I tuned in to see the Glenwood Springs questions and answers night, and what jumped out at me was the debate about the proposed 3/4 of a cent streets tax.
Do people not know the roads are junk? Do people not care? Do people think that you can have nice things for free? I hate to break it to them, but there is no free lunch, and anyone that tells you different is trying to sell you something.
The opposition’s theme seemed to be “someone else will, at some time, for less money do it. Let’s just wait for a better time and kick the can down the road.”
In particular, I learned about the challenges and costs to do things in Glenwood. We all know the valley is an expensive place to live, but we have an incredibly difficult community to build and maintain roads with issues that other communities don’t have.
We have 43 miles of roads in a town that is bisected by two major rivers, two railroad corridors (Union Pacific and Rio Grande), two major interstates/state highways (I-70 and 82) and horrible soils to boot. To do anything in this city requires going over or under all these obstacles.
What other community has these man-made and natural barriers? I-70 goes by every town from Vail to Parachute. Highway 82 goes by Carbondale and Basalt, not through the heart of their town. It is just a plain expensive place to do anything with infrastructure.
We live in a beautiful, narrow valley with many challenges. I am sure in places like Junction or Montrose it is much cheaper to do a project of this magnitude and would cost us much less. If you think that we can have the same tax rate as those places move there, and commute. No one “deserves” to live here.
If we don’t vote to fix our roads because it is an expensive place to live, then go move somewhere cheaper, without rivers or mountains.
We are a great city, and we deserve great roads and pipes underneath them. We deserve broadband internet. Let’s not settle for being a second class city any longer. I am proud of my town, but it is getting embarrassing. Please Vote to Fix our Streets Now!
Laura Jolgren
Glenwood Springs