{"id":89343,"date":"2020-04-14T21:09:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T03:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fire-ban-set-to-start-april-20-in-montezuma-county\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:49:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:49:53","slug":"fire-ban-set-to-start-april-20-in-montezuma-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fire-ban-set-to-start-april-20-in-montezuma-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire ban set to start April 20 in Montezuma County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Journal file<br><br>Montezuma County commissioners unanimously approved a fire ban for the county at their meeting Tuesday.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Montezuma County commissioners Tuesday ordered a fire ban to begin Monday and reviewed COVID-19 preparations.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Steve Nowlin recommended a fire ban after talking with fire chiefs across the county. He reported five out-of-control burns in the past two weeks.<\/p>\n

The ban has no end date, but Nowlin said he hoped it would be lifted by mid-summer, when monsoons usually start. Residents may obtain a burn permit from a local fire district.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to keep it on if we don\u2019t need it,\u201d Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

Nowlin said permitted burns would be observed by firefighters, who would be on-site to help contain the burn.<\/p>\n

The fire ban, approved 3-0, goes into effect 6 a.m. Monday.<\/p>\n

Because of COVID-19 restrictions on social gatherings, the meeting was held with participants at home and videoing in their participation. It was carried live and recorded on the county\u2019s YouTube<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County Emergency Manager Jim Spratlen said his office expects delivery of rapid-testing equipment for COVID-19 this week.<\/p>\n

The county also is developing an information system for restriction requirements, assistance programs and other county efforts to deal with the novel coronavirus. Spratlen said the system could be used in future disaster scenarios.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, we won\u2019t every have to use it again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He noted residents have been generous with donations of supplies to Southwest Memorial Hospital and other medical providers. Ford Motor Co., has donated 500 face shields to the county.<\/p>\n

The county is creating a database to identify residents with special needs to help service providers.<\/p>\n

To aid businesses after Colorado\u2019s stay-at-home order is lifted April 27, county Administrator Shak Powers has drafted a letter that provides information to businesses appeal any state-orderedclosure after April 27.<\/p>\n

Powers said it is likely many restrictions will be lifted gradually after April 27.<\/p>\n

However, Powers said an essential element of freedom in the U.S. Constitution is the right to petition for redress of grievances, and he said his letter will offer businesses guidance on how to appeal any restriction imposed by the Colorado Department of Pubic Health and Environment that might limit or preclude commerce after April 27.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Keenan Ertel noted that the World Wrestling Entertainment has been deemed an essential business in Florida, and based on that logic, he believes all businesses in Montezuma County could be viewed as essential and should be open.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019ve determined WWE is an essential business in Florida, well then I think every business in Montezuma County should be open by that measure,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t see letting these businesses go bankrupt when they consider WWE to be an essential business.\u201d<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commissioners also examine response to COVID-19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,28,237,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-89343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county-government","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89343","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=89343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89346,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89343\/revisions\/89346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89343"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=89343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}