{"id":74068,"date":"2019-08-21T03:53:24","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T03:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-again-searching-for-town-manager\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T16:01:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T16:01:51","slug":"dolores-again-searching-for-town-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-again-searching-for-town-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores again searching for town manager"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The town of Dolores is looking for a new town manager after the resignation of Jay Ruybalid, seen on the left talking with board trustee Val Truelsen outside Town Hall last year.<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Dolores Town Manager Jay Ruybalid has resigned after serving for one year.<\/p>\n

He confirmed on Tuesday that he recently gave three-weeks notice, but declined a Journal<\/em> request for comment on his resignation.<\/p>\n

Ruybalid was hired in July 2018, after the previous manager, David Stahl, quit after three months.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Dolores Mayor Chad Wheelus said it was \u201cunfortunate\u201d that the town is again in the position of searching for a town manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Ruybalid\u2019s reasons for leaving are his, and the town has to move forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Town Board will hold a special meeting Aug. 26 after the board workshop to discuss strategies for a path forward to find a new manager. The workshop begins at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

The town is reaching out to the Colorado Municipal League and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs for assistance, Wheelus said.<\/p>\n

It has been a challenge for Dolores to find a manager with a long-term commitment.<\/p>\n

Former manager Ryan Mahoney resigned in 2013 after four years. The Town Board advertised and interviewed for a replacement but did not get any candidates that satisfied trustees.<\/p>\n

Lana Hancock, who was serving as clerk and treasurer, agreed to take on additional manager duties for four years. She resigned at the end of 2017 to serve as Dolores County Clerk.<\/p>\n

Other small towns also struggle with finding a long-term manager, Wheelus said. For example, Silverton has had nine town administrators in the last 12 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly hope Dolores can avoid that kind of situation,\u201d Wheelus said. \u201cBut finding a good fit is really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Ruybalid was hired, the salary range for the Dolores town manager position was between $65,000 and $75,000.<\/p>\n

As manager, Ruybalid moved the playground project forward, supported needs of the senior center program, negotiated a community orchard agreement at Joe Rowell Park, and obtained a $25,000 planning grant. He also applied for $80,000 grant for playground equipment, and the town is a finalist for approval.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruybalid resigns after one year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5786,5740,5937,5737,5736,5735,5741],"tags":[44,13,782,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dolores","category-frontpage-lead","category-governmental-entities","category-headlines","category-local-news","category-news","category-newsletter","tag-dolores","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-governmental-entities","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74068","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=74068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92583,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74068\/revisions\/92583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74068"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}