Colorado Parks and Wildlife to Begin New Office Construction

Colorado Parks and Wildlife will begin construction soon on a new office building that will combine the Durango customer service  and  administrative offices for the Southwest region.You’re watching the Local News Network, brought to you by Dunkin Donuts and Fastsigns Durango. i’m sadie smith.Construction of  a new two story building at the site of the fish hatchery and Durango Wildlife Museum will house both the CPW’s customer service center and regional administrative offices. the antiquated service center at the hatchery offers information about state parks and sells hunting and fishing licenses. John Livingston:  currently, this building behind me is the current Durango customer service center. It's really only got office space for about four people, but it's currently serving, office staff of upwards of 17 people at a time right now, as well as trying to take in and help customers. So, we're looking at demolition of this building that's behind me here. The CPW regional administrative office is located in BODO. The Southwest Tegional Office  is the only one of four regional offices in the state where customer services aren’t co-located with administrative offices. the separate locations causes confusion with customers who often show up  at the wrong office to buy licenses. John Livingston: This project's actually been in the works for as many as 40 years now. We're a growing agency, managing not only our wildlife as as we have when this, building was originally on being used for the division of wildlife at the time, but also accommodating the state park side of our agency and all the different, aspects of what, Colorado Parks and Wildlife does, whether that's our water quality specialists, our energy liaisons, all of our senior biologists, staff, and many more, that are currently over in the BODO area. The historic wildlife museum as well as the fish hatchery will be preserved. John Livingston: our new office is actually going to be situated kind of right where I'm standing right now. and kind of where the camera is backing up, toward the animas river. We're actually going to create a little bit more green space between the river and the back end of that building. But this area right now, that's currently a parking lot, will be where the new building goes. this little kind of roundabout area, that's just kind of rock and some trees. We'll also become part of a new parking lot where we're going to expand some of the parking down here. Customer services have been relocated at  415 turner drive in BODO.  In the meantime, construction is expected to begin this summer. fish hatchery operations won’t be affected.  However the hatchery occasionally may be closed to the public.John Livingston: So we're looking at completion sometime in the summer of 2026. Really hoping that the construction only impacts one hunting season. The new office will improve accessibility, reduce confusion for visitors, and keep CPW’s regional staff in Durango. More information on construction of the new office building may be found on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Website. for more information about this and other stories, visit Durango Local dot news. Thank you for watching this edition of the local news network, I’m Sadie Smith.