A district judge has ruled in favor of Montezuma County in an argument involving where a pile of wood chips is located.
On Friday, District Judge William Furse issued an order granting a motion made by the county commissioners and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. They are the plaintiffs in a civil case against the Ironwood Group, LLC, owners of a mill facility on Road T between Cortez and Dolores.
Ironwood, owner Mark Harmon, and manager Kenneth Wade Bentley had agreed to remove the wood waste pile by the end of February 2023 but allegedly did not.
That deadline was extended by a few months in an amended stipulated injunction order.
The plaintiffs say the pile still hasn’t been eliminated, and they sought a citation for contempt against Ironwood.
However, in a lengthy hearing on Sept. 22 of this year, the defense argued that the case should be dismissed because the Ironwood property consists of two adjoining parcels, one with the wood pile, and the injunction order listed the wrong one.
The plaintiffs asked the court to let them correct the address. On Friday, Furse granted their motion.
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.