The Fremont County Board of Commissioners took action at their June 22nd board meeting to enact an emergency resolution for a county wide fire ban, award a pair of bids for project work at the Fremont County Airport, and to fill a vacancy on the Fremont County Heritage Commission.
The emergency fire ban resolution was adopted at the urging of Sheriff Jim Beicker who acknowledged that while it came on the heels of the Parkdale Canyon wildfire the fire ban may not have had any effect on actually stopping that wildfire. With passage of the resolution, Sheriff Beicker said he was immediately imposing a Stage 2 fire ban which includes a ban on all outdoor smoking and requires use of spark arrestors on any combustible engines. The Stage 2 fire ban affects only the rural, unincorporated areas of Fremont County outside of municipal boundaries. The fire ban does not affect the cities of Cañon City or Florence or the towns of Brookside, Coal Creek, Rockvale, or Williamsburg.
The Commissioners awarded two bids for work at the County Airport. Maxwell Asphalt was awarded a bid of $97,072 for pavement maintenance on the airport runway and remarking of the runway and taxiways. Electrical Excellence was the successful low bidder at $37,903 to perform the removal and relocation of hold bars and signage on the runway and taxiways. Armstrong Consultants of Grand Junction said that since the bids came in much lower than the engineer’s estimates for both projects the project work could be expanded. Armstrong said the additional work from the extra funds would permit the fog sealing and remarking of the bypass taxiway on the east end of the airport runway and the two connector taxiways. Armstrong noted that the combined project cost of $134,975 came in $109,000 under the engineer’s total estimate.
District Attorney Thom LeDoux appeared before the board to request that the Commissioners place a question on the November ballot asking voters to remove term limits for the D-A in the 11th Judicial District. LeDoux noted that when Fremont County voters removed term limits for local elected officials nearly ten years ago it did not affect the District Attorney’s position because the 11th Judicial District covers four counties. LeDoux said the question would have to be placed on the ballot in Fremont, Custer, Chaffee, and Park Counties to be legally considered.
While the Chaffee County Commissioners have approved a resolution rejecting the term limit ballot question, LeDoux said he hopes he can get them to reconsider if the other three counties choose to put the question to the voters.
The Fremont County Commissioners gave a unanimous vote of intent to put an item on the board’s July 13th agenda to formally consider a resolution to place the question on the ballot. District 1 Commissioner Mike Stiehl said he supports doing so if for no other reason than to allow the voters to decide if they want to lift the D-A’s term limits or leave them in place.
D-A LeDoux also told the Commissioners that his office is preparing an application for a 2010 Gaming Impact assistance grant reflecting the costs of investigating and prosecuting cases associated with casino gambling. Chairman Ed Norden said the board is pleased to see the D-A prepare a grant application and that he would be willing to attend the grant hearing this fall to support the D-A’s application as required by the Gaming Grant Review Committee.
In other business the Commissioners:
- Appointed M. Kay Ellison of the Museum of Colorado Prisons to fill a vacancy on the Fremont County Heritage Commission;
- Authorized the County Assessor to administratively approve abatements and refunds not exceeding $10,000 as now permitted under Colorado law;
- Approved Fremont County Department of Transportation’s Limited Gaming Impact Fund grant application;
- Approved the refund of $75 from a $150 late fee to the Glen Vista Property Owners Association that was charged because the annual report had not been submitted by the appropriate deadline.