We know that the 50th anniversary Rainbow Gathering will be hosted in our backyard in North Routt County. It is no secret that the Rainbows are known to be bad about paying bills such as doctor’s visits, hospitalizations, and EMT services. Those costs will come right out of the pockets of Routt County taxpayers. It is also no secret that they leave behind a mess and destruction of our forests. Cleanup will also be at taxpayers’ expense.

Our three Routt County commissioners — Tim Corrigan, Tim Redmond and Beth Melton — were quick to shut down local businesses, ban social gatherings and limit what we as citizens of this county could do in hopes to reduce the risk of overwhelming our hospitals. Yet, when upwards of 10,000 to 30,000 people come to gather unauthorized in our county and threaten to overwhelm our health care system, our county commissioners sit on their hands.

What about the drain on our local resources? What about the dangers this gathering poses to the people within our community, especially children? What about the threat to our health care system that commissioners were so worried about until just recently? So, what is it? Do our commissioners care about this community and our environment or do they not? 

At a minimum, I would like to know why our commissioners chose to stay silent instead of making a public statement as Grand County commissioners did, expressing that they “would not make allowances for an unpermitted event on public land by the USFS” and that they “do not support the Gathering”?

Yet again it seems our Routt County commissioners fail to remember who it is that they represent. Our community is visibly outraged that these people are gathering in our forest and are very concerned about the impact this Rainbow Gathering will have on our forest, our economy, our wildlife, our community, and our health care system. I am disappointed and frankly irritated at the silence of our commissioners while knowing how unhappy their constituents are about this enormous unauthorized gathering in our fragile forest. 

Rachael Jacobson

Routt County