News Now Blog

A twenty minute regular meeting of the Fremont County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday was highlighted by board action to transfer some Department of Human Services funds to Boulder County.   The commissioners voted to ratify the Chairman’s signature on paperwork that was signed last Thursday transferring $100,000 in TANF reserve funds to Boulder County.

TANF—Temporary Aid to Needy Families, involves restricted funds that Fremont County was still holding in reserve as the close of Colorado’s fiscal year approaches on June 30th.    Fremont County was in a position where the reserve dollars would have to be turned back while Boulder County was experiencing a shortfall.    Fremont County Department of Human Services Director Steve Clifton told the commissioners in a workshop meeting last week that in past years Fremont County was on the receiving end of some of those needed dollars.   He says this year Fremont County was able to return the favor.

The commissioners adopted a proclamation declaring the week of June 20-26th as Amateur Radio Week in Fremont County.   Local club representative Amanda Alden told the board that local ham radio operators were instrumental in recent years with such major events as the Waldo Canyon Fire, the Black Forest wildfire, and the Royal Gorge wildfire.   Alden said local amateur radio club members are working with other clubs to develop a backbone infrastructure of ham radio operators stretching from Cheyenne, Wyoming, south to Albuquerque, New Mexico.    Ham radio operators will participate in Amateur Radio Field Day exercises on June 25th and 26th at the Holy Cross Abbey in Cañon City.

In other business Tuesday the Board of Commissioners:

• Approved action to support the Upper Arkansas Area Council of Government’s housing rehabilitation program by reducing building permit fees for qualifying families.   County building permit fees will be reduced by $100 for every housing unit that undergoes rehabilitation to preserve housing for low to moderate income families in rural areas of Fremont County;
• Authorized the Chairman’s signature on the annual Southern Colorado RETAC contract allowing the Fremont County EMS Council to secure $15,000 in grant funding;
• Heard a monthly report from County Clerk and Recorder Katie Barr in which the county’s portion of motor vehicle registration fees for May, 2016 totaled over $569,000.    Barr reported that amount was $100,000 more than the amount collected in May of 2015.

The Upper Arkansas Cooperative Weed Management Area is hosting an open house in Cañon City to offer landowners information on Healthy Land Stewardship.         The event on Saturday, June 18th, will take place at Fremont County’s Garden Park Building.   Several stations will be set up providing landowners, from ranchers to backyard gardeners, information on a variety of topics dealing with soil conservation and control of noxious weeds and invasive plants.

If you need assistance in identifying problem weeds or other plants on your property, you’re invited to bring plants to the open house for identification.   Custer County CSU Extension Director Robin Young will assist in plant identification.   Teller and Park County Conservation District Manager Mary Menz will explain how to collect and submit noxious weed specimens from your property.    District Conservationist Rick Romano of the Fremont County Natural Resource and Conservation Service will offer information about maintenance of native grasses and land management.

If you need assistance in reading and interpreting labels on herbicides, you’re invited to remove the label from the container and take it to the open house where Chaffee County Weed Supervisor Larry Walker will assist you in chemical identification and herbicide recommendations to control particular weeds and invasive plants.   If you practice chemical control on your property and have a back pack or hand held sprayer you can bring the sprayer to the open house where Fremont County Weed Management Coordinator Tony Telck will help calibrate your sprayer.   If you bring a sprayer for calibration make sure it is triple rinsed.

The open house will run from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 18th at the Garden Park Building at 201 North 6th Street in Cañon City.   Persons attending should enter at the rear door next to the alley.  For more information about services offered at the Healthy Land Stewardship open house call the Fremont Conservation District Office at 275-4465.

74 names of veterans were added to these two panels in late May on the War Memorial Wall at the Fremont County Airport

The names of another 74 veterans have been engraved on the wall at the War Memorial Park at the Fremont County Airport with preparations underway to dedicate those names in a ceremony over the Independence Day weekend.   The engravings were completed just before the end of May and concluded what was a wait for some veterans and their families that extended for more than two years.

Fremont County Veterans Service Officer Al Augustine said the initial wait for some veterans came because the county needed a minimum of 50 names to place an engraving order with a vendor from Denver.   Once that minimum order was reached at the close of 2014 the engraving order was placed.   From spring through the fall of 2015 the vendor repeatedly encountered scheduling problems that were complicated by wet or windy weather.

Fremont County Commission Chairman Ed Norden said when it became obvious that the engraving would not be completed by the onset of winter, the Board of County Commissioners and the vendor in Denver mutually agreed to part ways.   Arrangements were then made with Rocky Mountain Memorials in Colorado Springs to do the engraving at the earliest good weather opportunity this spring.   Norden said the commissioners apologize to all the veterans and their families for the delay, adding that county officials were equally as frustrated throughout the process.

Augustine is now making arrangements to dedicate the newly added names to the War Memorial Wall at a ceremony scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 2nd.  Details about the ceremony will be announced in the coming weeks.

Commissioner Norden said because the wall is quickly filling with names of veterans more work is planned this summer to make more bricks available.   Norden said Panel A on the War Memorial Wall was originally intended for the listing of donors.   He said brick work will be undertaken to list all donor bricks on the left side of Panel A and thus create another panel of blanks to engrave the names of more veterans.

Veterans or families interested in engraving a veteran’s name on the wall should contact Augustine at the Fremont County Veterans Service Office in the County Administration Building.   There is a $50 cost for the engraving of each brick.