The City of Cortez has been honored as a healthy community.
The LiveWell Colorado director for its HEAL Cities and Towns Campaign, Julie George, presented an award at Tuesday‘s city council meeting granting Cortez “elite status,” the highest level, for acts that promote health. Such actions include purchasing the Geer Recreation Area and building trails there, working with Montezuma County and others to develop the Paths to Mesa Verde trail to Mancos, and maintaining 600 acres of parks and open space. George said while 46 cities are part of the HEAL campaign, Cortez is one of just two to achieve elite status. Ironically, Montezuma County as a whole is not ranked as highly for overall community health. According to the annual County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program, the county placed 42nd among Colorado’s 64 counties in 2015. The rankings program, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin, considers factors such as rates of adult smoking, obesity, excessive drinking, children in poverty, teen births and uninsured people.
