Northern Colorado Gazette

hmmmm, is that Monfort or Tointon??

Matt Andrews  - 

Greeley and Evans both have taxpayer money they are preparing to squander.  Whenever taxes are proposed to be raised, or needlessly spent, it should be a knee-jerk reaction of the community to examine the respective governing agencies.  Starting with the efficiency of their respective operations and moving to the top salary-getters. 

Current Monfort pawn and Greeley mayor Tom Norton, as most probably don’t know, worked for the Monforts in our legislature producing favorable laws for them for years.  His wife, Kay, is president of UNC, has always been employed as a Monfort attorney and is still on payroll.

And word is leaking out, but is still a little murky about the city getting into the business of flipping houses. Using mostly local workers and tampering with taxpayer subsidized pricing/markets has good and bad attached, but the questions become serious when we find most of the fix-ups are happening around UNC.  We have already seen the relationship between the city and UNC, but remember, follow the money.  Bob Tointon, “Big Oil Bob”,  doesn’t have quite as many piles of gold bullion laying around as the Monforts, but he too is intere$ted in seeing revitalization in many of the same areas. Especially for Mr. Tointon, downtown is where he is buried to his butt in empty investments.  Too bad downtown is packed so full of lefties and arrogance.  The newest DDA chief Pam Bricker owns Mariposa Plants and will not patronize any Republican business owner, regardless of their location. A very revealing choice by the DDA board, huh.

So, is it a surprise that there is some hide-and-go-seek going on with taxpayer money?

No surprises, but then Mayor Norton, who also served as head of the Colorado Dept. of Transportation for eight years, decided to repave the city hall parking lot on your dime through the legendary meter maid-parking fees of downtown. 

 Remember to check the salaries of those whose feet we’re about to wash.  Do you make over $200k?  The top brass at the city all do. But there is one other thing that truly bothers me about this repaving project.

I happen to have three friends with paving and estimating experience.  One has grown up in the paving industry.  The city’s parking lot doesn’t need the estimated $550,000 to fix.  A lot that size, to provide a 2.5” overcoat that would last another 60 years should come very close to $70,000.   The pipes underneath don’t need torn out and replaced with new. These are tough times and the pipes still work fine!  If you disturb the undersoil of this parking lot with a major 5’ overhaul, you’re asking for trouble because the soil will shift and freeze thaw movement will have it all looking about like it does now in less than 20 years. 

Here’s an idea.  Let’s overlay the lot, improving drainage and runoff for $70k.  Then let’s roughen the pavement for slippery conditions and put up signs all over asking people to be more personally responsible about slick surfaces so the city doesn’t have to salt the lot 5 times per day.

We have some decent people on city council.  A couple of them understand there are not unlimited funds in the private sector.  Let’s hope they can stand against Mr. Norton’s “expertise” on this one.  Oh, and let’s find a mayor, not a pawn this coming November.

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Tags: Bob, Bob Tointon, choice, Colorado Dept, DDA, downtown, Greeley, idea, lot, Mariposa Plants, Matt Andrews, money, movement, parking, reaction, size, Tointon, top, UNC, word