Letter from Johanna
Betty Hull does not support
forcing seniors who do not wish to be a part of the Senior Center at the
Community Center to go there if they need or want services the Community Center
cannot or won’t provide. For someone to recently post her letter that
appeared in the Estes Park News four years ago, on February 20, 2014, in an e-mail to the town board with a misleading heading only shows that person has not followed the
reasons why Ms. Hull no longer supports the Senior Center at the Community
Center for all seniors. Ms. Hull’s letter was written four years ago and
at that time it showed a sense of what might be good for our seniors as part of
our community. Seniors participated early on in citizen meetings and took
part in surveys. They were aware of attempts at agreements between John
Cullen (The Stanley Hotel), The Estes Park Medical Center, and the Estes Valley
Recreation and Park District, which all wanted to play a part in the community
center. People saw the plans when the community was encouraged to go to
the Estes Valley Recreation and Park District office building where they were
displayed and to submit their comments. The EVRPD Director left Estes
Park to work elsewhere taking his family (including two young children) with
him. Tom Carasello became the new Director of the EVRPD. The
plans changed. As time went on seniors saw clearly how what was taking
place would negatively affect them as well as our community.
Betty Hull is the Treasurer on the Board
of Trustees of Estes Park Senior Citizens Center, Inc. She does not get
paid to be on the Board, nor does any other Board member get paid. She’s
an excellent manager of the organizations funds, and she does not touch the
organization’s principal. She follows the 501(c)3 non-profit regulations
for EPSCC, Inc. She as well as the entire Board listens to their members,
of which there are 581. EPSCC, Inc. gave their van to the Community
Center. The Town of Estes Park has an intergovernmental agreement with
the EVRPD, and the Town employee positions from the Senior Center have
transferred over to the Community Center. I believe that the Town is
saving approximately $500K a year by not operating the Senior Center. It
appears to me that EPSCC, Inc. and seniors are scapegoats for dissatisfied
members of our community.
On April 1, 2014 citizens of Estes Park
voted on Proposition 1A to increase our sales tax by 1% beginning in
2018. Proposition 1A passed with 1550 votes in favor and 851 votes opposed. However, there is no way of telling which
part of 1A had strong support or if citizens voted for or against the bill
because of support or lack thereof for individual issues. Four categories
were lumped together in Proposition 1A: 1) Streets in Estes Park, 2)
Capital Acquisitions for Emergency Response Capabilities, 3) Estes Valley
Public Trails, and 4) “25% of revenues to help fund construction
of a community recreation center, including facilities for the Estes Park
Senior Center.” When seniors are accused of wanting to have the Estes
Park Senior Center at the community recreation center there is no way the
accusers would know that from the vote on Proposition 1A. I voted against
it because I already knew at the time of the vote that I wanted a community
center, but not a community recreation center or for it to include the senior
center. Mayor Jirsa encouraged citizens not to vote for 1A because
it included streets in Estes Park. I think that citizens should have had
the opportunity to vote individually on each category of Proposition 1A.
Perhaps voting on individual issues can be done in future.
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