After months of discussion, debate, chats, conversations and the occasional confrontation the decision has been made to take the Bridge to Bridge project (ever present in our everyday lives) to a referendum.
The decision was made at the most recent Town of Golden council meeting in front of a large crowd of onlookers, who will surely have many different views on whether or not the right choice has been made.
On one side of the argument the case will be made that the people who were collecting signatures got exactly what they signed up for.
The Alternate Approval Process did not get through and the logical step is to move forward with the referendum.
A concern over cost to hold the referendum seems to be relegated to the background since the logical thing to do is hold it on the same day as a byelection, which seems to be steaming forward in September.
So all the Town will have to pay for is a little cash for printing, which will more than likely help a local business. Some of those against the project have made their opinion very clear in a letter to the editor on page 7 in this week’s paper.
All in all, this should make for a very interesting next month in the area.
Elections usually provide a great deal of debate among people, even if they consider themselves not to be political.
Having the chance to vote for the people, who are not only your representatives in the town on many levels, but also the people who eventually have a great deal to do with what happens in the future, should be a concern for everyone.
Even though voting in the last election was low, now with the referendum and election together people have two good reasons to get out and make an educated decision.
Money and elections go hand in hand, and this one will have both.
While the Bridge to Bridge project has the potential to become the only agenda on the sheet of the byelection, it should not be the only questions asked.
The current state of the forestry industry is an important issue for this town. And what about the fact that months keep trudging by and there is still no solution to the lack of road rescue locally?
Questions about where potential councillors see Golden in the future could be asked, and how to achieve those goals also rattle around in my head.
Yes the referendum is a central point that will be brought up over the next few months, and it will be an important issue without a doubt.
The issue has become one where people have drawn a line in the sand and dared others to cross it.
In certain ways ,it is as if the wild west has one again returned to the mountains.
If nothing else the next month or so will be very interesting once the announcement comes down on whether a byelection does get called. And if a debate or two gets held, it is safe to say passion will be in the middle of all decisions cast on those little pieces of paper. At this point we have no idea who will be running or what will happen around the bridges in Golden. But one could make the assumption that things are only just starting to heat up in the summer.
