by Carol Dunn
LA VETA- At its April 7 meeting, the La Veta Board of Trustees voted 4-3 to advertise for the open Deputy Marshal position. Marshal Harold Willburn told the Board he would like to fill the position before summer starts, and he suggested hiring someone who is already certified. “I have questions whether or not [the hiring] is necessary,” Mayor Mickey Schmidt said. “On a day to day basis it’s not an issue,” Trustee Dawn Blanken answered. But, she added, the Town should be prepared for extraordinary circumstances. Willburn said currently the two-person staff is required to work a rotation that includes being on call 24 hours a day for four days a week.
The Board renewed a grazing lease with Ann Brgoch for 120 acres of La Veta’s land around the town lakes. The $1800 per year lease will run from 4/1/09 to 3/31/10. Trustee Tracy Webb told the Board, “I have had people ask what effect the cows have on our drinking water.” Trustee Jim Fowler replied, “Well we have cows and horses all along the river.” “And deer and elk and rabbits and turkeys,” several people chimed in from the audience. Mayor Schmidt explained that is the reason the Town treats all of its drinking water.
In a letter to the Board, Vicki Martin stated that her home has had a water leak over the winter resulting in a water bill of about $800. Martin wrote that she should not have to pay the bill, and that the leak was located and repaired on March 17, 2009. Although the Board had hoped to have staff read meters every month when not impeded by snow, that was not accomplished this past winter because the staff was busy with the Town’s water project. Trustee Blanken said the Town had not made any promise to read the meters, but she did suggest the Board may want to consider options for getting meters read if a similar situation happens in the future.
Grandote Homeowners Association sent the Town $16,000 along with a request for 100 EQRs (equivalent residential units for allocation of water). Mayor Schmidt said the check had been returned because there are no EQRs available to Grandote under its 1987 agreement with the Town.
