County puts off racetrack decision; parking lot project delayed
Commissioners sent staff to ask the parties to the racetrack contract whether either still wants to proceed, and dropped a budget resolution after finding the money was already there.
Montezuma County commissioners made no decision Tuesday on the contract for the county racetrack, and instead directed staff to go back to the people named in the contract and find out whether either of them still wants to move forward.
Graphic: Cortez Current. Source: Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners meeting, September 29, 2026
The board went into an executive session to take legal advice on the racetrack contract, under the section of state law that allows a board to meet privately with its attorney. County Attorney Stephen Tarnowski said on the record afterwards that only the item that had been noticed — the racetrack contract — was discussed, that only the people named in the motion were present, and that no decisions were made in the session.
Coming out of it, the chairman said the board had directed Interim County Administrator Travis Anderson and the county’s fairgrounds director to contact the parties listed on the contract and report back at next week’s meeting.
No supplemental budget after all
County finance staff asked commissioners not to approve a resolution for a supplemental capital budget for 2026, and the board agreed to drop it.
The resolution had been put on the agenda because the county is buying three vehicles and a set of Dell servers, staff said, and the notice had already been published in the newspaper. But staff told the board the capital fund has enough money to cover the purchases without a budget amendment, because the county’s parking lot project has been pushed into next year. The parking lot work was budgeted at $450,000 this year, staff said, and the vehicles and servers come to $385,000, so the county can move the money with a line-item transfer instead.
Staff said they brought it to a public meeting anyway because the resolution had been advertised.
Ballots go out the week of October 5
Clerk and Recorder Kim Percell told commissioners the state’s ballot information booklets — the “Blue Books” — are in the mail now, and that the county’s own information booklet goes out Friday. That booklet covers the tax questions on local ballots: the county lodging tax question, a City of Cortez question and a Town of Mancos question.
Ballots will be mailed the week of October 5, Percell said. The county’s public logic and accuracy test of its voting equipment is Thursday at 9 a.m., and anyone may come and watch.
Legal report
Tarnowski told the board he and a commissioner spent several hours in court the previous week on the county’s Ironwood case, at a hearing on the county’s motion to amend an order requiring the company to remove wood waste from the site. The motion would change how the property is described in the order. A witness from the state health department testified, as did two witnesses for Ironwood, Tarnowski said, and the judge asked both sides to file proposed orders rather than ruling from the bench. The county’s is due Thursday. A status hearing is now set for Monday, October 12 at 9 a.m.
The county’s appeal in a separate case involving Leaf Properties is likely to be delayed again, he said, because documents appear to be missing from the record sent up to the Court of Appeals.
Tarnowski also flagged that the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral argument Monday, October 5 in Suncor Energy v. Boulder County — a case in which the Montezuma County board joined an amicus brief supporting Suncor’s position. The question is whether federal law bars state-law claims seeking damages for harms said to be caused by greenhouse gas emissions, and whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the case at all. Argument audio is streamed, he said.
Other business
Commissioners approved the minutes of their September 22 meeting and a consent agenda carrying one item, a community development action plan from Region 9. No one signed up for public comment.
On a separate contract, the chairman said there was no decision for the board to make on the county’s law enforcement agreement with the Town of Dolores, because he had handed the contract to the town the night before. The county has offered Dolores another year of the arrangement it has now, as commissioners discussed at their September 28 workshop.
Anderson told the board the county’s public health director has submitted a retirement letter and the county will begin the process of filling the job. He said the county is buying a Tahoe rather than a Ford for its next vehicle, that body armor for the sheriff’s office funded through Title III money is being ordered, and that county staff meet the City of Cortez next week about fiber.
The chairman said the county Road and Bridge Department has taken in about $232,000 at its last two equipment auctions and wants to be able to spend up to $200,000 of it on replacement trucks, after problems with equipment dating from the 1990s during this year’s chip seal work. No vote was taken; the department is bringing the board an updated priority list first.
Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer reported that negotiations continue over Colorado River allocations, including a proposal to change the amount delivered to Mexico as the river’s flows fall. Commissioner Kent Lindsay said he had attended the Cortez City Council meeting the week before, where a liquor-license application took up most of the evening.
This account is drawn from the county’s recording of the September 29 meeting, posted by Montezuma County. Written minutes have not yet been published.