Stewardship committee reviews draft 2025 budget as revenue rises after fee changes

The Sand Flats Recreation Area stewardship committee met Sept. 12 to review a draft 2025 budget that the director said currently shows about 14% more revenue than 2023, a gain the director attributed primarily to recent fee increases and changes to the day/week pass structure.

The director told the committee the increase is encouraging but added that visitation figures remain unclear because Sand Flats replaced daily passes with week passes and the site needs a targeted visitor survey to determine repeat visits and true visitor counts. "Today, we are 14% over 2023 in revenue," the director said, adding staff will meet with BLM statistics staff to reconcile visitation numbers.

Why it matters: the revenue uptick and the commission-approved fee increase for campsite reservations (moving a $60 rate toward $80 for 2025) underpin draft allocations for capital work and outreach. The director reported roughly $600,000 in combined cash/savings available and said those funds are available for planned capital projects, typically by budget transfer when a project is approved.

Major budget lines and near-term decisions

- Capital projects and camp improvements: staff have already purchased steel for a new Hawk Campground toilet and shade structure and plan to buy a vault unit; the director said about $15,000 will be moved from capital improvements to cover recent purchases. The committee left a $60,000 capital-improvement placeholder for 2025 to allow for anticipated projects.

- Outreach and video production: the director presented two proposals from videographer Mark Finley and proposed a communications/video budget in the $15,000–$20,000 range for 2025 (including $5,000 of TV placement). Several committee members recommended a lower figure ($10,000–$15,000) or moving $5,000 into 2024; Evan Clapper (Grand County Commission representative) said, "the videos are a nice contribution" because they raise awareness and can drive visitation and support for Sand Flats.

- Operations and staff costs: staff and committee discussed county-calculated salary and benefit figures and identified spreadsheet issues (one cell with a hard-coded 4% value). The director said county finance staffer Stephen Bowles is working with county payroll to correct prior miscalculations for seasonal hours, and that a COLA (if approved by the commission during final budget action in mid-December) could alter final salary totals.

- Equipment, vehicles and security: Sand Flats reported three leased trucks (with county turn-in/equity practices affecting actual costs), three UTVs and budgeted surveillance cameras for the booth area. The committee also approved purchase of two mobile traffic-counting/'slow' signs (about $10,000) that record speeds and counts and can be darkened at night to protect dark-sky goals.

- Grants and deferred awards: the director read a BLM message that two prior-year awards were not accepted because they fell outside BLM's policy timeline; the committee discussed reapplying and noted local BLM staff turnover affected continuity. The county-led RAISE grant debrief remains pending; county engineers and grant staff will participate in the debrief to determine ranking and next steps.

What the committee decided: the stewardship committee approved the minutes of the previous meeting by unanimous voice vote, continued to support the draft budget guidance as presented, and left several line items (capital improvements, videos, vehicles) at the draft levels while asking staff to refine spreadsheets and documentation ahead of the county advisory review in October and final budget actions later in the year.

Next steps: staff will run a visitor survey in spring to clarify visitation trends, meet with county finance to finalize salary and benefit figures, pursue a RAISE debrief, and refine the outreach/video budget and capital spending plan for the advisory review and commission consideration.