If the County had been willing to sell their (historic) Courthouse, it might have helped solve their serious budget shortfall, while also facilitating a key development…
Category: Opinion/Letters
EDITORIAL: History and Excess, Part One
The Town Historic Preservation Board continues to monitor the development of our community, with an eye to preserving buildings of historic importance…
EDITORIAL: A Gravel Question
“The people who are moving to Pagosa Springs don’t understand how important gravel is…”
EDITORIAL: Open Season for Budgets
Numerous other local taxpayer-funded entities are currently going through their budget processes. Or so it would appear…
EDITORIAL: Pagosa Springs, Refreshingly Blighted… Part Two
“Look at us,” the magazines seemed to be shouting, “we provide the same high-quality visitor experience as Telluride, Aspen and Vail!…”
EDITORIAL: Pagosa Springs, Refreshingly Blighted… Part One
After spending over $1 million trying to figure out the best way to increase tourism in Archuleta County, the Town Tourism Committee had still not come up with a truly exciting “branding” idea…
EDITORIAL: Icebergs of Ignorance, Part Four
Four of the seven Town Council members on Tuesday evening took Mr. Dickhoff’s assessment of the vacant property adjacent to the Springs Resort as a valid “Conditions Survey”…
EDITORIAL: Icebergs of Ignorance, Part Three
I counted about 100 people in the audience at last night’s Pagosa Springs Town Council meeting at the Ross Aragon Community Center…
EDITORIAL: Icebergs of Ignorance, Part Two
Does the Town Council know about the corruption that often accompanies URA projects, as time goes by?
EDITORIAL: Icebergs of Ignorance, Part One
Many people have written about this “Iceberg of Ignorance” concept, and some have suggested that the situation is unavoidable…
EDITORIAL: Can Rural America Be Saved? Part Five
I will go out on a limb and suggest that our Pagosa Springs leadership has been paddling frantically in the same direction for the past 20 years…
EDITORIAL: Can Rural America Be Saved? Part Four
Archuleta County certainly qualifies as a rural county with fewer than 50,000 residents, and last time I looked, we were not adjacent to a metro area…
EDITORIAL: Can Rural America Be Saved? Part Three
Our poverty rate in Archuleta County is near the national average: 12 percent. That’s substantially lower than the average poverty rate for all rural counties…
EDITORIAL: Can Rural America Be Saved? Part Two
Pirsig didn’t know it at the time — none of us knew it at the time — but the nation was just beginning its own journey into a new economic landscape…
EDITORIAL: Can Rural America Be Saved? Part One
What if an overarching economic mission of growth isn’t actually what rural places want, or need?
EDITORIAL: The Old Swimming Hole, Part Three
The River Walk is, in some ways, the prize jewel of the Town’s Parks Department — the proof that our little rural town is pedestrian-friendly and walkable…
EDITORIAL: The Old Swimming Hole, Part Two
Thankfully, our Town Council is composed of non-engineers, so we sometimes hear a different perspective…
EDITORIAL: The Old Swimming Hole, Part One
When we first arrived, in late June, the water was still chilly, and not much more that chest high on an adult…