Photo: The May 6 joint meeting between the Archuleta County commissioners and PLPOA representatives.
About three dozen people — downtown business owners, downtown property owners, and government officials — met yesterday evening at the Senior Center on Hot Springs Boulevard, to share ideas related to surviving the planned reconstruction of Highway 160 through seven blocks of Pagosa’s downtown commercial district. The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) had hoped to begin the project this summer, but the only bid for the work came in 30% higher than CDOT’s proposed budget. CDOT rejected the bid and reportedly plans to re-bid the project in the fall, with work to commence in the spring of 2025.
The downtown business community had, at recent public meetings, expressed fears that the project would kill some downtown businesses, as parking disappeared during construction, and pedestrian access became more challenging. Pagosa Mayor Shari Pierce assembled a small advisory group of three business owners… Jeremy Buckingham with Goodman’s Department Store… Evelyn Tennyson who owns Two Old Crows Gallery and the Liberty Theatre… and JR Ford, downtown realtor and owner of a forest-thinning company called Forest Health Timber Products… to share thoughtful ideas from Pagosa business- and property-owners with the engineers and designers and bureaucrats at CDOT…
…now that the downtown has a full year to prepare for the disaster.
Yesterday’s meeting, hosted by the Town government, aimed at gathering those thoughtful ideas, which will be shared with CDOT by the advisory group. Each of the three advisory members sat at a table surrounded by a dozen concerned citizens, and listened to suggestions and questions.
Whether the folks at CDOT will be able to accommodate those suggestions remains to be seen.
I stayed at the meeting for only the first 30 minutes, and it sounded like the attendees had some valid concerns and interesting ideas. But I excused myself to drive over to the County Administration offices, and catch a conversation between our three Archuleta County commissioners — Veronica Medina, Warren Brown and Ronnie Maez — and four members of the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association (PLPOA) Board of Directors — Dan Mayer, Sasha King, Wade Lundy, and Patrick Moore.
Also participating were County Manager Derek Woodman, County Attorney Todd Weaver, and PLPOA General Manager Allen Roth.
Apparently, the two boards have been meeting quarterly to discuss items of mutual concern. This was the first time I’d attended one of their joint meetings. As the meeting progressed, the audience filled in, until about 20 people were listening.
At one point in the meeting, BOCC chair Medina invited the audience to offer comments and concerns.
We’ll get to those comments in a moment.
The first discussion item concerned a planned athletic field that may become a joint project by the PLPOA and the BOCC, assuming that the PLPOA can guarantee the field will be accessible to the entire community. (The PLPOA Recreation Center, for example, is open only to Pagosa Lakes residents.) The conversation also touched on the idea of a tax-funded ‘Recreation District’ — an idea that’s been kicked around for the past couple of years at joint Town-County meetings.
Moving on to more important things, perhaps, the two board heard a summary from County Manager Derek Woodman, listing the County road repair and maintenance projects that might take place this summer and fall, within the Pagosa Lakes area.
I use the word, “might” because, typically, the County does not complete all the projects it plans for, each season. Problems arise. Money runs out.
One of the neighborhoods that had been promised repairs to its roads last year — but never saw that promise fulfilled — is the Vista subdivision, at the east end of town.
Commissioner Brown expressed some thoughts about our County-maintained roads, addressing the audience.
“So one thing to keep in mind is, these roads didn’t just fail last year, or the year before that. Because we’ve all driven out there, and they have been garbage for years. And they have not been maintained. And this [Board of County Commissioners] is the group that is trying to pull our proverbial pants back up, in our road conditions and maintenance. Because it’s horrific. And you know this; I’m preaching to the choir…”
He noted that County Road and Bridge tested a new paving product in the Lakewood Village neighborhood last summer, which failed disastrously, leaving the roads worse than before.
Mr. Woodman explained that the upcoming road repairs will require some property owners to replace their driveway culverts, in order to better guarantee drainage for the newly resurfaced roads. The cost for the culvert repairs, he stated, would be borne by the property owners.
Following a discussion by the two boards, Commissioner Medina responded to noises from the audience by inviting the public to step up to the podium and unload their road concerns. From what I could tell, most of the speakers were from the Vista subdivision.
Here’s a typical comment, from a resident on Ray Court, tucked up in the northwest corner of the Vista. Up in the ‘backside’ of the subdivision, so to speak.
“I’ve lived in that house for 43 years now. And in those 43 years, the roads have never been touched, where I’m at. I’m off of Canyon Circle. So for 40 years, I’ve gotten to go from the highway, all the way, a mile on these roads…
“So I’ve not seen any roadwork done on that backside, in 43 years.
“Am I correct in saying, our property taxes pay for our roads?”
The commissioners agreed that a portion of her property taxes do fund County road maintenance.
“My home was put in in 1974. So my house is old. But it was valued last year [by the County Assessor] at $464,000. So my taxes more than quadrupled.
“So I would really like to see… and I appreciate that the roads are finally going to get fixed… but I’ve been dealing with this now for 43 years…
“And not only that, but the [subdivision] is about 10% vacant lots. And I want to say, when we first moved in, 80% were vacant lots. So we have that many more people and homes, out in that area, in the past 40 years.
“So I appreciate it, that the roads are finally going to get done, but it’s long overdue. And I understand that you guys weren’t the ones who put the roads in, but our property taxes… we’re really paying through the nose now…”