Finally Someone Is Listening!

The Chamber seems to be awakening. They are sponsoring a Candidate for Charter Commission meet and greet at the Inn of Estes on Tuesday night (May 31 at 7PM). This is a good role for the Chamber, to bring the community together to see who they want to represent them if the vote is in favor of Home Rule.

Of course the Estesparkian feel that if the Town doesn't go Home Rule, with a wide variety of candidates other than Town Trustees, we all might as well shut off the lights.

In any case, Tuesday is a good time to put faces to names and find out what thoughts the candidates have about the future operation of our town.

Remember, candidates don't have to be experts in local government; they are guided through the process with the help of guidelines and a legal expert. They just have to be willing to work together for a positive outcome. Willing to work is a prerequisite.

Another Blog

There are a couple of other websites/blogs you may want to look at.
The Chamber sponsored a website at www.estesparkhomerule.com
There is a blog at www.ephomerule.blogspot.com
It appears that the difference is you can comment on the blog, not on the website.

Big Brother Is Watching Out For You

Didja ever notice that Big Brother is watching over you? Of course you don’t need watching over, but they have their own agenda.

Let’s look at some of the “programs” the Town has rejected. They claim they have no money for these projects because they don’t fit their agenda.

• No money for a serious parking structure that would surely help visitors and locals while increasing income to retail and increase sales tax dollars as well.
• No money for a performing arts center even though it would be used by local arts groups and give cause for visitors to come to Estes Park for performances. There could be theater, movie festivals and art shows, all year around.
• Any kind of event venues for youth in Estes Park; Sorry kids, no money.

Where has the money gone?

• Unusable kayak course
• Re-model Town Hall
• Re-model Town Hall again
• Make plans to extend the unusable kayak course
• Prepare to spend $1,775,000 on a visitor’s center and incorporate a staff for $600,000
• (if you are wondering, no Statutory Town in Colorado has such a marketing budget – None) Mostly this is for a bloated staff.

Isn’t it a wonder that the Town will never build or invest in those things that the people that pay their taxes want?

The day is coming!

Town Bugle Burps

Right! The Town would have you think it’s their idea that we seek Home Rule. Up to and through the League of Women’s Voters public meeting on Home Rule, the Town was adamantly against Home Rule. Repola was quoted at that time as saying “we’ve looked into it and it isn’t good for our Town.” Hear tell he even argued about it, but we all know how hostile he gets when confronted by the truth; can’t stand that “T” word.

The one thing is certain and that is that voters will decide. Voters must look carefully at the candidates and choose in favor of open minded citizens and not for the status quo. Be careful in choosing those in favor of change, not those who are NOT QUALIFIED!

SAY IT AIN'T SO

Will they ever learn?
Town hall and town staff just can not stop stepping in it.
Last week Peter Marsh, the towns advertising manager and his wife had a private special invitation only meeting.

They just love these behind close door meetings.

In addition to being a long time town employee the Marsh's are the owners of the town’s very own special marketing agency Second Wind.
The invitation only meeting was to determine what kind of businesses will be place in the town’s new commercial enterprise on west Elkhorn.
This was not a public meeting and lord only knows what the qualifying parameters are to determine if one will be invited to participate. The Marsh’s and the town are open to so many civil rights violations that it makes one dizzy thinking about it. The possibilities are endless.

To qualify will you have to?

Belong to the correct church?
Are you the proper race?
Bank in the proper bank?
Have correct sexual orientation?
Be related to a town official?
Be related to a town employee?
Are you a long time local?
Male or female?
Did I mention tortious interference by a governmental official?

This going to be interesting. I may apply and when I'm not picked, sue the idiots and get rich.
The Estes Parkian

THANKS FOR THE INPUT

The Estes Parkian thought this was such a great comment to the Repola blog we wanted to share it with all of you...

busyman said...

For what it's worth, I've been watching the Chamber for many years. Our family owns 2 businesses, neither of which are lodging and both are year round. I joined the Chamber of Commerce several years ago because they 'would only buy from a member', which was our service business, and at the end of the year dropped the membership because there were no other benefits! The primary objective of the Chamber was serving the accomodations portion of the community- which was not wrong, but held no appeal to my interests. I am familiar with other Chambers across the country- my wife's father has been a Chamber President for many years in a small community and he has persistently encouraged me to get involved with the Chamber to benefit from the contact with other businesses and sharing of ideas among others in my (small business) boat. Alas, I remain outside the Chamber today because they have never appeared to be about businesses supporting each other. Without a doubt, they are interested in attracting customers to Estes, which is nice, but now redundant. What about an organization that was for businesses working together as a single voice, strong because of the common goals of each business owner, and offering the benefit of seminars to learn strategies, sharpen individual marketing plans, understand the IRS, etc etc etc. Everytime I have a second to talk about business with another hard working business owner, I remark that it would be a great to get together and do just that- they always agree. When the current Chamber of Commerce focuses on organizing businesses as a constructive, supportive (and probably very powerful) group, I'll give it a try. PS: I am pleased to have read Hazlitt's column yesterday, to discover this forum. I will continue to develop our own business with positive customer service and lead by example, versus complaining about everything that is wrong- but will read with interest this forum for other perspectives. Thanks for the opportunity.
7:05 PM

Repola Rants Runs Raw

Repola rants that the CVB is just trying to make things better – for them. If you look at his ranting relative to the CVB, you can easily see that they have a huge payroll. The suggestion that they are only increasing by three members is a distraction. Under Statutory Law they can’t have ANY employees. If recollection is clear, we had a Chamber that provided for most of these services on their dime, now we all pay for it as taxpayers. Do you remember voting on any of this? Of course the town doesn’t want you to vote, they feel you are not qualified anyway as they have said in their own words that you are stupid, lazy and uninvolved.

Well folks, prove them wrong!

Bookmark This Site!! Now!!

Ok, listen up. If you really want to make a difference, bookmark this site and e-mail the items that catch your eye to your friends. Tell everyone about this voice of reason. Be sure to tell the Charter Candidates to put their resume online at the "Voice for the Candidates" blog. This is the only blog where they must give their name and e-mail. After all, we want to be able to begin communication with our candidates.

Remember the rules. If a candidate has a (*) attached to their name in the Trail Lampoon, they are NOT QUALIFIED! No resume from them because, really, who cares? There are a couple of others that are NOT QUALIFIED! Like Jeff, (let me kiss the Mayor's butt) Barker. He’s NOT QUALIFIED!

Also, except for the blog mentioned above you may post as anonymous if you don’t feel comfortable leaving your name. What do you think? Of course all posts are subject to the approval by the Estesparkian.

CURB SPOT

We love this place, Estes Park, Colorado. Some of us have known her all of our lives and some have just become familiar with her. The environment - location gets under your skin, many of us cannot get enough and are drawn back time and time again. Visitors all want a piece of Estes Park, some just a photo or trinket, others on a grander scale. Although indescribably beautiful in its setting, it is known for its disasters and kooks. If you want the attention of the world yell flood or fire and every news reporter in Colorado will be here. We have the Highlands Festival largest in North America and zero news coverage, but Estes got tons of air time for the trustee who wasn’t. (Now I understand we have a “trusted” public official who is stalking a local female and local officials will not enforce a Larimer County restraining order, sounds oddly familiar.)

What is it about Estes Park, where the people tolerate corruption in their public officials? The saddest part of this enigma is that it reflects on the character of the people that live here. Each and every citizen of Estes Park is responsible for the activities of elected official and town employees. The responsible supervisors of any community are the citizens of that community. The level of tolerance for corruption in any community is determined by the citizenry.

It is a lot like owning a pet, really.

There are responsible dog owners and than there are irresponsible dog owners. I have known professionals that are diligent in every aspect of their profession, but they are irresponsible pet owners. I know of homeless people that have dogs that are groomed and well mannered.

The people of Estes Park are irresponsible dog owners. They have allowed their town government to get way out of control. Picture the dog owner that allows their dog to roam the neighborhood without a leash and the dog damages everyone’s lawn, out of control. It’s the neighbor’s responsibility to clean up the mess. From time to time the dog bites someone and a law suite follows, which is privately and promptly paid off. The dog is spoiled and demanding, will not adhere to rules and if you attempt to chastise, it will bite the hand that feeds it.

Fellow Estes Parkians we have allowed town hall to roam undisciplined and off leash for years and it has cost us all untold amounts of money. Curb your dog or it’s off to the pound with the lot.

Trail Ridge Road to Open

The Estesparkian took a spin through RMNP to clear the cobwebs. The gate personnel said that Trail Ridge Road will open tomorrow morning - 5-21-05. That means we can now see a steady stream of visitors going through town to shop on "the other side" as they can't find a place to park in Estes Park. Get it? No parking in the park whether it is Rocky or Estes.

Be sure to, well what really? I guess we should wave? Hi, bye, see you on the return trip.

Did You Notice the Bias?

When the Trail Lampoon announced the candidates for Charter Commission they put stars (*) adjacent of the trustees and mayor. Did you think that a bit odd? That put a bias into the report as though the candidates weren’t equal. Let it be a warning that the candidates are not equal. The Lampoon has a clear bias toward the town as evidenced by the new column given to the mayor at the beginning of an election campaign; this without offering equal space for other candidates. Candidates should demand that they get the same space or go to the state and file formal complaints.

In the meantime, it should be clear by now that if they have a star they shouldn’t get your vote. The star means NOT QUALIFIED TO SERVE*.

The corruption in this town is widespread and clear and thus far no one has wanted to bother fixing things.

Are you ready?

Vail Puts Lodging-tax Hike to Vote as Denver Considers Doing Same

What a novel idea. We don’t have that option in Estes Park, but we should. Why don’t we look at this option? First of all, we can’t have a lodging tax because we are a Statutory Town. Vail, as a Home Rule town has taxing authority and they know how to use it. As of now, they are charging visitors a 1.5% tax on rooms which goes toward local projects. They also have a .5% tax on goods for the same purpose. Now, they are considering doubling of those taxes. Here’s a novel idea, if they do decide that it is prudent to raise those taxes, registered voters will have to be asked to approve those changes.

Denver currently charges a 13.85% lodging tax and the change contemplated is to raise it to 14.85%. The reasoning is that “tourism is a major industry for our city and for our state, and we have fallen behind. If we don’t promote ourselves, nobody else will.” Again, as a Home Rule community they have taxing authority and will have to ask citizens to vote for such change.

Then there is Estes Park. Ask citizens? Are you nuts? We don’t care what citizens think and surely they won’t vote. Let’s just let our town go broke and stop whining.

Vote for Home Rule! It's time for a change.

HOW'S YOUR ASPEN ?

This morning as I drank my coffee I watched Channel nine for my local “what’s up?”. There was a segment on Aspen Colorado concerning their efforts at marketing to their summer customer (front range Colorado). By the way Aspen had a smashing winter ski season. X games were a smashing success, again.

This summer Aspen is offering gasoline vouchers, free use of bicycles, and budget room rates. For retail shoppers they are offering discount shopping vouchers as well.

All this offered by the Aspen Chamber of Commerce.

The Estes Park Chamber is almost bankrupted by the town, evicted- thrown out on the street. The Estes Park Chamber can’t even afford to pay their own natural gas bill The irony is that is almost exactly represents, the Estes Park businesses; almost bankrupt, one step, fire or flood away from going belly up. How embarrassing.

Candidates Soon to Be Announced

Candidates for the Charter Commission are now properly registered and can begin their campaigns. Of course the Estesparkian will be following the race and may have some opinions as to who might not be qualified candidates. Surely you’ll want to hear about any news that there is?

For now let’s just say that the Town Board is not qualified to participate in the Commission, even though they are attempting to control it. They’re the ones that say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” They have had years to do this Home Rule thing and have fought it all the way. Now that brave citizens force it as an issue they are afraid to be left behind so they feign support. Don’t be fooled. We can’t expect different results if we choose the same solution.

Can You Feel the Wind?

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.

Cheese it, it's the Cops

This is a small town and in the winters there is very little to do but nose into everyone else’s business, like any small town USA.

A lot of the people that get into public service around here have been around town a long time. These folks move from board appointment to board appointment; hospital board, to school board, to Chamber board, to Town board, to this commission, to that commission.

It is hard for me to understand the reason so many people came to the aid of a local long term creep that was found to be a pedophile. Town trustees and town officials wrote letters of support to the Larimer county court in support of this man ...this man that abused young boys. He had served on boards all over town.

Our superintendent of schools admitted to have stolen an untold amount of money from the school district. And parents and local town officials have gone to war for him, accosting the school board president over the ordeal. The present school board is uncovering more and more malfeasance in the district. A book-keeper admittedly took thousands and thousands of dollars from the school district. Her husband runs a small cubby whole deli next to the downtown theater. Now this lady stole money to pay the bills, the deli is seasonal at best, at what point is duplicity suspected? I do not know about you but thousands added to my budget would be noticed, especially in February when I search the couch cushions for beer money. Now the point here is since this all broke, town trustees and town employees have poured into this deli/laundry slapping each other on the butt , calling each other babe, yipping it up like a frat house. How many great sandwich shops do we have in this town, that are a lot cleaner and have valid food service licenses? What is the moth to a flame attraction here?

Now I come to the point to all this:

Paul Fishman

Paul owns the 14er's café. He is a new young business owner that is admittedly not from here, Jersey I believe. Now all winter he struggled - no one coming to town - few locals know him so do not eat there yet and he struggles. Paul is from a community where town administrators and employees are held accountable for their salary. Whenever the town was empty of visitors Paul called town hall (like he would in Jersey) and put the town community development coordinator on the spot, why no business? Paul got the Tom Pickering snow job, called Tom out in the papers. In response, Tom Pickering filed a police complaint against Paul. Paul wrote a second letter to the editor and the Trial Gazette would not print it.

So as a public service this is the letter, in his words, that the Trail would not print:

I recently wrote a letter to the editor (published) explaining my discussions with certain town official. I decided to see if Mr. Tom Pickering, head of the CVB, read the letter (Trail Gazette). He said he just glances over the letters. With no surprise I replied well that’s my point you don’t want to hear from the people of the community whose sales taxes pay your salary of $96,000.00 a year. I then put him on notice that I would be very busy this summer running my business. However come winter I will be coming after his job. Now most reasonable people would say he’s to get me fired. Well everybody, I have that right and so do you because these officials are suppose to work for us and in my opinion they are not (working). Now Mr. Pickering, in an attempt to intimidate me and make me back off, called the police on me filing a false complaint saying I threatened him. I am a very direct person so allow me to be very clear, Mr. Pickering I am not after you personally. I believe you are not representing the business community of our Town very well and should be fired from your position. Others in this town who are aware of this occurrence have warned me that if I go forward with this questioning of the town officials and hold them accountable for their actions that I could expect other attempts of intimidation. Well I say this to my fellow citizens of our town, I will not be intimidated and turn my head to the aggressive actions of our town officials. This is about the issues that face us now and in the future. What direction we would like to see our town go in. So Mr. Pickering either step up or step aside because I don’t think the people of this community should settle for anything less.
Thanks
Paul Fishman
14’ers Café

The tale of two deli’s: in one deli a hard working young man who expects accountability from town officials, town hall calls the cops on him.

The other deli spouse of a louse and the town officials hang out there.

You know what they say birds of a feather.
The Estes Parkian eats at the 14er’s

Can You Feel It?

There is a change a coming. An empowerment. A cleansing.

Ah, how refreshing it will be! People, can you feel it?

Let's Make A Difference!

When we look around our beautiful Estes Valley we should see all of the nice things first. We see glorious blue skies, snow-capped peaks, wildlife and a generally friendly group of citizens. These are wonderful things to celebrate and we should do so each and every day.

We should also look at our beautiful Estes Valley for what it could be. We have not reached our full potential, but we are being given a platform for change that we must not ignore. What changes would make Estes Park a better place to live?

Home Rule. Please remember that the Town has been opposed to Home Rule for ever. The simple facts are that they now have total control over every aspect of spending, legal or not, as a Statutory town. The Mayor makes most of the appointments for committees and forms partnerships with citizens that waste money but give profits to their special partners. These partners then give approvals for the Town proposals as members of the committees on which they serve. It is expected that if you are appointed to a committee you can bring an agenda. This agenda seems to include a basket full of items to sell the Town, such as publications, web addresses, photographs and the like. This is not made up, it is fact. We are unique in this regard and it must be stopped. How do we stop it? Vote for Home Rule and elect independent citizens to the Charter Commission.

The Town will cry out that putting the Mayor, Trustees and their friends on the Commission will insure good oversight. The opposite is true. We know their agenda and it has crippled our town, businesses and those of us who just want to live here in quiet enjoyment. It's oversight that we want.

What the Town wants to do that will further cripple Estes Park.

Shuttle service with the Park. This is perhaps the stupidest idea ever. Our biggest problem for the downtown businesses is parking. The Town brags about the visitors, but they truly can’t park in Town which means they can’t shop or spend money here. The Town suggests those people instead of parking and shopping, simply park their cars in town for the day and take a shuttle into the Park to go hiking. If the Park wants more parking they can plow up a few acres in the Park and provide their own shuttle service. After all, what’s the Park going to do, get mad and move to Utah?

Partners with YMCA as opposed to downtown businesses. The YMCA pays no tax and has now been exempted from any property tax. They sit on committees and strongly influence Town decisions. Very seldom do people escape the Y to shop in town. The Y is generally supplied from services out of town and what we usually see are huge strings of busses negotiating our town streets. This is old school thinking. We need to support our tax base. Help them thrive so we all benefit. More sales tax dollars helps us all. Instead, the Mayor and Trustees blame the stupid business people for their failures and the residents for buying out of town.

Wasted expense on town salaries. Estes Park has the highest salaries for employees for a town of this size in the State. This is not because they work so hard, it is because there is too much money available without proper oversight. This is the same as theft, especially when the EPURA funds are used to pay part of the salaries. Bet you didn't know that. Can't wait the hear Al and Will deny it. The Town is stealing from us twice. Once in bloated salaries, a second time in taking money from a project fund.

Competing events. The Town continually approves events that take money away from local business. This gives some minor support to charities, but is horrible for local business. The worst of it is that they don’t pay tax for the sales. The Town loses sales tax dollars, the businesses lose income and the sponsor groups get a few bucks. The businesses have begged the Town to stop this type of function, but to no avail. Why? Because the marketing department uses the downtown counts to increase their budget. Their budget goes to support higher saleries. That money could go to legitimate marketing, but it doesn't. A better solution would be to help fund the art groups and collect more sales tax dollars from local businesses.

Please continue to watch for more on this. We can make a difference.

ELVIS HAS LEFT THE HOUSE

Hurry all you Estes Parkians find a free copy of the Trail-Gazette, Estes Park's Lampoon Rag. We do not recommend that you pay $.75 for a copy, the price I once paid for Mad Magazine. “What me worry”?

Friday May 13, 2005 page B 6. “Officials clear up downtown construction confusions”.

This is great stuff Mr. Wasson and Mr. Smith (of Will’s Folly Fame) go on record to clear up Rumors. Elvis is an investor, Yeti spotted on Longs, I read it in the Estes Lampoon, it must be true (copy by Peter Marsh).

Fact # 1
The words misinformation and rumor are used in this article a half a dozen times.

Fact #2
Cardinal Properties, LLC:
Filed for and received articles of organization September 19, 2004
Kerry Prochaska
Michael A. Whipp
Edward Grueff
Issued building permit January 2005

Cardinal Properties were handed (given) the $1,000,000.00 lot by EPURA in trade for finished square footage to recover the original investment in the lot. Your very first project, what luck.

Why wasn’t this Estes Parkian invited to be an investor partner? Where and when were all these “details” worked out? How can I get invited to the party?
That my friends is a pretty sweet deal, hand me the property to secure my loan. Lots -O-Profit no risk. Plus you’re doing all this for Us. You guys are real swell.

Fact #3
How can the arts council afford to buy the “promised square footage”, the town trustees are holding all their cash.

Fact #4
Basic rule of thumb boys, in the public sector only those guilty of something respond so adamantly to rumors. Even in a small town.

Fact #5 (more of a question really)
Where did you put those buried gas tanks, I never saw them leave town?? Don’t tell me you built a building atop old buried gas tanks. YIKES!!!!! “Huston we have a problem”. Lets put the biggest rumor to bed …this will be a non-smoking area!!!!

Memorial Day completion (you said it Will) except for,,,,, No except for - Will, completion means done, finished, outa here, empty the parking lot, happy trails, gone fishing, adios, ciao,
One eye looking for kayaks the other on the calendar.
The Estes Parkian

Downtown Development Outdated

EPURA spent money on downtown development in about 1985. They put in trees and new sidewalks downtown, finished the River Walk and, over time, completed many other projects. Regarding downtown, that project was completed about 20 years ago and isn't currently cared for. One would think that especially in a tourist town we would want to put on the best face we could for our visitors. Our very existence relies on visitors. The summer gardeners do a terrific job of planting and caring for flowers, but the downtown benches need refinishing, sidewalks need washing and repairing and they aren't getting the attention they deserve.

Isn’t it time our Town spent money on infrastructure? Clean streets, fire and police protection, water and electricity are what we expect from our town. We just aren’t getting what we pay for or expect.

MORE EPURA

At some point in the not to distant future we will all look around and those of us that remain will ask what happened? Estes Park was in trouble and no one had the courage to do something.

Over twenty years ago EPURA was formed to help rehabilitate the downtown commercial district after the Lawn Lake flood. Urban renewal authorities have special powers but they must also follow special rules. Not being one for the rules the town has been a bit sloppy on protocol. As a statutory town our town board was thrilled to snuggle close to EPURA, always eager to assimilate the powers of others by awarding commissions on boards and hiring spouses. The Town has modified and morphed EPURA and abused its powers. The Mayor wrongful referred to the Authority as the planning arm of the town. This is absurd; EPURA is a project authority and nothing more. The intent of a urban renewal authority is to eliminate blight areas and restore them to economic viability (examples: ghetto’s, abandon tenant houses, dump sites). Granted, EPURA in the early days started on the core of their assigned task; the downtown commercial district and the river walk. There are a lot of small business and property owners each needing to be dealt with, not an easy task, so Staff decided (this comes from a former town administrators mouth) EPURA would only deal with the big boys, Holiday Inn, Stanley, RMNP etc. and abandon the inter core of the bread basket. The logic being, all the smaller entrepreneurs were too hard to deal with so they expanded the EPURA boundaries to team up with those big boys. Small business owners you're just out of luck, but you get to pay for it suckers!

To date the town has continued to ignore the downtown business district. “The only way to deal with that mess (referring to downtown), is if a fire takes the whole thing to the ground,” (This from the mouth of a former town administrator). Even though the buildings in the downtown area are full of toxic mold, asbestos, lacking even basic wiring, truly health, economic and blight needy attention. The town has directed EPURA to build a new park-and-ride for RMNP. How in the name of basic honesty can you consider the Information Center a blight area when it sits right next door to the most antiquated human waste treatment facility in Colorado. And Estes Park has more than her share of human waste, think Town Mayor and Trustees. Remember two years ago the facility leaked 68,000 gallons of raw human excrement into Lake Estes? The mayor wants this to be the center of our visitors Estes Park experience. Great John, park them next to the sewer plant and bus them into the park, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INDEED!! Where is our money really going?

How Do We Assure Fairness?

So often in life we seek answers beyond what we are capable of finding on our own. Whether it is a family issue or one in the workplace, we often seek independent parties that are removed from some particular circumstance to get an unbiased opinion. These queries often bring solutions we wouldn’t have discovered on our own or among our own family or business associates. This is why Grand Juries and Jury’s in general are made up of individuals who only agree to be fair minded and look at the facts to come up with solutions.

In the near future, in our town, we will be seeking citizens who are dedicated to finding fair solutions to the problems of creating a home rule charter. Like a jury, we should seek independent community members that will commit to working together to wade through the many options available and reach a good solution. To do so they will have the help of the State of Colorado and an experienced attorney. They will review documents that other communities have used and will weigh the successes and failures within those documents. Then, they will make their recommendations and we, as citizens, will vote on whether or not to accept their recommendations. That is how the system should and must work.

In this process, the Town has tried to stack the deck in favor of the Mayor and Trustees along with their trusted friends. The reason this is unfair is because they have a prejudice as to what a town should be, how it should behave and publicly have stated that the home rule process is not necessary. In other words they don’t want change. It should be evident by their actions that they are the wrong people to oversee any potential change to town operations, since they have opposed any change.

Hopefully in the months ahead there will be several open meeting discussions with the candidates. These will afford you an opportunity to meet with candidates and ask questions. We hope you will attend these meetings and support your candidate of choice.

Home Rule will not solve every problem that may come before a town. What it can do is establish a new operating agreement for the town. These are important decisions and will require you to make hard choices. Candidates should be committed to change and open to new ideas, yet have the desire to create a town government that will allow us to be a community that works together for the betterment of our community.

New Feature!

Join the action with your posting to comments on the issues you are interested in. Comments may be edited for innapropriate statements or content.

Town Twists Truth - Again!

Baudek and Repola have attempted to clarify a few issues in their new weekly column in the Trail Gazette.
The problem is with the "discretionary" aspects of Town code. They say that the employees are allowed some discretion because "a small variance might well make the development a better end product..." "...the goals of the Town policies and operations are to make the required processes as user friendly as possible while respecting private property rights." Tell that to the individuals that own property in A zoning. This is a staff sponsored proposal that will strip development rights away from land owners. These are not greedy developers, they just want to maintain the rights they had when they bought their property. There is no balance here and no respect for property rights. The entire planning department should be abandoned along with this stupid proposal.
Comments?

Congratulations Rotarians!

Wow! Yesterday's Ducky Derby raised well over $100,000 for local organizations. This was a very positive event that will have far reaching and positive consequences as scholarships are given, hospice gets additional funding and so many others are helped. Donors had the opportunity to select from 59 charitable organizations to receive their donation. Congratulations to the Rotarians and to all Estesparkians and others who contributed time and money to this important event. This is the true spirit of cooperation and giving we can be proud of.

WILL'S FOLLY

If you build it they will come.

The Town decision makers have invested time, money and credibility into the development of a kayak white water course on Fall River as it flows through town. In fact they (those elected to represent us and spend our money) promote this “kayak course”. You tell me Will Smith, do I look that dumb? Could you not have looked to the failed kayak course built in Lyons for inspiration? It too is a local “oops” no water - embarrassment.

Fall River flows an average 10 cubic feet of water per minute through town. Most of the flows are lower than that, when a kayak will scrape bottom. When it does flow higher a kayaker would be in serious danger of being killed at the bridges. The Animas River flows through Durango, Colorado and the whitewater kayak park is known to be world class, the average flow of the Animas is 200 cubic feet of water per minute.

The reason I bring this up is that the City of Pueblo is opening their new white water park this weekend that flows through the middle of Pueblo, the average flow of the Arkansas River at that point will average 600-700 cubic feet of water a minute.

The town spent money creating something that isn’t and tells us it is. You must be true to yourself Estes Parkians, the rest of the world is in touch with reality and they are our customers. Will Smith if you dress a pig in a prom dress and take that pig to the prom it is still a pig not a prom queen. You did a little landscaping along the river and it’s cute, but a kayak course it isn’t.

I wish Pueblo all the luck in the world with their new venture; it will be interesting to see where the kayakers go, Estes Park or Pueblo. I will be sitting on the banks of Fall River with my counter in hand to count the kayaks as they speed by on Will’s Folly. If you build it they will come?

The saddest thing of all is our credibility as a community is in the hands of our elected leaders and as they act the fool we all pay the price. The Estes Parkian

VIVA MEXICO !!!

Date line: May 6, 2005 one day after we collectively celebrate the independence of Mexico.
Subject:” Town deprives citizens and local businessman of their right to freedom of speech. Estes Parkians live under town employee dictatorship lets move our businesses to Mexico”!!! Viva Mexico!!!

The Town who has taken on the task of Community and Business development under the tillage of Tom Pickering (annual salary of $96,000.00 per year) and town administrator Randy Repola (annual salary of $107,000.00 per year).

It seems that a local businessman who operates a down town business has taken to calling Mr. Pickering whenever there are no patrons walking the streets of the Commercial Business district. Thats brilliant, why didn’t I think of that? Mr. Pickering heard from this businessman almost daily all winter. Last week this business man wrote an editorial in the local press exalting the community development director to start developing some business he is compensated well enough and his performance is lacking the measuring stick ...no business in the business district. Today May 6, 2005 Tom Pickering filed a police complaint against this businessman with the police department. How dare a citizen and businessman of this community hold a town employee accountable?

It seems that another local citizen has taken an interest in the activities in town hall especially the finances. This good citizen has been a local activist for improved (actually some) town accountability for several years and he has been labeled a local firebrand by the town interior propaganda minister Peter Marsh. Instead of advertising the town, his job, ( $76,000.00 per year) The town administrator Randy Repola has Peter analyze the contents of editorials and grades them and keeps files of all you firebrands. Seems Randy Repola has had enough of this citizen after this citizen discovered that the town flushed all the towns hard drives, porn, budget and all down the drain (to the tune of $71,000.00)

Nobody seems to have a copy of the entire 2004 budget ...including library copies. Hummmm.

Well Randy circulated a memo instructing all town employees that they cannot talk to this citizen.

Has any one seen what I did with my number for the States Attorney General?

A Town Divided

What do the Estes Park Town Trustees know that not one other community in Colorado has been able to figure out?

It pays dividends to have an advertising department (propaganda ministry) in your town.


On average the Town staff spends about 40 man hours per year, every year, purchasing the same thirty ads that they have purchased for the past thirty five years. Same picture, same text, same magazine. So what in the world are they doing the rest of the time?

Well for one, they are out starting fires all over town. It is a full time job keeping the community divided. It is very important to the town trustees that the accommodations people are at odds with the retail people who are at odds with the real-estate people, the non-profit groups are placed at odds with the business community. Recently the town administrator was found to be at war with the school board. Town staff spent two years dividing the chamber ambassadors away from the Chamber of Commerce. Why? They start fights between groups,, divide and conquer.

While you are all at war with yourselves you cannot come together to seriously over see anything.

The lack of any serious political opposition is nirvana for any town government. Face it, no one really trusts town hall in any community, but Estes Park town government has eliminated all serious oversight of their activities. As long as the business community feels it is totally beholding to the towns anemic advertising efforts they are loosing dollars by settling for dimes. A town divided.

How To Make Money In Real Estate!

Ok, follow this. Have the Town pay $1,000,000 for a parcel of real estate. Then have them give it to you. Then, submit a plan that doesn’t follow code for height or set-back so that you can maximize your profit. That gets rushed right through planning. Let the Town have some of the space so that they can give it to a local art group. Remember, the Town said they were going to “give” the property to an art group. Rent your space as the popular new downtown local, even though there are 10-15 empty stores downtown, and feel blessed you have friends in high places.

Now, as to the art group; the Town says they will give them the space they promised, just as soon as they come up with $1,000,000. So, the art group says, maybe we can do that, but we need the $500,000 seed money that you are holding for us. Well, silly, the Town says “no way” we spent about $100,000 of that and have needs for the rest of your money so you best start over.

This story is just one example of why our Town Trustees can’t be trusted. They have set themselves up as the privileged class, able to bend the rules on any issue while the rest of us can’t catch a break. Did you notice they took the “Municipal Office” sign down from the municipal building? Rumor has it they are going to replace it with “Private Club.”

Town Attempts To Steal Property Rights!

The Town of Estes Park is working to steal the property rights of owners wishing to develop their property. Currently, landowners in A zoning can build condominiums that also can be used as nightly rentals. These are good developments for the Town because as short term rental properties the user is charged a nightly fee and therefore sales tax. That tax is collected and then misused by the marketing department, but pays them several hundreds of thousands of dollars to meet their huge payroll.

The Town now wants to take these rights away, to no advantage to the Town and to a real detriment to the property owners. If these properties can't be developed as promised, they will lose value and perhaps the Town will be liable for this loss.

Bob Joseph, Town Planner, states that there isn't a problem now, they just want to prevent a problem in the future. Land rights are dear and the Town should stay clear of this proposal. It is interesting to note that the first public hearing was closed to public comment because the Trustees didn't want to bother hearing it then and again at a future meeting. That's our government in action. Always behind the code of silence!

Town Financial Crisis?

Many people have wondered why the Town continues to study new proposals and then discard them as not feasible. If one were to look at what has been studied and never come up to a vote, it would be interesting to look a bit deeper.

FOSH partnership with the Town discarded with the Town being the trusted holder of the money.

Study on a performance art center spending about $100,000 of that money, only to find it not a feasible proposal.

This kind of thing happens over and over in Estes Park. Similarly, they won’t address the parking problem or any project that they would have to borrow money for.

It is quite interesting that most Towns borrow money from time to time in order to build infrastructure and meet the long term needs of their citizens. Estes Park however doesn’t borrow money to fill these needs whether those needs are for a performance center, parking garage or improvement to the waste treatment facility. These are all arguably needs that we have and yet they are not being met, nor are they being planned for.

One could argue that the real reason is that there has been no credible audit of town books and that there are no stock brokerage firms that would handle the paper under these circumstances. In essence: no good books-no money.

Good Sound Judgment

When we elect our Town Trustees we hope we can find six good and fine people to oversee the operation and maintenance of our community (police, fire, streets, and utilities). The job of Trustee is a difficult one as many decisions are made and each of them must be correct. The system that we use in Estes Park is exactly like every other Statutory Town in Colorado. Six trustees elected at large, a figure head mayor that can vote to break tie votes; then the similarities to other community’s ends.

When Trustees run for office in Estes Park they are elected “at large” meaning they must live in the town limits, but do not represent any specific neighborhood, ward or sector. Each trustee is elected to be independently and generally responsible to every citizen of Estes Park on all topics related to the operation of our town. What happens next? Immediately upon election they all seem to disappear and vote in a block. They have allowed themselves to be compartmentalized and controlled by the mayor (a figure head). Each trustee has the power of one vote and they give it away.

Town trustees you were not elected onto a team you were elected for your independent and individual opinions!!!

Upon taking office each trustee is assigned to specific departments of the town and chair specific committees. These assignments are made by the mayor and all committee assignments are mayoralty appointed. Each chair has absolute control of operations and personnel within their sphere of influence. Once compartmentalized trustees stop addressing the job they were elected to, general overseer, and now become department dictators, often in areas where they have no expertise. Trustees are not elected as experts in water treatment plant operation or police tactics (as examples); they are elected for good sound judgment.

This system creates ripples down into town staff and it is not a good effect. Each trustee is a chairman dictator with staff interface. Staff becomes political players not the best technician, manager, administrator or attorney they need to be to sever the town’s people. What if the town attorney is giving political answers to secure his pay check, not good legal advice?

Give me good sound judgment.

Do you know that we have had four town administrators in the last five years and three new finance directors in the same time frame? Does anyone really believe breeding town administrators in-house is the best possible talent? You breed political stooge’s in house not good managers

Give me good sound judgment.

Theft Runs Deep

Ms. DeLeo sure has been busy robbing our children to pay herself. The school board has done a great job of uncovering the theft and surely they will prosecute to the fullest. Now if only the Town was put under the same scrutiny. But there we don’t have an independent body; we’ve got the fox guarding the hen house. We need an independent audit there as well.