Yes, it is a very small fraction of the $67 million budgeted for city services in 2014; however, it is still a lot of money that could be used to repave streets, keep the library open extra hours, help toward paying for additional police services or any of the other things our city government is charged with providing while using our tax dollars.

The arts are a very important part of our community and using grant funds would have made perfect sense. Taking funds away from what could have been used for essential services, then consistently hearing about budget deficits and staff/services cuts, is tough to understand.

As with the David Smith retirement party, who is playing the devil’s advocate in the city offices right now?

Robb Bourdon

Durango