Dec. 29, 2001

The year 2001 will forever be marked by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the country’s subsequent war on Afghanistan. Here in Montezuma County, residents watched from a distance as anthrax-laden letters made their way to some of the country’s top leaders, and wondered whether terrorism — homegrown or otherwise — would touch down in rural Colorado.

Waning tourism after the attacks furthered a nationwide recession, and caused a drop in sales-tax revenues locally. As a result, county and municipal governments agonized over their 2002 budgets.

However, the effects of the Sept. 11 attacks were not felt as sharply in the Four Corners as in many other areas, and Montezuma County had its own tragedies: a high number of fatal car accidents, a widely-publicized murder of a transgendered Cortez youth, and the alleged rape of an infant.

The following were picked as the county’s top news stories by the editorial staff at the Cortez Journal:

The murder of 16-year-old Fred Martinez Jr. captured national attention when law-enforcement officials speculated that Martinez might have been killed because of his sexual orientation.

Martinez’s partially-decomposed body was found on June 21 by children playing in a canyon south of Cortez. An autopsy revealed that the transgendered Navajo teen had been brutally beaten, hit with a rock, and left in the canyon for nearly a week.

Tips to a Crimestoppers hotline resulted in the arrest of 18-year-old Shaun Murphy on July 4.

Murphy, of Farmington, pleaded innocent to charges of first-degree murder pursuant to a robbery and second-degree murder.

Murphy has admitted that he and Martinez got into a fight on the night of June 16 and that he hit him with a rock in self-defense, but maintains that Martinez was alive when he left.

Murphy’s trial date is set for March 4.

Martinez was honored during a community vigil sponsored by area gay-rights advocacy groups, and in a PBS special. The advocacy groups also sponsored a well-attended community forum to discuss Martinez’s death.

The idea of 30,000 motorcyclists roaring into the Montezuma County fairgrounds each Labor Day caused an uproar in the community. The Iron Horse Rally has traditionally been held at the Sky Ute Events Center in Ignacio. But what organizers referred to as "inadequate facilities" and a "topsy-turvy" situation prompted the board to look elsewhere.

In March, the county commissioners turned down the rally’s request to move to the fairgrounds, saying it would offer more problems than benefits. While the rally has helped fill hotels and restaurants, it has drawn objections from La Plata County Sheriff Duke Schirard and others because of traffic fatalities, accidents and congestion, noise and lewd behavior.

Locals seemed evenly split on the idea, with many vehemently opposed.

Since then, the rally’s board decided buying land near Ignacio made more sense, and recently agreed to pay $775,000 for about a 155-acre one mile northwest of Ignacio.

The purchase, however, is conditional on the group receiving applicable county permits allowing the rally to be held on the land, which may be difficult to get.

No. 3 — Three sanitation-district board members recalled

Three long-term members of the Cortez Sanitation District board were kicked out of office in November, when voters elected to replace Stan Pierce, Jim Bridgewater and Sam Jarvis with Fred Blackburn, Ted Stearman, and Norm Hall.

The recall effort began after controversy erupted over the board’s treatment of a woman who sold her wedding rings to pay a sewer bill. The woman, whose husband had had a stroke, owed the district $63 when her sewer was disconnected in March.

The district’s actions prompted Denver Post columnist Diane Carman to dub Cortez the "town without pity."

After the incident, critics of the district mounted a recall effort that was plagued by problems and accusations of improper signature-gathering.

Eventually, however, they garnered enough signatures to force the historic election.

After a vigorous community debate, proponents of an $8.1 million Cortez recreation center managed to carry the vote in a contentious municipal election.

To fund the 43,000-square-foot center, voters passed an $8.9 million bond issue, raising the city sales tax an extra 55 cents for every $100 purchase. The city sales tax now totals 4.05 percent.

During the election, city opponents argued the tax could ill be afforded by the working poor, who aren’t likely to use the facility.

The handicapped-accessible facility will include a family pool, water slide, indoor jogging track, a six-lane lap pool and diving board, basketball and volleyball courts, multi-purpose rooms, an exercise area for aerobic machines, day care, office space, and, thanks to a $500,000 state energy-impact grant, racquetball courts.

The center will be managed by Cortez Parks and Recreation at the north end of Parque de Vida.

City managers said the center should be up and running in 17 months, and construction could begin as early as this winter.

At least 14 persons were killed in automobile accidents this year in Montezuma and Dolores counties.

A 10-year-old Cortez boy, Mikel Gragert, was killed in April when his bicycle brakes failed and he collided with a car on County Road 25.

A head-on collision between a car and a truck on Colorado Highway 666 near the Ute Mountain Ute reservation border claimed the life of one Arizona man in June.

In July, a motorcyclist from Clarks Harbor, Nova Scotia, who was traveling on the wrong side of the median on South Broadway was killed when he collided with an oncoming truck. Also that month, two local teens were killed when their car plunged off an embankment on Colorado 145 between Stoner and Rico.

In October, two Montezuma-Cortez High School graduates were killed when their car sped through a stop sign at the intersection of county roads 29 and M and collided with another vehicle.

Seven people died in December accidents.

Three women traveling to Cortez for dialysis died when their van skidded off a steep embankment on County Road G. On Dec. 9, three Cortez residents, including a 1-year-old girl, were killed in a two-car crash near the Four Corners Monument.

Winter conditions and nearly bald tires caused a collision on the Mancos Hill Dec. 18 that killed a Shiprock woman.

No capital-credit checks are likely to be cashed by members of Empire Electric Association for some time and electric rates may rise in 2002 because the association’s private telecommunications venture, REAnet, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April.

The bankruptcy left Empire and the La Plata Electric Association to pay off REAnet’s $15 million guaranteed loan.

Empire took out a $7.5 million loan to pay off its share of REAnet’s credit line, but must still pay $300,000 in interest on the loan, and $710,000 for startup costs.

According to papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, REAnet owes $20.6 million to its creditors.

Empire and LPEA originally started REAnet because U S West refused to build a fiber-optics network in the area, and as an attempt to diversify before the electrical market was deregulated.

Former chairperson Judy Knight-Frank regained the top position for the Ute Mountain tribe in October.

Knight-Frank won by one vote, 239-238, over incumbent Ernest House in the closest tribal election in Ute history. The narrow margin sparked a drawn-out recount that revealed the same tally results.

House and Knight-Frank have traded off the chairmanship for the last 20 years. This is Knight-Frank’s fourth term as Ute leader.

Montezuma County, through its maverick attorney Bob Slough, won two key court cases this year.

In its fourth decision on the matter, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in favor of the county’s assertion that companies with possessory interests on federal lands are subject to property taxes.

The complex case has a long history with statewide implications that translate to retroactive tax windfalls for counties and cities. And this time, the decision appears to have gone unchallenged by special-interest groups.

Possessory interests are the use of public property that a company, such as the concessionaire at Mesa Verde National Park, leases from the government.

In another tax case involving corporate interests, Slough successfully argued that big business was enjoying larger tax exemptions than allowed under state law.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in September that companies with property spread out all over, such as beverage signs, dumpsters, cable boxes and satellite receivers, could not claim exemptions on each item.

The case forced the state’s top taxing board to reverse its loose interpretation of a law allowing exemptions on personal property worth less than $2,500.

The industry in 1996 successfully lobbied the property-tax administrator to honor the exemption on a "per-location" basis rather than "per-business" as outlined in statute.

That meant each item in a separate site qualified for the under-$2,500 exemption.

But the Montezuma County assessor refused to honor the "per-location" credit and taxed TCI Satellite Communications on its full amount of personal property.

In what was touted as a victory for the little guy, the supreme court ruled that the tax statute did not contemplate the per-location basis.

Concerned students and parents have filled several Re-1 school-board meetings this fall to discuss a comment made by Montezuma-Cortez High School Principal Mark Rappe.

In mid-October, Rappe reportedly used the term "Navajo gypsies" while discussing mobility issues and low CSAP scores at a faculty meeting. A week later he made a school-wide apology.

However, a student-organized group charged that the school district had ignored the issue and failed to take satisfactory disciplinary action.

Superintendent Bill Thomp-son said recently a task force has been put in place to improve the school’s climate by capitalizing on diversity.

Additionally, Thompson said Rappe attended a seminar last week on enhancing relations with Native American students.

In October, sales at the 1319 E. Main lot of Graffis Motors were suspended under mysterious circumstances, and the vehicles sold there seemingly disappeared overnight.

The vehicles were moved to Mega Auto Superstore in Farmington, and an ongoing investigation by the Cortez Police Department is trying to determine whether any financial improprieties occurred at the Cortez used-car business.

No charges have been filed by the District Attorney’s office.

The actual owner of Graffis Motors has still to be determined, but both involved parties, Paul Graffis and Jamie Still, allege that the other acted improperly.

Other major stories, in no particular order:

• In March, state Sen. Jim Dyer, D-Durango, announced he would resign to take a job with the Public Utilities Commission. Jim Isgar, a La Plata County Democrat, was picked to replace Dyer.

• In July, the Montezuma County Economic Development Council folded due to lack of funding and a whimpering local economy. In its place, the city of Cortez hopes to hire a economic specialist.

• In June, Justin Gapp, 18 at the time, fatally shot his cousin Kenneth Loren Gapp while mimicking gang play at a residence in Cortez. Gapp was charged with reckless man-slaughter and the case was bound over for a jury trial.

• In November, Shell and Mobile oil agreed to a settlement potentially worth $52.8 million to some 2,000 area landowners with tapped carbon-dioxide reserves. Plaintiffs alleged in a class-action suit that the companies artificially lowered fair market prices used to calculate CO2 royalty checks.

• In June, the Montezuma County Landfill burned for four days, sending a black cloud across the valley. The cause was never determined.

• In June, the Environmental Protection Agency released a study showing McPhee and Narraguinnep reservoirs had high levels of mercury. The element accumulates in some fish species consumed by humans, a potential health hazard.

• In April, Joseph Stuckman of Cortez was charged with two felony counts for alleged sexual assault on an infant March 28. The 8-month old girl sustained critical injuries. Stuckman’s competency hearing is pending.

Copyright © 2001 the Cortez Journal. All rights reserved.
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