County Fails to Protect Residents
The Larimer County Commissioners’ decision to allow Graycor Blasting to continue to operate their industrial business in a residential area is just another in their long line of failures to protect the interests of Larimer County residents.

Graycor is a privately owned, international construction services company. It had $672 million in sales in 2007. There is no earthly reason this company should locate its industrial operations in a residential area.

When I was involved in neighborhood opposition to a nearby gravel mine expansion several years ago, the county planner assigned to represent the interests of the neighbors was so totally incompetent he had no idea where the crushing equipment was located, even though it is big as a house and loud as a rock concert and a ten minute drive from the courthouse.

The county has only one employee qualified to investigate a noise complaint, and he has many other responsibilities. When a gravel mining operation had an obvious noise violation on a holiday weekend, the sheriff’s office did nothing. At another gravel mine, the noise barrier the county required as a condition of operation was never built, and operations continued despite complaints from the neighbors.

Larimer County’s track record of failing to enforce conditions or industrial operations is well known. The “pro-business” stance taken by a long line of Republican commissioners is lowering property values for county residents by letting big companies get away with shoddy operations in inappropriate locations. It’s time for a change in the courthouse.

— Sue Radford
Fort Collins

Remember POWs-MIAs
Come and discuss the issues around our POW-MIAs with Mr. Rod Utech. We at the American legion Post 67 are proud to have Mr. Utech in attendance at our veterans post on April 21 at 7 p.m. All veterans of the area and their spouses are cordially invited to participate in this event.

Please come to the yellow Lions Club Depot, 300 Third St. in Berthoud. For additional information call Bill at (970) 532-3435.

— Bill Reavey
Berthoud