Without Paonia Mayor Neal Schwieterman nor town attorney Jim Briscoe, the Paonia Town Council met in a special meeting last Friday morning. The plan by the mayor and town attorney was to have the mayor pro tem open the special meeting, have a trustee on the finance committee read a prepared statement about going into an executive session, adjourn to the private conference room to meet with auditor Peter Blair of Blair and Associates and then reconvene the public meeting and adjourn without any public announcement about findings from the 2011 audit.

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Jeff Schwartz has leased property adjacent to his Delicious Orchards for three years as camping sites. The property is owned by the Town of Paonia so he attended the Oct. 9 council meeting to request another lease.

The property covers about one-half acre. Individuals, couples, families and small groups use the camping area. Schwartz said he had 140 people camp during the Mountain Harvest Festival. For the first two years of operation he charged $5 a night. He now charges $10 a night. Insurance costs him $2,000 a year.

Schwartz views the camping sites as providing a service to the Paonia community.

The town approved a new five-year lease at $25 a year.

Paonia resident Richard Schmidt objected, wanting Schwartz to pay $5,000 to cover legal and monitoring fees over the past three years.

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