Tooker: Why am I opposed to the 400,000-acre proposed Dolores River National Monument?
By Aimee Tooker | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
The west end of Montrose County is one of four Tier One coal-affected communities in Colorado. The effect of the closure of Western Fuels coal mine in 2018 and Tri-State Generation and Transmission’s coal plant in 2019 (two years ahead of schedule) had an obvious detrimental effect on our local businesses.
Nucla-Naturita Fire Department suffered a 65% local property tax loss. The $550,000 we received from Tri-State generation has been spent methodically and gratefully. Since 2014 the west end has developed and has been implementing our economic diversification plans along with our recent coal-affected community transition plans.
The proposed Dolores River National Monument will stonewall all economic processes that our ...