TRI-COUNTY AREA – The full might of the Great Recession exacted a heavy toll on the communities of the Western San Juans during 2009, forcing real estate sales into a slump, increasing demands on social services, forcing unprecedented numbers of homeowners into foreclosure proceedings, and making the economy the most talked about story of the year.

Evidence of the economic erosion that defined 2009 and occupied a substantial portion of The Watch’s editorial space became tangible in early 2008 when real estate sales in the Telluride Region began to falter.

That decline remained steady throughout the year, providing the Town of Telluride, which is heavily dependent on a three percent real estate transfer tax to fund government services and capital improvements, with just a fraction of its normal revenue.

By March the town had determined it was facing an expected budget shortfall of $2.4 million and six full-time employees saw their positions eliminated a few months later as a result.

In Mountain Village the Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association is largely dependent on its own three percent real estate transfer assessment (supplemented by about $1.2 million in revenues from homeowner’s association dues) to fund the operations and maintenance costs of the gondola and other member services including grant funding and event sponsorships.

By late September RETA was expected to be down $1.8 million by year end and the TMVOA board was working hard to find large cuts in its 2010 budget in response to the drastic revenue shortfall.

In the Town of Mountain Village, which amended its budget in March in response to declining revenues, the government reduced capital expenditures and cut capital improvements. It also trimmed operational costs across all departments, including cuts to its popular Dial-a-Ride taxi service, and reduced its workforce by 10 percent.

In September The Watch reported that June sales and use tax for the City of Montrose area was down 11.1 percent from the previous year, putting city revenues 8.3 percent below projections for the revised 2009 budget. Its retail sales tax for June fell 13.4 percent below June 2008 collections, resulting in an overall 7.5 percent drop in revenue from the previous year.

The city submitted a balanced budget to the city council in September of last year, before evidence of the coming recession was incontrovertible, that didn’t account for future revenue reductions.

As a result, “We had to reduce the original 2009 budget by18 percent, a pretty big chunk,” said spokesman David Spear.

In San Miguel County year-to-date sales tax collections through the end of October, according to the most recent data available, were down 15 percent, and the $700,000 in largely building-related use taxes and $450,000 in interest earnings projected for 2009 came in closer to $232,000 and $200,000 respectively, The Watch reported in December.

The region’s residents were forced to answer increasingly difficult questions as the prolonged recession left more and more looking for ways to fulfill the most fundamental of needs – putting food on the table – and they turned to government and community provided social services in increasing numbers to do so.

By the end of October, 86 eligible low-income households in San Miguel County had received food stamp benefits through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a nearly 51 percent increase from the 57 households served during the same month last year, The Watch reported.

In Ouray County, 93 households received food stamp benefits in October, up about 43 percent from the 65 households that received benefits last year.

Montrose County saw a 21 percent increase in the number of individuals accessing federal food stamp benefits since the beginning of the year – from 3,863 in January to 4,657 – at the end of October.

The October count represented a 63 percent increase from the 2,858 county residents who received food stamp benefits in January 2008.

Perhaps more startling than the increased number of people who sought government assistance was the havoc the economy played in the lives of ordinary working people.

Montrose County Health and Human Services Director Peg Mewes described many of her clients as “people who have lost stable work,” and said that an informal survey taken by her office found that about 80 percent of those seeking services had never before done so.

“It’s totally something new for these families to have to face,” she said.

Local food pantries also saw demand for their services grow.

In Telluride around Thanksgiving the San Miguel Regional Food Bank, established in early April with a specific mission to help serve individuals and families earning too much to qualify for government programs such as SNAP but not enough to make ends meet, provided food to 10 households, or about 25 individuals.

“Normal is four to six households or 10 people,” said Director Angie Peterson, who attributed the increase in part to the holiday season and in part because the food bank will serve anyone who is hungry – no questions asked.

But the real surprise came when the SMRFB opened its new West End branch in Norwood the week before Thanksgiving and ended up providing food to 40 households or more than 90 people.

Around the same time the Ouray County Food Bank fed about 22 families from its headquarters at the Calvary Assembly of God church, up from the 10 to 12 families a week it served prior to last summer.

At the Sharing Ministries, Inc. food pantry in Montrose at the same time Distribution Clerk Andi Lester estimated traffic up about 30 percent from the previous year.

The recession also prevented an unprecedented number of homeowners from fulfilling their mortgage obligations during 2009. By the last Tuesday in December, heavily real estate dependent San Miguel County had opened 97 foreclosure filings – nearly triple the 35 filings opened in 2008 – which itself was just two filings shy of the county’s previous foreclosure record of the 37 in 1983.

A recessionary economy left vacant commercial space in downtown commercial areas, as well.

In Telluride, local merchants banded together during the holiday season to gussy up the shopping district with lights and decorations, and asked landlords with empty main street storefronts to allow art galleries, nonprofits and the like to make use of the spaces until commercial tenants could be found.

In Montrose one empty space at the corner of Main and Uncompahgre streets saw a revival as an artists’ cooperative called The Creative Corner.

Because of the poor economy the Ridgway Town Council at a November meeting generally agreed that it would not draft any sort of new tax initiative ballot questions, including a use tax, for the April 2010 municipal election to fund the completion of the historic business core streetscape plan.

The following month it approved a resolution that would allow employees working 32 hours a week to receive medical insurance coverage because work schedules for some town employees had been enacted because of budget restraints.

Yet despite the recessionary fallout, a spark of activity has given the region some hope that economic recovery could be around the corner.

In Telluride and Mountain Village lodging reservations booked in November increased by 75 percent over the same month last year.

Throughout San Miguel County 29 real estate sales totaling $41.7 million (of which about $20 million can be attributed to the recent sale of the Peaks Resort and Spa in Mountain Village) eclipsed the 10 sales totaling $6.1 million in November 2008 , according to sales figures compiled by real estate analyst Judi Kiernan of Telluride Consulting.

And although home sales in Ouray and Montrose counties are down from last year, more recently sales have begun to pick up, The Watch reported in December.