First meeting for new commissioners Woodruff, Rector ~ January 23, 2017

RBC | The board of county commissioners met Jan. 23 in Meeker. It was the first meeting for new commissioners Si Woodruff and Jeff Rector.
To begin the meeting, board chair Shawn Bolton clarified the use of the consent agenda, which provides a streamlined way to handle routine, non-controversial items such as approving the minutes from previous meetings, final approval of proposals or reports the board has already discussed, and correspondence. The consent agenda lumps all those items into one agenda item, saving anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour.
Bolton stated that anyone with a question on a consent agenda item can ask that the item be removed from the consent agenda and placed under the regular business portion of the meeting where the item will be opened for discussion and review. 
The board approved Shawn Bolton to continue as board chair in 2017; appointed Jeff Rector as the chair pro tem; approved a meeting schedule; and made various board appointments.
There were no applicants for the Columbine Park board, the historic preservation board or the weed advisory board. 
The commissioners appointed Kent Borchard to continue serving as the county attorney, Janae Stanworth as finance director and Dave Morlan as interim road and bridge director. Following the recent termination of human services director Jennifer O’Hearon, no appointment was made for that position.
In public comments, Paul Sheridan of Meeker spoke on behalf of his wife, Shannon Sheridan. Sheridan, case worker supervisor for the county’s human services department, was asked to resign* along with O’Hearon in the wake of a review done last fall by Mountain States.
Sheridan asked the board to consider her 13-1/2 year history of service to the county, for which she has received accolades from her peers.
In public hearings, the board reviewed a proposal from Overton Tire Recycling to relocate the current tire recycling business from the landfill to industrial-zoned property just west of Meeker off Hwy. 64. 
While no comments were received from adjacent landowners for the limited impact review, which used to go through the planning commission before going to the commissioners, multiple property owners and residents spoke up during public comment with concerns about possible impacts to the Powell Park Ditch, groundwater, air quality and aesthetics.
Overton and the commissioners responded to the comments, explaining that the majority of questions raised were answered in the application. 
“In my perspective, he met the obligations that the county asked of him. I take everyone’s comments seriously, but if we’re going to force the man to build a building to put the tires in he’s probably not going to do the business. I don’t think we should say we want growth and we want business, it’s zoned industrial,” said Woodruff.
Overton addressed the aesthetics himself, stating, “About how it looks, one of the biggest critics is probably going to be my mom up on the hill. Further on down the road I hope to come up with something better than the green fence.”
The proposal was approved unanimously.

*O'Hearon's husband, Bill Hodges of Rangely, and Mr. Sheridan objected to the use of the term "terminated" rather "asked to resign" when we published this story.

 As there are no publicly available meeting recordings or other documentation of the correct term to use, we have honored the request to change that term from the original story published in today's edition.

A redacted report is available here.