Talk of the mountain

The Encampment Town Council met at 7 p.m. on July 11 at the Encampment Town Hall to an almost full house. Many attendees were awaiting to hear Mayor Greg Salisbury’s comments on a purchase of land made by Brush Creek Ranch and how that would effect source water protection for the town. It would be the last item on the agenda.

All council members were in attendance.

The first item of business was the swearing in of Grayling Wachsmuth as Chief of Police and Doreen Harvey as Town Clerk/ Treasurer and Clerk of the Court.

The council next approved the municipal judge pay rate per case to be $75.

Next, the agenda and minutes for the June 13 town council meeting were quickly approved.

The June payroll and contracted liabilities of $28,140.63; the manual late month payments totaling $3,294.95 and regular monthly bills at $33,905.83 were approved after Harvey went over the financials.

Janice White, Encampment resident, told the council absentee owners should take care of their residences.

“My concern is that we are getting more and more people buying houses, building houses in the city limits and they are not taking care of their yards,” White said. “The first thing that comes to my mind, it is a safety hazard. When you have grass really high, and there is a fire, we are in trouble.”

She said the absentee owners need to take care of their yards before it gets worse. White noted Dixon and Sinclair had ordinances against this happening. She also pointed out, with new homes being built outside of town, If this was going to effect the town’s water supply.

Salisbury said there was no ordinance concerning the grass being high, but he agreed that if it became a safety situation, the problem could not go unanswered. He said the town could look at other town’s ordinances to see how they addressed the situation.

The mayor suggested sending out letters to let offending residents know the danger of having the grass too high.

He said the town got its water from the surface, not wells, so the town was probably not in danger of running out from the new homes digging wells.

Clint Bromley, Encampment resident, said he was considering putting up a storage unit business in the business district.

Salisbury said, unfortunately, a storage unit business was not in the town’s definitions of accepted businesses.

“We are going to have to address this, but we have to be careful, because it is about setting precedent,” Salisbury said.

Council member Bill Craig said he would like some time to look at the ordinances to see if there was any definition that would cover Bromley’s business.

Salisbury read aloud every business that was included in the business district. He restated the matter needed more research.

“We do need to discuss it,” Salisbury said. “A workshop could be set up to work on this.”

Josh Craig, resident of Encampment and founder of Mother Mountain Anglers, thanked the town for its support during the Tale of Two Cities disc golf tourney. He next requested the use of the town’s stage for his wedding. The request was approved.

Jon Nelson from Northfork Engineering said the sewer lagoon improvement project was being split into two phases.

“For now we are focusing on the dredging portion mainly,” Nelson said. “We took some sludge samples two weeks ago and that is our second set of samples.”

He said, as they retrieved information, the process would move forward getting a contractor.

The sewer service line issue was resolved. Salisbury said the line was now okay, but he cautioned residents, if they had problems with their sewer, to call the town before contracting out to anyone else. He said the town can’t be responsible when a contractor starts working on the situation.

“There is nothing we can do once someone else is brought in,” Salisbury said.

The council approved being responsible for the main sewer line and residents responsible for the service lines.

Ordinance 2019-01, a Union Telephone Franchise Agreement, was approved for its 3rd and final reading.

The planning commission told the council it would be pulling the deadline date for permitting on Friday before the monthly planning commission meeting. This would give three to four days to access the properties.

Three thousand dollars were approved to pay for advertisements, food for the barbecue and balance due for the band for the event Music in the Park to be held on Aug. 3.

A lien release was approved for Block 22 lots 11 and 12 which had been paid in full by the owner.

Dumpster use in the RV area, Senior Center and Thrift Store was discussed. Council member Kim Loftice said often the Senior Center dumpster is used by RV area users. The council decided to look into the cost of having trash picked up twice a week.

Organizational contracts were approved for Carbon County EDC at $250; Mountain Man Rendezvous for $500; Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering for $500; and Encampment Preschool for $1,250.

Harvey said the audit of the town suggested a separate bank account for municipal court fines be set up. The council approved the new account.

The council is researching a resolution for residents who call public works to turn on water during off hours. Public works said if a resident did request water to be turned on during off hours, a fee should be charged.

The council approved the purchase of eight water meters at $1,363.20. The council is researching the possibility of buying bulk amount of meters. This would allow changing the meters on a scheduled basis instead of purchasing a small quantity at a high price when the meters break down.

The council approved up to $1,000 for tool kits for public works.

RNB State Bank was approved to be a depository for public funds. The approval was done because of the new name change by the bank that was formerly known as Rawlins National Bank.

$1,137.28 was approved for parts and labor to fix the town’s road grader.

Salisbury went to the last item on the agenda that many attendees were waiting to hear.

“There was a Source Water Protection Plan Review in 2008,” Salisbury said. “At that point, there was a lot of discussion about a ski resort on Green Mountain and it was a hot topic for a while. Then there was talk of a 200 unit development.”

The ski resort did not materialize as years went by.

Salisbury said there was a recent change.

“I just had a meeting with Bruce White (owner of Brush Creek Ranch) this morning, after we had heard a lot rumors and we just wanted to know what was actually happening,” Salisbury said. “With that discussion, we learned they did purchase the property and, basically, what he said at this point and time is that they are going to put in a little bit of a ski area, mostly for personal use and some of their clients.”

Salisbury said Brush Creek was looking to do cat skiing, where a snow cat runs people up and down the mountain. He said there might even be a tow rope installed.

“They said there will be one building and a barn to house the cat, but there isn’t going to be a lot of buildings,” Salisbury explained. “They might even someday open it up to the public.”

Salisbury said he told White of the concerns of the town. The dominant being development might effect the water shed. The mayor said he told White that Brush Creek would have to follow DEQ’s rules strictly. Salisbury pointed out Carbon County planning commission was going to have to approve any development. Encampment has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Carbon County, so the town would be kept aware of the development.

Comments from the audience were concern about the water shed and the possible impact of more development at Brush Creek Ranch.

“This is why we passed the MOU with the county,” Salisbury said. “I know there is a lot of concern, but Mr. White was very friendly and seemed honestly interested in our thoughts.”

Not all attendees were assured with Brush Creek’s plans.

“I realize there is definite concern and we will be paying close attention,” Salisbury said. “We will keep abreast of what is going on.”

The next scheduled–– town council will be at 7 p.m. on Aug 8 at the Encampment Town Hall.