Where are we going as a community what is the direction the captains of our boat are taking us? Have you ever wondered how Estes Park became a retirement community? I researched it, we became a retirement community by accident it was never a plan, it just happened. How did a state highway happen to go right through the middle of town, it just did. How did all those condos pop up lining all the scenic byways, it wasn’t planned, developers built them - presto we are a community of seasonal retires. A reasonably planned community strives for a balance of economic, race, age, and religious diversity; we are not any of that. For such a small pond, this valley has so many captains of so many small boats. Are they leading or are they just spending money because they have it? Just who are the community leaders anyway?
Are our elected officials protecting a system rather than tax payer rights? The Estesparkian thinks so. Which of the foxes is guarding the hen house? A common answer is the officials that you elect, but that pat answer is wrong. The other miss conception is somehow, somewhere there is an oversight body like the attorney general or a district judge or some mysterious unit to oversee your elected officials - if you think that - you are wrong. The town attorney Greg White, lets get real, the town administrator, don’t make me laugh, the Peter Principle is at work there.
All the various elected boards and commissions in our valley are off doing their own thing, when do you demand they start pulling in the same direction? We seem to be subsidizing an awful lot of duplication, inefficient, and wasteful enterprises that go no where except back to the tax payer for more subsidies. The nexus to all the elected boards is you the sole source of all the funding.
Are the developers building all those high density condos having an unhealthy influence on staff and town trustees assuring their profitability at our collective loss of quality of life? The Estesparkian believes so. Our elected officials come with baggage a propensity to reflect themselves and their prejudices upon the task, motel owning trustees that began spending your public money to subsidize their motel marketing budgets, is a prime example.
Not only what individual prejudices may exist but who influences the individual elected officials thought process. Who behind the scenes influences councils, boards, commissions, and what is that influence, they discuss issues with someone out there who is it? Is it personal gain verses community good? With so many elected officials on so many boards spending our money how are we suppose to keep up with it all, there aren’t enough hours in the day. We need to consolidate all theses boards down to the absolute minimum through home rule, the politics of this little town is way out of hand.
The reality being the citizens of your community every individual living in the Valley is responsible for the operation of the community; you are the boss that elected officials work for, not some mysterious bodies somewhere up the line. Sadly, you haven’t been up to the task, you elect someone on a thin vale of a desire to serve and then allow that elected official free rein to pull the wool over your eyes. The operation and running of our communities business is our responsibility. We as citizens of the Valley have the responsibility to be a tough demanding boss. We are responsible for all the money loss and stolen from the school district, we are responsible for what happens in the hospital, we are responsible for the parks district. We are responsible, not the trustees or commissioners, or any elected official. We as a citizen of the Valley are the bottom line; you cannot elect some one to a board and then close your eyes. You own the business.
You are responsible for all the overbuilt high density condo developments heavy traffic and mass of tourists congesting the streets, do not curse the visitors or whine to the Estesparkian about how negative our view is, look in the mirror and curse yourself.
School District - they spend your money
Town of Estes Park - they spend your money
Hospital District - they spend your money
Library District - they spend your money
Parks and Recreation District - they spend your money
Upper Thompson Sanitation District - they spend your money
Estes Park Sanitation District - they spend your money
Are we really satisfied with what is going on behind the closed doors of town hall or the hospital district or the school district or the recreation district?
Two sewer plants – two crews – two boards – two collection systems – two facilities, just treating the areas human waste is wasteful and inefficient.
A golf coarse is not a social service it is a business why can’t golf make money as a business in the Estes Valley?
A swimming pool is a business, why can’t the swimming pool make money?
Will a communal theater make money and pull its own weight; does the convention center stand on its own as an enterprise?
The CVB doesn’t generate enough funding to pay the light bills on the new building. The town will tell you all the tourist traffic and cash flow in this town is due to their advertising efforts, which is shear lunacy and nonsense.
Mass transit will never generate a dime, and is tantamount to shoving twenty dollar bills into a shredder as fast as you can load them, all day long.
Shouldn’t we as a community demand a definitive answer to the Town / Chamber legal wrestling match? What if the town did act outside their authorities as a statutory town in creating the CVB? What then? Your elected leaders have nurtured this decade’s long never ending feud with the business community, you ever wonder why? Your elected officials may very well have wandered into a mine field with no way out, when will you demand leadership from your elected officials to solve this conundrum?
My point here is not to keep pounding my head on the town hall door but to put my finger on who is responsible. We elect all these boards and all that leadership but who is being leader? When does the hospital board sit down at a common table with the town board and the school board and the parks and recreation district, library district, and at least discuss the playing field, boundaries, commonalities, or duplication of efforts, they do not communicate in fact they feud.. We fund all these activities, we elect all these officials but where are they going where are they taking us? I do know this though; you and I will still be responsible for paying the bills.
Every successful owner of a company demands productivity and accountability of its employees that is the job of being owner. If a business owner trusts the employees to be productive without oversight, guidelines, limitations or consequences than that business will be horribly inefficient. If your employees are telling you everything is fine “trust me” just keep pouring money at us, don’t make us accountable to any silly rules, you have a problem. If your employees give you alibis or a constant stream of excuses or various versions of the blame game you have a problem and it is your responsibility to take charge. Not the town trustees not the board of education not the town attorney, after all they have your money, you gave it to them to spend and then you close your eyes. You will pay one way or the other for the inefficiencies of the political spider web that has evolved in this little valley, so many elected officials, so little accountability. You will continue to pay and they keep asking for more.
