Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — A special meeting of the Oak Creek Town Board was prompted by a liquor license hearing, but more pressing issues — like a discussion with the town attorney about ongoing legal issues surrounding the wastewater treatment plant — likely will dominate the evening.

Wednesday’s meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. at Oak Creek Town Hall, will begin with a few Town Board items before the Oak Creek Planning Commission joins in. The Town Board will hold a liquor license hearing for Oakee Doakee, a new restaurant located in the space formerly occupied by Shorty’s.

“The original reason we held the special meeting was to consider Oakee Doakee’s liquor license because we weren’t planning on having another meeting until December,” Mayor Nikki Knoebel said. “Since we also had some questions about the land-use code, we thought we should just get together with Planning” Commission.

After the liquor license hearing, the board will meet with attorney Bob Weiss about the ongoing legal problems with the general contractor on the wastewater treatment plant project. The legal process began in the summer when Weiss sent a letter to Jacobs Engineering outlining shortcomings of the $3 million project and claiming Jacobs was responsible for the cost of alleged defects. Those defects included high electric usage the town was not warned about and several examples of faulty infrastructure since the plant went operational in March.

Jacobs responded this fall, saying it assumed no responsibility for the plant’s problems.

The Town Board last left the issue in the hands of Weiss and board member Wesley Woodford, who had planned to send a rebuttal letter to Jacobs Engineering.

The discussion likely will go into an executive session Wednesday night.

After that, there will be a discussion about medical marijuana ordinances.

Because Oak Creek residents voted against Referendum 2E, which would have banned medical marijuana businesses, the board has talked about rewriting a related ordinance.

The Planning Commission then will hold its public comment period and approve minutes from the October meeting.

The final discussion on the agenda relates to the current land-use code provision on mobile homes that exist outside mobile-home parks.

A Steamboat resident who owns property in Oak Creek previously had sent a letter to the town raising concerns that the code, which requires mobile-home owners outside parks to upgrade to fixed-foundation homes, prevents owners from upgrading to newer mobile homes. The board and the Planning Commission will take part in the discussion.

For more information about the meeting, call Town Clerk Karen Halterman at 970-736-2422.

— To reach Nicole Inglis, call 970-871-4204 or email ninglis@SteamboatToday.com