Town of Kiowa Board of Trustees Regular Meeting Minutes
July 12, 2022 - 7pm
Call to Order
The regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Kiowa was called to order on July 12, 2022, at 7:00 PM by Mayor Rick Kolm.
Roll Call
Present: Mayor Rick Kolm, Mayor Pro Tern Cindy Tapp, Director Trevor Smith, Director Tim Chambers, Director Carey Kalisch and Director Terry Howard. The Town of Kiowa had a quorum to conduct business.
Absent: Director Jonathon Shafer
Town Administrator: Kimberly Boyd
Town Clerk: Tasha Chevarria
Guests: Robert Tibbals, Esq., and Debbie Ullom, KWWA
Pledge of Allegiance
Mayor Kolm led the audience in the pledge of allegiance.
Agenda Consent
Ms. Boyd advised they were removing the A. Resolution 2022-04: Resolution Establishing a Special District Policy and Procedures under new business, at the advisement of special counsel. Information was still available for viewing but we would not be discussing it or making motions on it tonight.
Director Howard made the motion to approve the agenda as revised. Director Smith seconded, and the motion carried 5-0 with no discussion.
Staff Reports
- Mayor
No reports. - Board of Trustees
No reports. - Town Attorney
- Franchise tax from Comcast
Mr. Tibbals reported that he was able to get confirmation from the attorney for Comcast that the franchise taxes for the last 4 years, since 2018, have been paid to the Town of Kiowa. He also has a call in to a fellow attorney that regularly deals with franchises. He will discuss with this attorney if the change of services, addition of services to their franchise, and if that triggers a requirement that they renegotiate the terms of a franchise tax agreement.
Discussion: Ms. Boyd advised no such payment has been received, to date, from Comcast. Mayor Kolm inquired as to whether Comcast was providing the promised free services of basic cable connection to the school as well as the town. Ms. Boyd and Mr. Tibbals confirmed that is being fulfilled by Comcast. Ms. Ullom inquired if canceled checks can be produced by Comcast showing said payments have been made. - Franchise tax from Starlink
Mr. Tibbals reported that he is still attempting to contact someone with Starlink. Mr.Tibbals asserted they had only made one cut into the Town's right of way and Ms. Boyd corrected that. Ms. Boyd advised they have numerous locations in town wherein they are installing new fiber optic through town, as per the paperwork they provided when applying for permits. Ms. Boyd advised they are pulling old fiber optic from conduit and installing their own. Mr. Tibbals advised that based on that information he will reach out to them and advise no more permits will be issued by the Town until conversations are had concerning this matter.
Mr. Tibbals advised he will contact Starlink and inquire as to whether they are operating under some sort of old franchise agreement to conduct their current work and make a demand for copy of such. - Municode updates
Mr. Tibbals reported that he will have ordinances by the next meeting updating certain aspects of the Code that have already been through the Planning and Variance and the Board of Trustees for recommendation and approval.
Mr. Tibbals advised an election resolution will be introduced later in the meeting and one of the items he is putting on there is the ballot in November is a change of name for the Board of Trustees to Town Council and changing the Town Administrator to Town Manager. Mr. Tibbals asserted that much of the delays to updating the current code, to date, have been on the part of the Municode attorney through numerous footnotes and questions and out of his control.
- Franchise tax from Comcast
- Town Administrator
- Second disbursement of ARPA funds was delivered to the account on July 10, 2022 and was immediately moved over to the money market account. Total amount of second disbursement was $95,638.58, total of both disbursements together is now $191,277.16.
- Colorado Day falls on Monday, August 1st and the Town will be having an ice cream social at Nordman Park from Sp-8p. Live music entertainment has been secured using local artists, Duane and Billie Owens, and the cost of having them will be covered by 40 Mile Feed. There will be free ice cream and cake. Cake mixes and icing will be available for pick up at 4 locations: Town Hall, Elbert County Abstract and Title. ECCO, and the bank. Lastly, the folks at the museum have asked to be included in this event with a snow cone machine.
- Farmers State Bank is coming to Kiowa and will be setting up a temporary location while their permanent location is being built. Ms. Ullom advised that there will. be no need for Farmers State Bank to go through the Planning and Variance process because the land is already zoned commercial, so they do not need a variance to change the zoning or to meet any setbacks, they will just be going through the normal building permit process.
- Auditor, Ronny Farmer, will be at Town Hall for the rest of the week to conduct the 2021 audits.
- Public Works
Plans for the pavilions are currently with a structural engineer to see if there is something that can be done to augment them enough to meet the Town's current code. Decisions will be made once we hear back from them.
Discussion: Mayor Pro Tern Tapp noticed traffic lids were secured down in the parks now, she appreciates that. She further noticed around town that there is an abundance of trash being strewn on the ground around dumpsters of business. Ms. Boyd requested that if anyone notices an issue, such as this, to please take pictures and forward to her attention so she can make code enforcement aware.
Mayor Kolm advised that he has received complaints regarding dead racoons within the Town. Ms. Boyd said she had also received complaints of the same. - Code Enforcement
Report for last quarter is in everyone's packets. No discussion.
Public Comment
None.
Consent Items
- Approval of minutes from June 2022 BOT monthly meeting and June 2, 2022, Special Meeting
- Director Smith made the motion to approve the June 2022 BOT regular monthly meeting minutes.
- Director Howard seconded, and the motion carried 5-0 with no discussion.
- Director Howard made the motion to approve the June 2, 2022, Special Meeting minutes.
- Director Chambers seconded, and the motion carried 5-0 with no discussion.
- Expenditures for Year-to-Date 2022
The year-to-date expenditures were provided for review in the meeting packets. Director Smith made the motion to approve the minutes. Director Howard seconded, and the motion carried 5-0 with no discussion.
Public Hearing
None.
Old Business
- Review of sealed bids for surplus equipment
Ms. Boyd advised she opened the bidding for the blade at $300.00. Richard Croisant presented a sealed bid for $300 and the Board accepted said bid. - Contract with Rachel Summers for grant writing services
Ms. Boyd advised Ms. Summers is currently working with the school on grant writing and that is how she was put into contact with her. She comes highly recommended and has extensive experience in this line of work. Ms. Boyd also advised she will be meeting with Ms. Summers the next evening at 5pm to discuss where they plan to get started. Top of the priority list is with KWWA and seeking the funding for a redundancy system for water and sewer. The developer who has agreed to put in the redundancy system has made shallow threats twice to walk and take his promises to implement that process with him, so we are moving forward as if he does not exist and seeking the funding to do it ourselves. It is not a want; it is a need.
Director Smith made the motion to approve contracting with Rachel Summers for grant writing services. Director Tapp seconded, and the motion carried 5-0.
Discussion: Ms. Boyd requested that the Board approve up to a $5,000 cap on projects, as did KWWA, so that we do not have to keep coming back to the Board with each grant being written.
Director Smith made the revised motion to approve contracting with Rachel Summers for grant writing services with an initial $5000 fee cap. Director Howard seconded, and the motion carried 5-0. - Draft proposed IGA with Elbert County and Elbert County Sheriff's Office and Resolution 2022 - 03: Resolution Approving and Authorizing an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Elbert County and Elbert County Sheriff for Provisions of Law Enforcement Services.
Mr. Tibbals advised the Board that we are still negotiating the dispatch fees because the Town is no longer eligible to take out a contract with ECCA, due to the Town no longer having a police department of their own. Thus, there needs to be a consensus on what those dispatch fees will be with the Sheriff's Office. As well, he created an Exhibit to the agreement wherein he details specific services the Town would like to see over and above the general law enforcement services provided, such as directed traffic patrols at the school, extra patrols, quarterly meetings, etc.
Director Smith made the revised motion to approve the resolution so that Mr. Tibbals and Ms. Boyd can continue discussion with the Sheriff's Department for purposes of entering an IGA with the Elbert County Sheriff's Office for law enforcement services. Director Chambers seconded, and the motion carried 4-1, with Director Kalisch being the sole Nay.
Roll Call Vote:
Director Smith - Aye
Director Kalisch - Nay
Mayor Pro Tern Tapp - Aye
Director Howard - Aye
Director Chambers - Aye
Director Schafer - Absent
New Business
- Resolution 2022-04: Resolution Establishing a Special District Policy and Procedures (struck from the agenda)
- Resolution 2022-05: Resolution Authorizing an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Statewide Internet Portal Authority
Ms. Boyd advised this is a microgrant through the state that allows the Town to hire a professional web designer to update and revamp our current town website to make it more innovative and user- friendly. It would also allow users to make payments through the new website to the Town and keep the Xpress Bill Pay for KWWA utility payments.
Director Smith made the motion to approve Resolution 2022-05: Resolution Authorizing an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Statewide Internet Portal Authority. Director Chambers seconded, and the motion carried 5-0 with no discussion. - Resolution 2022-06: Election Resolution
Mr. Tibbals advised we will be holding an election with the county and this authorizes the Town to do that.
Director Smith made the motion to approve Resolution 2022-06: Election Resolution. Director Howard seconded, and the motion carried 5-0 with no discussion.
Discussion
Ms. Boyd advised that she and Mr. Tibbels had discussed having two Board meetings a month and she wanted a consensus on what night would work for the Board. It was proposed to have meetings during the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month. As well, it was proposed that the second meeting of the month be approached more so as a partial meeting, bypassing all the formalities of the normal monthly meeting.
Correspondence/Information/Review/Discussion
None.
Executive Session
None.
Adjourn
Director Howard made the motion to adjourn at 8:08pm. Director Smith seconded, and the motion carried 5-0 with no discussion. The next regular meeting will be on August 9th at Town Hall at 7:00pm