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VOLUME 16, NUMBER 5
LYONS, COLORADO
RESIDENT / OCCUPANT PRSRT STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID LYONS, CO PERMIT No 2053 $.50
JUNE 17 / JULY 15, 2015
Lyons resident Gregory Hoag captured this double rainbow looking at the backside of steamboat Mountain, northwest of Lyons – a brief respite between spring thunderstorms during the wettest May on record. Lyons is at the right end of the rainbow.
B •R •I •E •F •S Tubing ban enacted for the St. Vrain Creeks and River LYONS – Sheriff Joe Pelle, in consultation with Victoria Simonsen, the Lyons Town Administrator, and Lyons Fire Chief J.J. Hoffman, has concluded that, in the interest of public safety, the St. Vrain River and Creeks will be closed to tubing and single-chamber flotation devices for the indefinite future. The closure will take effect immediately and will encompass the North and South St. Vrain Creeks and the Saint Vrain River from the western county line through the entire length of unincorporated Boulder County, including the town of Lyons. Sheriff's deputies will be posting notices advising recreContinue Briefs on Page 2
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Habitat homes, first CDBG-DR funds approved for buy out homes and property By Susan de Castro McCann Redstone Review Editor LYONS – The Lyons Board of Trustees, BOT, approved a resolution to accept reduced tap fees for six homes to be built by Habitat for Humanity on the Valley Bank Property at Second Avenue and Main Street. After a lot of misinformation swirling around and rants on social media, and people quitting the Special Housing Committee, the BOT forged ahead and came up with a resolution that fits the situation and the town codes. At a special board meeting on June 3 the sticking point seemed to be the request from Habitat for a reduction in tap fees amounting to a flat fee of $7,000 for all three taps – water, sewer and electric – to make Habitat’s housing plan work. No matter how many times and how many ways the town board members tried to explain that some of the tap fees were not negotiable due to the facts that Lyons does not own its utilities except sewer, and that the plan presented by Habitat was vague and had too few details to be acceptable, most members of the Special Housing Committee did not seem to comprehend these facts. Tom Delker from the housing committee tried his best to coerce the board into passing a resolution granting up to 15 Habitat homes a reduction in tap fees, completely ignoring the facts presented by the board. Delker advocated so strongly for Craig Ferguson, who had an option to buy the Valley Bank property which he said he planned to sell to Habitat, that Town administrator Victoria Simonson asked him if he was representing Ferguson or representing Habitat. She also stated that Ferguson had a conflict of interest by being at the meeting; he is both the potential property owner and the seller of land to Habitat.
Trustee Connie Sullivan told Delker that the BOT could only consider the resolution that was in front of them and could not add on another 13 homes that were not ever stated in the resolution. Trustee Dan Greenberg pointed out at that meeting that reducing tap fees with no thought to how to recoup that money could result in higher water and electric rates for residents, which is always a popular idea in Lyons. Delker ignored the logic and continued to press the board to reduce the tap fees. The trustees did pass a resolution at the June 3 meeting saying that they would work in good faith with Habitat to reduce whatever fees they could. Craig Ferguson resigned from the Housing Committee and said he would drop his option to buy the bank property. He told the board members that they had to decide that night to lower the price of the tap fees because he was leaving to work at his $5 million festival in Telluride and had no more time to devote to this. But later he decided to go forward with the property purchase and decided to continue to work with Habitat on creating six houses on the bank property. Tom Delker resigned from the committee on Facebook, but started to backpedal after blaming the board for refusing to comply with his suggestions. At the June 15 BOT meeting the board had new information. Although the town cannot transfer a water tap from one residence to another, under special circumstances (such as the town purchasing flood damaged property) a water tap can be reallocated to another dwelling if it is done in the same calendar year that the town purchases the flood property. It is complicated but, if the town can close on the purchase of some of the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) buyout homes or
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) buyout homes, and reallocate the water tap to Habitat to use on one of its homes in the same year, then Longmont won’t charge the town for a new water tap and it is not considered a transfer. A sewer tap fee in Lyons is $8,500, a water tap fee is $17,500 and an electric tap fee is $4,500. The board approved a resolution at the June 15 meeting to accept $5,467.50 as a flat fee for each Habitat unit. This represents the hard costs (fees the Town must pay for each unit) and the electric tap fee, which the Board does not have authority to waive according to the town’s ordinance. The rationale is that Lyons has a unique, onetime opportunity to re-allocate taps that are retired by the buyout properties. This is not the same as a transfer, which is not allowed by the contract with Longmont. The "transfer" rule refers to a situation where a homeowner wants to build in a different location and wants to take the tap along. Also the town is not reimbursed for the tap fees when the buyout homes are demolished. Continue Town on Page 14
Deirdre Butler shared this photo she took of an unexpected broad-daylight visitor – a bobcat having a lunchtime stroll across the back patio and around the side of the house to get a better view of the Butler’s chickens.