At their regular meeting Tuesday night, the Cortez City Council unanimously voted in Joe Keck to serve another two-year term as mayor for Cortez.

Councilman Fred Torres was voted in as mayor pro-tem for a two-year term by a 6-1 margin, with councilman Jim Herrick voting against Torres’ nomination.

Keck vowed to continue the city’s beautification efforts on Main Street, and promised during his term to focus on fostering cooperative inter-governmental relations between Cortez and the county.

"We want to continue with the improvements for not only Main Street but also for the highway entryways," Keck said. "We have a good head start in some areas. In others I think that some landscaping and nice signage would make a difference."

"Also I want to do a better job at joint planning between the city and the county and other entities. We need to set up a real good communication thing where everyone knows what everyone else is doing."

Other priorities that Keck favors include assuring that the city library’s renovation and expansion project goes smoothly and encouraging more community participation in the process of city government and economic development. Keck said he will also continue to analyze the city’s infrastructure needs regarding its sanitation capacity and business parks.

"Getting the new business park out by the county jail completed is important," he said. "In addition to that, we will be trying to get more land for the industrial-park expansion on Lebanon Road. Those are essential components for economic development here.

"Maybe in the future we need to look at a new location for another industrial park that has better growth potential."

Keck said that the past two years as mayor has been a good learning process, and that his successful re-election is an indicator that the community is satisfied with the direction the council is going under his leadership.