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Election 2007: Time for change

Read all stories related to Election Day results

2007 Election, How Routt County voted

Precinct by precinct breakdown of how Routt County voted

Hayden — West Routt County voters pledged support for the Hayden Cemetery District on Tuesday night by resoundingly approving Referendum 5B.

The referendum will fund capital improvements for the district, which oversees the Hayden Cemetery as well as maintenance for a rustic cemetery in the unincorporated community of Pagoda, and the closed Pioneer Cemetery east of Hayden.

"Hearing the numbers, I'm excited," Barbara Manzanares, president of the district's board, said after early returns indicated that 73 percent of the voters in precincts 2 and 5 favored the referendum. "It's looking good for the community and looking forward to the future."

The district, which currently serves Hayden, Milner and other unincorporated communities in Routt County, has operated on an annual budget of less than $40,000. Improvements to be funded with the new revenues include grading and fencing undeveloped land in preparation for future burial sites.

Manzanares noted that the district now hopes to use future funds to hire and retain a new full-time caretaker and to begin an eastward expansion of Hayden Cemetery in the next five years.

"We really needed it to go forward to make improvements - the basic care and needs of the cemetery - and to look and be the pride of the community," Manzanares said.

The referendum did not impose new taxes or increase its property mill levy on voters and property owners living in the two West Routt voting precincts. Rather, the referendum was a "deBrucing" measure that exempts the Cemetery District from Colorado's Taxpayers Bill of Rights, or TABOR, which limits annual tax increases according to factors including population growth and the inflation rate. DeBrucing is a reference to TABOR author Doug Bruce.