{"id":22560,"date":"2025-04-23T02:29:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T08:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-congressman-jeff-hurd-visits-with-montezuma-county-commissioners\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:15:08","slug":"u-s-congressman-jeff-hurd-visits-with-montezuma-county-commissioners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-congressman-jeff-hurd-visits-with-montezuma-county-commissioners\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Congressman Jeff Hurd visits with Montezuma County commissioners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S.
U.S. Congressman Jeff Hurd (second from the left) visited with the Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners in Cortez the afternoon of Tuesday, April 22. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd sat among the Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday to listen to some of their concerns and take them back to Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

The meeting was in the Cortez board room at 109 W. Main St. though only a few people were in the audience. Hurd said he was slightly surprised about the low turnout.<\/p>\n

The meeting was recorded, though, and is available on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hurd started by detailing his first 100 days in office, an anniversary of sorts that he recently celebrated.<\/p>\n

He mentioned which committees he\u2019s been appointed to, like the House Natural Resources and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committees, to name a few, and how he\u2019s chair of the Indian and Insular Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

From there, he honed a few pieces of legislation he\u2019s introduced that folks in Montezuma County might be interested in.<\/p>\n

One concerns the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management.<\/p>\n

Hurd\u2019s legislation<\/a> would permanently move BLM headquarters to Grand Junction, a move that would \u201cmake for a more responsive agency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should have the people who make the decisions about our public lands management here in the West, where our public lands are located,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hurd also proposed legislation<\/a> that would reverse nine of former President Joe Biden\u2019s resource management plans to ensure we are \u201cresponsibly using our public lands network and fulfilling the multiple use mandate<\/a> that ensures yes, conservation, but also energy development and agriculture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say this as somebody who believes in conservation, who believes in environmentalism,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no better place to develop responsible mining resources than right here, in the third congressional district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurd touched on the importance of the Fix Our Forests Act<\/a>, as \u201cgood forest management is also good watershed management.\u201d He added that he\u2019s also \u201cworking on taking strong stance on second amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

After these updates, Hurd turned it over to the commissioners to hear some of their questions and concerns, to make sure they\u2019re all \u201cworking on together in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montezuma County Commissioners\u2019 concerns<\/div>\n

Commissioner Jim Candelaria started with public lands, as such lands make up 72.5% of Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

Candelaria asked about the reauthorization of Secure Rural Schools<\/a> funding, which brings in money that supports the county\u2019s schools and road and bridge department.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have an update, other than it\u2019s unfortunately working at the speed of our federal government right now,\u201d Hurd said. \u201cI know it\u2019s a priority here, and I\u2019m working to get that through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurd said that \u201cpriorities\u201d like Secure Rural Schools and Farm Bill funding \u201cwill probably come after the budget reconciliation process.\u201d<\/p>\n

PILT \u2013 Payments in Lieu of Taxes<\/a> \u2013 funding is also up in the air.<\/p>\n

As it stands, Montezuma County gets 48 cents per acre for federal lands within its boundaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point in time, we should readdress those calculations,\u201d said Candelaria.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer said it would be helpful, at the very least, to have a set amount of PILT money coming in \u2013 when it\u2019s reauthorized every year, the amount the county receives changes, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we just knew what we were going to get, we could budget for it,\u201d said Koppenhafer.<\/p>\n

Conversation switched gears, and delved into a National Conservation Area designation for the Upper Dolores.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe on senate side, Bennett would be the one introducing it,\u201d Hurd said. \u201cI would be his House counterpart.\u201d<\/p>\n

They hope to introduce it \u201cas soon as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just making sure there\u2019s no unintended consequences with respect to mining.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candeleria said that about 14% of the land within what could become the conservation area has \u201cwhat could be valid and existing claims,\u201d which is required for mining on such land.<\/p>\n

Both Hurd and Candeleria underscored how mining isn\u2019t nearly as harmful as it once was, and how there\u2019s a possibility to strike a balance between conservation and land management.<\/p>\n

Koppenhafer jumped in, and gave a bit of background on the National Conservation Area and why it matters.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been in the works since 2008, he said, and work on it started out of concern that it might become a monument instead.<\/p>\n

The goal with a National Conservation Area, simply put, is to protect the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message I\u2019m getting here is let\u2019s do what we can to finalize this and take it to the finish line,\u201d said Hurd.<\/p>\n

Hurd went on to say that he\u2019s co-sponsoring a bill <\/a>that would remove the president\u2019s authority to \u201cunilaterally designate land as a monument.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to him, he said, that \u201cdecisions with respect to public lands management have stakeholder buy-in from people who are affected by those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand and see that\u2019s what you have here in this NCA and I think that\u2019s worthy of pushing forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Candelaria raised rural health care concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf something catastrophic were to happen with our rural hospital, it would affect us all in this community greatly,\u201d said Candelaria.<\/p>\n

Hurd recognized that \u201cMedicaid is critical piece of that delivery\u201d of health care to a critical access hospital and underscored his priority of \u201cdoing everything we can to protect rural health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, though, \u201cMedicaid spending has increased dramatically,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With \u201cprotecting critical resources in mind,\u201d Hurd said he\u2019s in favor of \u201cmaking sure we use those dollars well \u2026 in the most effective way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told The Journal <\/em>how he believes that if things are managed well, \u201cwe can do more with less.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy big picture take is that I support the president\u2019s efforts with DOGE and making government more efficient,\u201d Hurd said. \u201cWe can realize dramatic savings, we just need to make sure they\u2019re in the right spots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candelaria brought up how no cuts were made to the wildland firefighter workforce \u2013 all those positions were filled for the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have, however, been cuts to some who support our wildland firefighters and help manage the forest and reduce that fuel load,\u201d said Hurd. \u201cThe individuals we should be cutting are not the ones on the ground \u2026 managing our forests and supporting our forests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commissioners pitched a few road projects, like improving Road G and expanding U.S. Highway 491 to four lanes south of Cortez, down to Love\u2019s Travel Stop.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Kent Lindsay proposed a four-lane highway from Gallup to Grand Junction, since whenever there\u2019s an incident on U.S. Route 40 or Interstate 70, \u201ctraffic dumps through here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the hourlong meeting wrapped up, Hurd mentioned that they\u2019ve been successful in better securing the border, and reminded the commissioners that they have his phone number.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust know you have a direct line to me, and through you, the people of Montezuma County have a direct line to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conversation covered things like rural health care, public lands and the National Conservation Area for the Upper Dolores <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22561,"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-22560","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\/22560","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=22560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77764,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22560\/revisions\/77764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22560"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}