Impacts to public lands and issues related to overuse dominated the Ouray County commissioner meeting this week, in which everything from long-term RV camping enforcement to wildflower picking was discussed.

Progress on the protective measures at the Ironton Historic site on Red Mountain Pass is being made, according to an update to commissioners from Pat Willits, executive director of the Trust for Land Restoration. Concerns about increased visitation and camping led the group to place barriers around the area.

A volunteer with heavy equipment moved large slate rock slabs down Highway 550 from a nearby site and placed them around the houses to protect them.

Willits said the next step is to remove dead trees at risk of falling on the houses. The trees have been flagged, and Commissioner Jake Niece said he saw the trees and agreed they should be removed quickly.

Commission Chairman Ben Tisdel said he wants to see the trees first. Commissioner Lynn Padgett wanted confirmation that they are not on U.S. Forest Service land.

Commissioners discussed several other public lands issues with Dana Gardunio, the Forest Service’s district ranger, and Sheriff Justin Perry centering around a broad range of issues with overuse of public lands and lack of resources for enforcement.

One agenda discussion item was the “Ironton Spontaneous Trailer Park Phenomenon” with RVs appearing to park all summer at the historic mining town site.

Perry said his department simply had more pressing tasks than to take down license plate numbers and come back two weeks later to see if someone was camping past the Forest Service’s 14-day limit.

Port-a-potty locations and new vault toilet needs were also discussed, with Gardunio saying that port-a-potties were easier to maintain. She said there is only one company in the region that services vault toilets.

They also discussed issues with wildflower picking. Gardunio said it was discouraged as part of the “leave no trace” philosophy but it was not illegal.

Perry praised Gardunio for her work, saying he often sees members of the Forest Service at work in the backcountry when he is out there.

Long meetings addressed, items postponed

Commissioner meetings continue to run long and this has become a point of friction between the board members.

The topic arose during administrative reports, which were scheduled to occur at 11:45 a.m. but did not occur until after 4 p.m. during the final hour of a meeting that began at 9 a.m. and did not include a lunch break.

Niece requested Tisdel, who is the chairman of the board this year and runs the meetings, reschedule items to work sessions when it seemed that the discussions were getting too lengthy to respect people’s time who are scheduled later on the agenda. Niece said he often finds himself frustrated and apologized for sometimes being rude about it.

Niece and Padgett also requested Tisdel limit public hearing comments to a set time, depending on how many participants are present.

Niece and Tisdel also butted heads earlier in the meeting when Tisdel refused to adopt a resolution supporting updates to the Colorado Communities for Climate Action policy statement because he hadn’t reviewed the 10-page document yet.

Niece asked Tisdel to try to stick to budgeted times on the agenda and take the initiative to set matters aside or continue them if necessary.

“I did that earlier, and then I got spanked, so I’m not sure, whichever way I do it I seem to be accused of not doing it properly,” Tisdel said, adding that he cannot control how long people talk.

Tuesday’s lengthy meeting resulted in commissioners pushing some agenda items to future meetings.

A request for the approval of two types of liquor licenses by the Ouray KOA was postponed until August to allow County Attorney Carol Viner time to figure out if commissioners, acting as the local licensing authority, can consider unrelated violations the applicant may be guilty of when deciding to approve a liquor license.

Complaints against the Ouray KOA started last year when they were accused of ignoring the county’s public health orders limiting lodging due to COVID concerns.

A neighbor called into Tuesday’s meeting to complain that a new food prep area of the KOA didn’t have engineered drawings and was not properly permitted. She said the owners were “playing fast and loose with county regulations,” and she didn’t think they should be permitted to serve alcohol if they cannot follow the rules.

Commissioners said they had also heard complaints about parking on County Road 23, across the road from the KOA entrance, which is part of the KOA’s property but reportedly interferes with a school bus turnout.

After some discussion, commissioners agreed it would be appropriate to ask the county attorney to work with Land Use staff, the Sheriff’s Office and the Road and Bridge Department to get to the bottom of the issues before deciding whether or not to renew the license.

A Ouray County right-of-way use agreement with Deeply Digital and Clearnetworx, LLC was not approved after a long, sometimes heated back-and-forth between county officials, Doug Seacat, the companies’ owner, and Casey Irving, the companies’ director of business development.

Commissioners and staff had difficulty understanding the issues Seacat and Irving had with the proposed agreement and ultimately asked them to come back to commissioners with the problems they have with the agreement in writing.

Deeply Digital was contracted to install fiber internet for the Ouray County Public Health broadband project, which began in 2019 and was officially completed last month. It brought fiber optic cable approximately 48 miles, from Montrose over Log Hill, into Ridgway and south to Ouray.

After the discussion, County Administrator Connie Hunt clarified via email to the Plaindealer that the proposed agreement was meant to address an issue that stemmed from an incident 18 months ago, when the company installed extra conduit in the county’s right of way without permission, outside the contract for the project.