We are now listening to Pagosa Springs Mayor Don Volger. At this point, the recorded audio from the September 17 closed-door meeting between the Town Council and two members of the Springs Partners LLC becomes much easier to understand… momentarily.
“I’ll just say a little bit. We’ll talk more, obviously, when we’re alone. I think the Council knows — I’ve talked to all of you about this — how excited I am about the possibility of developing this area down here, and completing our downtown area. And my personal three criteria for moving forward.. two of them relate to Bill, Matt and Jack’s participation.”
The Mayor is here referring to the three members of the Springs Partners limited liability company: Bill Dawson and Matt Mees — who were present during the illegal executive session — and Jack Searle, who was not present on September 17.
The Mayor and Council had been advised by Town Attorney Bob Cole (who was present at this illegal meeting) that a certain level of negotiations were permissible to conduct during this secret meeting, while other discussions would not not permissible while the two Partners were in the room. This explains the Mayor’s comment that “obviously” the Council would “talk more” once the Partners left the room.
Don Volger continues:
“First of all, are [the Partners] going to help? You’ve heard that they’ve said, they’re willing to put up some additional property and help us build the bridge, so that criteria is met.
“Also, as [Town Manager Greg Schulte] has pointed out, the second piece of criteria that I was looking at was, we’re not going to build a ‘bridge to nowhere.’ Something is going to have to be done. You’ve heard that they want to do something, and that can be written into the agreement.
“The third thing that needs to be in this plan is that we will do South 8th Street, too. So, in reality, it’s a public works project. And doing South 8th Street is not just a reason to try to get the [5th Street] bridge. In my mind, it’s combining two critical projects into one, that we can finance in this limited time-window, with developers who want to move forward on a portion of it, and get this thing done.”
The Mayor here puts verbal emphasis on the word, ‘critical.’ What exactly he means by ‘get this thing done’ is not at all clear, based on the 20 minutes of discussion we’ve heard thus far. At this point in the secret negotiations on September 17, the Partners have not promised to build a single specific building on their property.
The Mayor continues:
“So I think it’s great that Bill and Matt agreed to be here, to look us in the eye and say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to participate, and yes, we’re going to build something.’ I wanted to know that, and I wanted [the Council] to know that. That’s all I will say right now.”
Attorney Bob Cole:
“Questions for Bill and Matt?”
Council member David Schanzenbaker:
“I guess, Bill and Matt, my concern — if I have one — is that I cannot support us building this bridge, and then you guys sell that property to someone else for more money than you could sell it today. That’s what I don’t want to see happen. So I want us to have a partnership here, where you build something and we build that bridge. Because us spending $7 million on a bridge to nowhere — money that we’re going to get from the public — and you turning around and selling the property for a profit, that’s not going to make me happy.”
Bill Dawson responded, and again the audio quality becomes somewhat sketchy:
“We have no intention of selling the property. I mean, at some point, when you think about the scale of this property and the cost of $150 million or $250 million invested in it — it’s going to mean a lot of income, or future income, for the Town [government] and for the County [government.] So we might form a series of [subsidiary] corporations to handle different things, and involving different investors. Or we may find someone who says, ‘We don’t want you to be part of this [inaudible] residential part of the development.’ We’re going to make sure this happens. That’s our contention. One way or another. We don’t have $150 million between us, so we need to bring other partners into this. And we will.
“But having a commitment [from the Town] as to whether the bridge happens or not … this is what we need to get started.”
We can stop here for a moment and analyze what Mr. Dawson has just said to the Council. Although the Council is here being told that the Springs Partners ‘have no intention of selling the property,’ and are purportedly eager to develop the property, we know from Archuleta County documents that Mr. Dawson purchased the 27 vacant acres in 1995 and did almost nothing to improve the property — for 21 years, through 2016. We also know from statements made by Bill Dawson and Matt Mees just minutes earlier in the closed-door meeting, that they tried to sell the entire property to the Whittington family in 2007 — and then had 27 acres of the property handed back to them in a foreclosure.
Recent conversations at Archuleta County Commissioner meetings have revealed that the Springs Partners are in negotiations with the County about the acquisition of perhaps 5 acres of their 27 acres, as a possible site for new (but as-yet-unfunded) County facilities.
Perhaps the Springs Partners’ actions speak louder than their words?
The next short segment of the audio is inaudible, but it sounds like Mr. Dawson says something about “getting the property back.”
Then Mayor Volger recognizes Council member Kathie Lattin.
Ms. Lattin:
“I know that when we were originally talking about this, and the structure of where it is right now, there was a lot of talk about the hotel you guys were looking at. It was a three or four story hotel, and extremely upper class, and nothing that somebody local could go into. But what you’re talking now is, that you’re not going to do something quite like that, but you’re going to make something that any Joe Blow driving through town could stop and get a nice room for the night without spending all their money on one night in a hotel?”
Mr. Dawson:
“Yeah, I think there are a number of possibilities. I’m very happy with what we did with the Springs Resort; it’s been very successful and brings a lot of people into town. But it’s at capacity now, so they are turning away a lot of people. There’s an opportunity to put something else in there…”
The data I’ve seen from Town Tourism Committee reports suggest that our local motels and hotels are at capacity during the month of July. But for most of the year, their vacancy rates appear to be generally worse than the U.S. average, as reported by hotel researchers at STR (http://www.str.com).
If you look at Sketch Plan A, as approved by the Town Council in 2012, you can see — in the area of the drawing directly adjacent to the Springs Resort property — a large number of what appear to be “soaking pools” similar to the ones Bill Dawson and Matt Mees constructed at the Springs Resort prior to selling it to the Whittington family.
Is this whole bridge proposal aimed at pulling people off the highway before they reach Hot Springs Boulevard? And directly into a hotel built expressly to compete with the Springs Resort?
Good question…
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.