Palmer Lake Board of Trustees, Feb. 11 and 13 – Board holds workshop on water issues

Workshop examines water rights and production
PLES to add preschool program
Staff reports
Seats on Planning Commission filled
Fireworks may return on the Fourth of July
Three-mile plan map updated
Executive session

By James Howald and Jackie Burhans

The Palmer Lake Board of Trustees (PLBOT) held a workshop to discuss the town’s water infrastructure on Feb. 11 and a regular board meeting on Feb. 13. A second board meeting is scheduled for Feb. 27, after this issue of OCN goes to press. That board meeting will be reported in the April issue.

At the Feb. 13 meeting, the board heard a presentation from Kim Briding, principal of Palmer Lake Elementary School (PLES) and staff reports from Police Chief Glen Smith, Fire Chief John Vincent, Town Administrator Dawn Collins and Town Attorney Scott Krob. Two seats on the Planning Commission were filled. The board considered an application for a special event permit to hold a Festival on the Fourth celebration. The board revised the map included in its three-mile plan. The plan is a requirement of the annexation of land for a Buc-ee’s travel center that is under consideration by the board.

The Feb. 13 meeting was preceded and followed by an executive session.

Workshop examines water rights and production

Mark Morton, an engineer with GMS Inc., the consulting engineers that the town has worked with on water issues for several years, presented to the board the recent background of the town’s water system and recommendations for its development.

Morton said that in 2017 Tetra Tech, an engineering company with offices in Denver, studied the town’s water infrastructure and found that the system was “maxed out,” and there were few taps available for future development.

In 2020, the town declared a moratorium on the sale of new water taps and hired GMS to study the town’s water availability. This study concluded that Tetra Tech had underestimated water supply, leading to a loosening of the moratorium on sales of water taps.

Morton said the preliminary engineering report (PER) written by GMS considered the entire water system, including the town’s water rights and the town’s ability to produce water. He made a distinction between water rights, which the town owns in abundance, and the upper limit on how much water the town’s wells and treatment plants can produce. Production is the key thing to consider, Morton said.

The PER concluded the town’s water system could meet existing needs, but its capacity is limited.

Morton explained that the town uses groundwater from wells and surface water from its reservoirs. Ground and surface water have separate treatment requirements. The town’s surface water is diminishing. The town has plentiful rights to groundwater, but production is limited by the town’s infrastructure.

The PER made four recommendations:

Drill an additional well to provide redundancy.
Increase the production capacity of the town’s groundwater treatment facility by adding a third filter.
Replace older pipelines that are made of cast iron with lead soldering.
Reconfigure the pipelines in the southern end of the service area to create loops in place of dead ends. Dead ends need to be flushed, which is a wasteful use of treated water.

Morton said extending service to lots in the southern part of the service area that use private wells was considered but discarded as too expensive.

Director Dennis Stern summed up the town’s situation as long on water rights but short on production. Morton said the town also needed to add redundancy to its system.

In 2023, Morton said, the board had reordered the priorities of the PER recommendations. The discussion continued through 2024, and an analysis of the surface water treatment facility showed that the filters had twice the capacity assumed by previous plans, so treatment moved down in priority. Morton emphasized the need for an additional well and for older pipes to be replaced. He said replacing the older lines could be done by Water Supervisor Steve Orcutt’s team rather than being handled by a contractor, thereby lowering the cost of the overall project. He said the reconfiguration of pipelines to remove dead ends needed further discussion by the board. Morton added that the work would likely need to be funded through a loan, not through grants.

Orcutt questioned the plan to remove dead ends, arguing the pressure reducing valves would be needed to implement a loop configuration, but those valves would be de facto dead ends. Mayor Glant Havenar said she had not heard Orcutt’s concerns in any of the previous discussions.

The workshop ended with questions from residents. Collins asked that any additional questions be sent to her to be answered at later meetings.

PLES to add preschool program

Briding told the board that PLES would add a half-day preschool program, which she said would help the school build a relationship with families with young children that might encourage them to remain at the school for later grades. Preschool students will have their own shaded playground, Briding said.

Briding also commended two outstanding PLES teachers: Michelle Miller, who is retiring after 14 years at PLES, and Brett Mischlich, who recently won a gold medal in Tae Kwon Do at an event in Houston. She also thanked the Palmer Lake Police and departments for helping out at the PLES carlines.

Staff reports

Smith said he had received three applications for the open position in the Police Department.

Vincent talked about his weeklong deployment to the San Bernardino mountains in California, where he and other Palmer Lake firefighters fought the recent catastrophic fires. He said he had filled two positions on his team in February.

Collins said the town was still trying to hire an additional police office and a water operator. She introduced Erica Romero, the new deputy town clerk. She said town staff had been training on code compliance issues, and code violations could be reported on the town’s web page. Collins said she was scheduling meetings between department supervisors and board members.

Krob said a group called Integrity Matters had sued the town over the proposed annexation of land for a Buc-ee’s travel center. Buc-ee’s had agreed to pay all legal costs for the lawsuit, Krob said.

Seats on Planning Commission filled

The board voted unanimously in favor of Resolution 14-2025, which appoints Matt Stephen and Herb Tomitsch to the Planning Commission. Stephen will serve a term ending in 2027 and Tomitsch a term ending in 2026. Collins said Mark Bruce had resigned from the Planning Commission, so his seat and an additional seat are open. There are three applicants for the two available seats, Collins said.

Fireworks may return on the Fourth of July

Alisha Sears, representing Awake the Lake (ATL), asked the board to consider granting a special event permit for a Festival on the Fourth celebration that would include fireworks. Sears said she was the chair of the group planning the event, which will include a beer garden, live entertainment, and vendors. Romero said she was working with Sears and ATL on planning the event, which would be required to meet the town’s benchmarks for security. The large number of attendees have led to safety concerns in previous years.

The Fourth of July celebration was canceled last year because of a shortage of volunteers and a committee chairman.

Smith said he had overseen similar events in Florida. Collins said she wanted the board to stay involved in the planning for the event.

The board voted to approve the special event permit.

Three-mile plan map updated

Krob explained that the Colorado annexation statute requires towns to have a three-mile plan that includes a map. Resolution 15-2025 proposes the adoption of an updated map that removes private property in Douglas County owned by a Douglas County resident from the map accompanying the three-mile plan. Krob said adopting the revised map would not annex any property; the map is simply a planning tool.

Resident Marty Brodzik claimed no one on the Planning Commission read the update and argued there should have been a “redline” version of the plan documenting every change. She asked for a policy requiring the town to produce a redline version of every document that changes. Collins said that nothing changed in the three-mile plan document, so there was nothing to redline.

Resident Roger Moseley repeated the claim nobody had read the plan and said it should have been available at the annexation eligibility meeting.

The board voted unanimously in favor of the resolution.

Executive session

An executive session, which began before the regular board meeting and concluded following the meeting, was held to consider negotiating positions regarding the town’s lease of property to the Willans for their EcoSpa project at the Elephant Rock property and regarding the Integrity Matters lawsuit against the town.

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The next regular board meetings are scheduled for March 13 and 27. See the town’s website at www.townofpalmerlake.com to confirm times and dates of board meetings and workshops. Meetings are typically held on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month at the Town Hall. Information: 719-481-2953.

James Howald can be reached at jameshowald@ocn.me. Jackie Burhans can be reached at jackieburhans@ocn.me.