2025 was an interesting year in Pagosa Country. There was no want for good news, bad news, controversial issues, and no lack of interesting news to keep SUN readers focused on local events, situations and personalities.
The SUN is taking a look back at some of those events, selected by SUN staff writers. This week, we look back at October, November and December.
October
• A trio of Pagosa Springs High School (PSHS) Pirate cross-country runners earned all-conference honors at the Oct. 3 Zaragoza Invitational/Intermountain League (IML) Meet in Alamosa.
Rylan Ash, Madisen Stretton and Lily DeClark earned second-team all-conference honors.
• In early October, the Colorado Main Street network recognized Pagosa Springs Main Street as Community of the Year and Kathleen McFadden as Manager of the Year, honoring their leadership, innovation and results in downtown revitalization.
• Pirates Johnathon Smith and Tyler Dimond represented the PSHS golf team at the 3A state tournament on Oct. 6 and 7 in Eagle after finishing the regular season among the classification’s top 84 golfers.
Smith, a senior, capped off his high school career as part of a four-way tie for 21st, while Dimond, a sophomore, tied for 56th.
• On Oct. 7, the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) named a sole finalist for the county manager position — Loginos Gonzalez Jr., from Colorado Springs.
• On Oct. 7, the BoCC unanimously voted to host an Independence Day parade in Pagosa Springs in 2026. The town traditionally hosts the event.
• At its Oct. 9 meeting, the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) Board of Directors voted to offer the district manager position opened by the upcoming departure of District Engineer/Manager Justin Ramsey to Andrew Connor, who served as PAWSD’s operations manager.
The decision followed the board interviewing district manager finalists Connor and Dillon Cottingham at its Sept. 29 meeting.
• Pagosa Country experienced two historic floods in four days on Oct. 11 and 14 thanks to moisture from the remnants of a pair of tropical storms, Priscilla and Raymond.
The flooding for the San Juan River at Pagosa Springs peaked at 8,270 cubic feet per second (cfs) and 12.66 feet at 6 p.m. on Oct. 11 and again at 8,560 cfs and 12.82 feet at 5:15 a.m. on Oct. 14, putting the two events as the fourth and third highest on record, behind floods in October 1911 and June 1927.
At 11 a.m. on Oct. 9, prior to the storms moving through the area, the San Juan River at Pagosa Springs was flowing at 71.4 cfs or 3.72 feet.
The Pagosa Springs area saw 2.45 inches to 6.93 inches of rain between Oct. 10 and Oct. 14, with mountain SNOTEL totals ranging from 8.7 inches to 9.8 inches.
The floods left officials dealing with a number of infrastructure issues, ranging from roads to sewer services, and the floods resulted in millions in infrastructure damage and drew visits from the area’s congressional representatives.
• With an overall record of 10-2-1, including a league mark of 5-0-1, the Pirate soccer team secured the IML title for the second year in a row in mid-October.
• Ten athletes from the DUST2 mountain bike team qualified for the state championships in Glenwood Springs Oct. 18-19: Quinn Howard, Gianna Shaeffer, Adelyn Hittle, Max Roukema, Justin Sewell, Jackson Chaney, Weston Phillips, Amon Phillips, Kaylee Hensle and Eric Smith.
• During an Oct. 21 regular meeting, the BoCC unanimously voted to enter into an employment agreement with Gonzalez for the county manager position.
• The Pirate cross-country team logged a number of highlights at the Oct. 23 regional meet: Ash qualified for state and became PSHS’s first freshman boy to qualify after placing 13th, several Pirate runners set new personal records, and Stretton displayed sportsmanship and sacrifice, giving up a potential personal record to help a fallen runner to the finish line.
• The Pirate boys’ soccer team capped off its regular season with a 6-2 win over the Lake County Panthers at home on Oct. 24, bringing its overall record to 11-2-1, including a league mark of 5-0-1.
The Pirates ended the regular season as the 23rd-ranked team in the state’s 3A division, earning a first-round playoff match against the 10th-ranked Atlas Preparatory School Gryphons out of Colorado Springs.
The Pirates traveled to Colorado Springs on Oct. 29, to take on the Gryphons, but fell 3-1.
• On Oct. 31, Gov. Jared Polis made two appointments in the 6th Judicial District — Archuleta County’s new county court judge and a new district court judge.
Polis appointed Anthony D. Edwards to the Archuleta County Court in the 6th Judicial District. The vacancy was occasioned by the appointment of Justin P. Fay to the 6th Judicial District Court.
Polis appointed R. Reid Stewart to the 6th Judicial District Court.
• The Pirate football team claimed the Intermountain League (IML) title and earned a playoff spot after defeating the Alamosa Mean Moose 24-21 on Oct. 31 at Golden Peaks Stadium.
November
• The 3A Lady Pirate volleyball team finished its season with a win against a 4A opponent Nov. 1 at the Coal Ridge Tournament, where the team went 2-2 over two days.
Despite the wins, the Lady Pirates were unable to break into the 3A playoffs, ending the season at No. 38, with 36 teams advancing. The Lady Pirates ended the season with a 5-18 record.
• The high school cross-country season drew to a close on Nov. 1 at the Norris Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs with the state championship meet.
Ash finished 28th overall out of 153 runners with a time of 17 minutes, 10.10 seconds, making him the top freshman finisher at the meet and earning him an all-state honorable mention.
• A 23-year-old New York man was killed after the semi he was driving went off the side of U.S. 160 on Wolf Creek Pass the morning of Nov. 3.
• On Nov. 4, Town of Pagosa Springs voters voted in favor of a 1 percent sales tax rate increase for sewerage and wastewater reuse facilities beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
• The Pirate football team traveled to Elizabeth on Nov. 8 to take on the Elizabeth Cardinals in the first round of the state’s 2A division playoffs. The Pirates fell to the Cardinals by a score of 44-38 in a back-and-forth game.
• The Pirate boys’ soccer coach and multiple players received Intermountain league (IML) all-conference awards for their efforts during the 2025 season: coach Trevor Gian (IML Coach of the Year), Hudson Davis (honorable mention), Ryder King (first team), Milo Deitemeyer (first team), Gavin Carter (first team, Player of the Year), Jacob Castaneda (honorable mention) and Chance Ramirez (first team).
• Sky watchers across a good portion of the U.S. were treated to displays of the northern lights the week of Nov. 10, with Pagosa Country being no exception.
• In annual tradition, members of Mullins-Nickerson American Legion Post 108 presented a Veterans Day ceremony in honor of veterans on Nov. 11 at Veterans Memorial Park, and local veterans were honored at a breakfast hosted by Pagosa Springs Middle School’s eighth-graders.
• Sometime overnight between Nov. 11 and the early hours of Nov. 12, individuals entered the active construction zone along the 400 block of U.S. 160 and walked through newly poured concrete sidewalk. The act set the project back by an estimated two days and more than $10,000.
• On Nov. 12, Polis formally requested a major disaster declaration from President Donald Trump and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to support ongoing recovery efforts in La Plata, Archuleta and Mineral counties following the record-breaking western Colorado flooding that occurred Oct. 10-14.
The declaration would unlock FEMA Public Assistance and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding to help communities recover from severe flooding, debris flows, infrastructure damage and long-term watershed impacts.
• A fire at PSHS’s vocational education building on Nov. 12 was determined to be arson. The incident was paged out at about 3:31 p.m., with fire personnel locating the fire in the kitchen area and knocking it down.
The Pagosa Springs Police Department indicated the fire began in a small closet pantry in the kitchen located in the building.
• The PAWSD board approved an employment agreement with Connor at its Nov. 13 meeting.
• At its Nov. 13 meeting, the PAWSD board also agreed to end the district’s affordable housing surcharge, which had been used to support fee waivers for affordable housing.
• At meetings on Nov. 4 and 18, The majority of the governmental entities who utilize dispatch services locally have approved dissolving the existing intergovernmental agreement for operation of the dispatch center and approved having the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office operate the dispatch center.
• The suspect in a fatal Feb. 15 crash on U.S. 84 who was reported as a missing person in Texas in October was booked into the Archuleta County jail on Nov. 20 after turning himself in.
Justin Levi McCelvey, 38, of New Braunfels, Texas, is facing charges stemming from a two-vehicle crash that took place near milepost 18 on U.S. 84 that killed two — a 7-year-old and an adult — and left another adult with serious injuries.
McCelvey was out on a $1 million bond when he was reported as a missing person out of Port Aransas, Texas, with his last appearance listed on missing posts on Facebook as Oct. 9.
The case is ongoing.
• The Pirate Unified bowling team logged its best state finish in team history at the Nov. 21 state bowling championships in Lone Tree, taking 10th out of 29 teams with a total pinfall of 513.
The Pirates qualified for state after placing second at regionals.
• Wolf Creek Ski Area opened for the season on Nov. 22. As of Nov. 25, the ski area had reported 33 inches of snow so far on the season.
December
• The shift of the lanes of traffic from the south side of U.S. 160 to the north side from 4th Street to 1st Street was completed on Dec. 2, ahead of the week’s snowstorm.
• On Dec. 2, the Colorado Broadband Office announced that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration approved Colorado’s final proposal under the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, unlocking $420.6 million in federal funding for the state’s broadband infrastructure.
Eric Hittle, technical director of the Archuleta County Broadband Services Management Office, noted the project will include about $22 million in investment in Archuleta County.
• On Dec. 5, Fay issued an order providing summary judgment on several key issues in the ongoing litigation between the San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) and PAWSD over PAWSD’s efforts to sell the Running Iron Ranch, which the entities jointly own.
• A pair of Lady Pirates garnered postseason honors for their work on the volleyball court during the fall season, with Hayden Peterson earning an all-conference honorable mention and Lexi Campbell being named to the all-conference second team.
• The sales tax collections report released Dec. 8 revealed that sales tax collections in Archuleta County for the month of October 2025 were reported to be down 16.3 percent compared to figures from October 2024.
The county’s sales tax collections had been up every other month so far in the month-to-month comparisons with 2024, with the biggest increase coming in February, which showed an 11.6 percent increase.
• On Dec. 12, the Pirate cheer squad recorded its best finish in more than a decade at the state spirit championships at the Denver Coliseum.
The team took sixth in the Coed 2A/3A division with a semifinals score of 60.65, which included no deductions.
• The Lady Pirate swim team returned to action with the Delta Invite on Dec. 12, where the team started with a bang as the 200-meter medley relay team of Marlowe Hedgecock, Leah Blackman, Chloe Gantt and Asia Gorman qualified for state.
• Pagosa Country experienced record high temperatures Dec. 12 and 13.
According to Pagosa Weather’s Shawn Prochazka, the previous record high in Pagosa Springs for Dec. 12 was set in 1934 at 55 degrees, which was broken with a high temperature of 57 degrees.
The previous record high for Dec. 13 was set in 1929 at 54 degrees, which was broken with a high temperature of 55 degrees.
• On Dec. 15, Gov. Jared Polis, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Great Outdoors Colorado announced 19 grant awards totaling $9,990,240 through the Regional Partnerships Initiative. Of that, the Pagosa Area Recreation Coalition will receive $86,055 to support collaborative efforts advancing regional conservation and recreation goals.
The investments support regional coalitions working together to advance outdoor recreation, conservation and climate resilience goals aligned with Colorado’s Outdoors Strategy.
• On Dec. 15, the BoCC unanimously approved a resolution honoring military veterans and declaring Archuleta County as a Purple Heart county. Commissioner Veronica Medina noted there are 35 known Purple Heart recipients in Archuleta County.
• The spirit of the season was on display at the fifth annual Old Fashioned Christmas Celebration in downtown Pagosa Springs on Dec. 20.
• On Dec. 20, FEMA denied Colorado’s two disaster requests, including the one for the flooding that occurred in southwest Colorado in October. The other request was for support following the Elk and Lee fires in Rio Blanco County.
The following day, Polis and Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper announced appeals would be filed soon after the “late Saturday night” denial and called on Trump to reverse the decision.
• More record high temperatures were set on Dec. 22 and Dec. 23.
According to Prochazka, the previous record high temperature for Dec. 22 was set in 1906 at 57 degrees. The new record high set was 58 degrees.
The previous record high for Dec. 23 was also set in 1906, at 56 degrees. The new record high set was 58 degrees.
• In late December, it was announced that Chimney Rock National Monument had been designated an International Dark Sky Park by DarkSky International.
The monument becomes Colorado’s 19th certified International Dark Sky Park and joined a growing list of places known for dark sky conservation and education.
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