If we were to look at the trends from the past decade, and use them to forecast a probable future for the Town of Pagosa Springs and the key problems we and will be facing… and the key victories we might expect… I presume we would be partly correct, and partly wide of the mark.
The Town Council engaged in something similar, last month, at their annual retreat, a tradition that got its start about a decade ago following the election of former Police Chief Don Volger as Town Mayor. The basic goal of these annual summer retreats is to give the Town Manager a list of priorities for the upcoming budget deliberations, a fiscal process that defines — in terms of expenditures — what the Town will attempt to accomplish over the coming year, and by inference, what it will not try to accomplish.
The retreat was held in a conference room at the Springs Resort Eco-Luxe hotel.
The Council’s newest member, Leonard Martinez, pointed out during the first day of the two-day event, that the Town has two distinct types of work, if one were willing to make the distinction.
One type of work, which Mr. Martinez defined as ‘direct projects’, are the ongoing jobs that the Town has committed to, year after year, budget after budget, and which are not necessarily going to be subject to change.
The other type of work could be called ‘indirect’. This is the work the Town might or might not choose totake on, as the mood strikes.
Mr. Martinez wondered if the Council ought to focus its retreat discussions on the ‘indirect’ work? Given that the ‘direct’ work will presumably be done no matter what.
To put this into a kitchen-related metaphor, I might suggest that the dishes have to be washed… no matter what.
But we can decide whether or not to make pie for dessert.
Which is not to suggest that doing the dishes is a simple task.
Town Manager Andrea Phillips, who attended the retreat, had already announced her resignation effective August 4. (The incoming interim Town Manager, Greg Schulte, did not participate in the retreat.)
Here’s a couple of excerpts from a 20-minute overview, by Ms. Phillips, of the Town’s progress on the Council goals and objectives as established in past retreats. Including, for example, better parks maintenance.
“Parks Maintenance is very difficult to recruit and retain for, and just staying on top of the ongoing maintenance. So, for instance, this week, most of the parks maintenance guys have been focused on our irrigation system at Town Park, which got destroyed by Black Hills Energy, boring into the lines and then putting silt and rock all throughout. So the grass is brown there, and they’re just trying to rectify that situation…”
Apparently, it’s not clear how easy it will be to get reparations from Black Hills.
“They have been hitting a lot of lines. And PAWSD lines, too… They’ve been challenging to work with; let’s just say that…”
“At the same time, we’re adding new amenities. The McCabe Creek [bridge] project is done, and now we’re left with the maintenance of the north side and the south side. Lots of green space, and an opportunity for cute little pocket parks, but no irrigation. We’re going to have to hand-water. We’re going to have to decide what we want to do with that space…”
One option, which Ms. Phillips did not mention, is xeriscaping. 99.9% of the vegetation in Archuleta County is not irrigated, and yet somehow manages to survive. But it doesn’t necessarily look like “city park landscaping” that people are accustomed to. An alternative to ‘hand-watering’ is, of courser, to get the taxpayers to change their expectations. But that might be even more difficult than hand-watering.
Ms. Phillips:
“On the Town to Lakes Trail, it’s been challenging to try and complete those middle sections…”
This ambitious project, a trail from the Ruby Sisson Library uphill to Pinon Causeway, was first discussed about 12 years ago, with the idea of connecting downtown to uptown for pedestrians and cyclists. A few segments of the trail have been completed, but it’s clear that the many barriers to completion were not fully appreciated when the project was started.
Ms. Phillips:
“We do have private developers who will be on the hook to give us easements, or help build the trail in those sections. So, we’re trying to tackle those. But it’s challenging, because of the terrain… working with CDOT has been kind of up and down… they don’t want us to be in their right-of-way, in case of future expansion, and liability… which means we’re trying to go through really challenging terrain and private property. And some people are more willing than others to have a trail be in their yard…
“River access. So, the Town took on the purchase and maintenance of the Mesa Canyon take-out, which is the one south of town on Trujillo Road. We’re hoping the County will ‘take one for the team’ and manage the upstream [put-in]… which is also not in the town…”
Not within the town limits, she means.
That rafting put-in had been proposed by the Upper San Juan Water Enhancement Project, on riverfront property jointly owned by the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) and the San Juan Water Conservancy District, about two miles north of downtown. A proposed lease has been provided to PAWSD by the Archuleta County Commissioners, but it’s not yet clear whether the lease meets the expectations of the PAWSD Board.
Ms. Phillips finished her update on various existing Council goals, and then spent a few minutes explaining efforts by the staff to tackle issues and projects which may not have been on the Council’s own list of goals from past retreats.
Dishes that need to be washed, regardless.