Open Space mill levy provides stable funding for future

My wife, Susan, and I grew up in the East and lived and worked in New York and Tokyo for 25 years before having the privilege to move to Emma full time 10 years ago. Living in places where development was largely unconstrained and where open space largely vanished during our lives led us to move to the Roaring Fork Valley, where the community has put a great deal of effort into finding and maintaining a healthy balance between open space and development which is critical for everyone’s quality of life.

Most of us use our open space and public lands regularly whether for recreation, wildlife, locally grown food or simply for viewshed. Preserving and maintaining lands that have high conservation value requires both funding and dedicated personnel resources. Because transactions can take years to come to fruition and conserved lands need to be maintained in perpetuity, a stable, predictable, long-term source of funding is essential to the success of any open space program.

Voting “yes” for Issue 1A for Eagle County Open Space will extend the existing open space mill levy for 15 years and achieve that objective.

Fred Lodge

Basalt