District 2 County Commissioner Candidate Lindsay

District 2 County Commissioner Candidate Lindsay

Oct. 21, 2000

By Gail Binkly
Journal Managing Editor

Montezuma County Commissioner Kent Lindsay is no stranger to controversy.

During the four years he’s been in office, Lindsay has struggled with issues ranging from leaky septic systems to a perpetually tight budget.

Two of the thorniest problems he’s faced have come toward the end of his term — a recently approved gravel pit in the Dolores River Valley and the new Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in the western half of the county.

Despite vocal opposition from neighbors, the commissioners on Sept. 18 approved the gravel pit, to be operated by Four States Aggregate on 18 acres on the Line Camp property. The board did impose limits on the pit’s hours of operation and required a $10,000 reclamation bond.

Lindsay believes the board did the right thing.

"We don’t set ourselves up to approve or deny a gravel pit," he said. "That’s done through the Bureau of Mined Land Reclamation. The impacts can be mitigated, and that’s what we tried to do."

He said he thought hard about the decision, talked to numerous people, and "lost a lot of sleep." But the need to uphold property rights and ensure a supply of gravel won out.

"I’ve gotten a lot of commments that we finally showed some common sense and decided in favor of jobs instead of scenic wonder, although sometimes scenic wonder provides jobs, too," Lindsay said. "The people I talked to were vastly in favor of this pit. The gravel is needed for roads, foundations, sidewalks. To import gravel would drive the costs of our roads and housing way, way up."

Two years ago, the commissioners wouldn’t have had the means to put any restrictions on the pit’s operation, he pointed out, as the county’s permitting system was not in place.

"They could have operated that pit 365 days a year, seven days a week, 24 hours a day," he said.

Lindsay said the county’s unique Landowner-Initiated Zoning system, which allows property-owners to choose their own zoning designation, is working well. So far, the commissioners have denied two zoning requests because of complaints that the proposed use didn’t fit the area.

"Our land-use code is still in its infancy," he said. "It’s only a 2-year-old."

While struggling to handle land-use questions involving private property, the commissioners also had to wrestle with a question involving 164,000 acres of BLM land in Montezuma and Dolores counties that in June became, by presidential proclamation, a national monument.

The commissioners had supported legislation to make the tract a national conservation area, but the Southwest Colorado Landowners Assoc-iation successfully lobbied Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell to withdraw the NCA bill. Now the group is seeking to have the monument designation reversed, an effort the commissioners have not joined.

"We could spend a lot of time and energy trying to get the monument overturned," Lindsay said, "but I think our efforts and money would be better spent trying to protect the property rights of the people affected out there (such as neighbors and owners of inholdings)." The county has mapped the roads used to reach inholdings and will work to make sure owners aren’t pressured into selling to the federal government, he said.

The commissioners will work to get a strong voice on the monument’s advisory council, he said, and to make sure multiple uses continue on the area.

Lindsay supports a measure on the ballot removing term limits for county officials. He said limits don’t make sense for local offices. In addition, term limits violate the rights of both voters and potential candidates, he said.

Lindsay wants to seek grants to build a receiving station at the Cortez Sanitation District’s new plant where concentrated effluent pumped from septic systems can be diluted and treated. At present, such effluent is hauled to Durango, he said.

Dealing with growth and its costs will also be a major concern for the next commission. If Amendment 21, the tax-cut proposal, passes, the board will be busy coping with the effects. Lindsay, who is EMS captain for the Cortez Volunteer Fire Department, foresees disaster if special districts’ taxes are cut to the point that they disappear.