Cortez residents and officials got their chance to be "the squeaky wheel" on Thursday, as representatives from the offices of U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, and U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard visited City Hall for a public forum.

Shane Henry, the area representative for Allard, and LuAnn Kraemer, the representative for McInnis, got an earful from the local crowd.

Discussions ranged from the controversial proposed national monument to taxing the sales of internet businesses to the proposal of a local veterans clinic.

The group of approximately 10 people wasted no time in admonishing the government over the possible declaration of a national monument to be located in the McElmo Dome area and the surrounding BLM land west of Cortez — a declaration which is expected to be made by President Clinton in the near future.

Kraemer quickly followed suite by taking the opportunity to chide President Clinton for his immoral actions over the last two years.

"Everybody here has heard the name Monica Lewinski," said Kraemer. "With the Monica Lewinski situation, Clinton has trashed the president’s symbol as a hero and the symbol of the White House," she said. "Now, in his last months in office, Clinton is trying to rewrite history and clean up his name by becoming a hero for public lands."

Kraemer also criticized the local "outspoken minority" for their opposition to legislation that would have allowed the designated area to become a national conservation area rather than a national monument.

"A (National Conservation Area) would have been the only route that would have taken into consideration local input and multiple use," said Kraemer. "But 95 percent of the phone calls we received were opposed to the legislation."

Henry said that if George W. Bush is elected president in November, he will likely take a hard look at the executive decisions made by Clinton, but added that "it is very rare for a president to revoke a monument."

When discussions turned to fiber optics and Internet business, Cortez Mayor Joe Keck said that historically Cortez has been an isolated community. The city is now looking for federal legislation that could help speed up the process of bringing fiber optics and subsequently new businesses to the area, Keck said.

Keck said that without an Internet tax, however, Internet consumers are not giving back to their community.

"In Cortez, with the city and the county and state sales tax all together it comes out to 6.95 percent," Keck said. "Three percent of that is the state of Colorado, 3.5 percent is the city and .45 percent is the county jail," he said.

The city portion of that sales tax goes toward the operation of the library, city government, roads, law enforcement, parks and recreation, road maintenance and street construction, Keck said.

When consumers buy products over the Internet they are not contributing to the continuance of these services. "It also hurts local businesses," Keck said.

"In Colorado, over 30 percent of the state’s revenue comes from the state’s sales tax collection," Keck said. "If the Internet becomes a big part of the retail sales marketplace and you can’t collect the tax you still have a customer in your community that is looking for those services."

"It doesn’t matter that the sale was actually done over the Internet, we still have to make the investment in roads for that UPS or whoever is going to deliver that product to the customer. They are going to use our streets; they are going to use our law enforcement," Keck said.

While many officials argue that establishing an Internet tax would be impossible, Keck stated that a system similar to the one used by catalog companies could be utilized.

"There is software that a company can buy that has the information to let you know what the sales tax rates are per zip code," Keck said. "That company would then have to make a monthly filing with that particular locality and with that state." By doing this, the community is still receiving the funds needed to effectively run the city.

A small number of veterans who were in attendance at the public forum pushed for a veterans’ medical clinic near the Four Corners area.

City Manager Hal Shepherd said that recent surveys show that, contrary to past popular belief, there are more veterans in Montezuma County than there are in La Plata County.

"There will be a clinic put somewhere in Southwest Colorado either in Montezuma County, La Plata or Archuleta," Henry said.

The Veterans’ Administration is hoping to have the clinic established within 18 months, Henry said.

"They (VA) quoted to us that there are 3,700 veterans in Montezuma County; La Plata had approximately 2,200 and Archuleta had about 900," Henry said.