Pagosa Springs Building Official Zach Richardson’s department head report to town council last week included a lot of good news — City Market’s remodeling project continues to move forward, Hometown Food Market should open this week (and it opened yesterday), the hospital plan is under review and there are currently 11 building permits out for new residential construction projects.
“This is a really good indication that things are moving along,” Richardson said.
“That’s wonderful,” Mayor Don Volger responded.
The building department currently has 89 active building permits, total. These include additions, improvements and new construction for both residential and commercial projects.
This good news is supported by a recent report from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE), which indicates that the unemployment rate for July fell to 3.9 percent in Archuleta County.
There were more people in the county holding jobs — 5,942 in July compared to 5,918 in June — and only 243 claiming unemployment, which is 48 fewer people than in the previous month, so the unemployment rate was pushed down from 4.7 percent over the month.
In addition, the picture is quite a bit better than last year, when the July 2014 unemployment rate was 5.3 percent, there were only 5,734 people employed in the county and 323 workers were claiming unemployment.
Dolores County had the best unemployment rate for July (only 1.9 percent) while Huerfano County had the worst (8.2 percent).
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