Inform Firestone

In late spring, a group of Firestone residents got together and discussed their feelings about how things were going in our town.  Together we saw that there was a disconnect between the Town government and its residents.  We formed the group InformFirestone as a way to try to bridge that group, hopefully to the benefit of all members of the community. 

Something that immediately came up was a sense of surprise and shock that so quickly after the induction of a new Board of Trustees, annexations as large and as complex as the Union annexations were approved.  Surely, we thought, with a new Mayor and 2/3s of the Board of Trustees being new, less than a month in office is not enough time to take any action on such an issue, and as such, most of us had not had the opportunity to ask a wide variety of questions having to do with these annexations.

Democracy should not be a “you snooze, you lose” proposition.  This is why the rights to petition and referendum are in Colorado law.  We started two referendum petitions, and collected more than enough signatures to send the Union annexation ordinances to a vote of the people, despite only having a week and a half to do so.  The petitions were validated in July.

Along the way, InformFirestone, to the dismay of reporters and members of the public at large, stayed neutral, and tried to fill our role as information-seekers.  This did not stop others in the public from trying to characterize us and hurling slurs at us, demeaning our efforts, and the democratic process as a whole.  At first we had a great many of our questions answered, however, as time went on, those answers raised more questions.

As of late, the answers to our most pertinent questions have not been answered, or have not been answered adequately.  We have no answers on water, just a vague response that the “developer will bring the water.”  We have not been able to see a Public Infrastructure Reimbursement Agreement (PIRA), without which all approximations of this project’s financial feasibility are called into question.  We have asked for those answers, and they have not been given.

What has been given, unfortunately, is rhetoric and name-calling.  It was with wonder and disbelief that we read a recent opinion piece written by both former Firestone Mayor Mike Simone and current Mayor Chad Auer.  We have to admit, we are not sure if the “opposition” that their Honors speak of is coming from InformFirestone.  However, if it is, we cannot even call their charges against us a distortion, rather, it is an out-and-out lie.  If there are “generously funded special interests… integral to the opposition’s efforts,” we have seen no trace of them. 

If there are “special interest groups… rooted outside our region” that are working against the annexation of Union into Firestone, we have not heard about that, either.  As the group that started the referendum petition process, we would think we would know.  It is ironic that after being accused of not doing our homework, two people who have been integral to the annexation of Union into Firestone would be caught spreading such blatant misinformation.  It is disappointing to see, and makes one wonder what other information Mr. Simone and Auer have been wrong about.

Sadly, the rise of rhetoric and electioneering makes us understand that no more answers will be given, only more rhetoric.  The Town has made their choice, and so we must urge the citizens of Firestone to vote NO on September 30^th.

Tom Mason, Tom Ward, and Dan Sanger are the founders of InformFirestone.

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