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Montezuma County fairgrounds manager proposes flat user-card fees, commissioners to decide tomorrow
Summary
Fairgrounds manager Justin McGuire told the Board of County Commissioners workshop that restructuring user cards to a single adult and youth fee and modest line-item increases could add roughly $3,000–$8,000 a year to fairgrounds revenue; commissioners said they will decide the following day.
Justin McGuire, Montezuma County fairgrounds manager, presented fee proposals at a Board of County Commissioners workshop that would replace multiple user-card tiers with a single adult fee and a single youth fee and would apply a modest 5% increase to other rental line items in one option.
McGuire said his “Proposal A” would simplify user cards to a single adult rate of $125 and a youth rate of $60 and keep other charges unchanged. He estimated that change would raise user-card revenue from about $7,000 in 2025 to roughly $10,000, an increase of about $3,000. A “Proposal B” adds a 5% increase on many line items; McGuire estimated that option could raise an additional $3,000–$5,000 from other fees, producing a potential total increase of roughly $6,000–$8,000 per year depending on facility use.
McGuire said the flat user card would pair with the fairgrounds’ existing key-card access system to make entry easier to manage and to limit access to cardholders. “If you don't got a card, you're not coming in,” McGuire said, describing a system that assigns cards to individual users, logs entries and can be policed with cameras and signed user agreements.
He also proposed a $20 hourly rate for reserved practices or hourly arena reservations, saying that rate would largely cover lighting costs and that the facility’s daily footing maintenance is done regardless of practices. McGuire said the fairgrounds sold about 100 user cards so far this year; before a 2022 price increase he said the fairgrounds sold about 165 cards annually.
The presentation included comparisons with other Colorado counties. McGuire said Mesa County uses a conservation trust fund (CTF) model similar to Montezuma’s, La Plata currently dedicates CTF to capital outlay, Moffat’s published budget suggested a near 50/50 split labor-to-capital for its CTF allocation, and some counties such as Chaffee and San Miguel were not using CTF for their fairgrounds.
Commissioners raised the longer-term risk that state action could reduce or reallocate Conservation Trust Funds and discussed alternative revenue streams, including a mill levy dedicated to fairgrounds (which would require voter approval) and enterprise or privatization models similar to steps other counties are considering. Commissioners repeatedly framed fee changes as incremental: several suggested 3–5% increases phased over time rather than a single large jump.
No formal vote occurred at the workshop. A commissioner asked whether the board would decide the fee changes the next day; McGuire and other county staff said the board would make a decision the following day.
The board’s next steps are to consider McGuire’s Proposal A and Proposal B and vote at a subsequent meeting. The discussion raised questions about potential impacts on event renters, enforcement of card rules, and the county’s exposure if Conservation Trust Funds change in the future.
