Commissioners Focus on 2025, Challenges County will Face in Coming Year

Hinsdale County Commissioners Robert Hurd and Greg Levine, with their newly re-appointed board chair, Kristie Borchers, have launched into the new year with an ambitious schedule of near-weekly meetings, focus for the county board being financial wrap-ups for both the now-complete 2024 budget and finalizing a myriad of details for the new, 2025 county budget in late December.
At their first-of-year meeting Wednesday, January 8, County Commissioners had a clear, forward-looking focus as they named individuals who will represent the county on a variety of state and regional boards, and, looking still further ahead, plans which are shaping up in early spring for ground breaking ceremonies at the multi-million-dollar County Operations Building adjacent to Hinsdale County Courthouse on Henson Street.
Still vexing to the commissioners from a financial viewpoint are continuing tardy delays in repayment to the county for major outlays already paid by the county but for which reimbursement is still lacking.
Examples of delayed reimbursement includes far-flung members of the emergency deployment All Hazards Team which are promptly paid by the county, although state reimbursement is delayed in some cases in excess of 90 days. Commissioner Levine was sufficiently exasperated by the delayed repayments that during discussion at the county’s January 8 meeting, he suggested a temporary hold on further employment of the All Hazards Team “until we can figure out this situation… it makes no sense to continue putting these people out in the field.”
Also exasperating in terms of county finances, is required up-front payment for sizable public improvement projects such as last summer’s chip & seal resurfacing of four miles of County Road 30 at Lake San Cristobal. In addition to several hundred thousand dollars which were contributed toward the project by the county, the cash-strapped county also fronted $900,000 in Colorado Department of Transportation funding — two checks, according to County Finance Officer Lynn McNitt, the first for $400,000 and a second for $500,000, which were paid to the contractor, A-1 Chip Seal — despite no reimbursement from the state as of early January.

At the county board’s January 8 meeting, commissioners met with Sherry Boyce and Sarah Tubbs for a preliminary discussion on uncertainties on the exact location of the county’s north boundary line bordering……….