Author: Bill Hudson

“But it sounds like there are people at this table who want to get back there… want to get back to 2021, and even higher levels…”

“So I asked the Tourism Board the other day, ‘What would we do if we had $300,000 more?’ And nobody had a quick and ready answer…”

Here’s a photo of the Dry Gulch valley that would be completely flooded, if the reservoir were built to the size proposed by SJWCD…

A local government’s budget defines, in a very real sense, which problems will be addressed in 2025, and which will not…

Here in Archuleta County, about 43% of the property taxes collected each year goes into our local public schools…

“By stars and red checks, smiles and frowns, I teach kids to surrender their will to the chain of command. Individuality is a contradiction to class theory…”

Ms. Pullman is seemingly unable to admit that every form of education has an underlying political foundation…

“Classical educational teaches students HOW to learn. Traditional education teaches students WHAT to learn…”

I came across this discarded ‘Yard Sale’ sign on Monday, while walking the 4-acre parcel the Town government is proposing to purchase and convert into a riverfront park…

“What’s the deal with this property you’re trying to buy down by the Circle K? Why do you need to buy a piece of junk like that?”

“What was not mentioned in the application is that [Mr. Lucero] is fifth generation, and more importantly, on his mother’s side, is the namesake: Archuleta…”

The tourism industry is now tasked not just with “selling” our communities, but also preserving some vestiges of why locals choose to live here…

“And I know that we are the ones who make the decision, but I feel like it would be prudent of us to get a financial advisor, to show us what the cost would be…”

“So if we start to look at those segments, and start to maximize those types of visitors, we can quiet that noise with all the visitors creating all the negative impact….”

But you can’t properly maintain 500 miles of road with a small population scattered over 1,000 square miles.  The tax base is simply too small…

“The efforts to recall Commissioner Veronica Medina took the work of many volunteers from employees of the county, to longtime residents, to local business owners…”

“I have an affinity for data analysis. I love looking at data and trends. I use it in my day-to-day operations at The Springs Resort…”

I’ve been following, and writing about, the Town Tourism Committee — later to become the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board — since about 2006…

In the spring of 1894, the Pullman railroad car manufacturing company had pushed its workforce into despair, following the Panic of 1883…