DA Kelly, ‘We’re ecstatic and humbled’

ALAMOSA — After repeatedly making the case for a space large enough to accommodate the 21 people who now make up her staff, 12^th Judicial District Attorney Anne Kelly is getting her wish, and it is more than even she had thought was possible.

Sometime before the end of 2024, the DA’s office will be moving from its current location on San Juan Avenue to the Alamosa State Bank building, located at 601 Main St. on the corner of Main and State Avenue in downtown Alamosa. That, alone, is welcome news for Kelly. But most extraordinary is that the property is being donated by Alamosa State Bank to Alamosa County.

When asked to confirm, Alamosa State Bank President Chas Moeller wrote, “It will be a full donation. The ownership will be going to Alamosa County.”

Russell Achatz, CEO of Alamosa State Bank, issued the following statement.

“The Alamosa State Bank and its Board of Directors are proud to donate our branch building at 601 Main St. to Alamosa County for the DA’s office and its multiple functions. 

“We believe this is a win-win for the community, downtown, and the DA’s office.  We have a top-notch DA, and for her to recruit top-notch employees and attorneys, their own building with much, much more space and safe environment is crucial for their success.  

“With a fully staffed DA’s office, it can only help in keeping the community safer, which was important for us. It is also great for downtown, keeping all those employees working in the area is only a positive.  It will be exciting to see a building that was our home for 70-plus years get a new life and updated and to serve such a great purpose for the community.”     

Since being elected to office, Kelly has recruited enough attorneys to be considered fully staffed, which includes seven full-time prosecutors, including herself, and one attorney who works remotely half-time monitoring situations that do not require his or her presence in person.

Now that she will have ample room to accommodate a staff of 21 people, each member of her team — including the prosecutors, two investigators and administrative staff — will have their own office, allowing them to have confidential conversations while being confident that people without a need to know can’t overhear what is being said.

“The district attorney’s office is ecstatic and humbled by the efforts of Alamosa County and Alamosa State Bank in finding us an appropriate office space,” Kelly says. “We will be able to do so much more for this community when we have the space to do it.

“One of the things we’re most excited about with the new space,” Kelly continues, “is our ability to have a conference room that will accommodate public discussions, community forums and training for law enforcement.

“Also, what we don’t have right now but will have in the new building is a comfortable, confidential, safe and private place for victims and their family members to meet with people from the DA’s office without having to walk through all the other offices to get there. That’s a big need in the community that will be met with a smaller conference room.”

Colorado Legal Services, a pro bono provider of legal services to people in the Valley, is currently occupying some of the space in Alamosa State Bank but, Kelly says, they will be moving out.

“They provide a very valuable service,” Kelly says, “and, fortunately, they’re going to stay in the Valley. I think they needed a different space, too.”

“We are very grateful to Scott and Angie Graber [owners of the San Juan building] for working with the DA’s office for over 20 years and the relationship that grew out of that,” says Megan Bagwell, the DA’s Director of Administration. “The main priority — not the only priority but the main priority — in moving is that we need to have a space that can fit the growth that the DA’s office is experiencing.”

Bagwell says they’re hoping to close on the new property within a month and move in sometime within the next year once needed renovations are made. But, in the event that the building they’re currently occupying is sold before they can move into the new space, Bagwell says they are working on a lease agreement with their current landlords.

“If we’re anything in the DA’s office, we’re resilient and we can make things work as long as we have to until we move into our new space,” Bagwell says.

“We are the recipient of this amazing work and haven’t been involved in the intricacies of what was negotiated,” Kelly says. “But I want to express my deepest gratitude to Alamosa State Bank who has been amazingly generous and a really strong supporter of our office and, in service to the community, have provided us with this opportunity.

"I especially want to thank Russell Achatz, Alamosa State Bank’s CEO, Chas Moeller, the president of the bank, Roni Wisdom with Alamosa County, and Commissioner Lori Laske.

“This is going to be a game-changer,” Kelly says. “The entire office is so grateful for the work of Alamosa County and Alamosa State Bank.”

Kelly anticipates that the next meeting of the Alamosa County Commissioners will provide more details about future plans.