Montezuma County Commissioner Larry Don Suckla has been appointed to serve on the Rural Action Caucus, a lobbying arm of the National Association of Counties.
"As far as I know, I'm the only one from Colorado," Suckla said. "I'll be fighting for our interests at the Capitol on the floor of the U.S. Congress."
The caucus is dedicated to solving critical issues impacting rural communities, including infrastructure development, rural health care, broadband development, rural workforce issues and rural economic-development challenges.
It provides members direct access to Congress and the presidential administration to discuss issues affecting 60 million rural residents in the country.
"It gives us a voice, and the ideas come from commissioners nationwide," Suckla said. "It's interesting how similar the problems are throughout the United States. This is an opportunity to see how other counties tackled their problems, and to try and secure funding for economic development and infrastructure."
Upgrading infrastructure is a key component of every county. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, 70 percent of Colorado roads are in poor or mediocre condition. Ten percent of the state's 8,591 bridges are considered functionally obsolete, and the state has reported $1.5 billion in wastewater infrastructure needs over the next 20 years.
One of Suckla's goals is to track down funding to extend the main sewer line in Dolores one mile upriver to tie into an RV park currently using a lagoon-type septic system.
"I'm not saying that what they have is insufficient, but for long-term water quality, connecting it to the Dolores system makes sense because it alleviates risks of contamination to the river if there is a flood," he said.
Suckla said the connection would be expensive, but possibly could be funded through state and national grants, or a special district could be formed to help distribute the costs among a group of residents.
"There would have to be lots of discussion, and the town of Dolores would need to get on board," Suckla said.
The Dolores sewer system has a 500,000-gallon daily capacity, and processes only 50,000 gallons per day, peaking at 150,000 gallons per day occasionally during spring runoff.
Funding for the Dolores sewer system comes totally from users fees. Town Manager Ryan Mahoney said separate funding would need to be found for the project "because it would not be fair if we used our reserve funds to extend the line out to one property."
Securing funding for the extended line, estimated to cost at least $500,000, will be one of the lobbying efforts, but there will be others as well.
"All issues are on the table, and when the Rural Action Caucus hashes out the ideas everyone agrees upon then we try to fight and implement those ideas," he said. "I ask a lot of questions when I go to these meetings, and there is a lot of networking."
