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Stockholders voted yes 7-1 at MVI Support was overwhelming from the citizens themselves on the Dolores River Project. First the Montezuma Irrigation Co., one of the main organizations par- ticipating in the project, voted seven to one for it on Dec. 13, 1976. Then, on Feb. 8, 1977, voters in both Montezuma and Dolores counties voted 20 to one in favor of the project. Montezuma Valley Irrigation Co. (MVI) stockholders by the hundreds attended meetJn!is sponsored by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Dolores Water Conservancy District for more than two months to volce opinions and criticisms and to ask questions on the Dolores Project. In their annual meeting on Dec. 13, some 300 to 400 MY! stockholders packed the American Legion Home in Cortez, discussed the proposed project and then 22,886 water share votes were cast for the measure and 3,732 against, a majority of 86.5 per cent. MY! will retain its 130,000 acre-feet of direct stream water rights and will get an additional 13,700 acre-feet a year from the project. Cost to MVI will be a con- tract for the additional water and a guarantee that Its system will be providing full service year-round as well as a new tunnel to replace the present one built in the 1880's. The payment will be over a period of 50 years. Further, the project won't affect the l3O,OOO-plus acre- feet of water already owned by MVI, which will be delivered without charge through the new tunnel. Direct flow charges, as before, will be set by the MVI stockholders at their annual meetings. What will be charged will be the 13,700 acre-feet being supplied under the project contract as supplementary water. But, a stockholder doesn't need to be obligated to buy supplementary water. MYI's tunnel, built in the 1880's, is sttu serving the Montezuma Valley, including the City of Cortez. But, of- ficials point out, It has frac- tures every year, the rocksfall and It Is dangerous for theose who must go to work in the tunnel. Cost of the new tunnel, some '12 million, Is prohibitive for MVI to un- dertake Itself, being as much as the entire irrigation c0m- Pany's participation in the . Dolores Project. But the tun- nel, now nearing completion, will be paid back at a fixed low payment over a period of 50 years, or possibly even less, since the biggest part of the project will be paid through power sales from the hydroelectric dams along the Colorado River system.