Letter: Good feelings about our future leadership

Listening for two hours to the new Basalt candidates for mayor and Town Council, I felt good. However, I was somewhat disappointed in the lack of questions from the chamber regarding how the candidates would solve the past disputes regarding the Pan and Fork. This has been a very difficult time for the past 18 to 20 months in our town. We did not get the kind of leadership that should have put this issue to bed a year ago. On the positive side, I am very pleased with the entire community of Basalt, expressing its ideas and opinions for our future.

I have watched and listened to Rick Stevens over the past two years. He is a quiet-spoken man who has a huge passion for our town and the people who live and work here. He works exceptionally well with our town staff and has earned its respect. Regarding the Pan and Fork project, Rick, like all of us, wants a great park on our river edge, but he is also keenly aware that we need to find a way to afford it.

He advocates a need for more vitality that is generally associated with our need to bring in more 20- to 30-year-olds. They can only be attracted if they have housing affordable to them, along with day care opportunities. With vibrant amenities such as the Highway 82 underpass at Basalt Avenue, downtown urban design improvements, a kayak park and bike-path connections available, they can see the future that can include them for work and play and an incredible town to raise their families. Rick can facilitate community discussion with honest debate, collaborative decision-making and good listening while avoiding fabrication of wedge issues and demonizing the opposition. I believe that Rick has the experience and leadership skills necessary to bring us a revitalized “OneBasalt.” He believes in building bridges, not walls.

Please join me and vote for Rick Stevens as our next mayor for Basalt.

Gino Rossetti

Basalt