If the narrative of 2020 was dominated by the emergence COVID-19 and 2021 was cast as a period of slow but sure recovery, the story of Southwest Colorado in 2022 may be filed away as a year of transition and emergence.
Issues that have been nagging for attention in recent years came to a head in some cases. But residents, governments and nonprofit organizations also leveraged the resources at their disposal in admirable ways to address those issues.
La Plata County closed camp at Purple Cliffs, evicting the houseless residents who had called it home, some for several years. But the city of Durango has also continued to facilitate the development of affordable housing, and the county has begun to expend money from the American Rescue Plan Act to benefit those experiencing homelessness.
Although it lacks a certain appeal of other issues, infrastructure development – from broadband internet to school upgrades, stormwater systems to outdoor recreation opportunities – has also swept across the region in the last year.
American democracy, it seems, remains intact despite the attacks it has undergone in recent years. An impressive 73% of active voters in La Plata County cast a ballot in November’s mid-term election, exceeding expectations.
Here are some of the most noteworthy, exciting and important events that took place in the region in 2022.
The city of Durango approved a slew of housing developments in 2022, including a 492-unit apartment complex approved for the Three Springs area near Mercy Hospital. The city is tracking approximately 2,000 units in various stages of planning and development, with about 340 units approved and built or under construction this year, said Scott Shine, director of community development.
But more affordable workforce housing units, identified by Durango City Council and city staff members as a high priority, are still sorely needed. The 492-unit apartment complex, for example, is double the size of any other multifamily housing project the city has undertaken, excluding the Three Springs and Twin Buttes areas. It consists of 12 apartment buildings with 41 units per building, which range from studios to three-bedroom apartments, but just 25 units (5%), are dedicated to affordable workforce housing.
However, Durango’s housing division, which came to life this year, and Durango’s Community Development Department have focused on several key strategies to address the city’s housing crisis, including locating funding sources, establishing private-public partnerships and revising housing codes and policies.
An accessory-dwelling units rebate program launched in August with the hopes that it and relaxed restrictions on ADU’s will attract more interest from homeowners in developing them.
And public-private partnerships have lent themselves to several projects, including Village 2 in Three Springs, the Animas City Park Overlook townhomes, city-owned parcels on Florida Road, and future development in Twin Buttes and on La Posta Road.
In November, Durango voters approved the city’s retention of approximately $1.1 million in excess lodgers tax revenues from 2021 and 2022, 66% of which will contribute to affordable and workforce housing projects.
Residents have clamored for a parking garage for years, but city data indicates that sort of parking structure may not be needed yet. An average of 74% of on-street publicly managed parking spaces are used during peak hours in downtown Durango, not including Durango Transit Center permit parking, according to a study performed by Walker Consultants and city staff members.
Durango City Council approved staff recommendations to continue the bump-outs program for another five years, with changes including new fees and and updated design requirements prohibiting banners, signs and other materials that could obstruct view of historic downtown’s building facades.
And the city’s Downtown’s Next Step project, a revisioning of Main Avenue and adjacent streets into a more pedestrian and cyclist-focused environment, has adopted a phased approach for redevelopment because of higher than anticipated construction costs.
The closure of Purple Cliffs announced by La Plata County in June appeared to catch Durango city officials by surprise. Durango City Council and La Plata County commissioners met in June to establish a working group between the two entities with the intent of finding a temporary or (more preferably) a permanent site for a managed camp.
The city worked with local nonprofits to temporarily house the most vulnerable residents of Purple Cliffs in hotels before the site’s closure. But as time went on and the days grew colder, nonprofits continued to request more tangible action from the city.
In November, City Council decided it has neither the resources nor expertise to establish and run a managed campsite for the unhoused. It tasked the Coordinating Council on Homelessness with establishing a third party entity to establish transitional housing for unhoused people. CCH decided shortly after to pursue a Continuum of Care model used throughout the country.
The city of Durango has grappled with the question of where to place pickleball courts among concerns of traffic safety, shared space with other athletic groups and pickleball game noise.
The city seemed ready to go forward with conceptual designs pitched for the Smith Sports Complex at Fort Lewis College, but after an outcry from youth soccer organizers, a second location, Schneider Park on Roosa Avenue, was considered.
The city appears primed to continue ahead with a complex at Schneider Park. Most recently, noise decibels and the range of pickleball thwaps was examined by city staff members. During a City Council work session earlier in December, staff members said the sound from paddles striking balls registers around 58 decibels at 400 feet.
But the largest Parks and Recreation project of the year was the 32nd Street pedestrian bridge, Ture Nycum, Parks and Recreation director, said.
“We were all extremely happy to get that one done,” he said. “We came in right at budget.”
The total bridge and underpass project cost $2.7 million with a major contribution from Great Outdoors Colorado of about $1.4 million.
A stretch of the Animas River Trail from Rank Park to Demon Bridge was mostly completed this year after some hiccups thanks to habitat disturbance study required for a species of New Mexico jumping mouse. But the study completed without a hitch. Next year, another small stretch of the trail will be finished up from the north end to the railroad tracks.
And, improvements at the Durango Community Recreation Center, including the replacement of the lap lane pool’s lining plaster and new play features in the leisure pool, was completed late this year.
Kenneth and Suzanne Fusco, former owners of Ken and Sue’s restaurant in Durango, pleaded guilty to federal income tax evasion on Oct. 13.
On Aug. 26, 2020, an IRS criminal investigations unit raided Ken and Sue’s at 636 Main Ave., seizing accounting and tax records.
The couple admitted to overstating their business expenses in 2014 through 2019, listing personal expenses as “customer supplies” in accounting records. Unreported income totaled $933,586, resulting in a tax loss to the government of $160,536.
They face prison sentences ranging from 12 to 41 months; a restitution payment of $160,536, the value of the federal income taxes owed; and a fine of $5,500 up to $55,000.
The Nugget Mountain Bar changed ownership in August after Steve Valverde purchased it from previous owner Kevin Wright.
The Nugget was opened in 2018 by Wright and a college friend, Joe Valerio, after gutting an old vacation rental cabin near Purgatory Resort and turning it into a ski bar.
A dispute with La Plata County over the bar’s outdoor deck and the Backcountry Gourmet food truck took a toll on Wright.
“The way the Planning Department and the land-use department of La Plata County treated me was very unfair,” he said. “It just kind of took the joy out of running a business in the county.”
Valverde took over the business promising to keep it the same.
“I want people to know that our aim and our goal is to not change the spirit of what it is,” he said. “Our goal is to nurture what it already has going on.”
The Durango Police Department expanded its use of drones in 2022. After having success using its primary drone to locate several suspects and an escapee from La Plata County Sheriff’s custody, the department purchased three additional drones. The new drones, which are smaller and designed for indoor flight, will be used for more close-range tactical support. The drones can work in tandem with the department’s robots, allowing officers to remain out of harm’s way by avoiding direct confrontations between police and suspects. The department also upgraded the software for its primary outdoor drone enabling it to better map crime and accident scenes.
The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office employed 10 drones with a “multitude” of capabilities, one of which was locating homeless camps in rugged terrain, and monitoring closed camps like the one at Purple Cliffs.
The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office received $440,000 in money from the county at the end of 2022 to beef up security at the La Plata County Jail after three inmates escaped by climbing over one or more fences in 2019 and again in 2021. Construction began at the tail end of 2022 on fences that are double-fenced, and topped with razor wire and have additional cameras. The work will continue into 2023.
Car theft, bike theft, mail theft, packages purloined from porches and shoplifting kept law enforcement and the courts looking for answers in what frustrated community members called a revolving door, where fingers are pointed back-and-forth between law enforcement and the courts while the criminals who are caught are quickly back on the streets.
An unprecedented three judges left the 6th Judicial District bench in 2022. District Court Judge William Herringer retired in March. Judge Todd Norvell resigned in October, three years before the end of his term, but agreed to stay on until mid-January of 2023. Norvell cited health reasons for his premature departure. Judge Anne Woods lost her seat on the bench after voters chose, by a narrow margin, not to retain her services in November. Woods resigned the next day.
“It’s not often we have two vacancies so close, back-to-back here,” said Eric Hogue, the 6th Judicial District administrator after Norvell’s departure, but before Woods lost her retention vote. “It’s very unusual for this district to have turnover at this rate.”
Judge Kim Shropshire filled the seat left by Herringer shortly after his departure. And Judge Anthony Baca was appointed Dec. 27 to the vacancy left by Woods. Only the seat left by Norvell’s departure remains to be filled in the new year.
Despite some community push, Ascent Classical Academy had its charter school application denied twice by Durango School District 9-R and once by Ignacio School District No. 11 Jt. Some parents in Durango are upset that Durango school district does not have a classical education option.
9-R acknowledged the need for a classical education model but took issue with the Ascent’s seemingly eurocentric curriculum, its relationship to Hillsdale College and its dedication to serve all students.
Ascent appealed its first denial from 9-R to the Colorado Board of Education who voted 4-3 to uphold the school district’s decision.
Durango School District 9-R made many upgrades to its schools this past summer. These projects included adding security vestibules to Animas Valley, Escalante, Needham and Durango High School.
“We tried to create a space that was welcoming and friendly and secure. So it is going to be different,” said 9-R spokeswoman Karla Sluis.
The school district also renovated the Needham parking lot, spelling doom to the school’s tenni courts, much to the dismay of community tennis players.
“The big impact is even though people might not see it or believe it, there is a growing tennis scene in Durango,” said Daniella Phillis, president of the Durango Community Tennis Association. “Especially a junior scene.”
The new parking lot is designed to have a safer loading and drop-off zone. The design’s primary function is to create better circulation and avoid congestion on busy school mornings.
Animas High School moved into its new location near Fort Lewis College on Dec. 16. The building costs $19.1 million and offered a much needed increase of space for the charter school. Animas High School currently enrolls 198 students and the building was constructed to hold 400.
Several small fires blazed this summer in Ignacio and on Perins Peak. The former burned 89 acres while the latter charred 106 acres. Both were extinguished by fire crews over the course of several days without incident.
The county also began conducting fire mitigation work for the first time. It received a grant from the Colorado Department of Natural Resources to conduct mitigation work along 83 miles of county right-of-way access that began in October and will continue into the spring. State Wildland Inmate Fire Team and Southwest Conservation Corps crews will conduct the work.
Alison Layman, the county’s wildfire and watershed mitigation/protection fund coordinator, said this is the first time the county has actively pursued fire mitigation work.
The county announced in June that the unofficial homeless camp on La Posta Road was no longer a tenable solution housing Durango’s homeless population. Despite ongoing talks with the city and attempts to find a suitable location for a managed camp, county commissioners decided to close the camp on Sept. 30.
Residents of the camp dispersed throughout the county. Some received hotel rooms, while others relocated to private property backwoods or vehicles. The Board of County Commissioners caught flak for closing the camp without a plan for a managed camp.
“While there have been numerous efforts and stated intentions to find an alternative to Purple Cliffs as four winters have since come and gone, we and the community can simply no longer tolerate the situation there and will evacuate and close that area to camping in 2022,” the commissioners and Sheriff Sean Smith wrote in a letter published in The Durango Herald.
Democrats won down the ticket in the Nov. 8 election, rejecting Republican and independent candidates’ competitive races. Anecdotally, voters in the county said they felt as though democracy was at stake in this election.
In the race for District 1 County Commissioner, independent Jack Turner suffered a disappointing loss to incumbent Democrat Clyde Church. Despite heavy spending from opposition, Church beat Turner by 19 percentage points and secured victory over Republican Brad Blake by four points.
Even in races that are traditionally not political, Democrats emerged victorious. In the race for county treasurer, Democratic incumbent Allison Aichele beat out independent challenger Erin Hutchins by 320 votes. Hutchins spent over $11,000 on her campaign while Aichele did not even have a website.
The county has made significant moves toward using up the $10.9 million it received from the American Rescue Plan Act, signed by the Biden administration in March 2021. Commissioners decided in March to use 40% of the funds for to housing, 25% on broadband and 35% for social impacts.
The county used $1.7 million to create a revolving loan fund, which allowed homeowners in the Westside and Triangle mobile home parks to purchase the properties upon which their homes sit and save a total of 70 workforce housing units. They also dedicated $1 million to assist the homeless population, which has yet to be spent.
On Oct. 28, commissioners announced that the $3.5 million set aside for social impacts would be divided among 13 proposals, ranging from conservation projects and food security to human services and a water fill station on the dry side of the county.
The boards of county commissioners in Archuleta and La Plata Counties approved a joint resolution on Nov. 15 to dissolve the public health district of which the two have been a part since 1948.
According to state law, the counties must take a full year to dissolve the department and establish a new one. Commissioners set Dec. 31, 2023, as the deadline for the dissolution of San Juan Basin Public Health.
Tensions began to rise throughout the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shone a light on the sociopolitical differences within and between the counties. The reflection of those differences on the health department led ultimately to the decision to dissolve the department.
When 3 inches of rain fell in Bayfield in 2½ hours on June 26, 2022, it quickly overwhelmed parts of the town’s stormwater system and caused extensive property damage. Many Bayfield residents demanded a quick response from Bayfield Town Board and trustees to fix the faulty infrastructure. Strong opposition to a tax increase by a majority of residents, however, has the board of trustees scrambling to figure out how it will find the money to pay for stormwater management. Moreover, the town has been trying to figure out how to implement a storm drainage plan since 2014, which was looking at an estimated cost of $1.2 million at the time.
“It’s frustrating this was identified eight years ago, and it wasn’t acted on,” said Mayor Ashleigh Tarkington.
Bayfield nonprofit organizations were busy this year, most notably Pine River Shares and the Southwest Colorado Education Collective. Providing food, clothing, and other necessities to those in need in their community, Pine Rivers Shares received $390,000 in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. PRS also joined forces with Southern Colorado Community Action Agency to develop strategies on how to aid those dealing with substance use and other issues in the more rural communities of Bayfield, Ignacio, Vallecito, Tiffany, Allison, Arboles and Sam Brito.
Southwest Colorado Education Collective, with $8 million from various grants, including $3.8 from RISE (Rural Innovation Stronger Economy), worked with nine school districts, ranging from Ignacio to Dolores, to bring career pathways in both higher education and vocational training to students in more rural, economically disadvantaged areas.
High speed internet has long been a problem for the Ignacio area, especially for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. In November, Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper announced that the tribe will get broadband internet within the next couple of years, thanks to $44 million in funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, original known as The BRIDGE Act, written by Bennett. The money will enable the connection of 1,798 households to the system, providing internet users with at least 250 megabits per second.
The funding comes as part of nearly $1.35 billion in spending to connect 94 tribes to broadband across the country.
Damon Mathews, a man with a history of domestic violence, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on June 10 for the murder of his wife. The crime took place on New Year’s Eve 2020, when Mathews shot his wife, Rachel Philips Mathews (also known by her last name, Ream). Based on court records and testimony, Mathews had two previous convictions for domestic violence and was facing a third charge when he strangled and shot his wife.
At his sentencing hearing, family members described Ream as a kind and loving person who cared for those around her.
“The world is dimmer without her (Ream) in it,” said Rachel’s cousin, Racquel Morgan Finch
On June 3, a fire was reported at 12:23 p.m. behind the Bear Dance campgrounds just east of Ignacio town limits. At 1:30 p.m., La Plata Electric Association cut power to about 5,700 customers in the Bayfield and Ignacio areas because power lines were in the way of where fire resources were working, said Hillary Knox, a spokeswoman with the electric co-op.
The blaze burned 89 acres and required assistance from three interagency hot-shot crews, aircraft support and temporary power cuts to Ignacio and Bayfield residents to facilitate firefighters’ efforts. The fire was finally extinguished on June 7. Fire crews were able to contain and put out the fire without any injuries or loss of structures.
Lindsay Box, spokeswoman for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, said in a statement posted to the tribe’s Facebook page that crews responded quickly and contained the blaze quickly.
No longer under the protection of the Army Corps of engineers, the Silverton wetlands are now available for land development, but several residents and environmentalists are fighting to preserve the lands, pitting them against residents who own property on the wetlands and are looking to develop the area, including putting in a road.
During its latest town meeting on Nov. 31, Silverton’s Board of Trustees decided to postpone any decisions it makes on the issue for three months, until it can further investigate any protections the wetlands may have or may need.
According to the EPA, over half of the wetlands have been destroyed in the U.S. since the 1600s because of land development. Only 2% of Colorado is wetlands, according to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, though 75% of Colorado’s wildlife inhabit them.
Sandy Campuzano, a fourth-generation Silvertonion, said at the latest Silverton town meeting, “Once the wetlands are gone, they are gone forever.”
New Mexico and the U.S. government reached a $32 million settlement in June over the 2015 Gold King Mine spill caused by Environmental Protection Agency contractors while attempting cleanup work that caused the release of toxic wastewater. The spill polluted rivers in three western states.
Colorado and the Navajo Nation also inked out multimillion-dollar agreements to settle claims and sort out responsibility for continued cleanup at the site of the spill, and the Navajo Nation finalized a $31 million settlement with the federal government in June.
Members of the Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 visited the Bonita Peak Mining District in late September to evaluate remediation work and discuss future projects including a permanent waste repository for the mining district.
