I wish to write to your paper to let the citizens of Arvada and of District 1 know that we are well represented by Jerry Marks on city council and we need to vote to retain him as our councilman. He has shown his ability to advocate for all of us and he is putting his skills to great use on council. As a small business owner and lifelong resident of Arvada, he has shown me that he is working hard to help Arvada meet the challenges of a growing city with the balance of the sense of community that makes Arvada a wonderful place to live.
New mayor and new council
Like many residents, my husband and I have historically not paid much attention to the inner workings of our city government and those we elected to oversee its operation. As long as things seemed to run smoothly, we didn’t feel compelled to get involved.
Motivated by an issue my husband and I felt particularly close to in 2013, we began attending City Council meetings. We spoke regarding our concern; we listened to members of our community speak about other topics. Some of those peaked our interest and led us to return to attend other meetings In short — we began paying attention.
There are far too many examples to list here of what we consider to be violations of trust by our Mayor and council. Our greater attention to council operations (who, we believe are ill-informed and often function as “the council of yes”) and, what appears to be a too-close relationships between our current mayor (Marc Williams) and the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority, and the limitations placed on citizen initiatives and referendum by our City Charter have been eye-openers. We believe it is necessary to make deep changes — beginning the removing a Mayor that has been on city council for sixteen years! (Too long for any one in city administration.)
For transparency in government, a long term view of the consequences of the overuse of Tax Incremental Funding (also known as tax giveaways) greater respect and attention to and for citizen input — we support Dave Chandler to be the new Mayor of Arvada. We encourage our fellow Arvada citizens to do the same.
Ralston Valley has worries
As a 25-year resident of Ralston Valley, I and the communities surrounding Ralston Valley High School have witnessed many changes in the area.
Where once we were a small agricultural community we have been inundated with growth and also with new city and county policy — some good, some bad. We therefore have a vested interest in the direction of the Jeffco School Board.
In 2013 our neighborhoods gathered in opposition to the proposed lighting of the Ralston Valley HS football field on the grounds that it was:
1) Contrary to the agreement made by the 2000 planning commission to maintain the quiet and rural integrity of the Ralston Valley Area which stated that “the athletic playing fields are not to be lighted.”
2) It showed preferential treatment towards just one privileged school over the many schools in Jeffco.
Some of the opposition resulted in the election of a new school board. Again some good, some bad.
A second issue regarding safety and security was brought to the attention of the current board. It was submitted in April 2015 regarding the overflow student parking at Ralston Valley HS. Our community has yet to receive a response from the board or the district staff regarding this. Is it going to take a student getting injured to have attention brought to this issue I myself have seen students almost hit on Alkire St. Also it is an unlit and unsupervised area.
A third safety and security issue is the very high speed of vehicles both student and non- student on 82nd ave behind Ralston Valley HS
Our communities would like a response from each of the Jeffco board candidates on each of these city, school and community concerns.
Remember, a school is only as good as the community it shares.
Vote no on recall
Some points about the disingenuousness from the pro-recall supporters … As soon as the Democrats and liberals lost the election to the three current board members they started waging war. Witt, Newkirk and Williams are Republicans who wanted more school choice, teacher accountability and improving education. The teachers’ union and its allies want total control over a school board they can control and get what they want. It is a partisan issue, don’t let the recall supporters tell you otherwise.
Remember, the recall supporters are the same people who supported the teachers doing their “sick out” that led to our students losing some of their education. They also supported the students leaving class, staging demonstrations and the like — leaving other students to miss out on education. Do we want the people who support this recall running our entire school system?
We don’t need a board that is subservient to the teachers’ union; we need checks and balances. They talk about the board members getting money from the Koch brothers. Give me a break. Different organizations have popped up to support the recall funded by national, state and local teachers’ unions. They didn’t raise all that money from “bake sales and T-shirt sales,” baloney. Don’t listen to the pontificating on the recall side, they are not innocent and unbiased, they just say they are. They helped to bring Jeffco schools down over the past decades and we should ask ourselves, why do we want to go back? Vote no for the recall.
Downsides to Iran deal
The article on Congressman Perlmutter and the Iran treaty (Sept. 3) seems to have left out the opposing view. Does anyone seriously believe the only alternative to the treaty is war? This is a severely flawed treaty which discounts the ability of the United States to verify the conditions of the treaty. Iran continues to act against the United States on several fronts. Is this really a country we can trust?
Is it really credible to think that such a bad treaty is better than no treaty? This treaty was completed just for the sake of completing a treaty. Isn’t the fact that Iran is reacting so strongly against the sanctions evidence that the sanctions are actually working? Isn’t a viable alternative to the bad treaty more and stronger sanctions?
The fact that so many military and veterans groups are against this treaty should give us reason to believe that those with a firsthand knowledge of Iran have good reason to oppose the treaty. If we cannot produce a treaty/agreement that will really stop Iran from gaining nuclear capability why have a treaty at all?
It is gratifying to see that our local paper is connecting national and local news.