Mancos, Dolores voters to decide mill-levy hikes

Mancos, Dolores voters to decide mill-levy hikes

October 16, 2001

Journal Staff Report

Voters in Mancos and Dolores will be deciding mill-levy issues in the upcoming election.

Mancos School District Re-6 is seeking a three-year mill-levy increase of 2.16 mills to provide an estimated $62,325 extra per year. "This amount would represent a small but significant increase in the school district’s budget and go a long way in the effort to keep up with our rapidly growing operational costs," wrote Connie Garcia Blanchard, superintendent of schools, in a column in the Mancos Times.

The amount would, for three years, mean an additional $19.76 in taxes per year per $100,000 of a home or property’s assessed valuation. The money would help fund "the ever-increasing costs of utilities, transportation, the maintenance and replacement of technology and the rising number of studens with special and often expensive needs," Blanchard wrote.

In Dolores, voters will decide whether to pass a mill-levy increase of 1.879 mills to fund an expansion project for the Dolores library and town hall, which are now in the same building.

The money would help pay to add 5,000 square feet to the library building. The library is currently crammed into a 2,500-square-foot area, according to Director Carole Arnold. "Right now, when you walk through one part to the other, somebody has to move to let you by," she said.

The expansion is expected to cost around $900,000, she said.

The library has committed $100,000 to the project. "That money has taken over 15 years to save," Arnold said. "We have saved everything anybody has donated to us over the years."

She said the town has committed another $100,000 to the project, and the library has applied for an energy-impact grant for $300,000 and is expecting an answer on that Thursday.

The library is also going to try to obtain $100,000 from different foundations, but that is more difficult now because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the wave of fund-raising that followed for victims’ families in the East.

"The remainder of the money we need we are asking voters to help us with," Arnold said. The mill-levy increase would raise taxes approximately $17 per $100,000 of assessed valuation. "That’s less than a hardback book," she said. "That money will pay for the lease-purchase, which is the balance of what we owe on the building, and to help maintain the building."

The library would move into the new space, and the vacated space would become a joint meeting room to be used by the library, the town hall, and other organizations.

"The town hall can use it and the library can use it for story time, and when it’s not being used by the town or library, other businesses in town can use it for workshops and other things," she said.

The additional space will give the library more room for children’s books, a computer lab, and a reading/study area, she said.

Two rooms to the west that are difficult to remodel will be torn down, and a new roof will be put over the entire building, because the present roof is not insulated. A new, insulated exterior will also be added.

In addition, the town will remodel some of its space and turn its present meeting room into offices.

Arnold said she hopes the project can get started in the spring.

"But in order to get all this done, we need money," she said. "We’re trying to get something nice for people to look at and feel comfortable in."

There will be an open house Friday from 1 to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the library so citizens can look at the existing building and the proposed expansion area.

"This is not a final drawing, so people can still give input," Arnold said. "We’re asking people to come in, give us their ideas, look at what we’ve planned, and ask questions about the costs."

Friends of the Dolores Library is hosting the meeting and the Issues Committee for the Dolores Library Mill Levy 2001 is paying for it, she said.