RANGELY | Jeff LeBleu spoke to the Rangely Board of Trustees on behalf of the Rangely Elks Lodge at the last regular meeting. He read a letter from Western Rio Blanco Parks and Recreation Director Tim Webber praising the Elks for a successful event on June 15 when they held their Brewfest at Elks Park.
LeBleu reported that their organization did not have any minors trying to get into the event as they had originally thought would be problematic
Trustee Andy Key asked about possibly making the event family friendly in the future and LeBleu said they would be working on that for next year. LeBleu also reported that the Elks would be bringing a comedian to Rangely on July 27.
In his role as Public Works Supervisor, LeBleu said his crew had been cleaning gutters, doing some minimal work at the community gardens, repairing sprinklers, tending to maintenance around the police department and building a wider bridge and installing a new culvert near the museum park on Kennedy Drive.
The department has been recertified for CPR, completed the highway cleanup and were working on mosquito abatement as the weather allowed. LeBleu touched on the new street sweeper and how efficiently it was working. Finally he said that the American flags on Main Street would be taken down after the 4th of July.
Speaking on behalf of Janet Miller he told the council Miller and her employees had been weeding and planting flowers at White River Village/Radino flower beds and spraying weeds along the roadside in that area. USDA conducted an inspection of White River Village in the past month and one liquor license was processed as well.
Kelli Neiberger with the gas department reported that customers were still enjoying lower gas prices. Public awareness brochures were delivered to every home in Rangely after two gas lines were hit by customers in nine days and in these two cases the customers responsible were billed for the repairs to each line.
She spoke about the revision of the lock out tag out procedures and that they would seek board approval for those before adopting them as procedure.
Neiberger reported that employee Heath Gebauer attended a line locating seminar in Boulder and that kindergarten children had an enjoyable educational visit to the department. Finally she reported that they are watching flood waters near a bridge that has a 4 inch gas line mounted to its underside to ensure river debris does not cause any problems with that line.
Resigning Town Clerk Erica Eyer addressed the council and thanked them for the opportunity of being the clerk. She stated her reason for leaving the Town of Rangely would be to continue her career with an accounting consulting firm and her last day would be June 27.
During Town Manager Lisa Piering’s update she spoke about the current CDOT Pedestrian Improvement Project on Main Street. She said that if anyone encounters a problem that the contractors seemed very friendly and were willing to talk to people.
On Thursday a Main Street design workshop was scheduled at 6 p.m. at CNCC and the UTA group involved with that would like as much community input as they can get about what Main Street should look like. They take the input into consideration when preparing the design.
She reported that the board was invited to participate in the aerospace road show and that there would be a lot of companies present who could be attracted to the community.
“It would be a great opportunity for the town,” Piering said.
The senior picnic is on July 17 and the seniors enjoy seeing everyone and talking to everyone at the town, Piering said.
The annual Seaplane Splash In is scheduled for July 20 at Kenney Reservoir. She reported on the angler incentive program (regarding the Northern Pike found in Kenney Reservoir) from Colorado Parks and Wildlife in the meeting packets and that there had been a spike in anglers coming to the area to take advantage of that program.
The trustees discussed a requested contribution for the Western Rio Blanco Recreation and Park District’s Fourth of July and Septemberfest celebrations. The district requested a donation of $10,000 for both celebrations. The town donated $10,000 in 2018.
Shaffer recommended donating the full amount but designating $5,000 be used towards Septemberfest and the remaining $5,000 be used for the Fourth of July and Christmasfest celebrations, which the Town of Rangely also donated money to in 2018.
Key expressed concern, saying that it seemed like “double dipping” from the tax payers. The Town of Rangely started 2019 with a $20,000 budget for donations and contributions for the entire year. After the approval of the Splash In donation they had $15,750 remaining. Piering said that they will use all of the budget this year and have more donation requests until the end of 2019.Geer moved to approve $2,500 of the requested $10,000 to go towards the Fourth of July fireworks show and it was seconded by Key. The motion passed unanimously.
A contribution/donation request from the Rangely Community Pantry was tabled until a representative from that organization could be present to answer questions and was moved to old business for the next meeting.
There are board vacancies on the RDA/RDC and the planning and zoning board. Interested individuals should contact the town.
In new business, the trustees:
– Marybel Cox was appointed clerk/treasurer for the town in a unanimous vote.
– The May 2019 financial summary was approved unanimously.
– Trustees approved a donation of $500 for the Splash In barbecue.
By ROXIE FROMANG | Special to the Herald Times
