Posted
Wednesday,August 26, 20267:25 pm
The Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) Board of Directors heard a financial update and discussed the district’s budgeting process for 2027 at its Aug. 13 meeting.
The board first heard a report on the district’s second-quarter financial statements and debt service situation from PAWSD Comptroller Jack Dossett.
He explained that the district’s general fund is “very healthy” and that property tax collections appear to be on track.
For the district’s water enterprise fund, Dossett stated that the district had to pay about $19,000 in insurance liability due to the Snowball Water Treatment plant coming online this summer.
He added that revenues for water and wastewater continue to be down from the 2026 budget expectations and that leadership is doing a “good job” managing costs.
He explained that the district is currently on track to hit its debt service coverage ratios, but that things are “tight” and that unexpected expenses could impact this.
Dossett stated that the district’s debt will increase by about $540,000 in 2027, giving the district a “harder hurdle to jump” in terms of the requirements of meeting the ratios of net operating income to debt service required by its loans.
PAWSD board chairman Gene Tautges asked if the second-quarter report would go up on the PAWSD website.
Dossett replied that it would be incorporated into the minutes, similar to the last report.
Tautges commented that he believed PAWSD had heard a request to make the report “easily available” on the website and asked if there was any reason why this could not be done.
Following a discussion of the issue and a public comment by Carl Young, the board agreed that the reports could be placed on the finance page on the PAWSD website to make it more accessible.
In response to a question from PAWSD board member Glenn Walsh, Dossett explained that the district received a $123,000 grant which was budgeted but not incorporated into the debt service coverage calculations since grants are onetime funds not included in such calculations.
PAWSD District Manager Andrew Connor also explained, in response to another question from Walsh, that PAWSD has succeeded in reducing utility costs and improving its utility budget through equipment upgrades and increasing the consistency in the amount of water that is processed at the district’s San Juan water treatment plant.
Dossett also explained in response to concerns from Walsh about the differences between the amount of availability fees collected versus budgeted that the area has seen an increase in lot consolidations due to recent state legislation concerning residential lots and that this has likely reduced the amount of availability fees the district has collected.
The board then moved on to a brief discussion of the schedule for drafting the 2027 budget, which Dossett highlighted would likely have adjustments to the process, but that he hoped would help the board easily move through the budget process.
“This is going to be a living, working schedule,” he said.
Connor added that staff would update the board every month on progress with the budget and that it would also help guide staff through the budgeting process.
“Pretty good road map to success to me,” Tautges said.
