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KSJD Newscast - September 23rd, 2015

  • Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 School District Board under pressure to decide what to do with the old M-CHS building that contains asbestos.
  • State of Colorado questions Montezuma County commissioners over blanket tax abatement given to farmers in July.

In an urgent effort to decide what to do with the old Montezuma-Cortez High School building, the Re-1 District board will schedule a special work session as early as next week. The now-empty building is turning out to be somewhat of a dark lining to the silver cloud of the just-opened, 152,000-square-foot high school built with a state grant and an $18.9 million voter-approved bond. School Superintendent Alex Carter and two school-board members told the Cortez City Council Tuesday night that original estimates for abating asbestos in the 50-year-old building were woefully low because no one knew the cancer-causing material was in a dangerous, “friable” form that must be handled in place. Now it’s believed it could cost as much as $1.5 million, 10 times the original estimate, to demolish the building, money the district doesn’t have. The board wants to quickly seek bids for the demolition to fix the price, and also to get estimates on “repurposing” the old building as an alternative. The city of Cortez and the school district have a memorandum of understanding that calls for the structure to be demolished by December 4th.

In other news, the state of Colorado is questioning a decision the Montezuma County commissioners made in July to give a blanket tax abatement to farmers. After hearing from numerous constituents that agricultural tax assessments had soared this year, the commissioners voted to limit property-tax increases to 22 percent for all types of irrigated and dry farmland in the county. In a Sept. 16 letter, the state Board of Equalization, which oversees property tax assessments, questions whether the blanket tax break complies with state law. Monday, the commissioners discussed options for their response but did not make a firm decision.

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
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