With eight extremely qualified applicants

plus John Meisner, the town board finds itself in a bit of a pickle when it comes to replacing Scott Webermeier's vacant trustee position.

No reason to belabor two obvious points, so let's dispense with those pre haste: (1) To avoid this kind of nonsense in the future, every candidate running for town board should be required to fill out the space on the form naming their replacement in case they are elected and unable for whatever reason to complete their term. If this cannot be enforced as a requirement, the League of Women Voters should make it one of the essential forum questions to each candidate, so that voters can distinguish realists from self-absorbed morons.

(2) If you file to run and don't win, you should still be prepared to serve (see #1 above, because the overwhelming majority of EP voters insist on falling in love with self-absorbed morons). Why run if you aren't willing to serve? Why should voters waste a vote on you? Don't be a Karen, or you risk putting the Estes Park trustees in exactly the kind of precarious situation they finds themselves in on 24 April 2023, with eight extremely qualified replacements and no interest in letting actual voters weigh in or have a say, plus John Meisner. Let's all admit, given the make-up of the current board, who said in Tuesday lock-step "previous government experience is mandatory for consideration" this is really truly and sadly only a two-horse race, with the loser, who is most assuredly Ward Nelson, technically more qualified than Wendy's savior, that our Mayor will worry not one whit about public reaction. She was elected to make just these type of intensely personal decisions. She was democratically elected on an unabashedly dictatorial platform. And let's all admit this decision will alienate one of the junior trustees, who, a la Carli B, never stood a withering chance against the Wick'd Which anyway... (to be continued)