PHOTO: Senator Hickenlooper’s Western Colorado Regional Director, Helen Katich, presents via Zoom to the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, February 14, 2023.
A few months ago, I was seeing these ads in the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN.
As a person concerned with government transparency, especially Archuleta County government transparency… or should I say, as a person concerned with the lack of transparency within the Archuleta County government… I was encouraged that the Republican candidate for County Commissioner, Veronica Medina, was promising to work “to improve communication and transparency at the highest level.”
As an outside observer of County politics, I suspected that the reason so many people distrust our Archuleta County government was directly related to poor communication, and a lack of transparency.
We learned something about the community’s lack of trust, when the Board of County Commissioners hired the consultants at Magellan Strategies to survey 1,000 local residents and find out what they thought of our County government.
Only 4% answered that they “strongly agree” that Archuleta County is fiscally responsible with taxpayer money. Only 27% even “somewhat” agreed.
So it seemed to me, an improvement in the County’s communication and transparency might help matters. And perhaps Veronica Medina — if she were elected — would work to improve those things? As she had stated in her advertising?
But it can be hard to keep your promises, once you actually get elected and join the bureaucracy.
The Tuesday BOCC work session at the County Administration offices started out with a Zoom presentation by Helen Katich, Western Colorado Regional Director for U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper. The conversation dealt mainly with various amounts of money that might be available to the County government in the coming months, thanks in part to Senator Hickenlooper’s efforts in Washington DC.
For some reason, I kept thinking about the federal debt limit, which is probably going to be increased later this year.
The next discussion concerned a proposed ‘land swap’ brought to the BOCC by the Pagosa Springs Humane Society. The land offered to the County was located out Cat Creek Road and unfortunately lacks infrastructure — no water, or sewer, or electricity. I didn’t perceive much excitement coming from the commissioners.
We then heard a presentation by Marc Foulkrod, owner of the Avjet company — the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) at Stevens Field, the Archuleta County airport. Mr. Foulkrod began his presentation this way:
“I thank you for letting me present — and first, let me thank Commissioner Medina for the invitation. We’ve operated the airport FBO for almost 18 years, and we’ve never been asked to come tell you why we’re qualified. So today, we want to do that…”
Based on the 22-minute presentation, one could easily conclude that Avjet is highly qualified to run the FBO at the airport, and also that the County has not necessarily been the most reliable partner in terms of maintaining its airport… especially, perhaps, regarding snow removal.
Next, we heard about the Veterans Memorial Park project. Here’s County manager Derek Woodman:
“I met this past week with the members of the Veterans Memorial Park board, and I think they are getting close to… how should I say this… probably the recommendation to try and turn the park over to the County. They are about at their… uh… completion. So their are some future discussions, that are going to start taking place…
“You know, they had a pretty lofty goal. And the way the agreement reads, when it’s completed, then it goes to the County. They made a huge push last year… big fundraising, big impact. Got the other half of the parking lot created. Curbs. And infrastructure in place.
“But, is it completed to the original conceptual drawings? No. Will it be? No. So there’s going to be some additional discussions, and then we’ll get them on for a work session so they can let you guys hear… whatever their desires are…”
The Veterans Memorial Park project concept dates back to before 2014, when a group of local citizens proposed to build a park celebrating veterans of all military branches… if the County would provide the real estate. One of the selling points for the project was the idea that other communities have managed to create ‘veterans memorial parks’.
And statistics showed that perhaps 1,200 military veterans were living in Archuleta County.
The group indicated that the park would be financed mainly through private donations and grants, and then handed over to the County (for ongoing maintenance). The BOCC was assured, by the volunteer organizers, that money could be raised to fund the park construction, and that the park would be an attractive addition to the community, visited regularly by tourists and local alike.
Here’s a short video clip from 2014, celebrating the first feature installed on the park property: a flag pole.
As can be seen in the ‘flyover’ portion of the video above, the park property itself is not the most scenic parcel in the community. The drawings posted to the Park website suggest an ongoing fundraising effort, a large parking lot, a flag pole, a couple of small sculptures, a ‘memorial bricks’ display, some seating areas, and a couple of walking trails meandering through a dry landscape.
The Archuleta BOCC contributed not only the land for the park, but also thousands of dollars in taxpayer funding. (I don’t know the exact amount contributed over the past 8 years; unlike the Town budgets, the County budgets don’t make it easy to track taxpayer donations to non-profits.)
I suppose, theoretically, the seven-acre parcel could have been dedicated to housing for working families, 8 years ago, and perhaps our housing crisis wouldn’t be quite so severe in 2023.
But of course, that’s just a dream some of us have.
That wasn’t the only discussion about County parks, however, at yesterday’s BOCC work session.
And we haven’t yet discussed the secret health department decisions…
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.