craigdailypress.com

Moffat County Commissioners will have to wait another month before finding out whether the school district will partner with them on a revenue-generating opportunity.

But it's likely that they will be going it alone.

School board members didn't have an enthusiastic response.

"We're already in a deficit-spending mode, and we're spending more money than we're taking in to make sure Moffat County stays a Cadillac school district," board member Steve Hafey said.

Moffat County Commissioner Darryl Steele approached the Moffat County School District Board of Education last month to ask them to contribute to the cost of negotiating mineral leases at a higher level than has been done in the past.

The benefit to the school district would be increased revenue. The school district receives 60 percent of the revenues from each negotiation. The county earns 34 percent.

According to Steele, a pilot project to be more proactive in those negotiations has netted the county $177,000 more this year than it would have generated using its old system.

He asked the school board last month to consider contributing a portion of the increased revenues to fund a position, the responsibility of which would be negotiating future leases. Without school district help to fund that position, Steele said, the county would have to cut the pilot project and continue negotiating leases the old way.

School board members voted to table the issue until their next meeting. They asked that the county provide them additional information on the benefits to the school district.

"It's not the role of the school district to either enhance or restrict mineral development in Moffat County even though we may benefit," board president John Wellman said.

The district has several options: delaying a decision until they prepare the 2005 budget, contributing a portion of their increased revenues to the county to continue the program or telling the county no.

"Personally, I'm just not comfortable taking the money out of the district and away from the education system," board member Trish Snyder said.

She seemed to be in the majority.

"I don't know that we should be crossing too many boundaries," board member Gary Ellgen said.

The difference in revenue comes from the county being a more active participant in negotiations, increasing the amount of production royalties from one-eighth to one-sixth and has been better at marketing its mineral rights that are available for lease.

But the cost of the changes is high. County staff members estimate implementing the pilot program has cost more than $38,500 in staff time and resources to date, and if the program continues through this year, that total will be $63,000.

Christina M. Currie can be reached at 824-7031 or by e-mail at ccurrie@craigdailypress.com.