Letters to the Editor: Visionary improvements would make kids proud

Editor:

Fort Collins has always been home to visionaries.

Late in the 19th century, civic leaders established a university here, and in the middle of the 20th century, a new group of leaders worked to build the Colorado-Big Thompson Project to bring water to northeastern Colorado.

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In the 1960s and 1970s local residents recognized the needs of a growing city and started planning for a new city hall, a new library, the Lincoln Center, recreational amenities and transportation infrastructure.

These visionaries established Fort Collins as a regional medical, banking, retail and high-tech center. And most recently, far-sighted citizens saw the need to preserve areas of our precious Western landscape.

In all of those matters, when local residents were asked to imagine a great future, they answered with “YES” votes for a variety of measures that greatly improved our city and quality of life.

Now we have a chance to do it again by voting YES for construction of a new downtown library, a new performing-arts center, and for expansion of our museum. Our current facilities are aging and can no longer accommodate the needs of our growing city. The city’s businesses will see a boost. Our children will have greater educational opportunity.

Vote YES for these new arts and cultural facilities in the upcoming election. In the future, our children will look at these facilities and see that we cared about their future.

Bill Ward

Front Range Internet Inc.

Vote “yes” on Issue 1A

Editor:

Foothills Gateway Inc. is the agency in Larimer County charged with the intake, placement, and servicing of the physically and mentally impaired county residents. It is our good will and obligation to take care of this special segment of the population. It is a tremendous undertaking. It is an expensive one.

Larimer County was still a relatively small community when I moved here 22 years ago. As everyone here knows, we have grown almost beyond reason. But as a community grows in numbers, so do the number of developmentally disabled among us.

The budget for Foothills Gateway has now increased to approximately $16 million per year. And still there are 175 people on the waiting list ready to be served if the funds were available. The Medicaid and Medicare funding that these special people receive is simply not enough to meet their extensive needs.

I would ask each of us if we could find the small sum of less than 5 cents per day (which is what the mill levy would cost the average home owner of Larimer County) in order to help meet the needs of these, our fellow residents. I know I can — I throw that much into the penny containers at the local merchants. Remember that these monies stay in Larimer County paying the salaries of social workers, service providers, vendors, etc.

I urge you to consider a YES vote on Issue 1A in the upcoming election.

Jan Havener

Loveland

Bias shown toward PVH

Editor:

In your Sept. 21 issue, your article entitled “Hospital cost study favors PVH” on the Front Page shows a bias in favor of Poudre Valley Hospital and takes a “shot” at Banner Health facilities (North Colorado Medical Center and McKee Medical Center).

Your article in a previous issue bemoaning that Banner was the bad boy refusing to meet to discuss a possible joining together of Banner and PVH was slanted the same way. Do you have an ax to grind with Banner?

With these exceptions I’ve truly enjoyed your newspaper and the high quality of your work, but if you choose to write other articles in this vain maybe you should stamp a big “EDITORIAL” across the headline.

Ben Wofford

Colorado Business Products