Commissioners to add new public comment period

Starting at their Oct. 21 meeting, the Park County commissioners are adding a new item to their agenda. It will most likely be early, after approving the consent agenda and the small update on the development standards and regulations (DSR) process which begin the 9:30 a.m. meetings every first and third Tuesday of the month. 

It’s going to be a chance for people to speak out on any issue related to the county that they would like to, as opposed to commenting during a specific public comment period during an agenda item.

It’s great to see and I applaud the commissioners for taking a step to make their meetings even more open and transparent than they already are. 

Coming on the heels of Park County School District 1 starting discussions on how to provide more chances for public input at its meetings, it’s a positive development. 

I firmly believe public boards that allow open-ended public input — as opposed to comment specifically related to agenda items — are not only providing a service to citizens who would like to raise an issue publicly, but to the organizations they serve. 

Bringing issues out in the open should minimize false rumors being spread as details from behind the scenes discussions eventually filter out on an issue. If it’s already out in the open (at least as much as legally allowed) there’s much less left to the imagination. 

As I’ve said previously, the county commissioners are already good about being transparent, but this new move only makes them even better.

Now, it’s up to the public to take advantage of this opportunity and speak up. As this will likely come right after the DSR update, I envision people may show up to provide input on that process, as many have not been shy about doing so in the past.

But hopefully it’s not just that. We are constituents of those five commissioners sitting behind the long desk, and I’m sure many of us have issues or questions we’d like to know about. 

I’ll start. As a resident of the Eaglenest Trail subdivision, I and fellow neighbors noticed a brown sign for Eagle Nest Station Trail put up at the entrance to our road off U.S. Highway 14A recently during a time when the normal Eaglenest Trail green road sign was being replaced. 

It looks nice, but it’s wrong, as a neighbor of mine discovered through contacting the Park County Archives: The historic Eagle Nest Station was located across the highway. Added to that, there’s no historic point or chance to go hunting (another use for the brown signs) at the end of our winding neighborhood road. 

What’s going on? 

Maybe that’s a question commissioners can answer, maybe they could refer me to someone else. But I’m confident, as a constituent and not just as a journalist, that they’ll at least consider the issue, just as I’m confident they wouldn’t be instituting this new open public comment period if they didn’t really want to hear from the people.