With the La Plata commissioners beginning their discussions of the 2018 county budget early this week, we hope that one line item, the continuation of motor vehicle registration services at the Bayfield location, can be maintained.
The office, in Bayfield’s Town Hall, is set to close at the end of December.
County spending must be severely reduced in the coming years. Taxes on what has become low-priced natural gas are not providing the revenue that they did in previous years, and with a mill levy that is among the lowest in the state, significant county belt tightening is required.
But residents on the east side of the county have responded to the announcement that the office will be closing with petitions in opposition that include about 1,600 signatures. There has been no formal review of the signers’ addresses, and will not be, but even allowing for some distant supporters, that number is equal to almost half of Bayfield’s population.
Not having to drive to Bodo Industrial Park in Durango for motor vehicle and voting registration needs clearly means a lot to many residents east of Durango.
For many daily needs, such as groceries and pharmacy items, Bayfield and Ignacio to the south are largely self-sufficient. A special trip to the clerk’s office in Bodo and to the adjacent motor vehicle office does not make it convenient to accomplish other errands.
Bayfield’s government leadership has said that in order to keep the satellite office, it is open to reducing the $40,000 annual rent the county is paying in the town hall, perhaps significantly. When announced, that amount surprised some locals as being more like Durango’s commercial rates than Bayfield’s.
Two clerk’s office employees staff the office now. Perhaps that can be reduced to one, with an understanding with the town that there will always be another person in the town hall. Safety, and security, are critical.
And, there is the further option of reducing the Bayfield office’s hours to just mornings, or to three days a week. We recognize that fewer than the standard five days, eight hours a day, can lead to confusion, but these are special circumstances.
The county commissioners should be imaginative in considering how to continue to deliver county clerk’s services in Bayfield, even with reduced hours. Residents of the eastern side of the county have clearly shown that the office’s services are important to them.
