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Tourism board talks sustainability, events

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Members of the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board examined sustainability in both environmental and existential terms during their year-end meeting on Dec. 17, 2024, discussing ways to reduce waste during events and questioning how deeply their director should wade into those events’ planning and organization.

Acknowledging the limited number of recycling options available to the community near the top of the meeting, Tourism Director Jennifer Green outlined a potential collaboration with a local waste management company that would install 96-gallon recycling containers at gatherings with large amounts of cardboard and paper products.

“It’s a very minimal fee for the events that have cans or have a large number of cardboard boxes,” Green said, adding that the cost would be about $55 an event — a “cost the tourism board would absorb.”

“Now, that’s not going to work for most of our events,” she continued, pointing to events with heavy beverage consumption that end with stacks of single-use plastic cups heading to the county landfill.

To combat some of that waste, “We could get Pagosa-branded, hard plastic cups, or aluminum … that we buy and then hand out to event organizers at no charge,” said Green, who ventured that imbibers could reuse their cups for multiple trips to the beverage cart.

“I do see the recycling aspect, or environmentally friendly [aspect], could be a selling point for our efforts, but also a selling point for the events themselves,” she said.

Green proposed purchasing about 25,000 cups to distribute, with costs dependent on the materials. Branded aluminum souvenirs, she figured, would start at around $2.50 a cup.

“We can try to make them unique so that people want to keep them and just don’t toss them in the trash cans,” Green said.

She added, “If you want me to investigate this further, I’ll bring you a budget and options during the February meeting and I will reach out to some event organizers that deal with kegs.” 

Her suggestion was met with support from around the room as board members agreed the tourism board should be a model for responsible use of the outdoors.

The question of sustainability continued to figure prominently as board members pivoted to discuss Green’s role in planning and organizing seasonal community events, weighing valuable staff time and the other priorities set for her office.

“I went over what it takes for staff to organize these events,” Green noted, describing the conundrum her office faces as it attempts to preserve community staples like Old Fashioned Christmas while balancing everyday workloads and tasks.

“If we cancel some of these now-beloved community events, I am concerned about the backlash that’s going to happen. I also see the events that are being canceled around the community,” she said, pointing to the recently “paused” Four Corners Folk Festival.

She added, “We are losing large events that have been critical and really a staple of the community. With that said, if you guys don’t want staff to organize these events, I do feel like it’s in our best interest to work to try to find other event organizers to take them over.”

Green pointed to the Halloween Hootenanny and Old Fashioned Christmas as two examples that might benefit from event organizers outside of her office.

“Here we are in December. We have time to actually [identify] other entities that could take over these events,” Green said. “I can draft an RFP [request for proposals] and take it before town council.”

She added, “We could give event organizers in the bidding process an opportunity to show us how they would structure the event, where they could generate revenue from the event in addition to funds from the tourism board, as well.”

That idea seemed to gain traction with the board, as several members voiced agreement that the role of the board is to fund and support events — not necessarily organize them, too.

“Two years ago … I asked the board at the time, if you want us to focus on events, it takes work away from everything else we know we need to be doing,” Green explained.

She continued, “The last three, four years, my staff’s time has been spread out across so many different tasks.” 

She then asked, “What is best use of staff’s time, and where can we be most impactful?”

The board’s answer was roundly supportive of Green’s office retaining organizational control over the annual holiday lighting tour and contest as well as the Big Spring Clean, with openness to searching for additional hands to take over the Hootenanny and community Christmas celebrations.

Due to scheduling considerations, the tourism board is next set to meet on Feb. 5.

garrett@pagosasun.com