Don’t let Glenwood be a poor mining town
Tuesday, in the Aspen Daily News, Gregory Dangler of Rocky Mountain Industrials (RMI) presented a full-on character attack on some of the residents and leaders of our community. He also presented his argument for RMI bringing “up to 100 high wage” jobs to our community. There are a number of problems here.
First off, he should not be attacking the character of people who have a different point of view from his, just as I do not wish to attack his character. That is pure distraction and has nothing to do with the discussion.
Second, he is very vague about how many jobs he will be bringing and how much he will be paying. This means he could be actually offering much fewer than 100 jobs and the wages may not be any higher than other jobs already available in the community.
Thirdly, he addresses the issue of hundreds of daily truck trips between the mine and our in town rail hub with a “conveyor belt” solution. He offers no solution to the noise, dust and air pollution which will be created by constant blasting at the mine, the loading of train cars and the constantly idling diesel engines in the town train hub.
Fourthly, we do not live in Glenwood Springs so we can work here. We work here so we can live in Glenwood Springs. The reason we live here, and tourists come here, is because this is a beautiful and clean place with relatively undisturbed natural surroundings. Gregory Dangler indicates there is no evidence that a large mining operation will hurt tourism. I offer as evidence that I don’t want to live where I see, hear and smell a large mining operation.
The true irony of this whole “war” with RMI is that Glenwood Springs is one of the few original tourist towns in Colorado. Most mountain towns, which are now tourist towns, were originally mining towns. Once the mines expired the towns discovered even greater prosperity in tourism. RMI wants to flip that and turn this town away from tourism and back into a poor mining town.
I hope we can all come together to save this town. Our jobs, home values and outdoor life styles are at stake.
Munro Wilcox
Glenwood Springs