The Grand Lake Board of Trustees met Monday, Feb. 10, at town hall and approved contracts with agencies to assist with various town roles, including treasurer and town planning positions.

In a memo, interim Town Manager Steve Kudron wrote that the town has received four applications for the treasurer position. Kudron wrote that while none “possess the experience of our departing treasurer,” he would like to interview two of the applicants.

While town staff continues the hiring process, the board approved resolution 13-2025, a contract with Nichole Kirkpatrick‘s firm to provide treasurer support services and training to the town’s bookkeeper. Kirkpatrick responded to a request put out by the town and has the required financial software experience to manage the town’s systems, according to Kudron.

---

---

During the meeting, Kudron explained that municipalities normally have one person in charge of managing finances and another employee in charge of audits.

Trustees also approved resolution 14-2025, which approved a contract with Ayres Associates to provide on-call planning services beginning Feb. 15 for a period of no longer than one year. Ayres Associates responded to the town’s request with the lowest cost and best qualifications, according to Kudron.

---

---

Ayres Associates was already assisting the town and will continue to provide services such as pass-through planning for subdivisions and annexations, code recommendations and training for the town’s planner when hired.

Next on the agenda was resolution 15-2025, which was another contract to hire additional local planning capacity support, this time specifically for affordable housing projects, including the Space to Create housing project. The town of Grand Lake opted into state initiative Proposition 123, which aims to address affordable housing needs around the state. As part of the initiative, Grand Lake has received funds for the town’s current affordable housing projects.

Staff is looking to contract a company to help the town with administrative support, develop clear guidelines, create subsequent developer requests for qualifications and coordinate efforts to advance the development of various sites.

The town will be using a local planning capacity grant in the amount of $174,000 from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs to pay for these services. Kudron said this work will allow the town to streamline town code and ensure that affordable housing projects get completed.

Planning groups Antero Group and Ayres Associates, applied to the request, according to Kudron. Trustee Julie Causseaux moved to approve a contract with Antero Group, and it was passed by trustees.