Mancos trustees approve El Rio Cantina open-container permit

The Mancos Board of Trustees approved an open container permit application for El Rio Cantina at its October 14 meeting, according to the signed minutes of that meeting, which the town posted on its website on Tuesday, November 10.

The Cortez Current previewed the meeting in October. The minutes are the town’s record of what was decided; they were approved at the board’s October 28 meeting.

Four of the seven board members were present: Mayor Cindy Simpson, Mayor Pro Tem Brent McWhirter and Trustees Max Loving and Ed Hallam. Trustees Corey Jabour, Andres Esparza and Daniel Hennek were absent. The meeting ran from 6:01 to 6:44 p.m.

The decisions

• El Rio Cantina. Hallam moved to approve the restaurant’s open container permit application and Loving seconded. The motion passed unanimously on a roll-call vote. The minutes do not describe the permit’s terms.
• The 2027 budget. The public hearing introducing the town’s 2027 proposed budget opened at 6:22 p.m., no one signed up to speak, and it closed the same minute. No action was taken.
• The comprehensive plan. The board discussed the structure and format of the plan as a whole and accepted the proposed language for chapters 3 and 4. The minutes say the town administrator, Heather Alvarez, would review the plan and draw up a crosswalk between the proposed new format and the original document for the board’s next agenda.
• Consent agenda. Hallam moved it, Loving seconded, and it passed.

The senior center’s request

Before the business items, the board heard from Kelli Hargraves, listed in the minutes as MCDSS director, about the Mancos Senior Center.

In the last year, the minutes say, the center served 2,714 meals, including 968 delivered meals and 135 caregiver meals. Mancos accounts for 18% of the $315,000 Montezuma County Senior Services budget, the minutes say, and Hargraves asked the board to budget $10,000 in 2027 for the Mancos cook. The minutes record no decision on the request; the town’s 2027 budget had not been adopted as of the minutes.

In Dolores, the trustees approved $10,000 from that town’s 2027 budget for Montezuma County Senior Services on Monday.

Mark Worth of Mancos spoke during audience business about the infrastructure and easement on his property, the minutes say. They record no response from the board.

Source: Town of Mancos, “10-14-2026 Minutes”, signed minutes of the October 14, 2026 Board of Trustees meeting, posted November 10, 2026. The minutes are a scanned document; the Current read them by optical character recognition and checked every figure above against the page image.