to do less than before, as some duties had been removed.

Mr. Lyons informed the Waites that if an issue arises between them and a particular department, they will have that department head meet with them, as well as the Waites, and Ms. Devers will not be involved. Mrs. Waite felt that the job description really didn’t do justice to all the duties that were required, but Ms. Devers explained that most job descriptions normally don’t list every single duty.

After further discussion, the Board decided to go over the requests again at the department head meeting on May 5, as some of the requests should be taken care of by employees within the departments, rather than the janitorial staff.

Mr. Burgess wanted to know if the Waites had priced self-propelled vacuum cleaners, and although they had not, Mrs. Waite did say that it was about time to buy a new vacuum and she would find out how much one would cost. She also commented that she and Mr. Waite have been submitting just the number of hours that they are required to work, even though they stay longer most of the time.

Emergency Manager Ken Morrison stopped by the meeting to give a quick update on the two cases of H1N1 (Swine) flu that were reported in Colorado, and then at 10:00 a.m., Robert Kraxberger with Social Services met with the Board to give the monthly report for that department. He apologized for Ms. Barksdale, stating she had a family emergency to attend to.

After reviewing the caseload and financial reports, Mr. Kraxberger updated the Board on Project School Supply and the executive session from the last meeting. He stated the case had been taken by Elbert County using the Lincoln County attorney. He also said that Ms. Barksdale is working on the $120,000 TANF transfer from Alamosa County to Lincoln County, and Mr. Beedy commented that Kit Carson County is also trying to unload approximately $46,000 in TANF funds.

Mr. Burgess discussed the department vans and the fact that the oil changes need to be watched more closely, and Mr. Kraxberger responded that the sticker on the windshield is worded so that the employees believe the mileage written there is when the next oil change is due. However, the county shop puts down the mileage on the vehicle when the service is done, which makes it confusing. Mr. Burgess thought that they should designate someone from their department to do a monthly check on all of their vehicles to make sure they are not in need of service, and Mr. Lyons said he hoped to work out the mileage discrepancy with the shop.

The minutes from the meeting on April 29, 2009, were corrected as follows: change “Retac” to “EMS and trauma” and “fifteen” to “eighteen” on page 4. Mr. Beedy made a motion to approve the minutes, as amended. Mr. Burgess seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

Mr. Beedy had nothing to report, but Mr. Burgess reported that he and Mr. Lyons went to Kiowa the previous evening to the dedication of the new portion of the Elbert County Judicial Center. He also spoke with Travis Nall earlier this morning about windows in the courthouse, and there are thirteen left to replace. Travis will order a few more and continue the replacement project.

Ms. Devers had nothing to report, except for the fact that Mr. Sang No, of M S Hospitality of Limon, Inc., phoned to say he could not make it for his 1:30 appointment regarding the abatement hearing. He wanted to re-schedule for May 6 at 1:30 p.m. Ms. Devers will send him a letter with the new time, once it is agreeable with Ms. Thaller.

The Board had received a letter from the Colorado Department of Transportation regarding approval of Ordinance No. 712 – the Model Traffic Code and Ms. Devers said she’d check with Mr. Kimble later to make sure the entire ordinance needs to be published.

A minor discussion was held regarding the future of Economic Development in the county, and then Mr. Burgess asked if a list of county equipment or vehicles to be sold had ever been made up. None had, and Mr. Burgess said he thought they should add the orange mower/tractor at the fairgrounds to the list.

The Board also discussed purchasing two self-watering flower pots to be placed in front of the courthouse for approximately $200 each. Mr. Burgess will stop by Pronghorn Country to order the pots.

Documentation reviewed by the Board included a Media Release from the Colorado Board of Land Commissioners, a letter from Alamosa County regarding a request to transfer Colorado Works Allocation, the Local Highway Finance Report, and a Final Determination from the State of Colorado Division of Property Taxation regarding Peoples Regional Clinic.

Mr. Kimble informed the Board that he would not be able to sign the letter to T-Cross Ranches about the boundary dispute, as he was representing a party in an unrelated matter that may cause a conflict of interest.

Discussion ensued regarding the noxious weed problem on Linneburs’ property, as Mr. Lyons felt they should send a letter to NRCS requesting the information the organization had passed on to Mr. Linnebur about his farming practices. Ms. Devers reminded him that they had already sent a letter, but were told from NRCS that the record was confidential. Mr. Lyons thought another letter from Mr. Kimble might help, but Ms. Devers was inclined to disagree. However, it was determined that Mr. Kimble would send letters to the address in Arapahoe County regarding farming practices, and another to NRCS requesting a copy of the letter sent to Mr. Linnebur. Mr. Lyons commented that if Linneburs were getting two conflicting opinions regarding what farming practices could be used to proceed with eradication of the noxious weeds, he may end up not doing anything.

Mr. Lyons added that he would also like for Mr. Kimble to send a letter requesting coordination in the railroad matter, so Mr. Kimble will review the materials that were brought from the coordination meeting in Brush and then contact Morgan County if he has any questions.

At 1:30 p.m., County Assessor Estelle Thaller and Jeremiah Higgins met briefly with the Board. Ms. Thaller informed the commissioners that she’d had the sheriff’s office install a radio in the County Assessor’s pick-up for safety reasons, and her office will pay for the next one that the sheriff purchases when he needs one.

The Board then reviewed a letter from Ms. Thaller requesting that Jeremiah Higgins be appointed as Lincoln County Assessor in January of 2010. She said he would need to fill her vacancy for a year, but would then have to run for the office on the November ballot if he chose to. Ms. Thaller felt Jeremiah was the best choice for the appointment, based on his experience and qualifications, and stated that no one else in her office wanted the position. She added that she would like the Board to reach a decision as soon as possible, as their conclusion would determine if one, or two, new employees would need to be hired. They discussed cost to the county and Ms. Thaller said that she was doing everything she could to keep the expenses as low as possible, especially since the Board had agreed to let her hire another employee, or two if that were the case, prior to the end of the year. She added that she will be revising job descriptions, and if the Board chooses to appoint Jeremiah, she would like to hire one person sometime in July and the other in October. Mr. Burgess asked that the discussion be tabled until May 6.

Mr. Kimble reported that he’d received a Summons and Complaint concerning the Colorado Department of Transportation and E.R. and Julie Dill, which the Board had already reviewed, and stated he would have to meet with County Treasurer Jim Covington to prepare the claim that would need to be filed, since Mr. Covington was also named in the Summons.

He added he would check on the County List Serve to see if other counties had had problems with boundary disputes, and then would draft a letter to Keith Westfall with High Plains Surveying.

Mr. Kimble also reported that he had received nothing new regarding the claim from the past county employee, and that the letter he’d sent to Asphalt Specialties had given them seven days to respond. The next step would be to file a Notice under the zoning regulations.

Land Use Administrator Ken Morrison was asked to come down to discuss the Genoa Motorsports project. The group was supposed to return to the Land Use Board in eighteen months to address how they intended to handle the dust situation, fire abatement procedures and access, but Mr. Morrison said that there has been no contact from them. Since the deadline has passed, they will now basically need to start over and Mr. Morrison’s feelings were that the landowner should follow the subdivision regulations if they intended to put in condo-garages, as the group now indicated. Mr. Morrison said there are still many questions unanswered and he believes there should be more stringent conditions put on large developments such as this one; however, Mr. Burgess didn’t want such severe conditions that developers would pull possible projects from Lincoln County. The Board asked that Mr. Morrison send the Genoa Motorsports group a letter.

Further discussion was held regarding the Raines/Norris disagreement; Mr. Beedy stating that he felt it was a private property dispute which the county should not get involved in, unless they intended to put in a road. If that were the case, then the county should have a survey completed to find the section line and once that was done, both parties would have to stay thirty feet back from the road. Mr. Beedy said he felt they should send the letter to High Plains Surveying, but not to T-Cross Ranches, at this time. Mr. Lyons agreed to wait to see if they received a response from High Plains Surveying.

With no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned until 9:00 a.m. on May 6, 2009.

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