Our commissioners are exactly right in proposing to extend their term limits.
Having failed to stem the declines in our industrial base, infrastructure, health care and living wages, they are now pitching new home construction, retail and tourism as the right solutions to the future of our community.
In pursuance of their goal, they are rapidly rubber-stamping subdivision applications and searching for grant money (presumably extracted from some far-off liberal bastions) to create new tourism opportunities.
They have also been enthusiastic supporters of new tax initiatives to be imposed on local landowners and hardworking families, in the form of real-estate and sales taxes.
We can be the next Moab! Part-time seasonal jobs cleaning hotel rooms, selling hot dogs to tourists and staffing convenience stores. The folks who actually do the hard work to keep things working on a daily basis won’t be able to afford living here, but there will be money to be made!
Of course, there will be a demographic and political shift associated with the transformation of our economy.
The buyers and builders of subdivision homes, town homes and condos will be the dreaded “progressives”
The old guard that espouses “If you don’t like the way that we do things here, go back where you come from!” may find themselves sorely disappointed when they learn that they’ve been sold out by those who claim to represent their interests.
Such is the price of progress!
Please give our commissioners time to do their work.
Chris Barnhouse
Cortez
