Government Arrogance From Arvada, Jeffco, Broomfield

This article was published in the print edition of YourHub.com for Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Westminster on Thursday, June 2, 2011.

Only from the twisted perspective of the "pave the world" crowd would you get the argument that a higher bid to purchase land for open space rather than put a road on it "is not a legitimate offer."

But that is exactly the contention of Bill Ray, the Arvada city government's Deputy City Manager and formerly the Director of Public Works, who is also the interim director the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority (can you think of a better example of a "self-serving bureaucrat"?).

As reported in the Denver Post on Saturday, May 21, the city of Golden as part of its ongoing effort to preserve the quality of life for its residents (and fortuitously also for all the citizens of northwest Jefferson County), is offering $200,000 more or $3 million for the purchase of land at the east side of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, along Indiana Street; the Jeffco highway authority has proffered $2,800,000.

A better return for the taxpayer almost always seems like a legitimate offer to most taxpayers. But government empire builders and their "public-private" developer allies have a more arrogant point of view: a deal is only 'legitimate' if it ends up providing more tax revenue for the politicians to spend and government guaranteed profit for the developers.

Since the Northwest Quadrant Feasibility Study demonstrated that a piece of beltway (let alone a toll road) in north Jeffco does not do anything to alleviate traffic congestion for Arvada, Westminster and Wheat Ridge; and since we know that Broomfield is in this because of the fiscal debacle of their Northwest Parkway toll road; and since the Jefferson Parkway Authority is angling to turn the construction and tolling profits (if any) over to a foreign-controlled entity, a Spanish corporation -- well, we should all thank Golden for doing whatever it can to put roadblocks in front of this boondoggle.

There is, of course, the public service that Golden would be providing for the health and welfare of the entire northwest area of Jefferson County if they are able to make this open space purchase: the remnant plutonium presently laying undisturbed in the soil of the eastern boundary of the former Rocky Flats nuclear bomb factory will remain undisturbed. The prospect of tiny particles of the most deadly substance on the face of the Earth being thrown into the breeze as part of the dust of highway construction and blowing into the lungs of children living downwind, ought to be enough of a threat by itself to stop this grandiose tollway scheme.

Here's a 'godspeed' to Golden ... good folks in the entire Denver metro area should be grateful for your commitment to bold civic responsibility.

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Golden Offers $3 Million to Buy Land Sought for Jefferson Parkway Toll Road | Denver Post

Comments

[Hildegard hix]

If Arvada begins a bidding war, all of the good people who recognize the danger of digging up dirt at RF, and those who understand the financial folly of the road, can chip in and help Golden stay in the running.
This is a way for us to vote, since our governments would not alllow us to vote.

H. Hix