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Chief Volger Gets Ready to Go Fishing, Part One |
Bill Hudson | 11/21/08
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Don Volger as a young officer, circa 1980. |
Last Friday, the Post received a somewhat surprising announcement, sent out by the Pagosa Springs Community Center:
Come join us for a Community Potluck to honor Police Chief Don Volger!
After 28 years with the Police Department in Pagosa Springs, Don Volger is retiring at the end of 2008. Please come and join us for a potluck from 5:00pm to 8:00pm on Friday, November 21, at Parish Hall on Lewis St.
Bring a dish to share. Coffee and Tea will be provided. Please come and visit, and wish Don the best of luck in his new adventures! We hope to see you there.
I was not surprised to hear that Chief Volger was retiring — he had announced as much in a Town Council meeting a couple of months ago — and it was certainly not surprising to hear that the Town was planning to honor Don with a community dinner.
I found the announcement surprising for one simple reason: Don Volger was apparently allowing the Town to make a fuss over him for an evening, when he’d rather just retire quietly without any whoop-dee-doo.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Don yesterday and talking about his 28 years with the Pagosa Springs Police Department — including 24 years as Police Chief here in this little hot springs town.
“Was Ross Aragon the Mayor back then?” I asked Don.
“Yes, he was the Mayor. In fact, one of the goals I had for my law enforcement career was that I would outlast the Mayor. But he won that one.” Don laughed.
In 1977, Don was working as a carpenter for the new Eaton International development to the west of Pagosa Springs. The town had a population of about 1,300 residents, and the total county population was about 3,200. The three-person Police Department was then headed by Police Chief Leonard Gallegos, with Ernie Rivas as the senior officer. Steve Orr was also on board as patrolman — and Chief Gallegos was looking for a fourth officer.
“My wife and I were invited to dinner at Leonard’s house one night, and Leonard asked me, ‘How would you like to be a police officer?’
“I’m not stupid. I told him, ‘No.’
“But after thinking about it a little bit more, I decided there might have a bit more career potential than being a carpenter all my life — even though I enjoy that kind of work, carpenter didn’t seem like a career type thing. So I changed my mind.”
Don trained in Golden, Colorado at the Colorado Law Enforcement Training Academy, and worked under Chief Gallegos for two years — until a political controversy caused Gallegos to quit.
“So, we, being loyal employees and loyal officers, decided to submit our resignations also. All four of us submitted our resignations, and ended up going elsewhere. I went back to work for Eaton International — and then went through a life change, went through a divorce, and ended up moving away.”
 Don headed for Idaho for while, and then got a call from a friend in law enforcement, offering him a possible job in Lake County.
“He was a deputy up there, and he said, ‘Hey, they’re looking for somebody… are you thinking about getting back into law enforcement?’
“Again, I’m not stupid, so I said, ‘No.’
But Don again reconsidered.
“It’s like a native brown trout that gets hooked and just can’t let that fly alone — even though it knows…”
Don worked in Lake County for a few months — and then got a call from Tracy Bunning, back in Pagosa Springs.
“He had just been hired as the Chief of Police here. Tracy was a Tucson police officer, who I had worked with here — he worked for what later became the Pagosa Lakes Public Safety Office. The Town had gone through several Chiefs after Leonard quit — it was a real time of turmoil for law enforcement here. Tracy called me and offered me a position, as ‘second in command’ if you will, of a four person department.”
Don worked under Tracy from 1980 until 1984, when a controversy about a drug arrest caused a new conflict in the department — and Tracy ended up leaving the department. Don became the acting Chief, and then was officially hired for that position.
“The community was going through some growing pains at that time, with the subdivision developments that were popping up all over the place. The early ‘80s is when we saw most of our subdivisions build out. It really started to grow, and it brought a lot more people here. For a while, we were the fastest growing county in the state.”
The Town government was also going through some changes. For a long time, the elected Town Trustees had had a very ‘hands-on’ approach to running the Town — but now they decided to hire a Town Manager to handle the nuts and bolts running of the municipal government.
As Don grew into his job as Chief of Police, he had to develop a new set of skills — as an administrator, and supervisor — while also improving his skills as a police officer. Rather than going off to a training academy for police administrators, however, Don stayed in Pagosa Springs and learned those skills while “on the job.”
“It was on the job training.”
Now, after 24 years as Pagosa’s Chief of Police, Don has decided to hang up his badge and pursue some other interests. The department’s Assistant Chief, Jim Saunders, will apparently step into Don’s shoes — at a time when budget concerns may leave the department without a replacement Assistant Chief, for the time being.
Don said he is very happy with the team that has assembled itself at the department, and spent several minutes enumerating the various skill sets represented by the department’s current officers.
“Right now, I’ve got a staff that — I think my least experienced officer has four years, going on five. They’re all very well qualified, with different personalities. We’re all got our strengths and weaknesses, but right now, the department is probably stronger, and more efficient — and more professional — than it has ever been. We’ve made improvements every year along the way, we’ve never slipped back — which is kind of interesting for a small department. And we’re still moving forward.”
I asked Don to talk about how police work in Pagosa Springs has changed during his 24 years as Chief, and I found his answer just a bit surprising...
Read Part Two... |
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