By David Grant Long

Assuming, of course, that Cortez and the rest of the world don’t descend into chaos at the turn of the new millennium, residents will see their fees for municipal water and trash service increase next month.

Using the city’s swimming pool and golf course will also cost a little more next year under the fee schedules approved by the city council Tuesday.

Public Works Director Bruce Smart explained that the hike in trash fees is necessary to cover a 20-percent increase in the dumping rate at the Montezuma County landfill, which will be going from $20 to $24 a ton beginning in January, and to maintain a reserve fund to replace trash trucks on a regular basis.

The residential trash fee, which hasn’t been raised in five years, will go from $8.50 to $9.50 per month, and commercial rates, which vary with volume and frequency of collection, will increase at the same 11.8 percent rate.

"Refuse (trash) is an unknown in the coming years," Smart cautioned, because there may be additional environmental regulations and restrictions imposed on its disposal. "I think this (increase) will hold us for two years and then we’ll have to re-evaluate where we’re at."

Smart had earlier pointed out that even with the increase, trash rates in Cortez are still a bargain compared to those in the county, which run more than $20 a month for residential service.

The basic residential fee for water service in single-family dwellings, which includes the first 1,000 gallons of consumption, will go from $11.50 to $12, and the cost of each 1,000 gallons beyond that will increase a nickel from the present $1.10. The minimum fee for apartments and mobile homes will also go up 50 cents, from $10.75 to $11.25.

Smart explained that further expansion of the city’s water-treatment plant is being planned for 2003, and the modest hikes will enable the water fund to accumulate enough to cover this expense without going into debt.

Daily pool passes will be raised 50 cents for the coming season, and will cost $2 for youths under 18, $3 for adults and $2.50 for people at least 60 years of age; however, the price of season passes, party packages and swimming lessons remains unchanged.

Parks and Recreation Director Chris Burkett explained that city policy is to make youth recreational programs at least 50 percent self-sufficient and that the pool had to be increasingly subsidized over the past couple years because of higher usage and the need for additional guards, although it still met that guideline. He said that the pool rates here are still on the lower end of comparable West Slope communities.

Golfers will pay $3 more for 18 holes of play at Conquistador, and other fees —for season passes, golf carts and tournaments — will see slight increases as well. The Golf Advisory Board had recommended the hikes, Burkett explained, to keep the fees in line with other courses in the area. Although Conquistador breaks even as far as operation and maintenance expense, he said, there are no funds left over for needed capital construction projects.

Fees for indoor winter soccer will triple, from $10 to $30, but all other youth and adult recreation program costs will remain the same.

In other business during its only December meeting, the council:

• Passed an ordinance that gives the Planning and Zoning Commission the power to grant exceptions to the minimum-size requirement for construction of new houses in the R-1 zone.

The 1,500-foot minimum has been controversial since it was adopted in 1996 and a citizen’s advisory committee had recommended changes after several meetings last winter because many houses in older R-1 neighborhoods are considerably smaller than this. In fact, the committee had suggested that an additional residential zone with a smaller minimum or none at all be added to the code.

• Another proposed ordinance that would allow downtown businesses located off Main Street to place sandwich-board signs along Main was tabled after the council was informed that the Colorado Department of Transportation frowns on such advertisements in its right-of-way. (Main Street is also U.S. Highway 160, a state road controlled by CDOT.)

The signs, similar to the "open" signs now used by merchants along Main, would only be temporary until a permanent, centrally located kiosk-type sign listing downtown businesses could be established to make tourists and other passers-though aware of their existence.

More discussion with state officials was requested.

• Approved an agreement with developer Howard Boff and property owners J.T. and Joy Wilkerson that settles a long-running dispute involving the Anasazi Valley subdivision adjacent to Conquistador Golf Course.

Under the agreement the city will obtain rights-of-way and construct a southern access road to the subdivision and an easement across the golf course to provide electricity. Apex Construction, Boff’s company, will pay the city for the expenses of building the road, but not of acquiring the land.

In return, Apex grants the city an easement across the subdivision for an 8-inch pipeline to carry water from the golf course to Denny Lake as part of a plan to turn it into a wildlife area.

The city will pay Boff and the Wilkersons $49,000 for the pipeline easement and a small parcel of land along Dolores Road on which they had proposed building an office complex that would have required a zoning change.

• Approved contracts with the Montezuma County Economic Development Council for tourism promotion and economic development efforts during the coming year.

The city will pay MCEDC $368,000 for developing tourism and $60,000 to support existing businesses and attract new ones.