At a July 17 work session, the Pagosa Springs Town Council reviewed and updated its goals and objectives, carving a vision for future budget priorities.
The council went over its important budgetary priorities, ranking each issue in tiers, with tier 1 being a top priority and tier 3 being the lowest.
The top four major goals and objectives from the previous year were staffing, workforce housing, road maintenance, and parks and trails maintenance.
Out of these four, the council decided to keep workforce housing, road maintenance, and parks and trails maintenance as tier 1 budget priorities, with staffing moving down to tier 2.
On the issue of staffing, the council agreed that the issue should move from a tier 1 priority to a tier 2, with Police Chief Bill Rockensock on hand to explain that his department is about three people short of being fully staffed.
Rockensock noted that the police department recently lost two officers, and that the department was already looking to add one more position, leaving three vacancies.
It would add about $200,000 to the annual budget to add a third position, he explained.
Town Clerk April Hessman added that “one of our biggest problems is getting people moving here, because of housing.”
On the issue of workforce housing, council member Leonard Martinez said, “I don’t see this one dropping to tier 2, strategically speaking.”
“We need to think more expansively about how we solve the problem without necessarily being builders or landlords,” council member Gary Williams added.
In 2022, the town entered into a pre-development contract with Texas-based developer Servitas to build workforce housing at the town-owned Enclave site, a 3 acre property in Aspen Village south of Walmart.
Servitas proposes to build 70 units on the site, with 12 of those being townhome ownership units and the remainder being multifamily rental units, with the project aiming to provide housing for those earning between 60 percent and 140 percent of the area median income (AMI).
The entire project would average 90 percent AMI for the rental units.
Council member Brooks Lindner asked if workforce housing could be moved to a tier 2 priority since the town might be “thinking we don’t want to be in the business of developing workforce housing anymore, but, rather, supporting it” in other ways.
He expressed that he wondered what the budgetary impact would be if the town made this shift.
Council member Matt Deguise, agreeing with Martinez, suggested that he didn’t see it necessarily as a top budget priority, “but it’s definitely one of the top issues in the town and should remain a top priority for us.”
Pierce noted that the council would keep it at tier 1 “for now” and then if the town ultimately makes the decision to get away from the development side of workforce housing in the next few months, there would be enough time to deprioritize it before the budget is crafted.
On traffic management, parking and road maintenance, Pierce said, as far as the budget goes, “we’ll be spending a whole lot of money on that in the next year with the [Colorado Department of Transportation] project.”
Williams and Martinez suggested that the money for this issue would still get prioritized regardless of what tier the issue ended up on.
Williams noted that road maintenance is a basic function of government, “and we are gonna do it, whether it’s in tier 1, tier 2 or tier 3. So, what’s the difference?”
“We want to continue, to the best of our ability, with the road maintenance plan, so that way roads aren’t falling too far behind in disrepair that would then cost us even more money to fix them in the future,” council member Madeline Bergon replied.
Bergon added that if it’s a “core function,” it should “always” remain tier 1, with Pierce saying that “less emphasis” is put on things in the lower tiers.
Road maintenance will stay a tier 1 priority for the council.
On parks and trails maintenance, Lindner said, “For me, it’s still in the top tier. We’re a tourist town, and when we have good tourist infrastructure, i.e., parks and trails, it serves our economic engine well.”
Pierce noted that the council would leave this as a tier 1, but would “focus more on the maintenance aspect” of parks and trails in the budget.
The lower-tier priorities from the previous year included land acquisition policy, the geothermal system, tourism, public arts and historic preservation.
Out of these, only the town’s geothermal system moved up to a tier 1 priority.
Martinez suggested that he wants the Town of Pagosa Springs to own the water rights to all of the geothermal resources in town, adding that he believes this should be a tier 1 priority.
“That’s the only way we can ensure that this unique asset is going to be here long after we are all gone, because if you leave it to the private sector, it could be cut up until it destroys itself,” Martinez said, arguing that the “legal fight to win the water rights” would cost the town money and should be a budget priority.
Williams added that The Springs Resort has not paid the rate the town set in an ordinance, which reset the geothermal rate the town charges the resort for geothermal water, and the town would likely “need to go to court” over the issue.
“The Springs [Resort] maintains that they own the water that we send them, and we passed an ordinance that raised the rates … and they haven’t paid for that, because their lawyers sent our lawyers letters, yada yada, and so … we’re gonna need money to go to court,” he said.
Williams continued, “This is not an antagonistic issue with The Springs; it’s a simple legal issue. They think this and we think that. I’m not casting aspersions on The Springs or anything. It’s just, from everything I’ve read, it’s clear from the agreement that they signed in 2009 that we all admit it’s the town’s water … and they’re maintaining that it’s their water and shouldn’t have to pay for it.”
Lindner agreed with Martinez that it should be a tier 1 priority.
“I agree about the importance of this and the meaning of it to this place and the sense of place. I mean, it’s the whole reason this place exists, right?” Lindner said. “And to Gary’s point, preparing for possible future litigation, we need to budget for that. I think we should be improving the system and thinking about ways we can use this water, economic diversification, etc.,” Lindner said.
Bergon replied, “How cool would it be if we set the standard for how other communities use geothermal resources?”
The council decided to move geothermal to a tier 1 priority.
derek@pagosasun.com
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