Good Morning Patriots!

WOW! Can I get an AMEN for yesterday!? I am so blessed that you all came out to celebrate the holidays together! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone and listening to LIVE music! What a treat! A huge thanks to CK for letting us use his facility!

Thank you to the Retro Cats for letting us boogie! Thank you SANTA for showing up for the kids! And THANK You to all those who shared their wonderful food with all of us! Such great fellowship! If you have pictures, I’d love to see them!

We have some updates so settle in for a long(er) email!

**NO MEETING Sunday, December 27^th. 2020. Please enjoy this time with your family! We will resume Sunday, January 3^rd. 2020. Merry Christmas!

On Thursday, December 17, 2020, the Town of Pagosa Springs voted to let the Local Emergency Order expire at the end of the month. This is a HUGE WIN!

So, what does this mean going forward?

The Town will no longer keep us in a perpetual state of lockdown in order to receive Federal funds. We need to continue to encourage businesses to OPEN and STAY OPEN as normal. We DO NOT need to rely on Government funding – if businesses were open and operating normally, they wouldn’t need to ask for help. Most have been denied the assistance. Remember, they will NOT pay your mortgage or put food on the table. YOU ARE ESSENTIAL!

A Solution: The Town has quite the revenue stash (tourism/online sales) which can be utilized to give out to small businesses in need.

WHY ARE WE SO WILLING TO RELY ON THE GOVERNMENT????

**ACTION ITEM**

Please email the following Council Members and Mayor to THANK them for standing strong and LISTENING to what we have said.

Matt DeGuise - mdeguise@pagosasprings.co.gov

Mat DeGraaf - mdeguise@pagosasprings.co.gov

Rory Burnett - rburnett@pagosasprings.co.gov

Don Volger - ddvolger@gmail.com

**The minutes from this meeting should be available next week. If you would like to request the audio version of the meeting, contact April Hessman – Town of Pagosa Springs.

Sheriff’s Office:

Deni and I attended a meeting with Sheriff Valdez on Thursday, December 16^th. 2020. We wanted to encourage him to come out publicly to show support to the businesses and residents of Archuleta County. Here are some bullet points from that meeting:

Sheriff Valdez is committed to upholding our Constitutional Rights.
Sheriff Valdez will NOT go in a shut down a business for operating as they see fit.
Sheriff Valdez will meet with his Sheriff Deputy and Advisory Group to get a game plan and we hope for a public statement.

I encourage EVERYONE to read the Sheriff’s Handbook if you have not already! I brought mine along to this meeting and Sheriff Valdez was either impressed or shocked that I had read it.

The Constitutional Law Group:

We have teamed up with Rick Martin. He is dedicated to helping us! I will share more information once I get it with you all!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

TOMORROW – Tuesday, December 22^nd, 2020. Durango will be peacefully demonstrating at Natural Grocers at 3pm to have them remove their mask policy like we did here in Pagosa. If any of you can make it, please feel free to come and support!

Let’s Keep Pagosa Open For Business!

I am sure there are many more updates but I will leave you with a few pictures from yesterday!

With Gratitude,

Bethany

News

Merry Christmas Friends!