At its March 19 meeting, the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) approved first readings of revised dog, noise and open burning ordinances.
County Attorney Todd Weaver explained that the Colorado General Assembly recently changed the enforcement provisions for these types of county ordinances from class 2 petty offenses to civil infractions, meaning the county ordinances need to be amended to reflect the state laws.
Weaver first presented the amended noise ordinance, explaining that the changes include alterations to the enforcement provisions to indicate that violations of the ordinance are civil infractions instead of class 2 petty offenses and minor clarifications to wording in other portions of the ordinance.
The BoCC unanimously voted to accept the first reading of the amended ordinance.
Weaver then presented the amended dog ordinance, which include changes designating that violations of the ordinance would be civil infractions and not class 2 petty offenses and other minor clarifications and alterations to the ordinance’s wording.
The board then unanimously approved the first reading of the revised ordinance.
Weaver moved on to presenting changes to the open burning ordinance, which include a variety of formatting and typographical changes, as well as new language indicating that violations of the ordinance would be civil infractions instead of class 2 petty offenses.
According to Weaver, the ordinance changes also included the addition of a fine of not more than $800 for violations that occur during stage 1 open burning restrictions.
The ordinance adds that this fine will be set by the county courts unless the violator wishes to admit guilt and pay a $400 fine set by the penalty assessment procedures outlined in the ordinance.
The fine for violations during stage 1 open burning restrictions is a middle point between the up to $600 fine for open burning violations occurring when no fire restrictions are in place and the up to $1,000 fine for violations occurring when stage 2 open burning restrictions are in place that a court can impose.
At a BoCC work session earlier that day, Weaver explained that state law does not include guidance for what fines should be charged for violations that occur during stage 1 open burning restrictions and that he chose a middle value.
He added that, for those who wish to admit guilt and pay the fine for a violation, he implemented a 50 percent discount from the maximum court-determined fine in the ordinance.
Sheriff Mike Le Roux commented that this formulation of the fines was “perfect.”
In response to a question from Commissioner Ronnie Maez, Weaver and Le Roux indicated that agricultural burning is exempted from the ordinance.
At the meeting, the BoCC unanimously approved the first reading of the revised open burning ordinance.
Second readings of the ordinances are scheduled for April 16.
For more information on the ordinances, see the Public Notices section of this issue.
josh@pagosasun.com
>