Consider the idea of “infrastructure.” It’s bandied about frequently,

so let’s also consider redefinition of the term and ways to focus

that definition at the local level to aid in its use close to home.

It is no new idea that, as a nation, we could spend billions on improvement of “infrastructure,” stimulating job markets, materials investments, etc. instead of pouring our wealth down unproductive foreign holes.

This kind of thinking usually involves a definition of “infrastructure” that includes traditional elements such as roads and bridges — many of which are in need of replacement or repair.

But, how shortsighted is it to stop there, satisfied with the definition and what it leads to? Would it be more productive to redefine “infrastructure” with a realistic eye cast on the future?

What if we can extract ourselves from costly and unproductive foreign ventures and turn our economic powers to home; are we overlooking some options if and when we set our sights on traditional “infrastructure?” Are we looking ahead to a healthy culture and economy, or to a future as a site of interesting “ancient ruins?” For example, just how much value is there in extensive repair, enhancement and expansion of highway systems, when those systems imply continued reliance on petroleum-based devices and industries? Without investment in viable, alternative fuels … not much.

How much good sense is there in working to expand traditional energy systems, when they rely on oil or continued radical transformation of the landscape?

When analysts say the increase in air traffic in the next decade will be dramatic, why are we not focusing on development of alternative air transport systems and facilities? Why, when rail systems show backups similar to those experienced during World War II, are we not streamlining those systems?

What happens if we redefine “infrastructure” and invest more in information-based research that leads to new energy and transportation technologies, that produce new means of food production and health care? These could be elements of “infrastructure.”

The point: We too often focus on short-term problems and their solutions — at the expense of well-thought-out, longer-term projects that rest on altering our perception of basic needs and ways we can satisfy them.

Locally, how do we redefine “infrastructure,” then direct our funds, such as they are, to its development?

“Infrastructure” development in Pagosa Country is vital to our survival and prosperity and includes, at one level, roads, sidewalks, streetlights, trash collection facilities, water and power.

But, In terms of transportation and a future in which gas costs more and alternative forms of transport are needed, what can we do? “Infrastructure” could mean something as simple as a relatively inexpensive trail system connecting the downtown area to densely populated areas east and west of town, allowing increased pedestrian and bike traffic. Save 40 or 50 auto trips per day, and the addition is meaningful.

“Infrastructure” redefined means codified practices, the development of rules, regulations and fees allowing for economic development — the creation of businesses, large and small.

“Infrastructure” should mean the continued improvement of telecommunications service to the area, emphasis on use of an airport as a commercial and industrial center. It should mean creation of improved and alternative means of education.

“Infrastructure” can include public/private development of quality affordable housing needed by a workforce that, otherwise, might not be able to afford to live and work here.

We need to consider what “infrastructure” means at all levels and look at it in terms of long-term consequences. What is it, and how can we spend our monies wisely to improve it? And who has the ideas and ability to do it?

Karl Isberg

The rights of spring

It’s spring, time for regeneration, the birth of new things. Who doesn’t

like spring? A silly question since, as this small town proves again

and again, there are people who, for the worst and least of reasons, dislike many things. Despite this, now is a time that allows positive thoughts and feelings to emerge in concert with a change of season.

It was an often difficult winter here; but we are thawing, life is beginning to accelerate, there are things afoot that make this a special, reassuring time.

Want to feel good? Read this week’s article about junior high students who accomplished something wonderful: The Pagosa Imaginators 3 team won the state Destination ImagiNation championship and advance to the Global Competition. This is the first time a Pagosa team has won the state title and the team now sets out to raise funds to pay for the trip.

Among our older youngsters, high school seniors will soon finish their local school careers and many, if not most, will move on to other education. A large group of students worked long and hard to present their versions of a Broadway show this weekend. High school athletes are also excelling; the girls’ soccer team and the baseball team advance to playoffs this weekend.

Spring housecleaning is a tradition and a community clean-up has become an annual event in Pagosa Springs. The upcoming Clean-up Week affords town residents opportunities to unload junk, to beautify surroundings. Individuals and groups are making concerted efforts to clean up areas adjacent to roadways in the county, collecting trash thrown there by an uncaring few. The county has nuisance regs in draft stage; an ordinance could make its way to the commissioners in July, allowing us to deal with many unsightly and unsavory aspects of community life.

There is a new town council, and town government continues to move toward developing land use regulations that can undergird economic development the town needs to survive and allow citizens to make a decent living — while protecting well-defined “Pagosa” values.

On the county front, administrative staff is working hard to ensure solvency through 2008 and 2009. Courtrooms will, for the first time, be more secure, due to a newly-created security officer position. A new airport manager has been hired. The county planning commission has been doing energetic and dedicated work.

In the political realm, voters have opportunities to make significant moves at all levels in primary and general elections in coming months. There are plenty of options when it comes to candidates seeking party nominations for county commissioner in two districts. A series of bipartisan and civil candidate forums is underway, allowing voters to meet and evaluate office seekers. There are Republican and Democratic candidates vying for the district attorney job. There are state and national races this year that include certifiably different candidates and ideas, and the vote will make a real difference.

Beyond all this, philanthropy and goodwill continue to flower in Pagosa Country. When nastiness and ill-informed rancor is pushed aside, one finds a core of decent, well-meaning and loving people here. They do their work every day, in so many ways. Take, for example, two instances noted in this week’s SUN. The Hughes Foundation has made a major donation to the school district to assist in creation of a new education center and program at the high school. The Crisis Food Box program continues its work to provide sustenance to those reeling from the effects of emergencies. And these are but two of many heartfelt efforts underway in this community.

It’s spring, Pagosa. Things are breaking ground, seeking the light. Let’s make sure those things, and not their opposites, are encouraged to grow.

Karl Isberg

At the tipping point

With the resignation Monday of Town Manager Mark Garcia, he and the town stand on the brink of further change. Lest rumor get too out of control (as it is wont to do lately) it should be noted that Garcia’s departure is not unusual in the universe of town and county managers. It happens regularly and provides, in fact, an opportunity to move on in a positive fashion. For everyone concerned.

Pagosa Springs serves as evidence. Garcia did his job in the wake of Jay Harrington, who resigned his post as town administrator after 10 years. Harrington replaced Patrick Sherman who resigned and left the job after three. Sherman followed Jerry Richardson (three years) who left the job voluntarily; Richardson replaced Herb Haist (one year), who replaced Chuck Rogers (five years), who replaced Ron Backus (one year), who took the place of the first town manager, Bill Ray (two years).

Garcia was in the town employ longer than his predecessors, working in several positions. He served the town for more than 13 years and is to be commended for his work here. Some of his decisions, like those of anyone in his position, were criticized, but one should never doubt his dedication to the town and the ideals he held for it. Moreover, he and his wife, Jean, have been invaluable members of the community, contributing to it in myriad ways.

We wish Mark the best as he now moves on, in a positive fashion.

As for the town, there is something to be learned from the departure of the above noted administrators: Most signaled a door had opened, that a change in what the town is and might be was at hand.

Town leadership faces opportunity at this juncture, and we hope prospects are approached with reason and restraint.

This is not a blank slate situation. There are key projects on the table that must be finished: the Lewis Street renovation; the athletic fields at the Sports Complex; the river restoration project; the demolition of the former Seeds of Learning building and wise use of the property; the sanitation treatment plant project. It appears Director of Planning Tamra Allen will act in an interim capacity, managing matters at Town Hall while a search for a new manager takes place. Allen is more than capable. She is up-to-date on town business and should do the town proud holding down the fort.

It is the selection of the next manager, and a newly-constituted town council’s ability to deal with some of the mounting pressures related to the current economy, the state of land use regulations and fee policies that will be interesting to watch. It is here that reason, hopefully, will rule the day, resulting in actions tempered by attention to the best interests of the people of Pagosa Springs. Economic development is crucial for the town and its residents. As in quality development, done within the scope of existing regulations, until such regulations are changed. There are too many interests in this world, which, with profit as the engine, seek to cut corners, to downgrade products, to take advantage of communities that perceive, rightly or wrongly, that they need to cultivate “progress.” If wolves and siding salesmen arrive at the door only a fool invites them in without precautions. By the same token, when established public procedures are followed, when projects are worthy, it is foolish to make progress so difficult that it is halted. Anyone familiar with Pagosa’s recent past knows this is true.

There is much work to be done. This town, in the words of a former manager is “at a tipping point.” Think about what that means: You tip too far in any direction … you fall.

Best of luck to Garcia, and to our town as it moves forward.

Karl Isberg

Have we had enough?

When are we going to wake up and say we’ve had enough, and do something about it? When will we stop regarding the erosion of our privacy, our rights, our livelihoods, our futures and those of our children and grandchildren as if it is a televised docudrama or a video game on the Internet, and put a stop to this decline? Next November, perhaps?

Anyone notice what’s happening to food prices recently?

What about health care costs and the clear advantage gained in the absence of a sane policy by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, lawyers, et al?

Notice the increase in gas prices at the pump? Of course you do.

Paid any attention to the fact that earning power has not gone up much, if at all? The average middle-class wage earner has not received a meaningful “raise” in nearly 30 years, when other factors are taken into account.

Has it become obvious that the middle class is shrinking, that it is being squeezed out — read “down” — as the economy changes? The middle class, the alleged backbone of the economy, realized little if anything during the last two “booms” in this economy. If they were booms, who profited?

Read or seen anything lately about certain corporate profits, and about how much, say in the energy sector, is being turned to research and development, in particular regarding alternative energy sources?

How about those executive bonuses and stock options? Has anyone noticed there are executives leading failing companies who receive millions, tens of millions in rewards? While middle class and hourly workers get … what?

When will we wake up and understand our political system has been manipulated to the point where we have had a “choice” only between equally incompetent puppets. We are in a war in which we spend billions per week and lose valuable lives, without any significant amount of money returning to an economy that is slumping — billions that could be spent on infrastructure improvements, education, job training, health care, care of the aging, the revitalization of a manufacturing sector. Billions that could circulate in the nation’s economy. We are hopelessly in debt, increasingly owned by others who have less than our best interests at heart.

All the while, our rights are washed away. We lose rights in the name of security, of protection. Our rights, and the rights of our young people, are stripped, our constitutional gifts stolen, by those who claim to cleave to our best interests. We teach our youngsters it is acceptable to deprive someone of rights, as long as you have their protection at heart. We give way to those who wish to strip freedom of its risks, those who “know best,” those who wish to prevent damage, to make things tidy without a second glance at unintended consequences. We live in a society in which, more and more often, government steals the rights of individuals, usurps the responsibility of parents for their children, deprives citizens young and old of fundamental constitutional rights, imposing a neo-Napoleonic code in the name of … what?

When are we going to get out of our chairs and say “Enough,” and demand that we, as a society take some basic action. When will we deal with climate change, recognize that control of population is fundamental to improvement of all other aspects of human being; find alternative, cheap and safe forms of energy; understand that education, not force and the extinction of rights, is key to combating social ills, and understand that we will never combat them all successfully.

We’re smart enough to do these things, aren’t we?

Karl Isberg