Resuming a conversation from March 3 and the fall, Chaffee County Administrator Beth Helmke and county commissioners discussed the co-response intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) with municipalities during the commissioners’ March 17 meeting in Buena Vista.
Co-response pairs law enforcement with behavioral health experts to help de-escalate situations involving behavioral health incidents and assist individuals by providing more wrap-around care and reducing the engagement of the judicial system. The three municipalities, Helmke said, have made budgetary commitments for a cost-share model.
“We have, for the past few months, been working through the details with them,” Helmke said. “This is largely funded by a behavioral health administration grant, which we were able to get last summer, and that covers approximately 50% of the program.”
Salida was unable to meet the requested cost-share, coming back with a smaller monetary contribution. The county is continuing to look for grant funding.
“One of the things that we have learned recently that is giving us pause is a lot of federal grant opportunities come with some additional explicit language, and the Notice of Funding Opportunities that require us to basically cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as provide data on any of the clients that are served directly to federal authorities,” Helmke said. “That is not something that would be conveying our community’s best interest in all regards, and so we’ll pursue that conversation with Karl (Hanlon) to determine if there’s different experiences in other communities that would give us a different understanding of what some of those federal funding terms would require.”
For now, the county is subsidizing the majority of the program to ensure field teams are available.
Salida had no proposed changes, and Buena Vista had a few clarifications around order of operations and jurisdictional decision-making.
Commissioner P.T. Wood made a motion directing staff to finalize the IGAs, which was carried unanimously.
The commissioners then voted to approve a contract renewal with Neumo, previously GovOS, for short-term rental program management software.
Community Planning and Natural Resources Director Miles Cottom said it was the same program with a new name and asked for approval and specific direction: “The only general concern or question I had on the contract is that they want to apply an annual fee of up to 10 percent. I think what we’d like to do is have some way to negotiate that a little bit,” Cottom said.
He would want to negotiate either a reduced percentage or a fixed rate, “not to be locked into something that kind of doesn’t give us the ability to budget every year,” he said.
The board voted to renew but continue negotiating the contract.
Commissioners approve IGAs for dam improvement projects
The commissioners also approved two intergovernmental agreements for dam improvements and safety projects: one with the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District for Cottonwood Dam and one with Pueblo Water for Clear Creek Dam. Both IGAs are in lieu of 1041 permits.
UAWCD, Cottom said, is working toward a project to replace the dam at Cottonwood Lake, and Pueblo Water is working on a safety project at Clear Creek Dam.
“The Upper Ark project is really designed to allow them both to access more water from that lake, to lower the height of the dam so we can get more water out, but it’s also got some significant upgrades for fish passage, decreasing significant channelization, things like that,” he said. “Typically, both of these projects would require a 1041 permit from the county for a municipal or industrial water project, but we have the ability under our 1041 regulations to represent those interests through intergovernmental agreement.”
Cottom requested leave to discuss and propose an IGA with UAWCD to clarify impacts. Based on plans he had seen, he said, “there are likely to be very little, if any, impacts to recreation on Cottonwood Lake or that area.”
Cottom described the IGA process as “exponentially faster” than the 1041 permit process.
Commissioner Dave Armstrong clarified that the IGA would take advantage of administrative efficiency “without giving up any process flexibility we would have with the 1041,” which Cottom said was correct.
Greg Felt, UAWCD general manager, said they aim to start planning in the next month in order to start work in September.
Armstrong moved to direct staff to pursue the IGA, and commissioners approved it unanimously.
The Pueblo Water project on Clear Creek Reservoir’s dam would help prevent bursts, seepage and erosion piping. That project is planned for the summer.
“Given it is a dam safety project, we are ‘dam’ supportive of it,” Cottom said.
Cottom anticipates the major impact to be on CR 390 and the recreation nearby.
“There is going to be some ground disturbance below the dam on, I believe, both sides of the highway,” he said. “But also they’re planning to do the staging and construction for this project … on the west side of Clear Creek.”
The boat ramp may be closed on the west side, and the water level will likely be lowered during construction.
Commissioner Gina Lucrezi asked that flow considerations be incorporated “in a way that does not create any conflict with potential additional flow.” She also said, “It’s important that we do protect ourselves and that there is something in place, whether it’s a 1041 or an IGA.”
Cottom said he’s met with the director of Pueblo Water a number of times on the project.
Armstrong moved to direct staff to pursue the IGA, and the motion carried unanimously.