Rosalie Road Sale - Does it Take a Village or Was This Distraction?

The Rosalie Road property bidding process came to an end weeks ago (the County lost) yet many in Bailey cannot come to terms with the outcome. There is a contingent of County residents that blame two of the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) for the failed results.

First lets discuss some facts, this process began 2 years ago (approximately May of 2021) when the Platte Canyon School District Board of Education (PCSD BOE) started discussing the sale of Rosalie and the consolidation of the two campuses. At that time the PCSD BOE invited BOERA and Friends of the Pool into this discussion, neither group came to the meeting. In October of 2022, the PCSD BOE went into executive session to discuss the sale of the Rosalie Property and in February of 2023 the PCSD BOE decided to get serious about selling the land and declared the land as surplus property.

There are several points to be observed, first, there was much discussion about the Park County Land and Water Trust Fund being able to fund the purchase of this property. This fund has been used for the preservation of water, land and the purchase of recreation land all over Park County. In reviewing the agendas from January 2023 through present, no applications were submitted by any entity regarding the Rosalie property (see the County agenda center ). If these funds were to be used why was there no application?

This is the RFP submitted by the county manager.

ParkCo Bid for Rosalie Property.pdf

Download PDF • 193KB

This handwritten document bears no signature of any County Commissioner. This document was submitted in person by Commissioner Elsner. Mr. Elsner was quoted in an article published by The Flume June 23, 2023 "“There are two ways for commissioners to kill the potential purchase of property,” Elsner said at the chamber meeting. “One is to vote against placing a bid in the first place, and the other is to simply submit a non-responsive bid. Thanks to the other two commissioners, both of those things occurred in the case of the BOREA property...."-Kelly R. Kirkpatrick The Flume Editor

If Mr. Elsner was very sure that these two reasons would kill the purchase, why would he hand deliver a short bid that he felt was lacking in funds and substance?

What the BOCC did put their input on was the contingencies. There were 7 contingencies submitted, of these numbers 1and 2 have direct notation to what the BOCC finds unacceptable. #1 reads ".....For avoidance of doubt, the County will not purchase or enter into a contract to purchase the Property subject to the conditions and restrictions contained in the deed recorded at Book 205 Page 155." Contingency #2 reads "...For avoidance of doubt, the Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate contained in the Seller's request for Proposals is not acceptable to the BOCC."(bold added) #6 has some further audits that the BOCC may want to conduct. In reviewing these contingencies, no matter what funds the County offered, was this ever going to be an acceptable offer to the school district?

This article poses many questions, the last question: was the County ever really intending to purchase the Rosalie property, or was this nothing but distraction? #BaileyStrong