Basaslt council tone deaf

I attended the Basalt Town Meeting held Tuesdayin which the Basalt Town Council proposed and passed 5 to 0 management “recommendations” addressed to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

CPW has not completed their own review of submissions and input from hundreds of people at 2 public meetings in Basalt.

Apparently, the Basalt council was not willing to participate in the careful and extensive review being undertaken by CPW. Instead, Basalt passed a resolution, drafted even before CPW held its second meeting. The resolution is so haphazard, so tone deaf and so completely incoherent as to constitute local government incompetence. It effectively ignored the hard work of hundreds of stake-holders, and pre-empted the outcome of the CPW review which is still in process. It is juvenile.

It was obvious that the real issue for some Basalt residents is noise. Most residents moved to Basalt in the past 70 years, so the range predates their arrival. Hunting and fishing is the second largest industry of Colorado and provides enjoyment and a livelihood for many valley residents. The Colorado legislature, aware of attempts by newcomers to change the hunting and fishing culture of rural Colorado legislated a state-wide noise standard for shooting ranges (CRS 25-12-109) in order to prevent local governments from taking the type of parochial action in evidence Tuesday evening. The council knows that the Basalt Range satisfies this state-wide standard.

CPW owns the land for the public shooting range and the town of Basalt has no jurisdiction. However, the Basalt Town Council has forfeited their seat at the table through political ineptitude. They have failed the whole of the community. They are now irrelevant to the process. The Basalt council members have shot themselves in their collective feet.

Warwick Mowbray

Basalt