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VOLUME 23, NUMBER 6
LYONS, COLORADO
RESIDENT / OCCUPANT PRSRT STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID LYONS, CO PERMIT No 2053 $.50
JULY 13 / AUGUST 17, 2022
B •R •I •E •F •S National Night Out in Lyons LYONS – Join the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office on August 2, from 5 to 9 p.m. in Bohn Park, 199 2nd Ave., for an evening of community building. National Night Out is designed to help increase awareness of crime prevention, strengthen neighborhood spirit and partner with local law enforcement and first responders. Every National Night Out location will have different activities taking place, but all will have free food, emergency vehicles, first responders, fire departments, safety demonstrations, local vendors and children’s activities. These are free family-friendly events that are fun for all ages. National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police – community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, better places to live. National Night Out enhances the relationship between neighbors, law enforcement and first responders and provides a great opportunity to bring law enforcement and neighbors together under positive circumstances. Lyons Fire Protection District will be there wo/manning the grill.
Lights Out Lyons Night August 5 LYONS – Lyons area residents and businesses are encouraged to go Lights Out for the Lyons area in support of dark sky awareness and stargazing appreciation on August 5. At 8:30 p.m. There will be stargazing talks in Bohn Park at the park shelter from 9 to 10 p.m. There will also be acoustic music. Stargazing will happen from dark to sunrise with peak viewing after midnight until dawn. The rain date will be Friday, August 19. This dark sky event is timed to happen during one of the peak viewing nights of the Perseid meteor shower. Participate at home or take a stroll down to Bohn Park for guided star talks with a variety of telescopes on hand. Beginning at 7 p.m. helpers will accommodate overnight tent camping until capacity is reached. Note for camping: Tents only, 4inch stakes or less. Pack in and pack out required. All other park rules apply. This is a free event sponsored by Lyons Parks & Recreation Commission. Be sure to turn out your lights. Continue Briefs on Page 7
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A view of Blue Mountain from Spring Gulch, by Jane Selverstone, retired geologist living in New Mexico. She currently finds joy via hiking, photography, playing the violin, knitting, and not having to write or review grant proposals.
Town board scrambles to meet BoCo deadline, discusses ballot measures, water shares, and more By Susan de Castro McCann Redstone Review LYONS – At a recent town board meeting in early July, the Lyons Trustees found themselves scrambling to respond to the new deadline the Boulder County Commissioners set for responding to the request by Cemex to extend its mining operations permit for another 15 years. At the town’s request BoCo granted the town only a two-week extension to respond to the Cemex permit request; the town wanted two more months to respond. The town board is now scrambling to collect responses from town commissions, committees and the public to present to the county commissioners. “This is like a fire hose,” Mayor Hollie Rogin said. The permit is set to expire at the end of September when Dowe Flats Quarry will run out of stone to make cement. Cemex wants to bring in materials, by truck, from other areas to produce cement. If its permit is renewed for 15 years, Cemex said it would close down its plant for good at the end of the permit. If the permit is denied, Cemex said it would continue to use the south side of the plant to make cement from materials it would bring in indefinitely with no end in sight. Lyons does have an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Boulder County concerning land that the town wants to acquire at the Cemex complex that is in the Lyons planning area, which the town hopes to use as part of its eastern corridor expansion. Having a lot more trucks moving in and out of the plant impacts everyone living in Lyons, people going from I-25 to Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, or just to Lyons.
The plant was built in the 1960s, is outdated and is the biggest polluter in the county. It is a coal-burning plant and there is nothing in the permit extension request offering to lower emissions or upgrade the plant. The town board wants to receive all responses by July 15. There will be a town board hearing and board discussion on July 19 where the public is able to address the board on the Cemex permit extension. You can send your responses to email Deputy Clerk Marissa Davis at (Mdavis@townoflyons.com). In other news, the town board held a finance workshop in early July to discuss ballot issues which have to be turned in soon to meet the county’s deadline to get questions on the November ballot. Lyons Finance Director Cassandra Eyestone went over the taxes and fees that the town collects, identifying which of those can be raised or levied by the board without an election and which need to go to a vote of the people. The town collects various fees such as land use fees, shelter fees, building permit fees, parking fees and others. For the most part, any increase in taxes goes to a vote and fees can mostly be set by the board. Lyons’ share of the total sales tax is 3.5 percent. In 2014 voters approved a 3.5 percent tax on marijuana sales. In 2018 the voters approved a $2 per night lodging tax. The trustees agreed that they want to have a ballot question or two on the November ballot concerning some increase in taxes. No decision was made on what the ballot questions would be or what areas they wanted to tax. The trustees seemed to be leaning towards making some adjustments to lodging and marijuana sales taxes. Administrator Victoria Simonson pointed out to the board that it had already been ap-
proved earlier that sales tax on marijuana could be raised up to 10 percent without a vote of the people. In further discussions three new employees were introduced to the board. Zack Bertges is the new code compliance officer, and David Kimmett and Alexander Painter are both new town planners. Bertges told the board that he is a former police officer from the Bay Area in California, born in Santa Barbara. He is a triathlon trainer/coach and trains people for Iron Man events. He works with at-risk children and has started at-risk programs for kids. Bertges said he has a dog, Luke, that goes everywhere with him. Luke wears a red bow tie. He and Luke have been here for two months. Mayor Rogin said of hiring Bertges that “It is a match made in heaven.” The board seemed to be exceptionally pleased to have Zack Bertges on board as a town staff member. Trustee Gregg Oetting said, “Your credentials are phenomenal.” Later in the meeting the board discussed authorizing the code compliance officer to issue administrative citations and they all agreed that it was a good idea to give that authority to the code compliance officer. David Kimmett said he is a sixth generation native of Colorado. He is a former schoolteacher and has two children, nine baby goats, chickens, and one grubby cat. Alex Painter was born in Boulder, was in the 101st Airborne Division (Screaming Eagles), has lived in Santa Fe, NM, and Virginia and worked as a planner. Administrator Simonsen said that all the town offices are full now and they have a really good staff, full of energy and new ideas. In other news the town board had a discusContinue Town on Page 12