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Rocks in the River, Part One |
Bill Hudson | 7/25/08
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As we walked out of Town Hall, following an intense, two-hour discussion about the stalled San Juan River Restoration project, editor Norm Vance of the news website Pagosa.com turned to me and smiled.
“Well, this meeting could certainly be written as a multi-chapter article.”
How true.
Three-and-a-half years after the start of the ill-fated San Juan River Restoration project first waded into the downtown stretch of the San Juan, the remaining players finally sat down, face to face, at Town Hall and laid their various perspectives on the table. And the perspectives were varied indeed.
 I will say right off that I don’t consider myself a ‘neutral observer’ as I write this article series. I began my career as a journalist in December of 2004 and quickly discovered that community leaders were not always happy to see news reporters actually investigating what those leaders were doing from their positions of power. One of the community leaders who had trouble with my novice reporter skills was Town Manager Mark Garcia, following a series of articles I wrote for the Post starting in March 2005. Those articles concerned the River Restoration project. Garcia did not return any of my numerous phone calls, and his assistant, intern Julie Jessen, told me that the “Town staff” considered my news website to be a detriment to the community.
Garcia, Jessen and I got off on the wrong foot, so to speak. And all three of us came away with bruised egos. At least, I know I did.
Garcia, Jessen and I have since gotten past our initial conflicts about the River Restoration “white water park” and my past Post coverage. But I still feel that important facts, which in an open, democratic society would benefit from being made public, have been kept hidden.
Yesterday’s meeting, however, was a great start at getting some of those facts out in the open.
Some of the players in this three-and-a-half year saga have since passed out of the picture. Mark Garcia has resigned as Town Manager. Julie Jessen — now Julie Simmons, married to former Town Councilor Tony Simmons — has left the Town staff and works with Colorado Housing Inc. The Town Council — which supposedly approved the River Restoration project in 2004 — has several new members since then; Mark Weiler is new on the Council, as are Shari Pierce and Angela Atkinson; Jerry Jackson was on the Council back then, but took a three year sabbatical, so to speak. The remaining Council members — Stan Holt, Darrel Cotton and mayor Ross Aragon — have been part of the decision-making through the entire time.
From what I gather, Atkinson, the Councilor who lately has been most outspokenly in favor of pressing ahead with the project, was part of a small, hand-picked committee that originally approved the project in 2004.
Also present at yesterday’s Thursday work session were Springs Resort owner Keely Whittington-Reyes and her father, Bill Whittington, along with former Springs Resort owner and designer Matt Mees. The Springs Resort team was involved, in a very 'hands-on' manner, in the initial installation of the project's first piece — the so-called ‘Davey Wave’ — back in March 2005; as Whittington noted, his family business had at that time just purchased the Resort, in the name of his two daughters, Keely and Nerissa Whittington, and Bill and the Resort staff had participated in helping install the Davey Wave.
The Springs Resort has since expressed its non-support for the admittedly mismanaged “white water park” project.
The packed audience for the midday meeting contained other stakeholders, including representatives from the kayakers — supporting the planned project — and the fishing community — asking serious questions about the removal of the existing grant-funded “Fishing is Fun” structures which were installed in 1995.
Several important players, however, were absent from the room yesterday. Hydrologist Dave Rosgen, who designed the river’s existing fishing-enhancement structures, made a presentation to the Council last month, but was not present at yesterday’s work session. Davey Pitcher, owner of Wolf Creek Ski Area and the key person who donated the heavy equipment and labor for the installation of the Davey Wave in 2005 — and the person who, according to interim Town Manager Tamra Allen, is still willing to donate all of the equipment and labor for the completion of the remaining “white water park” — was not present.
Representatives of the state and federal agencies most important to the completion of any future river remodeling — the Army Corps of Engineers and the Colorado Division of Water Resources (DOW) — were absent as well.
As everyone was settling into their places around the big work session table in Town Council Chambers, I asked interim Town Manager Tamra Allen if project designer Gary Lacy was in the room. Allen looked around and said, “I don’t see him at the moment, but I know he’s going to be here.”
If any player has been key to the River Restoration discussion — and to the political turmoil that has surrounded it — it has certainly been Gary Lacy of Recreational Engineering and Planning (REP) headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. And yet, in three-and-a-half years of reporting on the River Restoration project, I had never spoken with him nor seen his face. I didn’t even know what he looked like.
Lacy did arrive within moments, and looked to be in his mid-50s, an unimposing fellow who for some reason made me think of someone I might meet on a hiking trail.
At the beginning of the meeting, the lines were drawn in roughly this fashion:
Town Councilor Mark Weiler has been openly questioning the wisdom of proceeding with the River Restoration as currently planned, despite the Town’s investment so far in $200,000 worth of boulders and perhaps $80,000 paid out to Lacy and REP. Speaking in favor of going ahead with the project was Councilor Atkinson. The Council last year approved a $50,000 budget item for this year, the only funding available to complete the entire project. Allen and her staff are willing to see the project through to completion if they are given the go-ahead — assuming Davey Pitcher is still willing to donate all the equipment and labor.
The Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) and the DOW have not yet given their final approval of REP’s design. The Springs Resort has not given the easements necessary to go ahead with the ACOE and DOW approvals.
Councilor Atkinson started off the discussion by asking engineer Gary Lacy to explain how such a possibly-worthwhile project could get so cross-ways with so many people.
Lacy stood up to make his defense, and the discussion was off and paddling...
Read Part Two
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