All right, commissioners, are you ready? Yes, thanks. And we
are recording. Good morning. Still, today is December 14, 2023.
This is a meeting of the board of county. Commissioners
of Boulder county. We have all three commissioners present, and
we are here this morning for our monthly update from.
Our head start division. We're joined. By the head start
leadership. Modeling, a co leadership model. Demonstrating a co leadership
model. Let's say that better. So thank you for joining
us. This morning. We have 30 minutes set aside for
this and please take it away. Perfect. Thank you. Good
morning. Alex Linder, family services manager with Boulder county head
start. We'll start off with policy council updates. We have
ten members, which we're so excited about. We voted in
our policy. Council chair, co chair, secretary and. Treasurer. We
went over Robert's rules of order, of how to conduct
a meeting we reviewed with them the timeline for approving
our Boulder county head starts policies and procedures. We've also
reviewed the deficiency non compliance and under enrollment notices that
we've reviewed. With you ladies as well. And our upcoming
FA two monitoring review. Let's pause and see if there
are any questions on this before we move forward. No.
Questions. No questions. Thank you. And just maybe one from
me here. On the review of the deficiency non compliance
and under enrollment notices. With the policy council. Just kind
of wondering what kind of feedback you got from them
on that. If any. There was. They had a lot
of feelings about it. Understandably. They want to drop off
their children. They want to make sure that their children
are safe. Our policy council chair wrote. A very powerful
letter to our teachers that we went ahead and shared
with all of our staff. At head start. Okay, great.
Anything else you'd want to elaborate on that, the nature
of the comments? What I loved about. The process is
that they really want to be a voice for parents,
and they really want to connect not just with leadership,
but with teachers as well. So they're looking at different
ways. To integrate into the program, to be able to
do that, to bring that parent lens in the day
to day activities for head start. Great. That's exactly what
we would want the policy council to do. So I'm
glad to hear that. Thank you. The notices are very
important to us. They're very serious. And the other part
of the letter was that we want to do this
together, that teamwork. Is very important to them as a
counsel. And they were very supportive of the team at
the same time. As just saying how important the program
is to them as a family and community. It was
very well written letter that both supportive and very serious.
Great. Thanks. Okay, then I think we can move on
to the meal service report. All right. Stacey. Fuchietta. Education
services manager. So for November. Okay. October. That's right. So
our total meals delivered was 6257. Served was 3886. And
our invoice for October was $16,970. And our CACFP reimbursement
was $12,468.38 and our cost for meals was $4,501.67.
The student meals are covered by CACFP with any difference
in reimbursement due to student absences from the classroom, and
I just kind of also wanted to add that. I
am still trying to work with different people with pig
farms or their own personal pigs to see if we
can try to do something with all the leftover food
that we're accumulating. And seeing if we can just donate
it that way so we don't have to just. Be
throwing it all away. Our food waste. Yeah. Great. Thanks.
Do you need any contacts in that? Space. There are
a couple of farms we work with often. Yes. Okay.
The ones I found a little bit. Are kind of
around boulder a little bit more picky about the food
that they're giving their pegs. But yeah, they are. All
of them that we work with actually do work really
hard to make sure that they have certain standards for
the food that the pigs are getting, so let's connect
off. Definitely. There might be another option. Perfect. Thank you.
Yeah. Composting or. There are a couple of other options.
Thank you. That was my question when I saw the
numbers there. So I appreciate that update on a question
that I've been asking for a few years. I'd also
met with ecocycle. Natima. A couple of folks from their
board earlier this year who were interested in looking at
this particular issue with us in partnership. So if there
hasn't been a connection made there, I'd. Be happy to
try and bring that conversation together and see if they
could be a partner. That could. Move us forward in
this space. Thank you. I'm also doing number three. So
we're talking about enrollment and attendance. We had 19 school
days in October. The overall program attendance was 87%. Dagney
had 86% Woodland 89 Sunflower 86 and via Latar new
site at 87%. So we did pretty well in October.
Any questions on the enrollment and attendance? No questions. None
here either. Thank you. As elites have heard in the
past, we did open our new school here in Boulder.
Avioleta. Site, and that has increased our numbers. We're currently
at 112, with about four enrollments that are pending, most
likely. Won't start this year, but we'll start in January
when we come back from winter break, so 116. We
haven't been at that number for a few years, so
we're very excited to continue to find children and to
enroll them in our program. There's the graphic that goes
with that. That's just the graphic that goes around. Along
with those numbers. Enrollment numbers. And then the monthly budget.
That our fiscal officer projects through to the end of
our fiscal year, which is the June 2024. And these
numbers are constantly moving. They're sort of working numbers. As
we bring in more funding from CCAP applications. And my
understanding we have about eight applications pending from CCAP. So
these numbers will shift and change again. And a lot
of those numbers. Are pending. Applications are from the Violeta
school that we opened. We were waiting for a license.
Number. Now that we have the license number, we can
submit applications. Along attached to that license number. And so
the children that are enrolled there. Those are the pending
applications, and so we'll see these numbers shift again. I'm
sorry to interrupt. You remind me where the violet. Violeta
program is sure it's close to here. The property line
is attached. To the flat irons elementary school. Up behind
Uni Hill. There's Uni Hill in Flatirons elementary School. It's
back there on the hill. Okay. You're welcome to come
and visit if you would like. Okay. And then the
last section here that I would just like to update
you all on is. The ongoing monitoring and partnership that
we have. And monthly meetings we have not only with
you, but the policy council, and then weekly meetings with
the regional office. The regional office team. They came to
observe and provided feedback to our teaching teams. On November
1. And our staff are busy implementing that feedback. Into
their classroom practices. And then they will actually come back
next week on December 19, we'll have a meeting. I
think it's with Commissioner Saltzman in attendance as well to
meet with that regional. Team. And this is more related
to the discipline deficiency. I'll scroll down just so that
I make sure that I'm giving you all. The information.
So that discipline deficiency had a 120 day correction, corrective
action period. We came to the close. Of that period
on December 11, and I submitted the quality improvement plan
along with its supporting documents. The visit next week. Is
standard where they come and do interviews. They interview staff,
they come and meet with you. To talk about. The
strategies that we used and get feedback from our staff
on how things are going so that will happen next
week. The second notice is the active supervision corrective action
plan. We requested an extension for that. Corrective? Action period,
which was granted. And so now we have an extension
through April 16. In part from their November 1 feedback
report. They just advised us to take a little bit
more time. Working with those strategies to show correction, and
so we did that. And then as part of. Their
recommendation for a strategy on the active supervision. They've suggested
we visit. Do some visits. Site visits on exemplar programs
that have kind of come through the same challenges that
we are facing as a program, but also transitional leadership
at the same time. So they've identified three programs. In
Montana and Colorado and South Dakota that had notices themselves,
had new leadership and successfully came through. Those challenges and
are actually seen as exemplar programs now. So we had
a first initial meeting yesterday with our leadership team to
discuss the possibility of sending some teams out. And just
throwing it out to who in our team might. Be.
Great representatives of our program from all different component areas
of our program to go and conduct those observations. Anywhere.
We're in the beginning stages of discussing that. I'll pause
there because that's more related to. The two specific notices,
discipline and active supervision and CPO questions. There. I don't
have questions, thank you. No, I don't either, but I'm.
Very pleased I was out of town that Commissioner Stolman
is going to be attending that. Meeting. On Monday as
our representative. Alex is just reminding me that during our
policy council meeting on Monday, There were some parents who
were on the council that were also interested in participating
in those site. Observations. So to have that kind of
interest in engagement. Was really. Positive part of the meeting.
And consideration were you trying to fix? Okay. Great opportunity.
Yeah. So then the third notice we received is the
full enrollment enrollment initiative, and that has a one. Year
corrective action period. And so they check in with us,
the office of head start after six months, so we
do have a meeting scheduled for. January. Which. Our staff
will attend, and we'll just be talking about those strategies.
I know, commissioner, you've asked before about what are our
new strategies. That we've implemented in that ongoing conversation is
happening as well. With the office of head start. That
meeting. Check in meeting is January 16. We are feeling
positive about the slow but uptick. In enrollments. We need
to get to 129 by the end of the corrective
action period, and so. We are hopeful and working very
hard. Alex's team working really hard to meet that number.
Really quick on that piece. Sure. So that's 17 additional
thoughts. Is that the right. We have 112 now and
we need to be at 129. Yes, that's correct. And
that would be during the first. Quarter. I mean the
spring semester. Do you all feel like that's before feasible?
I was thinking. That April 16. Deadline or date I
can't scroll on your screen? I want to clarify. We
need to meet that number. That's our 97% of 134
slots that we are allotted, but they don't. Actually start
the clock on that until September. 2024. So even though.
We have to meet that number. They're not officially going
to start counting that number until September 2024, so we're
working towards that, okay? And that begs a different question,
because at the end of a school year, then you're
going to have attrition no matter. Either way. Yes, I
know it's not. A clean count. We do have that.
Four year olds moving on to kindergarten. We lose those
four year olds, we have to recover those numbers. And
then bring in new students, okay? I'll be interested just
to hear. And I'm sure you'll bring that. To us.
And I know we talked about previously, and I know
you were working on some different strategies about outreach and
bringing folks in. So I think the piece is going
to be that for all of the facilities, right? It's.
Easy to focus on. One that has the number. Just
because of the way that all your facilities are working,
it's going to be really important to be putting all
that work for each of them. Yeah. One of the
strategies, just to be more specific. Was. They were asking
us to survey parents and have conversations with parents around
transportation and what are the transportation barriers. Is it a
transportation, a barrier to enroll? Or is it that families
are disenrolling? Because of transportation? Is it between cities? A
transportation issue between Lafaya and Boulder, or is it a
family that lives in Boulder? And is having difficulty getting
to a boulder site or vice versa. So that's one
strategy. To understand more our population. And to have those
conversations with families. About. A specific transportation issue. That's one
strategy that we are incorporating into the plan. Great. Thank
you. I think I had maybe two follow ups or
questions or comments about that specific issue. One is. I
think we've talked about this before. But. Do you work
closely with our housing authority, Boulder County Housing Authority and
BHP. And. Very closely with Boulder housing partners. With county
Boulder County Housing Authority as well. We work very closely
with Sister Carmen. We also work closely with early intervention
team. Child protective services. What we do in January is
really ramp up our outreach as far as doing community
presentations to different community partners, and we also attend different
events that come up, and we're invited to. We were
out there in the community, definitely talking about the program.
Great. Thanks for that. And then the other. The second
question is whether that target enrollment number is that an
average. Of throughout the year. Because people do come in
and out of the program. How do they measure whether
you're actually meeting that minimum requirement. Number. With the public
k through twelve School Finance act count. There is. A
day. When they do the count. We do get drops
throughout the year, but those slots don't become. A vacancy
until 30 days after they've dropped, so we have some
time to fill. They won't look at cumulative numbers, unfortunately.
They will definitely look at a point in time. And.
What they want to see for those six months is
that we are at 129. Yes, average in theory. But
we can't really count those that are leaving after 30
days. And we submit those officially through their HSes system.
So there's a tab there about. Enrollments, and we have
to submit monthly numbers. And those are the numbers they're
looking at and they'll look over a period of time.
Okay, so it sounds like. They do sort of average
it over a period. Okay, thanks. I also wanted to
just bring in the policy council again in our last
meeting where the parents voiced, how they came to our
program, how they found it, and then. An interesting. Piece
of data that one family mentioned was that. They assumed
that they didn't qualify. And it wasn't until they actually
met with actually, Alex, to learn that there are. Different
categories of eligibility, and then they found that they were
eligible and are now enrolled in our program but. That
was good information for us. To learn the parent perception
prior to them actually coming to talk to us. That
we can work with. In our strategies. Okay. Are we
running over now? Okay. On December 6, I'm going to
move on to the policies and procedures. December 6, there
was a pmi meeting. Where? We brought. Our plan. Of
having our new policies and procedures approved. And I believe
that was brought before the business meeting on the twelveth.
And that plan was approved, which I also submitted to
the office of Head start, so thank you for approval
on that. And we will continue. To draft and get
approval on the policies through July 2024 for our program.
So we will be in touch monthly on that with
all of you. And then we still have not received
our federal monitoring review notice. However, if it is received
this week. We can anticipate. The team to be here
on January 29. We are on a weekly wait and
see sort of schedule, so we will just keep you
all updated. As part of. The FA two process. There
is also a companion process that is happening, and that's
called the class reviews. And that is an assessment tool
for high quality programs. And so the office of head
start will be conducting virtual. Video gathering of 1 hour
observation videos for each of our classrooms and assessing each
of our classrooms. For quality. And that period of time
is January and February. Is that correct? Stacy? January and
February. We have to submit seven 1 hour videos to
the office of head start, and then we'll receive. The
reports back after their review. So that's everything that's happening
for our program right now. Great. Thank you. I just
have a quick question on the class reviews. Is that
an additional practice? That's just. Part of nation head start
or is that connected? To. The disciplinary deficiency or anything
like that? No, that's standard. That's standard for all. Programs,
all head start programs. They do that? Is it annually?
Is it annual? No, I don't know. Actually. I don't
think we've gone through a federal one in a few
years. We usually just do them ourselves, but this is
the first time. That I've been here, that we've had
a federal one. Okay. Yeah, I don't remember hearing about
the federal class review, so I just wanted to make
sure that understanding of reason why it was being requested.
Yes. It's not tied to that. And just for awareness,
the class tool is something that the boulder Valley school
District uses as well. It's something that we've used in
the past, like Stacy was saying, internally, as a measure
of quality. And now this is something. That. I think
it is tied to the FA two review, which is
why we haven't had one in five years. It's a
five year cycle. Okay. Thank you. I don't think we
have any other questions. Is there anything else you want
to share? With us before we adjourn the meeting extravaganza.
You are all welcome to come and join us for
gift wrapping. On Saturday at our winter extravaganza. It'll be
from nine to three at our Dagney site in Lafayette,
and I am bringing 300 tamales. Extravaganza is the purpose.
You're the one that created it. So winter extravaganza is
our yearly gift giving event. I won't go into the
whole history of it, but what we do is we
kind of create a shop so parents can come and
actually pick out presents for their children. We have a
gift wrapping area. We have snacks. Claire came last year.
I think she was one of my. Greeters at the
door. So it's just a fun event. We ask that
parents kind of leave their children at home so that
they can also talk. To each other and build community.
It's a fun time. But one day we will talk
about the history of it and why we created it,
the racial equity piece on that. That's tied to the
equity piece that we didn't have. In the report this
month. I apologize. Well, it was a fun time. It
was really fun as a greeter. I wasn't back where
the parents were. Selecting the gifts, but I saw. Their
excitement as they were walking out with what they had
were able to find. For their kids. It was a
good time. And I think some of them did bring
their kids, but they left that. Well, they left them.
In the cookie room. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thanks
for the invitation to the event, and thanks for the
update. Yeah. Okay, well, then we will be in recess
until 01:00. Where when we will reconvene. To hear the
parks and open space, Capitol and stewardship projects.
And we are recording. Good afternoon. Today is December 14,
2023. This is a meeting of the board of county
commissioners of Boulder county. We do have all three commissioners
present, and we are here. For a presentation. On the
parks and open Space 2024 capital and stewardship projects list.
Tina Nielsen is going to lead this off. I understand.
And you'll allow other people to introduce themselves? As they
speak. So, Tina, go ahead. Thank you. Good afternoon. Gina
Nielsen, special projects coordinator with parks and open space. And
we are here, as you said. To. Give you a
quick presentation of our proposed 2024 capital and stewardship projects.
These projects were included in a line item in our
budget request. And we're here today to give you the
details about that. And answer any questions you haven't asked
for your approval of these specific projects. And as you
said, I will kick us off with some introductory slides,
and then I'll. Be handing it over to my colleagues
here whose staff do the actual work. We're going. To
be going through about 45 slides, so we'll try to
keep it moving pretty quickly. And we would appreciate it
if you have any questions, if you hold them till
the end, so. That we can just get through the
material and so on. Okay. I wanted to start off
with some. Just some terminology, because our terminology has evolved
over the. Years. We used to call it our CIP,
or our capital improvements budget. And a couple few years
ago. We started looking at it in a little bit
of a broader way because we have an awful lot.
Of maintenance backlog that is expensive and. Doesn't lend itself
to our operating budgets. The operating budgets can't cover it,
so. We wanted to be more explicit about how we
use these funds. So capital projects are kind of large,
discrete projects that have a beginning and an end. Over
$10,000 examples are trail construction, ecological restoration projects. Stewardship projects.
Are sort of that maintenance backlog. Or it can be
programmatic. Sometimes we have programmatic things. We want to do
that again. Fall outside the parameters of our ability to
do it with our operating budgets. Again, over $10,000 examples.
Would be replacing roofs or parking upgrades. Here is a
chart that just shows a summary. Of the projects by
division, so we have four divisions. Whose staff really do
the heavy lifts on all this, and I do want
to say that this is such a fun thing for
me to do every year, to come before you and
talk about the things that we do because we do
so much. And it's really fun to see it all
in one package like this. And I really just want
to give kudos to all the staff out there who
are on the ground doing the hard work that we
do. So, as you can see, there are 34 projects
divided among four divisions, the AG Resources Division, the recreation
facilities division, resource management and then resource planning. And the
budget line item was about $3.3 million. As you can
see. We have been able to leverage that with over
$7 million in grants and partnerships. So we have one
staff person who's dedicated to looking for grants and finding
those and obviously, she's worth her weight and gold and
doing a great job and helping us find that so?
The total value of this work is over $10 million.
When we select the projects, one of the things that
we do is we look through our strategic planning lenses,
and we have four focus areas, as you can see
here, cultural responsiveness, resilience maintenance, backlog and safety. And so
when the projects are being proposed and being evaluated, We
look at those lenses and this is how they've fallen
out for the 2024. Project list. This slide is the
same information, but it shows how these projects are distributed
across the four divisions. That do those projects. And I
do want to say one note about, you can see
that maintenance backlog is pretty evenly distributed across all four
divisions. Resilience and safety are also distributed across. All four
divisions. Cultural responsiveness. We have projects in both resource management
and resource planning. I just want to make a note
that a lot of the work we do, that is.
Cultural that hits that box. Is programmatic. And would fall
under operating budgets and not under capital and stewardship budgets
quite as much, but we do have four that fall
in this, and we'll be highlighting those as we go.
Through the presentation. So this is my final slide, and
this just shows the distribution of these projects across. The
county, so you can see it's impressive. It's a lot
of work. The color of the dots and the number
of the dots correlate to the divisions and the number
in the spreadsheet that's in your materials, so if you
wanted to go. Back. You could see that. And now
I'm going to turn it over to Mike Foster. To
talk about the ad projects. Good afternoon, commissioners. Mike Foster,
Agriculture Resources Division. Manager. And next slide, please. A couple
of the key themes that I just want to highlight.
Is closer. A couple of the key themes that I
want to highlight. For our capital and stewardship projects, primarily
in 2023 and 2024, is around water efficiency. That is
a really big emphasis for us. The operating budget that
the commissioners approved last month is where we get into
a lot of our soil health efforts and maintenance backlog.
So what you're going to be seeing today from a
stewardship or capital project side is really big. Water efficiency
projects. And with that theme, In 2023, with our cast
funding, we installed three center pivots out at our Henry
Eastleck property complex, and that's to replace flood irrigation. Center
pivots are significantly more efficient use of water than flood
irrigated, and our tenants usually see a higher yield associated
with center pivots rather than flood irrigation. So this is
a really big emphasis for us moving into the next
few years to replace flood irrigation with center pivot. So
you'll see many, many more of these requests over the
next five. Years or so. Next slide, please. For our
2024 projects. This is where we are headed with the
items. And again, big theme. Is center pivots again, replacing
flood irrigation with more efficient use of our water. Next
slide. Here's the map of where those item projects will
occur, primarily on the east side in our irrigated agricultural
lands. Next slide. Our hygiene dairy pipeline. This is really
about making more efficient use of water coming out of
our ditches right now, this particular. Property is receiving about
a 50% water loss because of leaky ditches. And so,
in the spirit of, again, making more efficient use of
our water, making sure that we fully utilize our water
rights. We want to make sure that this is piped
so that the tenant gets the water and it winds
back up in the stream after that tenant is done
with it. Next slide. Please. We are going to be
revegeting our Deberi property for. The last dozen years or
so, it has been overgrazed and overrun with prairie dogs.
This year, that property sat fallow, and we were able
to get the prairie dogs off of that. Property, and
we have seen a significant improvement in the vegetation coming
back. The light green areas on this map are going
to be our focus areas for vegetative work. We're also
going to be installing a bridge. Across the ish ditch
so that we can more easily get from the south
end of the property to the north end of the
property. Next slide, please. And our big center pivot project.
We've got four. Properties where we're collaborating with NRCs and
our tenants to access outside dollars to leverage money that
the county is kicking in. The county typically covers the
underground infrastructure, such as the pipes. And electrical and NRCs
and the tenant cover the above ground infrastructure, such as
the pivot itself and. Any overhead power lines. So this
is going to be a big work for us next
year, and then our last project is reconstruction. Reconstruction of
the good hue ditch. This particular concrete structure is well.
Past its useful life, it is falling apart and in
the spirit of delivering water efficiently to our properties. We
need to rehabilitate this infrastruct. Infrastructure. Turn it over to
Jarrett. Good afternoon, commissioners. Jarrett Roberts, recreation and facilities division
manager. And I'll be walking you through our divisions, projects
from this year and this coming year. So first I
want to talk about some accomplishments this past year, and
this is just a small sampling. As Tina mentioned, there's
a ton of other work that happens, but this will
get us an idea of what we've been up to.
A couple of big highlights at the Annuite trailhead, we
were able to put in a retaining wall, which is
a big step towards us being able to put the
restroom in, which is a project, you'll see. In the
upcoming year. We made a major. Connection along the 104th
street connection, which was a partnership with a couple of
our local municipalities. We had kind of an emergent project
with a replacement of the Nywat trail culvert. Or we
had a culvert that was rusting out and were able
to repair. That so we could keep that regional trail
open. And then, of course, I think you've all heard
about the opening of the Tolland Range Trail, which has
been a multi year project that we were able to
actually do a soft opening this year, and are excited
to open all the way next year. Looking at a
couple more projects, you can kind of see these. There's
some really great before and afters from our building and
historic preservation team of some painting projects on the strode
dickens, as well as major restoration project on the Macintosh
barn. It's hard to see, but. Most of the work
actually happened underneath that barn on the foundation, which was
a historic foundation. And I had never actually been through
this process, but it's quite a process to remove every
piece of rock and then put that all back in
in a structurally sound way that can support such a
large building. While also keeping the historic integrity of the
building intact. So very cool. And then the Raimi roofing
project that's on the bottom left. There was a replacement
of one of our oldest buildings in the county. The
roof on that project, on that building. Looking forward at
this coming year. In 2024, we have nine projects that
I'll talk about totaling three quarters of a million dollars,
roughly. You'll notice there's not a lot of grant funding
here. A lot of this is maintenance work, and we
are looking for grants. And then ways to leverage funding,
but it's sometimes a little bit harder to find than
some of the new shiny stuff. Locations. There's just a
quick overview. You also notice there are two of the
projects that aren't listed on the map, and that's because
they kind of go across the entire system and that
we'll talk about later. Our sign standards and our ADa
upgrades. So our first set of projects I want to
talk about. Is in, I guess, three projects, the first
one being in the Niwat trail legend Ridge area. And
that's a major resurfacing project. So we have this trail.
That the surface has been washed out over the coming
years, and so we're going to reserve, almost a 1.5
miles loop. And we're going to replace this with a
recycled asphalt, which tends to hold up better in some
of the steeper grades that we see. In this area.
There's the Boulder Canyon trail retaining structure. This is a
small but very critical piece of trail. It's actually only
40ft long. But should this wash out, we would have
to close the entire Boulder Canyon trail. So we're. Working
on a retaining wall that would allow this small section
to trail from washing out into the creek. And then
the last project here is the annuite restrooms. We talked
about the retaining. Wall. And there's been a lot of
prep work this year to prepare the trailhead. We're planning
on putting in. The specific type of restroom. It doesn't
match exactly with our other restrooms, but because the limited
space we have with the floodplain. This is the restroom
we felt would fit. Best here and be most resilient.
Our next project is our assigned standards. So we went
through a big process to overhaul our sign. Manual and
come up with standards that we can apply system wide.
As part of this process, we focused on making these
signs universal, so we used a lot of graphics. So
language became less of an issue. And then we also
introduced bilingual signage in many cases. To help support our
entire community to be able to understand and use our
trailheads and trails. So. We plan to have this be
a four to five year process to replace pretty much
every sign in the parks and open space. In our
whole system. We plan on doing about a quarter of
that work in this coming year. And that'll include work
at the Carolyn Homebrew Preserve, Walker Ranch, Twin Lakes, Bald
Mountain, grassy tops, Kerr gardens, Dodd Lake, Cardinal mill and
ag Heritage center. So a lot of signs that we
have to replace in a very short period of time,
but in four or five years. It'll be amazing to
see signage across. The entire system changed. Harney Listoka is
located between Lewisville and La Fayette. The property includes an
active farm, a farm stand, a trail and the Kirk
community garden. This is an old garage that's. Used by
the tenant. It's also a historic structure. It's a cedar
roofing. Cedar roof. And so we replace. These on a
fairly regular basis to maintain the historic integrity while also
making them functional. So this project will look to replace
that roof. And then the last leader projects I want
to tell you about. Or. No, sorry, there's one more
after this, but the last big group of projects is
in the hall ranch area. We have a number of
projects in this area, including replacing the decking on one
of the bridges. This decking is old and weathered and
beyond its life cycle, and so we're expecting to replace
the entire decking. There's a major upgrade to. The access
road that allows our staff and emergency vehicles to access
the area. And lastly, we're going to do some major
trailhead upgrades to bring that trailer up. To our current
standards and help improve some major drainage issues that we've
been seeing. The last project I did want to talk
about is the trailhead and facilities ADA compliance updates. The
county did a countywide look at Ada compliance in many
of the areas and buildings. Parks and open space was
a piece of that. And they looked at our trailheads
and found almost. 1000 violations. Some of these are very
small, moving the height of a handle or something like
that. And others are very big, making sure that the
surfacing in a parking area. Is compliant. So we've taken
these and we've started to devote funds and times. To
working away at that list of about 1000 items, and
we plan to get through about 25%. Of them next
year, which is a pretty big accomplishment, we think. And
with that, I'll pass it off to resource management. All
right. Greetings, commissioners. Stefan Reinford. I'm the resource management division
manager, and we'll go through our resource management. Slide. All
right. So 2023 accomplishments. So we have, one of the
big projects we worked on was the St. Frane Forest
Health Partnership project, phase one, which was a joint project
where work was completed on private lands, open space, and
then also the city along Monmont's button rock. Preserve. And
so we were able to get that project completed just
about a week and a half ago. So that's pretty
good news. One of the neat projects we did was.
A museum master interpretive plan. And the point of our
interpretive plan was. To provide get some guidance in providing
a more inclusive human history. When we interpret our ag
Heritage center, the Ned Mining museum, and we also looked
at the assay. Office. And so a lot of that
has to do with some of the programming we do,
but they also looked at accessibility and how to change
the sites of these locations. And then the third project
we worked on was. Biomass storage for the parks. So
we have a location where. We store log material that
we can then utilize and burn in our biomass facilities
and again ones at our open space complex and ones
at the Boulder county jail. Thanks a lot. And here
is our list of the projects. You can see that.
We also try to get a lot of grants and
take advantage and leverage the money that we use. Next
slide. And again, the geographic reference for where all these
projects are located within the county. Next slide. So the
first project on here is our wheeler ranch russian olive
removal. This property has over 3000 russian olive trees that
are choking out the creek. And keeping the natives out
of the location. And so our goal is to remove
the russian olive over we did portion of this project.
This year in 2023, and then we're looking to continue
that project next year. One of the goals is also
to follow this up. With planting that our plant ecology
staff can do to plant some native tree species along
the creek. Next slide. So our Prescott wetland restoration. This
property. Is off the peak to peak off Bun School
Road. This is. A fen that the previous landowners want
to drain so that they could actually have not have
a wet meadow in that location, and so you can
kind of see that wishbone. Structure that was there, and
that was done by ditching by the previous landowner. And
so our goal is to actually rehab this fen and
this wetland. We had the designs completed last year, and
then we're hoping to do this with some in house.
Funding. Next year. Really good for carbon sequestration this wetland.
And so we're really hoping that we can kind of
fix this up. Next slide. So the next spot is
Sherwood Creek restoration at the conger mine. If you're not
familiar with Sherwood Creek is it's near Caribou Ranch. The
Sherwood property was acquired a little bit later. There's a
section of the creek that actually goes underground and is
kind of covered up. By some of the mine tailings.
And so our goal plan, ecology has had this goal
on their books for a long time to daylight this
creek and so that we can actually get a truly
functioning. Ecosystem in there. And so that's what they're working
on here. We're partnering with the Colorado Division of Reclamation
and Mine Safety. They're putting a lot of dollars towards
this project, and we also are applying for a CWCB
grant to assist. Next slide. In our Carolyn homeburg Preserve
at Rock Creek. Farm management plan. There is an area
that was identified that we wanted to restore to native
perennials. And it's an 80 acre section that we're looking
at, this area. Has had lots of prairie dog damage
and has also had a lot of overgrazing in the
past, and we're really just trying to bring back a
stronger ecosystem that can then be managed appropriately. Next slide.
And then going back to that museum master interpretive plan
while. We are going to be implementing some of the
programming. On the other properties. The assay office. Is only
open one weekend per year during a short time frame.
And it was recommended for an accessibility standpoint to actually.
Do a little bit more interpretation on the outside of
the museum. Provide in the parking lot area, provide some
picnic tables and some areas for people to sit and
just make it a little bit more inviting for those
that are riding their bikes up or driving up and
it's closed. And they're like, what is this place? And
so we're hoping to do that with this project. Next
slide. And then we talked about the St. Vane Forest
Health Partnership briefly. This is kind of beginning to implement
phase two here on our riverside property. And if you
look on the map there, North of the project area.
You can see that the Button Rock Reserve, a Ralph
Price reservoir. And so a lot of this area, if
there were to be a fire, drains down. Into button
rock preserve and into the waterway. Longmont lines drinking water.
So we're trying to do this with the big partnership
there. We're looking at 250 acres of work. And we
have a matching grant that will pay for the other
half of this project. And now to resource planning. Heidi.
All right, great. Thanks, Stefan. Good afternoon. Heidi Wagner, resource
planning division. Manager here to present our work. Some of
the highlights of our 23 accomplishments include the stabilization of
the banks out at Twin Lakes hopefully you've had a
chance to see it. It is open and operational and
people are really enjoying the improvements. Other things of note
were improvements. At the indian mountain area that is used
by our indigenous native vet community, and we wanted to
do a little work out there to support them in
their activities, including a kiosk improvements. To the road and
parking area, which are complete. Additionally, we are at 80%
design for the South St. Rain restoration project. There by
the quarry in hill, too, so we're delighted to see
it as far as long as it is. Next slide.
Resource planning has 13 projects for 2024, so a significant
number and amount because you can see. We have three
projects that have grant matches. That really brings the total
up for resource planning to a little over 8 million.
And like my colleagues, our work is spread throughout the
county. So our project management and design group is handling
five projects this year, in addition to supporting many of
the projects that you've already heard from our other divisions.
Some of the highlights I won't go through each one
of these. Is we are going to be starting work
on our stearns Lake Trailhead. We were able to come
up with. A design. That met the needs out there
and supported our partnership. So. We will be starting those
improvements. And additionally, we are going to be continuing. To
adaptively manage some of our recent stream restorations, including the
one. Done on St. Rain, just north of the parks
building, actually. Next slide. Our planning group has two main
projects that they're leading this year. First, our planning group
leads the indigenous ways and land commitment team, which is
moving towards a new faith in the work. That they
have been doing, and we are dedicating some funds. To
build a web page out for education as well as
hiring a consultant. To. Give us an educator series for
our staff. Additionally, I already mentioned the South St. Rain
Creek restoration at hall two, but we will be needing
a few additional funds to get that designed to 100%
in the hopes that we can get grant money to
start construction in 25. Our cultural resource group has. Two
projects there at the Tucker cabin. As well as. At
cardinal mill. They're going to be installing a lightning strike
prevention system, and Cardinal Mill is there shown the picture
on the top of your screen, and I bet you
can figure out why we might. Need a lightning protection
system on that wonderful historic building. One of our larger.
Requests is $500,000 to start implementation on prairie run open
space, provided that management plan is approved early next year.
We want to do some design, engineering and restoration improvements
out there. And so we have requested that $500,000 to
begin that work. The Howell Ditch diversion and Boulder Creek
restoration project will kick off. The amount from us is
only 61,000, which is fantastic. But you can see the
partnership that we have been building to get that project
done. So originally it came about for the needs to
improve the howled ditch diversion. But in doing so, we
also will be restoring another section of Boulder Creek that
helps continue the restoration that we've been doing. Upstream of
the, we call that the Lower Boulder Creek restoration project.
So we will be doing additional work out there and
starting. Early in 24. And then the Prince Lake Dam
rehabilitation project will also kick off next year, and that's
a great project to ensure that our agricultural water can
continue to be stored as well as provide additional flood
control for the nearby community. I think that might be
my last one. Thank you. All right, so now. It's
our turn. For questions. And just again. To recap. We
did approve in our budget the overall amount. You are
asking for approval of this list of capital improvement and
stewardship projects here, that is. Correct? Yes. Good. The way
we've been doing it for many years. So a little
bit backwards. Well, we just want to make sure we
know why we're here. So. Thanks. Questions? Sure. Yeah, I
do have some questions. Thanks, everybody, for being here. Being
here in person. I have a couple. One logistical question,
because in the packet there are some public comment in
regards to item number eleven. The prairie run. Looks like.
Well, it's page, I think, 13 of the packet that
I have that was for all of our hearings today.
And so I just want to know what that I
think the request maybe was to condition approval. Because there's
a POSAC meeting tonight, coincidentally, but as somebody indicated, that
that item. Won't come to the commissioners until late January.
So that's just a logistical question for me about approving
something potentially here, where we don't have an approval yet
on the project, so that one I would like to
just. Get some guidance. There might be a staff question
of how we might want to address that. Other than
that, questions. On the very first slide, I was curious
what critters. In that photo. I'm guessing it's some type
of owl. But you said wait for questions. I've been
waiting. The other questions that I have is in regards
to. A question that I've brought up over the last
few years. We're looking at. This is tremendous. The work
that parks at open space that you all do your
teams. All of this programming shows a breadth of a
whole lot of different community needs. Interest program goals, I'm
sure work plans that have been in the works and
relationships that have been being built for many, many years
around Boulder County. And my question continues to be, and
I don't see it here, just, I didn't, see it
here in the packet. And didn't hear it yet in
the presentation, so just want to give folks an opportunity.
How are we addressing policy 1.6? In this work, there's
a $3.3 million and plus budget leveraging of $7 million,
which is tremendous. To total spend of about $10.6 million
for this particular. Capital and stewardship project. Section of all
of the budget that we spend and all of the
projects in focus. What I didn't see, I saw in
the presentation, a slide that showed, I think, It's described
as cultural responsiveness. But when I looked to the packet,
I didn't. See that. So I'm curious, and we'll continue
to ask, how are we transforming lives? How? Are we
addressing the needs of communities of color? How might we
be creating more access to folks with disabilities or folks
with lower incomes and folks who just have not gotten
out to see all these beautiful places when I hear
we all know where this particular property is. Or we
all know where this piece is. I'm still going to
just remind us and. Encourage us to think about. There
are 330,000 residents here. We get way more than that.
In visitors, but there are still folks in our community
who have not had the opportunity. For a lot of
different reasons. To appreciate these different projects and different properties.
And learn about even access to it. So I don't
know if you each want to talk about it individually
or somebody wants. To talk about it. Overall, I am
aware there is a crisp plan, so I don't need
to hear about that, but I am interested. In. I
don't see it yet. And I'm concerned. Sure. Thank you
for the question, and we appreciate that. It's definitely something
that we're very much aware of. And. Is being more
and more woven throughout all the work that we do
and. As I did show you, there are those four
lenses of focus areas that we look at. One of
them being the cultural responsiveness. So examples in the cast.
Are. The sign work that we're doing with, including bilingual
signage to help people feel more welcome. When they visit.
Our properties. The indian mountain infrastructure to support the work
that the native american vets are doing with their sweats
and healing ceremonies there so they have a more comfortable
experience. The wetland, or, sorry, the grassland restoration at Rock
Creek Farm. Restoring it to native conditions gives us an
opportunity in the future to do some interpretive work there.
That would speak to the native uses that were there,
and I'm sorry, I'm. Not remembering what the fourth project
was, but maybe one. I'm guessing it's your number six
joint. Pigeon on that, Tina. Sure. So the last project
was the indigenous ways and land. Commitment funds that we
were requesting. That group was, of course, originally formed for
the land. Commitment statement, and they are concluding that work
right now. But. In their journey, they have recognized that
there's so much more to be done, so that $50,000
is seed money for them to pursue. The two paths
that together, along with their consultant, has deemed like the
next best step to support staff. On their educational journey
so we can, in turn. Infuse that into our external
work with the community. So that is the fourth project.
And I think maybe the other thing to point out
in response to this is this is just what goes
through cast a lot of our operational money that we
use regularly in our divisions also. Support different components of
implementing policy 1.6 and so that would be our crisp
team and the work that we're doing. There as well.
As I think we have shared information on indigenous communities
as well, that we're trying. To also advance. And I
also wanted to address the prairie run briefly, if I
could. I do not know the owl. I will have
to ask others. But Prairie run. We did discuss that
and recognize that that. Item is not coming to you
until early next year. January 25 is the hearing date,
and so. I think that it is appropriate to condition
approval. For those funds based on approval of that management
plan. Thank you. Thank you. I'll add just a quick
little bit. So as a part of that museum master
plan, There's a lot that our education and outreach group
will be implementing and trying to kind of change. Some
of the storylines. Traditionally, you walk into our ag heritage
center and it's white history, and it doesn't. Center around
some of the other stories that can be told. I
would love to send you a link of that master
plan because there's some really neat storylines that. The consultant
identified. And so those are some things that our education
and outreach group will be working on. Stefan. I heard
just the Ag center, but I also heard you present
on that assay office just. To clarify. The plan that
was completed last year had the ag heritage center, the
Ned mining museum and the assay office. Okay. And so
there should be a little bit more in the assay
office. But in terms of. How that's going to be
more focused on the outside. To make it more accessible.
So they kind of looked at both. From telling more
inclusive stories, but then also making. These properties a little
bit more accessible and usable. So it's kind of a
dual report. Thank you. I just wanted to add the
other one other project that I think Tina was going
to refer. To as the Ada access. So that would
be a big piece. And then I would also say,
looking at the sign manuals as a pretty good example.
Part of this is working with the community. And I
think through that project, we did a lot of focus
groups, and we brought people in to look at the
signs and interact with them and really. Got feedback from
the community, which made that project, I think, very successful.
And so I think, through all of this process, the
more we can engage and interact with our community, the
more we can get a product that actually benefits the
community. Thank you. And then from an agricultural perspective, we
have overhauled our RFP bid scoring criteria this year, and
we have two properties. That we will be sending out
to bid using that new scoring criteria. So our hope
is that we can attract. New tenants, younger tenants. To
become part of the Boulder county parks and open space
family. And partnerships, so we're really excited about that. We're
also continuing to work. With young farmers and looking for
opportunities to reach out to more diverse communities to engage
them in these conversations to make sure that they have
opportunities and are aware that these opportunities are available. We're
also looking at some acquisitions that could potentially create some
space. For next generation of farmers to start off on
a smaller piece of property rather than starting off with
400, 500 acres, which as a new business might not
be viable for them. But in the ten to 20
acres. That might be their sweet spot as a beginning
farmer. Great. Thank you. And I appreciate everybody's conversation updates.
And I also am still concerned about it. And so
I just want to figure out. Commissioner Levy was here
with me last year, and my ask was I need
to see something different. In a budget because I just
feel really strongly that. Our opportunity as local government is
to respond with funding. It's funding and its policies. There's
all these other ways, but those are the big ones.
As you all are asking your questions, I can do
some math on what you've told. Me, but for me,
signage is something that we started working on a couple
of years ago, so. For me. It's just not innovative.
It's not something new. It doesn't. Show me that parks
and open space. With this $10 million. Is looking at
new ways to. Address. The gaps in racial equity. In
Boulder county with parks and open space. The indian mountain
is the same for me because. It's a project with
history. All we're doing is updating infrastructure, and I. Know
it's work, but it doesn't feel. And if it doesn't
feel, like we're reaching out to another sector of. The
other tribes who have history here in the state of
Colorado and certainly our region specifically. And the grass restoration.
I think that's great. We need to get to a
place where. Native perennials is just part of the way
that parks and Opa space works. We can't say. For
this project, we're going to do native perennials. And so
now we're addressing Native Americans or American Indian, and I'm
just sharing that because that's how I'm receiving it. So
we just need to be aware that other folks in
the community might also receive. What we're as an organization
thinking as great work as this is, the expectation from
folks. And the hopes for folks in all of our
work, besides saying this is an equity project, because of
native grasses. I just want to share that. In encouragement
and also. The same concern. That. I've been hearing, and
I also want to share with this group some conversation
that I had yesterday with our historic preservation advisory board
that I feel like there's an opportunity here. When I
hear that parks and open space properties. Either it's museums
or some of the facilities where we're recreating white settler.
Activities and events and things like that that you were
talking about. Stefan, yesterday was old time baseball. Games and
some of these old practices. And in that narrative, and
I think what's missing in some of this narrative and
presentation or preparation and packets, et cetera, is that historical
narrative of people whose land this was and when. We
talk about land acknowledgment, which is my understanding of the
indigenous ways. Commitment committee. That they started with land acknowledgement.
And what I heard you say as they started, they're.
Working on land commitment, which they are now. But I
also think we need to acknowledge where we've been and
state what the work has been so that we can
see where we're developing or not. And the other piece
that you all know is as the lead from the
county commissioner's office working on how we are going to,
as an organization, move from land acknowledgment. To meaningful action.
I'm concerned about. If we're going to be tapping into
potentially. The same folks for conversation. My understanding of number
six here with that commitment group or committee? Is to
focus internally, which I'm 100% about. You all have heard
me say we need to get our own house in
order before we go out and tell our folks how
to do their work. In all of. These different. Sectors
that you're talking about here and presenting on. And if
we're talking about potentially tribal consultation, That would potentially be
part of that. It's talking about, how do we do
restorative? Practices. How do we look at native plants? For
commissioners and we can have a little bit of conversation
about. It's just something that's. Concerning me about how do
we. I don't want us to get ahead in one
area similar to what we did with office of Racial
Equity and have racial equity managers start in a different
department somewhere else, or we have folks doing different frameworks
or building different frameworks. To do that work. But I
appreciate all the responses and the conversation. This is really
helpful to have a good idea. Of where you all
are working on. Commission, of course, follow up to that.
One thing that doesn't yet show up in our budget
because we're not quite there yet is the work that
we're doing with the Shannon and Narapahob tribes. We're having
ongoing conversations with them about trying to identify where in
parks and open space properties might be a great place
for them to come. Back and reintroduce bison into the
landscape. We are doing a lot of work. Behind the
scenes. That just hasn't come up to a point where
we need to ask. For budget yet. So there's a
potential that we could progress those conversations in 2024. And
as part of our 2025 budget requests. We have a
specific asks ask, but right now, we're not quite there,
but we are having ongoing, active dialogue with those groups.
Thank you, and I appreciate that and. I haven't had
a chance. To update the board yet on some of
that work. And then the meeting I had on Friday.
Again. That's part of the reason why I'm a little
concerned about the timing. Because I still have recommendations to
present to the board in regards to this topic of
Native American Indian and indigenous work here at the county,
so. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Mr. Stolesman. Thank you. I appreciate
the comments and questions on how do we continue to
improve and how do we continue to get better and
how do these projects connect to the programs and things
like that? So thank you for the comments and questions.
I did want to say I thought each of you
had just such great presentation skills. It was kind of
amazing to sit and watch like each of you is
quite a good presenter. So that was of note. I
had a couple of. I'm sure what you'll find to
be very simple. Questions. I just wondered. On the ag
project, there was one where you're adding a bridge. And
I wondered if you considered an alternative of piping that
ditch rather than building a bridge. Over it. The county
does not own the ditch. It's owned by the Ish
Ditch company. And at this point in time, they do
not have the resources or the interest in piping. That
ditch. It transports a large volume of water. And so.
In the essence of time and lower cost of putting
a bridge over that 20 foot span is going to
be a lot faster and a lot less expensive than
piping. I think it's. A mile and a half a
ditch, and they will grant us an easement. Crossing easement.
Great. And then on the same ditch, I'm sort of
in the ditch space. There are some other opportunities that
community members have brought forward around. Like in Lewisville. There's
the ditch that provides water. To the Mayhoffer farm, the
more newly acquired area. That's no longer unceded. And the
water conveys a different way of terminating that easement because
it creates fire. HaZaRD and there's no water in it
and things like that. So how do community members submit
suggestions formally or how does the project like that make
its way onto a list like this? In a future
year. It's a great question. A lot of those types
of requests, community members. Or local elected officials, reach out
directly to Terese, myself, or Darren Beck, who's our water
supervisor and say, hey, is this something that you can
take a look at? And then we add that to
our list of requests that come in, and then we
try to figure out where on the level of importance
that falls. Given some of the other maintenance backlog issues
that we're trying to address. Or. We have one of
our ditches has an 80% water loss, and to me
that's. Near the top of the list of trying to
fix. So it's weighing those types of community requests versus
what we know we need to get. Fixed. In the
near term, but if there's a community member that has
a particular request, have them reach out to me. Great.
Thank you very much. And then the Harney Listoka Historic
Preservation project was on the list, and I just wanted
to make sure everybody on staff was aware the city
of Lewisville has a dedicated tax for historic preservation projects
and a few years ago expanded where the tax was
applicable to outside the city. Limits with a couple of
properties in mind, because originally the. Tax was limited to
projects that were within the city limits. And the red
barn. Came to mind as something we might want to
help with in the Harney Listoka property. And then also
some other properties that are historic, that are right there
on the city limits. But in the County. So that
was changed. So I just wanted to make sure you
are aware that. There's dedicated funding for historic preservation projects.
It would be like a grant you'd have to apply.
I just want to fYi, this group, I was not
aware, so I very much appreciate that. Thank you. And
on the russian olive trees. I've noticed the county working
through trying to eradicate the russian olives over a number
of years, and I wondered if you could kind of
go. Into. So what do you do in the following
year? Just because they are so tricky. Right. And so
you go in, and then. Is there a year? Two
year? Three? Plan to make sure your hard work doesn't
just so there are a couple of things. When we
remove the brush and olive, they do a stump treatment
on those individuals to try to prevent sprouting. But we
do follow up our properties. With. We pay attention to
what's going on and we look at hand felling before
the russian olives become. A piece that has to be
removed with machinery or cut and chipped. So we try
to take care of it in an easier fashion. But
then, like I had mentioned, the goal is to. Plant
other species in there that can kind of crowd out.
And kind of take back over. So is it helpful
if there are areas that you've treated and there's still
an opportunity before they get huge to go back in
and retreat. Is that helpful? If community members or county
commissioners let you know of those areas or not? Yes.
I mean, I think. We're trying to look at, obviously,
parks and open space lands that have the issue. And
then kind of prioritize and address that. But yes, if
there's areas that you know, that you'd like us to
look at, then we can get out there and. Take
a look. Yeah. There are some places where you've treated,
and then maybe it's. Like two, three, four years after,
and it's like, oh, we should go back. Before. It
looks like the picture you showed us. If you know
them, let us know. That sounds. Great. And just the
last one I have is just on the stearns parking
lot. Was there a needs analysis to show that that
many spaces is needed there. I use that facility quite
often. I just didn't know we needed all those spaces.
Yes. So there was at the time of the original
proposal for that expansion, which was, I want to say,
2018. So that's been a bit of a slower moving
project because there were issues with the initial design, so.
They're only actually adding now. I want to say ten
extra stalls. And. It was and is still needed, according
to Rangers. That help our eyes on the ground, and
so we are planning to move ahead with that work.
Okay, and so ten more spaces is, like, close to
doubling, right? I think it's 13. Right now. Okay. I
suppose if it was deemed, like, necessary. And I'm not
out there like the Rangers are twenty four seven. And
maybe I go at the perfect time when no one
else is there. But I haven't seen people using the
spaces. It was an outcome of the Carolyn Homeburg management
plan that was done, I think was it 2018 or
2019? It was right before my arrival and then that.
Was identified as a need at that time. And then
especially so during the pandemic. And I think probably what
you're observing is more of that moderation and use, but
we do want to get ten more spots out. There
because with the growing community around it, we anticipate that
they will be needed. Okay? Thank you for that. I
think, actually the biggest change is the trail connectivity. Like,
since the trail. Has been better connected in. I think
people are biking or walking instead of driving. Wonderful. That's.
What we want. Yes. Thank you very much. Great. And
I just want to start by saying that I do
agree with the comments that my fellow commissioners have raised.
And especially commissioner Lo Chime's comments. This has been an
ongoing concern of how are we really actually actively acknowledging
the role of nation? And indigenous peoples on our lands.
And so. It's something, although Commissioner Lohamin is working very
actively on that. It's something. I remain very interested in
as well. So I'm just going to go down minor,
kind of scatter shot, like I wrote. Them down as
you were presenting. On the center pivots. Mike, I totally
understand. The water efficiency, water conservation issues there. And support
water conservation efforts. I guess what I've been thinking about.
That we've been hearing, or I've been hearing anyway, in
the three years that I've been on this board is
so we have these very large tracks of land and.
It's impractical to make them available. In smaller parcels. To
farmers. That may not be ready, as you said, to
farm 500 acres. And it occurs to me that that
center pivot improvement, all the money invested. Really kind of
seals the fate of that property. Makes it very hard
to cut it up then for smaller uses and I
don't know. Whether any of these parcels, under any circumstances
we may want to. Make available. In smaller plots, but
I guess it's just something to be thinking about. That's
a huge investment that supports current farming practices. And. It
kind of locks in continuing to do what we're doing
as opposed to. Maybe. Leaving the door open. It's a
balance. And I realize that we don't want to be
wasting water. So long as it's used for what it's
currently used for, but it just. Was something. That I've
been thinking about here, so you don't need to respond
to that. It's just a thought. Further. On the ditch
improvements, the ditch work, as you know. The issue of
the debris removal comes up. When the ditches remove the
debris to improve water flow, and it's a fire mitigation.
Issue that folks are looking at. The one a money
for. You're doing ditch improvements. And having. I think the
community would feel really good. If we could all get
on the same page. On whether, at least for the
dishes that the county owns, I guess we don't have
a majority share, but we're on the board of many
of these. Whether we can support that debris removal. The
debris removal is something that we're collaborating with our CPMP
department on with a lot of the one a funding
wildfire mitigation dollars. There's some new programs that are going
to be available in 2024 with this funding. And to
go out and chip a lot of that Woody debris
that gets taken out and put on the bank or
broadcast into an ag field. So our tenants are actually
really excited about having that material come out and chipped
because then they could just use the wood chips on
the property. Yeah. These would be the reaches of the
ditches that go through. The residential areas, maybe more so,
although they're all conduits in some way, I can add
a little bit more to that. Stefan Rhino, research management
division manager one of the. Things that we did. Look
at our current Wheeler Ranch contract to see if there
was any way we could have tagged something on this
year to start addressing. Some of the ditches that have
invasive species in some of the piles, and the language
that was written. In. It didn't allow us to kind
of update it and allow them to go on. Other
locations. And so we will actually be having a meeting
early in the year to discuss. Putting out. Another bid
and see if we can take care of some of
the ditches and kind of. Progress through them. So there
is something that we're working on. We just weren't. Able
to piggyback on this most recent contract. Okay, thanks. I'm
going to be a little abbreviated here, just to keep
us on time. Just an observation on Harney Listoka roof
project, and I think. Who was that? Is that yours,
Jared? Yeah, that. Replacing it with Cedar, which. Is historically
appropriate. But it's a fire hazard. I guess. I wonder.
What you can do to mitigate the fire hazard from
continuing to have cedar shakes on the roof. We're running
to that with a lot of our reroofing projects, and
we're looking at alternatives and how we might be able
to maintain the historic aspect of that. While looking at
newer materials or something that looks like cedar but is
not cedar. So that is on our radar, and cedar
is becoming harder and harder to find because of that.
Yeah, exactly. We typically can't find it around here at
all, to be honest. Okay, well, just a thing. To
keep in mind. On the, I guess a couple of
the indigenous ways. And I think. I don't know if
it was you, Tina, in your overview that was just
mentioning that. When we do the interpretive signage on our
properties that we do want to have more accurate representations
of the history of the land. And I was wondering.
What your sources are. Your reference sources. What open spaces
reference sources will be for. That. And again, I don't
need an answer here today. But. History. There are a
lot of interpretations of history and a lot of resources
for history. And there is no one definitive story that
is the accurate story. So it's just something to keep
in mind. Of the nature of the references, the resources
that you might use, and then how you take that.
And put it onto signage. Where you're. Trying to, in
many ways, simplify things. So that it can fit on
a sign and communicate quickly. And in the process. May
be simplified to the point that. It makes it a
simple, happy story, which we like to do in our
signage that isn't. Necessarily an accurate story. So that was
something in my mind. Just a couple more. Again, also
on the Stearns Lake parking area, I do recall the
presentation on the need for that. And how careful you
are trying to be. And I think I expressed this
at the time. There may not be any way to
solve for it without losing spaces, but it is really
nice. To be able to go in and out, have
the ingress egress, and I just. See so many conflicts
in parking lots where you get to the dead end
and you have to back up. To get out, and
it's tight and people are in there. With their trucks
and things. And just maybe you can look at having
some sort of turnaround. Or preserving the two points, the
ingress egress. So, just to respond to that briefly, this
parking lot has probably been redesigned. I'm not kidding. Twelve
to 15 times. And the conceptual that you saw up
on the screen was really like the last best attempt
to expand that parking lot as we committed to, while
still honoring the wildlife buffer. And not encroaching. Too far
into the wet area on one side, and so. We
did choose. To eliminate that access point. But what we
are doing is providing that 25 foot standard width between
the parking stalls, which some of our older, more tighter
lots didn't necessarily do. And so that's the width that
you're going to get. In all modern parking lots because
that will accommodate your big trucks backing out and turning.
But. We did eliminate the trailer parking in order to
even do what we're proposing out there. So it will
just be for cars only, hopefully. And that'll help as
well. All right. Thanks. And we've got 1 minute left.
And I don't need to ask the rest of my
questions. I did have one and it's really important question.
You have combined your capital improvements in stewardship, and you
said you're renaming it your. Cast and I do not
know where the t comes from. I have wrecked. Stewardship.
Stewardship. Well, why don't you just call it casp and
it's your. Projects? I don't know. This is what I
think about when I read these things, all right? Can
we go back to the parking lot? Everyone's been working
on this. Dozens of plants and all of these things.
I understand what you're saying, and I'm asking. I don't
want everyone to be worried with this question, so just
stay calm over there. In the room for a minute.
But just leaving it as is with the entries, is
that a good solution? I would say I was out
there during the pandemic, which was like the peak of
use. I always got a parking spot. I wasn't there
on weekends because I was very fortunate that. I could
go during the week, so I can't speak to that.
So. I think I'm going to leave this one. Okay.
I just wondered with your question about. The turnaround and
everything. Yeah. Heidi addressed it. There's a lot more width
between parking stalls. And there's standard nine by 18 stalls
themselves, which was also not something that we always did
in the past. So, again, modern dimensions. So you have
room on both sides as well, yeah. Not like this
parking lot out here. Or most of the. Ones. Okay.
Yeah. Commissioners, I think if there are no further questions.
We are taking action today by way of a motion.
Public comment. Oh, my gosh. Thank you. I didn't realize
we were doing that. Thank you for reminding me there's
no one in the hearing room. Well, and I didn't.
Announce. How to sign up to speak because I didn't
see that on the agenda. I just. Saw that. We
were making a decision, but there is no one in
the hearing room. Who is present to speak, and it
looks like no one has signed up to speak virtually.
I was not able to find my link for this.
I usually try to watch and see who's joined us
remotely. Brianna. Were you working with anyone that wanted to
be promoted? Thank you, chair Levy. This is Brianna Barber,
assistant clerk to the board. At this time. There is
no one in zoom that is registering to speak. Thanks
for checking. Okay, thank you. So with that then. We
do not have any public comment on this plan. And
so now we are ready for a motion. I just
wanted to check in. Were there any changes proposed in
the motion that's being made like, we all had a
lot of questions, and I just wasn't clear if there
were any. Well, and just as a reminder, the suggestion
was because of the open question on the prairie run
parking location. To approve that. Contingent on resolution of the
location of the parking area. Or resolution of the whole
plan is what I heard, because we haven't approved the
whole plan. Yeah. I agree. That was my suggestion of
the condition of approval, and I believe it was number
eleven. Of the item. I definitely would want to have
that condition added. Each section has its own numbering. Now
that I'm looking at that. Okay, so staff can help
us with that. But the other one I am. I
would like to get some input on in regards to.
Item. Let's see here. Where is item six? But it's
in the resource planning. Division. Maybe, if that's why I'm
reading it. A sways line commitment. Indigenous landways, land commitment.
And I don't know what the best way to do
that is, but I think what my concern. Is. That
I want to make sure this goes hand in hand
with the work that we're doing? In the bigger county
scope. And I haven't. As I've shared, I haven't. Had
a chance to meet with the board yet to give
recommend. Recommendations with all of these different pieces and the
work that Mike shared about a little bit. Too. So
that's the only piece that I would like. To. Ask
the board. To remove for now. Or the other option.
If we're going to condition, the other item would be
the condition. That item until. We have approved list of
recommendations by the board of county commissioners about how we'll
move from land acknowledgment to meaningful action. I'll make a
try at a motion, and then we can. Well, I'd
like to ask a question about that, though. I guess
what my concern would be is if we remove it.
This is a question maybe for Tina. If we remove
it, then that defers the whole project. You're going to
love my motion. Okay. All right. It's taken care of.
Never. Mind, all right? I would move to approve the
2024 capital and stewardship project conditionally. The first condition? Would
just be a condition on the approval of the Prairie
Run management plan for that particular project. And then give
direction to staff that the indigenous ways land commitment project
would go back through to Commissioner Lo. Jamins. She's the
team lead on indigenous work and would work through that
process to realize the full project before implementation. I'm fine
with that. Works for me. Does that mean. Second well.
I was going to maybe ask staff. If that's okay.
Chair for ask staff deliberation. So yes to both. I
would be very eager to bring the result of the
land commitment work to you in a PMI, perhaps, or
whatever the appropriate forum is. I sent an email before
this meeting trying to figure out who the best contact
is to set up a meeting with that group. Right.
That would be me. And I'll connect with the lead
of that group, and I would love to come and.
Present what they have been doing, and then. Why they
are thinking this is the next best step, because I
think you're really going to appreciate. That they left the
commitment behind pretty early and moved. To or. I'm sorry.
I left the acknowledgment behind early and. Moved to commitment,
and they have made it a focus of every presentation
that they have given us. Internally to really emphasize that
word commitment. We can't just have words. So I'm very
excited to bring it to you. Yeah. That's great. I
just want to clarify something because my understanding is there
is not an RFP out yet, but I heard somebody
in the presentation talk about the consultant. They have prepared
it, but they would not release it until next year
if it's funded. So just want to make sure it's
not going to interfere with something that's. Already in the
process, so that's great. So, yes, I would take your
motion, and I second that motion. Okay, so we do
have a motion. And a second, I think the relevant
parties indicate that the conditions are clear to them. So
all in favor. Aye. So we have approved that. Thank
you very much for your presentation. Your dialogue. We appreciate
it. And I'll be waiting to hear what type of
baby owl. That northern pygmy owl. You're so good, Stefan.
Thank you. With that. I would encourage. All right. Congratulations
on completing your hearings for the year. Well, thank you
for being the last. Doing such a great job. No,
really appreciate it. Thanks. We are now adjourned.