{"id":23352,"date":"2025-02-27T16:02:45","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T23:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-montezuma-county-officials-head-to-d-c\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:34:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:34:19","slug":"two-montezuma-county-officials-head-to-d-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-montezuma-county-officials-head-to-d-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Montezuma County officials head to D.C."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Supreme Court is seen in the distance, framed through columns of the U.S. Senate at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Two Montezuma County officials flew to Washington, D.C., Thursday for a conference, and plan to meet with U.S. Rep Jeff Hurd.<\/p>\n

County Commissioner Jim Candelaria and County Administrator Travis Anderson are attending the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference starting March 1, said County Public Information Officer Vicki Shaffer.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re two of nearly 2,000 elected and appointed county officials who are attending \u201cto focus on federal policy issues that impact counties and our residents,\u201d according to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll be engaging in \u201csecond-to-none policy sessions, interact with officials of the new administration and meet with members of Congress,\u201d its website said.<\/p>\n

Plus, on March 4, they have a meeting scheduled with Hurd.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma
Montezuma County Commissioner Jim Candelaria.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Montezuma
Montezuma County Administrator Travis Anderson.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In light of their departure, six speakers spoke during public comment at the Feb. 25 Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners meeting.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Busic, an outspoken member of the Montezuma County Democrats, started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the public to be aware of how this slash in federal dollars is impacting Southwest Colorado,\u201d said Busic.<\/p>\n

She named Tri-State Generation<\/a>, the Southwest Water Conservation District, the Mancos Conservation District and the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project as a few of entities in our area who had received federal funding that\u2019s either now in limbo or revoked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs elected officials going to Washington, you have \u2026 power that our constituents do not,\u201d Busic said. \u201cMaybe you\u2019ll even see Rep. Hurd next week, who\u2019s representative was a no-show in Montezuma County yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe, just maybe, he would show up to listen to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

M.B. McAfee echoed Busic\u2019s sentiments, and said to \u201cplease always speak up for constituents at all levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

A veteran from Mancos brought up Medicaid and said he \u201cserved proudly\u201d and was \u201cpromised when I reach an old age they\u2019d (the government) would take care of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe man in charge\u201d campaigned on that, he said, \u201cand now he\u2019s breaking it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Dodd, another member of the Montezuma County Democrat and a new member of the Southwest Health System\u2019s board of directors, focused on Medicaid cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospital is the second-largest employer in the county,\u201d said Dodd.<\/p>\n

Plus, having a strong hospital helps recruit and retain people in a community, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might say you have no power and can\u2019t do anything cause these are federal cuts, but you do,\u201d Dodd said. \u201cWhen you go to D.C. I hope you\u2019ll follow the advice of everyone who has spoken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two more individuals spoke to conclude public comment. Before the meeting adjourned, Candelaria addressed the speakers\u2019 concerns and the D.C. trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour concerns are heard,\u201d Candelaria said. \u201cAnd we have concerns ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerns like the National Conservation Area designation for the Dolores River and Payments in Lieu of Taxes, which is federal money that helps counties \u201coffset losses in property taxes\u201d from the \u201cnontaxable Federal lands within their boundaries,\u201d according to the U.S. Department of the Interior<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Candelaria also brought up Secure Rural Schools funding and how they receive a \u201cdismal\u201d 48 cents per acre from the federal government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to try to run a county on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As far as federal funding cuts goes, the county relies on a lot of grants too, so they \u201cwill continue to talk to federal and state partners,\u201d said Candelaria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s for a conference, and they\u2019ll be meeting with U.S. Rep Jeff Hurd on Tuesday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","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\/23352","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=23352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78083,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23352\/revisions\/78083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23352"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}