Some of our Daily Post readers may have been following the controversy involving the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, as they consider a new (and presumably large and expensive) administration building aimed at serving most County departments and offices other than Road & Bridge, Human Services, Public Health, and the Sheriff’s Office.
The photo above shows the current County Administration Building, which previously — a dozen years ago — served as the Archuleta County Education Center.
A preliminary design for a new Administration Building was published two years ago.
But the BOCC is wondering where to put this shiny new building.
Maybe the general public has ideas, and preferences?
We received a notice from Archuleta County Public Information Officer Ashley Springer yesterday morning:
County to Host Informational/Input Meeting on Land Purchase
Archuleta County Manager Jack Harper and County Attorney Todd Weaver, will host an informational meeting regarding the purchase of approximately five acres of land for future County use on Monday, December 16 from 5:30-7:00pm at the Commissioners Building, 398 Lewis Street in Pagosa Springs.
The December 16 meeting will consider the various land options only, and will not discuss details of any construction. Members of the BoCC will not be present at the meeting.
Anyone unable to attend may direct concerns, questions, or talking points to County Paralegal Tonya McCann, tonya.mccann@archuletacounty.org, 970-264-8300.
Residents may also speak publicly at the December 17 BoCC Regular Meeting, held at 1:30pm in the Commissioners Meeting Room, 398 Lewis St. in Pagosa Springs. For further information about speaking at the meeting, please visit https://archuletacounty.org/861/Speak-At-A-Public-Meeting.
Monday’s meeting does not require any sign-up or RSVP to attend. Both meetings are open to the public.
It’s been my experience with Ms. Springer’s press releases that they have been consistently accurate. So I think we can feel confident that our County Commissioners will, in fact, not be present at this December 16 meeting, and will not hear the ideas and preferences shared by the taxpayers.
We can also feel confident that Archuleta County Manager Jack Harper and County Attorney Todd Weaver will want to hear about which five-acre parcels the public likes best, as the site for a new multi-million-dollar Administration Building…
…but might not want to hear about the building details, the cost of the building, or the ways that the building might be financed.
I would hate to have the public show up without any background information, so we will share a report from financial advisor Troy Bernberg of Northland Securities, presented to the BOCC last Tuesday, which you can download here.
If you visit the Northland Securities website, you can find a half-photograph of Mr. Bernberg, without any additional information.
According to his presentation on Tuesday morning, Mr. Bernberg had reviewed seven vacant parcels available for sale within the Town of Pagosa Springs, and considered the proximity to existing roads and utilities. State law requires the County Courthouse to be within the County seat — which is, in our case, Pagosa Springs. And our new, multi-million-dollar Courthouse is indeed within the County seat, in the Harman Park subdivision.
I’m not clear whether a County Administration Building needs to be within the County seat? Maybe that’s a question for Attorney Weaver on Monday?
At any rate, Mr. Bernberg reviewed seven vacant parcels and recommended — as his two top choices — one parcel in the Aspen Village subdivision and one parcel near Walmart on Alpha Drive.
The Alpha Drive location got his highest rating, with a score of “11”. He liked it, he said, “personally”.
A parcel that had previously been considered by the BOCC, across from the Pagosa Springs Medical Center on South Pagosa Boulevard, was also considered by Mr. Bernberg, but did not make his “top two choices” due to a relatively high per-square-foot land cost and the lack of both road access and utilities.
Mr. Bernberg admitted that he had was presenting his report without a traffic analysis, and without any knowledge about the underlying geology of the sites. Readers may recall some substantial cost overruns at the County’s new transportation facility in Harman Park, due to the presence of solid rock just a few inches below the surface. For some reason, the County had not known about the rock prior to beginning construction.
The analysis then proceeded to recommend that the County finance the new building using Certificates of Participation (COPs), which can be used to create massive County debt without requiring voter approval.
I can imagine that Northland Securities would be happy to help finance the necessary debt.
Here’s a chart included in Mr. Bernberg’s analysis.
As we can see in this chart, a COP to build a $10 million Administration Building could be paid off over 20 years, at an annual cost of about $1 million per year. So, then, a total of about $20 million paid, for a $10 million building. The extra $10 million goes into investors’ pockets.
The $1 million per year would, unfortunately, need to be diverted from other County needs. For 20 years.
A voter approved bond measure, however, would likely have a lower interest rate, and would not divert $1 million a year from other County needs.
But do we really want to start with vacant land?
In 2017, the Archuleta School District approved a new charter school, Pagosa Peak Open School, to be operated in a former office building in Aspen Village. The building had formerly housed Parelli Natural Horsemanship offices.
PPOS later purchased the building at a relatively reasonable price, using a USDA loan. A 30,000 square-foot building, on three acres of land, for less than $4.5 million.
With very little in the way of modifications, PPOS has been using this “recycled” building to offer education to over 100 students each year. Next year, the school will be constructing a new playground, using a $700,000 grant from the Colorado Health Foundation. The building also accommodates a thriving martial arts program, and PPOS plans to add a preschool program in the near future.
At the top of this page, I included a photo of the current County Administration Building… which previously served as the offices and classrooms for the Archuleta County Education Center. A recycled building, continuing to serve the community.
I mention this beneficial use of “recycled” existing buildings because the current Archuleta BOCC have thus far expressed little interest in finding an existing building and modifying it to accommodate perhaps 100 employees.
It appears the taxpayers will not be expected to ask why, at Monday’s public meeting.