By Brendan Henry
The Surveyor

Berthoud’s Town Board met on Tuesday with full attendance from all board members. The four-and-a-half-hour-long meeting included discussion items on puppy mill awareness, annual committee reports, 2023 supplemental budget appropriation, broadband development request for qualifications, the Westside Crossing preliminary plat and tree removals from Town Park.

After the pledge and a quickly rolling roll call, the board moved to approve the consent agenda nearly unanimously, with only one abstain vote from Trustee Sean Murphy.
Harley’s Dream helped implement a puppy mill ban in Berthoud, making Berthoud the first town in Colorado to do so. For this, Mayor William Karspeck read the proclamation for Puppy Mill Awareness Day, set to be the second Saturday of September every year.

The first awareness day will be Sept. 9.

Next on the agenda were the annual committee reports. Tim Grover, head chair of the Berthoud Parks, Open Space, Recreation and Trails (PORT) advisory committee addressed multiple updates for 2022. Public comments reflected three main concerns, one being pickleball amenities at Town Park and Waggnener Farm Park, another being potential uses for the Jaskowski property, comments about the substrate for soft trails being suitable for bike riding and input about Richardson Park’s design.

Highlights from parks and recreation include the review of plans and provision of input on proposed pickleball courts at the Waggener Farm Recreation Center, plans for the development of a small recreation area around Robert’s Lake and periodic updates on the progress of the recreation center and its staffing throughout the year. Parks and recreation also had numerous discussions regarding potential uses for the Jansowski property, reviewed several plans for the redesign of Town Park and reviewed and provided feedback to staff plans for biking amenities at Richardson Park.

Trail highlights involved a review of the trail master plan and improvement of trail connectivity with a current focus now toward Heron Lakes and Loveland. PORT also identified that signage improvements are needed and recommended standardization of sign appearance.

PORT encourages the town to work towards retaining the agricultural heritage and viewsheds surrounding Berthoud, focus on improving the connectivity of trails to and through major open-space corridors and prioritize obtaining conservation easements, especially along Highway 56.

Expectations from PORT for 2023 are the opening of Berthoud Bike Park, progress and approval of the Town Park redesign, further discussion of amenities and name for Richardson Park and progress on connecting bike trails to the north in addition to furthering integration with new neighborhoods.

Lynn Larsen from the Berthoud Tree Advisory Committee (BTAC) provided a 2022 summary as well. The committee has three openings and is taking applications from anyone interested.

BTAC’s main concern for 2022 was the communication of information and messages about their tree canopy and its care to Berthoud citizens and organizations. The committee developed a five-point communication strategy on Aug. 23, 2022, and began implementing the first item of the strategy by working with the town forester and community outreach specialist to provide monthly posts to various social media outlets and other mediums in addition to creating a spreadsheet of Berthoud neighborhoods with a list of contacts for neighborhood organizations such as HOAs and metro districts.
BTAC worked with the town forester in having a booth at Berthoud Day and Oktoberfest. They also addressed public concerns and comments about issues with the Berthoud tree canopy.

Discussions within the committee included the design of a second tree nursery at Roberts Park, sources of grants to fund tree acquisition and distribution and tree plantings in new town developments.

Director of Finance and Human Resources Cindy Leach presented supplements to the 2023 budget. The 2023 budget was adopted on November 22, 2022, and since then the annual audit occurred, and with that actual numbers have been realized. The purposes of the budget supplement are to correct fund balances based on actual numbers versus the estimates that were originally used, to rollover any 2022 budgeted items that were not completed in 2022 and re-appropriate them for 2023 and to add or adjust items that have been realized and deemed necessary for 2023 adding supplemental appropriations and adopting an amended budget for 2023.

The motion to approve Resolution 2023-18 making a supplemental appropriation of funds and adopting budget amendments to account for rollovers and supplemental items and making a supplemental appropriation was approved unanimously. This accounts for a total of $24,336,500 which includes the rollover funds.

Berthoud’s Economic Development Director Walt Elish led the discussion on bringing a fiber network to town. Originally putting out a Request for Proposals (RFP) after a presentation by Larimer County and Loveland Pulse at a town board meeting on May 9, the town became aware of another fairly new option to fund and operate fiber infrastructure known as Public-Private Partnership (P3). This would decrease costs, increase the availability of providers for the town and promote competition for providers.
Community broadband would also offer options for financial support to low-income residents through the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

The three common options with P3s are as follows: Option A – Town pays for and owns infrastructure; contracts with a partner to operate. Option B – Town and partner pay for and own infrastructure; partner operates. Option C – Partners pay for, own and operate infrastructure. Elish is focused on Option B for the town.

Town staff proposes to issue a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to ensure that providers meet the qualifications in their ability to meet the town’s objectives, ability to finance, past and proven experience and their preferred partnership model.

The board’s motion to authorize staff to issue a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to solicit information from interested partners, to install and operate a quality fiber network throughout the town, their ability and qualifications to meet the town’s objectives, ability to finance, past and proven experience and preferred partnership model was approved unanimously.

Community Development Director Anne Johnson presented a consideration regarding a request for a preliminary plat known as Westside Crossing Replat #2 located north of Mountain Avenue and west of Meadowlark Drive. The applicants are proposing seven commercial lots on 11.9 acres of land.

Westside Crossing passed all preliminary plat requirements and was approved by the planning commission to be considered by the board.

Traffic is the primary topic of debate, as the planning commission requested a traffic report for the area. The board received the report and the applicant – Scott Charpentier – is willing to work with the town to mitigate any traffic issues.

The board moved to approve Resolution 17, a preliminary plat for Westside Crossing Replat #2 for commercial development in the town of Berthoud. The motion was approved unanimously.

Several cottonwood trees in Town Park are rotting, and this has caused Berthoud’s Town Forester Paul Furnas to raise this concern to the board. The trees in question show visible rotting, potential bacterial/fungal infections, and multiple failures of large branches over the last two years. As a result, the trees are deemed potentially hazardous as falling branches remain a concern, especially amidst the new construction of play areas and amenities in the park.

Multiple residents approached the podium to speak their minds on what to do with the trees. Some want them to stay and to work around removing them, others are worried about the dangers of keeping them around.

The board decided to await higher-level assessments on the trees in question before determining what course of action to take.

After the board collectively decided to hold a study session on August 29, two Berthoud residents spoke up during public comment about not only their support for mosquito spraying but their disdain for those that voted against spraying the town in the midst of growing West Nile cases.

The next scheduled board meeting will be held on Sept. 5.