Photo: Downtown business owner Evelyn Tennyson, speaking at a CDOT Highway 160 presentation, April 4, 2024.
Will customers still have access to my business during construction?
Yes! Sometimes temporary signage will be installed directing motorists to businesses impacted by construction. Other times, businesses can work with CDOT, the contractor, or local government to post access signage. As previously mentioned, it would be beneficial to educate customers ahead of time about how they can access your business during construction…
— from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) website, ‘Coping with Construction’ page
The quote above, from the CDOT website, suggests that business owners would benefit from “educating customers” about the two-year highway reconstruction that will be impacting downtown Pagosa Springs, possibly beginning this summer.
That’s an interesting suggestion.
When I moved to Pagosa Springs from Alaska, 30 years ago, nearly all of the retail and service businesses were located within the downtown commercial district, including the grocery store, hardware store, real estate offices, bookstore, restaurants, medical clinic, library… If you were shopping in Pagosa Springs, you were probably shopping downtown.
What a difference 30 years makes.
In this editorial series, I’ve been sharing some comments from downtown business owners, heard at the well-attended CDOT presentation at the Senior Center on April 4. The presentation was led by Region 5 Director Julie Constan. Ms. Constan was not able to attend another CDOT-Pagosa-Community meeting yesterday afternoon at Hidden Track Speakeasy, where an important announcement was made to a roomful of business owners and downtown residents. (I wrote a separate editorial about that event, here.)
Also not present at yesterday’s gathering was Evelyn Tennyson, the co-owner of two downtown businesses — Two Old Crows and the Liberty Theater — and an uptown events venue, the Tennyson Center. She is also funding the construction of a new sculpture park near the Bell Tower downtown, as a memorial to her husband.
But I appreciated Ms. Tennyson’s remarks at the CDOT meeting on April 4, which followed a string of less-than-friendly comments — about the problematic scheduling of CDOT’s planned highway reconstruction through downtown Pagosa — offered by various other business owners. The unfriendly comments had obviously put Regional Director Constan on the defensive.
Ms. Tennyson took the high road instead, as she stood to address the audience.
“I’m not not going to make any friends in here. First of all, someone asked why the bids have to go out now. Anyone who has ordered any kind of construction here in Pagosa, you can get your bid now, and I can guarantee you won’t see the work done until next spring. The fact that CDOT is asking for bids now, I don’t see a problem. We can postpone it anytime, but let’s get the bid and see what it’s going to cost.
“The other thing is, we’re putting everything on CDOT. Okay, yes, we need to get their help, but why don’t we, as business owners, get together and form an idea? How can we help each other? Instead of putting everything on CDOT, or everything on the Town. I’m willing to do a ton of stuff… We will give discounts at my businesses, if they [patronize other downtown businesses].
“Why don’t we all help each other in this? Instead of just…”
Business owner Jeremy Buckingham: “Because your help will not make up for the lost revenue…”
Ms. Tennyson: “Do we know that? We don’t…”
Mr. Buckingham: “Yes, I do know…”
Ms. Tennyson: “Look, I’ve been here eight, nine years, just like you. Right now, it’s killing me…”
Mr. Buckingham: “Have you owned a retail store?”
Ms. Tennyson: “Yes, I own Two Old Crows…”
The argument between the two downtown neighbors continued, without reaching an agreement.
Speaking for myself, I’ve never owned a retail store. I can hardly imagine the difficulties faced by a downtown tourist business, with basically three months of satisfactory income during the summer season, to tide you through the rest of the year… until Christmas… and then nothing until the following June.
As I mentioned above, Pagosa’s downtown wasn’t always like this — dependent on tourists.
But maybe depending on tourists isn’t the worst thing imaginable, considering the massive investments by our local governments into tourism marketing.
I’ve shared this graph many times. It shows the growth of Lodgers Tax since 2007, a tax that gets used exclusively for subsidizing the tourism industry.
The tax revenues were about $400,000 in 2007. By 2018, they had doubled to about $860,000. In 2021, the revenue was nearly four times what it was in 2007.
Although this tax comes only from people who purchase short-term lodging, might we go out on a limb and suggest that a downtown retail business, serving those same tourists, has seen its sales volume increase in a similar manner? That a downtown business in 2018 sold twice as much tourist-oriented merchandise as they did in 2007?
And in 2021 sold four times as much?
I’m sure it’s not a one-to-one correlation, comparing retail tourism sales to Lodgers Tax. But I guess you can see my point, which is, if a downtown business could survive in 2007 — on a quarter of the revenue they collected in 2021 — perhaps those businesses can survive a temporary downturn in the local economy.
Especially, perhaps, if the business community came together, as Ms. Tennyson suggested, to help support each other through a problematic highway project?
As we learned yesterday, the downtown business owners will apparently have another year to prepare themselves for a disturbing event.