Photo: Jace Johnson and Chris Torres make a presentation to the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners about insufficient fire flows at the County Airport, August 13, 2024.
It’s been almost 12 years since the Archuleta Board of County Commissioner has included a Democrat commissioner, namely, Clifford Lucero. During Mr. Lucero’s tenure, the County government went from “nearly bankrupt” to having three separate savings accounts for dealing with emergency situations. These significant financial improvements took place during a rough time: the Great Recession and its aftermath.
After 12 years of having our BOCC dominated by Republican commissioners, our County government is deeper in debt than it’s ever been — and the deficit spending doesn’t appear to be slacking off, as the BOCC considers a new multi-million-dollar Administration Building.
I mention these facts because I’ve often heard Republican politicians complain, in general, about our bloated governments, and heard promises to reduce the size of government and allow private industry to solve our problems.
Yesterday, in Part Three, I wrote that I planned to attend the Tuesday BOCC work session, to learn more about a proposal to expand the water lines at the County Airport, to better serve the pilots who own hangers along the Bravo taxiway. I also wanted to hear the BOCC discussion about Initiatives 50 and 108, which have been certified for the November ballot and threaten to reduce our property taxes and negatively influence the flow of money into the County’s bank account.
One of the things I hoped to learn: How much will it likely cost to provide adequate water pressure to the existing (and future) privately-owned airplane hangers?
And another thing: Who will end up paying for the new water line?
And one more thing: Why are the BOCC and the Airport management intent upon allowing the construction of more hangers along the Bravo taxiway — when previous County commissioners had promised not to allow additional hangers there — and planned to construct future hangers on the other side of the main runway near the FBO?
And one more thing: Why aren’t the new hangers required to meet County Land Use Regulations? Reportedly, two new hangers have received temporary Certificates of Occupancy (COs) in spite of concerns expressed by the Pagosa Fire Protection District. This seems especially curious, considering that Commissioner Ronnie Maez served for many years with the Fire District.
None of these questions were answered during yesterday’s discussion. Instead, we heard a request from local realtor Jace Johnson and Airport Manager Chris Torres, for about $40,0000 to pay for preliminary engineering services and geotech drilling.
Mr. Johnson handled most of the presentation. He began by holding up a small color printout of a map and pointing out certain features.
“Basically, what we have here… down here we have Piedra Road, and this here is our Bravo taxiway. This is also known as ‘Hanger Row’.
“This is the old runway. Back when I was a kid. Back when things were black and white.”
I presume Mr. Johnson was referring to the colorful map? But he may have been suggesting that, back when he was a kid, decisions about the expansion of a publicly-owned airport where clearly either “black” or “white”.
“So what we have to do now… we’ve got to the point that we’ve built so many hangers, that currently we have only two fire hydrants.”
Funny that he should mention fire hydrants. Yesterday afternoon, I took a tour of a property adjacent to the Bravo taxiway, and noticed that one of the only two fire hydrants has apparently been blocked from convenient Fire District access, by allowing a hanger to be built directly in front of it.
About half of the numerous hangers on the Bravo taxiway — the ones closest to the main runway — were constructed back in the 1970s and 1980s and are uniformly painted white. No utilities were provided for these initial hangers. They were simple white metal garages for airplanes.
There are no fire hydrants near the white hangers.
Then a new crop of hangers arrived farther down the taxiway when developer Robert Cecka (who happened to be a pilot himself) built out the Knolls subdivision adjacent to the Bravo taxiway, and promised to provide airplane hangers as part of the parcel purchases. Most of those additional hangers were built between 1995 and 2005. These new hangers were uniformly painted green, and the new owners wanted the convenience of running water and flushable toilets. Reportedly, some of the green hangers include living spaces inside.
So, the situation is “green and white” rather than “black and white”.
Mr. Johnson continued:
“The two hydrants that we have are putting out roughly 830 GPM (gallons per minute). The Fire District needs to see 1500 GPM in order to comply with fire flow regulations.
“So as you can see right now, with the two hydrants we have, we’re well below where we need to be. And in order to build more hangers on our Bravo taxiway, we’re kind of at a stopping stop, because we don’t have adequate fire suppression for the current, existing hangers…”
The six-inch water line that serves the Bravo taxiway, also serves the adjacent Piedra Estates subdivision and the adjacent Knolls subdivision — both of which feature generally high-end homes. (And pilots.)
Mr. Johnson summarized a report by Plummer Engineering, who modeled nearby Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation (PAWSD) water lines, and determined that the installation of a new 10-inch water line, running from Piedra Road through the Bravo hangers and tied in to the existing six-inch water line, would provide sufficient water pressure for five new fire hydrants, plus for additional hydrants if additional hangers are allowed on the Bravo taxiway. The consultant additionally suggested that this would improve the fire flows in Piedra Estates and the Knolls.
For only $40,000, the County could get preliminary engineering done, and would be able to find out what this project would cost.
Can we make a rough guess?
The BOCC didn’t seem interested in a rough guess. But I am. According to PAWSD staff, new water lines cost about $200 per foot in 2024.
A water line from Piedra Road to the end of the Bravo hangers would be about 3,800 feet long, according to the County Assessor’s map.
Rough guess: $760,000. Add in the engineering and other ‘soft costs’ and cost overruns, and we could be looking at $1 million.
Probably just pocket change for our Republican commissioners.
Read Part Five…