Three community voices and one investigative contributor weigh in on issues drawing fire across the High Country this week.
In Buena Vista, the school board’s June 22 Pride Month proclamation has drawn procedural objections from two readers. Brian Edward O’Connell, Commander of Squadron #55, argues Board President Casey Martin bypassed Robert’s Rules of Parliamentary Procedure — a proclamation requires three months of vetting before ratification, not thirty days. A second reader makes the same case, adding that the rushed process ultimately disrespected the very community it claimed to honor by denying it due process.
From Colorado Springs, Jeany Rush puts AI data centers under the microscope. Her research traces Raeden Company — seeking to site a facility in the Garden of the Gods corridor — back through its backer WVV Capital to a web of corporate partners including Foxconn, Johnson Controls, and Northwestern Mutual. Her central question: who is really driving development decisions in Colorado communities, and are local officials getting straight answers?
Vince Phillips documents the cost side of state overreach. Chaffee County’s budget has more than doubled in a decade, driven in part by Denver mandates on wildfire codes, child welfare, body cameras, and energy rules — requirements that arrive without funding. Nearly 50 Colorado counties have now sent a letter to state leaders demanding relief. Phillips notes Colorado law already allows counties to treat unfunded mandates as optional.
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