County pays visit to Wide Awake water business

Lynn Volkens

3/2/2006 - Four officials representing Gilpin County’s Assessor’s, Community Development and the Public Health and Environment Departments paid a Thursday morning visit to Charlie Morgan’s residence in old Wide Awake. Prior press coverage of Morgan’s bottling and bathing business had piqued their interest enough to investigate, said Janet Thompson of the Assessor’s Office. Thompson was there to request an inventory of personal property Morgan uses for business purposes. The inventory form is distributed to all known home businesses in the County, she said. The property owner completes the inventory and returns it to the Assessor’s Office, she explained, “and I take their word for it.” If the inventory is valued at more than $2,500, an adjustment is made to their tax rate. Less than $2,500, and there is no adjustment needed. “We just want to be fair and consistent for everybody,” Thompson added.

  Morgan said he had received a letter from the County indicating “violations” (the letter states “possible inadvertent zoning violations”), but the letter had no specifics to indicate what the violations might be. He met the County people midway along his driveway where a lengthy discussion ensued. Ray Rears of the Planning Department said the County had “concerns” about the business, but there were no known violations. The property is zoned Forestry. Morgan would like to see it changed to Commercial zoning but Wide Awake is not in the right part of Gilpin, according to the County’s Master Plan, for that to happen. Rears advised Morgan that he may need a special use permit to continue operating his business. Rears told Morgan to start the process by putting in an application for the permit. It will be reviewed by the County’s Planning Commission and possibly passed along to the Board of County Commissioners. The one-time fee for a special use permit in Gilpin County is $800, he said, but Morgan would not need to pay until it is determined a permit is required. At that point, a public hearing will also need to be held so that neighbors or others living along the road could have their say. So far there have been no complaints, said Rears, and no official case has been opened. “We’ve heard good things about the service you provide,” he said to Morgan, “and we don’t want to shut you down, just make you legal.” Rears said the main “concern” on the part of the County was the amount of traffic on the seasonally maintained County road. (The road gets a summertime grading once a year. Morgan does the snowplowing and keeps the three-mile stretch to his home passable the rest of the time.)

  According to Morgan, about one person per day shows up to fill a water jug from the spring that he’s piped to the corner of his home. Morgan’s had the water tested by numerous agencies and he’s been told that his water is more pure than even the best of current bottled waters sold commercially. Morgan sells the water, delivers it to shut-ins and those who can’t make the trip to Wide Awake, and gives it away to those suffering from illnesses and pain. He has collected a variety of testimonies on the curative properties of the water and the relief a “soak” offers those with bone, muscle and joint deterioration. As word spread about the purity of the water, several parties filed to obtain the commercial water rights. Morgan is currently in court on the water rights issue; however, that’s a State matter. Rears said the County has no say or involvement in Morgan’s water rights issue. They were there to cover the zoning and personal property questions.

  As for the other two County officials, Kara Cooper and Jim Simpson, they were just catching a ride with the other officials to get an update on Morgan’s plans to build a new home on the site. Cooper, accompanied by Morgan’s architect, went off to get a look at the proposed location for the individual sewage disposal system. Simpson is a building inspector. Once Morgan was satisfied as to the intent of the officials, he took them on up to his residence and let them have a look around. When asked whether Morgan could continue to operate while his application progressed through the special use permit process, Rear allowed that as it wasn’t known whether or not a permit would be needed, there would be no fine if he continued. No one is going to post a sign at the gate saying he’s (Morgan) been shut down, he explained –reassuring news to quite a number of Gilpin residents.