OCTOBER 10, 2023
MINUTES
Mayor Blakley called the First Regular meeting of the Dinosaur Town Council to order at 6:00 p.m. Those present were Mayor Richard A. Blakley, Michael Taylor, Robert Essex, LeRoy Trujillo, and Marshelle Gray by zoom. Absent were Darcie Rocque and Jeremiah Gray.
Mayor Blakey said that he wanted to add to the agenda.
The appointment of Ms. Julie Elarton to the LMD Board, and old business for Mr. Aaron Hayes mini home and change up on Mr. Benny Lujan from a man camp to a camper.
Trustee Essex made a motion to approve the expenditures as presented, seconded by Trustee Taylor. Ayes: 5. Nays: 0. Motion carried.
Trustee Essex made a motion to approve the minutes from September 12th as presented, seconded by Trustee Taylor. Ayes: 5. Nays: 0. Motion carried.
Mayor Blakley said that Mr. Stephen Hinkemeyer has been our representative for the Yampa-White-Green Rivers Basin Round Table. Trustee Taylor made a motion, seconded by Trustee Trujillo, to repoint or support Mr. Hinkemeyer to represent the Town for the Yampa-White-Green River Round Table Committee. Ayes: 4. Nays: 0. Abstain: 1 (R. Essex). Motion carried.
Mayor Blakey said that Ms. Julie Elarton is up for appointment on the LMD Board. Trustee Essex made a motion to repoint Ms. Elarton for the LMD Board, Trustee Taylor seconded. Ayes: 5. Nays: 0. Motion carried.
Mayor Blakley said that the State Electrical Inspector came out and looked at Mr. Benny Lujan’s man camp. He said that he could not okay it, so they will be putting a camper in for them to stay in while they work at their house. Trustee Essex made a motion to let Mr. Lujan bring in a camper to live in while they remodel their house. Ayes: 5. Nays: 0 Motion carried.
Mayor Blakley said Mr. Aaron Hayes has brought in a mini home to attach to his house. He said that he has had a couple of meetings with him. Trustee Essex asked if this is going to be a temporary thing or permanent.
Mr. Elarton said that the town has already said that they are not going to let in tiny homes. He said that he had told Mr. Hayes to bring a sketch in and he would take it to the council. He told Mr. Hayes to make it an addition to the house. And that he would have to put it on a permanent foundation. His sketch has an access hall to the home. He mentioned that Mr. Hayes did not want to talk to the state electrician, he said that he talked to Moon Lake and was going to hook up a cord to the house.
Trustee Essex said that he wants to take care of his mother, he asked if they could give her a temporary permit, or variance for her to live in. He would have to do the electrical. Mr. Elarton said that it needs a sticker on it, and they are out 4-5 months. He said that if they let tiny homes in there are others that want to do this.
Ms. Devonna Wilczek said that they had talked about it a while back, she said that it would take a whole new ordinance. Trustee Taylor said how can you give a variance to one and not others. Mayor Blakley said that the last discussion was that they were not doing this. Mayor Blakley said that they must do things correctly, so that if something happens it cannot come back to the town. Mr. Elarton said that they must have tie downs. And talked about putting pedestal pads in and having everything put in right.
Trustee Taylor said that it needs to be put on a secure foundation and meet codes and must meet electrical inspections.
Ms. Wilczek asked if they are going to make a new ordinance for tiny homes. Mayor Blakley said that it would be part of his house. He said that the house up from him was too small, and they had to put in a foundation and add on an addition to meet the requirements, of 720 square feet. Trustee Essex asked if 720 square feet is an old number now. He said that we are in the 21 centuries, and they are looking more at smaller living spaces for people to live in. Mr. Elarton said that it depends on where you are and the council and the citizens. Trustee Taylor said that it sounds like they need to have some zoning and planning workshops. He said that the initial word was no, an addition is to be supported and tied to the home. He said that a hallway does not constitute an addition to a home. He said that it needs to be part of the frame and structure of the existing home. He said that they should cease and desist until it meets the requirements. He said that if we allow this in, they will have to allow the next ones.
Trustee Essex said that if it is an addition to the house, it will have to have a sticker on it. Mr. Elarton said that it must be inspected but if it is set as a tiny home or man camp it would have to have a Colorado certification. Trustee Essex said that it is a manufactured home since it was brought in on wheels. Mr. Elarton said that it was never certified, it would be like an electrical inspector would do to get an original permit. He said a electrical inspector has a couple of different options. A tiny home would need certification since it is standalone. Trustee Taylor said that if it were an addition to the house it would have to be hard wired not plugged in wired. After some discussion the council tabled until later.
The budget was proposed to the council. Mayor Blakley said that they normally get these and go over them and then set a date for a workshop. He said that it must be done by December 15th. Mr. Jim Evans said that it has been posted on the website with public notice so the public could see it.
Mayor Blakley said that they have released the school so that they can start working on it again. He said that after working with Mr. Ted Lazano and all his help they had come to an agreement on Friday that everything was okay up there. Jeff Wolf, who shut the project down, said that there will have to be certain proof at the site at all times of what has been done.
The OCCT Plan is moving ahead, the tanks have been recoated. And it should be back up and running. Trustee Essex asked what the PCCT plan was. Mayor Blakey said that it is the lead and copper stuff. Trustee Essex said that he wants to talk about that, he asked where are we with the project. Mayor Blakley said that the plans are all submitted to the state. Trustee Essex asked how many parts per million of lead is there in the water system now. Mayor Blakley said that there is none. Mr. Essex asked how many houses have the lead problem. Mayor Blakey said that they are pulling from ten houses now. Trustee Essex asked what kind of chemical is going to be put in the water. Mayor Blakley said that it is phosphate. Trustee Essex asked if the town does not have any lead in the water, but ten houses do. Why is the town responsible for fixing these houses. He said that the state cannot mandate putting in the water system that protects the houses. He said this is not the correct fix for this. He said that it slimes the inside of the pipes to help the house that has the problem. He asked how we know if the chemical can make a mass before it goes down the line. He said that he thinks they are moving in the wrong direction on this because the problem is still there, it just covers it up. He said that the problem is in the houses, and we need to protect our citizens. He said that we need our city attorney to file paperwork to stop the state from forcing us to do this. Mayor Blakley said that he could talk to him. Trustee Essex said that if he doesn’t, he is fired. He said that it is time to find someone new anyway. He said that he has never met the guy in the four years he has been on the council. He said this is our water.
Mr. Dale Long said that right now they pull samples from ten houses, if they do this, they will have to pull samples from every house in town. Trustee Essex said that he would rather do that than put chemicals in every house in town. Trustee Essex said that the mayor has already done a survey, so he knows what plumbing is in every house. He said that they can identify on paper the houses that need to be addressed first, he said that every house does not need to be addressed. He said that he is trying to get the lawyer to put a heal in this for a while until they see what the next process is going to be. Trustee Taylor asked what the first step is in this. Trustee Essex said that they are out of compliance already. He said that we need to have the attorney file paperwork to let the state know that we do not want to do this project, he said that we want to find another solution. He said that we need to fix the houses with the deficiencies, which there are not that many.
Trustee Essex asked Mayor Blakley what the cost of this is to get the equipment installed. He said that the money that we are spending to draw this up could be going toward fixing people’s houses up.
Mayor Blakey said that they are looking into grants. He said that they are moving ahead with the plan so that we do not get fined. Trustee Essex said that he likes the town’s water the way it is, and putting chemicals in it for a portion of the town’s problem is not the solution. Trustee Taylor asked what they are going to do with the citizens that are out of compliance. Trustee Essex said that the parts per million are not a threat. He asked what the standard is. Mayor Blakley said .015per billion. Trustee Essex asked what the highest part is per billion that they have had in a house. Mayor Blakey said that they got a high reading off a rental house. Trustee Taylor asked how long the water runs before taking a sample. Mayor Blakey said that you use and flush the water the night before, let it set for six hours, usually it is low. He said that it is from the first draw in the morning. Trustee Essex said that it is a leach thing from the individual’s pipes, not city water. Mr. Long asked how many cast iron pipes are still being used in town. Mayor Blakley said that there are 6-8 cast iron mains in the alleys. Trustee Essex said that is not the political source of lead. Mr. Long said yes, any metal pipe is. It was asked what the joints are sealed with. Trustee Essex said that the mayor knows all the lines in town because he surveyed everyone in town. So, he knows the potential source of the contamination. He said that we can draw samples from those houses and see what it would take to fix them. He said that it could be a simple fix. Mr. Long said that he doesn’t see how the state can make us test if we comply. Mayor Blakley said that we must do this because we had two hits on lead. He said that the second hit in six months put us where we had to do the OCC injection. Trustee Taylor said that he does not want to condemn anyone house. Trustee Essex said that they cannot condemn a house, he said if there is lead lines in a house the individual would have to disclose that if they sell their home.
Trustee Essex said that he made a motion for the town attorney to move on this with the state. Trustee Taylor seconded that he explores it as an option. Ayes: 5. Nays: 0. Motion carried.
Mayor Blakley said that he had an answer for Ms. Sarah Jones on the hydrant. He said that he got with the engineer, and he searched all the blueprints through the early 60’s to now and there was never a fire hydrant on 4th Street. Ms. Jones said thank you.
Mr. Derek McCarty asked Deputy Marshal Monty English who hired him. Mr. English said that Mr. Elarton hired him. He they asked who he works for. Mr. English said the Town of Dinosaur. Mr. McCarty said to the people. He then asked who hired Mr. Elarton. Mayor Blakley said it was the previous council. Trustee Essex said that he was hired by the prior board. Mr. Elarton said that then the council would reappoint them.
Mr. McCarty said that he had spent a ½ hour working with Mr. Ed Sands today. And has worked for 20 minutes with two different representatives with the District Attorney Office.
He said that the point in calling Mr. Sands is that he is going to prepare a CRS 24-10-109, file a lawsuit against the law enforcement and each individual council member. He said that he is excluding Mr. Blakley.
Mr. McCarty said that he came here 20-25 years ago, and Tamara and Richard have held this place together for years. He said that Mr. Jim Evans is a good person. He mentioned that DJ is a good kid, but he feels sorry for him working for these guys. Mr. McCarty said that they have allowed many people to be victimized.
Mayor Blakley said that he is shutting Mr. McCarty down since he is threatening a lawsuit.
Ms. Beata Jozefowicz had comments. Mayor Blakey told her that she could not talk since they are threating lawsuits. Mr. Jozefowicz said that she is not threatening a lawsuit. Trustee Essex said that they live in the same house. Ms. Jozefowicz said that she has lived here for nine years. She said that she had complained about her garden being destroyed and Marshal Elarton wrote down a false report saying that her garden was doing great. There were no pictures which she had of her burnt vegetables. She notified the Moffat court and showed Judge Gardner her garden.
Ms. Jozefowicz said that they reported to Marshal Elarton that they had been stalked, recorded, and chased for so many years and nothing had been done.
After a comment there was a big verbal outbreak, things became inaudible.
Trustee Essex made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Trustee Taylor to adjourn the meeting at 7:05 all were in favor.
TOWN OF DINOSAUR
____________________________
Richard A. Blakley, mayor
ATTEST:
________________________________
Tamara Long, Town Clerk