{"id":21600,"date":"2025-07-02T21:40:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T03:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-launches-park-ranger-program-welcomes-jay-dollar-as-lead-ranger\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:08:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:08:03","slug":"cortez-launches-park-ranger-program-welcomes-jay-dollar-as-lead-ranger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-launches-park-ranger-program-welcomes-jay-dollar-as-lead-ranger\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez launches Park Ranger Program, welcomes Jay Dollar as lead ranger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jay
Jay Dollar is the lead ranger for the city\u2019s new Park Ranger Program. (City of Cortez\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Cortez Parks and Recreation Department has introduced its Park Ranger Program, appointing Jay Dollar as the first lead park ranger. This initiative aims to keep city parks and recreation facilities clean, safe and welcoming for all visitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen asked about the priorities for our park system, our residents cite increasing the safety and security as a top priority,\u201d said Parks and Recreation Director Creighton Wright. \u201cThe Park Ranger Program is developed to directly increase the feeling of safety and security, and most important have a regular presence when people are using the parks the most. I expect Jay and the Park Ranger Program to make an immediate positive impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dollar, who brings more than 15 years of experience in emergency and community services, will lead the development of the program. His role includes guiding future park rangers, serving as a point of contact for visitors, answering questions, offering guidance, promoting volunteerism and ensuring responsible park use. The rangers will also collaborate with the Cortez Police Department to enforce rules and regulations in Cortez\u2019s parks rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to get into the parks to meet our regular park users and address their concerns and improve their experience,\u201d Dollar said. \u201cI look forward to having the parks be safe and welcoming for everyone in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dollar worked nearly three years as a 911 dispatcher with the Cortez Communications Center and also previously served as Supervisor of the Alternative Response Unit for the Farmington Fire Department in New Mexico previously.<\/p>\n

The lead park ranger\u2019s first event was the Celtic Fair on June 28, and he will assist with the city\u2019s Fourth of July celebration at Parque de Vida. The city shared that Dollar\u2019s priorities include developing a safety and security plan for all parks and recreation properties, launching a volunteer-based \u201cKeep our Parks Beautiful\u201d program and releasing a community input survey on safety and security concerns.<\/p>\n

For more information about the Park Ranger Program, contact Dollar at jdollar@cortezco.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Program was created after citizens expressed a desire for safety and security<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21600","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=21600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77379,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21600\/revisions\/77379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21600"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}