No replacement for Explore

Dear Editor:There is always a legalistic reason for not doing the right thing. The right thing is for the City of Aspen to provide a tide-over loan to complete the purchase of Explore Booksellers, to be paid back to the taxpayers in full.A letter writer has asked, then why not provide a loan to every other business in trouble? The reason is that a bookstore, with its low profit margin, provides a service that a new business is unlikely to provide. If we lose Explore, we will not get a replacement. We will lose our access not just to its range of reading, but to a communal space that jewelry stores and real estate offices cannot duplicate. In that sense, Explore is less like a public sector operation, more a public asset like, say, the Wheeler Opera House.I hope the City Council will pull together and find the formula that will allow Explore to get past this moment of risk and continue to serve us.Bruce BergerAspen