Many people feel that Enos Mills is the father, or perhaps the founder, of Rocky Mountain National Park. In true fashion, he was an eccentric opportunist that desired a place be preserved for all time and that he be the only one allowed to have commercial development in the area. He also wanted more land made a part of the park, land that would include the Indian Peaks Wilderness area and land all the way to Central City. Mills was difficult to get along with and had quite a temper. With his insistence that things go only his way, he lost many of those that supported him and it was only with the diligence of James Grafton Rogers, a prominent Denver attorney and first president of the Colorado Mountain Club, that the park was approved at all. Working behind the scenes and forging compromises, the bill as drafted by Rogers passed the Senate in 1914, the House in 1915 and President Wilson signed the law that same year. (Liberal use of the essay “Brief History of Rocky Mountain National Park” by D. Ferrel Atkins, Park Historian, was used as a reference.)
Now, it’s great to have heroes and it is fun to tell stories about past residents, but we often embellish the importance of people far beyond their actual worth. It is thought by some that had Mills gotten his way we wouldn’t have a park at all. Who would our hero then be? We still have many characters to choose from; Lord Dunraven, F.O. Stanley, Joel Estes, Isabella Bird and Rocky Mountain Jim to name a few.
Perhaps even more interesting will be histories take on who the heroes are today. Can you name even one person here today that will be remembered as shaping the Town’s future for this 21st century? Today we only have bit players, infighting and unrest in our little valley. There isn’t any true leader that can make this a better place. We don’t even have anyone worth embellishing.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Build It And They Will Come!
Soon we will see the stuff our Town is made of. Tuesday the trustees will review a plan for a theater that may be built on the Stanley Fairgrounds. For years the art groups have made proposals, heard opinions from all segments of our society and have made sound arguments as to why we need a performing arts center. The Town has always side-stepped the issue when it came down to crunch time, and there is great anticipation that they will do so again. Let’s hope not.
Estes Park is filled with community programs that need facilities. That is one of our assets. Whether plays by the Fine Arts Guild, or one person shows, it would be very beneficial to have a consistent place to hold these performances.; better for the performers and better for the audience.
Over the years we have heard we need 350 seats, 600 seats or enough seating to hold the high school graduation ceremonies. Fewer seats it seems are too few, more seats it seems are too many. All issues aside, it is time to make a decision. A great educator once said… “Ready, fire and then aim.” For far too long the issue has been avoided. Let’s build it and enjoy it.
Estes Park is filled with community programs that need facilities. That is one of our assets. Whether plays by the Fine Arts Guild, or one person shows, it would be very beneficial to have a consistent place to hold these performances.; better for the performers and better for the audience.
Over the years we have heard we need 350 seats, 600 seats or enough seating to hold the high school graduation ceremonies. Fewer seats it seems are too few, more seats it seems are too many. All issues aside, it is time to make a decision. A great educator once said… “Ready, fire and then aim.” For far too long the issue has been avoided. Let’s build it and enjoy it.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Toss Your Money To The Wind!
When a bank develops a good market share and begins making healthy profits, they look for additional markets or expand in their own market. They do this by opening branches to make it convenient for their customers and as a way of spending excess capital instead of paying taxes on it. We’ve seen that here in Estes Park with First National Bank. Being successful they opened a branch office on Hwy 7. Good move for them and a good move for their customers.
Other examples are also in Estes Park. If a bank feels that they have grown all they can, they simply sell to a competing bank as United did to WestStar, where economies of scale make that a profitable proposal and the customers benefit by having additional services. In fact, WestStar will now become USBank and that should benefit customers as well.
This is how the economy works, even in Estes Park.
Now comes the pitiful CVB, an enterprise developed by the statutory town with no voter approval and with a budget they can neither afford nor maintain. In fact, the original price of the project was to be $1.2 million, but it escalated to more than $2 million. Then they staffed it with an additional overhead of over $600,000. Of course they first had to make it a blight area so they could use some good old EPURA funds. It’s amazing that the people in this town allow it. Have you ever heard of tar and feathers? That guy in Granby looks more and more like a patriot.
Is that the end of it? If you remember the first examples you’ll see that it is not. They have decided to branch out and have dumped a crappy little Tuff Shed in Bond Park. Again, did you ask for it? Are they trying to grow their business? Expand to another market? Hell no! These enterprises cost the taxpayers about $3 million dollars a year, more than most towns’ total budgets. What do the voters do? Duh! Nada.
Other examples are also in Estes Park. If a bank feels that they have grown all they can, they simply sell to a competing bank as United did to WestStar, where economies of scale make that a profitable proposal and the customers benefit by having additional services. In fact, WestStar will now become USBank and that should benefit customers as well.
This is how the economy works, even in Estes Park.
Now comes the pitiful CVB, an enterprise developed by the statutory town with no voter approval and with a budget they can neither afford nor maintain. In fact, the original price of the project was to be $1.2 million, but it escalated to more than $2 million. Then they staffed it with an additional overhead of over $600,000. Of course they first had to make it a blight area so they could use some good old EPURA funds. It’s amazing that the people in this town allow it. Have you ever heard of tar and feathers? That guy in Granby looks more and more like a patriot.
Is that the end of it? If you remember the first examples you’ll see that it is not. They have decided to branch out and have dumped a crappy little Tuff Shed in Bond Park. Again, did you ask for it? Are they trying to grow their business? Expand to another market? Hell no! These enterprises cost the taxpayers about $3 million dollars a year, more than most towns’ total budgets. What do the voters do? Duh! Nada.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Checkbook economics & Tourism
The Associated Press last weekend reported that "economic health is in the eye of the beholder."
According to AP, the latest reports show healthy increases in economic growth, job creation, home ownership, retail sales and consumer spending, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is at a six-year high.
But, AP says, while the president is trumpeting those gains, “Across town, Democrats are peddling a different message: Soaring gasoline and health care costs are burdening ordinary people; mortgage costs and credit-card rates are on the rise; jobs are threatened by outsourcing.” (Can’t they be positive?)
Friday’s New York Times featured a story that introduced a new phrase: “Kitchen-counter economy.”
In other words, while the economic indicators are improving, Americans still judge “the economy” by their own checkbooks. If everything’s going so well, they wonder, why is it even harder for us to make ends meet than it was a year ago, or five?
Part of the answer is that certain costs can be locked in for a relatively long term. People with fixed-rate mortgages know what they’re going to be paying every month for 15 or 30 years, and although it may be more than they’d like, there are no surprises. When they take a job somewhere else and want to buy a new home, though, the leap from that last mortgage to the next one may be breathtaking. Even if they have to finance their new cars for 72 months, they know what each payment is going to be, but cars don’t run forever. Although those costs may have been inching upward, the average American may perceive the increase in leaps and bounds.
Other costs are more difficult to budget even over the course of a year. The monthly heating bill, the price of gas at the pump, the cost of groceries (which is not unrelated to petroleum prices), ever-rising health-care expenses — those hit consumers in the wallet, and annual wage increases have not kept pace. Americans aren’t mistaken when they perceive that they’re losing ground.
“One reason the president can’t get a lot of traction when talking about the good economy is because it’s not good for everyone,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
“If you’re from a wealthier household, the economy is performing very well. You have a job, your income is rising, your net worth is about as strong as it’s ever been,” Zandi told AP. “If you’re a lower or middle-income household, or small business owner, you’re struggling. Your incomes aren’t rising, certainly not as fast as inflation, so your standard of living is falling. You have debt and interest rates are rising.”
The mitigating factor in some communities is growth, which provides job mobility and an inflow of cash to a community. Even that rising tide fails to float all boats — growth and its effects are not factors in the Estes Valley, for example — and it’s not a force that can continue forever none the less.
Estes Park needs to consider a broader range of information than summer sales tax returns to the town government, and needs to listen to the business community when they say that, on their kitchen counters as they’re balancing their checkbooks; the economy isn’t working for them. The “haves and have-mores” carry a lot of weight with in Estes Park, but those who are not allowed to operate within the “personal lender” community have a difficult time making ends meet.
This is vitally important information to our community, as town government continues spending millions of tax dollars through the advertising department targeting the very middle - income families that are most negatively effected by the current economic trends and have done so for the past how many years? They target the demographic that can least afford to spend money to get to Estes Park and make purchases if they get here.
According to AP, the latest reports show healthy increases in economic growth, job creation, home ownership, retail sales and consumer spending, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is at a six-year high.
But, AP says, while the president is trumpeting those gains, “Across town, Democrats are peddling a different message: Soaring gasoline and health care costs are burdening ordinary people; mortgage costs and credit-card rates are on the rise; jobs are threatened by outsourcing.” (Can’t they be positive?)
Friday’s New York Times featured a story that introduced a new phrase: “Kitchen-counter economy.”
In other words, while the economic indicators are improving, Americans still judge “the economy” by their own checkbooks. If everything’s going so well, they wonder, why is it even harder for us to make ends meet than it was a year ago, or five?
Part of the answer is that certain costs can be locked in for a relatively long term. People with fixed-rate mortgages know what they’re going to be paying every month for 15 or 30 years, and although it may be more than they’d like, there are no surprises. When they take a job somewhere else and want to buy a new home, though, the leap from that last mortgage to the next one may be breathtaking. Even if they have to finance their new cars for 72 months, they know what each payment is going to be, but cars don’t run forever. Although those costs may have been inching upward, the average American may perceive the increase in leaps and bounds.
Other costs are more difficult to budget even over the course of a year. The monthly heating bill, the price of gas at the pump, the cost of groceries (which is not unrelated to petroleum prices), ever-rising health-care expenses — those hit consumers in the wallet, and annual wage increases have not kept pace. Americans aren’t mistaken when they perceive that they’re losing ground.
“One reason the president can’t get a lot of traction when talking about the good economy is because it’s not good for everyone,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
“If you’re from a wealthier household, the economy is performing very well. You have a job, your income is rising, your net worth is about as strong as it’s ever been,” Zandi told AP. “If you’re a lower or middle-income household, or small business owner, you’re struggling. Your incomes aren’t rising, certainly not as fast as inflation, so your standard of living is falling. You have debt and interest rates are rising.”
The mitigating factor in some communities is growth, which provides job mobility and an inflow of cash to a community. Even that rising tide fails to float all boats — growth and its effects are not factors in the Estes Valley, for example — and it’s not a force that can continue forever none the less.
Estes Park needs to consider a broader range of information than summer sales tax returns to the town government, and needs to listen to the business community when they say that, on their kitchen counters as they’re balancing their checkbooks; the economy isn’t working for them. The “haves and have-mores” carry a lot of weight with in Estes Park, but those who are not allowed to operate within the “personal lender” community have a difficult time making ends meet.
This is vitally important information to our community, as town government continues spending millions of tax dollars through the advertising department targeting the very middle - income families that are most negatively effected by the current economic trends and have done so for the past how many years? They target the demographic that can least afford to spend money to get to Estes Park and make purchases if they get here.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Planning passed placing pocket pool priority, plausibly Pickering’s procreational pandemic.
Sad day to drive into town where there are still no flowers. The landscape crew, led by Pickering, spent the winter playing pocket pool and didn’t have time to organize flower planting or landscaping. What do these people do?
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Do I Gotta Tell ‘Ya Again?
In the advertising world (not the Peter Marsh advertising world, but the real advertising world) it has been deemed to take 27 impressions before a stooge gets the message. Of course in Estes Park the stooges are a little slow, so let’s say 35 impressions for EP. So, here we go again-
Tourists are good! Tourists are good! Tourists are good!
And, yet again, the Estesparkian will explain clearly and succinctly.
The Town of Estes Park relies on sales tax revenue as well as property taxes etc. to pay the obscene salaries of the under worked and overrated staff. They have to pay top dollar and give massive benefits to a staff that is clearly 15-20% bloated. That’s what they do here.
Local people, those of us who live here, don’t shop here. Why? Perhaps they don’t want any T-shirts, elk carvings or overpriced furniture. Perhaps they like shopping in the valley. Who the hell knows? In any case, the tourists flock to town and spend money in the little shops (being treated like lepers for the effort) and the shops pay sales tax to the town; unless of course they are part of the Scottfest, Bond Park crafts, Woolen Market or many other competitors to retail. The sales tax goes to the State, gets funneled back to the town and the town pisses it away.
Now, many locals say they hate the tourists because they take all the parking and the locals can’t then shop downtown, something they don’t do anyway. They hate the long summer lines at Safeway or anything that causes a moments inconvenience. People, thank the tourists! They provide the sales tax needed to run this town. You don’t, but the visitors do. Thank you tourists, Amen!
What happens if the tourists go away? First, property taxes go up. A lot! Do you really think the Town will curtail spending? Well, boys and girls, that won’t happen. Do we have a choice, possibly, but the Town doesn’t like to give choices. A good example is the shuttle service the Town committed for the National Park. The Town has no transportation district and no authority, but they did it anyway, to the total of over six figures. That’s in the $100,000’s friends. Did they ask for a vote? Of course not, they don’t have the authority to do it why would they bother to ask? How many of you want to pay for the shuttle? This is local tax dollars at work. Just think if that money went to support the pool, something we all could enjoy. What a novel idea, something for locals. Will changes come to Estes Park? Eventually, since the death rate is greater than the birth rate we should be shrinking, paying even less to the Town coffers. Unless you begin to understand that you can control our future, and are willing to work toward that end, nothing really will change. That’s too bad.
Message: 28
Tourists are good! Tourists are good! Tourists are good!
And, yet again, the Estesparkian will explain clearly and succinctly.
The Town of Estes Park relies on sales tax revenue as well as property taxes etc. to pay the obscene salaries of the under worked and overrated staff. They have to pay top dollar and give massive benefits to a staff that is clearly 15-20% bloated. That’s what they do here.
Local people, those of us who live here, don’t shop here. Why? Perhaps they don’t want any T-shirts, elk carvings or overpriced furniture. Perhaps they like shopping in the valley. Who the hell knows? In any case, the tourists flock to town and spend money in the little shops (being treated like lepers for the effort) and the shops pay sales tax to the town; unless of course they are part of the Scottfest, Bond Park crafts, Woolen Market or many other competitors to retail. The sales tax goes to the State, gets funneled back to the town and the town pisses it away.
Now, many locals say they hate the tourists because they take all the parking and the locals can’t then shop downtown, something they don’t do anyway. They hate the long summer lines at Safeway or anything that causes a moments inconvenience. People, thank the tourists! They provide the sales tax needed to run this town. You don’t, but the visitors do. Thank you tourists, Amen!
What happens if the tourists go away? First, property taxes go up. A lot! Do you really think the Town will curtail spending? Well, boys and girls, that won’t happen. Do we have a choice, possibly, but the Town doesn’t like to give choices. A good example is the shuttle service the Town committed for the National Park. The Town has no transportation district and no authority, but they did it anyway, to the total of over six figures. That’s in the $100,000’s friends. Did they ask for a vote? Of course not, they don’t have the authority to do it why would they bother to ask? How many of you want to pay for the shuttle? This is local tax dollars at work. Just think if that money went to support the pool, something we all could enjoy. What a novel idea, something for locals. Will changes come to Estes Park? Eventually, since the death rate is greater than the birth rate we should be shrinking, paying even less to the Town coffers. Unless you begin to understand that you can control our future, and are willing to work toward that end, nothing really will change. That’s too bad.
Message: 28