The undersigned former mayors of Durango support voting “for” Durango’s April 1 Ballot Issue 2A to reauthorize the 2005 half-cent sales tax.
This is not a new tax; it will simply allow the city to continue to collect 50 cents for every $100 spent on taxable goods and services. Notably, visitors contribute more than 25% of those payments.
Half the 2025 sales tax revenue will provide maintenance and enhancements for Durango’s award-winning recreational facilities. Identified initiatives include further development of Durango Mesa Park, construction of a new community park in Three Springs, and completion of the trail connection from Three Springs to the Animas River Trail, extension of the Animas River Trail itself and additional river corridor improvements.
Priorities for these and additional projects come from public input into the evolving Parks, Open Space, Trails, and Recreation Master Plan. Importantly, the ballot language mandates review by a citizen advisory board (today, the Financial Advisory Board) of all project expenditures for recommendation to the City Council.
The other half of the 2025 sales tax renewal will fund capital improvements, specifically including repayment of a 30-year bond “for the purpose of financing the restoration and equipping of the historic Durango High School building and adjacent facilities for use as a new city hall and new police facility.”
Such capital investments deliver long-term benefits, but their costs – tens of millions of dollars – require debt financing, usually through municipal bonds. Besides spreading costs over many years, bond financing shares them equitably among beneficiaries over equally long times. The built facilities then continue to serve the community long after the city pays off the bonds.
Successive city councils have known for many years that the Durango Police Department has outgrown its current home in a converted car dealership. They also have seen other city staff inefficiently scattered among numerous buildings as the city grew. However, the limited availability of suitable property and its high cost long delayed action on a new DPD headquarters or city hall.
The Durango Fire Protection District faced a similar challenge, operating for decades out of a “temporary” home in River City Hall. The decision by Durango School District 9-R to sell the former high school on 12th Street finally created an opportunity for both the fire district and the city to meet these critical facility needs. So, DFPD is now expanding its downtown fire station on Camino Del Rio and the city is poised to consolidate its facilities by redeveloping the former 9-R campus into a new home for DPD and a historic, but modernized city hall.
Importantly, the complex will provide parking for city employees and visitors (including weekend/evening parking for Buckley Park and other downtown events), as well as underground parking for police vehicles. Thus, besides freeing two valuable pieces of property in the Central Business District for commercial or mixed use, the new civic complex will significantly improve parking downtown and on the avenues.
The 2005 sales tax built a rich legacy. That includes recreational enhancements such as open space acquisitions in Horse Gulch and elsewhere, plus new facilities such as the Smith Sports Complex at Fort Lewis College and the Lake Nighthorse recreation area. Former Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Metz provided additional details in a recent opinion column (Herald, Mar. 2).
The 2005 sales tax legacy also includes the new Durango Public Library, which replaced the Carnegie Library on East Second Avenue that had served the community for a century, and the reconstructed Florida Road, which permanently improved public safety by incorporating a central median and a separated pedestrian/bicycle trail.
By reauthorizing the 2005 sales tax, voters will build on that legacy by providing amenities and civic improvements that will serve Durango residents, businesses, and visitors for generations to come.
Dean Brookie, Amos Cordova, John Gamble, Dale Garland, Lee Goddard, Fred Klatt, Doug Lyon, Sweetie Marbury, Leigh Meigs, Maxine Peterson, Michael Rendon, Christina Rinderle, Jasper Welch, Dick White, Sidny Zink
Durango
