{"id":124694,"date":"2026-04-15T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/who-owns-montezuma-countys-blighted-properties\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T11:00:00","slug":"who-owns-montezuma-countys-blighted-properties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/who-owns-montezuma-countys-blighted-properties\/","title":{"rendered":"Who owns Montezuma County\u2019s blighted properties?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft naviga-size-small\" data-naviga-align=\"left\" data-naviga-size=\"small\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=3ba4ce41-a358-5d9b-b360-ebd942a1f4df&#038;function=cover&#038;type=preview&#038;source=false&#038;width=2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=3ba4ce41-a358-5d9b-b360-ebd942a1f4df&#038;function=cover&#038;type=preview&#038;source=false&#038;width=800 800w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=3ba4ce41-a358-5d9b-b360-ebd942a1f4df&#038;function=cover&#038;type=preview&#038;source=false&#038;width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=3ba4ce41-a358-5d9b-b360-ebd942a1f4df&#038;function=cover&#038;type=preview&#038;source=false&#038;width=1800 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 2000px\" width=\"1680\" height=\"958\" alt=\"\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>As reported by KSJD, Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer said some people are living on properties where there are \u201cgenerations of stuff\u201d needing to be cleaned up.<\/p>\n<p>Which \u201cgenerations\u201d? The Old Guard that fights any attempt to impose ordinances on their property, except those that personally benefit them? The same voters who consistently send their political cronies to act as our elected county officials?<\/p>\n<p>Or have we been invaded by outsiders who\u2019ve come in to trash our formerly beautiful county?<\/p>\n<p>The best answers lie in the recorded public county records. Maybe someone should have a look \u2013 but be careful. The answers may not be those we wish to hear.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chris Allen Barnhouse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-2eb7953f6182f16592d6f72483ddd65e\">Cortez<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>reported by KSJD, Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer said some people are living on properties where there are \u201cgenerations of stuff\u201d needing to be cleaned up. Which \u201cgenerations\u201d? The Old Guard that fights any attempt to impose ordinances on their property, except those that personally benefit them? The same voters who consistently send their political cronies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6413,6414],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-124694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor-2","category-letters-to-the-editor-2-opinion","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124694"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=124694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}