Commissioners, Town of Rangely might share building departments

RBC | The county commissioners met Tuesday in Rangely where they approved a pond contract settlement and the purchase of new IT equipment. They also discussed potentially combining building departments with the Town of Rangely.
The board unanimously accepted a $35,025 contract settlement with Johnson Construction for the Rio Blanco County Landfill Leachate Holding Pond Project. In addition, they approved spending $205,244 with Venture Technologies for the purchase of IT hardware, software and maintenance of the Pure Deployment Project. According to the county the current equipment is nearing the end of its life and is close to breaking down completely.
The commissioners also approved a federal grant application to update the master plan for the Meeker Airport.
The consent agenda included approval of a letter from the commissioners to the permit engineer of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, supporting the permit for the Collom Expansion to Colowyo Coal Mine.
The commissioners provided their weekly updates. Commissioner Rector attended an Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado meeting and a Workforce Center meeting in Steamboat where he learned about contract labor.
Commissioner Woodruff attended the Basin Roundtable who he says is struggling with a reduced budget. He also attended a meeting about the White River algae bloom concerns.
Chairman Bolton said that this week he primarily answered questions about impact fees.
Following the regular meeting the commissioners met with Rangely council member Andy Key and Town Manager Peter Brixius to discuss the idea of sharing building inspectors and potentially building departments. Brixius said the town is seeking, “economies of scale” to provide cost savings to both the town and the county. He suggested that one entity would control the employee (likely the county) and both entities would share the same building codes. Both Rangely and the county currently use the same code.
“We can’t afford to employ a full time inspector with the workload we currently have,” said Brixius. It was also discussed that the development of a fee schedule would be an important aspect of the conversation. According to Commissioner Bolton the county is in the process of updating their fee schedule across the board.
Brixius said that both Mesa and Moffat counties currently use this type of structure.
Commissioner Woodruff suggested that the Town of Meeker be brought into the conversation at its next meeting.