{"id":13652,"date":"2026-02-04T18:11:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-municipal-election-canceled-because-of-uncontested-races\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:38:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:38:49","slug":"dolores-municipal-election-canceled-because-of-uncontested-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-municipal-election-canceled-because-of-uncontested-races\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores municipal election canceled because of uncontested races"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores Town Hall, at 601 Central Ave., was the location where voters would return their April 7 election ballots. The spring municipal election, however, was canceled due to number of candidates running for Town Board seats and mayor. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Three residents have filed to run for open trustee seats on the Dolores Town Board, and Chris Holkestad has filed to seek another term as town mayor.<\/p>\n

Because the number of candidates matches the number of available seats, the candidates can be declared elected without a contested vote, Town Manager Leigh Reeves said. No ballots for the town\u2019s spring municipal election, originally scheduled for April 7, will be printed or mailed to residents.<\/p>\n

The candidates for trustee positions are Billy McCoy, Joshua Maule and Derek Beckman. Reeves said they will be sworn in after election day, likely at the board\u2019s April 13 regular meeting.<\/p>\n

Current trustees leaving the board are Mayor Pro Tem Kalin Grigg, Sheila Wheeler and Mark Youngquist, though each was eligible to run again. According to the clerk\u2019s office, both Grigg and Youngquist withdrew their filing paperwork before the Jan. 29 withdrawal deadline.<\/p>\n

Trustees oversee budget, policy and planning<\/div>\n

Trustees are the town\u2019s elected governing body, responsible for setting policy, passing ordinances and making budget decisions.<\/p>\n

Town leadership is beginning a yearlong process to gather community input for rewriting the comprehensive plan. The town secured a $54,000 one\u2011for\u2011one matching grant to support public engagement, which will include a series of events and listening sessions, as well as a website to collect input.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the weather is a bit nicer, we\u2019ll host some events to make decisions about what we\u2019re looking for going forward \u2013 you know, our core values, what is our vision statement. We want it to reflect what the community wants,\u201d Reeves said.<\/p>\n

The plan will guide long\u2011term priorities for projects, values and investments. Reeves said officials expect to begin drafting the plan in the fall.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s general fund revenues total roughly $1.12 million, with expenditures at $1.1 million, leaving a net of about $22,600.<\/p>\n

Several infrastructure projects underway or completed<\/div>\n

The second phase of the town\u2019s multiyear effort to replace 75\u2011year\u2011old waterlines is underway. The board adopted new water rates through 2030 to finance the $4.3 million project, which focuses on work along First through Sixth streets. The project is in the engineering and funding stages, with design nearly complete, Reeves said. Construction will move forward once the town secures needed grants and state loan financing.<\/p>\n

The town recently completed the $134,000 Fishing Is Fun grant project, which reinforced older in\u2011stream features and upgraded access to the Dolores River banks. Separately, the town secured $55,700 from Southwest Conservation Corps for trail work planned this summer. The project is expected to take about four weeks with a six\u2011 to eight\u2011person crew. The Dolores Bike and Skate park held its grand opening last fall.<\/p>\n

Over the past four years, town officials have secured nearly $2.6 million in grant funding for several additional projects, including the construction of a new Town Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holkestad has filed to seek another term as town mayor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13652","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=13652"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19088,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13652\/revisions\/19088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13652"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}