Dear Editor:

On Feb. 13, the city ran its 10th or so taxpayer-funded display advertisement promoting the Castle and Maroon creeks hydro plant. Their argument is that even though they’re running 70 percent over budget, they’ve already built or bought most of the plant. So if they’ve gone this far without really caring what many respected members of the community think, why stop now?

But should the city be investing even more taxpayer dollars and city staff time now, designing and paying for an endless series of almost-daily self-serving ads? Now that the referendum on the project has been certified by the city clerk as having way more than the required signatures to force an election, isn’t there a legal prohibition on the city spending staff time and taxpayer dollars trying to influence the vote?

The nearly 1,000 folks who signed the petitions want to put the matter to a vote. They and the local news media discount the 2007 election as meaningless since there was no disclosure of most of the true facts on costs, return on investment, stream impacts, power taken away from the Maroon Creek Plant and project base load power generation when much of the year it cannot operate.

Once again, the City Council should listen to the community and schedule a vote ASAP. But it won’t because it’s too busy building.

Jason Carter

Glenwood Springs