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RESIDENT / OCCUPANT PRSRT STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID LYONS, CO PERMIT No 2053 $.50
LOOK FOR REDSTONE REVIEW AT ISSUU.COM / SDCMC VOLUME 19, NUMBER 12
LYONS, COLORADO
JANUARY 16 / FEBRUARY 13, 2019
B •R •I •E •F •S Chamber Welcome Bags LYONS – The Chamber is now putting together the 2019 welcome bags to be handed out to new residents of Lyons and the surrounding area. Your bling can be dropped off at either Gateway Realty Group or Lyons Physical Therapy. There was a large turnout of newcomers for the last Chamber social, which was held at Pizza Bar 66 on January 15. These welcome bags are an easy way to introduce newcomers to the Lyons area and make sure they are aware of your business and what it has to offer. In the past we have been fortunate to have unique and fun items for the welcome bags that make them especially exciting to receive. Don't miss out on this opportunity to introduce yourself to new residents / customers.
Bella La Crema LYONS – Hello people of butter love. Bella La Crema, 405 Main St., has many new announcements. The first of which is that we have had to delay our re-open time to February 1. We are busy making our butter world better. We are getting in new equipment, developing a new menu, packaging, cookbook and new hours. See you in February!
Items needed for the food pantry LYONS – Over 40 families showed up to receive Christmas holiday food pantry items. There were hams, turkeys, and rolls for every family thanks to Higher Ground Ministries and Sam Tallent, and thanks to Lyons Elementary and High School students who raised money and gathered tons of non-perishable food, and thanks to all those who volunteered. The pantry is well stocked from the elementary school food drive but can still use Continue Briefs on Page 8
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Lyons’ iconic Steamboat Mountain on a crackling cold winter day.
PHOTO BY SUSAN SLIBERBERG PEIRCE
A busy year ahead in Lyons for flood recovery projects, tiny homes and Government shutdown effects By Susan de Castro McCann Redstone Review Editor LYONS – There are seven to ten projects on the books that the Town of Lyons hopes to complete this year and with the government shut down, the time schedule for the town to spend the government funding has become complicated. It was always complicated even without the government shut down but now it’s a bit of a tangle. “We need to spend some flood funds (Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA) this month and we can’t because the Government is closed down,” said Lyons town administrator Victoria Simonsen at a town board workshop. “We have a bank account at Bank of the West and we have about $10 million to work with and about $9.5 million that needs to be paid back. When all the money is paid back, we should have about $2 million left in our account.” Some of the money in the bank was enterprise funds and Mayor Connie Sullivan said, “We passed a resolution saying we can’t use enterprise funds for flood recovery.” Then she asked Anna Canada, Lyons finance director, to show the funds without showing the enterprise funds. Simonsen pointed out that the state is still not reimbursing the town for the projects for months. When the town does a flood project, such as building / repairing a bridge, it typically has to pay the money up front and wait (months and months) to get reimbursed by FEMA. So
the town borrows money from the state to do the project then pays the state back when it gets reimbursed. But FEMA holds back 5 percent of the funding for each project for some period of time after the entire project is completed. A lot of this money is still owed to the town. With all the restrictions on the time frame on when the money must be spent by and the long waits to be reimbursed and now the government is shut down, well it’s complicated. Even when or if the government opens up again the normally slow process is going to be even slower as the government plays catch up. Simonsen went on to say that the town has already spent about $45 million in FEMA funds on flood projects. Some of the projects the town plans to do this year are the Second Avenue Bridge (approval from FEMA is being held up due to the government being closed), two public works buildings, the Apple Valley water line, Lyons Valley River Park (funding on hold due to government), Bohn Park phase II (funding from government on hold), Eastern Corridor and the pedestrian bridge (on hold). In other business, the board heard arguments for and against an ordinance to allow Tiny Homes on wheels to be allowed as accessory dwelling units (ADUs). About a dozen people spoke out about the need for affordable housing and for places to put Tiny Homes on wheels in communities. There was a concern about using Tiny Homes as vacation rentals by owners (VRBOs) brought up by Trustee Jocelyn Farrell. Mayor
Sullivan responded by saying that this item should be addressed when they address all ADUs and not just Tiny Homes. Another topic, this one causing a lot of contention with board members, was the renewal of a professional services contract with Adventure Fit Inc. for managing the Lyons Outdoor Games in 2019. Josh Kravetz, one of the owners of Adventure Fit, was called on the carpet for not making the games profitable for the town and not even breaking even. The town has paid Adventure Fit $85,000 each year for several years to produce the Outdoor Games and receives about $75,000 of that money back from sales, leaving the town paying $10,000, which they were told by Kravetz to consider a cost of promotion for the town. Oskar Blues holds their Burning Can Event at Outdoor Games and shares the cost with the town also paying $85,000 and receiving $75,000 back from sales. The trustees were upset that the town was still not breaking even or even making some money. Kravetz told the town that most cities and towns are willing to pay at least $10,000 for the promotion of their town and were happy to do it. He used Estes Park as an example. The Trustees seemed uncertain about what their role should be in this venture. The mayor pointed out that there was nothing for kids to do or any fun events for them at the event. She suggested that perhaps the board should just give Adventure Fit $10,000 to Continue Town on Page 13