{"id":24015,"date":"2025-01-15T16:59:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T23:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/three-montezuma-county-incumbents-secure-another-term-in-their-elected-positions\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:46:07","slug":"three-montezuma-county-incumbents-secure-another-term-in-their-elected-positions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/three-montezuma-county-incumbents-secure-another-term-in-their-elected-positions\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Montezuma County incumbents secure another term in their elected positions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Three
Three incumbents pose after securing their elected positions for another term. From left: Montezuma County Commissioner Kent Lindsay, 22nd Judicial District Chief Judge Todd Jay Plewe and Montezuma County Comissioner Gerald Koppenhafer. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Jan. 14, three incumbents took the oath of office at the Montezuma Combined Courts in Cortez.<\/p>\n

The 22nd Judicial District\u2019s Chief Judge Todd Jay Plewe was the first to be sworn in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going on my 23rd year on the bench,\u201d said Plewe. \u201cMontezuma County and Dolores County, it\u2019s a great privilege to serve my community and my family\u2019s community. \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed this professionally, and look forward to at least a few more years,\u201d Plewe said as the audience laughed.<\/p>\n

Next, District Attorney Jeremy Reed took the oath of office, followed by his Assistant District Attorney Justin Pierce and their team.<\/p>\n

The two Montezuma County commissioners were the last two to take the oath.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys know this oath well,\u201d Plewe said to the commissioners. \u201cIt\u2019s the fourth time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it the fifth for Gerald?\u201d someone in the audience asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to remember,\u201d Montezuma County Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer said.<\/p>\n

Before calling the commissioners up, Plewe said how this is a bit of a celebration of the individuals who chose to serve this community and this country.<\/p>\n

And with that, he called up Montezuma County Commissioner Kent Lindsay.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo few words for such a big job,\u201d said Lindsay, post-oath. \u201cI appreciate you all being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma
Montezuma County Commissioner Kent Lindsay takes the oath of office. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Montezuma
Montezuma County Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer takes the oath of office. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Plewe led Koppenhafer through the oath next.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you all for coming,\u201d Koppenhafer said.<\/p>\n

Although there are \u201cchallenges ahead for Montezuma County,\u201d specifically in regards to its financial situation, \u201cI look forward to the challenge,\u201d Koppenhafer said.<\/p>\n

In the November election, 70% of voters in the 22nd Judicial District \u2013 Montezuma and Dolores Counties \u2013 voted in favor of Plewe\u2019s retention.<\/p>\n

Both Lindsay and Koppenhafer ran uncontested for their positions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

commissioners and the chief judge of the 22nd Judicial District were sworn in Tuesday morning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24016,"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-24015","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\/24015","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=24015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78360,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24015\/revisions\/78360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24015"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}