By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
It began in a special joint meeting with the Raton Water Board Tuesday evening September 13 and carried over into the regular city commission meeting where the approval of the lease agreement for Lake Dorothey with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife was postponed till the next regular city commission meeting.
At issue is the fact that the final draft of the lease agreement was sent to commissioners and water board members only Monday September 12. Therefore, commissioners finally decided to postpone the approval of the agreement until the Sept 27 meeting to allow the Raton Water Board to view and approve or disprove the lease agreement with the primary concern of protecting the watershed for Raton’s water supply.
Mike Brown Area Wildlife Manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife met with the commission and water board and went over the purpose and mission of the department with respect to the Lake Dorothey Wildlife area. The primary purpose of a wildlife area is conservation and preservation of wildlife for hunting and fishing more so than other forms of recreation. This is at odds with many hikers and mountain bikers who were in the audience for the meeting. Leslie Fernandez noted that they were putting wildlife first and humans second. Her concern is being able to hike and bike the area year-round. Brown noted that the Wildlife area would be closed May 15 to June 30 for elk calving and December 1 to April 30 for wintering protection.
Of course, convincing Ratonians that mixing wildlife and humans is not as detrimental to the wildlife as Brown noted in his presentation, just look around Raton noted Jared Chatterly where you have an elk herd on the golf course and deer all over the place in town.
According to City Manager Scott Berry this is simply a renewal of the current lease with a couple of changes. At question is a paragraph which only allows the State of Colorado to cancel the lease. In the current lease agreement both the City of Raton and the State of Colorado have that ability Colfax County Commissioner Roy Fernandez strongly objected to that asking why Raton would want to give up that option. Also at odds is the fee structure to access the wildlife area. Brown noted that some of this is to bring the area in line with other state parks and wildlife areas in the state. The fee structure was made by the Colorado State Legislature. The problem with that is that most of the wildlife area will be closed for six and half months for elk calving and wintering which in effect doubles the cost for access. Also, the lease agreement has raised the cost to CPW from $10,000 to $25,000 a year. (Link to Lake Dorothy Wildlife Area Lease)
There are a lot of questions still open with respect of the purchase of the Bartlett Mesa ranch and access to Fisher Peak State Park and access to Fisher Peak itself. Commissioner Ron Chavez thought the only access to Fisher Peak itself was a road from Lake Dorothey through the James John Wildlife Area thus bringing more people through Raton to access the peak. All of this is an economic driver for Raton and as John Robertson noted we need to be more hospitable and inviting.
Commissioners approved the event forms for the PBW/Kiwanis 26th annual Walk and Run for Domestic Violence Awareness and the Inspirado LLC Video production on 1st street. The filming is to create a business campaign ad for Raton. They also approved the public celebration permit for Blü Dragonfly Brewing for the Relay for Life event to be held on First street. On October 1st, 2022.
Commissioners appointed Brandy Dietz to the Lodger’s Tax Advisory Board. Then after discussion with Patricia Duran about the work she does with promoting Raton approved the request to add $10,000 to the funding for the Center for Community Innovation.
Commissioners approved the escrow agreement for utility construction with Raton Homes LLC for the Anthony Subdivision Development project. They also approved the vacation of the alley located within Block two of the Dale Subdivision which went along with the approval of the new plat for the Anthony’s Subdivision which includes Tract one through seven on 4.272 acres. (Link to Anthony’s Subdivision Plat) (Link to Steet and Alley Vacate Map)
An amendment was approved to allow Raton Public Service Company to move monies that was awarded by the American Rescue Act funds for electric meter replacement however much of that money has not been used by residents, so RPS wants to use the left-over money for the new solar system instead of stranding the money in the meter replacement program.
Commissioners approved a resolution to participate in a transportation project fund agreement and request a match waiver administered by the New Mexico DOT. The agreement will provide Raton with over $1 million for a citywide chip seal project. (Link to Map for streets to be Chip Sealed)
Raton will apply for a grant pilot program called Reconnecting Communities. The grant money will be used to design the project on the frontage road on the east side of I-25 and more specifically the bridge which is in need of major upgrades in order to handle I-25 traffic during the construction of the new interchange.
Commissioners also approved the application for Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge grant to the National Endowment for the Humanities for $300k. The caveat to the grant is the city must do a fund-raising project to raise $150k for matching funds. The money will be used for plumbing improvements at the Shuler Theater.
Raton received the official approval letter for their final budget and that was followed by the first budget adjustment of Fiscal Year 23. The adjustment moved monies around to help with the closeout of grants including the CDBG grant and the PAPI system at the airport. (Link to Budget Adjustment #1 FY23)
City Manager Scott Berry elected to hold his report till the next meeting due to the lateness of the current meeting. The next city commission meeting is scheduled for September 27, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. in the commission chambers.
