County News

By Roger Baker
County Manager

2/2/2006 - The Gilpin County Commissioners continued to wrestle with the issue of bus service in the County at this week’s meeting. It’s an issue that has no obvious answer, and—without getting too much into the specifics of the proposed agreement—it’s one that’s really not uncommon up here, at all levels of government.

  One of the consequences of living up here in paradise (which hasn’t felt much like paradise lately, with the constant wind whipping the snow around) is that we have to make certain trade-offs. One of the thorniest problems for government is figuring out which of those trade-offs are necessary and inevitable, and which are too important to be ignored and require some sort of government intervention.

  The fact is that most of the services we provide up here could be provided—and in some counties, even in other nearby jurisdictions, are provided—by the private sector. We had a presentation Tuesday by Eagles’ Nest Early Learning Center, the preschool childcare program that’s heavily subsidized by the County. In some places, maybe, it wouldn’t be necessary to do this; there would be more working parents in a concentrated area, and there would be enough demand that some entrepreneur would figure out a way to make money by offering this sort of service.

  Even with our Community Center, we recognize that while it’s an extremely valuable and beneficial amenity, it’s also one that not all of our residents will use. We knew that given our sparse and relatively scattered population, we’d never have the sort of critical mass a Bally’s would need to support a private health club. But the Commissioners thought it was important enough for our community’s health and well-being that it made sense to use our tax dollars to offer the facilities and programs, even though we know they’ll never pay for themselves at the very low rates we charge.

  Even our slash disposal and household trash programs, completely free to the ordinary homeowner, could be provided by private companies, and probably would be if Gilpin County was more populous; but who really wants that?

  The transportation issue is another one where it’s just a question of deciding how much it’s worth to all of us, as a community. Transit services, even in the most densely populated corridors, are always subsidized by the taxpayers. In the metropolitan areas, it’s considered a worthwhile investment to reduce automobile congestion on the highways. That’s not the case up here, obviously.

  Up here, rather, the issue is integrating those folks into our community—getting them to vital services, employment, even recreation opportunities—who for one reason or another can’t drive themselves. But there’s always a question of how much bang we get for the buck: it probably makes sense to have a bus service that would be used by a couple of hundred people a day. But what if it’s only a couple of dozen? How much are we willing to pay? Those are the tough questions we have to answer.

  Paradise always comes with a price.