Coalition a great opportunity for Grand County

DEAR EDITOR

Some of us are losing lots of sleep over the Seven County Coalition. That means the deliberative process is alive and well and very active in Grand County. I see that as a good thing.

I appreciate every single question/issue about the County’s participation that was presented during a four-hour-long County Council meeting. I was there. I have been attending council meetings for a long time now. Those questions were my questions, as well. I appreciate that Attorney Johnson recognized the need to deliberate and address the issue and attending document with precision and thoroughness. I submit that he did exactly that. I watched and listened as he calmly fielded question after question with poise and decorum.

I also appreciate those who voiced their very loud opposition to Grand County’s participation in the Coalition. Like I said, their questions were my questions, as well. I did not, however, appreciate the antics I saw displayed during that and subsequent meetings. In that vein, I was embarrassed for Grand County. And it was lamentable that those antics were minimally reported in the local paper as merely ‘contentious’ when they were, in fact, reprehensible. And to claim, as was suggested in those meetings, that the loud, embarrassing contingent was representative of Grand County is repulsive. The majority of Grand County residents do not want to attend meetings where they will be subjected to the same treatment as was Atty. Johnson and the County Council member(s). Most respectable residents in our county recognize they will be ‘Eiched’ if they dare take a stand – on any issue and they will not submit to such treatment.

Perhaps my idea of filling the Council Chamber seats with cardboard cut-outs representing citizens who ‘would attend if they could attend’ is a practical one. At least it would visually indicate, for those who doubt, the fact that those seats would be filled with polite persons versus impolite, vitriol-filled ‘dummies’ that parade themselves before the council and all of Grand County. (Some people’s children need to grow up.)

To those of us who have lost sleep over this issue, I submit my whole-hearted support of the Grand County Council in moving forward with participation in the Seven County Interlocal Agreement/Coalition. I have communicated, personally, with Attorney Johnson via emails and a phone conversation. I am comfortable – all questions answered and dots connected – and am enthusiastic about our becoming part of this great opportunity.

Respectfully,

Kim Call

Candidate for Grand County Council