the
Sopris Carbondale’s
weekly, non-profit newspaper
Sun
Volume 3, Number 15 | May 26, 2011
Angry couple drops coin on town hall By Lynn Burton Sopris Sun Staff Writer
A
Brent Lough wheels the first of 11 buckets of coins into town hall on May 19. Brent and his wife Roxanne paid $11,589.45 for building permit fees in pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to protest the town trustees assessing a higher fee after they paid more than $24,000 in 2009. Photo by Jane Bachrach
local couple, angry about a town trustees decision, dropped more than a half-ton of coins on town hall last Thursday to pay off their disputed building permit fees. After her husband wheeled the first of 11 buckets of unwrapped coins through town hall doors, Roxanne Lough said, “I think they (town hall staff) should call the trustees to come help count.” Roxanne and her husband Brent showed up at town hall with $11,589.45 (“plus $10 extra”) in five-gallon buckets to pay the outstanding balance on building fees that were due on May 19. The dispute dates to late 2009 when Brent, who owns Ridge Runner Construction, paid approximately $24,000 in permit fees and taps for a spec home he built at 641 North Bridge Drive in River Valley Ranch. Brent thought a certificate of occupancy (CO) from the town was forthcoming, but last July a town building official wrote a letter saying he still owed $11,589.45 in fees. The Loughs formally appealed the second fee assessment at the Carbondale Board of Trustees meeting on March 8. Brent told The Sopris Sun he offered to pay an extra $6,563.27 in tap fees, but not the remainder in building permit fees the town said it was still due. On March 15, following an executive session to discuss the issue, the trustees voted 6-0 (with Frosty Merriott abstaining) to stand by its decision to assess the entire amount. Roxanne – wearing jeans, sandals and a rolled up long-sleeve shirt – settled into a chair in the town hall lobby last Thursday, just a few feet from the town clerk’s window and police department window, and fielded questions about the process of converting cash to coins and lugging the load over to town hall. First, each of the plastic buckets weighed about 150 pounds and contained pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. The Loughs collected the coins in $3,000 increments from Alpine Bank over a period of four weeks. They decided not to get all the coins at once because the bank charges a fee for coins over a certain amount. “It’s expensive,” Roxanne explained as a somewhat bewildered bystander waited to talk to town clerk Cathy Derby. Meanwhile, out at the Brent’s Ridge Runner Construction truck, the Loughs’ high-school-age daughter, Shaeley, stood guard over the coins. The Loughs were up at 6 a.m. on Thursday COIN PAYMENT page 7
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