The local chapter of the 136-year-old National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is celebrating Constitution Week, as they do every year. The designation for the week of Sept. 17-23 began in 1957 under President Dwight D.Eisenhower. Linda Morcom of the Captain Richard Sopris Chapter of the DAR, incorporated in 1960, has brought the proclamation to the Garfield Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) for at least 16 years, said Commission Chair Tom Jankovsky. Commissioner Mike Samson read the proclamation, which was approved unanimously.
But first came a lively discussion about homebound older adults in the county who need meal delivery. Mary Kenyon, director of the nonprofit Valley Meals and More (VMM), which is dedicated to helping homebound older adults, showed up during public comment to ask the county for help with her program.
Kenyon said she has approached the BOCC several times over the past year about meal deliveries. The county covers congregate meals, served at meal sites, but she said that, by law, the county must provide home deliveries to those who cannot get to the meal site.
County Attorney Heather Beattie said that if older adults need to get to a meal site they can use the Traveler, a shared ride service funded by the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA), Garfield County and local municipalities, for eligible Garfield County residents with a disability that prevents them from driving or using public transportation.
Kenyon explained that the Traveler is available only within two miles of Highway 82 in the Roaring Fork Valley and I-70 in the Colorado River Valley.
“Our volunteers are driving 15 minutes up into Missouri Heights and all the way up Four Mile,” she said. “What are we supposed to tell those folks?”
Kenyon said that the Department of Human Services warned about a gap in home delivery meals in November, and that the county knew this was going to happen. Both Jankovsky and County Manager Fred Jarman said that the county does not have the manpower to take on the program.
But Kenyon is looking for regular funding for home-meal delivery to be included in the county’s annual budget.
She said Tuesday that the BOCC is out of compliance with the Older Americans Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Title II protects people with disabilities from discrimination by state and local governments and requires that people with disabilities “have an equal opportunity to participate in public entities’ programs, services and activities in the most integrated manner appropriate.”
“Defining Garfield County’s nutrition program as congregate-only does not resolve the ADA equal-access problem,” she said.
Jankovsky said that the county gave VMM $25,000 from the discretionary fund and $10,000 from the general fund in June to help homebound adults in critical need.
“And, in doing that, we have about 12 other nonprofits that wanted to come in and ask for some of that $25,000 that aren’t getting [money] for the fourth quarter [of 2026],” he added.
Jankovsky encouraged Kenyon to apply for funding through the state Human Services Commission, but Sharon Longhurst-Pritt, director of the county’s Department of Human Services, who was also at the meeting, told the BOCC that the only meals her department funds on the west end of the county are congregate meals.
Kenyon asked the BOCC to direct staff and the attorney’s office to figure out how the county will provide meaningful access to its publicly-funded senior nutrition program for older, homebound adults.
She added that she would request a formal state and federal review of the county’s compliance, should the county not respond to her request by Sept. 22.
Beattie said the county is not out of compliance with federal laws. Samson agreed but asked Beattie to provide a “white paper” on the issue by Sept. 22, so that everyone has the facts and can take a look at possible solutions.
Kenyon told The Sun in an email that she contacted the director of the State Unit on Aging after Tuesday’s meeting.
“I explained that what emerged from this morning’s discussion was a genuine desire by both Garfield County and Valley Meals to better understand the proper application of these federal requirements in the senior nutrition space,” she said, clarifying that this was not a formal complaint.
The BOCC also approved a $325,000 budget supplement for the Sheriff’s Office to pay jail nurse expenses, an agricultural lease termination near the airport and a resolution confirming the county’s financial commitment to RFTA’s Hogback bus service for 2027.