Community member Dwight Vilhauer stood up to address the Pagosa Springs Town Council on Tuesday, September 7, during ‘public comment’ and expressed his displeasure with the restrictions instituted at the 25th annual Four Corners Folk Festival.
And because that music event had been held, as always, in Reservoir Hill Park — a municipal park belonging to the Town of Pagosa Springs — he had clearly made the assumption that the Town Council would want to know about his frustration, and about his belief that the Town failed to enforce its own park regulations during the festival.
The Labor Day Weekend music festival was operated for its first 24 years by a local non-profit corporation headed by long-time Pagosa residents Dan Appenzeller and Crista Munro, who later added a second annual music festival — the Pagosa Folk ‘N Bluegrass Festival — also on Reservoir Hill, but held in early June.
After health issues necessitated a move to a lower elevation, Ms. Munro and Mr. Appenzeller asked Ignacio, Colorado-based radio station KSUT — a persistent festival supporter — to take the reins for the two Pagosa festivals. As the KSUT staff and volunteers prepared to begin marketing the 2020 festivals, however, COVID arrived with its public health challenges, and KSUT cancelled both events last summer.
The June festival was again cancelled for 2021, but KSUT crossed their fingers for luck, and commenced selling tickets to the 2021 Four Corners Folk Festival, scheduled for September 3-5.
But despite the efforts by various health organizations to get La Plata and Archuleta Counties vaccinated by July 4th — President Biden’s target date — a substantial number of people in both counties have declined the vaccines. It then became increasingly apparent that even ‘fully-vaccinated’ individuals could become infected with various COVID variants — and could spread the virus as well.
Over the summer, mask-wearing exhibited a partial resurgence in Pagosa, although the actual number of reported daily cases remained at roughly the same level as we’ve seen since a major spike last November and early December.
Here’s the latest San Juan Basin Public Health graph for Archuleta County, showing that numbers have hovered around 3-5 new cases per day ever since about December 14, with two new cases reported on September 7:
Nevertheless, as the Labor Day event drew closer — and as our mainstream media grew increasing fond of describing the Delta Variant as a “raging” virus — KSUT staff concluded that additional protective measures would be justified at the Four Corners Folk Festival. The press release that went out on August 24 read, in part:
In the interest of public safety, and due to a rapidly changing health environment, KSUT and the Four Corners Folk Festival have amended their health and safety protocols for this year’s event, to be held on Reservoir Hill in Pagosa Springs over Labor Day weekend…
…All festival attendees ages 12 and older, including ticket holders, volunteers, vendors, staff, and performers, will be required to show proof of vaccination… or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of arrival at the festival… and a photo ID in order to attend. Once proof of vaccination or negative COVID test and photo ID have been shown, attendees will receive their non-transferable wristbands to be worn at all times within the festival grounds.
All attendees are encouraged to wear masks under the festival tents and in high traffic areas such as the merchandise tent, vendor lines, beverage lines, transportation waiting areas, and restroom lines.
Apparently, these protocols did not sit well with certain people in Archuleta County. Including Dwight Vilhauer.
The Town Council normally welcomes comments from the public at the beginning of each regular Town Council meeting, and on September 7, Mr. Vilhauer made use of his allotted three minutes.
Except that it took him 15 minutes to do so.
He began by telling the Council that he’d reached out to KSUT staff, prior to the Festival, and had shared his opinion that the proposed COVID policy was poorly conceived and ought to be reconsidered. KSUT did not change their policy.
Mr. Vilhauer said he then reached out to Pagosa Mayor Don Volger, who directed him to Town Manager Andrea Phillips. Ms. Phillips confirmed the proposed restrictions, but stated (according to Mr. Vilhauer) that the Town had no control over KSUT’s management of the Festival. Mr. Vilhauer attempted to find an online copy of the lease between KSUT and the Town, to determine if the proposed restrictions violated the signed lease, but was unable to locate it.
Mr. Vilhauer:
“So I went into the [Town’s] Municipal Code and I found section 14, article 2, that deals with Parks & Recreation facilities. And I’m assuming the Town Council is aware of this, but I just want to highlight some of these things that are in the code…”
You can find the Municipal Code here.
“And I will go through this quickly so that I don’t take up too much of everyone’s time… Section 14.2…”
Sec. 14.2.1. – Permits Required.
(1) Any person or group who desires to use a municipal park or recreational facility for any event, assembly, festival or similar activity, must first obtain a permit from the Director of Parks and Recreation.
(2)The Director of Parks and Recreation or his or her designee shall grant and issue such permit if:
(a)The proposed activity or use of the park, playground, or recreational facility will not unreasonably interfere with or detract from the general public enjoyment of such facilities…
Mr. Vilhauer had been speaking in a normal tone of voice up until this point. But now his tone began to sound more strident and shrill.
“If a group is coming in, and they are offering their event to the general public, according to this, they can’t be allowed to create restrictions that prevent the general public from using these park facilities. So, how is it that KSUT is allowed to do this?”
Should we, here, closely consider the word: “unreasonably”?
‘…will not unreasonably interfere with or detract from…’
When thousands of public health professionals around the world have embraced and encouraged mandatory face mask wearing and testing protocols, we can hardly call the Folk Festival restrictions “unreasonable” — even if we don’t agree with them.
It would, in fact, be reasonable to suggest that KSUT’s COVID restrictions were “reasonable” — as in, actions that a reasonable person would take, after considering all the unknowns and all the uncertainty. Even if, as I said, we don’t agree with them.
Although the Council (and audience) listened patiently to Mr. Vilhauer during a 15-minute presentation, he failed (in my humble opinion) to provide any compelling arguments to support his protest, other than the fact that he, personally, didn’t approve of the restrictions.
Reviewing the Municipal Code, from my perspective, I could find nothing therein that would prevent KSUT from making a public health decision and enforcing it during the 25th Folk Festival.
Hopefully, next year will be less contentious. For all concerned.