Monday’s penultimate Garfield County Commissioners’ (BOCC) meeting for 2024 was short and calm with only two commissioners present. Commission Chair John Martin, whom Commission Chair Pro-Tem Tom Jankovsky expected to return this month, is still out on medical leave. Commissioner-elect Perry Will was in the audience.
In the absence of public comment on non-agenda items in the morning, the BOCC jumped right into approval of the entire consent agenda and the fourth budget supplemental request and appropriation of funds from Jamaica Watts, county finance director. Watts reported an increase in supplemental revenues of $7,059,571 and an increase in supplemental expenditures of $3,977,407.
Next up, Carl Stephens, executive director of the Garfield County Emergency Communications Authority (GCECA), told commissioners that the 911 surcharge will go up in 2025 but that 911 income is steady. The GCECA expects to fill two new dispatch positions next year for the first time in three years.
The Harvey Gap radio site came online this year, providing coverage to the Harvey Gap area and improving coverage in Silt and around Coal Ridge High School. Stephens said that radio capacity at sites in Glenwood Springs, Rifle, north of Rifle on Highway 13 to the Rio Blanco County line and from Parachute to Debeque has improved. The backup center in Battlement Mesa also came online this year. He added that the proximity of the center to employees who live in Battlement Mesa has cut response time for emergency callbacks.
Heather Beattie, county attorney, commented about how the Monarch butterfly could end up on the endangered species list and that President-elect Trump could have an influence on oil and natural gas regulations and roll back President Biden’s May, 2021 executive order: Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful, better known as 30 X 30.
In the afternoon, no one from the public had anything to say about non-agenda items. The BOCC heard two requests for extensions for land use change permits and approved one for the North Hangs gravel pit, southwest of Silt.
The second request, to extend approval of a land use change permit for High Mesa RV Park, south of Parachute, was denied. Apparently, the application for the park was first submitted in September 2009. Monday’s request was the 12th time the applicant, Bob Graham, has asked for an extension. County staff gave the BOCC two options: approve a one-year extension with conditions or deny the request. The denial requires a new application that would go through the county’s Major Impact Review process.
Commissioner Mike Samson said, “We were adamant last time [an extension was requested] that this was the last time we would grant an extension. It’s better to begin again.”
Next up came a request from Tanner Gianinetti for a substantial modification to an administrative land use change permit for the Gianinetti Community Event Center just outside of Carbondale city limits. The request was approved with conditions after Tanner’s presentation and public comment that was largely supportive of the Gianinetti family as neighbors, but not for an increase in the size, hours and frequency of events.
Conditions included maintaining the noise level at 55 decibels and the existing hours of operation. Events larger than 200 people are limited to 52 per year and cannot occur during large town festivals, like Mountain Fair, unless coordinated with the Town of Carbondale. The application will be reviewed after the 2025 peak season to determine compliance, traffic concerns, security and noise and light mitigation.
The BOCC hosts a public listening session with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) about gray wolves on Thursday, Dec. 17 at the New Hope Church in New Castle from 6 to 8pm. CPW plans to bring 15 wolves into Colorado this year from British Columbia. The agency has also launched a conflict mitigation program with trainings on the Western Slope scheduled for December. More info about the conflict mitigation trainings is available at www.tinyurl.com/Wolftrainings