• Commissioner Don Suppes gained approval to award a $28,700 contract to build a pavilion at the 4H Shooting Range outside of Cedaredge. The money is coming from the county’s Conservation Trust Fund, which are lottery dollars for the acquisition, development and maintenance of new conservation sites, or for the capital improvement or maintenance of public recreation sites like parks and open spaces. Delta County currently holds more than $450,000 in its Conservation Trust Fund.
• Commissioner Roeber will engage in discussions with Colorado Counties, Inc. (CCI) members on Senate Bill 221: Elect County Commissioners by District, later this month. “There may also be a meeting,” added Commissioner Roeber. SB18-221 concerns the election of a county commissioner in a county with a population of less than seventy thousand by the voters residing in the district from which the commissioner runs for election. Currently, the voters, at large, elect commissioners. It is unknown where Delta County Commissioners fall on the bill. Commissioner Roeber has not yet responded to questions about the bill and how he intends to represent Delta County to CCI members.
Colorado Counties, Inc. (CCI) is a non-profit, membership association whose purpose is to offer assistance to county commissioners, and other lawmakers and to encourage counties to work together on common issues. Once identified, CCI lobbies the State Assembly on these common issues. (CCI lobbied against a bill similar to SB18-221 in 2012.)
• Staff from Delta County’s Health and Human Services Department told Commissioners that Delta County is facing a growing housing storage for troubled teens who have been mandated to the court. Many of these young adults suffer from drug and alcohol addiction, mental health challenges and other serious issues that make them difficult to place in foster care, while tough state regulations make building and managing care facilities a daunting task. With only one care facility in Delta County, most of the area’s troubled teens are being sent to Denver facilities making family rehabilitation more difficult.