The Pagosa Springs Town Council started off its Thursday, January 21 regular meeting — via Zoom — with a moment of silence facilitated by Mayor Don Volger. The Mayor suggested that the Council and audience focus their prayers and meditations on the subject of “Wisdom”.
That items was followed by an invitation to the public to offer comments on topics not shown on the evening’s agenda. The only person taking advantage of the invitation to speak to the Council and Zoom audience was Greg Schulte, chair of the Pagosa Springs Medical Center Board of Directors.
“Well, thanks for having me here, and I wanted to be here tonight, just to — on behalf of the Board at Pagosa Springs Medical Center — to thank you all for everything you’re doing to help us vaccinate the community — providing the Community center facility to us. I’m told that we did 733 people last week, and like everything worthwhile, that doesn’t just happen with just one person or one entity, and you are part of that. And I just wanted to come on and say thank you. We very much appreciate it. Appreciate the work of {Town Recreation Director Darren Lewis] and his staff there at the Community Center.
“I was talking with [PSMC CEO Rhonda Webb] today, and I guess we’ve done about 1,600 vaccinations, and I think we’re scheduled to do 300 ‘first’ vaccinations and 300 ‘second’ vaccinations next Friday, January 29, at the Community Center.
“You may have seen Rhonda’s letter in the paper today, and I just want to emphasize that it takes working together. We’re still at the very beginning of this journey, if you can call it that. And I just simply wanted to say, on behalf of the Board, we’re grateful.
“Thanks you so much for being our partners, and helping us to help the community. That’s it.”
Mayor Volger responded.
“Well, Greg, I think we can throw that right back at you guys, because it’s a team effort. So… you know me, Greg. I just love it when the community comes together for important things. And this is an important thing. So thank you so much.”
Greg added, “Well, we couldn’t do it without you guys. So, we appreciate it.”
If we were to assume — theoretically — that the 1,600 vaccinations administered thus far by PSMC included 800 ‘first’ vaccinations and 800 ‘second’ vaccinations, that would suggest that about 6% of Archuleta County’s population (about 14,000) has been fully vaccinated, between the time of the first inoculations given on December 16 and the most recent vaccinations last week.
6% inoculated, in about one month’s time. From the perspective of the public health industry, that’s a positive movement in the quest to achieve ‘herd immunity’, which has been estimated by some scientists to require about 70% of the population to be vaccinated or to have recovered from COVID.
More recently, Dr. Anthony Fauci and others have been throwing around a slightly higher estimate: 90%.
According to the data dashboard maintained by San Juan Basin Public Health, about 594 Archuleta County residents have tested positive for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 since last March, and one elderly person has died while infected. The cause of death has not been definitely attributed to COVID. It appears that nearly everyone who acquires COVID in Archuleta County ends up recovering.
This boosts the theoretical number of “eventually-immune” residents to about 1,400 as of this past weekend — counting the ones infected who have recovered, or will soon… plus the ones who have (theoretically) had their second vaccination. That’s 10% of the community population.
We might calculate that — at the rate things have been going since December 16 — we could have a condition of ‘herd immunity’ in Archuleta County within perhaps 12 months. Maybe, by next Christmas? If we’re lucky?
Not that I’m complaining. Everyone is doing the best they can, given the tough situation we’re in.
And I suspect the Town government is not complaining either. Later on in Thursday’s Zoom meeting, we heard the report on sales tax collections from Town manager Andrea Phillips. The 4% County sales tax paid on purchases in Archuleta County is shared 50/50 between the County and Town governments, under a long-standing agreement.
“Okay, so, sales tax — again — for November looks good. It came in at 25.2% over the same month in 2019. The total sales tax received between Town and County was $1,210,111. So that does put us at above our revised estimate for the entire year of 2020, already, with one month — December — still forthcoming. Things are looking good in terms of our sales tax revenues for the 2020 fiscal year.”
“Well, I don’t know how you do it,” joked Mayor Volger, “but thanks for that report. It would be nice to see that continue over this next year.”
The joke turns, of course, on the suggestion that the Town staff would be given credit for the fact that Archuleta County residents coughed up $1.2 million in sales taxes from their purchases during the month of November.
How to interpret that somewhat amazing increase during a pandemic? No one can say.
There was a time, less than two years ago, when local government sales tax increases provided direct evidence of a vibrant local retail economy. But as of the summer of 2019, the County began collecting a 4% sales tax on purchases made online, so our monthly sales tax tally is no longer a direct reflection of local retail vitality.
The pandemic has made life miserable for many Americans, but it seems to have bequeathed a financial windfall to certain businesses and governments here in Archuleta County. And certain individuals as well. The federal CARES Act provided enhanced unemployment insurance payments starting in April and expiring in December. Due to the relatively low wages paid by the hospitality and tourism industry here in Pagosa, some unemployed workers were bringing home more money their unemployment checks than they had been making working at their jobs.
To paraphrase Mayor Volger, it would be nice to see that continue over this next year.
But that will presumably depend on the US Congress coming to some important agreements.