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VOLUME 15, NUMBER 6
LYONS, COLORADO
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JULY 16 / AUGUST 13, 2014
B •R •I •E •F •S Correction on Smart Meters and Lyons electric meters from Prescott Knox PINEWOOD SRINGS – There are so many issues to properly understand how smart meters operate, their capabilities, and the capabilities of the utility companies, that this has led to some confusion even at Lyons Public Works. It turns out that I was initially misinformed about the type of meters utilized in the downtown area of Lyons. I previously reported that the meters utilized by Lyons Public Works are smart meters. This is incorrect. No household that is serviced by LPW has a smart meter. This is very good news. The meters used by Lyons Public Works transmit information through the electric lines and are referred to as turtle meters, which do not have the capability to be able to send detailed usage information. Sorry for the confusion and I regret the error.
Public Notice: Lyons Whitewater Recreational Features reconstruction LYONS – Notification is hereby given to the public that it is the intent of the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide funds to the Town of Lyons, Boulder County, for the reconstruction of whitewater recreational features in town parks, to include 15 whitewater drop Continue Briefs on Page 3
Helen Sluba, Garrison Schultz, and Matt Mignone of the Lyons Farmette work the produce stand during the concert in Sandstone Park on July 10. PHOTO BY CATHY RIVERS
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I •N •D •E •X LYONS MAYOR’S CORNER OPTIONS BUSINESS CONTEXT INSIGHT CONTRAST A&E FOUNDATIONS INTEREST NATURE CONTACT
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By Susan de Castro McCann Redstone Review Editor LYONS – For the second time the Lyons Board of Trustees (BOT) tried to pass an ordinance to regulate the sale, growing, manufacturing, testing, etc. of recreational marijuana. But after an hour of discussion at a workshop on marijuana and an hour of discussion during the BOT meeting, the board failed to pass the first reading of the ordinance for a second time. Trustees Connie Sullivan, LaVern Johnson and Dawn Weller all voted against the measure and Trustees Dan Greenberg, James Kerr and Mayor John O’Brien voted for the measure. Trustee Barney Dreistadt was not present but was attending the meeting via a conference call and not allowed to vote. The ordinance will be continued again for the third time with the first reading at the BOT meeting on July 21. The issue proved too complicated after hours of discussion. The board originally wanted to ban smoking clubs and lounges and ban hash oil manufacturing, but then Town Attorney Tim Cox explained that hash oil is used in some products and may be necessary to the manufacturing of some products. The board did not seem to be in agreement on how many establishments to allow in town. Currently there are three medical
marijuana retail shops and the ordinance would keep the three in place until one leaves; then the town would be limited to two shops with the addition of allowing two manufacturing places, two testing facilities and two grow facilities. But not all board members agreed on limiting the number of retail shops. Trustee Kerr said he saw no reason to limit shops that could potentially bring a lot of money to Lyons. The trustees discussed signage, saying they did not want any reference to pharmacies on the signs. A discussion of distance from schools arose, and also of how to separate the medical from the recreational sales in shops, the location and size of marijuana facilities, the impacts on the community and tourism, and many other subjects. Before the ordinance came to a vote Trustee Connie Sullivan told the other board members that she was voting against the measure not because she did not approve of the ordinance in general but because she said it was too complicated with too many gaps: it was vague in some areas and too much information for people to digest all at once. She felt that people needed more time to go over the information. Trustees Johnson and Weller agreed and also voted no. The board did agree to pass a tax on marijuana. Trustee Johnson wanted a 10 percent tax but Trustee Greenberg thought that was
too high to start with. The board took his suggestion and passed an ordinance for a sales tax starting at 3.5 percent with a top end of 10 percent. Because of the TABOR (Tax Payer Bill of Rights) amendment the proposed tax must go to a vote of the people. This tax measure will now be on the November ballot. The BOT listened to a presentation by Abigail Shannon, the Boulder County Long Range Planning Development Manager, and Dale Case, Land Use Director, about residents who have signed up for the 404 buyout program for flood victims in the Lyons Planning Area, LPA, whose homes were badly damaged by the flood. She said that there are 22 properties in the Lyons Planning Area, most of them in Apple Valley. About 14 of those homes qualify for the 404 buyout program, but it is not a done deal, she explained. The homes in the county purchased under the 404 buyout program would be removed and the land would become open space. Most of the structures in Apple Valley were and still are in the floodway. Trustee Greenberg told the Boulder County representatives that Lyons may want to annex some of these properties in Apple Valley. “I don’t want the fact that we may want to annex some of these properties to be a bargaining chip,” he said. He doesn’t want annexations to Continue BOT on Page 14