Photo: A powerpoint slide from the annual Colorado League of Charter Schools Conference, February 27, 2025.
I’m writing this installment from a Denver hotel room, following the second day of the annual Colorado League of Charter Schools Conference, February 26-28. I currently serve as a volunteer board member for Pagosa Peak Open School (PPOS), and most of our six-person board attended the conference this year… to get inspired, and rejuvenated, and re-committed to our educational project in Archuleta County.
PPOS is a tuition-free public school authorized by the Archuleta School District.
I expect to write about the conference next week. But first I need to wrap up this current editorial series about ‘Economic Development’.
Creating a charter school is certainly one way to make a community attractive to a wider variety of families, and it’s also a way to create jobs. And in the case of Pagosa Peak Open School, it has been a way to utilize a large office building abandoned by its original tenant. Not many Pagosa businesses could have afforded to purchase the former Parelli Natural Horsemanship office building.
But the founders of Pagosa Peak Open School did not see ‘Economic Development’ as their primary objective. They wanted, instead, to create an innovative educational alternative.
And I seriously doubt that many businesses in Archuleta County were started by people intent on driving an ‘Economic Development’ agenda. Businesses get started for a variety of reasons, but that’s not typically one of them.
I mentioned previously the three local businesses purposely created to drive ‘Economic Development’ in Pagosa Springs.
In chronological order:
1. The Pagosa Springs Area Chamber of Commerce… a non-profit membership organization.
2. VisitPagosaSprings, otherwise known as the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board… a government agency funded by Lodging Taxes.
3. Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (PSCDC)… a non-profit membership organization funded mainly by tax revenues provided by Archuleta County and the Town of Pagosa Springs.
The Chamber and PSCDC were in attendance at Tuesday’s joint meeting of the Board of County Commissioners and the Town Council, and the agenda included these items:
I. US Hwy 160 Construction
II. Housing Needs Assessment Update
III. Pagosa Area Recreation Coalition Update
IV. Potholes at City Market Center
V. Other Items of Mutual Interest
The Highway 160 reconstruction through downtown Pagosa, scheduled to begin on March 17, will likely be the exact opposite of ‘Economic Development’. Many people are concerned about the viability of the downtown businesses that face Highway 160 over the two years of construction, and at the Tuesday meeting, County Manager Jack Harper noted that the BOCC has set aside $100,000 to help mitigate business impacts, either through grants, loans or other financial mechanisms. (I’ve not heard that the Town has dedicated any funds for a similar purpose.). As Mr. Harper noted, the second year of construction will likely be the most challenging, after businesses have burned through any savings they might have set aside for emergencies.
Kat McFadden from the PSCDC summarized the efforts to find alternative downtown parking to replace the 180 on-street parking spots that will become unavailable beginning in March. The Springs Resort will be allowing vehicles to park in their vacant meadow facing Hot Springs Boulevard, and the Ruby Sisson Library will be allowing parking in the vacant lot west of the library. (The large parking lot adjacent to the Old Courthouse will be used by the CDOT contractor, WW Clyde.)
It’s widely acknowledged that the highway reconstruction project will be stressful on businesses.
Another stress on local businesses is our current housing crisis.
The two consultant firms working on the 2025 Housing Needs Assessment — Eco Northwest and Western Spaces LLC — recently surveyed employers and employees in Archuleta County to learn how serious the housing crisis might be.
The responses were not encouraging.
63% of employers reported that — in spite of our ongoing efforts at ‘Economic Development’ — it has gotten harder to find qualified, willing employees. Another 26% reported that the challenges were about the same as three years ago. (It was already difficult three years ago.).
The employers struggling? The Medical Center. City Market. Walmart. Archuleta County. The School District…
Everyone, pretty much. The main reason for the struggle? Inflated housing costs.
The consultants will be providing a complete report on the problem within the next few weeks.
We also heard from Bob Milford and Amanda Gadomski, regarding a newly-formed organization called the Pagosa Area Recreation Coalition (“PARC”) that hopes to help coordinate recreational decision-making to encourage wiser use of our great outdoors while simultaneously protecting wildlife and forests. The Coalition does not currently have an ongoing funding mechanism, and might be turning to local governments for tax funding.
Last but not least on the agenda, we heard about the eternal potholes plaguing the two entry driveways into the City Market shopping center parking lot, from Talisman Drive and from North Pagosa Boulevard. The shopping center buildings are owned by seven different owners, who have never come to an agreement about rebuilding those two driveways.
Town Community Development Director James Dickhoff assured the BOCC and Council that the true problem was a failed roadbed under the asphalt, so the shopping center property owners are facing a major expense to properly address the situation. Patching the potholes is not the solution.
The meeting ended with a discussion — summarized yesterday in Part Five — about government and developer ambitions that our struggling working families and retirees cannot easily afford to pay for.
The meeting participants didn’t name all projects currently under discussion. But I think these are the main ones:
New school buildings.
A new County administration building.
New electric infrastructure at Cloman Park.
A new water reservoir in Dry Gulch.
A new riverfront park at the old Bob’s LP site.
A new PLPOA athletic field and gymnasium.
A new building trades education building.
A library expansion.
Repair of the Town’s sewer system.
The State of Colorado is paying for the CDOT highway reconstruction, but the Town and PAWSD will be replacing all their underground pipes that cross the highway, before the concrete gets poured. We will be paying for that. It won’t be cheap.