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Grand County staff present water special counsel engagements and grant-funded stream restoration projects
Summary
County water staff presented annual letters of engagement for water special counsel and said a local nonprofit, Learning by Doing, received a WaterSMART grant to fund stream restoration projects at Kaibab Park and Willow Creek.
Grand County water-quality staff on Jan. 14 told the Board of County Commissioners the county's special counsel for water matters will continue to provide services in 2025 under annual letters of engagement, and staff announced a newly awarded WaterSMART grant for stream restoration projects.
Kaylee Folk, Grand County water quality specialist, said two letters of engagement for water special counsel are in the commissioners' packet and that Sullivan Green (and partners) and Curtis Justice in Zahedi (named firms in the packet) will continue as counsel. Folk told the board one firm did not increase fees for 2025 and that Grand County qualifies for a discounted Northwestern COG partner rate on hourly fees.
Folk also announced that the nonprofit Learning by Doing received a WaterSMART grant, which Folk described in the meeting as a "$1.4 grant from WaterSMART" to implement restoration projects at Kaibab Park and Willow Creek. Folk described the Kaibab Park work as about "700 linear feet of stream" for process-based restoration to improve stream temperatures, sediment dynamics and aquatic and riparian habitat. She described Willow Creek as "a little over 2 miles of stream" below Willow Creek Reservoir and said process-based restoration proposals there include beaver-dam analogs and floodplain reconnection.
A county official added context that Kaibab restoration follows removal of a town diversion and ties into broader fish-passage connectivity efforts in the basin, and that Willow Creek is managed as the Willow Creek State Wildlife Area under Colorado Parks and Wildlife, with prior agreements tied to the Windy Gap Firming Project and Northern Water.
The letters of engagement were informational; the board did not take a purchasing or contract vote during the meeting and no signatures were required at that time. Staff said the firms will provide legal support on water matters for 2025 and that staff will benefit from the reduced partner hourly rates through the COG arrangement.
