At Oct. 20 and Oct. 24 meetings, the San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) Board of Directors moved forward with the district’s efforts to contract an engineering firm to do planning work on its Running Iron Ranch reservoir project.
Alongside its reservoir planning efforts, the district is also currently engaged in litigation with the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD), which wants to sell the property where the reservoir would be located — jointly owned by the two districts — and sued the SJWCD over a dispute about whether it can do so without the SJWCD’s consent.
SJWCD board member Charles Riehm explained to the board at its Oct. 20 meeting that its previous bidding process for an engineering firm resulted in three firms responding to the request for proposals (RFP).
He added that two of those firms were interested in the project but could not address the district’s needs in the initial phase of the project due to time and resource limitations, leaving only RJH Consultants Inc. out of Englewood, Colo., as the sole firm able to meet the district’s initial needs.
Riehm commented that RJH’s proposal was “very nice” and that the SJWCD subcommittee running the bidding process had met with the firm several times.
He explained that he and the other RFP committee member, Randy Cooper, had reviewed the RFP and that he wanted to go over their comments and comments submitted by RJH to determine what questions or clarifications need to be sent back to the firm.
Cooper added that the subcommittee would likely meet with RJH in the upcoming days to get answers to these questions.
Riehm commented that the proposal includes most of the district’s requests, but that more detail would be needed on the first phases of the project, and the exact details for the terms and conditions of the contract with RJH, especially in terms of what work would occur when and when the SJWCD would be charged for work on the project.
He added that he would want to include SJWCD president Candace Jones and SJWCD treasurer Joe Tedder on the subcommittee for their legal and finance expertise.
Jones was a lawyer before retiring.
The first issue discussed by the board was what the cost would be of reaching a feasibility study that would be needed for a grant qualification deadline for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Small Storage Program in February 2026, with the board reaching consensus that the cost would be about $169,000, split between 2025 and 2026.
Riehm added that the work needed for this qualification study would be necessary for other grant funding as well, meaning that the work would not be wasted even if the district failed to obtain this particular grant.
In response to a question from SJWCD board member Bill Nobles about what would happen if the SJWCD loses its current litigation with PAWSD, Riehm expressed confidence that a judge will side with the SJWCD and commented that the district would likely appeal if a judgment is made against it.
He added that the district showing progress on its reservoir project would also strengthen its case.
Tedder commented that the litigation between the SJWCD and PAWSD may cost the community approximately $500,000 by the end of next year.
The board then discussed specific questions about the contract with RJH, including more questions about the timing of RJH’s work, discussion of the potential of doing an economic analysis for the benefits of turning the reservoir area into a state park, and questions about what capability RJH might have to help manage the Running Iron Ranch and generate income from the property.
Following this discussion, the board voted to appoint Riehm, Cooper, Jones and Tedder to the subcommittee to continue negotiations with RJH and finalize the contract.
The board also agreed that the board would need a special meeting to approve an initial selection announcement for RJH in the near future and decided to schedule this meeting for Oct. 24.
Discussion of the contract continued at the Oct. 24 meeting, with Riehm going through the comments made by the subcommittee on a contract submitted by RJH.
After a review of the questions and RJH’s responses to these comments, which largely concerned the details of the contract and its timing, the board voted to approve the contract with RJH, with this approval subject to the completion of work on aligning the firm’s tasks to the district’s budget and resolving the comments made by the board and its legal counsel.
Riehm stated that the board would be giving RJH back a contract and notes on it.
He added that the subcommittee would also have permission to move forward with finalizing the specific list of tasks for RJH to complete in collaboration with the firm.
This work would involve having a work session with the firm and then soliciting further board feedback on the items discussed, Riehm stated, adding that these details would need to be finalized before the contract can be signed.
Jones highlighted that the subcommittee would have the authority to finalize the contract once these tasks are completed.
She added that this contract would allow the district to get work started, but would not include all the work included in the RFP, with the remaining work to be covered by future contracts.
The board then unanimously approved Jones’s motion to authorize the subcommittee to work on and finalize the contract.
josh@pagosasun.com
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