Issues

One Size Doesn’t Fit All – That’s a hard principle for lawyers to understand. But in San Miguel County it’s one of Art’s first principles when it comes to county decisions.

Having come to Colorado from San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, Art can groove in Telluride. He knows the scene. But he’s also lived in his home outside Norwood for 25 of his nearly 30 years in the county. He’s raised two sets of kids on Wright’s Mesa, ate at Karen’s, attended birthdays, meetings and parties in the Log Cabin, drove a float in the Pioneer Day Parade, filed and got a small water right for his spud patch at Cloud Acre.

For better or for worse, as Art knows, San Miguel County is divided socially as well as physically (and quite unevenly) in half -- the East End’s Mountain Village & Telluride, with all its economic engines and city glamour, and then the Rest of the County: Downvalley, the Mesas, Norwood, & the West End. Areas of great beauty, slow growth (although that’s changing), and rural lifestyles.

This has been Art’s district for the past 12 years * In spite of his New West biases, Art shares many Old West values – less government, strong families, self-reliance, community good, a belief in spirit. And he has listened and learned from many District 3 citizens, and tried to be a good advocate for their values and issues. County building and development permits got removed from large areas of the county. Meetings are now held in the Egnar or Dry Creek Basin, if the issue being discussed is centered there. Multiple ranch properties that could have been sold for 35-acre residential developments have stayed in agriculture and as open space. There’s a refurbished Fairgrounds and Event Center, a new low-cost housing project, and new bus storage barns. The county runs a commuter bus service and a free waste transfer and recycling station on the edge of Naturita Canyon. The county has given large subsidies to Norwood’s pre-school facility, and through Art’s advocacy, Norwood’s clinic has received increasing annual county grant support. As for District 3 issues like ranching, farming, water storage, grazing, wildfire, public lands management, school and fire districts, economic development and diversity, master plan revisions – all have become areas where Art has tried to educate himself and build bridges towards compromise solutions.

*(New voters: in most Colorado counties, commissioners have to live in one of three districts in a county, but they are elected countywide).

Workforce Housing – Probably the thorniest problem facing resort communities is keeping a middle class intact, where the high and low end thrive in the free market. It takes government intervention to provide rental and ownership opportunities for the workforce necessary for a functioning, sustainable community. Art has worked with the other commissioners, negotiating ski expansion housing mitigation, working on the joint Telluride-County Gold Run project, giving land to a Norwood Habitat for Humanity project. Most recently Art has initiated discussions with the U.S. Forest Service and set up an Intergovernmental Task Force to explore land trades to provide new land for workforce housing within the Telluride Region.

Open Space – Art joined the other commissioners in championing a mill levy dedicated to recreation and open space that was used to start the County’s Purchase of Development Rights program, protecting open space and saving ag lands from residential development. Art also got the County to contribute twice its announced contribution (from $100,000 to $200,000) towards the purchase of the Valley Floor as open space after the demoralizing Delta court decision doubled the cost the Town of Telluride was hoping to pay in its condemnation case. Recreation funds have also been spent on the Basin fairgrounds in Norwood and the new Downvalley Park.

Transportation – With the rising cost of gasoline and other energy fuels, travel will become ever more costly for individuals in our wide open spaces of the West, and it will become incumbent on governments to provide more public transportation. The County already has a nascent public transit system, the Galloping Goose, that it jointly runs with the Town of Telluride. Regionally, Montrose, Ouray and San Miguel counties are cooperating on a grant to explore regional transportation options. And at a recent Intergovernmental meeting Art (along with Telluride Mayor Stu Fraser) called for the creation of a Regional Transportation Authority to start our region down the road towards widely available public transit.

Sustainability – Along with Betsy McKinney of ReStore Our World and a number of local citizens, Art was a strong advocate for the hiring of a sustainability coordinator, finally accomplished with the creation of The New Community Coalition and the retaining of a director, Kris Holstrom (a fellow Green and head of the County Planning Commission). Art is a strong supporter of the program and has helped identify and begin many of the current initiatives, from green building codes to distributed solar generation to hazardous waste recycling.

West Wide Energy Corridors – The Federal Government has slated San Miguel County for development of Energy Corridors, swaths of land designated for routing power and energy. These corridors will require the construction of infrastructure such as pipelines and high voltage transmission lines. Art will ensure that the corridors are developed with the least aesthetic and environmental impact possible. By working with the Feds, Art has already brought San Miguel County to the table to discuss moving the corridors further west (and out of sight) in the County, and specified that all infrastructure be buried beneath the surface.
Find out more HERE

Uranium Mining – The Bureau of Land Management has been selling off leases to public lands at a record rate. With uranium prices reaching above $70 per pound, many nearby mines, once dormant, are being reopened. A mill, the Pinon Ridge Mill, has been proposed in Paradox. Art opposes nuclear energy, recognizing that the processes required to mine, ship, enrich, and dispose of uranium are emissions intensive. The problem of nuclear waste remains unsovled – the half life of uranium is 4.5 billion years. That's as long as the earth is old. Moreover, the economic boom promised by the nuclear industry is misrepresented. After a half-century of uranium mining in the area, towns like Nucla and Naturita remain economically depressed. Rather than trade 30 years of promised prosperity (with most of the profits going to corporate officials anyway) for centuries of economic devestation, Art recognizezs the need to develop eco-tourism in the uravan-vanadium mineral belt. (The Paradox Valley, for example, has untold archeological riches ripe for tourism.)
Find out more HERE

Renewable Energy Development – In line with Gov. Bill Ritter's New Energy Economy, Art will work to assist in developing renewable energy incentives within San Miguel County. Art understands that energy independence and a sustainable future can work hand in hand to offer ahigher quality of life, a more stable grid, and a more secure country.