Gilpin County commissioners adopt year-end resolutions, reallocate ARPA funds and approve software contract

Gilpin County’s Board of County Commissioners adopted a series of year‑end measures on Dec. 17, 2024, approving the county’s remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocations, updating governmental accounting reporting under GASB 54, renewing a contract with OpenGov Inc. for permitting and budgeting software, and adopting an updated Emergency Operations Plan for 2025–2026.

The board voted unanimously, 3–0, to adopt all resolutions presented during the meeting. Several items were the subject of staff briefings before the votes; the board took no roll-call votes by individual name beyond recording the unanimous tallies.

Why it matters: The actions close out the county’s 2021 federal ARPA award and set administrative and operational rules for county finance, emergency management and staffing into 2025 and 2026. The OpenGov contract renewal also locks in the county’s permitting, licensing and budgeting software for multiple years.

ARPA reallocation and timeline

Joel Lear, the county finance director, told commissioners the county must allocate its remaining ARPA balance by the end of 2024 and spend it by the end of 2026 as required by the U.S. Treasury rules. Lear said ARPA awarded Gilpin County $1,212,360 and that the finance office proposed reallocating roughly $146,142 (the transcript figure was transcribed as “146,142.64”) from a previously planned community wildfire protection plan (CWPP) to cover legal services.

Lear said the CWPP portion could not be paid from ARPA because the plan received other grant funding — including a roughly $100,000 contribution identified in the meeting — and ARPA cannot be…