On April 1, the Pagosa Springs Town Council authorized town staff to enter into a contract with WW Clyde to perform the work for its downtown rehabilitation project, coinciding with Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT’s) U.S. 160 reconstruction project.
The town’s scope of work in downtown Pagosa Springs includes the installation of new street lamps, new sidewalk sections, culvert repairs, side road repairs and replacements, electrical conduit, new street trees, and an irrigation system for the new trees and flower baskets.
WW Clyde is also performing the work for CDOT’s U.S. 160 reconstruction project through downtown, with Pagosa Springs Development Director James Dickhoff explaining that it is a “critical time” to get this work done while the highway construction was ongoing.
The grand total cost for WW Clyde to complete the entire scope of work that the town is requesting came in at $7,724,472, which includes a 15 percent contingency.
Town Manager David Harris explained that he realized that this price tag is “sobering,” expressing his reluctance to use the town’s reserve funds to pay for it, but also noted that the general feeling of the council was, “If we’re gonna do it, we should do it right.”
“Nobody likes it when the road is torn up twice,” Harris said, referring to the likelihood that needed road work through downtown streets would happen within the next few years, causing further disruption after the CDOT project is completed.
He added that he realized it was “a very high-cost environment right now,” but explained that with pending economic uncertainty, prices for the work could be even higher in the future if the council decided to wait to perform this work.
Public Works Director Karl Johnson was asked about his opinion on the town’s portion of the project, with Johnson saying, “It’s a large amount of money, but to do it as a tag-along with the CDOT project, it makes more sense to do it now.”
Dickhoff noted that WW Clyde’s work for the town would not prolong the CDOT project in any way, adding that it would not “impact their workdays with CDOT.”
During Dickhoff’s presentation, he broke the project down into high-priority items and other lower-priority items that could be executed at a later date by the town.
Having WW Clyde do only the town’s highest-priority items would save the town about $1,762,460, he explained.
Mayor Shari Pierce asked if the council needed to make a decision about the priority versus non-priority items “tonight,” with Dickhoff replying, “generally, yes,” because WW Clyde would need to order the materials right away to get these prices “locked in.”
There was some concern that the national economic climate around tariffs could impact the price of the project if the town waited too long.
There emerged a general appetite among the council to do the project in totality in order to coincide with the ongoing CDOT project.
Council member Matt DeGuise said, “We should go for the whole thing,” citing that road surfaces on the streets on the south side of the highway would be “due” to be repaired or replaced in the “next few years, so do it now” to minimize disruption to the neighborhoods.
Council member Leonard Martinez expressed that he agreed that the town should complete this project in its entirety while CDOT already has downtown torn up.
With the council in agreement that it favored doing the project in totality, the discussion then turned to how to pay for it.
Town Clerk April Hessman pointed to the reserves in the capital and general funds, totaling about $4.9 million, with Harris saying that maybe the town could “dip into savings” to help fund the project.
Pierce noted that she did not like the idea of spending out of reserves.
Earlier in the meeting, the council passed a resolution enabling the town to reimburse itself from bond proceeds for the costs incurred for the downtown project before bonds are issued, if it chose that option down the road.
Hessman explained that there is also the pending town-only sales tax increase election, and urged the council to consider the option of broadening the ballot language to include capital projects such as the downtown rehabilitation project, not just the sewer system overhaul.
She suggested that without bringing in more revenues through the sales tax increase, there was “not a lot” leftover in the budget for capital improvement projects.
However, a majority of the council members expressed that they wanted the sales-tax ballot language to stay focused only on the sewer system overhaul.
Council member Brooks Lindner noted that the sales tax increase would be “doomed” to fail at the ballot box if the council decided to broaden the language beyond needed sewer repairs.
Martinez also expressed a desire for the sales-tax ballot language to stay focused on the sewer system, but suggested that he also thought that a portion of the downtown project could be categorized as sewer repairs.
Pierce agreed that a small portion of the project could be categorized as related to the sewer system, and thus the sales tax increase could help pay for it, but thought it was a smaller amount than Martinez suggested.
She warned that whether or not “we get the sales tax” increase is a “big unknown,” and the council should plan to fund the downtown rehabilitation project as if the sales tax election were not a factor.
Lindner agreed, saying, “We should be very cautious” and should budget for this project without the sales tax election in mind.
When a motion was made to approve the work items to complete the entirety of the downtown project, coinciding with CDOT’s project, and for the town manager to enter into a contract with WW Clyde for the work, it was passed unanimously by the council.
derek@pagosasun.com
>