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  Home Page » News » Hesperus Dispute Pesters State Land Board

Hesperus dispute pesters State Land Board

by Garrett Andrews
Herald Staff Writer

Imagine a Denver-based landlord with a rental house in Durango occupied by a college student, said Brownell Bailey, director of the State Land Board.

The house is rent-free, but it's costly to live there because the student renting the place has to use the rickety facility to make money to pay the landlord.

The landlord has been hearing complaints about the state of the property, and has asked the tenant for attention to the matter, knowing times are tough. But the invasive weed yellow toadflax has taken over, and historic buildings are being neglected. Boy Scouts and 4-H clubs are hosting meetings on the property, stretching the conditions of the lease.

The landlord is worried about liability issues. Making things worse, the student has subleased a spare room, and has been having problems of his own with the subtenant.

Bailey uses the analogy to describe the relationship his office had with Colorado State University's Hesperus research center, which will close in June.

The State Land Board is the landlord and owns the 6,300-acre Old Fort Lewis site in Hesperus. Colorado State University is the college student. And the Elk Research Institute is the subtenant, using about 1,500 acres.

A Denver landlord

Run by Bailey, with his staff of about 30, the Land Board manages 3 million acres of land and 4 million acres of mineral rights for the benefit of eight trusts, including the Hesperus Trust. On a pie chart, the Hesperus Trust share and six others are dwarfed by the Schools Trust, which benefits the state's public schools, and covers 91 percent of the pie.

The Land Board has a $3.8 million budget, for use issuing easements and rights of way, and overseeing the businesses, governments and individuals that lease lands for specific purposes, including grazing, recreation, farming, and gas and oil.

The land in Hesperus is public, but unless the lessee signs a lease for recreational purposes and accepts responsibility for public use, public access to the land is reduced as it would be if it were owned privately.

The Land Board is responsible for generating "reasonable and consistent income for its trust beneficiaries and making its decisions based on the long-term best interests of the beneficiaries."

Part of Bailey's job, he said, is to collect money from the Hesperus Trust property to go to Fort Lewis College's Native American Student tuition waiver fund (minus administrative costs).

A good steward

Years of diminishing funds and staff cuts have left the property in Hesperus in need of a good tenant, said Kit Page, southwest district director of the Land Board.

Because FLC is interested in replacing CSU at the site, CSU's Doug Zalesky was asked to speak to members of the Old Fort Task Force at FLC. He said salaries for 3�½ employees and operating costs total $320,000 per year, but the site will need new potable water and electrical systems. The water upgrade, Zalesky said, would cost the next tenant about $100,000; fixing the outdated electrical system likely would cost "several hundred thousand dollars." A self-styled reform director appointed in April, Bailey said he felt sorry for being the bad guy to CSU, which has operated on the land since 1910. But he had an obligation to FLC's Native American students to fund their free tuition, as the state government first agreed to do in 1934. The Land Board received $1,200 from CSU for 2007 and $8 in 2008. And that's not good enough, said Bailey.

The Land Board doesn't examine scientific research, said Page, just the leases. And ERI appears to be in compliance with its sublease, he said. But, that was CSU's problem anyway, and CSU had problems of its own.

Bailey said his office's issue with CSU was with it remaining a good steward to the Hesperus Trust property.

What comes next?

Page, based in Alamosa, said new leases for the property should be ready by the first of the year, and he has indicated it's likely ERI will remain.

FLC wants to run a research center on its historic former campus, and Page said he'll hear out its plans, as long as the revenue it generates is both reasonable and consistent. But the land won't sit vacant for long.

"There'll be a bunch of interest in it from ranchers," said Page. "Every time a piece of property goes up, we get a bunch of interest."

ERI plans to stay until at least 2017, said Barry Dyar, the institute's director.

"We think that this is a sustainable agricultural program that has some real value," he said. "We're ready to be part of a good program out here. We think we've got a lot to offer."

mailto:gandrews@durangoherald.com