Patagonia Mayor Andy Wood is in her second term as mayor, having been in that office since 2018. Her current term will expire in 2026. Previously, she’d served for more than 20 years on local school boards and eight years as a town council member.
The PRT sat down with Mayor Wood recently to learn more about her thoughts about the challenges facing Patagonia and her role as mayor in this small community.
PRT: Why did you decide to run for Mayor?
Wood: A couple of people suggested it and I like a little bit of conflict and controversy and I thought that I could do a good job. I care deeply about this community and our town. I remember when I was on the Council and they brought a proposal to us about putting the Dollar Store here in town and we were like ’No, we don’t want corporate America here.’
PRT: You have recently been appointed to sit on the Patagonia Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department (PVFR) as the town representative. You also are part of the negotiations with South32 to craft the Community Protections and Benefits Agreement (CPBA). What made you accept the role of being on the PVFR board at this point?
Wood: I thought, I can step up. I can do it.
PRT: Are you a voting member of the PVFR Board?
Wood: I’m supposed to be, but they’re having a little bit of conflict about what it says in their old by-laws and what is in the contract [with the Town]. They are saying that according to the old bylaws it doesn’t say anything about a council person being on the board. There’s some stuff that has to be worked out but in the contract it says that a Council person is supposed to be on board. I don’t care if I’m not a voting member. What’s important to us is having representation. I can listen and bring a lot of concerns back to the Council. I think it is a valid seat for a Council person to hold, and I hope it can be worked out.
PRT: Are you enjoying being on the PVFR or are you finding that there is conflict because of people saying you shouldn’t be there?
Wood: At this point there is a little conflict. But that doesn’t mean that it’s bad, it just means that you need to have more conversations.
PRT: What’s your biggest goal for the CPBA?
Wood: For me, it’s protections. There’s a lot of different areas. There’s needs-based benefits, long-term benefits, and post-mine closure, what happens afterwards.
Right now, we have the main document put together, but then we have appendices that go with that. We’re trying to do this document in two phases. We picked what requirements we thought were good for phase one. We just hired a protections expert, paid for by South32, but not chosen by South32. The expert was chosen by the consensus of the entire group. So, we just hired this group to analyze what kind of additional environmental protections we should have beyond what the regulatory protections are.
We want to make sure that we put as much of those protections that they come up with into phase one. Once phase one is put together, then it goes out to focus groups, and then it goes out into public hearings.
I keep pushing for them. There’s no reason for this to be so secretive. We need to let the public know what’s going on. I understand that when you’re doing something like this, you can’t have too many cooks in the kitchen at the onset, because all it would do is create chaos and you wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything.
PRT: What are your biggest worries about Hermosa?
Wood: Protections. Making sure that we have sustainable protections for air, water and soil. Pretty much every meeting that’s what comes out of my mouth. Because, you know, you can talk about benefits and money that South32 could pay out because they have the money, but I’ve always said, if you don’t have protections, benefits don’t mean anything. I want a sustainable place for my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. I want this community to be a sustainable community that is sustainable because of what they have, not because of the impact of the mine.
PRT: Regarding the border wall being built across the San Rafael Valley, do you see any problems for the town, do you see any benefits for the town?
Wood: I think it’s a waste of money, personally. I don’t see any problems. We’ve had one meeting with the construction company. My question to them was, ‘Are you welding out there, because it’s so dry?’ They’re doing a little bit of welding but most of the [wall] is coming in panels, so they have to pour concrete to set them. They weld, I think, the piece on the top but they said ‘we have a water truck.’ They’re supposed to have a camp out there and I asked him how they take care of their sewage and they said that a company comes in. So those are my two biggest concerns, the environmental and fire safety part of it.
We’re kind of sticking our nose into this project and we don’t really have the authority to do that necessarily. We have limited authority in that area unless they were wanting to buy water from us, which Ron said ‘No.’
PRT: Did they ask?
Wood: I don’t think they did.
PRT: What’s your take on the proposed sidewalk along Doc Mock Park that some people say would be funded by leftover funds from an ADOT grant? You said you like controversy.
Wood: There are specific rules on what you can do with that money because it’s grant money, but we have a little bit of time to spend that money and I would like to kind of take it easy and not rush into this and see if perhaps there would be another project that would qualify that would be more helpful in a different way as far as providing walking infrastructure for the safety of people. We have extra grant money. This was one of the things we used DeMenna, our lobbying group, for. That group talked to state legislators, and they actually wrote a bill so that we knew we had permission to spend that money. I know it has to be for, like road infrastructure or something that has to do with roads or sidewalks, but maybe there’s a better way. Perhaps we’d have to ask them to change the criteria of how that’s spent.
PRT: What does Patagonia need a lobbyist for? What convinced you to hire this firm?
Wood: What we want to use them for is to lobby for legislation. The state legislature took away the long-term rental tax which is 3% and it’s a city-imposed tax. They just said cities can’t charge that anymore, so we lost $30,000 annually from that, and that is to me an overreach by the state authority because that’s a local tax. I want to keep pushing to see if it can be reversed or amended. Those types of things we could have this lobbyist firm advocate for at the state level because they’re right there at the State House. They have offices there, they’re invited to speak to legislators, so we think there’s a value there for fighting for stuff for small and rural communities.
PRT: What is your vision for the future of Patagonia?
Wood: I am hoping that we can sustain and expand our nature-based restorative economy. That feeds into just about all of the businesses that are here. There’s certain businesses that would be an asset to our community. I’d love to see somebody open a daycare center.
PRT: Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Wood: I would encourage people to pay attention to the council meeting agenda and if there’s something that’s going to be voted on that they feel strongly about, they need to come to the council meetings. We did have the sidewalk [along the park] on the agenda. I think we had only one or two people comment.