New members appointed to sustainability board
The Ridgway Town Council appointed Terry Schuyler and Christiane Frischmuth to the Ridgway Sustainability Advisory Board after brief interviews at the Sept. 9 council meeting.
Schuyler was a founding member of the advisory board and served as the town council’s ex-officio representative when he was on the town council. Frischmuth said she chose not to buy a car when she moved to Ridgway in 2021 to reduce her carbon footprint and volunteers for local organizations including the Ouray Trail Group.
Including the council’s ex-officio member Beth Lakin, the board now has five members. The board can have between three and seven members, according to its bylaws.
Schuyler and Frischmuth were the only applicants after the terms for Dana Ivers and Dave Jones recently lapsed and Kristina Lemon resigned.
Overtime policy adjustment approved for town marshals
The Ridgway Town Council revised the Marshal’s Office overtime policy to pay deputies overtime for time worked after 80 hours per two-week pay period rather than after 86 hours.
For overtime, deputies are paid 1.5 times their standard hourly rate.
Town Marshal Shane Schmalz said overtime is seldom used, but when it is needed it is hard to entice deputies to take extra shifts without overtime pay and he, as the office’s only exempt employee, often covered those shifts.
Councilors said the request to lower the threshold was reasonable.
Firm to develop ADU architectural plans
The Ridgway Town Council approved a bid from 2757 Design Co. to develop a set of architectural plans for accessory dwelling units that would be pre-approved to conform to town code.
A town housing needs assessment from 2025 recommended expediting the process of building accessory dwelling units by adopting pre-approved plans property owners could use to build them. ADUs are small houses or apartments built on the same lot as a larger home. Plan check fees would be waived for property owners who build an ADU with the pre-approved plans.
2757 Design Co. is expected to submit four architectural plans by mid-January, Town Manager Preston Neill said.
Staff recommended the Carbondale-based company out of five proposals. At $29,000, it was the second-lowest bid. The project is supported by a 75% matching accessory dwelling unit grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, so the town will pay for $7,250 of the projected costs.
Town seeks bike park design proposals
The Ridgway Town Council will pay for architectural and engineering design proposals for a bike park as part of the larger effort to develop the Ridgway Athletic Park.
Marissa Mathis, a member of the Ouray County Baseball board of directors, said the organization is working with the Ridgway Pickleball Club and Ridgway Bike Park Inc. to move the project forward as the Ridgway Athletic Park Coalition. In order to apply for a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado, the project needs to be shovel-ready and the design of the bike park portion is needed for that grant application.
Matt McIsaac, a longtime advocate for the bike park, told the council he received a design estimate for $30,000, which would be about 10% of the estimated cost of the track.
Ridgway Town Manager Preston Neill said $125,000 has already been earmarked in the town budget for athletic park improvements. Because of the solicitation timeline, Neill told the council the design payment will probably have to come from the 2027 budget, which has not been drafted yet.
