Ex-mayors chosen as top citizens

Ex-mayors chosen as top citizens

Jan. 16, 2001

MERIT CARTER (LEFT), and Roy Henneman, both former mayors and city-council members for the city of Cortez, were honored as Citizens of the Year for 2000 at a Chamber of Commerce banquet Saturday night.

Cortez Journal
Staff Report

Saturday evening, the Cortez Area Chamber of Commerce honored as its Citizens of the Year two men with long histories of public service in the Montezuma Valley.

Roy Henneman and Merit Carter each came to the annual banquet prepared to deliver a roast about the other. Instead, thanks to Chamber executive director Christine Acott’s effective top-secret strategy, both were surprised to discover themselves the men of the evening.

The two tied for the Cortez Journal Citizen of the Year honor in voting by past Chamber presidents, leading the runners-up by a wide margin. Both Henneman and Carter have devoted considerable time and energy to local governmental entities and civic organizations over the years.

Carter, presenting first, quipped, "I was given the idea I was going to be roasting him, and now I’m going to have to listen to him roasting me."

Henneman expressed similar sentiments, stating wryly that "all those kind things Merit said," as well as the privilege of being named Citizen of the Year himself, "preclude elaboration on some of Merit’s human frailties."

I’ve really enjoyed working with Mr. Henneman," Carter said. "Once in a while we don’t agree on things, but most of the time I’m right so I don’t worry about it."

Henneman and Carter were elected to the Cortez City Council together and took office in January 1976. Henneman served as mayor in 1978-79, and Carter was mayor in 1982-83.

Carter served 10 years on the council. He has been a volunteer at the Welcome Center since it opened in 1988, a Mason for nearly 50 years, and was a charter member in the Escalante Shrine Club, promoting care through the Shriners hospital system for children with burns and orthopedic problems. Carter retired from Superior Oil in 1983.

Henneman left in 1980 when he was elected county commissioner. In that capacity, he was instrumental, along with Floyd Ray and Bill Bauer, in making the new fairgrounds a reality. He has served on the Southwest Health System board of directors since that organization was founded in 1996. He is retired from Montgomery Ward, and Carter laughingly blamed his departure for that corporation’s bankruptcy.

The two men founded the Good Government Party after they were elected to the City Council, although Henneman joked of Carter, "Being a Democrat, I don’t know how he got in."

Between good-natured jabs, the gentlemen traded some serious compliments.

"There has not been anyone who has done more for this valley than Roy Henneman," Carter said. "I was with him all the way, and he was the leader."

Henneman spoke of the years the two men spent on the city council together, and commended the time and personal resources Carter had dedicated to the Shrine Club.

Before the meal at the Anasazi Convention Center, local tourism professionals unveiled a plan to attract visitors who may have been discouraged by last summer’s fires. The Mesa Verde Country Indian Arts and Culture Festival will take place over Memorial Day weekend, and will include activities in Dolores, Mancos and Cortez as well as at Mesa Verde National Park, the Anasazi Heritage Center, Crow Canyon and the Ute Mountain Tribal Park.