Cortez council to continue budget talks in Tuesday workshop

Department requests, street improvements on agenda
Cortez City Hall is at 123 Roger Smith Ave.

The Cortez City Council plans another round of budget talks on Tuesday.

Starting at 5:30 p.m., the workshop will include funding requests from three city departments as part of the council’s ongoing discussions on the preliminary 2018 budget. The regular meeting, which starts at 7:30 p.m., will include multiple votes on street improvement and engineering issues, including a request to install new streetlights on Edith Street. The workshop and the regular meeting are open to the public.

Tuesday’s budget hearings will feature presentations from Russ Machen of the Cortez Municipal Airport, Dean Palmquist and Joye McHenry of the Parks and Recreation Department and Rick Smith of the General Services Department. The Public Works Department and Planning and Building Department made funding requests in previous workshops, as did several local nonprofits. All the budget hearings will be taken into account when the city drafts its final 2018 budget for a vote in December.

During the regular meeting, the council will vote on a request from residents of North Edith Street to install two new streetlights at the Melrose and Acoma intersections. Council members will also consider approving a $75,962 change order for a street improvement project on Tucker Lane, where D&L Construction plans to resurface the asphalt road.

A slightly less costly item on the agenda is a proposed engineering contract for an upgrade to the Cortez Police Department’s heat, ventilation and air conditioning system, which the council will consider awarding to ME&E Engineering for $32,080. This will be a “piggy-back engineering contract” from the similar upgrade ME&E performed on the Cortez Recreation Center, according to the agenda packet.

The council will also consider canceling the meeting on Dec. 26, because of the holidays.

Residents may address the council during two public comment periods, at the beginning and end of the meeting.

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