Avoid hotel overshadowing E. 3rd

To the editor,

One of the factors to consider about the new 55-foot commercial height allowance passed by the planning committee for 2nd Ave. is not only how it will impact the historical architectural heritage of the 3rd Ave. boulevard but also how this new “sky line” would dwarf the 19th century facades of Main Avenue itself since all of 2nd Ave. is approximately 30 feet higher than Main Street.

The picturesque town of Durango will never be the same.

Consider the lesson from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Lots of little motels edged the beach in Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, then about 30 years ago, big hotel chains began to buy them up and tear them down. The new hotels would be 20 or more floors of shops and condos plus hotel rooms. The city officials were delighted with the prospect of new taxes. The newspapers were full of architectural drawings of all these looming high rises.

Then the citizens of the town woke up and blitzed the town planners, “Hey, hold on, this is our  beachfront too! It’s one of the most beautiful in the whole USA. If you let the hotels be built as planned, they will completely shadow the beach. Who wants to spend a day at the beach sitting in the shade of big towering buildings?”

Then the city planning board was forced to realize they were about to let their biggest asset be ruined. The compromise they came up with sent the builders back to their drawing boards to redesign every hotel to have each floor “stair-step” back from the beach so its shadow wouldn’t be on the beach.

I hope that Durango planners will scale back to 35 feet the commercial buildings to be built on the east side of 2nd Avenue and have that height set back 45 feet from the alley between 2nd and 3rd Aves. Builders will then have their highest elevations at the sidewalk, convenient for walk- in shops and galleries with apartments above that will “stair-step” back down to the alley. This would not over shadow 3rd Ave. and bring less noise and traffic to the residential neighborhood while still allowing developers to profit from their enterprises.

– Fredette Eagle, Durango

Vote to reduce School Board size

To the editor,

The Durango School District 9-R Board of Education exists to provide district leadership, to oversee the Superintendent, and to establish district policies that set achievement goals for our students. We serve as the link between the community that elects us and the Superintendent whom we hire to run our schools. To provide leadership the community expects and deserves, a cohesive school board is needed. The cohesiveness comes from having a stable group that learns how to work together to arrive at shared decisions. This is what makes for good governance.

One of the biggest challenges the Durango School Board has faced over the last several years is maintaining a consistent seven-member Board that would allow the desired cohesiveness to develop. Ideally, after each election, the new Board would have two full years to work together as a group before a change in members. Unfortunately, this seldom happens. For a variety of reasons, at least one Board member has been unable to fulfill his or her commitment almost every year during my eight-year tenure. Instead of focusing on governance, we spend time looking for new members, and orientating and integrating them into the group. There is a steep learning curve. Most members require a year just to understand how the system works.

With this in mind, the School Board is asking voters to approve reduction in the size of the 9-R School Board from seven members to five. Currently, more than 75 percent of the 178 school districts in the state have five-member boards including Jefferson County. On the November mail-in ballot, this will appear as Durango School District 9-R Ballot Question 3A. This year’s Question 3A is not related to the Question 3A asked several years ago requesting a mill-levy override. The current question, whether voted up or down, will have no impact on the taxes that you pay to 9-R.

Voting “yes” on this year’s 3A will reduce the size of the School Board from seven to five members. We will continue to elect members using director districts as we do now, but there will be just five districts instead of seven. The new districts will continue our efforts to balance interests of both rural and in-town populations.  Maps showing the boundaries of the current seven districts and the proposed five districts are available on the School District’s website, DurangoSchools.org. Implementing the transition to a five-member Board would occur over the election cycles of 2015 and 2017. This will allow School Board members elected this November to serve out the full length of their terms.

Reducing the size of the School Board should also lead to more competitive elections. In recent elections, one or two seats have had a competitive race, while the rest have had unopposed candidates. This may make it easier on the candidates, but it fails to give the community the choice it deserves. In some ways, this year’s School Board election is a bit of an anomaly. We are pleased that four of the six districts will have a competitive race. However, in one district, District D (the in-town district centered around Park Elementary), no candidates have stepped forward to run. We are struggling to find a volunteer to appoint for this district.  Like us, districts across the state are having difficulty finding school board candidates.

I urge you to vote yes on 3A. Reducing the School Board size should enable us to focus more on School District governance and the progress the District is making than on maintaining a full compliment School Board. A smaller School Board should lead to more competitive races and reduce turnover.

– Jeff Schell, President, Durango School District 9-R Board of Education

Agents can help with new laws

To the editor,

I wanted to let readers know that an important point was missed in the “Quick and Dirty” section of the Telegraph last week in regards to the new Affordable Health Care Act that starts 1/1/2014 and the exchange that will be available 10/1/2013.

The “guides” are just that, guides. Only a licensed agent can help with recommendations of coverage. There are many of us that are licensed health care agents that have been trained and on the Connect for Health Care site and can work one on one with individuals trying to navigate the new ACA.

To find an agent, go to www.connectforhealthco.com/ and put in a zip code or enter a name.

So if people are feeling overwhelmed, they don’t have to go at this alone. We are ready and able to help with these new health care laws that are changing 1/1/2014.

– Marchell Fletcher, Durango