I’m disturbed by Planning & Zoning Commissioner Kelly Belt’s comment at the latest Planning & Zoning Commission meeting, characterizing bicyclists as berry eaters, with the implication they don’t spend enough money here. Why dismiss a potential tourist group with demeaning language and in a public meeting?
No research showing real numbers was presented as facts supporting this assumption. Because they find the proposed bike trail too expensive and requiring collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management, the manager of the land the county commissioners are currently lobbying (via the American Lands Council) to claim for the county, it would apparently look hypocritical to go ahead with a biking plan.
Diversity fosters health in every environment, including Montezuma County. If the commissioners insist on shunning the Feds, there are plenty of options. That could include back roads, canals, parks, reservoirs and who knows what. Promoting the kind of tourism already flourishing in small communities around the state and in the Four Corners would continue to draw recreationists here, while protecting the very resources that lured them to begin with.
Bettyann Kolner
Kolner