Invariably, there are many more capital needs than what the Town can fund. Therefore, it is critical to prioritize these projects on a regular basis according to set criteria…
— from the Town of Pagosa Springs’ proposed 2019 budget
Speaking of multi-million-dollar government budgets, here’s a photograph I took last year at the conclusion of an unusual Town Council work session. The meeting had been held at the Town’s maintenance shop on South 5th Street, where our Streets Department has been headquartered for the past few decades.
The photo shows, in the background, members of the Town Council and Town staff bidding one another goodbye following a tour of the 2-acre shop property. During the visit, they’d also been treated to a Powerpoint slide show presentation by local architect Brad Ash.
Mr. Ash, a partner in Reynolds Ash & Associates, had been hired by the Town to do a ‘feasibility study’ for an idea that’s been kicked around for the past couple of years: a brand new Town Shop.
Town Manager Greg Schulte had scheduled the presentation to take place in the maintenance facility garage, for obvious reasons. He wanted the Council to experience the space and appreciate how old and rundown the facility looked.
The walls had insulation tucked between the studs, but had never been sheetrocked or otherwise given finished interior walls. Exposed electrical wiring was visible here and there. The space smelled of old motor oil and rusty tools. Aged fluorescent light fixtures hung down from the unfinished ceiling.
For any of our readers not familiar with the Town Shop, it’s located just west of the Yamaguchi Park soccer fields on South 5th Street, and just east of the High School parking lot. The main building is surrounded by a hodgepodge of outbuildings and various sheds that appear to have been scrounged up over the past few decades.
The overall facility that reflects a certain mentality that was common in Pagosa Springs, prior to about 1995 — around the time we all realized Pagosa had become an authentic tourist destination and a popular place to retire. That old Pagosa mentality, now mostly an historical memory, embraced the belief that you ‘make do’ with whatever is available, and are grateful for what you already have.
Recycle. Reuse. Reduce. An old-fashioned mentality.
Clearly, it’s a mentality that had survived at the Town Shop, in spite of Big Government. But we’re moving into a different era, and even the Town Streets Department needs a shiny, new, very expensive building. One that costs nearly $1 million — just for the design.
Looking at the County Assessor records, it appears that the Town acquired this 2-acre property in 1965. And to judge from the appearance of the main building, the shop might indeed be 50 years old, dating back to a time when Pagosa Springs had no paved streets, and very little traffic.
Times change.
The discussions about a new Shop facility have been taking place over the past couple of years, ever since the Town decided to abandon its old sewer lagoons and build a seven-mile-long sewer pipeline, uphill, to deliver our downtown sewage to the Vista Wastewater Treatment Plant operated by the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD). That decision opened up 26 acres of Town Sanitation District property on the banks of the San Juan River. What would this now vacant land be used for?
Was the property suitable for affordable housing, for example?
Or a new, state-of-the-art Town Shop?
At that Town Council presentation last year, architect Brad Ash briefly explained the process he’d used to assess the need for a new facility. Without specifying where the new facility might be located, he suggested that — if we want to look into the future, at the growth of Pagosa Springs — a new facility would require more than the 2 acres available at the current shop location, he said. Maybe 5 acres. And lots of shiny, new buildings, designed by an architect.
He presented rough sketches of two possible concepts. His general idea was to accommodate the Streets Department, the Parks Department and the Geothermal Heating Department in one single facility.
Then he showed us the estimated cost.
Not including the cost of the land, Concept 1 was estimated at $8.7 million.
Concept 2 was estimated at $9.2 million.
We then listened to an appeal by Town Manager Greg Schulte, who would be resigning from his position in a couple of months. Mr. Schulte noted that the Town Shop was, by far, the most rundown facility owned by the Town. That’s probably true, especially if you compare it to the 15-year-old Town Hall and Community Center.
Mr. Schulte addressed the Town Council members in the audience:
“Do you want to go for Concept 1? Or do you want to go with a phased approach, with Concept 2? You know, it’s something that we are going to have to address, and I think, once you start looking at it, I think you could go to DOLA (Department of Local Affairs) and start getting some programming money. Because you are going to have to start doing some design work.”
Government is not cheap. Just for the design work, the taxpayers will be forking out $865,000.
But… does the Town of Pagosa Springs really need a $9 million maintenance shop? Are we allowed to ask that question?
As the 2018 November election approaches, we know there are members of the County government who believe we need a $19 million jail and Sheriff’s office. ($26 million, when you include the interest payments on the loan.) The County doesn’t have $19 million on hand — their 2019 budget shows $12 million in various savings accounts, socked away for emergencies — so they are asking us to approve a sales tax increase to pay for their jail project.
So… what would the Town have to do, in order to build a $9 million maintenance shop? Yet another tax increase?
25 years ago, I started remodeling our old detached garage — built around 1965, probably. The building had no insulation, no heating system, old leaky windows, no interior sheetrock, a dirt floor.
Today, it’s fully insulated and sheetrocked, and heated by a recycled wood stove. The floor is varnished pine. The windows have been replaced. It has new electrical wiring. It’s pretty much a fully-functional artist studio, in what was once just a run-down garage.
I suppose we could have abandoned that garage, 25 years ago. We could have torn it down, and spent thousands of dollars on designs for a shiny, new artist studio.
I doubt the taxpayers would have wanted to pay for it, though.