The Chaffee Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) work session for February 2 consisted of a series of reports by county entities providing services to county residents, or to which this county is a contributing member. The topics ranged from weed control and mental health, to climate legislation and economic development.
Solvista Health’s Regional Assessment Center on the Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center Campus. Dan Smith photo.
Sol Vista Quarterly Report
Sol Vista Health Center Executive Director Mandy ddd outlined the impact of Medicaid funding cuts, explaining, “the main government funding budget cuts are into mental health first aid and disaster aid response.” She noted that the state support for mental health support services remains strong. “We are hopeful that behavioral health continues to have bipartisan support.”
Recapping the impacts of the Sol Vista Regional Assessment Center, which opened in 2022, she noted that “Prior to that, anyone with an acute behavioral health incident had to wait for a spot and then be transported often four hours away – it was terrible to witness the waiting. We as a community talked for years about the need to develop an acute substance center that could handle withdrawal, and detox … last year we saw 681 clients, and 2,608 site days.”
She added that this past year, the assessment center provided care for clients from 29 counties. But 70 percent of those it served were residents of the valley’s three primary counties: Chaffee, Lake and Fremont. Over this time the wait time at Sol Vista have fallen from eight weeks to six to eight days.
It focuses on what it calls ‘transitions of care.’
“We have a host team that follows patients upon release to get them connected to care for sobriety and recovery to reduce readmission rates.” She added that this year the center will have better tracking data.
Asked about goals, she said “The biggest thing I would ask is to move toward being certified as a state demonstration site for certified community health clinics — I’d ask for a letter of support. With this certification, the state would finallyhave aninfusion of federal dollars. For Sol Vista, it means a great deal — we would be one of four [certified] community health centers in the state.
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Chaffee Economic Development Corporation
The BoCC heard from the Chaffee Economic Development Corporation (EDC) Executive Director Deborah Cameron, who recapped how the EDC functions, and its 2026 strategic priorities. Those priorities include:
1. Supporting Business Creation, Attraction & Retention
2. Shaping smart policies to keep Chaffee County competitive for economic growth.
3. Supporting aspiring entrepreneurs and accelerating ventures building place, creating jobs and advancing innovation.
4. Increasing knowledge and importance of economic development.
5. Building a strong and sustainable EDC.
The policy pillars on which the EDC will operate in 2026 appear to be county priorities as well:
1. Workforce Housing
2. Water & Wastewater
3. Education & Talent Development
4. Childcare & Early Childhood Education
5. Infrastructure
6. Land Use
She reapped the business development programs it supports including the new, 2026 Ascent Cohort, the EDC Powder Pitch, hosted at Monarch MountainResort, and the EDC Demo Day. She also noted that the EDC does bi-monthly remote worker meetups and that two thirds of the area’s remote workers appear to be software developers.
Cameron highlighted the importance of local investors known as the Ark Angels. Asked by Commissioner Gina Lucrezi how much is invested in these groups each year?” Cameraon said she would need to check on that, adding “It’s not a fund, we do ask for that impact info,” and said she wold try to get that info.
The commissioners each raised a concern that they had heard surfaced, that the county commissioners are anti-business. “We got referrd to as being very anti-business: — we aren’t — we’re all business owners,”said Commissioner P.T. Wood. “Maybe it could be a topi for an Op-Ed on how we collaborate.”
“I have heard similar things, what does ‘open for business’ mean in the EDC?” said Commissioner Dave Armstrong. “We want to be part of that conversation. All three of us are business owners. So #1 its insulting, and #2 we want a better relationship.”
“Our concern is when we hear it from multiple businesses, our antenna goes up,” responded Cameron. “I’ll try to find out more.”
“What is missing… how do we bring people in to fill the spots we don’t have?”asked Lucrezi.
To which Cameron responded that “My mind goes to the airports, both have good projects to expand their capacity, expand service offerings around aviation, and aerospace here. We have to be strategic about it, and adding diversity to our economy, leveraging investments … she added that the county and EDC could look at supply chains and do a strategic analysis.
“Colorado’s favorite photographer,” John Fielder, in an April 2018 appearance at the Salida SteamPlant. He described his 2017 raft trip down the Dolores River, while showing a photo of Class IV Snaggletooth Rapid. The Dolores rarely has sufficient flows for rafting, which Fielder attributed to the combination of McPhee Dam and climate change.
Colorado Communities for Climate Action discussion
The BoCC next got an update from the executive director of Colorado Communities for Climate Action Jacob Smith. Chaffee is a member of this group, also known as CC4CA.
He noted that the group now includes 47 Colorado counties, more than half the state, and two thirds are rural counties. Every county gets a seat on the board and the group focuses on policies on which they can unite.
“We’ve grown every year,” said Smith. “Jurisdictions are joing for our climate lens … part of what we do is advocate at state level on climate issues, including lots of legislative and regulatory work… we recap the latest science on climate change in Colorado, and cover how to explain the research.”
He noted that nuclear power is in the discussion as it becomes a bigger part of the conversation, explaining “We do balancing work – we won’t take a position on nuclear power that our members split over… our policy base is a set of conditions on which we would agree to support — it’s a set of criteria.”
Smith told the BoCC that this year’s legislative session”is going to be crazy. It was bad last year, it will be worse this year, the federal government is going after lots of energy and climate action. Affordability gets positioned in conflict with climate actions – it is a constant issue — one example is housing insulation.”
He outlined the CC4CA top two priorities: the re-authorization of the PUC (Public Utilities Commission) and dealing with the devisive issue this year; the prospect of massive data centers, which are huge consumers of water resources.
“There are also implications for air quality for backup generators and the air quality implications — those developers will make lots of proposals, but the utilities will do projections based on building all of the”