Gov. John Hickenlooper plans to be in town next week for bill-signing ceremonies and the dedication of the new visitor center at Mesa Verde National Park.
Hickenlooper will fly to Cortez the morning of May 23 and speak at the dedication of Mesa Verde’s new visitor center, off U.S. Highway 160 at the park entrance. The building features exhibits about the park’s collection of artifacts and the descendants of the ancestral Puebloan people who built the cliff dwellings. Several contemporary sculptures are on display as well.
The building has been open to the public since mid-December, but the formal dedication will be next week, said Betty Lieurance, the park’s spokeswoman.
“I’m hearing lots of positive things,” Lieurance said. “It’s a really beautiful building, and people seem pleased with it.”
In addition to dedicating the visitor center, Hickenlooper will sign bills related to conservation easements, said his spokesman, Eric Brown.
Conservation easements have preserved tens of thousands of acres of prized ranches in Southwest Colorado and across the state, but the Legislature has tried to crack down on fraudulent appraisals of the easements in recent years.
Senate Bill 221 is designed to make it easier for landowners to know if the state will approve their conservation easements by offering pre-certification by the Division of Real Estate. House Bill 1183 limits conservation easement tax credits to $45 million a year statewide.
Hickenlooper also plans to sign HB 1193, a bill that offers training and consulting for companies that export high-tech products internationally. Rep. Mike McLachlan, D-Durango, and Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, were sponsors of the bill.
Later in the day, Hickenlooper plans to go to Placerville to dedicate a bridge to Pfc. Paul Haining, who was killed by a land mine in the Vietnam War. Haining is one of two San Miguel County residents known to have died in military service. The Telluride American Legion Post initiated the bridge dedication and worked with Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, to make it happen.
The governor, who is up for re-election next year, plans to finish the day with a campaign fundraiser at Carver Brewing Co. in downtown Durango.
jhanel@durangoherald.com
