On Nov. 18, the board of the Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District (PSSGID), which also sits as the Pagosa Springs Town Council, passed a resolution to keep monthly sewer rates at the current level of $71.25 as it explores options to lower rates in the future.
This comes after the board adopted the 2026 budget, which included a staff recommended $5 increase to the rates.
Town Manager David Harris explained at that budget meeting that the actual fee schedule would be adopted at a future meeting, so if the council wanted to lower the recommended rate down the road, it could do so.
A rate study conducted by Roaring Fork Engineering recommended the $5 increase, and town staff concurred with these findings, but the council subsequently showed unease raising rates on PSSGID customers after the passage of ballot measure 2A.
The ballot measure asked town voters to raise the town’s sales tax by 1 percent to pay for critical infrastructure to repair and maintain the PSSGID’s troubled uphill conveyance system, and the measure passed with about 76 percent of the vote.
Board member Brooks Lindner worried that raising rates on sewer customers after asking them to raise the sales tax in the election would be “a bad look” for the town.
During public comment, town resident Glenn Walsh asked the board not to raise rates, pleading to the board to “keep the trust of the voters and not increase rates,” suggesting that the board should “freeze” rates or offer discounts.
At the previous budget meeting, board member Leonard Martinez remarked that any increase would “be a hardship for some people.”
At the most recent meeting, Martinez noted that the feedback he had received by going door-to-door during the 2A campaign was that “an increase would be a slap in the face to those who voted for 2A,” recommending the board “hold tight” on the rate.
Harris explained that the revenues coming from the sales tax increase would go into a sanitation infrastructure fund, and that this is where money for big infrastructure projects would come from.
On the other hand, the monthly fee rate for PSSGID customers would now go toward maintaining and operating the system on a daily basis, Harris explained.
He also expressed some concern that the fee rate as it stands, at $71.25, might not be enough for daily operations.
He suggested that it might take some time for observation to find out how the sales tax increase is performing to know where the PSSGID stands financially.
“Once we get a few months under our belt, we’ll know better how that sales tax is performing,” but right now “there’s a lot of moving parts,” he said at the previous meeting.
Town Clerk April Hessman also weighed in, saying that a sizable chunk of PSSGID customers are commercial businesses, and second and vacation homeowners, suggesting that these types of owners should be able to afford an increase in the rate, recommending that the board adopt the $5 increase, favored by the Roaring Fork rate study.
An agenda document on the matter states that “the District has approximately 830 residential and 140 commercial customers.”
“Of the 1,650 EU (equivalent units) 37% (650) are used by commercial properties, hotels, restaurants, government buildings, and schools. The other 1,000 EU are designated to residential customers, single-family, multi-family, condominiums, apartments, and housing complexes. The Town has 98 vacation rental residential units, not all within the District boundaries, and many more second homeowners,” the document states.
However, the board pushed back on the notion that businesses and second and vacation homeowners could afford to pay for a rate increase, citing economic uncertainty.
Board member Gary Williams explained that he understands the operational costs of maintaining the system, but that he worried about violating the “social contract we signed with the voters” who supported 2A if the PSSGID then turns around and raises rates.
Mayor Shari Pierce suggested that the board “hold the rates for now to give us more time to further study where we are,” and then, perhaps in six months, revisit the rate question.
Lindner stated that he “liked” Pierce’s suggestion.
When a motion was made to pass a resolution keeping the rate at its current level and to explore the possibility of lowering or freezing rates in the future, it was seconded and passed unanimously by the board.
derek@pagosasun.com
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