http://www.coloradohometownweekly.com/ci_20320206/wilson-retains-mayors-seat-erie

http://www.dailycamera.com/erie-news/ci_20318685/erie-election-results-soon-be-tallied

http://www.erieco.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=420

Joe Wilson won the race for Mayor.  The three Trustee seats will be filled by Janice Moore, Jonathan Hager, and Paul Ogg.  Dan Woog was the next closest candidate in the race for Trustee.

Each of the two ballot questions passed by a large margin.  The success of Question 2A extends the existing Trails & Open Space measure an additional 10 years.  2B will allow three neighboring property owners to purchase the small tracts of Town land, thereby removing the maintenance expense of this property from Town responsibility.

Ballots can be hand-delivered to Town Hall (on Holbrook Street in downtown Erie) until 7 pm tomorrow evening (Tuesday, April 3rd).  Doors close at 7 pm SHARP and results are likely to be released about 7:15 pm.  If you are interested, election results will be available on the Town of Erie website (http://www.erieco.gov/).

I will be at home enjoying a quiet evening with my two daughters when the election results are announced.  I suspect other candidates will have election-celebration parties at different venues in Town, such as Colorado Coal Company, Parkway Grill, or Lazy Dog.  Check with your favorite candidate for more details.

Whew!  Won’t it be nice for all those signs to disappear?  A candidate is required to remove her/his signs within 30 days from the end of the election.  I hope most of them will be gone by Wednesday afternoon.

http://yellowscene.com/2012/03/31/erie-election-endorsements/

http://yellowscene.com/2012/03/22/erie-candidate-profile-paul-ogg/

http://www.coloradohometownweekly.com/news/erie/ci_20050793?IADID=Search-www.coloradohometownweekly.com-www.coloradohometownweekly.com

Our skatepark is scheduled to be constructed this summer in time for a fall opening.  In the summer of 2013, Erie will host an official Street League tournament.  In addition to serving primarily as an amenity for our citizens, this skatepark will draw sports tourism dollars into Erie.

Here is an interesting article, if you are interested in learning about the economic impact of recreation services and sports tourism in a community;

http://www.americasbackyard.org/uploadedFiles/Americas_Backyard/_Crompton%20Research%20Paper-Final-150dpi.pdf

http://www.coloradohometownweekly.com/news/erie/ci_20165360/erie-candidates-forum-set-march-15

I’ve received very positive feedback about my presentation at the forum last night.  The vision I hold for Erie can be found in the text that I used as a guide for my opening and closing statements;

http://paulogg.org/uncategorized/opening-and-closing-statements-from-the-league-of-women-voters-candidate-forum

It was wonderful to see so many other candidates have independently formed a similar ‘go-getter’ attitude about commercial development.  When Erie citizens vote for the right candidates, the Town of Erie will take our positive attitude about quality development  to a new level.

On a final note, my thoughts and prayers go out to Larry Anuik (a candidate for Trustee) and his family.  Larry was unable to attend the event due to a death in the family.

http://www.coloradohometownweekly.com/news/erie/ci_20165477/paul-ogg

I’d like to thank the League of Women Voters for organizing this event, and each of you for attending.  It’s important to become educated on the candidates and current issues so you can make an informed decision with your vote.  My name is Paul Ogg and I’m asking you to re-elect me to a second term on the Town of Erie Board of Trustees.  While a member of the Board of Trustees, I’ve seen construction of nearly all of the critical infrastructure we will need to handle the commercial growth we hope to attract.  Construction of such infrastructure comes with a price, however, and the Town of Erie holds over $100 million in bond debt.  To pay this debt, the Town of Erie is now committed to selling about 120 building permits per year for the next 20+ years.  In order to accommodate these new residences will require that we construction additional infrastructure, funded by new bond issues.  The natural course of this cycle is every field becoming built-out in a way that no future Board has the control to stop.  My vision is that our newly formed development authority (URA) will assume as much of Erie’s future bond debt as possible.  The beauty of this arrangement, if my vision is followed, is that funds used to pay the bonds will effectively come from the pocket of Weld and Boulder Counties.  Funds will not come from current Erie residents, the School District, or other special districts.

I appreciate the wonderful amenities in Erie, such as the community park and our trail network.  We will continue adding to our community amenities using dollars collected from the sale of building permits.  Unfortunately, programming in our expanded community assets has increased costs faster than our residential growth can support.  Unless additional revenue streams can be identified for the general fund, we will need to either cut services or dip into our ‘rainy day’ fund.  The time to establish a commercial base that generates sales tax revenue is now.  While maintaining our high quality of life, we must earnestly tend to our economic garden.

Closing

Erie politics has been through tumultuous times in the past.  As a member of the Board of Trustees these past four years, I’ve heard stories of epic battles between the ‘no-growth’ and ‘pro-growth’ advocates.  The no-growth advocates ruled the Board for a time, to the detriment (in my opinion) of our current economic condition.  Eventually, and over many sour grapes, the pro-growthers came to win the Board and we have progressed to our current time.

I believe that every candidate before you tonight is pro-growth.  Rather, the current intensive debates stem from disagreements between the ‘sit-and-waiters’ versus the ‘go-getters’.  The sit-and-waiters believe that building a strong internal community will create demand for housing that will eventually create demand for commercial investment.  This is true.  We should absolutely pursue this approach to attract commercial development.  What I’ve  learned during the past two years, with Joe Wilson as our Mayor, is that the street runs both ways.  Commercial can be built first, with residential filling in later.  Consider the Orchards Shopping Center, at 144^th and I-25.  It was built in the middle of nowhere and survived the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.  Drive down I-25 today and you will see large multi-family structures currently being constructed immediately north of Orchards.

We need visionary leaders who will aggressively assure that the economic needs of the Town of Erie are met.  We need leaders who go outside of our community.  Who will meet with developers to share our vision.  And who are not afraid to make tough business decisions, if that is in the best interest of our citizens.  The Town of Erie needs Joe Wilson to continue the job he’s in the middle of.  I’ve learned a great deal from Joe these past two years and believe we can move Erie to a more sustainable future in our next two years together.