At the Dec. 2 Pagosa Springs Town Council meeting, council member Leonard Martinez informed his fellow council members that the Pagosa Sewer Solutions Committee had $4,235 left over after the successful campaign advocating passage of ballot measure 2A.
Martinez said that the “generous donors” — who helped fund the campaign for a 1 percent sales tax increase within town limits to pay for critical sewer system repairs and upgrades — were approached with the idea to either return the remaining funds or put those funds toward a voucher program aimed to help families in need pay their monthly sewer bills.
A handout on the voucher program states that the donors unanimously agreed “to use the remaining resource as the seed fund for this [voucher] effort.”
The committee wrote a check out for $4,235.06, which the committee handed over to the nonprofit organization Friends and Neighbors in Need (FaNIN) to kick start the program, slated to begin at the first of the year when the new sales tax takes effect, Martinez explained.
For its part, the town council voted on Nov. 18 to maintain the monthly wastewater fee at $71 per month, rather than going with a recommended increase to $76 per month.
Still, FaNIN has identified that “some residents on fixed incomes were having difficulty absorbing” the existing monthly cost of their sewer bill.
The town has estimated that the 1 percent sales tax increase will cost the average household in Pagosa Springs an extra $15 per month for expenses, such as groceries and gas.
“FaNIN’s mission … is to offer emergency support and, in a community, where the living wage is 76% higher than the average wage, it is foreseeable that those families already living on the edge could use support,” the handout states.
FaNIN just completed its first year in operation, coming about due to “several faith-based communities (St. Patrick’s Episcopal, Community United Methodist, IHM/JPII Catholic Community) being called on to provide help and support to those in need,” the handout states.
The organization claims two operating principles: “the dignity and respect for the person/family needing help is paramount and relying on the principles espoused in ‘Bridges out of Poverty’ would be deployed.”
The handout also states that FaNIN operates by “finding folks in need,” and that it determines the legitimacy of a person in need based on a simple “phone call to determine if the need is an emergency.”
FaNIN’s aid resources come in the form of help with gas, food and vouchers, as well as the organization offering help with finding more “systemic support” beyond emergency needs, the handout states.
“Someone being unable to pay their full sanitation bill would be an example of the kind of emergency FaNIN would support,” the handout explains.
At the meeting, Martinez informed the council that the FaNIN board of advisors wants the new fund to be named the Modesto Montoya Community Support Memorial Fund.
He said that “one man’s name continued to come up,” as the FaNIN board discussed naming the memorial fund, and that Montoya “exemplified what it was like to be supported as our town developed and implemented and maintained its first sanitation system.”
“The respect and admiration of those who lived through that time, where Modesto Montoya used limited resources, as well as volunteers … and where his extraordinary support for our community was recalled by many of the pioneer families in Pagosa, it became clear he should be recognized not only for what he did for our community, but how he did it,” the handout states.
Martinez said at the meeting that the FaNIN “committee would like to hear from the council” about what it thinks of the name, with the council expressing support for the name.
He said that in his “door-to-door visits” during the 2A campaign, Montoya’s name, as well as his wife Bessie’s, kept coming up from “the pioneer families” of Pagosa.
“He was kinda known as someone who, at any time, day or night, whatever the problem, was there to help with few resources and volunteers,” Martinez said, adding that “everybody had positive things to say about him.”
The “net effect” of the voucher program would be for a person in need to pay only $46 per month on their sewer bill and that a $25 voucher would be used for the remainder of the $71 bill, Martinez explained.
This would bring an individual’s monthly sewer cost to around the same as those on the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) system, he explained.
FaNIN can be reached via the churches listed above, with a dedicated phone line for vouchers anticipated to be launched Jan. 1, 2026.
derek@pagosasun.com
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