City of Cortez

The Independent Log Company got the go-ahead Tuesday night for its proposed wood-processing operation near the Carpenter Natural Area in Cortez.

The skate park in Cortez’s Parque de Vida is physically unsafe. That was the message several people gave the Cortez City Council at its regular meeting Tuesday night.

An owner of the Independent Log Company gave a tour Saturday morning to 15 citizens concerned about the company’s proposed project in Cortez.

The city of Cortez has released its draft Safety Action Plan.

Just 1 percent of all the traffic crashes that happened in Cortez during the five-year period from 2018 through 2022 involved fatalities.

By a margin of just three votes, former Montezuma County Commissioner Larry Don Suckla has officially won the Republican primary for state House District 58. And the City of Cortez and Cortez Police Department have launched a project to improve safety for all forms of transportation in the city.

The city of Cortez is participating in a grant from the U.S. EPA to identify so-called brownfield properties for potential reuse and revitalization. Brownfield sites are properties where expansion or development may be complicated by the presence of pollutants or hazardous waste. In 2022, the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment awarded Cortez, Firestone, Longmont, and Lyons a collective $2 million brownfields grant to cover the costs of initial site assessments and studies. Some properties in Cortez – like KSJD’s own Sunflower Theatre – have benefited from brownfield cleanup and community revitalization in the past. And a preliminary settlement was reached late Tuesday in a lawsuit over alleged transparency violations in the Colorado State House of Representatives.

On Thursday, a coalition of local government agencies and nonprofits is dedicating a park bench to those in the Cortez community who have died in the area while experiencing homelessness. The Montezuma County Homelessness Prevention Coalition is a collaboration between groups like The Piñon Project Family Resource Center and the city of Cortez to help unhoused residents of Montezuma County. Lucia Bueno-Valdez is the homelessness prevention coordinator for The Piñon Project and a key member of the coalition. She says one of the problems the group faces in assisting unhoused people is a lack of available data on how many have lived in Montezuma County, historically. And Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold is speaking out against a proposed merger between grocery store giants Kroger and Albertsons.

On Tuesday, the Cortez City Council will hold a meeting and make a decision about a rezoning application for a parcel of land near Carpenter Natural Area. The parcel to be discussed during Tuesday’s meeting is located off of Highway 491 and is owned by Independent Log Company. The land does not border residential properties but is adjacent to the park. And Indigenous communities are calling for a million acres of land surrounding the Grand Canyon to be declared a national monument. The Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni national monument would leave in place a moratorium on uranium mining in the region that tribes like the Havasupai say is important to protect sacred sites like nearby Red Butte.

In Cortez, residents are expressing concern about the potential environmental impacts of rezoning land next to the Carpenter Natural Area. The parcel of land is owned by Independent Log Company, which recently submitted an application to the city of Cortez to change the zoning of the land from commercial to heavy industrial use. If the land is rezoned, it will mean large industrial equipment and chemicals can be stored on the premises. M. Waldron, a resident of Cortez and a representative for a community group advocating on behalf of the Carpenter area, says concerned Cortez residents can attend the city’s planning and zoning commission meeting on July 18 to make public comments, in addition to the next city council meeting on July 25. And new privacy protections for consumers in Colorado took effect over the weekend.