The city of Cortez and the Ute Mountain Ute tribe are collaborating on a grant initiative to help the tribe fund a study on water transmission line repairs in Towaoc.
The 25-year-old, 23-mile water line runs from the city’s water plant to Towaoc. Over the past two years, the tribe has spent $275,000 on repairs, which doesn’t include cost of lost water.
After approval from the Cortez City Council this week, the city is applying for a Department of Local Affairs grant on behalf of the tribe to help fund a preliminary engineering study repairing the line.
Cortez City Manager Shane Hale explained that since the tribe isn’t eligible for DOLA funds directly, the city can apply for the grant on the tribe’s behalf.
Hale says the tribe is seeking an $80,000 DOLA energy and mineral assistance grant to fund the preliminary engineering study and will supply its own matching funds.
City and tribal officials plan to meet later this week to work on a draft grant agreement, which Hale expects to be completed in August or September, around the time when DOLA expects to make its decision on the grant.
“I’m extremely excited in the opportunity it try to enter into a collaborative agreement here,” Ute Mountain Ute tribal council member Regina Lopez Whiteskunk said at the July 28 meeting. “I think it was in the mid- to late 1980s that we began to get better quality drinking water, so it’s imperative that we continue to keep that in the line of sight and as we do, we would definitely like to work with the City of Cortez. We are neighbors.”