At its Aug. 6 meeting, the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) voted to select ECOnorthwest as the consultant to perform a housing needs assessment for the county.
At a work session earlier in the day, Pamela Flowers, the county’s development director, explained the rationale for recommending ECOnorthwest as the preferred consultant.
Flowers explained that the county, the Town of Pagosa Springs and the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (PSCDC) received a Stronger Communities Planning Grant to pay for a housing needs assessment for Archuleta County and the Town of Pagosa Springs.
She stated that the group went out for bids for the work and received six bids, with three bidders being removed due to being over budget or lacking appropriate experience.
Flowers added that the selection committee for the assessment included herself, Pagosa Springs Community Development Director James Dickhoff and PSCDC Executive Director Emily Lashbrooke.
The committee interviewed the top three consultants, including having them give a presentation on elements of their proposals the committee wanted more elaboration on and asking a series of questions, Flowers explained.
Following the interviews, she stated that each committee member scored each applicant to help select a consultant.
“Any of the three could do the job,” Flowers said, adding that ECOnorthwest had the “edge” due to having the most experience in Colorado and strong connections with the state of Colorado, including experts involved with the company presenting at state-hosted webinars and working with the state to develop policy.
“That really kind of put them over the edge,” Flowers said.
ECOnorthwest’s bid was $68,565, she stated, adding that this was more than finalist Ayres Associates at $67,500 and finalist Point Consulting at $58,000.
Flowers explained that the entities will receive $59,200 from the grant and will have to pay the remaining $9,365 as matching funds, although this will be split with the town and can be paid over two years.
She added that the match would be higher than with the other potential consultants, but that the committee felt that, with ECOnorthwest’s experience, “the bang we get for the buck is worth it.”
At the BoCC meeting later that day, Flowers reiterated her summary of the reasons for ECOnorthwest’s selection prior to the BoCC unanimously voting to select the company as the consultant for the housing needs assessment.
josh@pagosasun.com
