Public should enjoy Wagner Park year round

As we have conveyed to the Aspen City Council, we support the effort to protect Wagner Park. It is a wonderful community resource in its fabulous setting in Aspen’s core area, but it has repeatedly been damaged by destruction of its turf by private events such as the Food and Wine Classic, and by holding polo matches there in the past. These events and the follow-on maintenance and repair requirements effectively eliminate the park from community use for substantial periods of time. Because the park is a public resource, we feel that community use should be the overriding priority, and that private commandeering of the park, particularly for events that inflict damages that require closure periods that extend well beyond the actual time span of those events should be foreclosed. Surely other venues (Rio Grande?) can be utilized for those events that do not require removal of Wagner Park from the public domain.

Greg and Debbie Lee

Aspen