At the April 2 Pagosa Springs Town Council meeting, town staff expressed concern about how the Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT) U.S 160 reconstruction project through downtown will impact the annual Fourth of July Parade.
The highway reconstruction through downtown is slated to take place in the spring/summer of 2024 and the spring/summer of 2025.
At the meeting, Administration Services Manager Kathy Harker explained that there would definitely be an “impact” to the parade route since the CDOT reconstruction project will be taking place “right smack dab in the middle” of the town’s traditional parade route.
Harker added that, “with all the unknowns” due to CDOT not yet selecting a contractor for the project and therefore not yet having solidified plans about the sequencing and schedule for the construction, “it’s very hard for staff to try to plan for something like this.”
“We feel that the traditional route may not be the best one to pursue at this time. We are investigating other routes, other options” that would hit “all the key points to keep people here and happy during the construction,” she said.
Parks and Recreation Director Darren Lewis also chimed in to say, “We have to plan this ahead of time. We can’t wait too much longer.”
He added, “Knowing that we don’t know where the construction is going to be on July 4, decisions will have to be made that if we maintain the current route that we’ve always done in the past, we would need to start planning that by May 1.”
Town staff wanted to bring this issue in front of the council as sort of “an FYI that staff is looking at moving the parade off of main street for this year,” Lewis said.
He added that the town would need to get the community acclimated to the idea that the parade would likely take place “off of main street for a few years because of the construction.”
Council member Mat deGraaf explained that the council has been told in the past “what a Herculean effort goes into planning this parade in normal years. I personally would have no problems with just canceling the parade during this time of construction.”
Mayor Shari Pierce retorted, “I’m not in favor of that. And I feel like if we cancel this parade, it may never come back, and that would be a tragedy for our community and the thousands of people who come here.”
Harker explained she wanted the council to know that town staff was not at the meeting to recommend canceling the parade, to which deGraaf said, “I understand. I’m recommending it.”
Harker noted that the parade is a “tradition here” that should continue.
Later in the discussion, council member Brooks Lindner jokingly suggested looking at a parade route “that goes by council member deGraaf’s house,” in reference to deGraaf’s suggestion to cancel the parade. This drew laughter from the council and audience.
However, Lewis noted he wanted to be clear that while this year’s parade would likely happen in some form or fashion, it will be “a very different-looking parade,” adding that town staff is just now starting to look at alternative routes and what “a mobile parade would even look like” considering the upcoming construction.
“There are different ideas. A walking parade. A much smaller, you know, having it more kid-friendly. There’s just lots of ideas that are out there right now,” he said.
Lewis told the council town staff was not bringing any concrete options in front of the council at the meeting, but will have some options soon.
“Just be open-minded that this will probably not be your typical” parade, with “lining up floats and going down the road. There’s a possibility of that,” he said.
“I encourage you to find another route. It doesn’t have to be main street, but let’s keep the parade,” council member Leonard Martinez said, stressing that it’s an important gathering for families in the area.
Pierce asked if the town could put in more than one permit with CDOT so that the town could have “a couple of options. And then when we know a little bit more about where they are actually gonna start the construction, then we can make a choice.”
She pondered, “Do we go up 8th Street and come down 6th? Or do we go up 6th and come down Hot Springs [Boulevard] depending on where CDOT’s contractor is?”
She also reminded everyone about an upcoming meeting being held this Thursday, April 4, at the Ross Aragon Community Center from 5 to 7 p.m., where the town and CDOT will provide the most recent project updates, giving residents and business owners the opportunity to ask questions and share their thoughts and ideas about the upcoming downtown construction.
She further talked about if the town should “put in a request” to CDOT at the upcoming meeting to “write it into the [construction] contract ... that we would have access to the highway for this year, and then we talk about next year after that.”
She added, “I think there’s some things we can do to try to make this happen.”
Harker told the council, “We are definitely looking at some options. We just wanted to put it out there that things might be different this year ... We’re looking at solutions, we just don’t have any yet.”
Pierce thanked the town’s staff for diving into the difficult issue and urged her fellow council members to reach out to Town Manager David Harris with any ideas about alternative parade routes so that he could pass those ideas along to town staff.
“Let’s see what we can come up with for our community. This is, I think, very important for our whole community,” she said.
derek@pagosasun.com
