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Yampa — After gaining approval from the town of Yampa, Routt County commissioners will decide how to proceed with efforts to put a .3-mill levy in place that would provide more than $200,000 a year for county museums and historical societies.

The Yampa Town Board voted 3-1 last week to let voters decide on the historic preservation tax ballot issue in the November 2003 election.

Mayor Tom Estes and board members Bruce Pitts and Paul Zywicki voted to put the issue on the ballot, while board member William Northrop voted against it.

Routt County commissioners had asked the Town Board to discuss and consider the issue after several people expressed concern about the tax at the board's July 2 meeting.

At that meeting, one reason given for why the town should not allow such a tax to go to the ballot was that the tax would not benefit the town of Yampa much. Another was that Yampa residents would end up being forced to pay the tax if it was brought to a county vote because that area is not heavily populated and could be outweighed by votes in other areas.

Many people at the first meeting supported the issue, including board member Zywicki.

"I think it's a good idea myself," Zywicki said. "I wasn't against it in the beginning."

Wendy Moreau, director of the Yampa Egeria Museum, said she does not support the mill levy because she feels that the town can take care of the museum without the help of another tax.

But, she said she thinks it's good to let the voters decide.

"I think that's fair," Moreau said. "I think it should go to the people, too. ... I think it's only right that everybody gets to vote on it."

The proposed mill levy, which supporters would like to see on the November ballot, would tax property owners about $2.38 for each $100,000 of residential property. The funds from the proposed tax would be divided between the county's five museums according to school district boundaries and populations.

That means Steamboat Springs historical organizations would receive about $117,000, while Yampa's organizations would receive about $2,600.

Routt County commissioners will discuss the tax with the Friends of Heritage Fund Group, which proposed the tax, at 9:15 a.m. Aug. 19. Commissioners will then decide whether to put the tax on the ballot.

Several issues that need to be determined include whether funds from the Eagle School District in the southern part of the county will go to Yampa or to a capacity building fund, and whether the proposed mill levy will have a time limit, said Routt County Commissioner Doug Monger.

"I think we are going to do some minor tweaks to the resolution," Monger said. "I would personally like to see us more forward as expeditiously as we can to get the (issue) on the ballot."

Monger said he was pleased that the issue was approved by Yampa's town board.

"I appreciate the Yampa Town Board thinking it was an important enough issue to allow the taxpayers of Routt County to decide, and that it was a county issue and a county concern and not directly a Steamboat issue," Monger said.