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Letter: Open spending by Open Space and Trails?

Open spending by Open Space and Trails?

So, Open Space and Trails ties up more midvalley land and helps insure the cost of worker housing goes ever higher and higher. My favorite line in the whole article, “Restoring the house and barns weren’t a condition of approval, but the open space program wouldn’t have it any other way, according to Dale Will.”

For a bit of insight into how Open Space and Trails burns through what seems to be a never-ending supply of taxpayer money without a plan, stop by and have a look at the Old Emma store on your next drive thru Basalt.



You can’t miss it — it’s the brick building directly on Highway 82 in Emma that has had well in excess of $1 million work done to it, then had to have a fake front painted on recently.

A few years ago, the county put Owen Minney’s back to the wall on any kind of redevelopment use of what was already a commercial venture (right on Highway 82) long before Aspen was Aspen. Open Space and Trails steps in and picks up the land, historic store and Victorian house under the guise of “protection,” then moves forward with spending a huge sum of taxpayer money to “improve it” with zero thought of what then.




Go ahead, stop and have a look at what your money is being spent on and ask: Is this really the solution and do we want to traverse this path again with the Glassier buildings?

I am sure Open Space and Trails will have some kind of response to this; dialogue is always welcome. All I ask is within the response, go ahead and give us taxpayers the full financial statements and spread sheets on the Owen Minney purchase and “repairs” down to the last nickel, and tell us where the benefit is. I dare you.

Brian Dillard

Basalt