“By 1974, there was a demand for housing, mainly because of the sawmill… there had always been small sawmills here, that employed five or six guys… but when John Hudspeth came in, from Oregon, his sawmill employed 200 people…”
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: Strange Bedfellows in the Next Era of Water, Part Four
This image comes from a 90-second video produced by the World Economic Forum, portraying eight predicted changes to the world economy certain experts expect to see by the year 2030…
EDITORIAL: Strange Bedfellows in the Next Era of Water, Part Three
Perhaps Carbondale-based PR firm, Project Resource Studio, will provide the community with an answer to that question…
EDITORIAL: Strange Bedfellows in the Next Era of Water, Part Two
We pretty much stopped building new homes following the financial meltdown, between 2008-2012… and then began building them again in recent years…
EDITORIAL: Strange Bedfellows in the Next Era of Water, Part One
“The doomsday parade on the news and social media leaves many in our communities fearful, frustrated, or numb to act…”
EDITORIAL: Real Estate Sale Stops the Proposed Gravel Pit? Part Three
The email does not clearly identify “The Gravel People”, but we might assume Mr. Lemon is referring to the Urbanczyk family, who purchased the Dutton Ranch in 2021…
EDITORIAL: County Clarifies the Gravel Pit Rules and Public Hearing Protocols, Part Two
According to a search on the County Assessor’s website, all of the (rather large) properties immediately adjacent to the Oakbrush Hill site are zoned ‘Agricultural Ranching’… except for one property zoned “Agricultural Estate”…
EDITORIAL: Steep Drop in Pagosa COVID Cases Since Mid-January
As we see, the peak of confirmed infections on a single day took place on January 12, 2022, when SJBPH reported 54 cases in Archuleta County…
EDITORIAL: County Clarifies the Gravel Pit Rules and Public Hearing Protocols, Part One
“We know the County is fully aware that this issue is very important to so many of us, but it appears they really do NOT want to hear from us that oppose of this location…”
EDITORIAL: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly… Housing Solutions… Part Four
Fortunately, Rose Mountain is nothing like the monstrous, crime-ridden ‘public housing projects’ that were constructed in urban areas during the 1950s and 1960s…
EDITORIAL: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly… Housing Solutions… Part Three
“We did this because we care. Despite our community knowing for many years that this is a community-wide problem, nothing has materialized as a solution….”
EDITORIAL: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly… Housing Solutions… Part Two
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners had a number of real estate decisions on their agenda on Tuesday. Three of them were tucked into the so-called ‘consent agenda’…
EDITORIAL: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly… Housing Solutions… Part One
“It’s a sobering moment, and it’s not something that I ever thought we would do, but I believe we’re almost delaying the inevitable…”
EDITORIAL: An Historic Juncture in the History of LPEA
“I want to take an extra moment to thank all of the staff, not just for taking the time to participate in the Town Hall, but also for the two-plus years of hard work that have led to this moment in time…”
EDITORIAL: The Gravel Pit, and the Pendulum, Part Four
When I spoke with members of the ‘Stop the Rocks’ citizen group last week, some of them were not aware that the pending gravel pit decision by the Planning Commission, on February 23, is merely advisory…
EDITORIAL: Public Notices on Valentine’s Day
It’s been challenging for our 600 hotel and motel rooms to compete with the 3,000 ‘vacation rental’ bedrooms in Archuleta County…
EDITORIAL: The Gravel Pit, and the Pendulum, Part Three
In his short story from 1843, Edgar Allan Poe’s hero was strapped to a table in a rat-infested dungeon… beneath a massive, razor-sharp blade that swung back and forth like a pendulum…
EDITORIAL: The Gravel Pit, and the Pendulum, Part Two
“Uses by Zoning District in the County Regulations does not allow asphalt or concrete batch plants in Agricultural Ranching (AR) zoning district….”
EDITORIAL: The Gravel Pit, and the Pendulum, Part One
As we stood beside the pond, I asked Ms. Weber if she knew how many tons of gravel her family had excavated from that pit. She said she didn’t know…