Love’s Travel Stop is set to get a new neighbor in the once-blighted southern entrance to Cortez, gradually bringing developments to an area affected by environmental issues and dilapidated eyesores.
A Maverik gas station has been built on U.S. Highway 160/491, about 1,000 feet north of Road G. On Tuesday, the Montezuma Board of County Commissioners issued a vote, bringing the Maverik closer to its finishing touches. The board unanimously voted to approve a fermented malt beverage and wine retailer license for the incoming business.
According to Jerri Frizzell, Deputy Clerk of the Montezuma County Clerk & Recorder’s Office, community canvassing showed that 80% of the respondents within a mile of the Maverik were OK with the alcoholic beverage license.
Frizzell stated during Tuesday’s meeting that two petitioned neighbors – Love’s Travel Stop and G-Whil Liquors – were in opposition to the establishment selling alcohol, but according to Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin, those businesses simply declined to respond to the petition.
Colorado law also requires that fermented malt beverage retail licenses cannot be approved for businesses within 500 feet of an already existing establishment selling liquor.
Love’s resides about 1,000 feet south of the new Maverik. Before Love’s construction, the plot of land had been an abandoned gas station bogged down by tax holdups and environmental contamination from a diesel spill. After two decades and several owners, the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety helped lead cleanup efforts to remediate the soil in November 2020.
Grafitti once covered the worn-down truck stop that predated Love’s. Illegal spray painting has always been a problem in the area, Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin said. The new Maverik marks a gradual shift for the optics of Cortez.
“From what I gather, I think its welcome to see more businesses,” said Nowlin.
The area is also subject to flooding during heavy rainstorms. G-Whil Liquors’ former location, roughly 1,000 feet directly south of the new Maverik was flooded badly about ten years ago.
Across U.S. Highway 160/491 from Maverik, the old G-Whil Liquors still sits vacant, covered by graffiti.
