U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd sat among the Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday to listen to some of their concerns and take them back to Washington, D.C.
The meeting was in the Cortez board room at 109 W. Main St. though only a few people were in the audience. Hurd said he was slightly surprised about the low turnout.
The meeting was recorded, though, and is available on YouTube.
Hurd started by detailing his first 100 days in office, an anniversary of sorts that he recently celebrated.
He mentioned which committees he’s been appointed to, like the House Natural Resources and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committees, to name a few, and how he’s chair of the Indian and Insular Affairs Committee.
From there, he honed a few pieces of legislation he’s introduced that folks in Montezuma County might be interested in.
One concerns the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management.
Hurd’s legislation would permanently move BLM headquarters to Grand Junction, a move that would “make for a more responsive agency,” he said.
“We should have the people who make the decisions about our public lands management here in the West, where our public lands are located,” he said.
Hurd also proposed legislation that would reverse nine of former President Joe Biden’s resource management plans to ensure we are “responsibly using our public lands network and fulfilling the multiple use mandate that ensures yes, conservation, but also energy development and agriculture,” he said.
“I say this as somebody who believes in conservation, who believes in environmentalism,” he said. “There’s no better place to develop responsible mining resources than right here, in the third congressional district.”
Hurd touched on the importance of the Fix Our Forests Act, as “good forest management is also good watershed management.” He added that he’s also “working on taking strong stance on second amendment.”
After these updates, Hurd turned it over to the commissioners to hear some of their questions and concerns, to make sure they’re all “working on together in Washington.”
Commissioner Jim Candelaria started with public lands, as such lands make up 72.5% of Montezuma County.
Candelaria asked about the reauthorization of Secure Rural Schools funding, which brings in money that supports the county’s schools and road and bridge department.
“I don’t have an update, other than it’s unfortunately working at the speed of our federal government right now,” Hurd said. “I know it’s a priority here, and I’m working to get that through.”
Hurd said that “priorities” like Secure Rural Schools and Farm Bill funding “will probably come after the budget reconciliation process.”
PILT – Payments in Lieu of Taxes – funding is also up in the air.
As it stands, Montezuma County gets 48 cents per acre for federal lands within its boundaries.
“At some point in time, we should readdress those calculations,” said Candelaria.
Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer said it would be helpful, at the very least, to have a set amount of PILT money coming in – when it’s reauthorized every year, the amount the county receives changes, he said.
“If we just knew what we were going to get, we could budget for it,” said Koppenhafer.
Conversation switched gears, and delved into a National Conservation Area designation for the Upper Dolores.
“I believe on senate side, Bennett would be the one introducing it,” Hurd said. “I would be his House counterpart.”
They hope to introduce it “as soon as possible,” he said.
“We’re just making sure there’s no unintended consequences with respect to mining.”
Candeleria said that about 14% of the land within what could become the conservation area has “what could be valid and existing claims,” which is required for mining on such land.
Both Hurd and Candeleria underscored how mining isn’t nearly as harmful as it once was, and how there’s a possibility to strike a balance between conservation and land management.
Koppenhafer jumped in, and gave a bit of background on the National Conservation Area and why it matters.
It’s been in the works since 2008, he said, and work on it started out of concern that it might become a monument instead.
The goal with a National Conservation Area, simply put, is to protect the water.
“The message I’m getting here is let’s do what we can to finalize this and take it to the finish line,” said Hurd.
Hurd went on to say that he’s co-sponsoring a bill that would remove the president’s authority to “unilaterally designate land as a monument.”
It’s important to him, he said, that “decisions with respect to public lands management have stakeholder buy-in from people who are affected by those decisions.”
“I understand and see that’s what you have here in this NCA and I think that’s worthy of pushing forward,” he said.
Candelaria raised rural health care concerns.
“If something catastrophic were to happen with our rural hospital, it would affect us all in this community greatly,” said Candelaria.
Hurd recognized that “Medicaid is critical piece of that delivery” of health care to a critical access hospital and underscored his priority of “doing everything we can to protect rural health care.”
Over the past decade, though, “Medicaid spending has increased dramatically,” he said.
With “protecting critical resources in mind,” Hurd said he’s in favor of “making sure we use those dollars well … in the most effective way.”
He told The Journal how he believes that if things are managed well, “we can do more with less.”
“My big picture take is that I support the president’s efforts with DOGE and making government more efficient,” Hurd said. “We can realize dramatic savings, we just need to make sure they’re in the right spots.”
Candelaria brought up how no cuts were made to the wildland firefighter workforce – all those positions were filled for the season.
“There have, however, been cuts to some who support our wildland firefighters and help manage the forest and reduce that fuel load,” said Hurd. “The individuals we should be cutting are not the ones on the ground … managing our forests and supporting our forests.”
The commissioners pitched a few road projects, like improving Road G and expanding U.S. Highway 491 to four lanes south of Cortez, down to Love’s Travel Stop.
Commissioner Kent Lindsay proposed a four-lane highway from Gallup to Grand Junction, since whenever there’s an incident on U.S. Route 40 or Interstate 70, “traffic dumps through here.”
Before the hourlong meeting wrapped up, Hurd mentioned that they’ve been successful in better securing the border, and reminded the commissioners that they have his phone number.
“Just know you have a direct line to me, and through you, the people of Montezuma County have a direct line to me,” he said.
