BY GAIL BINKLY

While giving top priority to a tourism-related grant request, the Montezuma County commissioners on Monday also expressed concerns about the impacts of tourism on the county roads included in the "Trail of the Ancients" scenic-byway system.

The commissioners voted 3-0 to assign their No. 1 priority to a $300,000 energy-impact grant request by the city of Cortez to expand the Colorado Welcome Center, rather than a $140,000 request by the Town of Mancos for funds to replace aging sewer lines.

The county is asked to prioritize energy-impact grant requests coming from within its borders, although the decisions on the grants are made by a committee of the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, which oversees the Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance Fund.

The fund provides grants to local governments to help them cope with the effects of energy and mineral development in their areas, or with the effects of having those projects cease suddenly.

Cortez City Manager Hal Shepherd told the commissioners Monday that it was key for the city to get its request in this round of funding because the rules governing what types of projects are funded are expected to change before the next round.

"The rules will change and this will not be an eligible project the next time around, in April," Shepherd said. "This is probably the only time this is going to get funding, because they’re going to change some of the parameters and this will not be fundable."

The $300,000 award, if received, will be matched with $300,000 in lodgers’ tax funds, he said, and used to improve the Welcome Center so it can house both the Chamber of Commerce and Montezuma County Economic Development Council. The chamber is at present housed there.

Mancos’ Interim Town Manager, Bill Ray, however, sought to have that town’s request put at the top of the list.

"This is a meat-and-potatoes kind of project, the kind the energy-impact funds have traditionally gone for and will continue to go for," Ray said.

The $140,000 grant, if received, would be matched by the town and used to replace 4,300 linear feet of sewer line within the town that is "both too old and too small," Ray said.

"This is a health and safety issue, one that this grant program has always supported strongly in the past," he said.

The town last year received funds from the state health department to do a master study of its sewer situation, Ray explained, and this would be the first step in implementing needed changes, a 20-year project that will eventually entail improvements to the main sewer plant and replacing many sewer lines.

Ray said, if the town’s grant request were put off till the next round of funding, which starts in April, the actual award probably wouldn’t be received till fall.

"We’re going forward with the application now, regardless," Ray said.

But Shepherd argued that the city of Cortez already contributes $300,000 toward tourism and economic development in the county, and needs to be able to keep tourism dollars flowing into the area.

"We feel we’re putting a lion’s share of funds for both those projects, and your support is important to us for this," he said. "We don’t want to cut down the funding capabilities of those two entities."

He said economic experts are concerned about the fact that Shell’s carbon-dioxide division, which is the county’s largest taxpayer, is up for sale and Mobile and Exxon are consolidating, which may mean local job cutbacks.

"Tourism brings in substantial dollars to offset any loss of energy money," Shepherd said.

He said he’d been told that the Welcome Center project will likely get funding if both the city and county agree it is their No. 1 project.

The commissioners then voted to give top priority to Cortez’s request, promising Ray that Mancos’ sewer project would be No. 1 in the next round of funding.

Also on Monday, the commissioners balked at putting up signs on county roads designating the "Trail of the Ancients" until they could get clarification on how those roads will be affected by additional traffic and who will pay the costs.

Commissioner Kelly Wilson said Trail of the Ancients promoters had requested that the county road crew do the work of putting up the signs, which will enable tourists to follow the scenic byway. The route stops at numerous Ancestral Puebloan sites, including Mesa Verde and Crow Canyon, and winds along county roads CC and 10 to the Lowry Ruins and Hovenweep National Monument.

Those roads are graveled — on portion of 10 is dirt — and the commissioners have repeatedly expressed concern about the impact of increased tourist traffic.

Chairman Gene Story said federal funds were used to improve highways on another scenic byway, the Silver Thread in neighboring counties, and that such funds should be available locally as well.

"Aren’t there still some issues out here that need to be dealt with?" Story asked.

County Administrator Tom Weaver said the BLM probably also has concerns about the impacts of more tourists on the ruins in western Montezuma County.

"Tourism has an impact on county roads and we need to address those questions," Story said. "I would take the position there will be no signs placed on those roads till we get a little clarification how we’re going to deal with those impacts."