I attended the July 18 county commissioner’s meeting, which is the first open meeting that they have had with the general public in the 20-plus years I have resided in Montezuma County. It must be election time or they are having an epiphany.
I am a retired engineer and asked the commission about the planning of the proposed broadband system and found they are “babes in the woods” as to having any idea of the thousand and one details involved in the planning, construction and maintenance of such a large undertaking.
A retired person who had worked for Century Link also tried to enlighten the commission as to the many technical challenges involved in such a project. But, the commission appeared to not be interested in hearing facts from qualified citizens.
It is also more than a little strange that this proposed sales tax appears less than six months from the November election when it would go to the voters. A project of this magnitude and expense should be thoroughly studied by a qualified engineering firm before it would be placed on the ballot. A complete study would take a year in all likelihood, but at least the facts would be known.
At the present time the commission is truly in the dark and should not try to involve the taxpayer in another Montezuma County boondoggle.
Our local governments have a record of mismanaging large projects, such as the new Cortez High School where no money was provided to clean up the asbestos in the old school.
Also, less we forget, about a decade ago the sanitation district had to pay the contractor on the new waste plant several million dollars in damages after losing a lawsuit.
If the commission truly would like to fix a large problem, how about a sales tax to fix all the rotten county roads?
William Taylor
Dolores