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J Michael Turner: Don’t insult us

— The coverage of the City Council meeting on Sept. 29 in the following day’s Steamboat Today contained a statement by Ed MacArthur that said, in essence, the majority of us are just not smart enough to make an informed decision on the Steamboat 700 issue. I hope the rest of you are as insulted as I am by that statement. Contrary to MacArthur’s personal opinion of our intelligence, there happens to be an extraordinarily high number of educated, intelligent people in this town who are registered to vote. Should the Steamboat 700 issue be brought to a vote of the citizens, we are perfectly capable of looking at the issues beyond either of the “lock the gate behind me” or “growth at any cost” narrow views. We are capable of analyzing the pros and cons of the proposed annexation and making a decision whether we believe it’s in the community’s long-term best interest to proceed with the annexation or not.

What irritates me most is that MacArthur and another vocal advocate who is constantly blogging in support of the Steamboat 700 annexation are paving and excavation contractors who stand to profit immensely from this potential development. Should the annexation pass and the development proceeds, I fully support their potential to profit and hopefully employ local resident workers for many years in the future. But please don’t insult the residents and voters by implying that we don’t have the capability to make an informed decision on this issue should it come to a vote.

J Michael Turner



Steamboat Springs


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