- Ambulance bay aesthetics prompts a lengthy debate Tuesday at the Cortez City Council meeting.
- Announcement that the Bureau of Land Management had deferred three leases for oil and gas development near Chaco Canyon was premature.
How attractive should an ambulance bay be? That question prompted a lengthy debate Tuesday at the Cortez City Council meeting. City planners had asked the Montezuma County Hospital District to soften the appearance of the planned metal building by putting a stucco wainscoting along the bottom of two walls, but on Tuesday, MCHD board members Bill Thompson and Gala Pock asked that the requirement be waived. They said the $20,000 it would cost could be better spent on medical equipment or furniture for the facilities in a $14.2 million hospital expansion approved by district voters in 2015. They also said the ambulance bay will be some distance from Mildred Avenue and not very visible. Councilors Ty Keel and Orly Lucero were sympathetic, but Mayor Karen Sheek said, “Fifty years of ugly is a long time.” Ultimately the council voted 6 to 1 to keep the stucco requirement.
A recent announcement that the Bureau of Land Management had deferred three leases for oil and gas development near Chaco Canyon was apparently premature. The Durango Herald reports a BLM official left a voice mail for a member of the San Juan Citizens Alliance on Friday announcing the deferral, but the agency says it was a mistake and the actual decision may not be made until May 5th.
