The Montezuma Mosquito Control District has found a new home after being evicted by the county commissioners from the county’s road yard, where it had been headquartered – rent-free – for more than four decades under a handshake agreement.
In April, the commissioners ordered the special district to vacate by the end of May. County commission chair Larry Don Suckla had raised questions about the district’s $190,000-a-year no-bid contract with Colorado Mosquito Control, a Denver-based company that has provided mosquito spraying and larval control here for 17 years. Suckla speculated that a local party might be able to do the job more cheaply. However, the special district is not required by law to bid out its contracts. At the mosquito-board meeting Tuesday, president Eldon Simmons said it was an “iffy” question whether the county had the authority to evict them so suddenly, especially since the district had paid for and erected its own building, a Quonset hut. But Simmons told new board members Jim Fisher and Carla Hoehn, “We didn’t think it was in the taxpayers’ best interest for the two entities to fight, and decided to move on.” The district is buying a building from Triad Western Constructors just south of Cortez. Board members did not seem inclined to seek compensation from the county for the old structure.
