County Commissioner Forum at Shepherd of the Hills

The October monthly town hall meeting of the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) was held at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Gunbarrel the evening of Thursday, Oct. 13. All three Commissioners were present and around 15 citizens from the Gunbarrel area were in attendance.

The Commissioners started the meeting with some brief remarks, then opened the floor for questions. All of the commissioners are currently working on the annual budget process and on the ballot issues in the upcoming election. In addition, each commissioner has an area of focus.

Marta Lochamin, the current Chair of the Board, represents District 2, which includes part of Niwot. Her focus is currently on the allocation of American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) funds.

She reported that more than 300 organizations worked to determine who was most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that nearly all of the $63.3 million from the ARPA for Boulder County has been allocated to housing, economic challenges and mental health, among other things. Lochamin’s second high priority is community engagement “to open up access to the programs and resources in Boulder County,” she said.

Vice-Chair Claire Levy gave an overview of all of the work that the County government does. Touching on community engagement, Levy said, “We’re making decisions about half a billion dollars and no one shows up to testify. I’m committed to getting the information into the hands of people so they know what we’re doing.”

Levy’s focus area is transportation, and she is the County representative to the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG). Levy touched on ballot issue 1C and described the vision for the SH-119 (the Diagonal) safety and transportation improvement project in which Boulder County is a principal partner.

Commissioner Matt Jones represents District 3, including all of Gunbarrel and a large part of Niwot. Jones is not running for re-election this year. He focused on the agreement between taxpayers and the County to purchase open space land. “Two years ago the County met its obligation,” Jones said. Jones also addressed the broad picture of what commissioners do, managing 2,300 employees, holding land use hearings, working on policy and working on state and federal issues.

The Commissioners then asked for questions from the audience. Pat Murphy, a resident of Niwot, asked about the solar power development proposed on 79th Street. Levy responded that the plan has not yet reached the commissioners so they are not in a position to comment. Lochamin said that they are aware of the code change to allow the development of Jack’s Solar Farm on 95th Street.

Murphy also asked about her work 30 years ago with County Commissioner Ron Stewart to bring affordable senior housing to Niwot. The housing was developed, but Murphy questioned the Housing Department’s decision to raise the rent to $1,000 a month, making it unaffordable for many seniors. “Also there used to be a waiting list. It is gone. If you’re looking for a rental unit you have to go on Craig’s List every day,” Murphy said.

Lochamin responded, “Housing affordability is the top concern shown in a survey the County conducted this spring. We’ve been able to allocate a great amount of funding from the ARPA funds into housing around Boulder County.” She asked for more information from Murphy in order to follow up.

Mike Smith from the Red Fox Hills subdivision talked about wildfires and emergency notification. Smith said the Tally Ho Trail Fire was outside his door last April yet he did not receive any official information about it. He and others in the audience reported that they signed up with all of their phone numbers, but did not receive notification

Levy responded by describing general issues about the notification systems in use and the opt-in requirement. She said they want to avoid notifying too large of an area, which happened during the NCAR Fire. Levy explained that they do not have the information to respond in detail because such events are under the Sheriff’s Office and the Office of Emergency Management, but that the Sheriff’s Office has requested funding in the budget for next year to improve systems.

Ron Bedyski from Gunbarrel described how the local fire chief invited citizens to visit the fire station where staff would program an application on the citizen’s phone for notification of emergencies in their area.

Bedyski asked about improvements to 71st Street, and when the next phase would begin, specifically with respect to the intersection with State Highway 52.

Jones responded by describing the ballot issues to address more funding for emergency services and transportation improvements. Levy offered to look into the status of the 71st Street-Highway 52 intersection improvements project.

Justin Springett requested an underpass be built under 75th Street to serve pedestrians, especially students, walking between Gunbarrel and Heatherwood. He also requested more Sheriff’s presence and photo radar to decrease the number of cars speeding on 75th. “We can certainly talk to the Sheriff about some patrols there,” Levy responded.

Springett also noted the poor condition of neighborhood roads and asked how much money the County needs to repair the roads. Levy then turned to the subdivision paving issue. “This is something that different boards of county commissioners have kicked down the road,” she said, “It's gotten more and more and more expensive to take care of. Our hope had been that we could make ballot issue 1C large enough to pay for some subdivision road paving, but polling didn’t support that.”

The final topic raised during the evening was homeless people living in vehicles on roads in the Twin Lakes area. Bill Hammel, President of the Twin Lakes Homeowners Association, described the situation. “I get calls about it,” he said. “One of the county agencies had taken some action recently on Williams Fork Trail, which residents have started calling Breaking Bad Boulevard.”

Several neighbors echoed the seriousness and severity of the problem, including increased crime. Some citizens requested an ordinance to require that vehicles be moved after a certain amount of time.

Levy said, “Your concerns are not falling on deaf ears. The Sheriff asked the County Commissioners to pass an ordinance that would prohibit [sleeping in your car on a County right-of-way],” she said. The ordinance did go to the Commissioners but around the same time the City of Boulder was sued over a similar ordinance. Levy described a lawsuit in another state seeking to allow living in vehicles when the municipality does not provide alternatives.

The Commissioners concluded the meeting by reminding citizens to sign up for notifications.