by Beecher Threatt
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The Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday addressed the difficult topic of regulating slash burns but also heard about a planned community event to celebrate mud.
The slash burn issue brought a dozen or so residents to the board meeting, most of whom are agricultural producers, concerned about their ability to carry out burns. Commission Chair Heidi Albritton told residents that the county is responding to a 2011 state statute mandating a slash burn process in all counties.
"We did not want to tackle this issue this year, but we must comply," Albritton said. She noted that agricultural burns are exempt from the process, as are burns by federal agencies. Albritton said this is not a big issue in the county because almost all burns are called in to the Sheriff's department ahead of time, but the statute mandates a written procedure.
"We want to protect local control. We're tired of unfunded mandates. We don't need or want this. We want to comply in the most minimally invasive way possible," Albritton said.
'Slash' is defined as woody material less than six inches in diameter, consisting of limbs, branches and stems that are free of dirt. It does not include stumps or roots.
Commissioner Mike Fedel lauded the county's current system and said with adding just a few sentences it could comply with the new statute. Planned burns are called in to the Sheriff's department now.
Commissioner Lynn Padgett explained the bill originated with a state senator from a small Front Range county that had a large fire. Padgett said the intent is to educate the public about burning and to increase the ability of first responders to react quickly. But she thinks the statute goes too far.
"This is an insult to the people of this county. We have people here with good common sense," resident Linda Ingo told the commissioners, who assured her that ag burns are exempt.
Interim county attorney Kathryn Sellars presented a draft ordinance that included a formal permit system, but commissioners told her they preferred the least regulation possible. Sellars said the statute allows for just a notification process 48 hours prior to burns, with a mechanism for notifying persons with respiratory illnesses and contiguous landowners.
The county's new Wide-area Emergency Notification System (WENS) can be that mechanism, she said.
All county residents have been encouraged to sign up for emergency notifications to their cell phones and email addresses through WENS. The sign-up process takes less than a minute from a link on the county's home page (www.ouraycountyco.gov). Anyone on the WENS system would get notice of a proposed burn.
Albritton asked Sellars to prepare an ordinance with a procedure for notifying the county when a non-ag burn will take place and for penalties only after a warning has been issued. "We will not be pursuing a regulatory permit process," Albritton assured those in attendance.
Mattivi and ag producers in the audience agreed that their current voluntary notification to the Sheriff's office is beneficial and will continue. Mattivi said that under the new ordinance his office would maintain a log of notifications by non-ag landowners that they intend to burn slash, and he would send out notification to everyone on the county WENS system.
The plan is for the first and second readings of the new ordinance to occur during the BOCC meetings on Jan. 24 and Feb. 7. Those meetings will be public hearings with opportunities for the public to provide comment. The ordinance will be published in the Plaindealer on Jan. 26, if the first reading does take place Jan. 24.
Also on Tuesday a contingent from the Ouray Chamber Resort Association and the Ridgway Area Chamber of Commerce told the BOCC about a planned "Mud Fest" in April.
Kari Wage, president of RACC, said she had never before seen collaboration between the two chambers and thanked OCRA for approaching RACC with the idea. "OCRA has RACC's complete support," Wage told commissioners.
The preliminary plan, OCRA operations director Kat Papenbrock said, is to have events at the 4-H Center and at the Ouray Community Center on April 28. She presented a preliminary budget of $18,000, with estimated income to cover all expenses. Estimated attendance is 250.
Papenbrock said the county will be asked to provide security for the event. Daytime events at the 4-H Center may include a tractor pull with antique tractors, a motocross exhibition, four wheel drive obstacle course competitions, mud volleyball, foot races, mud pie contests and mud badminton.
The community center would host a Mud Ball dance that evening.

Planned for the "shoulder season" between winter sports and summer vacations, the festival would embrace the county's mud and become a sustainable, annual event, OCRA president Brandy Ross told commissioners. "We want to put in the mindset of four-wheelers that April means we go to Ouray County," she said.
Heidi Pankow, marketing manager for OCRA, said she has been in touch with radio stations in Grand Junction about coverage and bringing in their on-air personalities. "We are looking for $5,000 level sponsors, and we may have a $10,000 sponsor," Pankow said. She plans to market the event as far away as Durango and Moab, where a Jeeping event takes place two weeks before.
Albritton told the group, "Having the two chambers work together is great. It needs to happen. We (Ouray and Ridgway) complement each other. We don't compete." Albritton asked for specifics regarding the county's contribution of security, which Papenbrock said will be forthcoming.
Padgett asked what would happen if substantially more than 250 people showed up. Fairgrounds manager Susan Long said the set-up cordons off spectators from the events, with an eye toward a larger crowd. "The idea is to create a flow throughout," Long said..
Fedel said, "Shoulder season is the Holy Grail. This looks like a great proposal to break through that barrier."
In other business Tuesday, the BOCC:
--discussed the denial by the state of the U.S. Forest Service's request for a grant to fund the Alpine Ranger position. Tammy Randall-Parker, district ranger for the Forest Service, told the board on Monday that the grant had been denied. Ouray County did reserve funds in its 2012 budget to cover its portion of the ranger position in the same amount as it did last year. The position is for a non-law enforcement ranger to patrol Jeep roads during the summer months.
--heard from Long that the fairgrounds New Year's Eve fundraiser was successful, and the fairgrounds board is planning to make it even better next year, perhaps adding a live band to replace the DJ. Long estimated 130 people attended, up from 102 last year.
--received a memo from Albritton outlining goals and strategies for the BOCC for the coming year. Discussion of the memo is set on the board's Jan. 24 agenda.
--passed a resolution adopting the principles of REAL, which stands for Responsive, Efficient, Accountable Services delivered through Local-State Partnership. This resolution, Albritton said, is an open acknowledgment that BOCC likes this way of thinking about governance. It tells the state that local governments want to control their own dollars and fight inefficiency in state government. (See page 12 for Albritton's column on REAL.) "I love this idea. If we can make government think like this we will be successful," Fedel said.