Re-1 seeks three-year mill-levy extension

Re-1 seeks three-year mill-levy extension

Sept. 23, 2000

BY MATT GLECKMAN
Journal Staff Writer

This November, the Re-1 School District is asking Montezuma County voters to support a three-year mill-levy extension which would help pay for health and safety improvements to several local schools.

Initially, the mill-levy increase was approved in November 1994 for six years in order to fund the remodeling of the Cortez Middle School.

Under Colorado law, the electorate of a district can vote to extend this levy for up to three years.

Re-1 Business Manager Jim Riffey said that if voters do approve the extension, the money will be used — first and foremost — for safety improvements to school buildings.

"The boilers in the Downey and Beech Street schools are so old that we can’t get parts for them any more. They are pretty antiquated," Riffey said.

He added that if a boiler were to malfunction, the schools could potentially have a very dangerous situation.

"Replacing those boilers would be our No. 1 priority with the money," he said.

Riffey said that other safety issues include replacing the bleachers and improving the side basketball backboards (with winch modifications) at Montezuma-Cortez High School, recarpeting and abating asbestos in the floors at Kemper Elementary, and modifying the southwest corner of the MCHS grounds for a safe student drop-off area.

Following the safety improvements, the additional money collected through the mill levy would be used to help with space and program needs.

Riffey said the advantage of funding projects though a mill levy is that the school does not end up paying years of interest fees as it would if the projects were funded through bonds. "It is a better way of handling taxpayers’ money," said Riffey.

There is no organized opposition to the mill-levy proposal. But at the Sept. 19 school-board meeting, Cortez resident Brian Wilson said that while he favors making safety improvements, he thinks schools such as Pleasant View should be used to their full capacity before other schools start making additions.

"Enrollment has dropped over the last two years. Why are we expanding schools when enrollment could continue to drop?" Wilson said.

Wilson suggested that the district manipulate the bus boundaries so students can attend schools with lower enrollment.

However, Re-1 Superinten-dent Bill Thompson explained that the problem isn’t that the schools are overcrowded but that individual programs need more space.

Presently the Re-1 levy is set at 5.1 mills. The cost to the owner of a home within the district assessed at $100,000 would be $49.67 per year, said County Assessor Bob Cruzan.