The Durango Natural Foods Co-op election is over, giving the cooperative five new board members.
No incumbents stood for election.
The new members are Rachael Bennett, Dan Randolph, Jules Masterjohn, Kim Wiggins and Patricia O’Kayne. They join Victoria Robinson and Jim Forleo.
Nine candidates entered the race, but two dropped out for different reasons. The election of the five left Kim Randazzo and Root Routledge on the sideline.
The result of the election may reflect the acrimony surrounding a possible merger of Durango Natural Foods and the much larger La Montañita, which has 17,000 members in Albuquerque, Gallup and Santa Fe.
The former Durango Natural Foods board said conversations with the New Mexico cooperative were preliminary to any agreement, which would have to be ratified by the membership. But many members said the topic wasn’t common knowledge until talks with La Montañita were well underway.
Opponents of a merger maintained that their market at College Drive and East Eighth Avenue would have become an outpost of the New Mexico cooperative, with no autonomy. The rationale for the merger was increasing the co-op’s purchasing power.
daler@durangoherald.com
