With leadership positions uncontested, Mancos has canceled its spring municipal election, and the town’s ballot measure will instead appear on the November ballot, according to Town Administrator Heather Alvarez.
Three trustee seats on the Mancos Town Board – currently held by Nick Manning, Corey Jabour and David Peyton – will be filled by the same number of candidates who filed with the town clerk’s office.
Incumbent Jabour, former board member and former Mayor Ed Hallam, and newcomer Max Loving will be sworn in this April. For the same reasons, the town of Dolores also canceled its spring election – also scheduled for April 7.
Alvarez said she is enthusiastic about the incoming mix of experience, noting the board will have both institutional knowledge and fresh perspectives.
Hallam, a longtime Mancos resident, previously served as mayor in the 1990s and has held seats on the Planning and Zoning Commission and the town board. Jabour continues on the board with experience on current issues, and Loving will serve as a first‑time trustee.
“We're incredibly lucky to have the diversity that we have on our board with regard to longevity and town knowledge,” Alvarez said. “It’s nice to have a mixture of old and new ideas.”
Mancos officials had initially planned to move forward with the April vote regardless of the number of candidates who filed. However, canceling the election will save the town about $10,000 to $12,000, Alvarez said.
The ballot question proposes a 0.4% sales tax increase and will appear on the coordinated November ballot.
“We will save a significant amount of money by doing that,” Alvarez said. “Kim Percell, Montezuma County clerk, has graciously agreed to allow us to coordinate with her in November.”
The town had hired Electionland consultants to run the spring election, which would have been the first Mancos election conducted without using county equipment.
Officials had hoped for strong turnout because the proposed 0.4% increase requires only a simple majority to pass. If approved, the town’s sales tax rate would rise from 4% to 4.4%. The tax has not been raised since the 1990s, Alvarez said.
Revenue from the increase would be restricted to street and broadband capital improvements, including equipment replacement and underground broadband infrastructure.
Some town equipment is decades old, Alvarez said, including a dump truck the county donated in the early 1970s. With Mancos’ small operating budget, she said maintaining and repairing the existing fleet is not sustainable.
The sales tax measure would also support a “dig once” approach for installing fiber – meaning that whenever streets are opened for other projects, crews can lay conduit at the same time to reduce long‑term excavation costs.
