Jim Isgar, Colorado’s State Director of USDA Rural Development — and former State Senator for District 6 — stood on fresh fill dirt near the Town’s southern border…
Author: Bill Hudson
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can't seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.
EDITORIAL: The Town Deals with a Big Stink, Part Four
John Bozek stood up and asked why the Intergovernmental Agreement clutched in the hands of various Town Council members and PAWSD board members had never been made public…
EDITORIAL: The Town Deals with a Big Stink, Part Three
So roughly $1 million, over the next 20 years? I’m not sure if the “20-year cost” quoted here allows for inflation…
EDITORIAL: The Town Deals with a Big Stink, Part Two
In January 2012, the Town Council — acting the PSSGID board of directors — approved the sewer pipeline IGA during a contentious meeting at Town Hall…
EDITORIAL: The Town Deals with a Big Stink, Part One
The smell of rotten eggs blends poorly with rural suburban living and beautiful mountain vista, I am told…
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Fourteen
“For a community, rapid growth is easy. Bolstered by state and federal funding… municipal bond debt financing… tax incentives and deferrals… towns that want to induce new development have many means of doing so…”
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Thirteen
Clearly, socialism is not cheap, when governments feel justified about putting citizens deeply in debt without their approval…
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Twelve
Without spectacular growth, local governments cannot afford to maintain the streets and parks and buildings they’ve built to serve the public’s needs and wants…
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Eleven
Main Street USA was inspired by Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri and it’s designed to resemble an idealized turn-of-the-20th-century (c. 1910) American town…
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Ten
The place I was most excited to visit, as an eight-year-old, was Tomorrowland…
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Nine
Of the fourteen ideas listed, more than half — eight of them, to be exact — reference “walking” or “recreation.” Our current Council seems wonderfully interested in increased pedestrian activity…
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Eight
Mr. Simpson made a preliminary presentation to the Town Planning Commission on November 26, showing rough sketches of the proposed low-income town homes. The plan was praised by the Town Planning department…
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Seven
“I realized that if the economic conversations taking place in parliaments, in boardrooms and in the media worldwide are going to change, then the fundamental economic ideas taught in schools and universities have to be transformed, too….”
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Six
I suppose the Christmas season can seem like a treadmill to some people… trying to find and afford appropriate gifts for family and friends… often going into debt in the effort to show how much we care…
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Five
A key word here is “resilient.” Able to weather a storm. Durable. Stronger and longer-laster than some of the roads and buildings and infrastructure built here in Archuleta County over the past 40 years…
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Four
“I’m open to having greater special district participation on the commission, but I also think the Council needs to be the driving force of that board, to maintain the majority…”
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Three
“What they really want, is to have a meeting with the town, with the districts and have the districts and the town together to put together the format of the board, likely leading to more taxing entities on that board…”
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part Two
Ten years ago, the Town of Pagosa Springs was struggling with declining tax revenue, thanks to the Great Recession… after almost two decades of steady revenue growth…
EDITORIAL: The Growth ‘Ponzi Scheme’, Part One
“Bolstered by state and federal funding, municipal bond debt financing as well as tax incentives and deferrals, cities and towns that want to induce new development have many means of doing so…”