Durango City Councilors approved the appropriations for the $70 million operating budget and $21-plus million capital budget as well as a 25 percent sewer rate increase, as expected Monday night.
The increase is the result of adjustments needed after 20 years of no rate increases. If the approval does not pass, the ordinance would allow for a further rate increase to raise the $5.5 million needed to make the improvements immediately needed to the wastewater-treatment plant.
“Someone said that was a scare tactic,” Councilor Sweetie Marbury said, “and I don’t like that term, because it’s a reality. I’ve been attending City Council meetings since 1987, and I’ve never seen a council use scare tactics.”
The council might need to hold an emergency meeting to address the rate increase if the permission to bond is not granted Tuesday, City Manager Ron LeBlanc said.
Councilors also approved a 5 percent increase in solid-waste and recycling rates, recommended by city staff because recycling costs continue to rise.
The lodgers tax was a target for discussion. Antonia Clark, speaking for herself and not as president of the Business Improvement District Board, asked the council to reconsider diverting funds raised by the tax to transit and the nonprofit sector and instead, use them to promote Durango. A study showed, she said, that $10 spent on promotion returns $100 to our local economy.
“In the first place, we have a lower lodgers tax than most other communities like ours,” she said, “so we don’t raise enough, and then we don’t get to keep what we raise. We don’t really know what impact the (Gold King Mine) spill’s going to have yet, and it would be foolish to think it’s over.”
While Clark said the arts-and-culture community is doing well, and money should not be diverted to fund them, Sherry Bowman, the new executive director of the Animas Museum, begged to differ.
“We need money now. We used to get $20,000 a year from the city,” Bowman said. “Now we get zero dollars. We’re living in a building occupied in 1905, and it’s not (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant, and even though we put on a new roof, we have stairs sinking from generations of schoolchildren running up and down. We don’t want to see the building shut down, but it may well be.”
Where the money comes from is the problem, Mayor Dean Brookie said.
“This is my third year, and it’s an amazing process,” he said. “And we have some seasoned veterans on the council who are hearing these same things every year and are starting to think about some of the strategies to fix them.”
In other business, drivers may start seeing more speeding tickets on East Third Avenue.
Karen Anesi, speaking about the Historic Boulevard Association, said that other than parking, the main topic of discussion is speeding on East Third Avenue.
“People used to speed on 32nd Street until there were consequences,” Anesi said. “How does East Third Avenue differ from other neighborhoods? We draw more pedestrians.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
