Give me a call to order the town council meeting on March 24th, 2026.

If you'll please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States.

Liberty.

Okay, well, the town clerk, please take roll.

Here council member Baer.

Present.

Mayor Pro Tembell.

Here.

Councilmember Mortalero.

Here.

Councilmember O'Connor.

Present.

Councilmember Hoback.

Here.

Councilmember Passer Morelli.

President.

And Mayor Moore.

Here.

Mayor, you have a quorum.

All right.

Thank you.

All right, we'll see if there is a motion to approve the agenda tonight.

So moved.

Second.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed, say no.

All right.

Motion carries.

We have an agenda.

We have 17 items on the consent agenda.

And some of you may notice my voice is a little uh weak tonight.

I'm five days post surgery.

I'm gonna just go slow through these.

We'll get through them.

Just know it's uh it's uh gonna be quite a few here.

All right, the first one is item 2026 uh 215, approval of the March 10th, 2026 town council meeting minutes.

Item 2026 70, the town of Erie Earth Week Proclamation, sponsored uh by Councilmember Pesor Melly and Councilmember O'Connor.

2026 206, the Arbor Day Proclamation sponsors councils uh council members, uh it's sponsored by uh the same two, Council members O'Connor and Pessar Melly.

The next item is item 2026 22, law enforcement property and evidence technicians week proclamation sponsored by uh Mayor Pro Tim Bell and Councilmember O'Connor.

Item 2026 155, a resolution of the town council of town of Erie approving a second amendment to the tax increment revenue agreement with the town of Erie Urban Renewal Authority for the Town Erie Town Center Urban Renewal Plan.

Next item is 2026 126, an ordinance of the town council of town of Erie granting a utility easement to public services company of Colorado and approving the associated easement agreement.

Next item is 2026-175, a resolution of the town council of town area approving a fourth amendment to the agreement for services with ag finity incorporated for the purchase of fertilizer application services.

Item 2026 176, a resolution of the town council of town area approving an agreement for professional services with Iron Stride Solutions, PC for consulting services.

Next item is 2026 210, a resolution of the town council of town area approving a permanent easement agreement between the town of Erie and Flight Park LLC.

Item 2026 208, an ordinance of the town council of the town of Erie granting a utility easement to public services company of Colorado and approving the associated easement agreement.

Next item is 2026 201, a resolution of the town council of town of Erie approving a First Amendment to approving a first amendment to agreement for services with velocity plant services, LLC on call maintenance services for the water treatment facility.

Item 2026 187, a resolution of the town council of town of Erie approving a purchase agreement with Jimmy Sue Guangheim for the purchase of 11 Colorado Big Thompson units.

Item 2026 211, a resolution of the town council of town area approving the an agreement for the sale and purchase of CBT units with the Rocky Mountain Conference of the Seventh Day at Venice for the purchase of a hundred Colorado Big Thompson units.

Item 2026 203, a resolution of the town council of town area approving an agreement for services with ENM Concrete LLC for ADA construction work.

Item 2026 188, a resolution of the town council of the town area approving a grant agreement with the Division of Aeronautics for Erie Municipal Airport Paving Maintenance.

Two more.

And the last item on our consent agenda tonight is item 2026 189, a resolution of the town council, the town erie approving a First Amendment to construction contract with RCD Construction Incorporated for the Vista Ridge Ponds A 19 and A20.

You have a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So move.

Second.

Second, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Motion carries.

We have approved the consent agenda tonight.

All right.

Deep breath.

We'll go on to public comment.

And if you have not signed up for public comment, there's a kiosk in the lobby where you can do so.

And I'll look to our town clerk to start us off.

Do you want to read the public comment rules?

Yes, I do.

Thank you.

All right.

Please remember the public comment is not an interactive QA forum, but rather a time for you to state your comments on a particular item or issue.

Public comment provides the opportunity to discuss items that are not public hearings.

Please sign up in the kiosk in the lobby.

If you have if I if you have a handout, please hand it to the town clerk.

She will distribute it to the council included into the meeting record.

When called upon, please state your full name and location for the record.

Public comment is limited to three minutes per person.

You'll be given a 20-second warning when your three minutes are almost up.

At the three minute mark, you'll be asked to wrap up your final sentence.

All opinions are welcome, and please be respectful of each speaker to ensure everyone feels welcome to share their comments.

Please refrain from any cheering, clapping, booing, or otherwise disruptive behavior.

All right.

First person is Anna Clark.

My name is Anna Clark.

I'm an Erie resident in District 2.

I would like to read for public comment the email I sent to the Erie Town Council a couple weeks ago.

To the members of Erie Town Council, I'm writing in response to the public comment made by Shannon Milliken on March 10th.

By her own statement, she has testified before you three times about the fear the residents of color have expressed over ongoing ICE activity.

Ms.

Milliken asked the town council to acknowledge these spheres, a bare minimum for our local leaders.

This fear is real.

We see every day how people of color are profiled and violently detained by federal agents, regardless of their citizenship status and without due process.

We also know that ICE processing center is located in a neighboring town, not six miles from Erie Town Hall.

The youngest detainees held in the Frederick facility were six years old.

My own children have seen these actions of the federal agents on the news.

They are informed.

They pay attention, like so many Erie residents do.

Last year, my daughter saw a news report about a Colorado father who was abducted by ICE after dropping his daughter at school.

My daughter is a quiet and thoughtful person, and we did not know how much this impact her.

A few weeks later, we received an email from her teacher that her cell phone had been found with her during an elementary school field trip, which was not permitted.

When we asked why she would break those rules, she explained through tears that she was afraid that ICE would take her friends from school, and she wanted her phone to call for help.

She was only 11 years old.

My child was willing to speak up to protect her friends, not believing adults would reliably do that for them.

Our children feel unsafe, and it is our responsibility to protect them and comfort them.

I am deeply concerned by the silence from this town council.

Ms.

Milliken is asking for the members to acknowledge our residents' fears, recognize them, and believe them.

And I'm joining her in this request.

Our children deserve to feel safe, and the families deserve respect of being heard.

And so I will be attending as many tone meetings as I can, sitting in solidarity with Ms.

Milliken and the residents of Erie, whose voices are not being heard, waiting to hear from our local leaders.

Thank you.

My timer is not working, sorry.

Okay.

Um next is Laurel O.

Hi.

Can you hear me okay with my mouth?

Okay.

You may want to pull the microphone just a little bit.

Is that better?

Okay.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Council members.

My name is Laurel, and my pronouns are she, her.

I am in Erie regularly in relation to my profession and volunteer work.

I've had the honor and pleasure of working with survivors of the Holocaust and genocide.

I have family members born in America that were in the Japanese American camps during World War II.

Firstly, I want to acknowledge that I am a white woman who was raised in a multiracial home.

I was invited to speak this evening by members of racially marginalized communities.

My voice is not more important than others, nor does it supersede the lived experiences of other people.

I acknowledge that my white privilege allows me to walk out the door every day with an inherent level of safety due to the color of my skin.

I have an ethical and professional responsibility to speak out and to listen, just like you.

As you may be aware, we are entering planting season.

This year, the risk is higher than ever.

The seeds of terror have already been planted in your community by ICE.

Silence feeds that seed until it takes root.

Roots, when actively cared for can grow and thrive.

However, some unchecked roots will grow to a point that they crack the very foundation of the town that you have taken an oath to protect and nurture.

Today, the roots have rot.

Children and adults across the country and in your community are terrified, rightfully so.

Less than 10 miles from where you are sitting is an ICE enforcement and removal operations office or what's called an ICE ERO.

They are your neighbor, and they are not a friendly one.

ICE ERO offices historically permitted a 12-hour maximum hold time.

On June 24th, 2025, that time frame was extended to a maximum hold of 72 hours.

These spaces are designed to be temporary, short term.

They frequently lack beds and access to showers.

Publicly available data shows that ICE ERO offices are breaking their own rules.

Children and adults are being held for far longer than 72 hours.

Less than 10 miles from where you are sitting now.

A man was held in the Frederick, Colorado ICE ERO location for 34 days.

The youngest person detained at the Frederick Ice ERO location was six years old.

Longer stays are not only inhumane and illegal, they increase health risk both physically and emotionally.

In 2026, Colorado is among the top five states with the most flu activity in the country, with doctors' visits for flu like illness at a 30-year record high, according to the CDC.

You cannot wash your hands of this reality.

And neither can I.

To put this in context, imagine that your council meeting has suddenly been moved less than 10 miles away.

Then the door is locked.

Maybe you had worked at your other job all day, and without warning, your meeting is moved.

Maybe you tell your family you will be home for dinner.

How would you feel if that two-hour council meeting lasted for 34 days?

What if you were begging them and saying that they were breaking the law?

And what if they did not listen?

Guess how many two-hour council meetings you could hold in those 34 days?

408 meetings in 816 hours.

20 seconds.

I would say that you should take a break and get some sleep.

However, in an ICE ERO office, you would not have access to a bed.

And I implore you.

I will come back week after week to share my lived experiences and my work with Holocaust and genocide survivors.

The time to act is now.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Let's see.

We have some members, I think, here from uh Jacob Slavin's family.

We have some seats up front that were reserved if you want to come around this way.

And Debbie, it's okay to keep going.

Okay.

Um next we have umlikan.

I think you're good.

Okay.

All right.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Council members.

My name is Shannon and I reside in Thornton, but I'm invested in this community through the daily work I do and being a parent to a little girl who goes to a school in Erie.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak again.

I want to begin by acknowledging something important.

In the last couple of weeks, we saw members of this council take meaningful step forward, reaching out, starting conversations, coming to the table with ideas, and asking for feedback.

This matters.

This is how the work begins, and it takes courage to step into a space where you are learning, listening, and being challenged.

And so I want to recognize that effort.

At the same time, we cannot lose sight of what brought us here.

Families of color in your community are living with real fear because of ICE activity.

That fear is present right now.

It is shaping how people move through their daily lives, how safe they feel, and how connected they feel to this community.

And this is where leadership matters most because strong leadership is not just about the work that happens behind the scene.

It's about a community.

It's what a community can see, hear, and feel from the people who represent them.

Your voices carry weight.

When you speak, it signals what the town stands for.

That kind of clarity, it just can't be assumed.

It has to be communicated.

It's been said that if something were to happen in our town, leadership would respond.

But I want to ask a different question.

Why should something have to happen first?

Why should it take a frightening moment?

Someone getting hurt, a family getting separated, or a crisis in your streets before action is taken.

The goal of proactive leadership is not to react to harm.

It is to prevent it.

Because once something happens, the damage is already done.

Trust is already shaken.

Safety is already compromised.

Proactive leadership says we prepare now.

We communicate now and we stand with our community now.

Naming that fear publicly does not challenge federal law.

It does not direct non-cooperation.

It simply says, we see you, we hear you, and your safety matters here.

That is well within your authority, and it is essential to building trust.

Strong leadership is not just about making decisions for the greatest number.

It's about standing with people when it's uncomfortable, when it is uncertain, and when there is a perceived risk.

That is the kind of leadership moment that is in front of you now.

So the question is not just about a three-year funding horizon, it's about long-term help of this community.

What is the cost of not acknowledging the fear some of your residents are living with?

What is the cost of silence?

Your residents are not a percentage.

They're not a calculated weighted against funding.

They are your community.

And the investment that matters most is not money.

It is trust.

I want to close where I began.

We are encouraged by this outreach and the conversations and the willingness to engage.

This is real progress.

And we invite you to continue in that direction with a clear next step.

20 seconds.

We are asking you to bring forward a public proclamation that directly acknowledges the fear families in this community are living with right now and clearly states what this town will do to support and protect them.

This is how you're this is how trust is rebuilt in a community that is very clearly divided, whether this town council wants to admit it or not.

That is how communities move forward.

And to our communities of color right now, especially right now, when fear is heightened, we see you.

There are people in this room who show up who sit and stand in solidarity every two weeks.

We see you, we hear you, and we stand with you because your safety matters.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Next is uh Cammy Namath.

Good evening.

Um I'm Cammy Nemet.

This is Bernadette Melton, Lisa Knutson.

Um, we're with Erie Uplink.

Uh, as many as you know, Erie Uplink is a local nonprofit.

Um, we are 100% volunteer ran.

Um, we help families in our community who are struggling to make ends meet.

Um, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank the town of Erie for the support that we receive for our work through the grant that we recently received.

Um our largest program is our Tiger Packs program.

This is primarily a food assistance program uh that includes non-perishable food items for kids in our schools over school breaks.

We currently serve about 160 students in Erie preschool through 12th grade.

Uh, these kids come from about 80 families in our community.

Uh we receive support from families and groups, uh, whether it be churches, schools, scouts, businesses.

They come together, they help with drives, fundraisers, um, you name it sometimes.

It's just a couple of neighbors that get together to pack a couple tiger packs, but every single one counts.

And even though our community is incredibly giving and supportive, we couldn't serve the families, the number of families we do and the way we do without the grant that we received from the town this year.

Um we purchase food usually three times per year.

We buy in bulk to try to make our dollars stretch as far as possible.

Without the grant, we would have to either cut the number of items that we could supply for our families or restrict who we could serve.

Since 2019, not only have the number of students we serve doubled, but the cost of each tiger pack has more than doubled.

We would like to ask that you please accept our sincere gratitudes for this incredibly impactful grant.

This gift truly exemplifies our mission of Erie people serving Erie people.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you for coming out tonight.

Next we have Dave Sullivan.

My name's Dave Sullivan, 640 Brig Street in Erie.

I'm the executive director of the Erie High School Education Foundation here in Erie.

We're a 501 C3 nonprofit.

And I'm here to thank the town and the board for one of your community grants that you awarded us this year.

This year we were able to take the community grant money and almost double it and put it into scholarships.

We gave uh six life where we haven't awarded yet.

We're about to award scholarships.

Six lifetime student grants, those are students or scholarships.

Those are students that have gone through the Erie school system from first grade to 12th grade.

We gave six, we're gonna give six $1,000 scholarships.

Also that community grant money will be shared uh in a scholarship for our Erie Excellence, which is our top applicant.

That applicant will be getting $3,000, and this is our second year of doing staff scholarships.

We have staff that go on to further education.

That staff with this shared uh community grant money will be $2,000.

Uh this year 2000 uh 2026, we'll be doing 52 scholarships, including seven alumni scholarships.

Uh nobody I know of does alumni that comes from our the old days when we started this.

Uh Old Town Erie was a small place.

We kind of all took care of our own.

If we believe it or not, if we had an apartment for rent, somebody's son would would rent it or a car or a house to buy.

So we decided to continue with our alumni that have graduated and are off into college and they can reapply.

So this year we're doing doing seven, and we're doing the one scholarship uh for staff.

Uh I don't have oh since 2007, we've given 419 scholarships, including 52 alumni, and with this year's total, we'll have 751,500 that we've given away since uh 2007.

We're always looking for more money.

We have so many applicants that are outstanding.

We can give more scholarships.

So I'd like any to ask anybody that's interested in donating to please remain seated.

Thank you.

And we've got some big donors in town.

20 seconds.

Like 20 seconds.

I'm I'm sorry.

Waste connections, Randy Torville, and Dennis Stover, County Line Lumber, Diverge Homes, and many, many more.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Um next is Claire Scott.

Good evening, town council and mayor.

This is just a prop.

I haven't written anything down.

Um I am here to speak.

Oh, first off, my name is Claire Scott.

I live in Vista Ridge.

Uh 25 years uh Erie resident.

I'm here to speak also to the much more eloquent speakers that came before me uh regarding this issue of fear in our communities.

It is real.

Um I spend a lot of time in Lafayette simply because I go to church in Lafayette.

But uh as you can tell, I have white privilege, so maybe I don't have any skin in the game.

Pun intended.

Are people of color in our communities are rightfully scared?

What's happening is disturbing at best.

As an ally, I have a lot of friends of color who sometimes are afraid to go to work, afraid to go to school and learn, and afraid to come to church.

This is a sad statement.

I know that we do not control ice.

Ice seems to be a little uncontrollable, in my opinion, but that's my opinion.

But we do control the narrative in our own communities.

And the narrative is very powerful in letting people know they have people behind them that are willing to help protect them.

But more than just protect them, protect their rights.

White privilege doesn't mean that some rogue ice agent might not kill a white U.S.

citizen.

We've seen that in practice.

Even if they have legal residency here.

We've seen that in practice.

All we're really asking you to do, there's a lot of great resolutions coming out.

One more resolution.

You have what, 17 of them tonight?

A resolution saying, oh, 20 seconds.

We see you.

We will do everything in our power to help protect you and protect your rights.

It's as simple as that, and it can go further than that if you're interested.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Um next is Veronica Drew.

My name is Veronica Drew, and Yuri resident, and I would like to give my three minutes to Steve Drew.

Thanks for your service very much.

Um I also appreciate the engagement that you're able to do out there, especially Brandon Bell.

He's been incredibly engaging this past week.

This is a topic I brought up last time.

Uh I had all of two days to study for it and came in head spinning, thinking about you know what's the impact, what's going on.

That was also the first time ever doing something like this.

Uh I'm an Erie resident, Colliers Hill, Love Erie, uh, like a lot of my family uh members do as well.

Um so this is a conversation about Erie families.

So I don't represent any interests other than your neighbors, my neighbors, the eerie families within this conversation.

So there's no goals other than reach to it from that angle.

Uh last time I came in, I was looking for information that might relate to uh mineral rights and the potential sale of mineral rights uh owned by the town of Erie, specifically oil and gas interests.

And uh the struggle I had in this past week is I want to bring you some numbers, I want to bring you some facts, some things like that.

There's so many coulds and shoulds and woulds.

And after a lot of phone calls from people and people stopping by and want to grab coffee, they were looking for the same information.

These are your neighbors.

Uh these are the eerie families saying, hey, what's going on?

Uh I have interests that were very different from mine.

They have mineral rights, they have a variety of other things.

So it led to the issue of saying, well, what why isn't information available?

That's the topic tonight.

You've been talking with Civitas for an offer for over half a year.

Um in the past half year, there have been no dedicated meetings to this topic.

There have been no meetings that have said, hey, here's the intent.

Here's what we've learned.

We're going to show you some impact about the folks that are already impacted by Draco Project.

We're going to share what we're saying about what we're going to do to protect certain rights or not.

Nothing.

This is my choice.

This is the town council's choice for the past half year.

The second thing I learned about is thing called executive session.

Executive session is a tool brought together by the state that allows town councils to take confidential information and bring it out of the purview of the public.

You just you can talk about it without having to share it.

It's been six months of rolling executive sessions where both confidential information and non confidential information has been rolled into a process where you've kept it from us.

That's by choice.

This is not a negotiation issue.

This is a choice issue.

And it is something that you have the right to use as a tool.

But you're using it in a way that you have this on low of this huge amount of people asking questions about impacts.

So there's three things I'm asking tonight on behalf of your neighbors and mine.

Number one, it's time.

Let's get those dedicated meetings put together.

Let us know your intent.

If you're having trouble trying to distinguish between confidential and non-confidential information staff is here to help.

But get the meetings planned together.

Let's get the questions out there.

Not my questions, but everybody's questions and a process put together to get answers associated with it.

It's a real reasonable request.

We're overdue, but let's take care of it.

The second is associated with some sort of commitment.

And that's going to be a personal request.

You know, in here to vote until you've completed that process.

So the request is for each one of you to provide that commitment to your neighbors, writing otherwise.

I think the third one is executive sessions.

That's a process question.

So you have another executive session tonight.

By all indications, it look like it may be related to this subject.

The process associated with these executive sessions takes a vote of whether you're going to go ahead and move ahead of that executive session or not.

I'm asking you to say no, not tonight.

Not until we set up these plans so that you can actually discuss what's going on with us citizens with your neighbors.

Even though I'd love everybody to say that, hey, you know what?

Let's take that time tonight rather than bringing everything inside.

Another another meeting where your neighbors don't get any information.

Let's go ahead and break that apart.

So those are the three things.

I'm looking at my time here.

How much time do I have to do?

I have a minute 30 left.

What's that?

A minute 30.

So we have five parties here that are involved in these conversations.

Homeowners, about 12 million dollars worth of investment in this community.

We are the greatest investors in this community.

You have Civitas, 12 billion dollar company with financial interests, made an offer.

You have the town.

I'm assuming the negotiations are for revenues for the government.

You have a chief operating officer, former chief operating officer is civitas, representing our interests.

Have you vetted him?

Is going to be one of those good questions.

He is actively negotiating to annex the Draco pad on your behalf.

That's part of his contract that you sign.

It's public information.

A lot of questions about that from people.

Has he put together an open and transparent process that has invited all Civitas competitors to openly bid on this?

If you come out of this where Civitas offer, you've got a guy that you haven't necessarily vetted.

You have community.

20 seconds.

Those guys are very litigious, and they're going to come in.

I want to make sure that our revenues are protected on that one.

These plans may be involved.

You may have all the answers, you may have some or none, but it's it's just time.

Thank you very much.

I do appreciate what you do and how you do.

All right, thank you.

Next is Tanya Sharp.

Hi, I'm Tonya Sharp.

I've been in Erie for five years.

I live in Colliers Hill.

Going to echo a little bit of what Steve said, but also I've been doing some reading, and from what I can gather, um, I am not in favor of Erie selling the mineral rights of our our city.

Uh the Draco pad as I understand it now is an unprecedented project.

A lot of what they're doing in the drilling has not been done in Colorado before, five miles of drilling and everything else.

I would hate for our mineral rights to give them an even bigger reason to expand it.

I I think the impact is great enough as it is.

That said, I I may not have all the facts, and I'd love to have a public hearing on the considerations that the city has taken regarding this, uh, being relatively new to Erie, five years.

Um I'm eager to learn.

And so uh to echo that sentiment to please hold um more public hearings, at least educational, and let us be informed a lot more than we are before a vote comes up.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Amy Becker.

Hello.

Last week I was the first time that I came and spoke, and I kind of made a commitment to myself and to you all at that time that I was going to be engaged and I was going to continue to pay very, very close attention to what was happening in my community.

And so while I am not nearly as prepared to speak to you all tonight, I'm I'm kind of uh going a little bit off the cuff.

I listened to my fellow citizens and residents of Erie, and I support them.

I'm here tonight to say that I heard Anna Clark's statements up here, and I hope you did too.

She expressed some very emotional feelings about what her daughter experienced.

If I can hear it in that seat back there, I hope you can hear it in those seats over there.

She's concerned about what her daughter is feeling.

Miss Milliken the same way.

She spoke very eloquently and passionately last week and again this week.

I just hope that she doesn't have to keep coming up here week after week saying the same thing and not seeing the action that she's requesting.

And for my fellow citizens that are talking about the mineral rights.

Well, I support that too, because I want to make sure that the safety and the health of us as residents is first and foremost, and that capitalism and economic uh benefit is not always the top priority.

And so I support my res my fellow citizens with that.

You'll never hear me up here before a microphone microphone speaking about things that I'm not an expert in.

You might hear my intellect and my passion and my compassion and my empathy.

For example, uh last week it was brought at town council.

Somebody said, you know, it's it's we need to be more diligent in our colon cancer screening.

Well, that's my expertise.

I'm in oncology.

And I said, wow, that's actually very accurate what I'm hearing.

That's 100% true.

Colon cancer is on the rise.

Get your colonoscopy.

You shouldn't get it to, you know, 45 is probably pushing it.

We're starting to see that go down to 40.

And I almost came to, you know, there was a public opening at that point, and I almost thought, well, let me just put a plug in for that.

Please do that.

So you'll never hear me up here speaking about those things unless I feel like I'm expert in that field.

But I am up here just urging you all to listen to us and to hear us.

And I'm saying that we're paying attention.

I mean, this room is packed.

I know part of it is packed for USA hockey, and that's awesome.

And I'm I'm fully excited about that too.

And I think we can have our wins and we can celebrate those things.

But I think we need to acknowledge that there are some very serious things being considered by this town, and we want to be involved.

We don't want to find out behind a closed door a decision was made on our behalf without our input.

So I'm going to continue to come every week, listen, and be thoughtful.

So thank you so much.

All right, thank you.

Charlene Bakeman.

What a great town, so many people with great points to make.

I'm Charlene Bakeman, I'm a resident of Erie.

And I have asthma, so I cough.

The town, I have two points to make tonight.

Uh, the town council of Erie is making some decisions on two topics of great interest to the citizens of Erie, for which many folks feel left out of the loop.

You're you've already heard from some folks on this before.

The first concerns um members of the council, apparently in closed door sessions, as the gentleman stated, discussing things like potentially selling the mineral rights for the town.

There these are apparently rumors since folks don't really seem to have info from the council.

So in in the darkness, we'll find the light that we need, right?

The rumor continues the town has a particular company company in mind.

I don't know who that is.

I haven't been told who that is specifically.

I don't haven't seen anything about who that is to sell our mineral rights to.

Finally, the rumor says that the council has hired or is in the process of hiring a recently released top executive from an oil and gas company that may be considering buying our mineral rights.

If so, we wonder about serious conflict of interest on both sides.

Be careful about that.

Um your attorney should should help you on that one.

Uh so why are we concerned?

And if you're you're hearing from people, we don't have details.

We don't know what the conversation truly is.

We're not hearing both sides.

We're not having a discussion.

And I love discussion, as you might be able to tell.

Um, what I want to know is uh we don't know what it means to to be selling mineral rights, for example.

We don't understand whether the rumors are true.

We worry that votes will be made in executive session, as we've discussed.

Uh, will an oil well go under my house?

Will an oil or gas well be near our children's schools?

Will town mineral rights mean that they can dig and drill and frack under town parks, ball fields, streets, the community center, this building.

As I said, I have asthma.

That bothers me a lot.

I want to breathe.

Um, why should we hire someone who can share trade information with this former company?

Why wouldn't we have a town meeting specifically to discuss to explain the rationale?

We all understand keeping sales of property is something you want to keep private, but everyone in this room who lives in Erie has real stakes and the outcome, it could affect our property values and pollute our world.

Um the last thing, which is a separate thing.

I've been talking to a few people and looking up the stuff that I can see the things about what we're talking about regarding uh the money that we use from ARPA to hopefully do affordable housing in a couple.

Councilwoman Baer and others have been really involved in that.

We might be changing some things around there, and I worry about um ARCO wanting their money back.

I was a federal funder of billions of dollars with the Department of Transportation.

I know how it works, it's painful, it's tiring, it's exhausting.

But you want to do it right.

You don't want to have to give the money back if you do something that wasn't allowed.

Um we real we really need public meetings.

People are saying that all along.

Real public meetings, not a 90 second rush.

Um, talk to us, trust us, we trust you.

We we voted for you.

Please have a conversation with us.

Thank you so much.

And I will have a thing to hand in.

Okay.

Thank you.

Marcy Lorne.

Good evening.

Uh, thanks for having us here.

My name is Marcy Lorde.

I am a resident of Erie.

I live in Colliers Hill.

I'm a homeowner, and I'm also a small business owner.

But I just want to make it clear, I'm not affiliated with any kind of like environmental NGO or anything.

I'm just a small business owner, the small company.

Okay.

So the reason I'm here tonight is because of a potential vote on the sale of Erie's mineral rights.

And now I wasn't really aware that this was progressing toward a vote until I started talking to my my neighbors.

And now that's probably on me.

I probably should have been paying better attention.

But then I started to find out certain things that were going on, like we hired uh Alameda to be the consultant on all this, and the former CEO, COO of Civitas.

It's like, okay, what's going on?

And then started talking about the impact on home values, potential impact, anyways, and the selling these rights give away our power for environmental issues, and then this is also get rid of our power when it comes to expanded fracking in other areas.

So over the weekend, I did post something to Facebook that outlined the concerns that many of us have.

And now it was done in good faith.

I just want you to know that.

It was speculative, but it was done coming from a good place where there was actual concerns that we had.

Now, I am not an expert on mineral rights or oil and energy projects, but I do know there can be successful ones.

I know there's some where wells blow up and the local community has our home values impacted and the local ecology impacted.

So I'm also not saying I'm against any potential sale.

What I'm asking is that the council conduct impact studies that look at how expanded fracking will impact home values, how it will impact the local environment, and then hold public discussions about what those findings say.

So we can all feel really good about any potential vote that comes out of that.

So uh, like I said, I'm not expert, uh, but I think you would have some excellent students among all of us here.

If we did do the research, and you did bring us into these conversations, and I also think if we did that due diligence, this is a chance for the council to furnish a legacy.

This is a chance for you guys to set the gold standard about how any future fracking project happens here in Colorado and the rest of the country.

That's all I got.

So thank you for your time.

All right, thank you.

Meredith Canoe.

Good evening.

Um, this is probably a little like groundhog day for you all, but I'm also here to talk about my concerns about the mineral rights being sold.

I live in Colliers Hill.

I live in Colliers Hill.

I love the community of Erie.

I'm a big fan of the way things are done here, but I do recognize the fact that half of the town is in Weld County and half of the town is in Boulder County.

And half of the council is one political affiliation, if I may say that boldly, the other half is the other.

It's not unlike the state of the country right now.

And I think in with things being the way they are, there's a lot of mistrust.

And I think the way things are done, if they're not done with transparency, even if they're done in good faith, people will fill those spaces with boogeyman.

People will fill those spaces with finger pointing.

And I think it it is really important for something as big as this that will have impact long after we're all gone.

That we have it as a ballot measure, as a vote by the citizens who live here.

We are the ones who are going to be impacted.

It makes sense to have research discussion and then put it to a ballot vote.

Why in the world would we allow a small number of people to make a decision that huge?

You know, because I think even if we have different political affiliations or different goals, or we're more focused on uh financial for the town, which is a consideration.

We have to also look at the science.

Science doesn't care what political affiliation we are.

It's gonna science anyway.

Everyone here, regardless of who they vote for, is concerned about their family's health, their investment in their property, and getting along with neighbors.

And I think we can go into this and have an active dialogue rather than just digging in and saying our way or the highway.

I think that you don't want half the town unhappy.

I don't think either way that works.

So I think there's a lot of middle ground and opportunity for discussion, but that discussion needs to happen.

And this coming to light, the way it came to light, really burned a few bridges, frankly.

And I want to know more, I want to learn more, and I really implore you all to delay any kind of vote and consider allowing the citizens of the town to vote for something this big.

Thank you for your time.

All right, thank you.

Um Brianna Brown.

Are we not stating our address tonight?

Yeah, name in just where you're from.

Okay, Compass Neighborhood.

Um was neighborhood is not connected to the town.

We can't get in or out of our neighborhood safely by bike or walk.

And I'm just continuing to ask you to prioritize small projects that would go a long way for us.

We've got let me remind you 0.3 miles along 118th to go from the compass stub to Rex Ranch, where our kids go to school in Meadowlark.

Our kids can't get to school safely.

I've got four kids, all my friends have kids, and it's really sad.

It's like we feel so isolated, we can't get in or out.

And there's lots of plans, and our kids will be grown if no one comes here and asks you.

Okay, it's already been 10 years.

We don't have our compass park.

Kids have grown grown up on the move to compass, hoped told there was gonna be a park, now they're off to college.

Um I know Raphael Ridge went through this, so I feel for you that you know you had to wait also for your amenities, but um, so I am aware that the cap I don't I don't know if it's under capital investment, capital planning, but there's project prioritization happening this summer.

I would love for you to consider what it would take to put in that 0.3 miles of sidewalk on one 19th.

I know might be costly working with some of those um property owners.

I'm aware of that.

Um, but I it would just go a long way for our neighborhood.

And I know we're small, so maybe we're not that important.

You don't hear from us enough, but like we we were built without any infrastructure to include us, and it's like it's morale is low, it's ridiculous.

I mean, it might not even be legal that we have no safe access to our school.

Um and whatever.

But um, so I'm aware that Vista Ridge recently had a number of road upgrades that were put in using a mechanism through the maintenance arm of the government, not the design.

I don't know what the other mechanism would be.

And that resulted in a much lower project cost than originally uh estimated.

And I just talked to John Ferruzi, and that's what he reported.

Okay.

I'm wondering if there's a similar if we can pursue that kind of mechanism for doing that little bit of sidewalk.

So our kids can be safe.

So asking for that to be considered.

And I want to thank Luke for pursuing the gravel path to Cold Creek.

That's great.

That'll be great for us.

Hopefully, that's coming this summer.

I don't know.

Yes.

And I also want to thank you for continuing working on the compass neighborhood park.

I know you've got so much going on, but please don't forget about us.

Um, so we're really grateful for anything you can do to help our little neighborhood.

So thank you all.

Appreciate it.

All right, thank you.

Sam Fogelman.

Hi, Sam Fogelman District 2.

You know, it's easy to be fearful these days with the pure chaos that we're all inundated with all the time.

What's not easy, especially for our friends and neighbors of color is living every day in fear.

Multiple times now, people have come to you here at public comment and reached out to you directly, expressing fear of the current government's mass police and the presence of an ice holdroom nearby in Frederick, one of nearly 200 or so across the country.

You heard about that earlier.

That whole room that hold room in Frederick placed second among Colorado hold rooms and number of detainees last year at over 500.

It is no wonder that people are coming to you and telling you that they are living every day in this country today in fear.

And for weeks now you've chosen not to engage with them.

And I guess there could be multiple reasons for that.

Maybe you're afraid of the repercussions of speaking out.

Maybe you're okay with this.

Though I don't know how you can be and have any strat of human decency left.

But no matter the reason, I'm telling you that you're being called to be courageous in this moment.

We all are.

And that means listening to those who are the most affected.

They're literally standing in front of you and asking for your help for our help.

If you're not here to serve people's personal safety, then you don't belong in elected position.

But if you're here to serve, and that means serving everyone, then you cannot let another day go by without action.

This is a moment where we need to be brave in the face of fear for the sake of those asking for our help.

My message tonight is to implore you to come to your next meeting using all the civic levers that you have to protect people living in fear.

Bring resolutions, make your own public comments, build democratic protections and mutual aid into our local system starting now.

Make this town's citizens' personal safety your priority immediately.

Take it seriously.

Because protection, support, and liberty for our fellow citizens are things that we all owe to each other.

And because it's the right thing to do at the exact right time.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

So that's all that I have signed up, and I haven't seen anybody online either.

All right.

I'll just uh double check to see if anybody is uh in the audience tonight that would like to address us.

Okay, seeing none, we're gonna move on uh from public comment.

Um I will just say that this is hard on us too.

We do want to share information.

And the question is when is the right time, if ever?

And part of that is on the mineral, we don't know that we'll get to a point where there will be anything to share.

On the flip side, I think you do need to know the journey we've been on as well.

And so there'll be further conversation on this.

Uh, there's a town hall on April 2nd at 6 p.m.

Um, I'll be going over many items in town, and then I'll take open QA.

And it'll be in a forum different than this forum where I can't actually respond uh to some of the questions and thoughts brought up here tonight.

All right, with that, I'm gonna move on to our first general business item.

It's item 2026 214.

It's a presentation of uh the 2025 Outstanding Resident Award.

And with that, I'm gonna bring up Lisa Bustamante, who's gonna take us on a journey.

Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor and Counselors.

My name is Lori Bustamante, and I am here from the town of Erie to present the 2025 Outstanding Resident Award.

2025 is the fifth year for the towns of Erie's outstanding resident award.

This program began at the request of former trustee GIP to recognize and honor Erie residents, nonprofits or organizations who have made a significant contribution to or had a significant positive impact on our community.

Nominations for this award are open from January through mid-October each year, and the town leadership staff are responsible for reviewing and choosing outstanding residents from all nominations.

The recipient receives a commemorative brick laid at the heart of the town at Erie Community Park, as well as one for them to display in a choice of their their own.

We will be presenting one award for the outstanding resident this year.

This year we did have five nominations for five candidates to be considered.

The selection criteria is broad as contribution and impact can be measured or determined in many ways.

Some of the reasons residents were nominated this year include community leadership, community organization involvement, heroic action, humanitarian service, volunteerism, business successes, and personal or professional achievements.

Each nomination was given the utmost consideration, and all nominees are worthy of a formal recognition for their actions.

The 2025 nominees were Victoria Meyer, Lindsay Watney, Michael Krause, Ryan Garcia, Lindsay Garcia, and Dave Sullivan.

Without further ado, will Dave Sullivan, the winner of the 2025 Outstanding Resident War Award, please rise and come up to the front of the dial.

I would like to share some comments from Dave's nominator.

Dave is a local business owner and a resident of Old Town.

He's a tireless fundraiser, a champion for students, a leader, a proud husband, father, and grandfather, and also a town historian.

He is active with Erie High School Education Foundation and the Erie Chamber of Commerce.

He is an advocate for civic matters and volunteering at Chamber Events.

He is a big part of what gives Erie a welcoming hometown feel, all while supporting the community and others.

On behalf of the Town of Erie and fellow citizens, we thank you for your contributions and all of your hard work.

You have made Erie a great place to live.

Thank you.

That's awesome.

Dave Standup, how about Council comes up?

We'd love to get a picture with you and I'd just like to say something.

You got the wrong guy.

All right, we'll get a little closer.

Okay.

One, two, three.

Thank you so much.

All right, we'll move on to our next item tonight, which is the item 2026 199, local Olympian Jacob Slavin Recognition Month Proclamation, sponsored by the entire town council and going to be read by Mayor Pro Tim Bell.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to thank the Slavin family for coming here tonight.

I just want to say to you guys that after that game, I got more phone calls, more uh what are we going to do for Jacob?

Because he has meant that much to this community.

And uh I think Jacob is somebody that has lived out uh his life of of faith and service publicly, and and uh it's amazing.

I want to briefly just um read a few things about some of some of his accomplishments.

Um Jacob uh you know he he uh grew up here.

Uh he played college hockey at uh Colorado College.

Uh he received the uh National College Hockey Conference Rookie of the Year.

Uh he led all defensemen in scoring as a freshman.

Uh finished second nationally among freshmen among defensemen in points per game.

Uh in his NHL career.

He's the two-time Lady Bing Memorial Award winner.

Uh that's an award uh that goes for sportsmanship and uh uh outstanding play uh in the NHL.

Uh he is the second defenseman only to have won that award twice.

Uh the first time he won won it, he set a record that he only served uh one two-minute minor the entire season.

Um he's an NHL All-Star.

Uh he holds multiple hurricanes postseason records for defensemen.

Uh he logged his first hat trick in 2017.

Uh, and he's well recognized for his league-wide elite rush defense positioning and discipline.

Uh but as I said, I I think listening to Jacob and and some of the interviews he's done.

Um, his his first uh goals for his faith and his family and his the work he does in the Raleigh community.

Uh he uh works for the uh Raleigh Dream Center back to school bash.

Uh he was a presenting sponsor, uh, which helps distribute thousands of backpacks and supplies to local students.

Uh he actively participates in the event every year.

Uh he also participates in two tools for schools and Wake Ed Partnership, uh, which supports uh drives that provide classroom supplies uh to thousands of wake county teachers.

Uh he is uh part of the Fight for Freedom Initiative in partnership with International Justice Mission.

Uh he launched uh the Fight for Freedom, raising over one million dollars to compact combat child exploitation, uh, which is a mission that has global reach.

Uh team USA hockey coach Mike Sullivan said what makes Team USA a team and not just a collection of all stars is having Jacob Slavin on the roster.

Um he is well recognized for his accomplishments uh both on and off the ice.

And we're proud to uh celebrate this with you and your family.

And I know as proud as we all over him, I'm sure you are that much more.

But um, I'd like for the whole family to stand up and just he I know we couldn't have got to where he was without you all, so I just want to run up the we're gonna call you up here, but before we do that, there's a video um that um Jacob has done, and I think it would be uh wonderful to show that.

Yep, and then maybe we'll read the uh proclamation.

Earlier this year, Erie Native Jacob Slavin helped Team USA secure a major win on the international stage.

We asked Jacob to share a few memories from the experience and reflect on the community that helped shape his journey.

Hey everybody, Jacob Slavin here from the Carolina Hurricanes, hometown, Erie, Colorado.

Uh, I just wanted to send uh a video just saying thank you.

I heard all the support that was happening back in Erie.

Um all you guys cheering me on.

So really just wanted to say thank you, appreciate you all.

Um love being from Erie.

Uh miss it there, but again, just thanks for all the support.

After Jack scored that goal, uh, I think the first guy I got on the bench might have been Nelson and I was just excitement.

Obviously, you just see you're kind of getting dominated a little bit all game.

And then uh he scores an overtime there.

Win it, seal the deal, and uh just just pure excitement, jump on the ice.

I think I lost my voice before uh our national anthem was played and um hugging everybody and just waving the family and um had quite a few people there from Erie, actually, with my with my whole family being there.

And so um it was awesome, but yeah, I think tear excitement was just uh initial response.

Uh the Olympic village was fun.

I got my own room, which is nice.

Um so gotta have my own sleep schedule.

Village food was just it was average, a lot of uh a lot of uh bread, a lot of pizza, a lot of pasta, uh being in Italy, but um no, it was fine.

Um drinks all the time, whether water, carid, a couple Coke Zeros, uh, a couple cool things you could do.

You got your own uh personalized Coke can.

Uh, you could get a golden corona bottle that had um Milana Cortina sketched in there.

So a lot of a lot of cool little things that they did for the athletes, but um no, it was fine.

Uh I gotta go see the family as well where they where they were staying, so that was cool.

I think one of my favorite memories growing up in Erie, um couple come to mind.

I think one was trying to speed home for lunch during uh lunch breaks uh in high school and uh going down road five there probably went a little too fast and then going going down the dirt road of my house, probably drifted a little too much, caused a little too much dirt for the neighbors.

Um or when it when it's snow and going to the dump right across the uh street from the high school and trying to slide down those hills is a lot of fun.

Yeah, I think there's a couple that come to mind.

Um my childhood coach Tyson Davis, uh huge role in my life throughout uh throughout my young career in Colorado finding for the hotel jaguars, and then um coach at Colorado College, the one that comes to mind would be uh RJ Anga, who's my well, our D coach there, and uh he was just awesome, awesome guy.

Um have a great relationship with him still to this day, coached me in Chicago for the steel as well, and then uh CC.

So um, I mean there's so many great coaches that I had growing up and just uh being from Colorado is just uh a true honor.

Excellent, and maybe uh so uh I'm on behalf of the town of Erie, uh whereas the Olympic games represent the highest level of international athletic competition, bringing together the world's most elite athletes in the spirit of excellence, dedication, and national pride.

And whereas Jacob Slavin, a proud native Erie of Erie, Colorado, developed a passion skill for ice hockey in our community before advancing to collegiate competition at Colorado College and ultimately to the National Hockey League.

And whereas in 2026, Slavin was selected to represent the United States as a member of the US men's Olympic ice hockey team, competing on a world stage at the winter Olympic games where both the men's and women's hockey teams ultimately took home gold medal victories, and whereas Slavin's achievements serve as an inspiration to young athletes and residents throughout the or community, demonstrating dedication and perseverance can lead to extraordinary accomplishment.

And whereas the town of Erie wishes to recognize Jacob Slavin's outstanding athletic achievement and solar celebrate his continued connection to community and now therefore the town council of Erie does hereby proclaim April 2026 to be Jake and Jacob Slaven Month.

We urge every resident to recognize and celebrate his accomplishments and join the town in honoring him with the display of a commemorative banner in downtown Erie.

Dated this twenty-fourth day of March 2026.

We have a commemorative plaque to give to the family.

Hi, James.

Congratulations.

Okay.

And one, two, three, another one.

One, two, three.

Thank you so much.

We're gonna hang it on the nice.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for coming.

Yeah, yeah.

He was excited too.

Okay.

Okay.

All right, ready ready to move on to the next item, which is um probably gets people equally as excited, but not for the the same reason, and that is item 2026, uh 2022, which is drought and water restrictions, Todd Festison, our utilities director, and Dylan King, our sustainability and water conservation specialists will address this tonight.

All right.

Uh thanks, Mayor, Council members.

Um you might notice from looking at this presentation that we put it together before everything went a little bit crazy on us.

Um but we have been looking at the drought conditions for months.

We have convened a whole team of um staff members uh from all different departments, and we've been meeting I think about monthly for the last several months at least.

Um then, of course, more recently, uh with this sort of unseasonal um irrigation starting up, it really pushed us out of the drought realm and into water supply emergency realm.

And um I know there's folks who have questions about that.

The gist of that um is that we have a supply that's uh winter supply, and it is only about three and a half million gallons.

And by the time we're done treating that water, we have probably 3.2, 3.3 million gallons available.

And when summer irrigation or spring irrigation starts up, it usually ramps up over time.

What we saw here was an immediate spike as the hot, dry weather was coming in, coupled with some really dangerous weather conditions with high winds and very low humidity, and we had to make a call because it was very likely within the next couple of days after um or from the point at which we made the call, we would have started to deplete our water uh storage in the system.

And then that puts us at real risk for um our ability to keep up indoor use and as well as um fire fire fighting capacity.

So it was a call we had to make um and we've been monitoring since we've been adjusting it on on the daily.

We brought parks back online.

Um one of the things that's in our drought and water shortage supply or water supply shortage plan is that um parks are one of the few places that people can go and recreate and enjoy themselves in a drought year and uh in a summer drought.

And um as we've been looking at it this year, it's this first year that we've seen uh winter drought, uh hot and dry conditions all winter.

Very unusual, and it's kind of what um precipitated no pun intended the emergency that we had.

So um with that, I'll we'll just we'll talk about what we what we intended to talk about, which is uh how we want to look at things over the course of this summer.

So um we're gonna stay the course once we get through this period um and our summer supply comes on in a in about a week and a half.

Um we're gonna then go back to more of the typical drought uh response plan where we we monitor conditions and see as is they worsen or if we get lucky and things start to improve over the course of the summer.

Um we won't we won't stay ratcheted into the into the no outdoor irrigation, but we could get back there if conditions worsen.

And um we can run through some of the some of the stuff in the uh presentation, but what we're seeing already right now is the what we look at for drought, one of the major drought indicators is water um uh snow water equivalent in the watershed.

And right now the the better numbers are in the 50s in the overall watershed, and that's uh percent of of of normal or mean.

So it's a pretty it's a pretty ugly situation.

There's even some areas in the southern part of the state, whether south southwest especially that are at zero percent.

Um so all water providers throughout the state are looking at this.

Um Dylan can speak to that some more.

He's involved at a high level with a lot of different organizations.

And um most most communities are looking at this from it's time to start taking some sort of action.

Um for us, one of the things that kind of was um another complicating factor is we had to fix Erie Lake this year, and that's one of our emergency storage reservoirs, but the dam was leaking.

So we said we planned it out so that we would fix it during the non-irrigation season so that it would be done by around June.

And of course, then we saw all the watering going on.

So you drive out there, you'll see uh a lot of work going on, um, various improvements, but really the main thing was the main dam on that reservoir was leaking, and we had finished the engineering and gotten um that project underway so we can put it back online.

Um the gist of what and before we jump into the presentation is what we're looking at is trying to go to a voluntary um two-day a week watering schedule for the community, and um once we get out of the immediate water supply shortage, and um that will be something that we'll be working on a lot of messaging on.

Um, we have been already doing a lot of messaging, even leading up to the most recent uh issue.

But um that's that's the new norm in the state and the front range at least is two days a week, and then adding a third day if it's especially hot and um dry.

So that's what we're looking to start messaging with the community.

If you have an odd number address, these are the two days.

If you have an even number, these are the two days.

We'll um help with deciphering when it gets hot and dry enough to where you should think about adding the third day.

Um but we'll start off that way.

We don't want to start off with mandatory.

If we get into a dire situation, we'll work through our uh drought response plan and come back to you.

But um, we'd at least like to start with voluntary uh restrictions, and we're not asking you to approve that tonight, we're kind of introducing the topic to you.

So um with that, I think Dylan, you want to add anything or no, no, hop in as the presentation rolls on here.

Yeah, so as Todd was saying, this snowpack is pretty bleak across much of the state, especially in the upper headwaters, um, which is where we get a lot of our water from.

This graph's actually pretty old, it looks worse than this now.

Um I tried to get the most recent graphs and charts and everything in there from the state, but they didn't get it quite updated quick enough from their latest presentation.

Um the next slide is again another graph.

Um I think that this really does a good job of accentuating not only how dry it is, but just how warm it's been.

Um that top uh graphic there is showing all of the warm warmer than average days across all of the months of the winter season.

Um, and so as you're seeing here, it's been really, really warm.

December was the first warmest, February was the first warmest, March will probably be the first warmest unless something crazy happens.

Um, and it's been the warmest first four months combined of a winter season in the 131 years of record keeping.

Again, just another picture of how drastic this drought situation is at this time.

Um again, apologies for a slightly old graphic.

This is March 10th.

Um, it has intensified slightly since then.

Um yeah, and then just really quickly, um, obviously I think most people here know that low snowpack increases the risk of tighter supplies, not only in Erie, but across most of the region.

Um this warmer than average winter and spring is driving heavy irrigation demand.

This is much of what we just talked about and what we just saw over the course of the weekend.

Um, and we're just trying to get on top of it early and often.

A quick reminder and refresher on how the drought and water supply shortage plan is framed.

Um we have different stages.

The stages are decided by an equation that's fairly complex that just has to do with supply and demand figures.

Um but essentially as we move down through the different stages, it's requiring more and more percentage reduction in outdoor water use or total water use, really, but through especially outdoor irrigation.

Um, and it just moves on from 10 to 20 to 45 plus um and even more draconian or well, yeah.

We and we have we have a really we have a really elaborate uh matrix that we look at and different things that we'll allow and not allowed as we get into these different uh levels of drought.

But um, as you can see at the bottom, uh it says we're not declaring a stage today, which we already did because this was this was put together in advance of the meeting, so not to confuse anyone.

Um, but again, the what we called most recently was not a drought uh stage four drought.

You usually don't jump to stage four drought immediately.

It was a water supply emergency due to due to the irrigation that was occurring.

Um some communities might be allowing more of that, and others, but we if you don't have the reserve supplies, um, we have plenty of water to get through winter.

In fact, we were one of the metrics I'd like to share is that we're at we're we produce about two million gallons a day in the winter.

That's your indoor demand.

And 15 years ago, we were producing about one million gallons a day.

So what happened to us in the last uh few weeks is we jumped 15 years forward in the winter demand.

So we are we went from two million gallons and jumped all the way up to about three.

So as not to confuse anyone.

We're talking we were always planning to come here and talk about drought and and water restrictions in the summer and that sort of stuff, but the situation now again is not it's not it's related to drought, but it's not a drought stage per se.

And maybe don't talk about this.

So hubbing in, so this is the sort of some of the nuts and bolts behind the two-door water or two-day week watering schedule we'd be suggesting.

Monday even addresses and addresses split up the week, so even addresses get the Monday and Thursday, odd addresses get Tuesday and Friday.

We talked about the optional third day if needed if especially hot and dry conditions persist.

Um, and so we'd split out weekend days for um the public that way.

Um, as Todd said, the third day necessity would be determined by downtown staff after reviewing everything that's going on, situation, weather, precipitation events, things like that.

Um then it already was mentioned, but these two-day a week watering schedules are super common across much of the front range.

It's suggested in Denver already, it's suggested in Aurora already, Fort Collins does it in times of drier times.

Um we would be not necessarily pushing the envelope here, we'd be catching up to what a lot of other members of the front range are already doing and suggesting.

Yeah, and I and I'll just add to that the front range has been slow to uh move in this direction because we rely on reservoirs that have a lot of water in them, and you can ride out a multiple year drought.

Whereas like the Vale Valley, for instance, where I came from, we had water restrictions in a quarter of a century ago, and they continue now, and in fact, are are more strict in the terms of fines and things like that for folks who are popping into higher levels of demand.

So this is nothing new, but it's also we're I think as a as a community as a front range or Colorado, we have to think about the conflicts that will arise over time or will exacerbate over time when the front range and the western slope are not on the same page because most as you know, most of the water comes from the western slope, and we uh are highly reliant on the Colorado River.

So being more proactive and more um uh diligent about staying ahead of the curve and doing these more like two days is the norm now, whereas three three days a week was the norm for many years.

We're trying to stay with with the current best practices because we don't want to be part of what causes that ultimate um conflict between the western slope and the eastern slope.

And there's been threats over multiple times over the last I don't know, eight years or so, maybe even more of the federal government coming in and taking over the administration administration of the Colorado River, and that would probably not be so great.

So it's also it's also a matter of us doing our part, and we will encourage our our neighbors to do the same, of course.

We can't carry that water all by ourselves, which kind of brings us into that regional context.

Um so, like we said, a lot of people are already doing this.

Um and staff is participating in some of these more regional drought conversations, whether that be the um drought coordination group that Northern Water puts on, that's across the entire state.

Um, we're talking with the state through the Colorwater Water Conservation Board's draft monitoring um meeting group.

Um, so we're involved in that as well.

Um, and then I serve on the Colorado Waterwise Board, so this is being talked about at that level, and talking about how to actually prepare drought materials that would actually be able to be shared across regionally so that we're all speaking the same language and saying the same thing, which I think will be very important.

Um, and then as Todd mentioned, these groups that we're a part of, because it's not just front range specific and it's across the entire state.

We are hearing actively from our friends over on the other side of the divide that they really want us to start taking some steps to get caught up with the actions that they've taken and try and walk that same walk.

So it would be doing our part as well.

Yeah, and then so things that we've done so far.

We mentioned some of the steps that we took during the water supply emergency over this last weekend, but we've been reducing irrigation on non-functional and low traffic turf areas in town.

So these are areas that aren't necessarily athletic fields, but things that are a little bit tucked off to the sides that may not require as much water just because they're not seeing as much traffic.

And then we're obviously still keeping on with taking care of those high-use recreation areas because they are a public good.

And in times of drought, we do need places for people to recreate and still be able to go have fun.

And then I'm sure Todd can speak to it, but we keep trying to get more water on hand in many different ways.

Yeah, and just you all know about fire, I guess for anyone listening in or in the audience.

We are always working on growing and expanding our water supply for redundancy, resiliency.

It's a constant effort, and we're in multiple large-scale regional projects as well as uh looking at opportunities to pick up extra shares when we can, like we did tonight to help keep our supplies up.

Um, and we just wanted to speak quick speak quickly to the conservation programs that we have in place that will help um people get through these times where maybe we're asking them to use a little bit less water.

Um so we do offer our water efficiency rebates, these are for indoor and outdoor fixtures.

We offer slow the flow sprinkler consultations, that will be a huge help, um, especially in times like this where we may be asking people to change their irrigation schedules, maybe from what they've had in years past.

And if they're not super familiar with their controllers, this is a service that would not only make sure their irrigation system is running properly, but it would help them reprogram those controllers.

Um, and then it just like in the years past, we're doing our turf replacement rebate program.

Um, as you can well imagine, it's increasing in popularity pretty quickly this year already.

We're seeing a large influx of applications for that program, um, or at least a lot more than we have at this point in years past.

Um I think a lot of that is just due to how warm it's been and contractors are excited to get this work started.

I've been hearing that all the time.

So that program is growing rapidly.

Um and then yeah, just next steps, like Todd said, we've formed this group, it continues to meet monthly.

Um, and then we'll just continue to communicate everything that we can possibly to the public and try and stay really transparent.

We're gonna encourage these voluntary restrictions that we've been talking about, and then you know, depending on how things go, we may be having conversations down the road.

Yeah, once we get back again, not to belabor the point, but once we get back to early April, we'll roll back the clock and set ourselves back to a probably an early stage of drought, honestly, but not this mandatory thing.

And we'll just keep an eye on it and keep you informed as we go progress through the summer.

And um it's it's uh it's a paradigm shift because normally we watch drought increase through the summer and gradually take actions.

And in this case, we we hit drought in the winter, and we're coming out of a very dry, hot winter into summer drought productions that are pretty extreme.

So with that, I think we'll um wrap it up and take any questions you might have for us.

All right, thank you for giving us context.

I want to start by summarizing something you said right at the beginning.

What happened last weekend when the communication went out to basically say don't turn on your sprinklers or turn them off if you have turned them on, actually had nothing to do with drought.

It had to do with the fact that our capacity in our water plant to treat water and the water being released to us was the normal winter allocations with the heat, people were starting to water way earlier than they normally would have, which put the stress on the system.

Is that anything I said there not true?

No, that's true.

Um, I think to some degree, because we're in a drought, it was hot, right?

But but that wasn't what drove it.

Well, you said it right.

It was the demand that was being put on the system.

It wasn't it wasn't a drought, it wasn't uh that we didn't plan, it was that we had uh folks starting to uh to run their systems like as if it were summer and we weren't there yet.

Okay, and that will pass pretty quickly here as we get into April, May, and we get the allocations and we're able to then get on to our normal um uh capacity we need to handle the summer um amount of water that we need.

What we just talked about though, the majority of what we just talked about is hey, there's a drought going on, and it was a bad uh year, the snowpack is not um what we would like it to be, and that will impact us as we go into the summer and fall, um, unless some other um event happens where we get a lot of snow you know at the end of the season here.

And the recommendation at the moment is voluntary watering two days a week.

Um we'll communicate possibly a third day a week if um it gets really hot.

We don't want our plants to die and all that.

If it gets really, really bad, you guys will come back with some type of um something that we would consider to approve that would actually put mandatory restrictions on.

Is that right?

Yeah, that's right.

So come early April uh as we get into our summer supplies, we'll be rolling into the requesting or uh looking at the voluntary two day a week and messaging that and then keeping an eye on it throughout the summer.

Okay, sounds good.

Um by the way, this prompted me to file with the town to tear out half my lawn um over the weekend.

So you know, if there's a good good side to this, maybe many people will uh do that and go to Zero Escape and Garden in the Box, four of them are on order to put low water plants in there.

So fingers crossed we get more of that uh in our community.

All right, let me bring it back to council to see if they have any clarifying questions.

Council member Bear has her hand up, just so you know.

Okay.

I think what I'll do is start with Councilmember um Hoback and I'll just loop around and Councilmember Bear, you're on the far left tonight, and I'll loop you after Councilmember Petramelli.

Uh just real quickly.

So what we talked about mostly here is the demand side of the equation, what we're using and and uh what we can can control.

What's our risk for um supply side shocks?

Um that's a great question.

So as of right now, the system that we rely the most on is the northern water system, the Colorado Big Thompson system.

Those reservoirs are all full as of now.

Um we just can't get the deliveries today, but that's what we're looking like going into summer with.

However, droughts, as you know, can be multi-year, so we we don't want to squander things in the first year, especially in a drought.

Uh some old school approaches are just like, hey, we've got it's full, let's just, you know, let's not rattle the cage and just do uh act normal.

But um I think to take that even a little bit further without going on a tangent, it the Colorado River uh is a big question mark for the future and diminishing supplies.

Um, you know, I could probably talk about this for two hours, but I won't.

So um so that's that's a great question, and that's that's definitely something we have to be looking at in the future.

And why we want to build a more reliable, redundant or more redundant and um uh reliable.

I don't want to say reliable because that sounds like it's not reliable.

Resilient.

Sorry, that's what I wanted to say.

Thank you.

All right, Councilmember Marshallero.

Okay.

Well, thanks, and and thanks for all you guys do.

I know this is a a big challenge, and this year makes it even even more so.

But I appreciate the um that you jumped on it right away.

You know, a lot of folks thought thought it was maybe a little heavy-handed, but um I appreciate that um the message got out thanks to that message about half a million uh gallons per day.

It was reduced uh to put a lot less stress on the system.

And you know, as a reading through your your material, we typically are running around two uh million gallons per day.

Uh we have an allotment of three and a half million in the in the winter.

Uh that kind of gives us a 40% buffer, which I think has been fine for every year until you know we get the um we get the you know heat so early, actually all all winter.

So um, you know, with that I want to thank the folks who um adhered to the notifications and helped us um you know alleviate the situation.

Please continue to do that because uh you know we quickly get it down, but we need to keep it down.

Um so uh and then you know uh so we're we're hoping that we get you know back, you know, April, March and April are typically our snowiest months.

March didn't really help us out.

Uh April's not looking so great.

So I expect you know, we need to keep an eye on it, and um you know, our residents and our our staff needs to be diligent as we as we move forward.

So uh and I I think I just had you know a similar question to to Councilmember Hoback is you know, um yeah, I know you guys will keep a close eye on it.

Um and like say early uh conservation is best practice.

So um please keep us aware.

Yeah, thanks.

And and I'll mention too um I looked through a ton of information going all the way back to 2008.

Like we have day spreadsheets with data in them, and our water conservation has actually improved um by about 10% from way back then.

So the gallons per day per capita has roughly gone, it fluctuates a bit, but from about 65 to 55.

And where we're at now in terms of water conservation is where a lot is is the goal for a lot of our um surrounding municipalities, but that doesn't mean we're gonna not keep at it and try and get it better.

Yeah, it um also the link you guys sent us that it sent us to the web page.

I I'll ask that you just keep that in as many locations as possible maybe put it in our water bill um link uh so that as as many uh residents uh can see access to that so thank you all right thanks mayor pro tem yep thank you mayor um and thank you both for the presentation um just yeah want to reiterate everything that's uh said earlier and I I was looking up um uh Thornton's actually under mandatory restrictions to through uh uh May 1st so um yeah I you know I know we heard from a lot in the community that were um kind of startled by this but yeah it was simply a reaction to to our water supplies so um you know hopefully we can and I I was pleased to see like how much in a short period of time we were able to scale back so um uh I guess uh my one question would be uh is there um uh is there anything that we have in place as far as um uh trying to think the the uh um materials on uh you know ways to help preserve your lawn without you know in these restriction things you know I know there I know everyone likes to have the you know the the uh like like you're uh building a fairway or something you know but you know raising your mower to higher settings those types of things to kind of you know create more shade um uh is there places people can go for that kind of information yeah we've got a bunch of resources on the website currently um I will say hand up that needs to be updated but we're working on it um okay uh but yeah it has irrigation tips and tricks it has different scheduling tips and tricks there's some graphics there's some videos um and then obviously we have the conservation programs in place that can help people um well remove grass that may not be so green sure yeah yeah um but yes we do have a handful of things that are available on our website and then like I said we partner with organizations like Colorado Water white water wise and things like that that also offer a ton of infographics and things like that.

So we've we've got a fairly large backlog of resources and things like that that we can get out to people and we'll continue to do so.

We did so quite a bit last year the year before so not so much it was pretty wet.

But now we're stepping into a time where obviously people are going to need more information and more access and we're definitely ready to give them that.

Yep excellent and then for the HOAs and metro districts for the the common areas do we have information going out to those organizations to kind of help them yeah so we've been we've been talking to them I I know that I talk to HOAs quite a bit um I've been for the last couple years now if they'll have me attending HOA board meetings and things like that just trying to get the word out recently this year resource central the same outfit that does garden in a box and slow the flow and some other programs um launched an HOA specific program um well really two but it's all under one umbrella and one is meant to help with larger scale landscape transformation so taking those common areas and making them into landscapes that require less grass or less water rather um but also a more intensive um like GIS based audit that helps HOAs really understand how they're using water where they're losing water um and things like that.

So we're actively talking to them and trying to help um we also get them in touch with different um grant opportunities like through Northern Water for example has a 2500 grant to help with these types of water saving projects for HOAs.

So to answer your question yes we're sure actively talking to them and trying to come up with as many unique offerings that can help with an understandably difficult situation at times.

Okay.

My last question this would probably be for Todd but um I know a lot of communities are they're they're plumbed for non potable water for irrigation um but they haven't brought those online is I I don't know that we're gonna be able to bring it on in a quick uh situation like this but uh is there more progress we're making towards towards that yeah we're we're keeping the same schedule for the non-potable and reuse um because we want to preserve that water for irrigating parks and getting them back up in good shape and also it creates a lot of confusion in the community when there's certain areas that are being watered like crazy and um and others that are being told not to and so there's a I don't know if I would say optics but it it from a consistency standpoint letting those go cut loose would cause a lot of confusion and we'd be getting constant calls and so we've asked them we've told them also we're not gonna turn them on so I'll I'll leave it at that yep yep makes sense.

And so we've asked them, oh we've told them also we're not gonna turn them on.

Uh so I'll I'll leave it at that.

Yep, yep.

Makes sense.

Yep, thank you.

Okay, council member O'Connor.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um wish we didn't have to talk about it, but it was not a great subordinate season either.

So it's kind of to be expected if you traveled up to the high country.

Um question relates to an item in the packet called the drought and water supply shortage plan from July 2021.

On if residents are interested between I on those charts on uh between pages eight and fourteen, there was the demand and supply side response measures.

Can they expect that if they are curious about what these stages might look like, or is that plan not as closely followed currently?

You mean the stages of drought?

The stages of drought and the response measures.

Yeah, what time?

Like the actions called that.

Yeah, yeah.

Um no, we'll be following that.

It's just that we jumped all the way to a water supply emergency, it wasn't a drought response short per se.

So um, yeah, this summer uh I would love it if residents would read up on that because it would probably cut our questions in half because a lot of the stuff is already laid out in there saying this is what happens at this stage.

So when we'll have the stage noted on our drought page, and then if they're familiar with those steps or know where it's on that same page, okay, um, they can educate themselves and and uh and we're always happy to answer questions, but uh we we try to follow that strictly unless there's some reason that it makes it doesn't make sense.

It was pretty informative, so I was hoping that you know that was still being followed so the residents could get an idea of what if we enter that in the summer months.

Yeah, I I think it's a great point.

Like come uh once we get back into our summer supply and irrigation, um, it would be great for folks to be reading up on that because there's measures they can take now.

I'm I'm guessing we'll be at least in uh phase one of drought the as soon as we get out of this situation.

So uh looking and taking being proactive, even taking some of those steps would be helpful because the more we can keep the demand down the the better overall.

I mean, there's there's even parts in here about car washing.

Yep.

Yeah, that's yeah.

Wouldn't even necessarily think about that, but yeah, and I'll just say this.

Uh so there was an uh I was listening to uh uh a podcast or something on NPR like a month ago, and car washes have been really suffering all winter long because it hasn't been snowing, so people's cars aren't dirty.

Um so uh we we looked at that and and um weren't quick to jump on them and we don't want to collapse anyone's business uh over a 10-day you know shortage, but um yeah, the we get into detail in there for sure.

Um and one other thought when you were looking at that um historical data, didn't we go through that through this in 2012?

Because I remember we um so I wasn't here in 2012, but we had a I came to Colorado in 2002, we had a drought that year, and we had one in 2012, and I think we also had one in 2020.

Um, and then now we're hearing things like worst case, worst ever kind of thing this year.

Thank you.

Just to put that in perspective, it was like 2008 or nine.

We also had blizzards and the uh snowplows couldn't keep up, and so you don't know when the shift will happen the other way, too.

Yep.

Council Member Petramali.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation.

But um I had two questions both were asked, but uh can we make use of any historical data to predict things for future, like which you kind of answered, but is there anything else we can look into history and like looking through the data we have and maybe put put it online?

Is that what you're thinking?

Or for us to make decisions, are you looking at that data or just the supply that we have?

And how much is it enough for the next two weeks or two months?

And is that the calculation?

Yeah, um, you know, this has been a real anomaly this winter.

Um normally we're rock steady at like two million gallons a day that uh uh demand, and that we translates we can see it at our wastewater plant too.

It comes because most it's all indoors, so it all comes back to the wastewater plant, and we see two, and it tends to go up by like not even one on an annual basis.

So when we look at that, we that's how we project out and say, well, we got 15 years worth of a winter supply.

We'll keep working at developing that supply to grow it, but we're in really good shape.

And then uh this year, of course, all of a sudden it ramped up.

And when I went back and looked at just the last couple months, I saw that there were certain periods um where people were using a lot of water and then cutting it back down.

And even even as recently as like a week or week and a half ago when we got that like sub-zero day, either everyone's pipes froze that was irrigating, and that's why they weren't using water, or they all knew to go shut them off.

So yeah, we we dig deep into the data.

Yeah, um, and happy to share that too if there's something anyone would like to see.

Yeah, just wonder to see if the if we can use any anomaly data to come up with solutions for the current situation.

And the second question I had was uh you answered it, which is explain the usage between recycle and portable water.

Because some of the questions were like, why is parking rich like you answered the thing?

Yeah.

Yeah, it's it's a little counterintuitive.

Um, but it it really would create so much confusion and um and I I would worry that folks would say, Well, if they're doing it, I'm gonna do it because their town's not doing anything about it.

Yeah, but people approach me so that was the I was bringing it on the record.

So yeah, thank you.

All right, thank you.

All right, Councilmember Bear.

Thank you.

Thank you for this timely discussion.

I don't think you probably um could have guessed at a more opportune um conversation as far as what we were experiencing over last week and um the measures we had to take.

Um I just wanted to highlight a couple of things.

The CU CSU Colorado Climate Udate is included in the packet, and I think that some of the slides came from that.

And it's um really information, really good information for um the community.

If you guys want to peek at that and look at you know, our climate, kind of what we're seeing to council member Pasper Melly's point about um trends and heat, weather, water, um, versus you know, weather, which is a snow event or even you know, a drier spring or something.

So we can see the trends.

Um, and I think that this these slides are really interesting um to kind of go through all that information.

So thanks for including those.

Um I just wanted to say thank you to Dylan and Todd for all of your efforts and communication with the community.

Um, it's never it's it's an uneasy feeling to get the messages that we got over the weekend um about turning off irrigation, and certainly council received that feedback.

I'm sure that you guys did too, but um, you know, I think that the message really reflected the seriousness of the moment we found ourselves in.

We need to be able to um you know fight fires if we need to do that.

We need to have the water to um drink and flush toilets and wash dishes and all of those regular indoor activities.

So um thanks for getting that message out um and doing it with you know explanation and information.

Um then I had a quick question about the turf replacement fund that you were talking about earlier.

Um in years past we've run out of funding for that because it's been such a popular program.

How how is that looking?

And do we need to allocate more towards those kinds of programs in years like this?

Or yeah, that's a good question.

Um obviously don't have a crystal ball, but would definitely it's not a bad idea to start thinking about um supplying more money to that sort of programming last year.

It was the first time that we actually went over budget.

Um, granted it wasn't by a ton, but we did go over um and in years past it's consistently crept up.

I would expect that in years like we're seeing um now in the and the conditions that we're seeing that this will continue to increase in popularity.

Um so yes, is the easy answer.

I would expect that it will continue to be very popular.

It would not surprise me if we were to run out of funding, is what I'd say.

And it wouldn't be unheard of for us to um come to council and ask to add more funds to a program like that mid-summer.

We've seen years when things got really chewed, the money got chewed through real early in the year, and then we came back and asked, can we allocate some more funds to that?

Yeah, good.

Okay, so maybe look for it in a second supplemental or something.

Um or first supplemental.

Okay.

Um, and then let's see.

Oh, the Lake Erie fix update.

Is that complete?

Are we able to refill the lake or are we still working on that?

We're that will be under construction through June.

Um, they have to actually cut down part of the dam and uh put what they call uh a cutoff wall in there.

So they pour like a concrete or a slurry type wall in the middle of the dam to just and it goes all the way down to the bedrock to securely stop any leakage um coming out of it.

It's a big project.

We can expect that to continue through June.

Yes, yes.

Um yeah, so I guess that's it.

We'll look for a turf replacement possibility of that coming back to us in a future supplemental.

Um and then I also just wanted to mention that CSU has some great information out there for um low water gardens.

I was reading about that.

I'm out of town and was doing some just research planning for my garden and looking for crops that um would take less water, which is reminding me that I had another question.

Um does the voluntary water restrictions apply to like patio flowers, like in pots or gardens that would be handwatered.

Well, so the restrictions that were underneath right now, we are encouraging people actively to hand water their trees and shrubs and flower beds and things like that.

Um so, yes, we would ask that people take care of those flower or the window beds and stuff like that.

And then when it comes to moving into the summer season and these sort of voluntary restrictions, I would say that they'll be voluntary in nature.

So we'd be asking folks to take care of those more uh well things that need deeper care of to take care of them as the water season moves forward.

Um we really care deeply about the landscape infrastructure and the trees and shrubs and flowers and pollinators and things like that.

So it's important to continue to provide them water.

Okay.

Thanks.

That's it for me.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, we'll be watching this one closely.

Right, how are we doing?

Does anybody need a break for a few minutes?

We're good to keep going.

All right.

You okay?

Maybe five minutes.

All right, let's take a five minutes.

We'll start at uh quarter to the hour.

Better know we're reconvening.

Actually, we're gonna do that.

Hi there.

All right, we're gonna wait for attorney.

Actually, we'll get started for the sake of time.

And if we need our attorney, then we'll go find her.

How about that?

All right, I'm gonna reconvene the meeting.

Uh this item is item 2026 185.

It's a continued public hearing, an ordinance of the town council of the town of Erie amending section 912 of the Erie Municipal Code to remove the automatic sprinkler system requirement in the International Residential Code.

This is continued from October 28th, 2025.

Uh, the public um hearing for this agenda is now open.

There is new information from staff being introduced this evening.

Therefore, we will take additional comments uh during the public uh comment uh session.

So I'll turn this over to Sarah Namela, our director of development uh to take us on a journey here.

Thank you, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council members.

Um I'm presenting to you tonight the continued uh uh information for the ordinance amending title nine of the municipal code removing automatic fire sprinkler system requirements for uh single family attached and detached homes.

Oh, whoops, I'll just give you a quick background and again go through the benefits and uh uh potential drawbacks of this um proposed ordinance.

So as uh the genesis of the this ordinance actually was with the December 2024 um round table that we had with developers and with homeowners associations and with the home builders association, and one of the action items that came out of that was to evaluate whether we would want to remove the automatic sprinklers for one essentially for um one unit and um attached homes.

And so that we brought to council in May of 2025 just a study session and evaluation of what are the pros and cons.

We included staff as well as the HBA and the Mountain View Fire Protection District.

And as the mayor mentioned, we we came with the ordinance in uh October of 2025 that would remove those the automatic requirement.

I mean the requirement for automatic sprinklers for um one for single unit um attached and detached homes.

Oh, I keep forgetting this as a school.

So the um the actual requirement for fire sprinklers is and it was initiated in 2009 with the international res the international residential code.

And in 2019, when we adopted the 2015 IRC, the uh we actually exempted the fire sprinklers from being required.

And then in 2022, when we adopted the updated IRC, the 2021 IRC, we did include the requirement for fire sprinklers.

Actually, that is a requ it is included in the code.

If you want to remove it, you actually make that amendment to it.

And so here we are today in 2026, evaluating whether we want to um uh remove the requirement.

As we've mentioned before, but I think it's just still worth noting the uh potential benefits and savings with including automatic fire sprinklers in the homes, reduces the exterior wall um fire separation and wall separation between two family dwellings and attached homes.

There is a slight savings for builders on the ceiling and floor treatments.

And the National Fire Protection Agency states that there's an 89% reduction in risk of death and 70% potential reduction in property loss with sprinklers in the homes.

There is a minor insurance cost savings from what we could find.

It's about less than $100 annually.

It may be more or less, but that was what staff found.

There is a potential cost impact, and I think this is what folks are concerned about is the increase to the cost of construction of the home.

And um, we actually pulled our builders to see what is what are the costs that you're experiencing with automatic sprinklers being installed in the home.

It did range anywhere from $7,500 for attached town homes to uh 12,000 plus for larger single family homes.

And this was polled last year, so recent information.

So when we look at um when we came in October to council, there was a question that council had as to whether or not we should be considering an option component where you know maybe requiring builders to just at least provide it as an option to home buyers.

So we staff looked at several different options and different uh types of um code language.

We looked at um what it would look like to, for instance, have a sprinkler ready home, and that would mean that you're installing a one-inch water line throughout your neighborhood so that all homes have access to the size of line needed for automatic sprinklers to serve homes, and that the system to have a sprinkler ready home, you're almost installing the sprinkler system.

I mean, you you are, and you're just not um activating it.

So it's not a practical option, as you know, it's essentially the same cost as providing it.

Then we looked at a sprinkler ready infrastructure option, and that is um that would be the one-inch water line in the neighborhood.

So again, that every home can have it.

When we did talk with um the home builders, they did say that there would be some difficulty with if they are building homes that prior to having any homeowner decide whether or not they want a sprinkler system in it.

So if they're doing um spec homes, and that can range some builders do 10% of their units as um spec homes, some do 50%, just is based on their business model.

Those would not be equipped with home uh with sprinkler systems, and the home buyer really wouldn't have an option to put them in because trying to put a sprinkler system into a home after it's been all closed up is um kind of next to impossible.

So and however, homes that were not spec built could have that option for homeowners.

The cost that our builders mentioned on average that might cost to a homeowner is about 20,000 to install as an option.

And then finally, we looked at just a builder required option, like no infrastructure needs to be there.

You could just install an automatic sprinkler system.

Typically, since you wouldn't have a one-inch line, you'd have to do a tank and pump system, which would take up extra room in a house and be a slightly higher cost.

That was also quoted from builders to be 20,000 or more for homeowners.

So we also spoke with other communities.

And they said that very few, actually, um Commerce City, I think they said they had one homeowner take advantage of the option.

And I don't know why the other city is evading my mind at the moment.

Centennial, thank you.

Um I'm glad you all read your memo.

All right.

Um they said that in the several years that they've had this option, no one took them up on it.

So not a high uptake, and so staff found that this was not a great option.

It wasn't really benefiting the community, it wasn't really benefiting anyone.

So we just suggested that we just carry forward this ordinance and have council decide whether or not to remove the sprinkler option requirement.

So that's what we're back here doing with uh with you all tonight.

And so again, we recommend that you evaluate the original ordinance, which removes that um requirement for um single family detached and attached homes.

And we did notice the public hearing originally at the um October 2025, and this was continued to a date certain.

And the ordinance is newly numbered, ordinance 11-2026.

It is the same that you viewed in October.

And um I leave it for the next step.

All right.

Sounds good.

Thanks, Sarah.

Um, let's see.

I will look to our town clerk to see if anybody has signed up for public comment.

Yes, they have.

Okay.

Did you want to read the rules again?

Are you good?

I'm sorry.

No, I'm I'm good.

If you can call people up.

Um the first person is uh Doug Sabah.

Good evening.

Welcome.

We have a couple speakers that are gonna defer sometime.

Yep.

I think uh the defer rules are one deferral.

Is that the way that works?

Yeah.

Chris Egleston, Erie Resident since O2.

Um, uh, give my time out to Doug as well.

Okay.

Thanks.

Mayor Moore, Mayor Pro Tim Bell, and distinguished members of the Erie Town Council.

Good evening.

My name is Doug Saba.

I am the deputy fire marshal, one of the deputy fire marshals of three for Mountain View Fire Protection District.

Um, we are the men and women who respond to you and your neighbors when you call 911.

We're the ones who go in when everyone else is running out.

And tonight we are here because we want to make sure few of us and fewer fewer of the residents ever have to face the worst a fire can bring.

We are here to respectfully urge the council to retain the residential fire sprinkler requirement as currently adopted under the 2021 residential code.

It is not a bureaucratic formality.

This is a life-saving decision, one with consequences, and that will be measured in life saved, not lost.

In families displaced or not, and in a community that is either safer or less safe than it is today.

You don't want to go backwards.

Erie has ahead of the curve, has been ahead of the curve on the issues for years.

Um adopting the international budget residential code has required fire sprinklers and new single-family residents, multifamily houses since 2009.

Erie formally adopted the standard in 2023, joining neighboring communities that have had sprinkler ordinances in place since the 1990s.

This is decades of evidence that is not a trend.

It is a track record.

Today, the town of Erie and over 900 occupied residents built under the sprinkler requirement.

Those 900 homes were, if the fire started today, the outcome is likely to be radically different and radically better than it would be without the system.

Tonight we ask you not to abandon the record of leadership.

There's a lot of details with NFPA National Fire Protection Association.

We use that as a standard for our guidance of how we do firefighting, how we do fire protection.

The stats show that the rates drop 90% when a house is equipped with fire sprinklers and protecting lives.

Let me read that again.

According to NFPA, home fires kill roughly 2,500 Americans every year.

Sprinklers are the single most effective technology we have to prevent those deaths.

In Erie removes this requirement.

We are knowingly accepting preventable deaths.

The citizens, fire injury rate drops 60% in sprinklered homes.

Injuries from fires are not merely physical.

They include include smoke inhalation, burns, psychological trauma, and long-term disability.

For every family that avoids the experience, there is a child who still has a parent, a parent who still has a child.

A firefighter injury rate drops by 50% in sprinkler structures.

I want you to understand that means the people sitting in the room tonight, the people staffing the stations right now.

Every time we enter a burning home, we are taking on a risk.

Sprinklers reduce that risk by half.

This is the workforce safety issue, not just a homeowner safety issue.

NFPA also documents that sprinklers activate in 91% of a reported structure fires, whether they are present and deemed effective.

And in those cases, they control the fire virtually every instance.

These systems work.

The science is settled.

One of the most underappreciated consequences of a house fire is how long families are out of their home.

In the fire that occurs in an unsprinkler residence, the damage can be a total.

Rebuilding takes months, often a year or more.

Families scatter, children's change schools, renters lose housing.

The economic and social disruption cascades throughout the community.

In a sprinklered home, a fire is typically controlled with a single sprinkler head.

Water damage is localized, smoke damage is dramatically reduced, families are displaced for days, not weeks, not months, not years.

The difference is not just a comfort statistic.

It determines whether a family survives financially with the everyday disruptions that occur with a fire.

The ripple effect of a major house fire are profound, and sprinklers dramatically reduce the service survivability.

Council members, I want you to address the finance.

I want to address the financial argument as we know it with the Home Home Builders Association.

Over those 900 homes, the average average cost of installed sprinklers is around 10,000, plus or minus 3,000, with a medium value of 9400.

We have received far fewer calls with water leaks in the sprinklers than we have the plumbing systems in the homes.

But let us talk about what the money actually buys and what it saves.

Insurance premiums go down, the sprinkler sprinkler in a sprinkler home.

Over the life of the mortgage, homeowners and sprinkler residents consistently pay less than insurance cost that the savings often offsets and exceeds the installation cost.

Sorry.

20 seconds.

Water utility infrastructure goes down because neighborhood wide sprinklers require only small volumes of water deployed quickly.

Municipalities can design water systems to smaller surge capacity.

This means lower cost for Erie.

We ask for very little in return, but tonight we ask for this.

Keep the sprinkler requirement, keep the standard for the protection of the 900 Erie families, keep the provisions that require de reduces death by 90% and injuries of 60% and firefighter harm by half.

Trust the science, trust the data, think of the families who you move into those homes in this community, and trust that you have done everything in your power to protect them.

Erie has been a leader in fire safety.

We ask you to remain one.

Thank you, Council Members.

I am happy to answer any questions.

All right, thank you.

Next is uh Heidi Majarek.

Welcome.

Hello, distinguished mayor and uh distinguished city council members.

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to address you tonight.

My name is Heidi Majarek, 8827 East 35th Avenue, Denver, Colorado.

I am here to give testimony asking you to repeal the require for fire sprinklers.

Um we know that we have a housing crisis in Colorado.

Um we have a crisis across must most of the U.S.

In fact, um in Colorado, we are now the most expensive housing market um inland from the coastal cities.

Average price of home is now over 600,000.

Um we are a hundred thousand housing use units short in Colorado.

And um our young people and other people who are looking to be first-time home home buyers um can't get there the way that uh folks who are a little long in the tooth like me were able to.

Um so when I bought my home, I was my first home I was 26.

So that was back in the late 90s, early 2000s, and that was right on line with what the average age was of a first-time home buyer in the 20s.

In 2010, we jumped to 30.

Now we're seeing um uh the National Association of Realtors is saying 40, um, Zonda is saying uh 30, 37, 38, Redfin is saying 35.

So let's just say it's 36.

So now the first-time homeowner is 36 years old.

I bought my house at 26.

There's this favoritism going on for me, where I got another 10 years of of building equity in my home that we're not giving our young people.

And a part of that is um is what we're legislating.

We and we, meaning me too, being on Denver's fan landing board, we passed legislation without looking at what the cost of the home is.

That first home that I bought was in building codes back in the 1990s.

Well, you look at the National Association of Home Builders, and every time we have code updates, they look at what that new building code is going to cost for construction of a home.

The 2024 codes, the building codes, energy codes, we're looking at 10 to 15,000.

We just keep doing it again and again and again.

And so while I certainly appreciate life and safety, I think there is some nuance in where the with the age of the structures in which those fires occur that we're probably not talking about.

Um I certainly appreciate that life, health and safety.

But I think if we can't get our kids into houses, we're kind of talking around each other.

So I'm gonna ask you to go ahead and and repeal that.

And again, thank you so much.

All right, thank you.

Next is Mark Armstrong.

Good evening, council.

Um mayor, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening.

My name is Mark Armstrong.

I reside in Douglas County.

I'm here representing on behalf of KB Home.

We are the proud owners of over 300 home sites in the town of Erie at Kenya Creek Filing 7, filing eight, and Laverty at Canyon Creek.

Um quick tangent.

Um driving in here this evening, uh, came in through Erie Parkway um off I-25, and I was just blown away by the view of the front range coming down the hill, seeing the town.

You guys have a beautiful community.

And it's no wonder why so many people want to call this place home.

Uh so I just want to share that that it's something that I'm envious of you all to live in such a beautiful community.

With that said, um every time is adopted, there's something new that builders have to contend with.

And the NHAB looks at those changes and understands what those changes mean to the cost to build a home.

And every time we have a code adoption, the cost of housing goes up.

This specific measure that's been in the IRC since 2009 has been voted out by 48 states for the last almost 20 years.

48 states do not believe this is a mandatory requirement that needs to be in single family attached or detached homes.

The reason why that is, my guess is because they see that there's there's so many things you can do to a home to make it safe, but at what cost?

At what cost are we uh preventing homeownership by introducing these codes?

So again, 48 states have amended this out.

Within Colorado, the vast majority of the municipalities, because this is a home real state, have voted it out or amended it out of their municipal code.

Erie is one of the few that have amended it in.

And we have seen that in Erie, as a result, the price of homes to incorporate the system into our homes has increased the price of $15,000.

And what does that do to our potential buyers?

The NHB has studied the incremental impact of increasing the price of a home $1,000 and what that does to pricing out consumers.

It's almost 2300 people get priced out of a home by increasing it $1,000.

If you increase it $15,000, that's almost an entire town.

That's close to $35,000 people that are now priced out of living in your community.

20 seconds.

And they're having to move to other communities around here where they can afford.

Just because of this, the system that's put in the house.

Now, the homes that we've been building up until this point in Erie have been the safest homes that we've ever built.

All that we're asking from you guys from the council is to amend it out like we have done in years past, and the that the most of uh the municipalities in Colorado have in the past.

Let's let's get back to building affordable homes and attainable homes that our customers can move into.

I do want to point out that in the research that staff did in contacting some of the municipalities that require the option, it's eye-opening that customers do not see the value in sprinklers in their single family attached and detached homes.

They're not selecting it.

They don't want it.

Thank you for your time.

All right.

Thank you.

Gregory Wetz Barger.

Thank you.

Uh Gregory Wetzbar, uh, deputy fire marshal with Mountain View Fire Protection District.

Thank you.

Um, Mayor Moore, uh, Pro Tem Bell and Council members.

Um, want to just kind of pick up a little more on this.

I want to speak openly for a moment if I can.

Um, we understand the council's face faces a lot of uh competing pressures.

We understand that the building industry is a powerful voice in this community as well.

We understand that the affordability in the town of Erie is a real concern to Erie residents.

But can you consider this?

When the next fatal fire occurs in a home in this community, and statistically, sadly, it will.

What will this council say?

Will you be able to look at that family and say that you made the best decision you could with the information you had provided?

Or will you have to acknowledge that the staff recommendations and the town council chose to remove the proven life safety measure because of industry pressure?

The National Fire Protection Association has done the research.

The data is clear, the technology is proven.

The cost is manageable, the benefits are substantial, measurable, and lasting.

There is no credible uh credible scientific or public safety argument for removing removing this requirement.

There are only financial arguments.

And as as we have shown, even those do not hold up to under scrutiny when the full picture is examined.

Thank you for your time.

All right, thank you.

Morgan Cullen.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the town council.

Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.

My name is Morgan Cullen, and I'm here on behalf of the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver.

Uh, we are respectfully requesting council to reconsider and repeal the residential fire sprinkler mandate in the 2021 IRC building code that was adopted in 2022.

When this requirement was first implemented, it added roughly $15,000 to the price of a new home.

Since then, additional local mandates, including increases in water tap fees, energy code requirements, and metro district costs have pushed the total new cost on home building in Erie to more than 46,000 in just the past few years.

Today, with the fire sprinkler requirement in place, Erie is the most expensive high growth uh location to build a home in the Denver metro area.

At the same time, uh builders are being asked to deliver more attainable housing in a challenging environment, defied by high interest rates, labor shortages, and rising land and material costs.

These pressures are already having real impacts.

Residential permits in Erie are down 45% year over year, representing not only fewer homes, but millions in lost local revenue.

The good news is that the town council can choose to repeal the fire sprinkler mandate before you this evening without compromising public safety.

That is because today's homes are already built significantly safer than older housing stock.

Modern building codes require fire resistant materials, improved electrical systems, safer heating and cooking technologies, better egress and larger windows, detached and air-sealed garages, detached or air sealed garages, and hardwired interconnected smoke alarms that have dramatically reduced fire risk and fatalities.

In fact, recent data from Colorado shows that 80% of fatal residential fires occur in homes built before 2000, the year 2000, with an average construction year of 1964.

Only one fatal uh fire in the data set occurred in a home built after 2008.

This tells us something important.

The greatest fire risk is in older homes, not new homes being built today under modern codes.

Additionally, fire sprinklers are not designed to protect against wildfires.

And homeowners typically see little to no meaningful reduction in insurance costs from installing these systems.

A fact that the HBA has already confirmed with the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association and the Insurance Information Institute late last year.

While we share the goal of improving public safety, this mandate comes at a significant cost with limited demonstrated benefit in newly constructed homes.

And ultimately, it prices more families out of the option to purchase safer, more modern uh homes built to a higher code standard.

The HBA of Metro Denver is urging policymakers to focus fire prevention efforts where they will make the greatest impact, maintaining smoke alarms and upgrading safety features for aging homes, not mandating unnecessary sprinkler systems in modern code compliant homes.

Repealing the fire sprinkler requirement would be a meaningful step in improving housing affordability while maintaining high safety standards.

Thank you for your time this evening.

Appreciate it.

All right, thank you.

Dan Golasso.

Good evening, Mayor Moore, members of council, Dan Golasso with Tripoint Homes, and also with the HBA of Metro Denver out of Greenwood Village.

I'm here this evening to urge you to vote uh yes on the ordinance repealing the automatic residential fire sprinkler mandate for single family homes, duplexes, and town homes.

I first want to say we're not asking for a vote against safety.

We're we're all we're we agree with safety.

What we're asking for is a vote on balance, affordability, and common sense.

The NFPA's own national trend data show that fire safety has improved dramatically over time.

In its latest fire loss in United States report, NFPA says the estimated number of residential structure fires in 2024 was 54% lower than in 1980.

In 19 Sorry, I lost my place.

Lower than 1980.

Um in 1980, residential structure fire deaths were 44%, or they're 44% lower.

Residential structure fire industry injuries are 56% lower, and the population based rates of home fires and home injuries are 56% lower now.

The population-based rates of home fires and home injuries fire deaths are now 69% and 63% lower.

So we've seen a lot of improvements in safety, as was mentioned with Mark and Morgan.

We've seen a lot of improvements in safety with the fire with uh smoke detectors and all the other uh safety measures that have been installed in houses.

Um, and also uh reported home fires have fallen.

The rate of reported home fires have fallen from 3.2 in 1980 per 1,000 population to one per 1,000 population in 2024.

So the question before you is whether Erie should continue imposing a blanket mandate that adds real cost to every new home.

And I mean, based on the presentation and the information that the HBA provided, we saw that was anywhere from about 7,500 to 12,745 dollars, depending on the size and type of the home.

Um combining, as Morgan said, when combining the higher fees with the sprinkler requirement, the town area is the most expensive municipality in the Denver metro area to build in.

Uh we want to note that this repeal does not ban fire sprinklers.

If somebody wants a fire sprinkler, they could still ask for it.

It'll still be offered to somebody who wants it.

Um it's simply not asking to not have a one-size-fits-all mandate that restores uh and and restore customer choice, consumer choice.

Um, as Mark said, every thousand dollars a price increase, and we're talking about twenty thousand by the time we have everything uh involved here.

This place is 2300 Colorado residents.

In this case, uh we're talking about 46,000 people that are priced out of a home, or we'll be forced into an older home that is less safety measures than one of the newer homes that we're building today.

So it's it's a question of if we're gonna force people that maybe could afford aspire to afford a new home.

We force them into an older home that's less safe than the new homes that are being built today.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Chad Rodriguez.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, Chad Rodriguez with Dreamark Homes, Greenwood Village, Colorado.

We're also invested in Erie, just like Mark and KBR and the rest of the builders up here.

Desirable place to live.

I'm not gonna come up here and riddle you with stats.

I think you've heard enough of those.

I've been to many of these meetings.

But I think the end of the day, we want to build a home that the customer wants.

Quiz our salespeople.

How many people come into a sales office and ask does this home include a fire sprinkler?

No, they want to know as a toilet that works and a stove and a microwave and a garage to park their car, a yard to play in with their children.

Is there gonna be a park in the community that we can enjoy?

What are the schools like?

Those are the questions they ask that you're answering.

And the same as what kind of financing incentive do you offer?

How can I afford this home?

This is my dream.

Well, let's help them out.

Let's get them a dream.

Or we can mandate everything.

Maybe Erie Parkway ought to be 10 miles an hour.

No more car deaths on Erie Parkway, no more wrecks, no more risk everywhere.

Maybe we ought to all be controlled.

We have everything perfect in this world.

I don't think that's what we're asking for.

We're asking to be similar to the other communities.

Let's level the playing field, repeal the fire ordinance, and let's move building forward in Erie.

Thank you for your time.

All right, thank you.

And the last one is Chad Murphy, and he is online.

So let me just promote him.

And you are?

Oh, I didn't see on the list, but we'll call you next.

We'll definitely we'll definitely have you come up.

Let us let us get Chad and then I'll make sure anybody else in the audience who wants to speak in.

Okay, Chad, you should be able to unmute and speak.

Thanks so much.

Good evening, Council.

Good evening, Mayor.

Um, I think my position has been stated tonight by the folks that are proposing to repeal the the sprinkler mandate.

And I just want to note that I'm in full agreement with that.

I worked for Heinz uh real estate investment company.

We're a global uh international real estate development firm um with offices all around the world.

We are the current partner in the Erie Gateway project with the town of Erie.

Um, and we're um we're working on other large projects in the town limits um that are significant uh significant projects for the future growth of Erie and the the sprinkler mandate is uh is a seriously challenging uh financial disincentive uh to to all these projects and our ultimate home buyers.

Um with the raising of water taps over the last year.

That uh that I mean I don't know if you guys caught what Morgan said, but 40 46,000, I think is what he said.

But my math is 42.

Either way, for costs to go up in a municipality in the last 12 months of in the 40,000 dollar range per single family home, um, is is just astronomical.

And and we understand the reason we we need to increase water.

Um, but the sprinkler mandate, we believe is is unnecessary, especially as it relates to health and safety.

Erie does a wonderful job of egress in their sites and fire access and roadway design, and I think that's the most critical component in single family neighborhoods, particularly that people can get out if if there's a catastrophic event.

But even if there is, as the home builders have mentioned tonight, the houses are designed and built in a way that um those risks are much lower than some of the older housing stock that we know.

Um, Heinz does do development of multifamily buildings, and this is not that.

Um multifamily apartment buildings do require sprinklers in the houses because the units are so close together.

That's not what we're talking about tonight.

We're talking about single family detached and single family outtouched housing.

So I want to just echo what uh others have said tonight.

Uh, we work in municipalities all around the country and even all around Denver.

Um, and we do not ever uh really run into this issue.

So the fact that Erie is an outlier um suggests that I think it's something that you guys should seriously consider repealing tonight.

So with that, um, I'll close and I thank you for your time.

All right, thank you.

I have no bar online, but Mr.

Eglson, if you'd like to.

All right, yeah, if you'd like to come up.

Thank you.

Sorry, I just got word there.

That's okay.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Uh, my name is Mike Eggleston.

I've lived in Erie for 27 years now.

Um, and I think repealing this ordinance is a bad thing to do.

Everybody talks about cost, everybody talks about what it's costing.

I understand things have gone up over the last few years immensely.

But what is your life worth?

What is your child's life worth?

What is your mother, your mother grandmother's life worth?

And I understand there are a lot of homes out there that are not fire sprinkled.

But the idea that anything that is built new going forward is a good thing.

It prevents life loss, and that is my biggest passion.

I live in this town, and I don't like seeing people get hurt in fires and stuff.

And I understand it is far and few in between.

But there are a lot of areas where fire sprinklers are included.

Yes, as they pointed out, so many states have done it, but most states don't regulate the fire sprinkler part of it.

It's the individual towns like Erie that regulate it.

And if you go look, there are thousands of towns across this country that have fire sprinkler systems requirement in their single family homes.

Um, like I say, they're saying 12 to 20,000, what is your life worth?

What is the life of another person in this community worth if we have a fire and somebody dies in that fire?

Um the thing about the fire department, those guys go in, they're putting their lives on the line to save you, your house, whatever.

The thing is, when they go in, they have a hose that puts out anywhere from 500 to 1,000 gallons a minute, and on average they're gonna put 10 to 20,000 gallons of water on a house fire.

If you have a fire sprinkler system, typically one head, at the most two heads go off in that house, putting out 16 gallons per minute per head.

So you're talking about 30 to 32 gallons a minute.

It number one, in most cases, it suppresses the fire, or at least it keeps it under control until the fire department has got time to get there.

Response times are great, and I think our community has done a great job in North Metro, or North Metro, I'm sorry, Mountain View has done a great job.

But understand from the time the fire starts, somebody sees it, or if you're asleep and you wake up at two o'clock in the morning and you're not sure what's going on.

911 is called and their response time to get there.

The chance of loss of life is great.

The chance of loss of structure is even greater.

And the idea that all of this water that is basically polluted drastically because of the building materials that are used nowadays is going down into the sewer system.

Going into the streets, and it's going to create more pollution and more hazard over the years.

And I guess in savings, I mean what we're looking at is people's lives.

And yes, I understand that you want to be able to sell homes, but at the same time, we need to take it and consider what else is a life worth.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate your time.

All right, thank you.

All right, is there anybody else in the audience that would like to address us on this topic tonight?

Okay, then I'll bring it back to council for questions of staff.

Oh, I'm sorry?

I think I need to speak.

Okay, all right.

And just name um and where you reside for the record.

I reside here in Old Town.

My name is Tonya Hayward.

Um I have been in the architectural field for 40 years.

Um I'm I'm confused why this issue with sprinklers is overlapping um multifamily and single family, because in that industry that I've been in for this long, we've always looked at multifamily as being very different than single family residents.

Um where that makes sense.

You have common walls.

Um, I'm looking at building um another house from my son here in Old Town Erie, and this is on top of everything else because I'm trying to keep my family here.

Another cost for a single family residence, which I'm slightly confused about.

Um I'm not here representing a builder because to be honest, I'm not thrilled about all the building that has gone on for the last 20 years here.

Um I remember when there were no roads and no sidewalks, so I'm kind of in the middle of the situation.

Um but I'm confused with why we're separating or combining these two or these three entities.

Common walls make sense to me.

I have experience with myself having uh water systems go out, sprinkler systems go off in an office I had in Denver, and destroying all of my hand-drawn drawings.

And because of the water, which was much more of a loss to me than any of the fire in that building.

So I'm I'm I'm confused how we're putting all of this in one bucket.

I don't think we should be.

I think we should be cautious about doing that.

I know that there are a few places in Colorado who uh like as in Aspen who have single family residences that are sprinkled.

Um, and a few other places in Colorado, but I don't feel like it's a lot of places.

I think we need to be cautious about how we're putting everything in one bucket.

And I'm trying to keep my family here as a small entity building residences for my children to stay here and not a development company.

Um and I'd like you to consider that too.

All right, thank you.

All right, now I'll bring it back to council for any clarifying questions for staff.

I know we went through this the last time we were here, so it wouldn't surprise me.

Okay.

Yeah, Mayor Partin.

Um I probably need uh David and or Todd tell me on this one.

Try to make David answer it.

There, okay.

Okay, you can move to um sorry you're coming up.

So um while staff was investigating on uh an option uh uh to to have this in place or requiring an option for the builder.

So uh we received a staff memo.

Um I'm just gonna read from part of this here because it's what I have a question on.

Um so it said town staff and public works and utilities noted that increasing the sizing of infrastructure to one-inch lines could result in less sufficiency in the water use to single family detached and attached homes.

Do the ability for a one-inch line to deliver roughly double the flow of a typical three-quarter inch line.

This can negatively impact the town's water conservation efforts and the ability to minimize water use for single-family homes.

This impact is currently offset by the benefit of public safety and potential environmental impacts to the stormwater system.

So there's those two offsetting principles, and somebody mentioned about yeah, you have fire, you can get those particulates into the stormwater system.

So I understand that's but understanding just from a basic thing because we have to install the one-inch taps for the system to work.

Um regardless of the fire implementation, I assume that still holds true that that having the one-inch taps potentially creates that imbalance.

I can take the first step.

That's uh oh, like we've noted there a one-inch tap can deliver about twice the flow of a three-quarter what we would normally put in.

So um that uh it creates the ability for the demand, right?

So if somebody wanted to put in much more extensive irrigation, it's you're gonna flow more out of your fixtures and stuff.

But on top of that, if the house catches on fire and it damages the plumbing, you're gonna deliver a lot more water through that tap.

So, like what we saw in the Marshall Fire, um, the systems drained out right away.

And I know it's a different situation, but if you get a house fire that's gonna jump from house to house under certain conditions, and you start to bleed out the system out of one-inch taps, it's gonna go a lot faster than a three-quarter inch tap system would do.

Okay, thanks.

So anything that or is that talking about it?

No, he said it pretty well.

Okay, cool.

Thanks.

Sorry.

Sorry to bring up all those values.

Okay.

Um I think uh my second question will be for for uh Mr.

Miller.

Um so with go back a second.

So in for 2025, um where were we roughly on building permits uh for the year?

450.

And how what how is that compared to 2024?

Miller um so with I go back a second so in for 2025 um where were we roughly on building permits uh for the year we had about 450 450 and how what how's that compared to 2024 uh we had about double that in 2024 about 900 okay and the original ordinance was adopted in 23 it was like 20 it was adopted in 22 implemented in 23 okay implemented at 23 okay all right um and then year to date do you know about how many permits we've had uh I think uh 61 61 okay all right um okay yep uh I think that's all the questions I have so yep thank you all right other questions from council no council anything for staff yes can you hear me yep we could see it we could see you too okay great great um I had a quick um question about the water usage that was just something that I was recalling from meetings past that um and I'm not sure if anyone on staff could answer but um other than what we've heard before that sprinkled homes that catch fire generally use ninety percent less water to put out that fire than um non-sprinkled homes can anyone speak to that I I there's a whole um like engineering field for uh fire protection fire sprinklers and stuff um I don't know that any of us could answer that question um or cite that metric but um certainly what like one of the gentlemen got up and spoke about you know dumping a thousand gallons a minute onto a house to put the fire out as opposed to what this fire sprinkler would do um in conversations we've had with the fire department it kind of help explain to us how that kind of creates more resiliency in the water system so anytime we get a fire you know even just a single controlling fire event um it's gonna put a big hit on on the system and uh so you know I think that's about all I could say to it honestly okay um so that's what I remembering as well I remember deputy chief webb had had brought that forward maybe in the very first conversation we ever had about sprinklers um and then it's been repeated through time uh from folks from Mountain View Fire so I just wanted to highlight that especially in light of the conversation we had earlier um regarding water conservation and kind of our ongoing efforts to ensure that we are being good stewards of water and planning for that um and then Mr Mella I think this question is for you the water tap fee um to upsize the water tap to the needed size which I believe mayor pro timbell just said was the one inch um we have waived the increase in that fee I believe and so if we repeal this ordinance will we also be repealing that waived increase so um we worked with what was it public works at the time utilities department um the only cost that we determined um would be applied to homes getting a fire sprinkler system was to charge them for the cost of the tap um a one inch tap versus the meter sorry so I don't know why I'm answering this because Todd's sitting right here okay I'm sorry I asked their own um he says it's like 350 dollars more if you didn't hear um so uh we um I think that we put that into code as um being able to provide that discount um and not actually charge the full one inch tap cost so it wouldn't apply to I mean we'd just go back to three quarter inch lines and meters and tap fees I don't know if I answered let me just add that so we've just charged a three quarter inch um tap fee for those we allowed for the uh one inch um connection uh to make the fire sprinklers work and um we just charged the uh incremental cost for the for the one inch meter which was like 350 dollars more than a three quarter inch meter so that was the only cost that was added by that there's no added tap fees or um you know I think there's a little more cost in the one inch um piping and stuff that the home builders would have to put in okay so if we repeal this ordinance will be we'd be repealing those incentives or they in code they're in the code um and if somebody were to put in a sprinkler system they could still utilize that you know um that approach so um we would this ordinance does not do that okay does not take out that language okay and then also by I think so mere pro times bell's line of questioning spurred a question for me um

Or are they in code?

They're in the code.

Um, and if somebody were to put in a sprinkler system, they could still utilize that you know, um, that approach.

So um we would this ordinance does not do that.

Okay.

Okay.

And then also by I think so Mirror Pro Tim's Bell's line of questioning spurred a question for me.

Um I believe if so, having a one-inch tap allows you to double the capacity or usage, potential usage, um, than a three-quarter inch tap.

But people still pay for the water usage, correct?

So if they're using double the amount of water, are they you know, are they still incentivized to use less water?

Yeah, no, that's that's a good point.

Um, yeah, they'd say it still runs through the meter, so they'd still have to pay for the water.

Okay.

Well, those are all of my questions.

Um I'm sorry, Councilmember Bear didn't I didn't want to cut you off there.

Did you have a oh no?

I said that's it.

Thanks.

Okay, good deal.

All right.

Um I think for my I don't have any questions.

Um, I think what I'm gonna do is close the public hearing because I do have comments for the deliberation uh portion.

So I'm officially uh closing the public hearing and it'll come back for deliberations and then uh potentially a motion.

Um first I want to thank um sir and your team for going out and doing this work because I think I was one of the drivers to say, hey, this should be optional under this umbrella that if people want it, they should be able to go get it.

Um it sounded reasonable.

Um, but it made sense when I read your memo that yeah, it may sound reasonable, but the fact is people are not paying for it if they have the option to have it.

And so either we haven't done as a society done a good job um parlaying the statistics that we had heard from um uh the deputy marshal earlier, or people don't really sense the risk and they do understand it, and for whatever reason, they don't they don't purchase it.

Um the dilemma I think that I I was having with just repealing this is that I wanted people to have an option, but I guess people do have an option.

Um if I understood one of the builders, I don't remember who it was, but they said if somebody wanted this, they could tell us they want it, and we'll figure out how to get the bigger tap and put it in.

Um so okay.

I guess I never uh thought about it from that perspective.

Ultimately, this comes down in my mind to a balance of risk versus cost.

And anybody could look at one life over a hundred thousand homes and say, oh my god, we lost a life.

The cost of that is immense.

But then that has to be balanced against the cost for those hundred thousand homes for putting it in, and who didn't get to move in because that just pushed it over the threshold, right?

Ultimately, this is about attainable housing and getting our costs in alignment with um surrounding community costs, which as an aside, we're gonna be doing an impact study fee later this year.

I'm looking at Sarah just to make sure that's still on there.

Um, so that we can understand, you know, are we off that far on the high side or the low side?

And and it'll help us all understand in a broader perspective.

This is one thing though that um I do um I do connect with the analogy, and I think I used it the first time that we could take the speed limits to five, 10 miles an hour across Erie, and we will absolutely save lives.

But we will also gum up Erie and people will be frustrated by their ability to get through the town.

And so, in a similar way, we can definitely keep the costs higher and create that incremental safety.

But the cost added up is a lot.

This does not, I also want to be real clear uh from our last speaker.

This does not impact multifamily homes, apartments, condos.

Um, the sprinklers would still be required in there.

It's for single family attached and detached um homes where there's nobody above you, basically.

Um I am I'm I've now shifted from not being in supportive of repealing this because I wanted the option to shifting to being in support of repealing this from all the things that we've learned on this lengthy journey uh that we've been on.

All right, I'll bring it back to council for other uh deliberations.

Or I'll see if there's a motion to order.

My hand is faced.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, go ahead, Councilmember Bear.

Uh thank you.

Um my position is not shifted.

I have voted for this um ordinance in the beginning, and I still stand with it.

I'm I am um not compelled to vote against the advice of our first responders.

Um I think that health and safety is a North Star for me and should be for all government representatives, and a 90% drop in the risk of death in a fire is enough for me, but also firefighter injury rate drops in half.

And the fact that um, you know, we are looking at water crisis in the town um immediately, but then also through the future, looking at coming on board with what is happening already on the western slope, and those communities are asking us to get on board and look at water reduction, and this is another way that we can really do that.

And um the the fact that sprinkled homes require 10% of the water to put out the same fire as a non-sprinkled home, um, I think is something that every resident in the town of Erie would be impacted by.

Um, and so I think that this is an ordinance that the general population of Erie probably doesn't have too much of an opinion on because they already live in their homes, but they are impacted by water.

And so um this town being planful and responsible and how we require um the building community to provide for water conservation uh does affect everyone in the town.

And so um for all of those reasons, and mostly because um our Mountain View Fire Department has showed up repeatedly at these meetings to tell us that this is what they recommend.

Um I entirely support our firefighters and um I thank you for your guidance and for um your support over the years, and I will absolutely um be a no vote to repeal this ordinance.

All right, other comments, Councilmember Peterson LA?

Yeah, I did uh wanted to add one more thing.

The savings that the um developers are talking about, they're not getting passed to the buyers.

I have an issue with that if they reduce the home by 20, 30, 40,000, it'll probably make some sense.

The other things we are talking about, um like the ordinance about safety.

We don't see this with child seats or seed belts or helmets.

We don't say no to those, we still follow those.

And I want to put um safety as the first um priority.

And uh environment as a second priority where we increase the resiliency.

And I would like to vote no on this one.

Other comments, Councilmember Mortlero.

First of all, I'd like to I appreciate all the work that the staff put in working with all the different uh groups, um, Mountain View uh Fire Department, HBA, um, and and the other communities.

Um and I certainly appreciate the firefighters and first responders and their comments and their passion um for what they do and and keeping us safe.

Uh I I've always put first responders on elite level.

But when I look at this, I I we I sit in one meeting where we talk about affordability, and then the next meeting we talk about adding requirements and and um um ordinances and processes to systems adding costs um and making things less affordable.

Uh so I feel we need to understand every time that we put something in place what it costs, what it costs um our residents, what it costs you know, future residents.

Um we can always find great reasons to add costs.

There's all it always there's always a benefit when we add cost, but we're adding costs, and we need to understand and balance that.

Um so and and for several reasons, I choose a monitoring system that detects fire carbon monoxide and alerts police if if somebody's trying to break in um to protect my family instead of a sprinkler system that I'm more I'm very concerned about failing.

So those are my reasons for moving forward.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Hobak.

Councilmember Hobak.

Oh thank you.

I appreciate all the all the comments and questions that have been made.

Certainly the statistics scream out, yes, sprinklers, sprinklers, um with the lower disk risk of death, less 90% less water.

Um that's hard to uh compared to a cost.

Um in the intervening time since we first discussed this, it's become very personal to me.

I have friends who did lose their home.

Um and they have a lot of what if what if we had a sprinkler?

They think it would have saved the home, but instead it was a total loss.

Um as I said in previous sessions, it's uh I kind of hard pressed to go against the advice of our first responders, particularly when I have a nephew versus is a fire fighter with a one-month-old uh grand niece.

Um I'm gonna have to uh vote no on repealing.

All right.

Thank you.

Um thank you for the presentation.

Uh thank you for staff's work on this.

Uh I want to start by saying that I think everybody up here, regardless of how they come out of this on this issue, I I think everybody is concerned with health and safety.

So I there we shouldn't create this false dichotomy that if you're for sprinklers or against sprinklers, that that they're you know, is some sort of thing you're you know, against saving lives.

Obviously, uh you know fire protection is is important.

And uh I said this when when this issue first came up on the last council, uh I mentioned in my house uh uh we have a study on the first floor.

It's not considered a bedroom, so there's not a smoke alarm in that room.

But my my son had a little remote control car that he was charging uh a battery pack in there that short it out.

Uh and there was smoke going off.

We came home, and because the doors were closed in the study, this the smoke didn't get out to any of the other smoke detectors.

Thankfully, it was uh uh sitting on a surface where it kind of burned into the surface and and didn't uh ignite anything around it.

Um and we had to open up the windows and and let out the gases because I'm sure it was you know this lithium-ion batteries, so they're probably toxic gases that were released from there.

Um but there's no ordinance to put a uh smoke alarm in a study because it it's not considered a bedroom because it doesn't have a closet.

So I mean you could go through our code and there are holes everywhere in it.

Um I do agree that you know uh the the water savings that that's a huge issue for us now, and that's why I asked the question that I did because in the memo it was saying that you know these these one-inch taps can uh the the flow can be twice as much as is a three-quarter inch tap.

And so I'm looking at this, and we're permitting all these new homes that were required to have the one-inch tap to accommodate the system.

What are the chances that that one-inch tap is depleting our water system versus the that's being used for the fire suppression system?

Those are the things you have to balance out.

This is about balancing and managing risks, and right now, in my estimation, the the risk for what we have in our water needs outweighs the risk that is posed by a single family home where there would be a death in that home.

Um doesn't mean that it wouldn't happen, but again, I I heard two different things being argued today, and I heard one statistical thing that's saying that the average age of a home where there's been a fire with a fatality that the house was built in 1964, and that that makes sense because the newer homes are being built with with fire suppressive materials.

That's not to say that I I totally agree.

This probably does reduce the risk of fire, but it's it's balancing that out with everything else.

And 20,000, 15, 20,000 may not sound a lot to people, but if somebody's buying a million dollar home, okay, 20,000 may not be the you know, go no go decision in in a on a 30-year note on a house like that.

Uh but you know, to uh uh a first-time starter home, $20,000 might be a make or break difference.

I know that that was true for me 10 years ago in 2016 that that I bought into Erie.

Uh I but we put the contract on our house on December 31st because there was a new price increase that was coming out the next day.

And had I waited, I would have been priced out of the market.

So these are decisions that that uh you know are gonna affect a lot of things, and and affordability is a huge issue right now.

And I brought up the the statistics about how many permits we've sold.

We're we're not we're not selling houses right now.

And um I I know there's some some people I know in town think that's a great thing, but um, you know, that that could lead to bigger problems, economic decline, uh, other things that's going to mean less revenue to the town for doing other things because we require those those permitting fees to do other things.

So um this is a macroeconomic problem, and this is one little piece of it.

So I uh I am in support of repealing this.

That does not mean that I am against people's safety.

So I want to clarify what what I believe is a false equivalency.

All right, thank you.

Councilman O'Connor.

Thank you.

Um, so I I have the opportunity to visit um a lot of homes a year, and so when we first started talking about this, I was looking at the systems, and what happens in the home is the one-inch line just goes to the sprinkler system, it necks down to three quarter for the rest of the house, including the sprinkler system.

At least that's what my observation has been.

But it also gives me a chance to ask the new home buyers if the topic comes up.

I don't volunteer, but if that if the topic comes up and they talk about affordability and they learn about the cost of the sprinkler systems, and not one of those buyers has said they would have chosen the fire sprinkler system, they would have either rather had the features that were taken away or not paid for the system.

And then they probably don't even know the annual maintenance cost is because you have to annually maintain that system, or you're supposed to.

It's a hundred to three hundred a year.

I mean, I'm I'm that was just a quick search.

I um forgot to look that up earlier.

But anyway, there is a maintenance cost to it, an annual maintenance cost.

That so that's just another cost that we're that the resident has to bear when they're um maybe they're it was tough for them to get into the home to begin with.

I know it was tough for us to get into our first Erie home.

So um for me it's a cost affordability issue, and um, I'd actually like to see it possibly be added to the Metro District Point system, as uh you know, you can instead of the stick use the carrot to encourage the builders to possibly um or the developer and the builder to have that in the homes when they create a metro district.

So um at this point, based on affordability, I'm in favor of repealing this, just to try to combat rising costs for our new residents, our current residents who want to move to newer homes.

So thanks.

All right, with that, I'll see if there's a motion to approve ordinance number um 011 2026.

So moved.

Second, all right.

We have a motion and a second, we can have further discussion.

I'll start the further discussion.

Um man, so many great points brought up, and um you know, ultimately the affordability is is driving me on this, and the fact that you do have an option to get it.

I also look at uh some of the stats that were brought tonight, I which I wasn't aware of both on both sides.

Uh there's the statistics that try to take risks to zero, and especially for firefighters who have to go in the building.

I totally get that.

And then you have the statistics on the other side that I think somebody had said tonight um there's been one death in a home built after 2008 because of um building materials in Colorado, which tells me we've come a long way.

I would be open to looking at our code to requiring uh smoke alarms where we don't require them today.

I personally um connected a smoke alarm into the wired system in my garage uh because I bought an electric car and I thought, okay, well, if there's gonna be a fire that starts, that might be a place, and I wanna know if it uh if it happens, not hearing the flames roaring, um, but actually hearing the fire alarm go off.

So we could do those things, and when we have other areas and homes that don't require it, um I think we can ask that question um to do better, maybe in those um those areas.

Um all right, knowing it's still an option.

Gets me what I was originally hopeful for in the first place.

If anybody does want to invest in their own safety, they can do that.

All right, other comments before I call the vote.

All right, I'll look to our clerk uh to do a role called.

Oh, sorry, Councilmember Bear, go ahead.

Sorry.

Um yeah, I understand.

I mean affordable housing is so important to me, and I'm thrilled to hear so many of my um fellow council members concerned, and I'm excited to tackle affordability um in the coming weeks and months with you guys.

Um it my concern here is that we have heard even repeated just now from council member O'Connor and from um speakers this evening, but for the mandate, um this the sprinklers may not ever happen and cost it's cost prohibitive to um kind of do one off here and there.

We need to have the planning and be ready.

So I think the affordability problem will not be addressed except for um you know, sort of this the scale um project that would require it and bring costs down for folks.

Um, and then also I just wanted to, I was very moved by something that Deputy Fire Marshal Doug Saba said that if we remove sprinkler requirements, we are accepting preventable deaths and the an increased firefighter injury rate.

Um, and so for me, this is about safety, and this is a choice that we have in front of us right now.

Um, and if affordability is truly the issue, then the only way that we're going to be able to get to an economy of scale and bring down the costs for including sprinklers in homes and reducing water usage and firefighting across um the board for that will benefit our entire community.

It is by maintaining um maintaining this ordinance.

Um so I think that is extremely important um that we're not just succumbing to industry pressure, and that we address truly address affordability.

Okay, thank you.

Go ahead, go ahead and call the vote.

All right, uh Councilmember Mortalera.

Yes, Councilmember O'Connor.

Yes.

Uh Councilmember Passamarelli.

No.

Councilmember Bear.

No.

Mayor Pro Tem Bell.

Yes.

Uh, Councilmember Hobak.

No.

And Mayor Maher.

Yes.

The motion passes.

All right.

Thank you.

It's been a journey uh that we've been on.

And thank you for everybody who's came out and spoke tonight.

All right, we'll move on to council member reports and announcements.

And councilmember Bear, I think I'll start with you, and because you're on the left, and we're just gonna loop around tonight.

Okay, thanks.

Um I look forward to further conversations about um affordable affordability and housing affordability.

Um, I am excited to tackle that.

That is something that's really important.

I do share that um concern with all of you.

Um I wanted to thank our community members who came out to speak this evening.

Um I do reach out to our um commenters um individually, and so I just wanted to put it on the record that I have been speaking with folks.

Um I do hear you and you know, um would love the opportunity to get to talk with each of you in person or through email, whatever that looks like.

Um I do hear that our community um has an elevated sense of fear.

Um I've had many hard conversations with um friends and neighbors as people I don't know in the community and will continue to do that.

Um and just want you to know that I value you and um I'm doing everything I can to um ensure a safe community for all of our residents.

Um and and I want to connect with you.

So um look for upcoming opportunities there.

Um this evening we heard from multiple residents that they have concerns about our closed door meetings, um, executive sessions.

So I would like to encourage my council members to address that.

Um one of our public commenters said that time is right, that's time to bring all of these conversations out into um you know, bring it into the daylight and so our community can um understand and we can be able to address concerns and hear from them about what their intentions are, and I think that that is important um for our for our council to address this evening.

So I encourage you to talk about that in your in your council reports.

For me, I've been to tons of meetings over the last week and um wait in a lot of um legislature activities.

There's the joint budget committee came out with the latest um update on the budget, and bills are moving through so fast that it's hard to even keep up and um they're being amended and whatever.

So um just encourage if if you have questions about bills that are moving through the legislature to send council emails so that we're aware um of community priorities there as well.

So um with that, I think I'll just remind everyone to keep your good dogs on a leash in this beautiful weather when you're walking.

And that's it from me.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Pence from Ellie.

Anything tonight?

Not comes.

Okay.

Councilmember O'Connor.

Uh thank you.

Uh this Saturday, um, actually the uh sustainability sustainability division is hosting the free compost giveaway.

Uh it's from 8 to 11 a.m.

at the Erie Recycling Center.

I part I took part in this uh last year and uh picked up a couple wheelbarrels full, and it was a nice uh uh thing that the sustainability division was doing.

Um also if any uh first to third grade teachers are interested in a um having the tree board come to their classrooms to um uh uh engage in a seed planting program with them.

Uh the tree board has a is in full swing with their uh planting your future classroom tree growing experience.

Uh they will either um loan out kits to interested teachers, first to third graders, or um upon request, tree board members and um actually council member Baer and I will be visiting BlackRock to do an in-person tree seed planting with the kids.

So if any teachers are interested, they can email the tree board at TAB at ERECO.gov.

All right.

Mayor Pro Tim.

Uh thank you.

Um I wanted to address something real quick.

I spoke to this a bit last week, and um uh this this week I did see that there was uh we heard from several people the the beginning of the meeting that the uh uh commented on on uh mineral rights.

Um there was a memo that was uh released on Facebook.

Um that I I'm not sure what the origin of this of this email was, only to say that I can categorically say that the implications of this email were completely false.

Uh the bullet points that were listed in there, and it was talking about a yes or no vote, which there is no vote that's taking place.

Um and the implication that they were trying to imply from this um homeowner loss, those types of things.

Uh uh again, there I'm not sure where these things are coming from, but there has been nothing that's been decided.

There has been nothing that we need to bring forth because there's there's at this point there's nothing to vote on.

Um, I'm just going to read what we say in our executive session to understand exactly what we do talk about.

And the exact wordings is to determine positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, develop a strategy for negotiations, and or instruct negotiators.

That's what we talk about in executive session.

Those are not executable items.

If there is an item that is brought forth that has to be done in a public setting, and we would do so at that point, and the public would get noticed.

And again, I issue a warning to council that you need to be very careful about what you say in public.

And uh, because there is information that is being disseminated that is completely false.

And um I I think some of you know that it's false, and unfortunately it has not been uh redacted.

Uh I will leave it at that.

Um the uh the next I say just uh uh look uh your comments on the on the composting.

I I get more comments about our uh recycling center that and the improvements that I've seen since uh you know I started here and and uh uh David and Todd.

I mean, yeah, I know you guys are a big part of seeing that through, and I know a lot of stuff's moves around.

We've had a lot of construction, um, just the accessibility and to getting to the cardboard uh drop off.

It's it's very efficient now.

So um it's it's really cool um to see that.

I think we're uh maybe size-wise, we're not quite as big as what Lafayette's is, but um I think we're getting to something that's very competitive uh for especially uh per capita, I'd say you know, we're on top, so um uh and then uh obviously uh uh next month looking forward to uh Earth Day Arbor Day, so yeah, hopefully we'll see we're running out there.

So it's gonna snow that day, I bet.

Yeah, I you know, I actually hope it does.

Uh we too.

All right, Councilmember Mortalero.

I'd like to thank everybody for coming out for public comment.

I'd also like to thank the residents again for adhering to the notification um about not running their sprinter systems.

We reduced our consumption by about half a million gallons per day.

Uh please stay diligent.

So back.

Uh thank you.

Um, yeah, I would also like to thank all the people that came out today, and um echo council member bears comments that you are being heard.

We support you, the towns staff supports you, and the police department supports you.

And I do understand the importance of getting a statement um from council.

And I I hope we can do that, uh, whether that's by ordinance proclamation or some other, uh, to let you know that you're heard and and and and thought of and supported.

Um beyond that council and I personally have had received a number of emails and messages in recent weeks on on some pretty important topics.

Um allowing a thousand seat shirt to the on property purchase for open space and affordable housing, selling town remnant and mineral rights, awarding a four and a half million dollar contract to a former executive of the company proposing to drill the infamous Dreco pad, devalue those rights.

Uh, and of course, water, water, water.

Umriding all of these issues is the issue of transparency and open communic communication.

I think that's the biggest thing that people are asking for.

Um, something that many feel has been sorely lacking by the use of closed door meetings, which I understand the need and the propriety of using executive sessions.

Um, but they're not sacrosanct, and we may at times uh misuse them.

Um and we have previously pierced the veil of executive sessions during the call for terminating the former town manager.

I did so not as a stunt or as a political theater, as was accused.

I chose that path because framed as a change in direction.

It was clearly not a personnel issue, and residents had a right to hear firsthand about the change in direction.

And there was a sudden appearance on the agenda of a four and a half million dollar broker contract.

At the time this was framed, and since then, this was framed as just gathering information, just an opportunity to learn the value of these rights.

Evaluation, we were told, should be available by mid to late January.

That was way back when we still had hopes for a Colorado winter.

It's now two months past that date.

Do we know the value?

If so, why hasn't it been shared and discussed?

Is Council Goldant going down the path of creating a contract without any transparency, without discussion of what residents want?

What sort of an executable item will show up on an agenda in the future?

And will they only have three days to consider it before the meeting is actually held?

Will residents be told what they want and what are getting without having any true in back input and feedback.

The fact is, three minutes of public comment with zero interaction is not quality input and often leaves residents with the feeling that they most definitely have not been heard.

This is particularly stark when the agenda has a signature ready contract or lawsuit of settlement and preliminary preliminary plat or other document attached to it.

Those documents usually foreshadow a vote.

So on behalf of residents asking for more details and transparency.

And I'm not convinced that a state of the town meeting is sufficient.

I am calling upon the council and the mayor who sets our agendas to have a council session that allows for an open discussion on this topic as well as on the page property.

Sessions that are more inclusive than we have seen to date.

Yes, it will take some more time.

Isn't it worth the time to hear our residents?

If we can't get there with more lip, if we can't get there with there with more than lip service or an invitation to adding it to a separately planned town hall meeting, I'm prepared to continue trying to use whatever legal rules we have at our disposal to slow down and pierce the veil of secrecy.

Thank you.

All right, thanks, Councilmember Hoback.

Um, this last week um I met with uh the A team, which is a um an offshoot of the charter and networking group.

Um wonderful group of people, and I was able to do kind of a preliminary town hall with them.

Um same topics and just discussion around them.

Um very um engaged group, and uh um I was happy to have that opportunity.

Um I have me uh met with Shannon, who's one of the um people that is consistently coming to talk to us about um making sure that all of us feel that everybody in Erie should be included, and I certainly feel that way.

And I understand the um the challenges with ICE that is um they've posed across the nation and how that affects us in this community here.

And so a conversation is started uh for a proclamation of some sort.

Um don't know when that will come to be, but uh the conversation is started, and I think that's important for people to know.

Um I am equally um I think I could say equally frustrated by um not being able to talk about our negotiations with regard to oil and gas because the the narrative that's out there is um only a portion of what we've been talking about, but yet I can't say anything because it's all in executive session.

So I will be took talking with our attorney this week just to ask that question.

What can we share or should we share at this point?

I'm also frustrated that um I forgot if it was the first or second meeting in December.

Oh, I guess we only had one meeting in December that we we um enacted the contract to even understand what the value would be and I can't say more, but it's uh mineral rights isn't the full full story, and now we're uh coming up to April, so we're coming up to four months.

And so um either there's something to talk about or there's not.

And if there's not, then there's not, and I want to be able to say that.

But if there's something to talk about, then I think we do have an obligation to talk about it.

So uh stay tuned on that one uh to the point where I feel like the the reins are uh not on me the way they are at the moment.

I did send out a note uh on social media on this topic, and I think most people know I'm not a social media uh person.

Um but it would here's what I said, just so um if all of you didn't see it or anybody listening.

Um I'm looking forward to the moment when I can share the full breadth of council's discussions on the Draco Pad and ongoing negotiations with SM Energy.

SM Energy, by the way, bought Civitas.

So if you hear SM, it's really Civitas.

There are many nuances currently missing from the public dialogue on ERIES negotiations that I believe are vital to understanding the complete picture.

We're operating within the difficult reality that the Draco pad has been approved by the county and state, and challenges to stop it have not been successful.

Because of this, focus is shifted toward negotiating every possible safeguard to reduce environmental and local impacts while ensuring our town is pop properly compensated.

What I can share right now is that no agreement has been reached.

If a set of terms is agreed to in principle, they would be presented in a transparent public hearing.

This will be a critical space for our community to weigh in on whether the proposal truly serves the best interests of Erie.

I recognize that this update may leave you with more questions, and I hope to be able to share more at the state of the town meeting on April 2nd at 6 p.m.

Okay, that is all I have for tonight.

So I will um well, first I'll say there are two executive um session items tonight.

Neither are um around oil and gas.

Mayor Pro Tim.

Yep, thank you.

Um Mayor, I move to go into executive session to discuss item 2026-2020 to hold a conference with the town's water council to determine positions relative to water matters, including discussion of related, including discussion related to the town's water supply development and growth that may be subject to negotiations and instruct negotiators pursuant to CRS 2464024E, and to hold conference with the town's water council to receive legal advice on specific legal questions pursuant to CRS 2464024B related to water supply strategies and item 2026-2025 to determine positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, develop a strategy for negotiations, and or instruct negotiators pursuant to CRS 2464024E to consider the purchase, acquisition, lease, transfer, or sale of real personal or other property pursuant to CRS 2464024A, for which a topic cannot be disclosed without compromising the purpose of the executive session.

All right, do we have a second?

Second.

We have a motion and second.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye aye.

All opposed, say no.

Motion carries.

We will not reconvene after this.

We'll adjourn the meeting after the executive session.