Board of County Commissioners of Lincoln County

Agenda for December 31, 2009

9:00 Call to order and Pledge of Allegiance

9:00 Renita Thelen, appraiser with the County Assessor’s office, to present a petition for abatement received from Paragon Financial Investors

9:30 Review information received on the two candidates for the 4-H Club Program Assistant position and make a decision on whom to hire

10:00 Review bids for chemicals to use in the spraying of noxious weeds

1. Approve additional expense vouchers if necessary

2. Approve the minutes from the December 30, 2009 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 December 31, 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 attended as well.

Chairman Lyons called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of Allegiance. Renita Thelen, appraiser with the Lincoln County Assessor’s office, and Jeremiah Higgins then met with the Board to present a petition for abatement received from Paragon Financial Investors. Ms. Thelen informed the Board that the property in question is the old Ruby Motel at 350 G Avenue in Limon, and that they would need to schedule an abatement hearing. Since the Assessor’s office will be unavailable on January 12, Ms. Devers said January 28 or 29 would work the best.

The Board approved additional expense vouchers for the month of December, and then Mr. Burgess made a motion to approve the minutes from the meeting held on December 30, 2009, as submitted. Mr. Beedy seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

Mr. Burgess said he’d spoken with Chris Monks the previous afternoon and they had not received the charts for the fuel tanks when the tanks were installed. Mr. Burgess called Eaton and asked them to fax the charts. Mr. Beedy said he had gotten his with the other paperwork.

Neither of the other commissioners, nor Ms. Devers, had anything to report, but Ms. Devers said that a matter of old business concerned who owns the property at the Bee Hive/annex that needs the snow plowed away from it. She spoke with Gary Ensign who told her that the property does actually belong to the county, so the county will take care of plowing the snow.

Kara Cubbage with RES had sent further information regarding incentives given in other “windy” counties in the state, and Mr. Lyons commented that out of twenty-one counties, only seven had granted the exemption on sales tax; several of them being large counties like El Paso, Adams, Arapahoe and Larimer. However, some surrounding counties such as Logan and Prowers had not. Mr. Beedy remarked that the reason counties like Logan and Prowers didn’t grant the exemption was because those counties already had the transmission lines in place at the time. He added that is what this project would do for Lincoln County if it gets completed.

Mr. Burgess asked a question about Colorado Works Allocation and TANF dollars and the formula being redone, wanting to know how much money Lincoln County will lose if that happens. Mr. Beedy thought the projected amount could be approximately $20,000, but explained that the reason behind redoing the formula is to get the demographic factors back into existence to better reflect actual need. Although some of the larger counties are upset because they will lose quite a bit of funding, Mr. Beedy said the plan should help even out the disparities that have been seen statewide and put things on a more level playing field. He added that he didn’t feel Lincoln County would be losing a detrimental amount and the committee felt it was the best answer for the entire state, although he mentioned that it may end up being the Joint Budget Committee’s decision.

Mr. Burgess said that any time money is lost it affects the county, and when Mr. Lyons said Mr. Beedy stated the counties can pick and choose the programs they offer, Mr. Beedy clarified that they can to a certain extent, but that the county must show that the TANF funds were spent serving the low income population. He added that there is a strong push right now to take the control away from the counties and Mr. Burgess said he felt the county has no control now the way it is.

At 9:30 a.m., the Board reviewed information received on the two candidates for the 4-H Club Program Assistant position. All three commissioners felt it would be a difficult decision as both candidates had very good points about them, but decided to offer the job to Travis Taylor, based on his experience. A call was placed to Travis to inform him of the decision, but Ms. Devers had to leave him a message.

The Board briefly discussed salary, chain of command and office space in the Extension office, and then moved on to discussion regarding the cabinets in the Treasurer’s office. Mr. Burgess said that all of the cabinets in the main office are in disrepair; the laminate is coming off and has been re-glued numerous times. Travis Nall can build new cabinet doors for ten-to-fifteen dollars per door. Mr. Beedy felt they should offer that job for bid, and Mr. Lyons agreed, stating that he knew of someone who may want to bid on it. Ms. Devers put in that there are several local contractors that do that type of work.

A call was placed to County Attorney Stan Kimble regarding his report, as the Board felt they would be finished with their meeting before noon. Mr. Kimble said he’d received the copy of the letter written by the disgruntled inmate, as well as the EEOC notice on the terminated employee. He said he’d gone through some standard practices for jails regarding how best to protect the facility and personnel when such an issue arose, and put them together for Sheriff Nestor. As for the terminated employee situation, Mr. Kimble said he would read up on federal regulations and report on them at the next meeting so that they were better acquainted with them.

Mr. Kimble also said that he’d received an e-mail about the meeting with CDOT regarding the rail relocation project, and Ms. Devers asked that he attend the meeting prior to that on February 24 with the Stewards of the Range.

Travis Taylor called back and was offered the job as 4-H Club Program Assistant, which he accepted. He would like to start February 1, but Ms. Devers said an employee has to be employed for thirty days before the health insurance is activated, so he will actually start on January 28 or 29 and will meet with the Board at that time. Travis also mentioned his office hours, stating that he would like to start work at 9:00 a.m. and leave by 4:00 p.m. so that he could get his daughter to and from school. The Board agreed that would be fine and Travis promised he would not abuse it.

Kimel Brent stopped by the meeting to discuss the same letter from Congresswoman Betsy Markey that Jay Jolly had brought into the mid-December meeting. Mr. Brent asked why some of the twelve million dollars that the county had received had not been spent on County Road 63, but Mr. Beedy explained that the money had actually been earmarked for state highway 40/287 and that Ms. Markey’s letter was very misleading.

Ms. Devers asked if the Board would like to send Ms. Markey a letter mentioning the fact that several Lincoln County residents are questioning her information, and the commissioners felt that would be a good idea.

Bids for chemicals used in the spraying of noxious weeds were reviewed and a phone call was placed to Weed Control Coordinator Wayne Shade to ask him some questions about the bids. Mr. Beedy asked if he had given any of the bidders an estimate of how much chemical might be needed next year, but Wayne said he had no way of knowing, which is what he told them. Mr. Beedy said he should be able to average out the usage for the past few years and at least come up with an idea, in order to make the bid process fair for everyone. He asked Wayne if he had sent a letter, but Wayne said he had just called them and asked for the bids.

Discussion ensued between the commissioners, and Mr. Burgess finally said he would speak with Wayne and try to come up with some quantities and they could have the bidders resubmit their bids using those estimates.

Travis Nall was called in as there is a very large area beneath the overhang on the west side of the clerk’s office where the snow has melted and re-frozen, creating a rather dangerous icy spot. The commissioners were concerned about the safety of employees should they need to use any of the emergency exits. Travis said there used to be some heat tape beneath the concrete out there, but when they re-did the drainage around the building to help the mold situation, the heat tape quit functioning. He said he intended to try and break up some of the ice later this afternoon but otherwise wasn’t sure how to fix the problem. Mr. Burgess suggested heat tape in the drains and possibly cutting a notch in the concrete and putting some heat tape in there. Travis said there wouldn’t be much he could do now, but maybe next summer he could find a solution.

The Board also spoke with Travis about measuring the cabinets in the Treasurer’s office to replace the doors and asked that he not submit what he would charge at that time, as they will offer the job for bid.

With no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned until 9:00 a.m. on January 6, 2010.

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