By David Grant Long

The Cortez City Council took care of the business on its brief agenda in about 10 minutes Tuesday, and then spent twice that long discussing a complaint involving the ongoing construction at the new Wal-Mart store near Main and Sligo streets.

Eleanor Lyons, who lives in an adjacent residential area, read a letter from the family of 90-year-old Wilma Veach, who also lives next to the project and is in very poor health, describing damage to her property as well as noise and dust conditions that have added to her suffering.

"It’s been pretty rough out there," said Lyons, with construction work often commencing well before dawn, even on weekends, and continuing late into the night.

"By Friday night you’re pretty tired of the noise, then you wake up at 5:30 Saturday morning with a ‘beep, beep’ beep’ and have things going on all day, and then you wake up Sunday morning with things going on, it’s a bit much," she added, asking if the city could pass an ordinance regulating such activity at unreasonable hours.

While paying lip service to her and the Veachs’ complaint, however, city officials appeared unmotivated to do much about it.

"I know we have a lot of compassion for your situation with the noise and everything," said Mayor Joe Keck, "but unfortunately Wal-Mart is trying to rush to get open.

"We’re sorry for the inconvenience," Keck added, "but I’m not sure there’s a lot we can do on that particular front."

Lyons reminded council members that the city does have a regulation concerning excessive dust, and they agreed, but no one offered to do anything about that, either.

Lyons said she appreciated the efforts of Councilwoman Darlene Denison.

"She’s been a real big help," Lyons said. "You can say she has ulterior motives, and maybe so, but she listens to us and gives us advice, and I’m pretty upset that she had a public tongue-lashing." (At a recent council meeting, Denison was castigated for being an obstructive force to taking care of city business by members Bob Diederich and Karen Garner.)

"These residents are receiving a lot of abuse out there," Denison said. "Of course they’re going to be uncomfortable because of the construction -- I think more consideration needs to be given to them.

"To me I don’t think it’s justified to have them out there on a Sunday afternoon doing that."

City attorney Cliff Fossum said the city had an agreement with the Wal-Mart contractor to do the street construction and landscaping that will mitigate the long-term impacts of traffic to the huge discount store.

"After we let a contract," he explained, "we’re not in a position where we can dictate the hours and the means used to construct a project -- all we’re interested in is the results."

"Frankly ... I’m not sure what we can do about it," he added.

When Lyons asked for consideration of an ordinance regulating construction hours in the future, Diederich said the project would be "over and done before we could have an opportunity to look at it."

Fossum then pointed out that the store was supposed to be open in January, and advised Lyons and her neighbors to "bite the bullet and hang onto your hat" in the meantime.

Another person in the audience sided with Lyons, observing that any private citizen making such a racket at those hours would be guilty of disturbing the peace, but when it’s being done for profit by a major business, it’s apparently OK with the city. He said the council should consider their responsibility in preserving the quality of life for its residents as the town continues to grow, pointing out that other major construction projects, such as the new county jail, are also on the horizon and that incidents involving excessive noise and dust are far from being "over and done with."