The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners plan to vote at 1:30pm today — Tuesday, September 16 — on whether they should spend $295,000 on engineering and design of a new County administration building.
It’s time for the taxpayers to stand up and say NO. I encourage all taxpayers to take some time to speak at the County Commissioners regular meeting at 1:30 pm tomorrow at the Commissioners hearing room on Lewis Street. I wrote the following to the Commissioners:
I implore you to vote “NO” on spending any additional taxpayer funds on a new administration building. Now that the Wyndham building on Talisman is available and staff is functioning successfully there, let’s take some time to consider purchasing that building for under $2 million.
It’s so much more practical and affordable than spending $20 million dollars on a fancy building we don’t need.
I’m aware the goal is to have all the County employees in one building. That goal is a luxury. We can’t afford a luxury. We have emergencies going on.
We the taxpayers are being asked to fund $100 million to upgrade the Town’s sewer problem. This is an emergency.
We’re already funding upgrades to the PAWSD water treatment plants. Another emergency.
We may be asked, soon, to fund $100 million to fund new schools.
Don’t forget. We’re still waiting for decent roads.
Even if we did need a building, the cost of the proposed engineering and design is way out of line. We don’t need “creative” and “remarkable” architecture provided by these high-end designers. We all know the proposals being considered are coming from the top-of-the-line architects who specialize in fancy wonders of the world.
Just look at the buildings these companies brag about: all government super-elaborate buildings.
We don’t need that. We can’t afford that.
No legitimate business that employs people and tries to make a profit spends irresponsibly like this. This building isn’t for the taxpayers. We show up, pay our tax bill, renew our license plates and leave. I’ll bet the County employees would rather have decent pay than work in a Taj Mahal.
Let’s all urge our commissioners to vote NO on spending any more money on a new admin building.
A vote for a new administration building would indicate they are not good stewards of the money they extract from the people of this community — especially during these hard times.
Marybeth Snyder
Pagosa Springs, CO