Commissioners appoint three advisory members to board of health

RBC | Rio Blanco County Commissioners authorized three non-voting appointments to the RBC Board of Health: RBC Emergency Manager Ty Gates, BLM hydrologist Keith Sauter and Rangely District Hospital nurse practitioner Shelby Lindsay.
The appointees will provide expert advice to the commissioners in the event they need to take action on county-wide public health issues. Dr. Albert Krueger is the medical director for the board, also a non-voting member.
The BOCC also approved two joint funding agreements with the United States Geological Survey at its regular meeting Monday for a continuation of water quality sampling and streamflow gauging from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018. The agreements total $98,272, of which $11,886 is for sites on the White River and $86,406 for sites on Piceance Creek, Corral Gulch and Yellow Creek.
The board also approved payment of closing costs and fees for the purchase of a parcel of land and temporary easements related to the County Road 73 bridge replacement project. According to RBC Road and Bridge Director Dave Morlan, the Colorado Department of Transportation has rated the bridge, which was built in 1940 and rehabilitated in 1992, as “the lowest rated off-system bridge in the state.”
“The bridge there is in very, very sad condition,” said Van Pilaud from RBC Road and Bridge. “We went after grant money from CDOT. Won’t know if that was successful until the end of December.”
The CR 73 bridge, off Highway 64 between Meeker and Rangely, is the third bridge in the county to be replaced. The cost is estimated at a little more than $1.2 million. The bridge crosses the White River and leads to several private residences and public land access.
In economic development, the commissioners approved a contract modification with Align Multimedia, LLC, for the Rio Blanco County Economic Development Website Project for a “not to exceed” amount of $7,345. Commissioners also approved an agreement with Matador Ventures, Inc., to provide a “social pro branded content article” for $2,500 as part of the tourism and marketing project funded by the Colorado Department of Tourism.
The commissioners also approved agreements to separate network cabling, VHF electronics and infrastructure pathways between WREA and Rio Blanco County. The work is expected to cost the county $54,856.
“The goal is to separate the electronics and paths as much as possible,” said RBC IT Director Blake Mobley. For years WREA and the county have shared infrastructure linked to dispatch. Any time one entity needs to reboot its system, the other entity “goes down” at the same time. Separating the two will improve public safety in regard to emergency services for the county and for WREA, Mobley said.