Dear Editor:
There has been much discussion of late about a proposed Metropolitan (“Metro”) District within Town of Pagosa Springs town limits. I don’t know how a Metro District might work within Town limits, but I have lived for 25 years in a subdivision in unincorporated Archuleta County that has a Metro District, and was the District’s Administrator for several years.
In 2000, Archuleta County determined that it could no longer maintain all the roads within the county, and gave some subdivisions the option of forming a Metro District to maintain roads. Constituents within certain subdivisions were given the choice to vote for or against forming a Metropolitan District. The main advantage to voting in favor was that the Metro District would be able to receive a portion of property tax revenue for that subdivision, for road maintenance.
Metro Districts are Special Districts governed by the State of Colorado. In Archuleta County, roads are still “owned” by the County and Metro Districts are required to maintain them to County standards.
Metro Districts are a governmental entity, and are required to follow state and local statutes. Each District must elect a Board of Directors to govern the District. Sometimes, constituents are fortunate to elect board members with experience in matters of governance, road engineering, contract negotiation and planning. Sometimes, the District is fortunate in being able to contract qualified road contractors to plow snow in winter and perform proper road maintenance the rest of the year. There is plenty of help available from the State, with regard to running elections and the budgeting process. Finding qualified equipment operators and road graders to get to your subdivision in a timely manner is not always easy.
Sometimes, the people who are elected do not have such experience and, as we see in other forms of government, quickly dismiss competent people around them and confuse governance with autocracy. For the first fourteen years, the subdivision I live in had well-maintained gravel roads and rather boring board meetings. (Snowplowing, gravel and dust abatement contracts are only so exciting.)
For the past ten years, most sections of the main roads in my subdivision have had no gravel added. People who have lived here for five years or less are surprised when they travel to other places and drive on gravel roads, because we no longer have gravel roads in our subdivision. When it rains, we have a slick quagmire that is almost impassable. Residents have to regularly scrape mud off the driveshaft of their sport utility vehicles: one might expect this after off-roading, but it is not usual when you live in a Metro District that has tax revenue and you only drive to the grocery store.
Unfortunately, once the Metro District has been formed, although they have an obligation to maintain roads to county standards, there is really no one to enforce this requirement. I don’t know if a Metro District within Town limits would have any better oversight.
Lisa Jensen
