Sweetie Marbury and Dick White have spent nearly every Tuesday evening for the past eight years in their seats at Durango City Hall. Tonight, they step off the dais for the last time.

The two-term councilors, both of whom have served as mayor, aren’t leaving the council by choice – their term limits are up. They’ll be replaced by councilors-elect Kim Baxter and Barbara Noseworthy.

“What you learn is, you can’t make everybody happy,” Marbury said. “You try to look for the big vision of Durango and try to do the best you can.”

Marbury and White were both elected for the first time in 2011, and they say a lot has happened since.

The council approved the largest capital investment in the city’s history – a $55 million improvement to the Santa Rita Water Reclamation facility. It commissioned a sustainability action plan, a document designed to guide city employees to more environmentally responsible practices, and passed land-use development code updates. Marijuana was legalized, Lake Nighthorse came under city control and the 416 Fire and Gold King Mine spill tested the city’s resilience.

The council also took heat for raising water and sewer rates, putting a temporary moratorium on marijuana sales and for not doing more about the city’s homeless.

“The hardest issue of all is homelessness because there are no solutions and few options, and certainly in the conversations we had, all the options we had are bad,” White said.

But not all the highlights are policy-related.

White said one of his proudest moments came as he presented a proclamation of Equal Pay Day to Faye Schrater, his wife. Another was when he helped moderate a discussion with state and national political candidates, including Sen. Cory Gardner.

“People were out to get Sen. Gardner,” White said. “Keeping a lid on the room I thought was a real accomplishment.”

Marbury remembers joining former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in a groundbreaking ceremony for Lumien 1 and 2, two affordable housing developments in Durango. She also was invited to speak at a national conference in Los Angeles about accessory dwelling units, a program the city instituted in 2014.

Both councilors wrestled with budget issues for years, especially within the general fund, which pays for nonrevenue-generating city activities, such as police, roads and employees. And after City Council championed a ballot measure in 2018 to increase property and sales taxes to pay for streets, law enforcement, a new police station and other buildings that failed by a margin of more than 20%, the council pivoted and proposed instead to raise only the sales tax to pay for street infrastructure.

Ballot measure 1A passed this month by 191 votes.

Marbury and White said they are proud voters approved what they proposed to help the city’s budget.

“Without 1A, the next couple years would be really, really hard with the budget,” White said.

A lot of opportunity awaits the new council. Marbury said she’s a “City Council junkie” and likely will continue to spend Tuesday evenings in City Hall. Her mother raised her to be engaged in her community, she said.

“She was my role model,” Marbury said. “I grew up in a home that was always busy in participating in the community. That was how she raised us, and I’m just following in her footsteps, and I hope to inspire young girls to follow in my footsteps.”

White said he’s confident in the new council and the work that he’s done to guide the city over the past eight years.

“If I had to do it over,” White said, “I’d still do it.”

bhauff@durangoherald.com