Fort Lupton Press 3
December 8, 2021
Public works mulls bonus retention plan BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Public Works Director Roy Vestal jumped on the employee retention bandwagon during a Fort Lupton City Council town hall meeting on Nov. 30. Vestal said he wants to take some of the budgeted $50,000 that he won’t spend this year and use it for retention bonuses. Depending on the length of service, employees could receive between $750 and $1,500. The total outlay for both groups is about $17,000. Vestal said this year has been stressful on his crews. ‘We’ve experienced a high amount of turnover,” Vestal told councilors. “In 2020, we lost five. One is somewhat retired. In 2021, we lost a couple of our senior guys. We’re trying to go with some opportunities for them to move up, but we end up losing three to five employees.” Human Resources Director Laura Howe said 12 members of the police department were eligible for retention pay of up to $1,800 “...but we didn’t attach a service level to it.” “We should continue to use some of this money to reward people,” Mayor Zo Stieber said. “To the citizens, public works is definitely a higher priority.” On-call scheduling Vestal also brought up the idea of changing pay rates for public works employees who are on call, something that happens six times a year. Three levels of on-call status are in play during the snow season, which runs from October to April. “Basically, you have no weekend for a solid week,” Vestal said. “For 18 weeks a year, you basically don’t have a life. You can’t go hunting, schedule a vacation, go fishing.” The current pay plan is five added hours for being on call and a minimum of two hours. Vestal proposed adding an extra three hours for being on call, making a city truck to take home while on call and a clock-in provision when leaving for the call. The two-hour minimum pay for call-outs would remain. “They did appear amenable to the idea last night,” Vestal said on Dec. 1. The cost would be a bit more than $8,100 for next year. However, Vestal said it’s tough to quantify the time clock at the time when the on-call employee leaves home. “Our farthest out employee lives in Evans,” Vestal said. “In theory, it may amount to an additional hour during a call response (half-hour to the call and half-hour back home.” Human Resources Director Laura Howe said on-call employees with the parks and recreation department don’t get overtime but do earn comp time. “Their pay structure is different,” she said. “We want to be as consistent as we can,” Stieber said.
City water bills going up in 2022 BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Get ready to pay more for utilities in 2022. During a Fort Lupton City Council town hall on Nov. 30, Fort Lupton Finance Director Leann Perino said water rates should increase by at least 6 percent. This would be the first water-rate increase in town since 2019, she said. Perino thought sewer rates would remain constant. “We’re collecting more than enough in sewer fees,” she said. “it’s the water piece where we’re barely squeaking by. The cost of every-
thing is going up, and that fund (the water side) is definitely going to need an increase.” The most recent water rate schedule shows a base fee of $28.85, an augmentation surcharge of $2.90 and a system maintenance fee of $2.90. Potable water fees range from $4.98 for the first 12,000 gallons of use to $7.82 for use in excess of 20,000 gallons. Non-potable fees range from $2.50 for the first 12,000 gallons to $3 for more than 20,000 gallons. Equipment request Coyote Creek Golf Course General Manager Mike Fish would like
a new piece of equipment, a dump trail “We’ve been trying to buy a trailer. We’re trying to redo the bunkers on (hole) 18,” he told council. “We’re looking for equipment that can haul bigger amounts of material.” The city’s parks department has one, “but it’s battery-operated,” Fish said. “This one runs on hydraulics.” The cost is north of $10,000 and isn’t part of this year’s budget. “What are you going to do to make up the money? Stieber asked. “We’ve had a lot of rounds of golf in November because it’s been 70 degrees outside,” Fish said.
Insurance renewals are rising for city BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNUITYMEDIA.COM
Fort Lupton’s human resources director had some tough financial news for Fort Lupton’s city council during a Nov. 30 town hall. The cost of insuring the city against cyber attacks is going up more than 87 percent for 2022. The total amount is more than $184,000. Laura Howe blamed the increase on “a radical shift in the market due to Ransomware.” Ransomware encrypts files on a computer and makes them and systems that rely on those files unusable. Those behind the attacks often demand ransom to unlock the affected files.
“We bid this out,” Howe told councilors. “Everyone declined to quote because we are a public entity. Fort Lupton hasn’t done anything good or bad. The industry is unattractive. We’re doing some right things, that’s for sure.” The cost of carrying over workers’ compensation insurance is climbing, too. It will jump 14.5 percent and cost an extra $154,000. Fort Lupton had a large workmen’s comp claim almost two years ago that’s still on the carrier’s books. “They want to retain our business,” Howe said. “It would have gone up anyway,” Mayor Zo Stieber said. The cost to cover the city’s boiler and machinery is increasing by 3
percent, or $5,250, next year. “It’s not bad,” Howe told council. ‘But it is an increase.” House cleaning Council informally began the process of reorganization after the November election. It was informal because council can’t make decisions in a town-hall format. Chris Ceretto is in line to become mayor pro tem. Shannon Rhoda, who was mayor pro tem, lost her bid to become mayor. Bruce Fitzgerald is slated to become the next treasurer for city council. Fort Lupton Police Lieutenant David Hempel is slated to become a member of the E-911 advisory board.
VFW Thanksgiving program a labor of love 1,000 meals delivered during Thanksgiving
Bodie Stockton also came out on Thanksgiving Day to help hand out food.
BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
It takes a lot of effort and a lot of love to put together Thanksgiving meals for those in need, but it’s something Bob Grant has had a hand in doing since 1978.
PHOTO BY GARY HOGAN
SEE THANKSGIVING, P5
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