{"id":28008,"date":"2024-04-24T18:55:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T00:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/residents-speak-out-against-proposed-dollar-general-on-colorado-145\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:17:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:17:48","slug":"residents-speak-out-against-proposed-dollar-general-on-colorado-145","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/residents-speak-out-against-proposed-dollar-general-on-colorado-145\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents speak out against proposed Dollar General on Colorado 145"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Residents
Residents have attended two Montezuma County Commissioner meetings about the proposed Dollar General on Colorado Highway 145. (Screen Capture via Zoom)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, concerned citizens arrived at the Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners meeting to express their opinions on a proposed Dollar General store at Colorado Highway 145 and County Road N.<\/p>\n

According to Teresa Hohbin, who owns a property neighboring the potential location for the Dollar General, said that at the previous commissioners meeting on March 14, only standing room was available because many citizens came to express their dissent.<\/p>\n

Douglas O\u2019Kinsey of Leaf Properties in Atlanta, Georgia, hopes to put the Dollar General on his 5-acre property.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s here maybe two weeks out of the year. He doesn\u2019t live here,\u201d Hohbin said. \u201cWhy in God\u2019s green earth do we need a Dollar General on the corner of 145 and N Road? We don\u2019t need another. We have five between Dolores, Cortez and Mancos.\u201d<\/p>\n

A letter was given to Hohbin about a month ago informing her of the plans to build the Dollar General and catching her by surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout a month ago, I get a letter that they want to put a Dollar General on the corner,\u201d Hohbin said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have known if it weren\u2019t for that letter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hohbin also said she was concerned about the store\u2019s impact on her property and local wildlife, and noted that it would add light and noise pollution, and semitrailer traffic near her home.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll that water that comes off that building and off that concrete pad is going to end up flooding my driveway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hohbin added that local deer, eagles, foxes and more would be forced to leave their homes because of the noise and people.<\/p>\n

A petition has garnered nearly 500 signatures against the store.<\/p>\n

Hohbin and other neighbors aren\u2019t the only ones concerned about the location of the Dollar General site.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Zoning and Planning Committee recommended that the building not be built, but O\u2019Kinsey reportedly said he would continue to move forward with the plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve already put in flags for water and gas lines, they\u2019ve had a surveyor out here twice,\u201d Hohbin said.<\/p>\n

Cortez Fire Protection District Chief Roy Wilkinson said in a letter to Montezuma County Planning Director Don Haley, \u201cCortez Fire Protection District has concerns regarding the water supply, response distance and wildfire spread in the case of a building fire. Being a commercial property, fire load and life safety would be concerns due to product storage, housekeeping and customer unfamiliarity of emergency procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the potential water issue, traffic patterns and movement would increase the probability of automotive accidents as delivery trucks and customers enter and exit the parking lot,\u201d Wilkinson added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very dangerous highway,\u201d Hohbin said. \u201c(In case of fire) it would be at least 10 minutes before anyone could get there, and there\u2019s a hay barn across the street. This is a farming community, and we want to keep it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin also weighed in with safety concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to create a major traffic problem. It\u2019s dangerous,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cWe have rush hours here ,and school bus routes and people coming in and out of that business is going to cause traffic to be backed up and it\u2019s going to cause aggressive driving. It\u2019s not a safe intersection, period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy major concern is traffic safety and the safety of everybody there,\u201d Nowlin continued. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of agriculture business taking place there as well, and it\u2019s just not conducive to that location. I\u2019m concerned we\u2019re going to end up with serious injury or fatality crashes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commissioners will announce their decision on April 30 at 9 a.m., and there will not be time for public comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

one of the major concerns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[364,21,28,60,109,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-community","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-county-commissioner","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28008","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=28008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80268,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28008\/revisions\/80268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28008"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}