Last week an acquaintance stopped by the office to see me. She said, “I wanted to give you some feedback. Some of us at (our business) were talking recently and think you’re spending too much time trying to widen I-25 and should be doing more things locally.”
Constructive feedback is always welcome, especially from someone you know and respect. It made me wonder how many people hold that opinion.
It should be noted that no specifics were offered regarding ‘doing more things locally.’ No specific lapses of service were mentioned. I know for fact that there haven’t been any. We’re doing everything at the Chamber that we did before we added the I-25 lobbying effort to our plates in 2013.
It was feedback graciously offered and graciously received, but, without specifics about what is supposedly not getting done, dismissed. That’s because there are few issues that have a bigger impact on the livability of Northern Colorado as congestion on I-25. It adversely impacts our safety, our economy, the environment and our quality of life.
Not long after that conversation I received a publication called “Critical Condition: Infrastructure for Economic Development” from the International Economic Development Council. It focused on the strong correlation between infrastructure and economic health. While the report focused on the economic benefits of infrastructure overall (highways, ports, airports, water, freight, transit, pipelines, sewage, waste management, waterways, cable, telephony and electricity generation, transmission and distribution, etc.), those benefits are applicable to widening I-25.
The economic benefits of widening I-25 include:
- increasing the competitiveness of local firms
- facilitating the retention and attraction of companies and talent workers
- creating a cycle of investment and economic growth
- increasing household disposable income
- and creating jobs
And those are just the economic benefits. It’s hard to put a price on safety and quality of life, but they are real.
Keep the feedback coming. It will always be listened to, sometimes followed, but sometimes not!