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LOOK FOR REDSTONE REVIEW AT ISSUU.COM / SDCMC VOLUME 17, NUMBER 8
LYONS, COLORADO
SEPTEMBER 14 / OCTOBER 19, 2016
B •R •I •E •F •S The Festival of the Mabon returns for the equinox LYONS – The Autumnal Equinox: the magical time when the day and the night are divided equally and the cooling air and quieter tempos of autumn beckon. We call it MAYbahn. And for more than a decade on Planet Bluegrass we’ve celebrated with our festivarian family from Colorado and beyond. We invite you to join us for this final summer weekend of song, spirit, and festivation with your Planet Bluegrass family on Saturday, September 17 at the Wildflower Pavilion at Planet Bluegrass. Tickets and camping are on sale now at shop.bluegrass.com or 800-624-2422. Turn your sun dial back to the last eight years of Mabon celebrations. They have been magical days capped by an unforgettable, intimate set from Adam Aijala and Ben Kaufmann; relaxed, warm, and deeply musical. As Ben Kaufmann said onstage at last September’s show: “This is always one of my very favorite shows. It’s a very, very special gig that we get to do.” If you’ve been to one of these shows, you’re probably still talking about it. As much as any of our Wildflower Concerts, these shows have caused a stir: two of our favorite musicians from one of the most vital bands in acoustic music, Yonder Mountain String Band, performing two long sets of music, sometimes including a completely acoustic encore performed on the edge of the stage. As we celebrate the end of summer, the fall harvest, and the Autumnal Equinox, we’re thrilled to once again invite them back to share in this musical feast for a ninth year. A fitting finale for the summer and the beginning fall Continue Briefs on Page 7
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I •N •D •E •X LYONS
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MAYOR’S CORNER
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LOCAL
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OPTIONS
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ECOLOGY
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INSIGHT
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A&E
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CONTEXT
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FOUNDATION
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CREATE
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CONCEPTS
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CONTENT
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Kids climb in a giant spiderweb at the newly opened La Vern M. Johnson Park in Lyons.
PHOTO BY CATHY RIVERS
Auditors caution BOT on spending for projects, public works needs a new home By Susan de Castro McCann Redstone Review Editor LYONS – The Lyons Board of Trustees (BOT) heard a report from its auditor, James Rae, with the firm Poysti and Adams in Denver, on the status of the town’s finances. Rae presented the annual audit for Lyons at a special BOT workshop on Sept. 12. Rae pointed out that the auditors had concerns, which they stated up front, that Lyons has the potential to amass too much debt and not be able to pay it back in a reasonable time frame. This concern has already been at the forefront of discussions by the town board, and the trustees are having discussions about which projects they can complete and which projects will go on hold until they can come up with more funding. The issue seems to be the time it takes to receive reimbursement for the projects from the state, which holds all the funds already appropriated. The town must
complete a project or mostly complete a project before it can submit a request for the funding. Funding comes from a variety of sources such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Go Colorado Grants from the lottery, Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), town insurance, Community Development Block Grants – Disaster Recovery (CDBG – DR) and others. Almost all of the funding from these sources is held by the state, which then spends a lot of time checking over the requests for funding to make sure that each project meets the correct standards and guidelines. Reimbursements can take anywhere from 30 days to nine or ten months. This leaves Lyons with millions of dollars paid out in cash and very slow reimbursement from the state. “We have over $6 million that the town has already paid out for projects and we are still waiting for reimbursement,” said Tony
Cavalier, Lyons finance director. “That is more than the entire budget of the town in a normal year without any grants for flood damage projects.” The BOT has not actually seen what Cavalier refers to as a “normal budget” since any of them took office. Mayor Connie Sullivan asked Cavalier to prepare a version of the budget without any flood money grants included so that board members could look at what kind of
money they will actually have to work with after all the flood repairs are completed (about three to four years from now). When FEMA reimbursements do come in from the state, about ten percent of the funding is withheld until the project is completed, which could be up to two years. Due to the severity of the problem, the state has advanced Lyons funding to help the town pay its bills until the reimbursements arrive. “In 2014 the state gave us an advance of $3.5 million; in 2015 they gave us $3 million and in May (2016) we Continue Town on Page 15
Ballots go out on October 17 LYONS – Tuesday, November 8 is Election Day. Boulder County Clerk, Hillary Hall, told the Lyons Board of Trustees at a September meeting that ballots would go out on October 17. Hall said that the clerk’s office was expecting the largest turnout ever for the November election and this will also be the longest ballot ever for this election with 21 candidates running for president. There will be nine issues from the state and four issues from Boulder County. In order to register to vote in Colorado you must have lived in the state for 22 days. Every active registered voter will receive a ballot in the mail. Early voting will still take place and voters can still go to the poles to vote even on Election Day. Hall said that the county is planning for about 202,000 people to vote and about 68,000 votes will come in on Election Day. She told the board that the county needs election workers. To learn more go to www.bouldercountyvotes.org.