{"id":106323,"date":"2016-02-28T07:01:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-28T14:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/matthew-baskin\/"},"modified":"2016-02-28T07:01:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-28T14:01:00","slug":"matthew-baskin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/matthew-baskin\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Baskin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n

What are the biggest challenges facing Mancos, and how do you think the town board can play a role in addressing them?<\/div>\n

Funding needed infrastructure improvements is, and will continue to be for some time, a significant challenge. Of course, continuing to identify and leverage funding sources is critical, as is continuing to steward public funds in a fiscally responsible and forward-looking manner.<\/p>\n

How can the town government play a role in economic development, and what kind of development would you like to see?<\/div>\n

Continued collaboration with area stakeholders \u2013 e.g. the Mancos Valley Chamber of Commerce, MCEDA, (Montezuma Communty Development Association) and et-cetera \u2013 seems critical to supporting ongoing economic development. So too does maintaining focus on improving infrastructure\/service delivery, beautification, walkability, street connectivity, sprucing up our \u201cpocket parks,\u201d and bringing our \u201cfees in lieu\u201d (a type of development fee) more in line with comparable municipalities, to name a few. The last couple of years have been productive, and it\u2019s been a community effort. An effort that I look forward to sustaining.<\/p>\n

What is your position on livestock within city limits?<\/div>\n

My position is that about 80 percent of random survey respondents would like to see sensible regulation of livestock within town limits. Moreover, the discussion has been vetted by a citizen advisory process\/public comment, which have suggested the same. These noted, any potential policy needn\u2019t present itself in zero-sum terms, nor need it preclude the existence of responsibly managed backyard food-producing endeavors of a scope and scale appropriate to Mancos\u2019 built environment. This is a question of scalability, one that I hope will deal in happy mediums. I have and will continue to advocate for less restrictive policy positions first \u2013 so long as they adequately address their intended concerns \u2013 first among them neighborliness.<\/p>\n

What is the best thing about Mancos and the worst thing about Mancos?<\/div>\n

Mancos is geographically blessed, culturally distinct, and home to some of the most rooted folks I\u2019ve had the good grace to encounter, in no particular order.<\/p>\n

Which construction projects along U.S. Highway 160 should be the highest priority?<\/div>\n

Safe pedestrian crossing has been a concern for some time, and, we\u2019ve an additional crossing on the way that should bring noticeable improvement.<\/p>\n

Enhanced connectivity along the frontage seems also needed, in a few very noticeable places. The sitting Town Board met with CDOT some months ago, during which time a number of potential future Highway 160 design options were presented that\u2019d been informed by public input, all of which were appealing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll take a comprehensive effort to significantly improve 160\u2019s functionality for all users; I look forward to working with CDOT in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long-term care ombudsman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[266,83],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-106323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-election","tag-mancos"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106323"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=106323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}