Dennis Mills appointed to Grand Lake Board of Trustees
The Grand Lake Board of Trustees had one trustee vacancy due to the resignation of Steve Kudron as mayor on Feb. 24. The board decided to fill the vacancy by appointment and one person submitted a letter of interest.
A memo from town clerk Alayna Carrell writes that she received one letter of interest from Dennis Mills by the deadline of April 16 and she confirmed that he was eligible for the position.
Mills attended the regular board meeting on April 28 to take questions from trustees. During the meeting, Mills shared that he’s lived in Grand Lake for around 15 years, has a strong background in construction, worked security for the Denver Broncos, has built stages for bands around the world and has children who graduated from Middle Park High School
In his letter of interest, Mills writes that he’s lived in Grand County since 2000 and currently works for the Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre as the facilities’ manager, a position he’s held for 15 years.
“I care about what happens in this town and that is why I’m here,” Mills said during the meeting.
Mills was appointed as trustee following a 3-1 vote. He will fill the trustee vacancy until the next election in April 2026.
- Trustees Julie Causseaux and Jim Schoenherr were absent.
- During the town manager update, Steve Kudron said that during a Grand Places 2050 meeting he spoke to U.S. Forest Service representatives who said that they are unable to hire any seasonal workers this summer. As a result, there will be only three people staffing the Arapaho National Forest, which spans over 723,744 acres, this summer. Kudron said that the forest service won’t be able to cover basic utility work and that he is working with the town’s public works department to get an estimate for the cost of maintenance of Point Park, Hilltop and East Shore trailheads. These are usually maintained by the forest service. The full memo is available online.
- Kyle Masterson, executive director of Grand County Water Information Network, gave an update about the network’s recent work and the newly released 5-year strategic plan. The water information network performs watershed monitoring, manages publicly available data, hosts educational outreach programs and collaborates with various stakeholders such as towns, sanitation districts and nonprofits. Masterson updated the board about ongoing lake clarity monitoring in Grand Lake and Shadow Mountain Reservoir. The information gathered is used by the Grand Lake Adaptive Management Committee to evaluate how to improve clarity. He shared that the network also monitors Grand Lake, Shadow Mountain Reservoir and Willow Creek Reservoir for cyanobacteria, which can cause cyanobacterial blooms that release toxins that are harmful to both humans and wildfire. This monitoring data is used to inform local public health and safety entities. To learn more about the network, visit GCWIN.org/.
- Trustees considered a special use permit and a special event permit needed for camping, parking and noise ordinance for the Colorado Headwater Festival on July 9-12, 2026. A motion to accept a variance request by Yarmony Music LLC to allow the music event to end at 11 p.m. as opposed to the 10 p.m. curfew outlined in the municipal code did not pass following a 2-3 vote with trustees Robert Miller, Michael Sobon and Christina Bergquist voting no. The board moved to table a variance request to allow festival attendees to camp on public and private spaces and a variance allowing festival attendees to park on public and private spaces to the June 9 meeting.
- The board voted to not recommend the mayor sign a contract with Artaic Group for owners rep services for the Space to Create affordable housing project.
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