DENVER – Durango is in the running for a future regional headquarters for the new Colorado Parks and Wildlife division.

Durango already is home to a regional wildlife headquarters. The regional parks office is in Clifton, just outside Grand Junction. The Division of Wildlife was merged with state parks last year.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife chief Rick Cables told legislators about the idea to consolidate regional offices Thursday. A combined office could bring three to 10 additional jobs to town through the parks division, in addition to the wildlife jobs already in Durango.

Durango nearly lost the regional wildlife office last year, but a $32.4 million accounting error could help keep the office in town.

Before the merger, the DOW had planned to move the office to Gunnison, where it would be part of a $5 million hunter-education building. But then budget managers discovered their predecessors had overstated the agency’s funds.

On Thursday, Cables sought permission from the Legislature to cancel the Gunnison project, at least for now.

Agency leaders have not yet decided whether to combine the Parks and Wildlife offices or where to put them. But Durango has a lot going for it, Cables said.

“We already have an office in Durango that’s built. Part of the equation here is financial,” Cables said at a meeting of the Capital Development Committee.

Also, Durango is closer to more state parks than Gunnison, he said. Lone Mesa, Mancos, Navajo and Ridgway state parks are all in the neighborhood.

Currently, the parks division has three regional offices and the wildlife division has four. The combined agency’s transition team has suggested setting up four regional offices, one for each corner of the state.

Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, said she trusted Cables’ judgment, but she is worried about the fate of the new headquarters that Gunnison had been promised.

“The Gunnison community has a certain level of reliance of this project being located in that area,” Schwartz said.

But Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, dismissed the concerns.

“I’m not sure that it’s a stretch for the people in Gunnison to have that trip to Durango. I guess the Reapportionment Commission found that Gunnison and Durango ought to be put together anyhow, so I can’t imagine having two offices in one House district,” Sonnenberg said.

The Reapportionment Commission redrew Rep. J. Paul Brown’s House district to exclude Cortez and add Gunnison.

Brown, R-Ignacio, said he supported Cables’ efforts to run the new Parks and Wildlife agency more efficiently, but he did not push for either Durango or Gunnison to host the new headquarters.

“I kind of think that I need to stay out of the way and let them run Parks and Wildlife. It seems to me that Mr. Cables is trying to do it as efficiently as he can,” Brown said in an interview.

Brown and Schwartz both sit on the Capital Development Committee and joined their fellow members in a unanimous vote to repeal funding for the Gunnison center for this year.

Durango’s regional wildlife office is in Bodo Industrial Park, and it is used mostly for behind-the-scenes work. Both Durango and Gunnison also have offices for public functions such as hunting and fishing licenses, and neither of those offices will be closed as a result of the merger.

jhanel@durangoherald.com