I was sitting in Ross Aragon’s sunny living room last week, with my audio recorder, doing an interview I never expected to do.
When Pagosa Springs Mayor Ross Aragon left office in April 2014, he’d been the longest serving town trustee and mayor in Colorado history. He was born and raised on a ranch near Arboles, part of a family whose roots in the Archuleta County area go back five generations. He graduated from Pagosa Springs High School and he has remained in the area all his life… as have all his (6th generation) children: Mark Aragon, Matt Aragon, Eric Aragon, Shelley Aragon Roman, Jacque Aragon and Juanita Aragon.
During his last decade of service as mayor, Mr. Aragon was easily able to walk to the newly built Town Hall; his home is half a block away, at the corner where Hot Springs Boulevard changes its name and becomes ‘Light Plant Road’. You might say, he’s intimately familiar with Hot Springs Boulevard and the changes that have taken place along that thoroughfare.
He’s also very aware of the changes that have not yet taken place, but that may happen in the future. He’s aware of what those changes may cost.
When local developer Jack Searle, owner of BWD construction, was making his rounds last October collecting the voter signatures necessary to initiate the ‘Urban Renewal Authority’ process, Mr. Searle was able to convince our former Mayor into signing the petition. (You can read more about Pagosa’s Urban Renewal Authority process here.)
A few days ago, I answered my phone and found Mr. Aragon on the the line. He had heard that I — along with about 140 other downtown voters — were in the process of petitioning a proposed Home Rule Charter amendment onto the upcoming July 14 Town ballot. That measure is now known as Ballot Question A, and if approved, it will allow town taxpayers to say “Yea” or “Nay” to multi-million-dollar TIF (‘Tax Increment Financing’) tax subsidies offered to private developers.
One of those potential multi-million-dollar subsidies has been proposed for 27 vacant acres owned by Jack Searle, adjacent to the Springs Resort & Spa.
Mr. Aragon told me that, after considering the URA issue more deeply, he regretted contributing his signature to Mr. Searle’s petition, and asked me if he and his son could sign our Ballot Question A petition. I explained that we’d already submitted the petition, and that a mail-ballot election had already been scheduled for July.
But would our former Mayor be willing to sit for a Daily Post interview, and talk about urban renewal? In my 16 years of writing (often critically) about Pagosa politics, I had never had the nerve to ask Mr. Aragon for an interview.
He said, yes.
Here’s a excerpt from our lengthy interview, which later rambled on, to touch on numerous other Town issues.
Mr. Aragon began by talking about a conversation with Marsha Giordano Preuit, whose family has operated the Healing Waters Spa since 1950.
“Marsha asked me what I thought about the urban renewal proposal. She made a comment that nobody had helped her family get into business, and she didn’t think it was right [to give away tax revenues to a private developer.] She mentioned about how her dad went to the bank and borrowed money to get into business.
“And in 1975, I went to Citizens Bank and borrowed money to start my business. I wouldn’t even think about having the taxpayers fund me. That would be terrible. I mean, it just wouldn’t be right.
“These people — from what I can see — is they’re using taxpayers’ money. And I don’t like the fact that they went around the criteria.”
“The criteria” Mr. Aragon is here referring to are claims — accepted by a slender majority of the Town Council in 2019 — that 27 acres of vacant property should be classified as ‘dangerous urban blight.’
“That property is not blighted. And one of the issues that comes up — I could never understand why the Council went with that. I feel they are standing on really shaky ground.
“And as far as taxation, it’s getting terrible. A lot of ordinary folks are really complaining about it. And it’s because we have so many taxing districts. We’re overwhelmed with taxes, because we tipping over with bureaucracy. And that’s what happens when you’re top-heavy with bureaucracy.”
We continued the interview, touching on the principles of representative government, the rights of taxpayers in Colorado to approve local or state tax increases, the Town’s Home Rule Charter, the general direction that he’d like to see development head over the next 10 years, and past efforts by the Town to ‘lock up’ vacant land, to be used eventually for affordable housing.
It was a conversation I wish we’d had 16 years ago.