Check the pile of mail on your kitchen table.
There might be a ballot in there for a Montezuma County Hospital District election that needs to be filled out, signed and turned in today by 7 p.m.
Ballots must be dropped off at the law offices of Kelly McCabe, 22 E. Main St., Cortez.
Designated MCHD election official Keenen Lovett said 21,500 ballots were sent out countywide, which encompasses the MCHD district.
Lovett said turnout has been “better than expected,” but he did not have an early count. It is too late to return ballots by mail.
This week there have been steady stream of voters dropping off ballots at the office.
Election judges are counting ballots and are keeping up, Lovett said. After polls close at 7 p.m. the remaining ballots will be tallied, and unofficial results released. Election results will be posted on the MCHD website by Wednesday morning, Lovett said.
Because of a change in Colorado law, certain special district elections are run by the governing body in accordance with election laws.
As a result, ballots could be dropped off only at the law office of the election official, and were not accepted at ballot boxes at the clerk’s office or in front of town halls.
On the ballot is Referendum 6A from the Montezuma County Hospital District. It asks voters to remove the sunset provision on a 0.04% sales tax in exchange for reducing the district mill levy by 25%.
If the measure is passed, the district mill levy would be reduced by 25%, dropping it to 0.7455 mills from 0.994 mills.
The sales tax, which amounts to 4 cents for every $10, was approved in 2015 and is set to sunset in 2030.
The hospital district seeks voter permission to collect the .04% sales tax in perpetuity and use it to finance $23 million in upgrades and maintenance of Southwest Memorial Hospital.
According to ballot language, the additional funding would pay for construction of an Emergency Department, renovations of surgery facilities, replacement of hospital equipment and maintenance of the hospital campus.
The funding also would pay for operation and use expenses for hospital facilities, including the new emergency department, the new patient wing, outpatient care facilities and the ambulance parking facility.
If the ballot measure is approved, the hospital would restructure its $32 million bond debt to $55 million through the issue of revenue bonds backed by the sales tax.
A $32 million bond funded a campus improvement project in 2018 that included the two-story, 25,000-square-foot medical office building, new 13-room hospital patient wing, upgraded birthing center, new front entrance and lobby, new EMS station and campus consolidation.
Also on the ballot is the election of five incumbent board members, who are all uncontested. Board members Fred DeWitt, Brandon Johnson, and Joseph Dean Mathews will serve three-year terms. William Randall Thompson and Robert Dobry will serve one-year terms.
The hospital district encompasses all of Montezuma County.
jmimiaga@the-journal.com
