Foster Grandparent Volunteers

Fremont County Commissioner Ed Norden praised the work of the volunteers who served in the 2005 Foster Grandparents program through Seniors Inc. Norden was the guest speaker at the Foster Grandparents Annual Recognition dinner recently. He praised their work with young school children at the Fremont County Commissioners’ regular board meeting May 24th. The dinner honorees and the hours they contributed included at the Fremont County Head Start: Nora Aragon-853 hours, Louise Bellew-718 hours, Jacqueline Hauser-786 hours, Betty Jean Huckabee-815 hours, Bart Johnson-103 hours, Nona McCoy-629 hours, Winnie Moyers-143 hours, Imogene Sparks-193 hours, Marilyn Treadwell-654 hours, Shirley Weise-862 hours; at Washington Elementary School: Leatha Chastain-604 hours; at McKinley Elementary School: Mary Hickox-490 hours, Robert Masgai-728 hours, Ruth Masgai-894 hours; at Mountain View Core Knowledge School: Alfreda Schoenholtz-466 hours; and at Skyline Elementary: Joan Little-658 hours.

Seniors Inc. reported that since the Foster Grandparents program began locally in 1999, volunteers contributed 29,786 hours of service. At a typical wage for teacher’s aides in the classroom the value of that volunteer work has been estimated at more than $525,000. The County Commissioners salute all of the volunteers who have contributed time to aide children as foster grandparents.

May 24th Meeting Review

The Fremont County Commissioners took the following action at the regular Board meeting on May 24th:

The Commissioners honored Henry McWilliams upon his retirement from the County Road and Bridge Department after 32 years of service. District 2 Road Foreman Terry Acton praised McWilliams’ dedication to the County and his fellow employees for stepping up to make sure the job got done.

The Board unanimously approved the Milam Acres Subdivision, a three lot minor subdivision, sought by Jim Milam on his ten acres of property southeast of the intersection of Justice Center Road and Grandview Avenue. Each lot will contain from 3 to 3.7 acres.
Also approved was a minor two lot subdivision for Cindy and Randy Babb on the southeast corner of ‘C’ and 5th Streets in the Beaver Park area at Penrose creating two lots each containing 4.7 acres.

Also winning unanimous approval from the Commissioners was a waiver for a 25-foot minimum width for a flag lot stem at ‘I’ Street and Ren Drive in Penrose for Danny Veatch, a six month extension for an interior lot line vacation for Stan Javernick at Highway 115 and Cyanide Avenue in Florence, and a waiver for a 25-foot easement for access on a lot north of Field Avenue and Melvina Street owned by Dave Rodenbeck in the North Canon area.

The Commissioners approved the transfer of a hotel-restaurant liquor license for the Broken Spoke Events Center at Penrose from Hinton Holdings to Glenn Miller.

The Fremont County Commissioners’ next regularly scheduled meeting will be June 14th at 9:30 a.m.

May 10th Meeting Review

The Fremont County Commissioners took the following action at the regular Board meeting on May 10th:

• Commission Chairman Larry Lasha commended the Canon City and Florence Fire Departments, the Sheriff’s Department, Fremont County Emergency Management Director Ray Southard, The Colorado Department of Public Health, and the Environmental Protection Agency for their timely response to the May 5th oil spill into the Fremont Ditch which eventually reached the Arkansas River.
• Commissioner Ed Norden reminded citizens that June 1st is the deadline to file protests of property valuations which were mailed out at the end of April. He reported that commercial properties saw an average increase in value of 22 percent while residential property saw an average value increase of 13 ½ percent. Commissioner Norden noted that property valuation increases will not necessarily mean an increase in property taxes, adding that Fremont County must still abide by TABOR Amendment revenue restrictions.
• The Commissioners appointed Tom Doxey of Penrose to fill a vacancy on the Fremont County Planning Commission for the Penrose area seat. Doxey succeeds Gary Schenk who had to resign after moving to Colorado Springs.
• The Commissioners conducted public hearings on amendments to street cut and driveway access permit regulations and on the first amendment to county subdivision regulations. Among proposed changes are that all utilities will be required to be installed on a particular side of a county road depending on the road’s orientation. Asphalt road surfaces in the future will also be required to be paved at a 3-inch depth instead of 2-inches. Formal resolutions on the changes will be considered by the Board at their May 24th meeting.
• The Commissioners approved a special review use permit to allow the Holcim Company to erect a 199 foot weather monitoring tower near the Portland Plant east of Florence. The Commissioners added a stipulation that Holcim light the tower despite an FAA height exemption.
• Approval was given for the Fallwell Subdivision creating ten residential lots along the north side of Elm Avenue between Walnut and Pine Streets in Lincoln Park. The subdivision plan includes a proposal to control stormwater by using a retention pond to store rain water from as high as a 100-year frequency storm event. The developer is choosing to install a retention pond instead of a detention pond because the stormwater is not intended to negatively impact the Deweese-Dye Irrigation Ditch or other private property owners to the north.
• The Commissioners, meeting as the Board of Health, granted a waiver allowing Richard and Diana Degroot to enlarge an existing septic system at 1208 ½ South 9th Street in Canon City instead of forcing them to hook onto the Fremont Sanitation District’s sanitary sewer which is within 400 feet of their residence.
• The Commissioners also approved a mail ballot election for the November 1st, 2005, coordinated election, approved a permit for the annual Temple Canyon Hill Climb, and approved a special events liquor permit for the Canon City Rodeo Association to stage a demolition derby at the rodeo grounds on June 4th.

Deer Mountain Town Hall Meeting

The Fremont County Board of Commissioners has announced plans to host another town hall meeting in western Fremont County. Residents in the Copper Gulch area southwest of Canon City will get an opportunity to discuss issues with the Commissioners at the town hall meeting on Tuesday evening, May 24th, at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Deer Mountain Fire Station at 6517 County Road 28…the Copper Gulch Road. The Commissioners plan to share information about property tax assessments, specific ownership taxes, building inspections, and traffic enforcement. Much of the evening will be spent taking questions from area citizens. All three Commissioners plan to attend the meeting including District 1 Commissioner Mike Stiehl, District 2 Commissioner Larry Lasha, and District 3 Commissioner Ed Norden. Fremont County Sheriff Jim Beicker is also slated to attend.

Sheriffs Office Award Ceremony

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office held their annual Awards Ceremony on May 11, 2005 at the Gooseberry Patch Restaurant in Penrose. This year’s award recipients include the following employees:

Detention Division Employee of the Year - Deputy John Barr was awarded the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Detention Division Employee of the Year award. As stated in the Sheriff’s Citation, during the last two years while the Detention Facility was under construction, “the project construction workers had to work in the housing unit, taking tools and other items that were extremely dangerous to the environment of a housing unit...Mr. Barr was frequently complimented by the different contractors that had to work in that space, as being professional but always in control of what was going on.”

Law Enforcement Division Employee of the Year - Sergeant Mark Roberts was awarded the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Law Enforcement Division Employee of the Year award. As stated in the Sheriff’s Citation, during the last year, he “was asked to supervise his shift during a turbulent time. Not only did he complete the task with precision and a positive attitude, but he did so gaining the respect of his fellow officers.”

Medal of Merit - Under Sheriff Ty Martin received a Medal of Merit for his outstanding dedication to the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office during 2004, and the entire duration of the Sheriff’s Office renovation and addition.

Life Saving Award - Deputy John Mills and Deputy James Wheaton received a Life Saving Medal for their actions following a suicide attempt by an inmate. Had they not acted so quickly, the inmate would have been successful in his attempt.

Sheriff’s Commendation - Deputy Thomas Martinez was awarded a Sheriff’s Commendation for designing and developing a very comprehensive training manual for the Detention Center.

Highway 115 Safety Improvements

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has reported to the Fremont County Commissioners that the last project as part of the Colorado Highway 115 safety improvement program is underway six miles north of Penrose. The Salt Creek-North project will add climbing and passing lanes over a two mile distance between mileposts 24 and 26, about a mile south of the Fremont-El Paso County line. CDOT expects construction on the $3 million project to be completed by this fall. The project is the last in a series of safety improvements on Highway 115.

Drivers can expect intermittent delays of five to fifteen minutes during the construction period. Tezak Heavy Equipment of Canon City is the contractor on the safety improvement project.
Eleven safety improvement projects were identified by CDOT on Highway 115 in a 1999 safety study. The improvements took six years to complete. CDOT says additional projects will be made in the future on Highway 115 as funding becomes available.

Oil Spill Investigation & Cleanup

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Fremont County Sheriff’s Department, and Fremont County Emergency Management Director Ray Southard are investigating a major oil spill that occurred Wednesday morning southwest of Canon City. The heavy, black oil eventually reached the Arkansas River prompting Fremont County officials to notify water and irrigation users downstream in Pueblo County of the contamination. Southard said the spill originated from the yard of Fremont Paving and Ary Brothers Trucking just west of MacKenzie Avenue. While company officials have estimated that only a couple hundred gallons of oil migrated from their site, Southard says he believes several thousand gallons spilled off site.

Southard said the spill involved heavy waste oil intended for use by Fremont Paving in mixing asphalt. Company officials said the spill originated from a 10,000 gallon storage tank. They said the tank was not full but could not estimate how much actually spilled. A company spokesman said a large amount of the oil was captured in a pair of catch basins on site. The spilled oil traveled down a steep embankment into irrigation water running in the Fremont Irrigation Ditch. The oil then traveled in the ditch before spilling into the Chandler Creek drainage west of Florence through the new Pathfinder Park and the Oak Creek drainage in Florence. It’s not known how much oil might have reached the Arkansas River. Fremont County officials received several complaints of the heavy oil having coated beaver dams in the Oak Creek drainage.

Florence Volunteer Firemen placed booms in the river to soak up the oil and prevent it from traveling downstream. Irrigators in the Brewster area west of Florence were among those initially reporting the oil slick in the irrigation ditch. Irrigation flow in the Minnequa Canal through Florence to Pueblo was also shut down. Witnesses reported to the county commissioners that the heavy oil looked like tar on the water surface in the Minnequa Canal and managers at the Sumo Golf Course shut down their pumps before any of the oily water reached their irrigation holding ponds. Southard said he escorted EPA Official Pete Stevenson of Denver and State Health Official Tim Vrudny of Pueblo to various sites in the irrigation drainages where environmental damage appears to be the worst. Southard said an EPA task force is being mobilized to assess and coordinate the cleanup. Fremont Paving officials say they have hired an environmental firm from Colorado Springs to initiate clean up of contaminated areas. Southard said he expects to spend most of the day Friday to further assess the extent of the damage from the oil spill including downstream towards Pueblo.

Public Transportation Meetings

The Transit Advisory Committee formed by the Upper Arkansas Area Council of Governments will host a series of three public meetings in Fremont County to discuss a proposal to fund public transportation. After the committee conducted a community survey last year that showed 85 percent of respondents supporting a public transportation program, officials in Fremont, Custer, and Chaffee Counties have proposed creation of a Regional Transportation Authority (RTA).

Each county has proposed its own method of financing public transportation and each county would need the support of voters for that funding mechanism at an election in November. If voters in any of the three counties turn down the plan, the Regional Transportation Authority could still be formed through intergovernmental agreements but public transportation could not operate in a county where voters do not agree to fund it.

In Fremont County it is proposed to finance the RTA by adding a $10 surcharge to every motor vehicle registration. Chaffee County is proposing an $8 surcharge on every motor vehicle registration, while in Custer County a half-cent sales tax is proposed to finance public transportation.

Meetings to detail plans for public transportation and to gather public comment are being conducted in each of the three counties. The three public meetings in Fremont County are scheduled for Tuesday morning May 10th at 10 o'clock at the Golden Age Center at 728 Main Street in Canon City, Tuesday afternoon May 10th at 5:30 at the Fremont National Bank Community Room at 210 Broadway in Penrose, and on Wednesday afternoon May 11th at 5:30 at the City Council Chambers at City Hall in Florence.

All comments in support or opposition are significant and welcomed. The Transit Advisory Committee will rely on input at the public meetings to determine whether to proceed. Officials emphasize that the Rural Transportation Authority will only be formed if substantial participation occurs at the public meetings.