The dashed hopes of Four Corners Iron Horse organizers were revived on Monday when a Dolores town trustee offered up the possibility that the town could host the famed motorcycle rally.

In a March 12 letter to rally president Warren "Easy" Bernard, Trustee Tazewell Vass expressed the town’s "sincere interest in hosting the ‘2002 Iron Horse Rally.’"

Rally organizers had wanted to move the Labor Day weekend rally from its current headquarters at the Sky Ute Downs in Ignacio to the Montezuma County Fairgrounds near Cortez in 2002. But last Friday the Montezuma County commissioners refused to overturn the fairground’s liquor ban and break the county’s contract with the Ute Mountain Ute Roundup Rodeo, which had already booked the 2002 Labor Day weekend. This effectively closed the most likely venue for the rally.

Bernard said the town of Dolores’s interest was a positive step in finding a new venue. "The board members were very excited to receive the letter from the town of Dolores."

The Dolores town board plans to meet with the rally’s eight board members and four advisers at its next workshop on Monday, March 26, to discuss the "necessary space and facilities" needed to host the event. "As I’m sure you are aware, Dolores is a small town with limited resources; therefore we would also be exploring the possibility of utilizing some private grounds," Vass explained in his letter, which promised a 90-day review before the town made its decision.

Vass said the rally organizers could "do the main event at Joe Rowell Park, and have all the camping on private land surrounding the town."

"They (rally-goers) stay everywhere anyway. I mean, we started thinking about it, and there’s a lot of land they could camp on. All they have to do is organize it," explained Vass.

Last year, the rally drew nearly 30,000 bikers and tourists, which far exceeds the size of Dolores’s largest event – Escalante Days — which normally attracts 2,000 people for one weekend in August. Dolores is home to nearly 800 residents.

Bernard said that although the rally sold 29,000 arm bands last year, it has never hosted more than 14,000 people on any one day of the four-day event. The arm bands, which cost $15 a day and $35 for the event, fund the rally, along with liquor sales.

"There is probably 10,000 people that come here and are close enough to being local that they don’t need a place to stay," explained Bernard. "But I can guarantee if we host it in Dolores or wherever we host it, the towns within 100 miles are going to have their hotel rooms filled."

"It’s not like we’re inviting 5,000 people and having 30,000 show up. All their (the rally’s) security is in place, all their vendors are in place, all their contracts are in place. We’re not creating this from scratch. It will just overlay the town — at least that’s the way I’ve been thinking about," said Vass.

Bernard said the rally would require water, electricity, and possibly buildings to house the vendors, but tents and generators owned by the rally could supplement town services. "All we need is somebody that’s willing to work with us and give us some space to host the rally," he explained.

However, Montezuma County Commissioner Gene Story said that mass camping on private land could likely spark another review by the commissioners.

"If it’s on private land, obviously we’re going to be looking at traffic, we’re going to be looking at noise — those are a couple of things that would trigger a high-impact permit," explained Story.

The high-impact permit would require a public hearing, and Story said the commissioners would likely remain concerned that the rally would stress county services and threaten public safety

The town of Dolores contracts with the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Department to provide its municipal law-enforcement services.

La Plata County Sheriff Duke Schirard has overseen the approximately 150 law-enforcement agents dedicated solely to the rally each year, many of whom patrol the rally and stop potential trouble before it starts.

"We’ve only had one murder directly associated with the rally, but every year we have a lot of minor assaults," explained Schirard, who said that the sheriff’s department receives endless noise complaints and the rally usually brings an increase in the traffic of minor drugs like marijuana, as well as public drunkenness, nudity, and obscenity.

"The noise objections can’t be overcome," said Vass. "It’s gonna be noisy. It’s gonna be busy. It’s gonna be full. Those objections can’t be overcome, but the rest of it will with the 16 months of preparation to take care of it."

Bernard said the rally’s reputation has been sensationalized by the media. "The problems inside the rally have been minor."

But Schirard said it would take a lot of planning for the small town to handle the event.

"I think if Dolores wanted to try and do it, they would have to certainly engage the help of a lot of law-enforcement agencies," said Schirard.

The rally recently reimbursed La Plata County for the $20,000 in overtime wracked up by sheriff’s deputies patrolling the Sky Ute Downs. Shirard estimated the county spent another $10,000 to $15,000 on the rally that was not covered by its organizers.

"It certainly it would bring a lot of economic good to the town," admitted Schirard. "I just hope they would do some long-range planning to line up the necessary resources to deal with it."

Ginger Black, president of the Dolores Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber had sent a letter to the commissioners supporting hosting the rally at the fairgrounds, but has not formally considered whether it would support having the rally in Dolores.

Supporters of the event point to the increase in sales taxes it brings to local governments and the shot in the arm it provides area businesses, including restaurants, hotels, gas stations, and retail stores. Rally organizers estimate that the event pumps $13.5 million into local economies that stretch from Farmington to Cortez to Durango and Pagosa Springs.

Reportedly, $50,000 was raised for charities last year through the rally, and in the last seven years $400,000 has been donated to local non-profit groups and motorcycle-rights organizations.