Dolores County gives not to new high school

Dolores County gives nod to new high school

Nov. 9, 2000

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer

The third time proved a charm for a Dolores school-bond question on Tuesday.

After waiting for the final results until early Wednesday morning, Dolores County officials announced that 53 percent of voters ratified a tax increase to build a new high school in Dove Creek.

The final tally for the $4.4 million school bond was 637 votes in favor, and 560 against. The measure passed in Dove Creek’s Precinct 4, but failed in Precinct 3 by 11 votes.

Cahone ratified the bond by 10 votes, but it failed in Egnar by 4 votes. The final difference was made up by the absentee ballots, which favored the bond by 129 votes.

The school bond had been rejected twice before by voters, once in 1998 and again in 1999. It failed by 19 votes in ’98 and 16 votes in ’99.

Re-2J Superintendent Don Davis said he heard the news at 4 a.m. from the school-bond committee and then at 7 a.m. from middle-school students.

"Most of those little guys were thrilled. Sometimes I don’t think we give our kids enough credit for their ability to look down the road and think about a problem and how it affects them," Davis commented.

The school board is likely to meet at the end of this month or in early December to discuss when the school district will issue the bond. Davis said the bid process will be opened tonight for the new school’s site surveys.

The new high school will serve between 150 and 200 students. It includes a student common area, classrooms, library, computer lab, new science lab, and a gymnasium that can hold up to 800 students.

Davis estimates that the school would be built in time for the 2002-03 school year. He gives the credit for this year’s victory to school-bond committee members Lana Hancock and Lloyd Huskey. "These guys went far far beyond the call of normal civic duty, and what we owe them can probably never be repayed," says Davis.

But while many parents and students in Dove Creek were pleased with the results, the little town of Rico will be facing a 20-percent tax hike this year to cover both the school and sewer bonds that were passed this election.

As expected, 90 percent of the 112 voters in Rico’s precinct were against the bond, even though it includes up to $300,000 to renovate Rico’s closed elementary school.

Over the next 25 years, if Rico continues to pay close to 16.5 percent of the total assessed value of Dolores County taxes, the town’s citizens could pay up to $1,518,000 for a high school their students never attend.

Currently, Rico’s students are attending either Telluride or Dolores schools, but are hoping to reopen their elementary school, and secede from the Dolores school district to join the San Miguel school district.

Rico has submitted a petition to secede with 65 signatures to the comissioner of education and the county clerk and recorder of Dolores and San Miguel counties. The plan for secession has to be approved by voters in both Dolores and Telluride.

Eric Heil, Rico’s town manager and attorney, said that, at the very earliest, the issue could be brought to a vote by next spring, but expressed optimism that it would pass. "I think we’ve got some favorable indication from the superintendent in Telluride," he speculated.

Heil said it was unclear whether there was any legal possibility of Rico ducking its bond liability if it secedes.

Based on a survey reported by Heil, Rico would have enough — 15 or more — children to support an elementary school by the 2002-2003 school year.

The only problem is that completing repairs on the elementary school is likely to cost more than the $300,000 Rico could receive from the bond. An architect from Durango’s assessment of the building found that the building needed $408,960 worth of repairs, not including the cost of asbestos abatement in the boiler room and the floor tiles.

"I can tell you parents aren’t too hot on the idea of sending their kids to a school containing asbestos," said Heil.