Boy, oh boy, spring is in the air. The rivers are running a bit faster, the trees are starting to show some leaves and the sky is brighter, contrasting the blue sky against the beautiful green pines.
To think that just a few weeks ago we were paying huge heating bills as we bundled up inside and didn’t dare open the windows because of the horrible wind. Remember the March winds? It just seemed like they would never let up as they stormed down the Divide and buffeted our homes and everything in their path.
Well, the winter winds are now gone and we’re left with the Second Wind. Ah, the Second wind. Hey, didn’t you know about the Second Wind? Well, that’s the corporation formed by town wag Peter Marsh the ad director to run ads through. Don’t you wonder how much of that ad dollar sticks? I’d sure like to know. Of course he will claim that the ad revenue rebate saves the Town money. Well honey, let me tell you; say you had a million bucks to spend (OK, you don’t, but if you did) then say that million bucks was used for ancient ad pieces that were designed years ago, and the rebate was as much as 35% (which is isn’t). Would that save you $350,000? Well, no. You see the Town needs a staff with salaries of nearly $600,000 just to place the ads. Ads that true marketing people say are a joke.
Think of it this way. If you came to Estes Park to open a business you’d probably contact a few marketing firms, design a strategy and look at their proposals to find the best bang for your buck There is not a town in Colorado that operates like the ad group here; none, nyet, nada - doesn’t happen. And to look at the embarrassing outdated material this Town uses is an insult to a huge budget.
Needing alternatives, I might suggest firing the ad team, all of them. However that doesn’t work in this Town. People don’t go away, they just keep getting paid (Widmer). We can’t say they keep working because they don’t do much anyway. Ok, that wouldn’t work. Let’s give them a lateral move. They could form a new Official Street Patrol. Marsh could run the Street Zamboni and the rest could wash the sidewalks and storefront windows. In the winters they could continue keeping the downtown clean, shoveling and scraping ice, a real change from current policy. Then we’ll give the ad money to professionals, after carefully looking over several proposals, and watch the downtown prosper. At least these former toadies would be useful. Let’s think of other necessary uses we could put them to. As you are seeing from comments, there are a lot of you that have some really good ideas to share.
