Touting a record of effectively addressing growth issues and re-organizing the road department, Montezuma County Commissioner Kent Lindsay announced last week that he will seek re-election to a second term representing District 2, the Cortez area.

"Sometimes the wheels of government go pretty slow," Lindsay said. "You get so involved with the intricacies of what’s going on in your county, you’d kind of like to finish what’s been started in those (first) four years."

Lindsay, a Republican who along with his wife Sharon operates the El Grande Cafe, defeated incumbent commissioner Helen McClellan four years ago to win his seat on the three-member board. He is being challenged for the nomination by Ray Gallacher, owner of Cortez Cleaners & Laundry, who declared his candidacy Thursday.

The winner of that contest will probably face Democrat Tony Valdez in the November general election, since Valdez, who announced his candidacy last month, has no opponent for that nomination.

One of the "intricacies" to which Lindsay referred is Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s ongoing efforts to provide additional protection for 164,000 acres of BLM land west of Cortez that contains myriad Ancestral Puebloan ruin sites.

"What everybody’s talking about these days is the proposed national monument," he said. "That’s a big issue facing us, and it’s driven a pretty good wedge in our town."

The commission, viewing a national conservation area as the lesser of two evils proposed by Babbitt, had asked Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell to carry legislation to create such an area in lieu of a national monument, since Congress could have set the guidelines for multiple uses and protected the current uses.

However, the vocal opposition of several groups, including the Southwest Colorado Landowners Association, whose spokespersons argued that national-monument designation would be easier to overturn, convinced Campbell to drop his legislation, and Babbitt recently informed the commission that he would ask President Clinton to declare the area a national monument under the Antiquities Act.

"Under (the landowners’) constitutional rights, they have the right to oppose anything that’s initiated by any government," he said, "(but) as commissioners we were put between a rock and a hard place and weren’t given too many choices.

"To best guard the interests of the people of the county, we chose the conservation area (approach) because we’d have input into the design and writing of the management plan, whereas now the management plan will be written by the BLM itself, and that’s a pretty tough pill to swallow.

"In looking at the two major presidential candidates, I don’t really see either one of those guys overturning a national monument."

Lindsay said Landowner Initiated Zoning, the county’s novel approach to land-use issues developed in response to a voter mandate, has been generally successful to this point.

"I think it’s working really well," he said. "At first I was pretty cynical about it, but to be honest, it’s really surprised me.

"We’ve been able to do some things with LIZ that we weren’t able to do before," he explained. "There was denial of (proposed land uses) that didn’t quite fit into some neighborhoods.

"We can see where (residential) neighborhoods have developed and certain industry wouldn’t fit in there now," he explained. "We can just look at the (zoning) map and see where industry will fit and won’t fit — it’s going along really well."

Still, he added, for such a complex and untried approach to land-use, "It’s going to take a lot of years to develop and fine-tune it and probably some of our regulations are going to need improving as we go along.

"Right now the map is pretty well set," he said, and nearly ready for a public hearing before being adopted in its final form. "I’m sure we’re going to get some lawsuits over it, but that will be the test of what we’ve really done."

The commission has used lottery funds to upgrade the county fairgrounds, a perennial money loser, and encourage more use so it will eventually pay for itself, Lindsay said.

"We’ve got a new manager at the fairgrounds who’s working hard to keep it clean and doing a pretty good job," he said.

"We’re trying to get more events to happen out there and the new fairgrounds board that we appointed has drawn up a pretty good plan," he added. "Some of the improvements they’ve made out there — the entryway, for example —are really nice." An upgrade of the main building’s roof and electrical system are in the works along with the addition of more livestock stalls, he said.

Overall, Lindsay said, he would give the commission a "solid B" grade for its achievements during his first term.

"We’ve made some really good progress, especially in our relations with the city of Cortez — the lines of cooperation have really been opened. We’ve taken our role from being defensive and reactive to more of an aggressive standpoint to see what we can do to help the community," particularly in seeking ways to improve telecommunications.

Restructuring the county road department is another accomplishment of which he is proud, Lindsay said.

"We’ve actually had letters complimenting us about some of our roads," he said, "but I know that certain areas still need a lot of work.

"When we first got into office, we instituted a new management style for the road department, more of a team-management style using their expertise because most commissioners aren’t road builders.

"These guys have been out on the roads for many, many years and they know how to take care of them."

Other departments that have seen major improvements include the county health department and the landfill, he said.

Lindsay readily conceded his record also included mistakes resulting from a lack of information.