Six Million in Eagle County Taxpayer Monies Proposed to be Spent on Seventy-two Acre Open Space Pet Project

There is a meeting tonight in Eagle County that could create precedence for un-wielding spending by elected county commissioners of Eagle County taxpayer’s money without an organized vote.

In summary, Harry Frampton through the Vail Valley Foundation has acquired an option to purchase seventy-two acres that consists of a gravel pit and about five hundred feet of the Eagle River corridor for twelve million dollars. Harry then approached Eagle County creating his own Eagle River Preserve and asked for six million dollars of taxpayer money with the understanding that the Vail Valley Foundation will raise six million in funds for the acquisition and another two million for the restoration of the gravel pit.

Here’s is why this author scratches his head:

1. The location and small acreage of the property between I-70 and Highway 6 doesn’t seem worthy of fourteen million dollars in preservation funds compared to other available and much larger pristine properties in Eagle County. For instance, you can purchase nearly one thousand acres of Colorado River frontage for nine million.

2. Eagle County only has three million to spend in its open space fund, thereby completely wiping out funds for any other open space purchase or reclamation project for over two years.

3. Any other use of the subject property would necessitate at least half of the property; namely, the Eagle River portion of this property to be preserved as riparian corridor and therefore, open space.

4. The Brett Ranch PUD just west of the subject parcel has nearly one hundred acres of designated open space and over a mile of river frontage on both sides of the Eagle River and Lake Creek. To my knowledge, there have been no attempts to reclaim the damaged areas of the river due to previous livestock grazing, human pollution and bank erosion (other than the annual Eagle River Cleanup Day). Why doesn’t Eagle County address the reclamation of existing designated open space river frontage before concentrating their efforts on the purchase of such a small area of river frontage which would be preserved anyway? And why doesn’t the County first consider contributing to this effort before overpaying with taxpayer’s money for new projects with far less river frontage?

5. The Vail Valley Foundation has been offered six million dollars plus another seventy acres of adjacent river corridor to be preserved as open space by a private developer in exchange for the gravel quarry section of the property which is the most expensive to reclaim. If the county waited; the price paid for this open space could get a lot less expensive, in fact, free because the county would still control the use approvals of the land.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.