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KSJD Newscast - November 13th, 2015

  • Long-outstanding dispute between Montezuma County and Kinder Morgan could soon be resolved.
  • Montezuma County’s Planning and Zoning board endorses proposal to protect Phil's World mountain biking area.

A long-outstanding dispute between Montezuma County and Kinder Morgan could be resolved late Monday afternoon. The county commissioners are set to negotiate in executive session with the carbon-dioxide giant over issues including a court case involving whether the company can deduct from its revenues the cost of a tariff for the pipeline company that transports its CO2. In June, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled for the county in the matter, but Kinder Morgan appealed to the state Supreme Court, which has not decided whether to hear the case. At stake is millions of dollars in property-tax revenues. Assessor Scott Davis says Kinder Morgan seems ready to quit fighting the tariff matter if other undisclosed issues can be resolved.

Montezuma County’s Planning and Zoning board has heartily endorsed the county commission’s proposal to add a section to the land-use code for what are known as 1041 regulations. The county wants the rules to provide special protection – including regulation of oil and gas drilling – for a popular mountain-biking area east of Cortez. Phil’s World has 27 miles of single-track on about 4000 acres of federal and state lands, and the Southwest Colorado Cycling Association wants to double the trails. Thursday night, P&Z chair Dennis Atwater predicted mountain-biking will become a growing part of the county’s economy. Atwater quipped, “You’re supposed to dance with the one that brung you, but energy development is getting old.”

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
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