- Five people dead after a plane crash in the mountains south of Telluride.
- Dolores Water Conservancy District will ask voters to set a permanent mill levy for the district.
Five people are dead as the result of a plane crash in the mountains approximately ten miles south of Telluride, near Grizzly Peak in San Juan County. Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, says an NTSB investigator was due to arrive on scene Monday afternoon to determine the cause of the crash. The twin-engine Cessna 310 found at the remote and rugged site is believed to be one that took off Sunday morning from Barstow, California, stopped for fuel in Flagstaff, Arizona, and was en route to Amarillo, Texas, when it disappeared from radar around 4:10 p.m. Sunday. A relative had reported that it was overdue. Identities of the victims had not been released as of Monday afternoon. The Durango Herald reports that the La Plata County Search and Rescue Team has been assisting the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office in the recovery effort.
And in other news, the Dolores Water Conservancy District is asking voters to set a permanent mill levy for the district and allow it to keep any additional revenues received above its TABOR cap, a move commonly known as “de-Brucing.” Question 4A on the November ballot would allow the district to keep its mill levy at its current rate of zero point four eight three mills. District general manager Mike Preston says the mill levy has been steadily reduced as property values rise in the county and is now just half what it was ten years ago. The district, which manages McPhee Reservoir and the Dolores Project, has an annual budget of approximately six million dollars. In a release, board president Bruce Smart says passage of the proposal would help the district protect water rights, deal with drought, and guard against impacts from invasive species and catastrophic wildfires.
