TOWN OF DE BEQUE BOARD OF TRUSTEES PUBLIC MEETING JANUARY 23, 2024 The regular meeting ofthe Board of Trustees was held on January 23, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. in the Community Center, 381 Minter Avenue, De Beque, Colorado. Present were the following: Mayor: Shanelle Hansen Trustees: Cindy Farris, Sarah Hambrick, Judy Lake, Lisa Lippoldt, and Vernon Bruse Absent: Walter Wood Staff Present: Town Manager Care' McInnis, Marshal Bob Dalley, and Town Clerk Lisa Rogers Also Present: Diane Sandelin, Jeanette Refior, and Dawn Palmer CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 6:02 p.m. by Mayor Shanelle Hansen. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. ROLL CALL: Roll call was taken, and a quorum was present. ADDITIONS, DELETIONS, OR CORRECTIONS TO THE AGENDA: No additions, deletions, or corrections. ITEMS FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATING IN CONFERENCE NOT ON THE AGENDA: No public comments. BOARD COMMENTS: Trustee Hambrick stated that the Mesa County Community Hall was coming along nicely. Mayor Hansen stated that the fireworks on New Year's Eve were awesome. Mayor Hansen also stated that it was good to see Trustee Bruse back. TOWN MANAGER REPORT: Ms. McInnis stated that a sheet ofthe Town calendar notepad was placed on each desk. It is a great cheat sheet for upcoming 2024 important dates for Court, BOT, and Planning TOWN OF DE BEQUE BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGULAR: MEETING JANUARY 23, 2024 PAGE 2 In late December, Ms. McInnis participated in a site visit to the new De Beque Community Hall with all three ofthe Mesa County Commissioners. The De Beque Community is getting a $5 M facility from Mesa County. Ms. McInnis stated that she had re-read the ballot measure and supporting publications from 1982. It was for "recreation centers on the Redlands, Orchard Mesa, Clifton, and Palisade, and Mesa". All five of these were budgeted at the time at $3.41 M. De Beque was not on that original list. The County has made a huge investment in De Beque. Mesa County started with Clifton and De Beque and are way over budget because oft the increased cost of construction. Other community halls are on hold from what she understands. The Town of Mesa's Community Hall is the prototype for the actual structure and amenities for the Town of De Beque. That is where it stops. The Community of Mesa passed ai taxt to fund events and the like. There are still a lot of details and logistics that need to be addressed as far as furnishing, event funding, and staffing. Ms. McInnis is scheduled to meet with Commissioner Rowland, Todd Hollenbeck (Asst City Admin), and Todd Starr (Mesa County Attorney), and Chris McAnany to discuss this. Citizen Committee (Evelyn Giertz, Sam Gifford, Sherry Staatz, Lori Malsbury, and Sarah Bieser) have met with the Commissioners and representatives oft the Communities of Mesa and Clifton. AIl havedifferent scenarios. The De Beque Community is going to needto be creative in funding events andi the like. De Beque cannot just rely on the five committee: members. Ms. McInnis showed a video oft the Mesa County Community Hall video that was released today. Ms. McInnis discussed 2023 beautification projects. The Board approved funds from the general fund. The Town was able to double those funds with an AGNC grant for the BBQgrill. The Town can ONLY get 1 AGNCin acycle. Staffcalled AGNC after the grants were awarded and asked ifall the funds were distributed. They indicated that there was about $4,000 left. As Mesa County did not apply for any, we asked the County to apply for another AGNC grant for a fence "in De Beque". They did and we got it. Again, the Town doubled our money. It all looks fabulous! Ms. McInnis met several times with Erwin and Elka Knirlberger. The couple has ties to De Beque and built and owned the Bavarian Inn in Aspen. Theyhadasmall ranch up Roan Creek and donated the wall at the Cemetery. Mr. Knirlberger's late wife was laid to rest in our cemetery. Ms. McInnis stated she had advised the board previously, they are thinking of building and donating a chapel above the cemetery for the' Town. Mr. Knirlberger is 103 years old. Last meeting, they met with an Architect that Ms. McInnis brought with her and focused on the Knirlbergers hiring the architect as well as an attorney to get their projectmoving. It would be exciting ifit comes to fruition. The Town had a bridge inspection by the State in the first week of January. It was an opportunity to have our. Broadband design team meet with the inspectors to understand not only the structural integrity of our bridge, but also the design of how the Town will connect the fiber to the bridge if we, get the grant funding from DOLA. There were discussions with County Road and Bridge regarding a possible MOU with the County issuing permits for fiber boring in the Town. StarLink has missed their publication deadlines a number of times for the SRU of antenna array out by the cutoff. They are waiting for The Flower Collective to seek a text amendment to allow two principle uses. RUSHIstallRUSHstal. C.R.S. requires every municipality to ber registered for 81Icalls (Call before you dig). We have apparently just blown this off for decades. Huge consequences if there had been a problem- like TOWN OF DE BEQUE BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 23, 2024 PAGE3 houses exploding in Grand Junction, We are: nowi registered and went live. January 8th. There is a cost per call. Public works must receive these calls 24/7/365. Theshortest mandatory response time is2hours, but it is usually three days. Super excited to have Sam Flores on Board. He hit the ground running. Ms. McInnis stated that she feels lucky in that the Town of Silt may have an opening for the Director oft their Public Works department soon, and their Town Manager is retiring in March. Sad to see JeffI Layman go as he has been great in collaboration with De Beque. Ms. McInnis will be attending both a Bluestone Ditch Association meeting and a Roan Creek Ditch Association meeting likely in February representing the Town as as shareholder. The Town is ini the process of switching banks. There are a lot of new processes and technology. Lots of logistics but it is exciting. The Municipal Election April 2, 2024. The Town has accepted five petitions for the upcoming election. The Designated Election Official, Lisa Rogers, has two days to review each petition. Petitioners have untilJanuary 29th to cure defects. The Town will know if we will have an election and who is on the ballot by. January 30th. The Town has asked DOLA for a grant for Broadband. It is a one-million-dollar project. Iti is a big ask. Wereceived the Planning and Design grant and in the last report, our design is 25%-49% compete. Rumor has it we may have a complete design in the next couple of days. Ms. McInnis and Katherine Boozell will head to the Eastern Slope to present our project to the Committee on. February 28 or 29th. Ms. McInnis ish hoping for the 29th as there is the Board of Trustees meeting ont the 27h. She may have to miss the Board meeting to attend as it. Ms. McInnis may havei to miss al Board meeting to attend asi it is preferable to appear in person rather than Zoom when you are asking for a million dollars. The Town budgeted $229,949 from the General fund and $120,051 from the Capital Improvement Fund for a total of$350,000 to do what we could in regard to new and improved sidewalks. Sidewalks are super expensive, and no one bid because the project was SO small. Ms. McInnis advised the Board that the Town was awarded a $75,000 grant from Mesa County Federal Mineral Lease funds. The Town has previously tried two times to get a CDOT grant for sidewalks and both times were denied. We went back again, and the third time is a charm. The Town now has an additional $277,778 dollars for our sidewalks. Oft that amount, the Town's match will only be $27,778. Getting all of these grants is fantastic and the Town has been able to leverage that first one million dollars from the County a couple ofyears ago. However, there is a lot of work behind the scenes in pursuing these grants and dministration/feporting and managing the grants- especially with such a small staff. As a result, we: need to have a moratorium of sorts in seeking grants. Ms. McInnis stated that tonight's agenda has two more grant requests, and she is eyeing Congressionally Directed Spending on the horizon. Staffdoes need tol hit pause though unless it is urgent or an opportunity we cannot afford to pass up. Ms. McInnis explained that in 2021, the Town was a part of an award for a regional grant during COVID designed to help Communities get back on their feet (Roadmaps to Resiliency). Ms. McInnis sat through many meetings with our regional partners, which is always good for De Beque. It was frustrating asthe consultants were: from the Eastern Slope and the Town ofl De Beque was literally not on their maps attimes. The ultimate report was about sixty-five pages long, but the Town TOWN OF DE BEQUE BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 23, 2024 PAGE 4 did get our asks in. By the time the report was distributed, the Town had already accomplished all but one ofthe items. The last week ofDecember we discovered there was a little bit ofmoney left over from paying for the consultant to create the report. The deadline to ask was in one week. Ms. McInnis ran around to whatever business owner she could find to ask them to put in a request for a new: sign for their business and they had four days to submit it. The Town was awarded grants for new signage for Thriftique, JetBoat, The Country Store, Reckless Roadhouse, and two signs for Roan Creek Bikes. Ms. McInnis gave an update on the Town of De Beque Entry Sign across from Kum and Go. Bouadapovdamdhudgsed out ofthe general fundthes13,00sign: aspartoft the goal ofbeautification. We successfully presented our design and got through the COOT Special Review Process for the entryway sign in December and the stone has already been purchased. However, as part oft the business sign grant process she mentioned for our local businesses, the' Town was also awarded $12,950: in reimbursement funds for the entry way sign and $3,0001 towards ai ramp by our new BBQ grill for a total of $41,000. CONSENT AGENDA: a. Approval of Minutes: December 13, 2023. b. Bills and Expenditures: December 2023. C. Discussion and action regarding Resolution 2024-01: A resolution authorizing the Town of] De Beque to seek a grant from the Colorado Department ofl Local Affairs in the amount of $25,000 to be expended for design and engineering of drainage improvements. d. Discussion and action regarding Resolution 2024-02: A resolution authorizing the Town ofl De Beque to seek a grant from the Colorado Department of] Local Affairs in the amount of $25,000 to be expended in preparation of an update of the Town's Master Plan. e. Discussion and action regarding Resolution 2024-03: A resolution oft the' Town of De Beque Board ofTrustees authorizing a mail ballot election on April 2, 2024, and setting forth other details. f. Discussion and action regarding Resolution 2024-05: A resolution ofthe Town of De Beque Board of Trustees adopting an amended budget for the calendar year beginning on the first day of January 2023 and ending on the last day of December 2023. Discussion Before Motioning on the Consent Agenda: Mayor Hansen asked if anyone had any questions or comments on the Consent Agenda items. There were none. Motion: Trustee Hambrick motioned to approve all items on the consent agenda. Trustee Farris seconded the motion. Motion carried 6-0. REGULAR AGENDA: NEW BUSINESS: REMAINING BILLS AND EXPENDITURES: Expenditures related to the Country Store Mayor Hansen asked if anyone had any questions or comments regarding the expenditures related to the Country Store. There were none. TOWN OF DE BEQUE BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 23, 2024 PAGE 5 Motion: Trustee Hambrick motioned to accept the expenditures related to the Country Store. Trustee Lippoldt seconded the motion. Mayor Hansen abstained. Motion carried 5-0. Discussion and action regarding Famli Coordination of benefits: Ms. McInnis reminded the Board that the Town had opted out of Famli in 2022. However, the Town would like to assist its employees, who have opted in to Famli, with payment ofl health insurance premiums while they are out on Famli leave. The Board discussed covering health insurance premiums inj proportion to the use of paid time off. The total amount of Famli and PTO cannot exceed the employee's average weekly wage. If the employee does not use PTO or is out of PTO the Town would not pay any portion ofthe employee's health insurançe premium. Motion: Trustee Hambrick motioned to approve paying the employees' health insurance in proportion to use of PTO. Trustee Lake seconded the motion. Motion carried 5-1. Discussion and action regarding Resolution No 2024-04: A resolution to amend levying general property taxes for the year 2023 to help defray the costs of government for the Town of] De Beque, Colorado for the 2024 Budget Year. Ms. McInnis explained that this resolution was due to the unçertainty with the ballot and property taxes while still having to meet certain budget deadlines. After the original deadlines, the mills did not change but the assessed property values did change for a total of $5697. Motion: Trustee Lippoldt motioned to approve Resolution 2024-04. Trustee Farris seconded the motion. Motion carried 6-0. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Hansen asked ifthere was a motion to adjourn the meeting. 4 OF Motion: Trustee Hambrick motioned to adjourn the regular meeting. Trustee Farris seconded the motion. Meeting adjourned at 19:02 p.m. SEAL Respectfully submitted, CCLORADO SUYe Lisa M. Rogers, Town Clerk m-Ppgr