The lowdown on RTD FasTracks

(Letter to editor, published 12-26-10 in the Longmont Times-Call.)

I agree with former Longmont Mayor Fred Wilson’s astute assessment in his recent letter in the Times-Call that, although we are paying dearly for it, the ultra-expensive RTD FasTracks passenger rail service will never reach Longmont. And, I would add, if through some miracle of miracles it does happen to reach here, the cost to ride it will be so high that few people will use it.

The concept is not new. Although Longmont was not hooked into the original interurban passenger rail service which began operating between Denver and several points in Boulder County and Adams County over a century ago, this service continued for 18 years before it finally went broke. Here are some excerpts from author Carolyn Conarroe’s account of this historical transportation service (a.k.a. The Kite Route) in her book, “The Louisville Story,” published in 1978 (www.conarroe.com).

"In 1908 the ultimate in convenient transportation, the (electric-powered) interurban, began operating. The Denver Interurban Co. used the Colorado and Southern RR tracks to operate 16 trains a day into and out of Denver . . . serving Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, Marshall and Eldorado Springs. (Other stops indicated on a map accompanying the text include Globeville, Westminster, Standley Lake, Broomfield, Fairview and Superior.)

"The interurban system was set up because its financial backers expected a population boom that didn’t occur and the line went into receivership in 1918.

"Service continued, but a tragic collision of two interurban trains in 1920 just out of Globeville in Adams County claimed 13 lives and led to legal damages which pushed the ailing interurban into bankruptcy.

"The company reorganized and tried to continue but couldn’t attract enough riders and in 1926 finally had to shut down."

To quote Yogi Berra: “This looks like déjà vu all over again.”

BoCo Commissioners keep hassling church

(Letter to editor, published 12-09-10 in the Longmont Times-Call.)

As if it’s not questionable enough for the Boulder County Commissioners—after being foiled by a federal judge and jury whose verdict of unequal treatment was upheld at the appellate level—to dig deeper into the taxpayers’ pockets to take their fight against the Rocky Mountain Christian Church’s expansion project to the Supreme Court, other tax-supported groups are joining the fray.

Two of the more familiar organizations filing supporting briefs as to why the Supreme Court should hear this case are Colorado Counties, Inc. and Colorado Municipal League. For those of us who live in incorporated areas, lucky us: we get to pay dues into both the CCI and the CML. There is no law against their filing of briefs, but the quid pro quo seems clear: “You send us your membership dues and we will scratch your back.”

The commissioners defend the considerable legal costs involved in trying to stop the RMCC expansion--a project that appears to be of little or no harm to anyone or anything--as being covered by insurance. But there are many other expenses to the county besides legal fees, and any premiums or cash contributions by the county into an insurance pool (or company) would still have to come from the taxpayers.

Local governments have the authority to write and enforce building codes, but there is no guarantee against their making mistakes or overreaching. That’s where the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act enters this picture and makes it doubtful that the Supreme Court will take this case.

Since the church in question is located at Niwot, is its site rural or urban? Remember that the county itself built a rather large office building/vehicle storage facility in a rural setting just west of Longmont with neither a whimper heard nor a lawsuit filed.

Flood threat is real

(In response to an article titled "City updating flood map," published 11-10-10 in the Longmont Times-Call.)

There is no simple way to prepare for flooding of the kind that roared down the Big Thompson canyon in 1976. The National Weather Service reported that besides wreaking havoc, that storm caused 150 deaths, a new high in Colorado’s recorded history. (100 people died in a flood near Pueblo in 1904.)

Headwaters of both the Big Thompson river and the north branch of the St. Vrain river (Longmont's major stream) lie in roughly the same territory, which tells me (and I’m no expert on this subject) that, by a quirk of Nature, the 12 inches of rain that fell in five hours over the upper Big Thompson canyon could just have easily hit the St. Vrain runoff instead.

Fortunately, because of its distance from the mouth of Big Thompson canyon, the city of Loveland escaped most of the wrath of the 1976 flood. Longmont holds a similar advantage, but its flood mitigation efforts are complicated by the fact it straddles two major drainage basins: the St. Vrain river and Lefthand creek, which originates in the northern Indian Peaks Wilderness area.

Possibly most vulnerable to a 100-year flood is the city of Boulder. Unlike Loveland and Longmont’s distance factor, Boulder’s downtown sits right at the mouth of Boulder Creek canyon, with Barker Dam at Nederland providing about the only protection. Also flowing through Boulder is South Boulder Creek, downstream from Gross Reservoir.

I’m glad our city officials recognize Longmont’s vulnerability to flooding. But in this county, for reasons I don’t understand, the public seems to be much more anxious to buy land to look at, rather than investing in flood mitigation to save lives and property.

We can fight and argue over chickens, trains and airport runways. But unlike flooding, those issues are hardly of life-threatening proportions. (And no, I don’t live on a floodplain.)