Recent rains prompted the Montezuma County commissioners Tuesday to choose not to reinstate a county fire ban at present. Sheriff Steve Nowlin had asked for the ban at the commissioners’ workshop Monday. He said he’d met with local fire chiefs last month and they are concerned because vegetation is dry. But on Tuesday, Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer noted that recent precipitation has been widespread and monsoon rains are predicted to continue. Longtime local weather observer James Andrus said in an email that Cortez has received 1.64 inches of rain recently, 122 percent of the average amount for the entire month of August. Cortez had been declared “abnormally dry” in early August and broke daily high-temperature records on four days. The website for the U.S. Geological Survey says any precipitation provides some drought relief but long, soaking rains are better than showers or thunderstorms for alleviating dry conditions.
A lawsuit over Montezuma County’s rejection of a high-impact permit for a Dollar General store on Road N is moving forward. County attorney Ian MacLaren told the commissioners Tuesday that the court rejected his motion to separate two claims brought by Leaf Properties. One is that the commissioners were wrong to turn down the permit, the other that the county land-use code is vague and unenforceable. MacLaren had argued that if the entire code were found unenforceable, the other claim would be moot.
