Hal Shepherd
City Manager

This month was my first anniversary working for the citizens of Cortez as your city manager. I have enjoyed the experience of meeting many of the residents of the community and working for City Council. We have a good team, and I think there are some exciting activities un-derway. I want to thank the staff for their support in providing excellent services to our citizens.

My first goal was to resolve some older issues, and several have been accomplished. Certainly, improving intergovernmental relationships with Montezuma County, the Montezuma County Economic Development Council and the special districts have been important challenges. From my perspective, I think we have good relations with our fellow governments and that will continue. Certainly the partnership with the County for the jail site and City Business Park are good examples of working cooperatively together.

We were able to reach a conclusion with the long-term police officers to resolve police pension issues. We solved their problem and also created additional capital improvement monies for the Police Department. With the hiring of Bill Argo as MCEDC director, we have worked cooperatively together to create job opportunities for the City and the County. Besides the Cortez Business Park, we will continue to work on funding for the Industrial Park.

The library expansion is underway and will more than double the present size of the library. I want to thank Joanie Howland for her fund-raising efforts. These efforts helped to add an additional 600 square feet to the planned expansion. Additional funds are needed for furnishings, and anyone wishing to contribute should contact Joanie.

The Service Center remodeling has been completed. The upgraded building provides a much better working area for city employees in Public Works and General Services.

We were able, with Roy Lane’s help, to develop a car-leasing program through Ford Motor Company, which will provide new police vehicles at a lower cost. Chief Lane and his staff developed the Greeter Program, similar to what we saw in Page, Ariz., to assist our visitors.

I have been elected to the Cortez Fire District Board and enjoy working on issues with our dedicated staff and volunteers.

During the past year, I have spent time with many dedicated citizens who serve on the Main Street Association, the Chamber Board, the Umbrella Tourism Board and the Montezuma County Economic Development Council. These individuals work hard to make Cortez and Montezuma County a better place for all of us.

We are working on developing a Community Foundation, which will be able to assist non-profits and others with financial support. A Community Foundation will be a real asset for Cortez in future years.