City Council members will be looking for input from local residents Tuesday night regarding the possibility of building a recreation center in Cortez.

"The council wants to hear whether or not people are even interested in having a rec center," said Cortez Parks and Recreation Director Chris Burkett.

"If people are interested, then the council wants to know what should go into it, how much it should cost and how it should be paid for. The council wants this to be a community issue," he said.

Preliminary plans for the center, which were developed in 1994 when the idea was first proposed, include an indoor six-lane lap pool, gymnasium, indoor family pool, exercise room, locker rooms, classroom/child-care unit and multi-purpose room.

Racquetball courts, a snack bar and a teen-youth center were considered as additional facilities if the financing had been available.

Burkett said that in 1994 the recreation center proposal went to Cortez residents as a bond issue but was voted down by roughly a 60-40 margin.

Burkett attributed the bond’s failure, in part, to other competing issues that were on the ballot at that time.

"In 1994 the (recreation-center) bond issue was competing against the Cortez Middle School renovation and a fire-district increase," Burkett said.

Plans for the recreation center, which were developed by Barker, Rinker, Seacat & Partners Architects P.C., originally called for $6 million in funding.

The project was later reduced to $4.5 million before being dropped altogether, Burkett said.

Burkett said that if the bond had passed in 1994, it would have been financed through a sales-tax increase.

However, the director said that there would be additional use fees involved in order to pay for the operation and maintenance of the building.

Burkett said if citizens are interested in building a recreation center, the city may ask the Re-1 school district and the county commissioners if they would like to be involved in the project.

"These are the things that we will have to discuss at Tuesday’s meeting," Burkett said.

Burkett said if people are interested in the project then the city may once again consider a sales-tax boost in order to pay for it.

"The state just dropped its sales tax by 0.25 percent," Burkett said. "If we were to pick that tax back up it could pay for the rec center."

Burkett said that if a sales-tax increase were implemented county-wide then everybody who used the center would be paying for it — including tourists.