Don't you
just love how do-gooders know all the answers to rural America's problems!? I
will respond to just one paragraph as I throw water on Mr. Roosevelt's Parade. Mr. Roosevelt said: "Tourism has been touted as the economic hope for the region. Right
now, there are basically no amenities: no hotels, restaurants, signage, visitor
centers. Low cost loans and funding need to be secured so that these
communities can make necessary business and infrastructure investments and
improve their lives accordingly."
#1 The only ones touting tourism as the
"hope" for the region are environmental "pack and plays", who are
grasping at straws, to convince Utahans that monuments are best for the state
and for San Juan County. #2 There are motels, there are restaurants, there is
signage, and Visitor Centers in both Blanding and Monticello. There are low
cost loans, and funding available. What is missing is a desire to sell out to a
philosophy that has ulterior motives.
What Mr. Do-Gooder fails to realize there is
ALSO limited WATER in his high desert plateau. There are only so many
"showers" for tourists nor is there lots of water for new
housing/motel development in this area. Water is a gift from God and from the
mountain, and some years we have it, and some years we don't. Thanks to wise
stewardship of city councilmen in both Blanding and Monticello the past 80
years, we have used low interest loans to build reservoirs to hedge up against
the years when there is not sufficient water, but that those resources do not
allow for tens of thousands of new bodies, requiring pampering and cleanliness.
This is situation not the result of climate change, but is based on historical
evidence from hundreds of years of survival in this arid area.
Tourists who are not
used to "roughing it", will likely find Bears Ears NM more wilderness
than they bargained for. The real intent of this "green" imposed
makeover of San Juan County and other western towns, seems to be destroying the
foundations and history of local economies. The trade off for capitulation, is
to offer a "mess of pottage" called tourism. This only gives away our
sacred land connection and the birthright of thousands of Hispanic, Native, and
Anglo residents who call San Juan County home. We only have to look 75 miles to
the north and see Mr. Roosevelt's vision of what Tourism does to towns, i.e.
Moab's Mob Mecca. We would counter that facts in the following research
show that San Juan County is well ahead of Moab in many positive ways that we
aren't willing to give up. Hyped up hyperbole and capitation is a lose-lose
proposition for San Juan County Utah.
https://l.facebook.com/l.ph...
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