Photo: Downtown business owner Audrey Bliss testifies at the January 7 Archuleta School Board meeting, arguing in favor of a new K-8 facility on the same campus as the existing Pagosa Springs High School.
This editorial series will focus on the January 7 meeting of the Archuleta School District (ASD) Board of Education. Much of the meeting revolved around a proposal to abandon our existing Pagosa Springs Elementary School and Pagosa Springs Middle School facilities and building a brand new ‘PreK-8’ facility somewhere.
The main question at the meeting being: Where?
Two options were on the table. On the same downtown campus as the existing High School? Or on a vacant, District-owned, 37-acre parcel adjacent to the Vista subdivision, uptown?
No decision was made… but lots of discussion took place, including testimony from the public.
First, some introductory thoughts to get us started.
In a four-part editorial series last summer, I made the argument that Pagosa Springs does not have a “tourism economy” in spite of the number of tourists that visit our community every year.
My argument was based on some publicly-available data that indicates that our community spends about twice as much money running our local governments as is spent by our entire tourism industry.
The editorial series was titled, “Pagosa’s Government Economy, Long May It Wave.”
Granted, we did see an impressive new tourist-oriented facility open its doors last spring: the expansion of the Springs Resort with a new three-story hotel and more than a dozen additional geothermal soaking pools. (Photos by Jeff Laydon, Pagosa Photography)
My argument was based on the total amount of wages that our community pays out to government employees, compared to tourism industry employees. From that four-part editorial:
If we take the average annual wage paid in ‘Accommodations and Food Services’ — $28,464 — and the average wage in the ‘Arts, Entertainment and Recreation’ sector — $26,684 — we can calculate that those two economic sectors, in 2022, paid out about $32.8 million in wages, available to be spent in the local economy.
If we take the average annual wages paid in our various government agencies — County, Town, PAWSD, Fire District, Pagosa Springs Medical Center, Forest Service, Judicial System, etc. — it appears that those employees received about $64.4 million in wages in 2022.
Available to be spent in the local economy.
That’s the wages side of the ledger. How about the Capital Projects contribution?
While the private sector has made a few investments in capital projects over the past decade — notably, the Springs Resort expansion — our local and state governments have put the private sector to shame in terms of new construction. I’ve included ‘question marks’ with the cost estimates, because it’s difficult to determine the final cost of these government projects after the inevitable cost overruns. (Photos by the Daily Post.)
New Archuleta County Jail… estimated cost: $18 million?
New Archuleta County Courthouse… estimated cost: $6 million?
New Archuleta County Mountain Transit Offices… estimated cost: $5 million?
New Archuleta County Department of Human Services Building… estimated cost: $3 million?
New Town Maintenance Facility… estimated cost: $7 million?
New Municipal Pickleball Courts… estimated cost: $500,000?
New Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District Water Treatment Facility (under construction last year)… estimated cost: $44 million?
Ruby Sisson Library Expansion (currently under construction)… estimated cost: $5 million?
Reconstruction of Highway 160 through downtown Pagosa… including investments by Town, PAWSD, and CDOT: $30 million?
While we can assume that the Springs Resort expansion will ultimately be paid for by tourism revenues, the government projects mentioned above will be paid for mainly by local residents through property taxes, sales taxes, and customer fees.
Estimated capital investments planned by our local governments over the next 5 years… $250 million? $300 million?
Estimated capital investments planned by the tourism industry or by other private companies over the next 5 years… Anything at all?
A few government projects are under discussion here in Pagosa Springs, although some of the discussion sound more serious than others. Last March, the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners have purchased 5.5 vacant acres in the Aspen Village subdivision — near Walmart — for $2.5 million, as the location for a future County administration building.
But in October, the three commissioners — Veronica Medina, Warren Brown and John Ranson — rescinded their approval of a bid for engineering and design of the ($25 million?) building that they had approved a month earlier.
We might assume this project will happen someday. But not this year.
The San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) is currently spending tax revenues for preliminary engineering for an 11,000-acre-foot water reservoir, but Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) is majority owner of the ranch on which the reservoir is proposed to be constructed, and PAWSD is currently in a lawsuit that — if successful — will allow PAWSD to sell the ranch and pay off a $10.2 million loan originally used to purchase the ranch in 2008. A court decision is expected in May.
Meanwhile, PAWSD is in the midst of a $10 million sewer treatment plant upgrade required by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. A much more expensive sewer plant upgrade awaits, in the future.
Town of Pagosa Springs voters recently approved a 1% sales tax dedicated to the Town’s sewer collection system, with upgrades and repairs estimated at perhaps $80 million of the next decade.
The Ruby Sisson Memorial Library has raised about $3.5 million for an expansion project. They hope to raise another $1.5 million to complete the project — which is already underway.
Then we come to the big daddy of all Pagosa government projects. A new PreK-8 school building, estimated to cost in the range of $120 to $130 million. It would be about twice the size of the current High School.