Great Expectations

There is just something optimistic about a brand new year, more so than a birthday or even the first flowers of spring. Doesn’t matter if the past year was good, bad or somewhere in between, we expect the New Year to bring good things. We make resolutions, buy memberships to fitness clubs, and go on diets. This is a good thing, it means we are looking to the future. People that live in the past tend to be melancholy, people living only in the present somewhat cynical and people that live in future are more optimistic.

Even with high home foreclosures and the sharp decline in residential building the economy remains fairly strong. Over 96.2 percent of people in Colorado that want to be employed are, interest rates are still low and inflation is low in spite of the fact it takes $50.00 to fill your car’s gas tank. Sales tax revenues are down so the county won’t be doing some fixing, patching and replacing that it should, but that doesn’t mean we are going to crawl in a hole and hide.
     
The commissioners took some flak over a strategic plan, but this is the time we need to keep that plan close at hand. When things are tight is when we have to ask if every program and expenditure is moving us toward our goals. Public safety and roads may be the core functions of government, but assessing real property every two years is required by law, as are the duties performed by the Treasurer’s Office. We will be there to renew the license on your car, record your real estate transaction, and congratulations to those of you who will be obtaining a marriage license from the Clerk and Recorder this year. In the not too distant past there was no such thing as an Environmental Services Department but with more “environmental” laws passed in the last 10 years than every other kind combined, compliance comes with a price. I am not sure a county with out Parks and 4-H would be particularly appealing, and while those quality of life programs are a very small part of the overall budget in lean times they are going to feel the pinch along with everyone else.

Unfortunately, in some ways it will be business as usual as we continue to defer maintenance, don’t hire the needed Sheriff’s Deputies and continue to operate well worn equipment, but in the spirit of a New Year I expect us to be in a better place to meet the future by the end of this year than we are right now - due in no small part to a resolve among the commissioners to make decisions based on what is best for tomorrow rather than focusing on today. 

CONTACT THE WRITER • HISEY4CD4@MSN.COM

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