By Rudy Hemmann
The Surveyor

A public hearing regarding the request for annexation and rezone, as well as the consideration of a proposed concept plan for the Heron Pointe development in north Berthoud, was rescheduled to the Jan. 13, 2015, meeting. Town staff became aware that certain entities within Larimer County, which have jurisdictions over the Heron Pointe properties, had not been properly noticed about the proposed annexation and development of the property.

Town Attorney Greg Bell stated that holding a public hearing at Tuesday night’s meeting would be useless because of the oversight, and suggested the public hearing be rescheduled to a future meeting.

A motion was made and seconded to reschedule for Jan. 13 the public hearing for the Heron Pointe. The motion passed unanimously.

The trustees heard a presentation by Del Hunter, the town’s IT consultant, concerning a proposed contract between the town and Vision Internet of Santa Monica, Calif., to provide various website services for the town.

According to Hunter, a committee composed of himself and other town staff members had evaluated and researched 15 Web development vendors with municipal Web experience. These 15 firms were asked to submit proposals and bids for the project of redeveloping the town’s website, and 13 bids were received. From this group, seven were selected for “detailed review” by the committee, with Vision Internet eventually becoming the unanimous choice by the selection committee.

Initially, Vision Internet will redevelop the town’s website at a cost of $24,975. Going forward, the company will receive annual compensation of $6,600 plus five percent annual increases for website support.

The website redevelopment is estimated to take four to six months.

A motion was made giving approval to proceed with the town’s website redesign and authorizing the town administrator to sign the agreements with Vision Internet. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.

The trustees adopted a resolution designating the residence located at 647 Sixth Street (also known as the Edmondson House) as a local historic landmark.

In a staff report regarding the historic landmark designation, Interim Town Planner Sherry Albertson-Clark states the Historic Preservation Committee had found that the structure met the criteria for being named a historic landmark.

The committee found the house to be more than 50 years old (it was built in 1902), the home possesses sufficient historic integrity, it is associated with the life of a person significant in the local community, and it embodies the distinctive characteristics of the Queen Anne architectural style.

The current owners of the house, Alberta and James LeFeber had requested their home be considered for the designation.

Albertson-Clark also furnished a memorandum in which she outlined the building permit activity through the month of November. Five permits were issued for single-family residences, which brings the total for the year to 56. In addition, the total number of permits issued in November was 67. She notes in the memorandum the reroofing permits issued last month had dropped to 35, which is the lowest number since the hail storm of last July.

In what have become largely housekeeping measures at this point in the 2015 budget process, the trustees adopted four resolutions and one ordinance to make the budget for next year official, the first resolution adopted the fee schedule for 2015.

The next resolution authorized expenditures in excess of funds appropriated for the 2014 budget.

The third dealt with the appropriating of money to the various funds of the 2015 budget.

The trustees then voted to adopt the 2015 budget.

And finally, the trustees approved an ordinance which adopted a mill of 6.728 mills on each dollar of assessed valuation of taxable property within Berthoud will be collected for 2015.

Further, for the purposes of police services, an additional 3.000 mills on each dollar of assessed valuation of taxable property within Berthoud will be collected for 2015.

The above resolutions and ordinance were each approved unanimously.

Before adjourning the final board meeting of the year, Mayor David Gregg addressed the trustees and town staff in attendance.

“It is the end of the year. I am humbled and blessed to be working alongside all of you. It has been a great year; one of transition,” Gregg said. “Also, any time we work with (town) staff I am more and more impressed and we are blessed to have you as well.”

He then wished everyone a wonderful holiday season.

The next town board meeting is scheduled to be held Jan. 13, 2015.