At a June 11 work session, the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners discussed a funding request from Wings Early Childhood Center and the state of the county budget.
At a May 7 work session, representatives from Wings presented a request for $30,000 in funding from the county for an expansion project occurring at the school.
At the June 11 work session, Commissioner Veronica Medina explained that she had spoken to the Finance Department about if the county would have any money available for the Wings request.
She stated that, following the discussion at the previous work session, she reached out to Wings and informed the organization that the county did not presently have the funds to support them, but that it would be willing to discuss the request as part of the 2025 budget.
Following this, Medina stated that she spoke to Finance Director Chad Eaton and that she and Eaton found $30,000 in a line item in the county budget that was used to improve sound in the commissioner meeting room.
She stated that the line item was not designated for a specific project and proposed that the county could take $10,000 from the line item and award it to Wings, which would avoid fully depleting the line item and would “help Wings out.”
Medina explained she wanted to bring the proposal to the other commissioners to see if they would be willing to do this and potentially vote on the proposal at a future meeting.
Commissioner Ronnie Maez asked if the $30,000 request from Wings is to support a grant the organization is applying for.
Medina stated that it is not and is instead to buy furniture and toys for the expansion of the school.
She added that Wings hoped to have these items for the grand opening of the expansion.
In response to a question from Commissioner Warren Brown, Medina stated that she believed that the grand opening would occur in July, but that she was not sure.
Maez commented that he wanted to help Wings, but was “a little bit leery” because the county is only halfway through the year and it is difficult to anticipate what other needs might arise.
He then asked the other commissioners and staff if they had any ideas of things that might need the money in the sound improvement line item.
County Attorney Todd Weaver and Medina noted that the county has already spent $14,000 from this line item on sound improvements for the commissioner meeting room.
Maez commented that the county might have unanticipated expenditures in the construction of its new transportation building “that we might need to think about, too.”
He added that he wants to help Wings.
“The county’s been a tremendous partner for Wings and it’s a very great program,” Brown said. “I’m cautious … in mid-budget to dedicate monies because we don’t know what might be coming.”
He added that Maez raised a “very good point” about the transportation facility.
“I just don’t know if this is something that we should do at this moment, but I would like to see it … something that we do during our budgeting process for this … coming year,” he said.
Maez added that he believed that it would be “the wiser thing to do” to delay providing support to Wings until the 2025 budget.
Weaver commented that one unanticipated expense might be the county having to pay for geotechnical analysis as part of due diligence at the property it is moving forward with purchasing near U.S. 160 and South Pagosa Boulevard.
He added that this might cost $10,000 or $15,000.
Medina commented that the county has money specifically set aside for property acquisition, which would likely cover this.
She concluded the discussion by stating that she thought she would bring the proposal forward to the commissioners to glean their opinions.
josh@pagosasun.com
