A discussion about the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority’s (RFTA) Hogback bus route opened Monday’s Garfield Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting. During public comments, Rifle resident Rebecca Briesmoore urged the BOCC to support a temporary proposal to fund the Hogback route for the next year or so. 

Briesmoore said she lives in Rifle for three reasons: She loves it, it’s cheaper than Glenwood Springs, where she works, and her husband’s job is in Grand Junction. 

“We can’t find equivalent jobs closer to our home,” she said, adding that she takes the bus to work almost every day. Her reasons for taking the bus are varied. “I routinely check my work emails or pay bills, check in with family. I can read. I even sometimes take a little nap on the bus,” she explained. “I also love it because it’s safer than driving.” And, she said, it’s affordable and saves wear and tear on her vehicle. 

She mentioned that putting more money into public transportation will be important to handle an increase in county population, citing the traffic jam a few weeks ago due to a fire in South Canyon. 

“Thousands of vehicles were stuck in Glenwood,” she said. “Public transportation will help alleviate those issues.” She added that she would “enthusiastically vote in favor of a tax increase in Rifle to increase the mill levy to RFTA.” 

On June 17, as reported by the Post Independent, RFTA presented a funding proposal to the Rifle City Council.

She fielded questions from Commissioner Mike Samson about cost per ride and the amount of riders on the morning route. 

“Back in 2002, when Garfield County was actually fairly affluent because of oil and gas, we agreed to help fund the Hogback at $750,000,” explained Commission Chair Tom Jankovsky. “And at that time in the newspaper it said this will be a temporary solution.” He added, “We continued to fund that almost to 2020 at that level, and then we started seeing a downturn in our oil and gas revenues because there wasn’t as much production.” 

He said that Rifle and Silt are participating for the first time. “Part of me says, ‘Well, let’s just not fund it, and we’ll go through the chaos and see what comes out of it,’” he continued. “However, RFTA’s proposal is to try to come up with a three-year solution, keep it going, and at the end of that solution [there] probably would be a tax question.” 

Land exchange

Next up, Jeff Small, former chief of staff for Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, presented a federal land exchange proposal. 

“It’s called the GAME [Great Access for Multiple-use Experiences] Act,” he explained.”It’s a draft land exchange.” Republican Congressman Jeff Hurd and Garfield County Manager Fred Jarman have been involved in discussions, he added.

The exchange is between Out of Bounds cattle ranch owner Scott Smith and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). According to the GAME Act text, it directs the Department of the Interior to complete a target land exchange between the BLM and the privately-owned ranch to consolidate fragmented “checkerboard” land ownership patterns. The bill would trade 2,158 acres of BLM land for 2,103 acres of private lands surrounded by BLM land. 

Small said that it is a legislative land exchange because the BLM does not have the resources to create an administrative land exchange. He added that Smith lives in North Carolina but has been coming to Colorado for 25 years and wants to make the ranch his permanent home. 

Small told the BOCC that this exchange would accomplish federal goals, such as facilitating the needs of expanding communities and industries within the county and ensuring that areas of limited value to the federal government are made available for more appropriate uses.

It is also within Game Management Unit 22, and the lands acquired by the BLM would provide public access to hunting. The BOCC agreed to support it via a resolution or letter of support to be ratified at a later date.

In other news, County Assessor Jim Yellico presented his report to the County Board of Equalization. Of note, he told The Sopris Sun, is that the percentage of oil and gas valuations has declined.

“In 2025, it had fallen below residential value for the first time in over a decade,” he said in an email. “In 2025, oil and gas was 3% of the total valuation, while residential was 39%.”

You can find all archived BOCC meetings and agendas at the Garfield County website.