Lake City - The Silver World Newspaper

Town Trustees Direct Staff to Draft New Water, Sewer Rate Ordinance

During the December 11 special meeting of the Town of Lake City Board of Trustees, Mayor Dave Roberts and fellow trustees agreed to approve budget adoption Resolution 2024-14; budget appropriation Resolution 2024-15; Resolution 2024-16 for the 2025 Mill Levy; as well as a 2025 Rural Community Advocacy Corporation (RCAC) recommended sewer rate structure, directing Town staff to draft a water and sewer rate ordinance. The ordinance, 2024-7, was subsequently approved at the December 18 regular meeting of the Town Board of Trustees. RCAC is a non-profit organization that partners with underserved rural communities of less than 50,000 to assist with environmental infrastructure projects. This organization has been working with town staff to update existing water and sewer rate structures. The budget appropriation resolution is a formality allowing town staff to appropriate town revenues towards the town’s operating expenses. The mill levy is a property tax on all property within town boundaries. It is a 4.265 millionth of a dollar valuation of all property in town. According to Town Manager Lex Mulhall, the proposed sewer rate structure recommended by RCAC will bring Lake City up to industry standards and practices. When the town initially applied for the loan for the renovation of the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), the State of Colorado informed staff that the sewer rate structure the town had been operating under was insufficient. “That’s why we had to have the rate study done,” said Mulhall. “The new rate structure will also off-set additional debt service, as well as adequately fund capital reserves. You have to be charging your water and sewer customers correctly in order to get grants and loans for these infrastructure projects, and you have to be in compliance with the state, or the state will take over and they can charge whatever they want. This sewer rate structure that we are proposing,” Mulhall went on, “is actually far lower than what RCAC recommended.” Mulhall referenced the chart shown on page 3, saying sewer rates will be going up 14.5 percent for residential commercial low-strength waste customers (for full details on strength of waste, reference December 13 SILVER WORLD); for medium-strength commercial customers, rates will be going up approximately 50 percent, and for high-strength commercial customers, nearly 85 percent. Customers in the county outside of town limits can expect their charges to increase an additional 20 percent above and beyond those percentages. The highest-in-strength wastewater customers are considered to be industrial strength, and this includes businesses such as breweries and RV parks. Present at the December 11 meeting in the audience were local realtors Danielle Worthen and Michael Murphy. A public hearing was opened shortly after the meeting was called to order. Mayor Roberts turned the floor over to the audience for comments, and Michael Murphy addressed the board, saying, “[considering] the hardship for the three RV parks [in town], have you come up with a contingency plan if we lose those RV parks? You’ve got a huge amount of revenue coming in from those three. If that for some reason changed, and they decided to sell off those lots individually because they’re no longer viable, do you have a plan to fund the water and sewer enterprise fund? You’ve got 11 lots over here [gesturing toward Elkhorn RV Park on Bluff Street], [if they] put in a house on those lots, your gross revenue is going to plummet. Do you have a contingency plan if that takes place?” Trustee Linsey responding, “What they’re [going to be] paying for is the strength of the wastewater that they’re producing. If they are not producing that wastewater, then we are not eating that cost, and it will be paid for just like every other single-family house.” Trustee Landon Whinnery replied, “If I’m not mistaken, there’s tap fees included, just the tap fees alone would cover the year’s cost and an adjustment to that would need to be made at some point. I would say that the contingency is if they do divide up lots, there is initial fees that do offset the cost of a year’s revenue.” “It’s the other 23 years on the note you’re going to have an issue with,” said Murphy. Trustee Diane Bruce spoke up, noting, “the bottom line is, we were going to have to do this – update the rate structure and renovate the [WWTP] facility -either way.” Hearing no further comments, Mayor Roberts closed the public hearing at 5:12 p.m. Before Mayor Roberts turned the matter over to the Trustees to vote, Danielle Worthen asked to make additional comments regarding the sewer rate structure. Worthen read a prepared statement, saying, “While the current Board of Trustees makes the extremely difficult decision to restructure the sewer rate, I’m asking you to please consider the following: please keep in mind that it is not the residential or commercial customer’s fault that the Town of Lake City failed to be proactive to fund depreciation for the now-needed upgrades at the Wastewater Treatment Plant. In my opinion, gradual sewer rate increases over the past 10 years would have been more equitable and affordable for sewer customers within the rate structure. However, that did not occur and is the reason we are all now facing today’s situation. With the proposed 2025 sewer rate structure for the industrial RV parks classification, resulting in the highest rate increase due to strength of waste being produced by those properties, I personally don’t believe those owners will be able to financially sustain their RV park tourist-based businesses and may be forced to either change to an alternate use for their properties or even list their properties for sale, marketing to a potential investor as an alternate use rather than an RV park. The current three RV parks are within the Town of Lake City Ordinance section 2311 MHR, Mobile Home Residential zone. As stated in the ordinance, the MHR district is intended to provide a suitable environment for conventional residences, mobile homes and travel home parks. It is designed to allow variable

December 19, 2024 No Comments

Dear community

Thank you for coming out on Saturday and supporting Toys for Tots at the Sweets Auction and through your donations. We’d like to thank Peggy Bales, Karen Shaw, Allison Athey, Susan Cardin, Michael Murphy, Judy Warren, Kristie Borchers, Cindy Rae, Sarah DeCristino, Beth Kendall, Linda Downs, Chillin’, Packers Saloon & Cannibal Grill, Susan Heumann, Karen Hurd, Lynn McNitt, Mary Nettleton, and the baker of the Eggnog Logs for your donations! The auction raised $748 plus donations of $610 for a grand total of $1,358. Thanks to the Museum for providing the space.Happy holidays. Respectfully,Commissioners Borchers, Levine & Hurd, Lynn McNitt, and Bobbi McDonald, Sheriff’s Office

December 12, 2024 No Comments

Town Staff Hard at Work Finalizing Sewer Rate Schedule, 2025 Town Budget

During the December 4 Town of Lake City Board of Trustees meeting, Trustees and Mayor Dave Roberts reviewed and discussed the nearly finalized recommendations of Lake City’s sewer rate structure from the Rural Community Advocacy Corporation (RCAC), a non-profit organization that partners with underserved rural communities of less than 50,000 to assist with environmental infrastructure projects. For some time now, town staff has been considering increasing sewer rates and adopting a new sewer rate structure for a variety of reasons, due mainly, according to Town Manager Lex Mulhall, to the increased debt service incurred from the $3- million loan needed to renovate the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), which will require a payment of $187,402 per year for 20 years. In addition, operating costs have been steadily on the rise, with infrastructure that desperately needs to be updated, requiring capital reserves are adequately funded. The new rate structure proposed by RCAC is intended to justifiably and equitably distribute the cost of the new WWTP based on the strength of waste produced by users and its impact on the operation of the WWTP. The rate schedule trustees were presented with at the December 4 meeting had preliminary numbers, explained Mulhall, with updated information to be presented at the special budget meeting December 11, and finalized numbers to be reviewed and hopefully ready to be approved at the next regular meeting December 18. The schedule, which will be published once finalized and can be viewed at Town office, breaks down sewer categories beginning with single family residential (SFR), through different categories of commercial and industrial accounts, delineating the 2024 rates, the RCAC recommended rates, projected 2025 sewer revenues and excess usage fees per 1000 gallons. The rate schedule also indicates different strengths of waste, which is a measure of the concentration of contaminants in wastewater. The most common way to measure wastewater strength is through biological oxygen demand (BOD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN – the sum of ammonia and organic nitrogen), and the presence and quantity of Ammonia (NH3). Wastewater with higher BOD, TSS, NH3, and TKN levels requires more treatment. TKN is the limiting factor for the WWTP and according to RCAC, it costs the Town $32 to treat 1lb of TKN in the summer months when RV parks are operating…… There’s more to the story….. Want the rest of the story? Subscribe to the Lake City Silver World today!

December 12, 2024 No Comments

Monday, November 18, marked a somber anniversary in Lake City as local residents quietly observed the 30th anniversary of the death of Hinsdale County Sheriff Roger Coursey.

Sheriff Coursey, 44, and his Undersheriff, Ray Blaum, were on Highway 149 near the Packer Massacre Site at the base of Slumgullion Pass early Friday morning, November 18, 1994, when they halted a pickup with a man and woman suspected in a series of burglaries which had occurred hours before in Creede. After stopping the pickup, Sheriff Coursey was standing beside the vehicle when he was fatally shot with a .44-caliber Regur pistol. The vehicle’s occupants, driver Mark Allen Vredenburg, and his companion, Ruth N. Slater, then fled the scene, Undersheriff Blaum firing several bullets through the tailgate of the pickup. An intense search for the suspects followed the Sheriff’s murder, although it wasn’t until several weeks later, December 17, 1994, that the bodies of Slater and Vredenburg — an apparent murder/suicide — were found beneath a tree overlooking Lake City Heights Subdivision. Among those with heartfelt memories of Sheriff Coursey’s death is Ray Blaum, now a resident of Norfolk, Virginia, who was in Lake City with his son, Tim Blaum, for Monday’s anniversary. Jerry Gray shares the above photo of father and son Blaum who are posed beside a memorial near where Sheriff Coursey died. In addition to flowers, attached to the white cross memorial is an enclosed sign-in sheet for those visiting the site, signers including law enforcement officers from throughout the U.S. who leave their names with badge numbers.

November 21, 2024 No Comments

Town Awarded Energy Impact Fund Grant for Affordable Housing Project

Town of Lake City has been awarded a Tier Two Energy Impact Fund Grant in the amount of $315,000.00 that will be used to forward progress of the Town’s affordable housing project. Town Manager Lex Mulhall traveled in October to Wray, Colorado where he gave a presentation to the State Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance Fund Advisory Committee, detailing Lake City’s desperate need for affordable housing. Earlier this week, Mulhall reports to WORLD, he received word from the Committee that the grant was approved with a $35,000 match from Town of Lake City. This money will be used for design, engineering and architecture of a 28-unit structure to be erected on the lots adjacent to the Medical Center. A Request for Proposals for completion of this work will go public in January 2025.

November 21, 2024 No Comments

Editor,

I would like to say thanks to the many people who helped Hinsdale County in our Request to the FCC in Washington DC.From the 2013 Mandate that required the entire nation to go to “narrow banding”or more clearly “lower power transmissions”on our VHF radio system, this mandate affected Hinsdale in a very negative way. Many areas in our very remote county that had some radio receive and transmit areas were totally lost from VHF communication. After two years of working on getting a variance from this mandate, Hinsdale County is happy to report we have been given a variance from this harmful mandate by the FCC.I would like to say thanks to the following individuals for the help and support they did on our behalf: Dale Meyers, DigiCom Electronics, Congress Woman Lauren Boebert and her staff in Washington DC, Mike Murphy of Lake City who somehow found a plane to take the congresswoman to Hill 71 and fly over our main VHF radio system, in the process showing her how important this system is to our small remote county.And of course Sandy Hines, our always capable County Administrator for all the emails and other correspondence to our surrounding government agencies to ask for their support of our receiving the variance.And lastly, but so important, the support of my fellow Hinsdale County Commissioners to see our request through even with many setbacks.Take care all,Robert HurdHinsdale County Commissioner, District 3

November 15, 2024 No Comments

Valor, Sacrifices of Veterans Cited at Armory Ceremony…

Patriotic emotions ran high during the 90-minute-long Veterans’ Day service hosted by Hinsdale County which was held in the Armory on Monday morning, November 11. Unlike previous Veterans’ Day ceremonies which are held before a standing crowd in Veterans’ Park adjacent to Hinsdale County Courthouse, last week’s 8” heavy snow accumulation prompted a welcome move to the seated and warm comfort of the Armory with Presentation of the Colors led by Russ Brown and sharply suited Flag Bearers Ben Redler, Dennis Cavit, and Doug Franz, and both opening and closing remarks by the county’s new Veterans’ Service Officer, Mike Harrington. Before an attentive and applauding seated audience, Harrington recited the fact that approximately two percent of the U.S. population served in the U.S. Armed Services. Harrington asking those attending “to look to your left and right” and express thanks to fellow residents in the audience who are Veterans. Harrington repeated the request at the ceremony’s conclusion, asking everyone to express thanks to Veterans “for the freedoms they provided us.” Harrington, himself retired Army/SFC, drew applause in presenting a commemorative plaque, congratulatory card from Hinsdale County, and bouquet of fresh roses from the county’s Veterans to retired Hinsdale County Veterans Service Office Erin Cavit who served as the county’s Veterans’ Service Officer from 2015 to 2024. Emotional high points during Monday morning’s ceremony were a keynote address by retired Hinsdale County Judge Al Lutz, a U.S. Army Veteran of the Vietnam War, U.S. Air Force Veteran Don Farmer leading the audience in singing the National Anthem, and Russ Brown reciting his poem, “Veterans’ Day Remembrance”. Brown, Vietnam Combat Veteran, recalled multi-generational patriotism by his family starting with his father, Lt. Col. Russ Brown, Sr., who was a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot who survived after being shot down in Germany during World War II; Brown family patriotism is also evident with eldest son, Lake City resident Russ Brown who completed two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army as helicopter pilot, and Russ’ two brothers, Charles Brown, C-5 Galaxy Pilot, and Jeff Brown, an Air Force F-15 pilot. In his address — and with Lake City Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts standing at attention before the audience — Army Veteran Al Lutz began his remarks by quoting From George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the author Claudia Pemberton. Lutz also quoted from the songwriters Lee Greenwood and Bob Dylan in expressing his sincere appreciation and requesting ongoing compassion and recognition for fellow Veterans and their families. The importance of support, he said, “is immeasurable, including “families, medical folks, caregivers, and organizations that support Vets.” Audience members in the Armory sat straight in their chair, some obviously misty-eyed, as Lutz recounted challenges faced by the nation’s Veterans including unemployment. PTSD, homelessness, drug addiction and other debilitating mental and physical health issues. Lutz ended his remarks to applause, quoting from an unknown author, “Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it… it flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.” Equally moving was a concluding prayer by Rev. Jason Santos of Community Presbyterian Church for Veterans “still living with lingering memories of their service” and their families, ending with a plea to “uplift their spirits.” Also concluding at Monday’s ceremony was a salute to the late songwriter Toby Keith for patriotism which included 18 USO tours and songs including the memorable “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue, “ together with syncopated audience foot tapping to a taped recording of Keith singing “Angry American”. As a final recognition to Veterans attending the ceremony, Lake City Girl Scouts under the direction of Eliza Loper and Holly Shepherd mingled among the departing audience distributing personalized thank-you letters.

November 14, 2024 No Comments

Veterans Day -Observance Nov. 11

Hinsdale County’s annual Veterans’ Day observance takes place in the Town of Lake City Armory starting 11 a.m. next Monday, November 11. Presentation of Colors by flagbearers Ben Redler, Dennis Cavit and Doug Franz begins the ceremony, after which Veterans Service Officer Mike Harrington will make opening remarks and Air Force Veteran Don Farmer will sing the National Anthem. Guest speaker of the day will be U.S. Army Veteran and former Hinsdale County Judge Al Lutz, whose speech is titled “Reflections of a Vietnam Veteran.” U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer, Retired, Russ Brown will recite his poem, “Veterans’ Day Remembrance”. Concluding elements of Monday morning’s service are a prayer for Veterans and their families by Rev. Jason Santos of Community Presbyterian Church. New this year will be a salute to singer Toby Keith, and his song ‘Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue’ will be played, after which the Color Guard will retire. Harrington tells WORLD that a free meal will be provided to every veteran at either Sportsman’s BBQ, Beny’s Mexican Cafe or Packer Saloon and Grill, for either lunch or dinner, and anyone accompanying dining veterans will enjoy half-off pricing for their meal.

November 7, 2024 No Comments

Undersheriff Starnes, Commissioner Levine Elected Amid Heavy 88% Voter Turnout…

Hinsdale County voters in record droves maintained the status quo on Tuesday as they handily returned two incumbent County Commissioners to successive four-year terms, and affirmed Undersheriff Denim Starnes who was elected to a four-year term as Hinsdale County Sheriff, the 38th sheriff in the county’s 150-year history. Again, indicating voter satisfaction with the current slate of the county’s elected officers, Hinsdale County Coroner Lori Lawrence, running unopposed, received 479 votes, the highest vote tally of any candidate in this year’s General Election. Hinsdale County Clerk & Recorder Joan Roberts credited “smooth and efficient” work on the part of her staff, Deputy County Clerk Allison Athey and election judges, for a speedy turn around which allowed election results to be checked and double checked, with formal announcement of election results prior to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday. At poll closing at 7 p.m. on a cold and snowing election evening Tuesday, the clerk’s office reported a tremendous 88 percent return of the 692 ballots which were mailed to registered voters last month. Of the 692 ballots sent to the county’s voters, 608 ballots were returned either by mail, hand delivery to the clerk’s office, or drop off in the county courthouse outside ballot box prior to Tuesday evening’s deadline. Election judges Alice Attaway, Karen McClatchie, Peggy Bales, Lorie Stewart, and Kathleen Whinnery Murphy smoothly processed this year’s ballots, reporting no provisional ballots which were left uncounted. In the county’s two tightest, contested election races, Unaffiliated incumbent District 1 Commissioner Greg Levine garnered a total of 343 votes county-wide compared to his Republican rival, Steve Ryals, who received 245 votes. Incumbent District 3 County Commissioner Robert Hurd, a Republican, was unopposed in his quest for re-election and received 443 votes, second highest vote tally among local candidates in Tuesday’s election. A second contested local election was for Hinsdale County Sheriff with an unprecedented three candidates who were vying to fill the vacancy resulting from last summer’s resignation of Chris Kambish. Since Kambish’s June, 2024, departure, the role of Hinsdale County Sheriff has been filled by former Sheriff Ron Bruce who was drafted to fill the position with the stated intent of once again retiring from office after the new sheriff is sworn into office on January 8 next year. Top vote recipient in the sheriff’s election was Unaffiliated candidate Denim Starnes, with 343 votes, who is currently Hinsdale County Undersheriff. Starnes was challenged by two candidates, Republican Jordan Kaminski, a former Hinsdale County Undersheriff, who received 186 votes, and a total of 42 votes were tallied for write-In candidate John Thomas Stratton. In other regional election results, traditionally GOP-leaning Hinsdale County awarded a near-identical number of votes to Gunnison County Democrat Kathleen Curry who was vying for the District 58 State Representative seat against Republican Larry Don Suckla. Within the county, Suckla was slightly ahead in Tuesday evening’s tally with 288 votes compared to Curry’s 262; district-wide and according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s cumulative tally Wednesday morning, Suckla was declared the winner with a 52.90 percent vote tally, 26,730, compared to 47.10 percent, 23,795, for Curry. Montrose Republican Marc Catlin was similarly triumphant in the district-wide vote tally for District 5 State Senator, Catlin receiving a total of 41,977 votes, 52.02 percent, compared to 38,718, 47.98 percent, for his Democratic challenger, Cole Buerger. In Hinsdale County in the District 5 State Senate race, Catlin received 336 votes, 216 votes going to Buerger. Predictably Republican leanings were also evident among Hinsdale County voters in the U.S. Presidential race, the Lake City tally after close of polls on Tuesday awarding 329 votes to Donald J. Trump and 252 votes Democratic challenger Kamala Harris. State-wide, as was heavily reported, Colorado voters on whole favored Democrat Harris, 51 percent with 1,374,175, compared to 1,084,812 votes — 43.1 percent — which were awarded to Trump. Other elections of interest include 7th Judicial District Attorney Seth Ryan, an incumbent, who was the sole candidate, receiving 342 Hinsdale County votes. The rub, however, is that Ryan resigned on September 24; state-wide, the 37,727 votes cast for Ryan now go to his replacement, Anna Cooling, who was named by the vacancy committee. The results for state ballot questions are as follows: Amendment G – “shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution concerning the expansion of eligibility for the property tax exemption for veteran’s with a disability to include a veteran who does not have a service- connected disability rated as a one hundred percent permanent disability but does have individual employment status?” State-wide, this measure passed, with 72.45% of voters voting “yes” and 27.55% of voters voting “no.” In Hinsdale County the Amendment G vote was 396 yes, 163 no. Amendment H – shall there be an Amendment to the Colorado Constitution concerning judicial discipline, and in connection therewith, establishing an Independent judicial discipline adjudicative board, setting standards for judicial review of a discipline case, and clarifying when discipline proceedings become public? This measure passed, with 72.74% of Colorado voters voting “yes” and 27.26% of voters voting “no.” Hinsdale County voters: 378 yes, 162 no. Amendment I – shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution concerning creating an exception to the right to bail for cases of murder in the first degree when proof is evident or presumption is great? This measure passed, with 69.39% of voters voting “yes” and 30.61% of voters voting “no”. Hinsdale County: 384 yes, 173 no. Amendment J – shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution removing the ban on same-sex marriage? This measure passed, with 63.78% of voters voting “yes” and 36.22% of voters voting “no.” Hinsdale County: 300 yes, 269 no. Amendment K – shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning the modification of certain deadlines in connection with specified elections? This measure did not pass, with 55.31% of voters voting

November 7, 2024 No Comments

WORLD Receives Five Awards in State Press Competition

Lake City SILVER WORLD has received a total of five awards — four first place and one second place — in Colorado Press Association’s 2023 Better News Contest.Competing among weekly newspaper in Category 4, small weeklies under 2,000 circulation, in writing and design categories which were published in calendar year 2023, the Lake City newspaper was awarded both first and second place honors for Best Series/Sustained Coverage, with a first place award for multiple articles which were written about fiberoptic broadband installation in and around Lake City extending from January through November, 2023, and a second place award for a series of interviews with Continental Divide hikers highlighting motivational insights, personal discovery, and favorite foods which were written for the newspaper by Mia Dougherty.Dougherty, age 13 at the time and granddaughter of Lake City seasonal residents Gary and Kathy Koehn, interviewed and photographed a series of Divide hikers at the Presbyterian Church Hikers’ Center in August 2023.Visiting Colorado Springs journalist Mary Vader received a first-place award in the Best Business News/Feature category for an article which she wrote in January 2023, highlighting positive economic impacts of the town’s ice climbing wall.First place for Late Breaking/Deadline news went to a series of articles in a single issue of the paper written by Grant Houston detailing a February 2023, electric outage which “plunged the town into icy darkness.”In the newspaper layout and design category, Lake City SILVER WORLD garnered a first place Best Page Design Award for a two-page photo collage in February 2023, highlighting “Ice Thrills” at the annual Henson Creek Ice Climbing Festival.

October 18, 2024 No Comments

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