It was a good turnout Thursday night for the review on the Meadows Extension. There were charts and graphs on big poster boards telling the hows and whys of every tangible effect of every possible scenario.

There were charts and graphs on noise, traffic flow, time/distance, various route possibilities, all sorts of things. It was enough to make an ol' country boy's head swim, I'll tell you that.

The most animated discussions, though, were around the booth set up by the group to keep Happy Canyon road open to the public. There were a lot of Keep Happy Open stickers being passed out and worn. It was obvious the amount of importance people place on this issue.

We ran into some clients of ours from Castle Pines Village. I was asked to emphasize that not all residents of Castle Pines want Happy Canyon closed. That is a side of this whole issue that gets lost at times.

We talked to a business owner of one of the shops near the corner of Happy Canyon Rd. and Hwy 85 (Santa Fe). He was adamantly opposed to privatizing the road.

We listened to a representative of the county explain that the new access routes being debated would only add about 1 minute of commute time vs. using Happy Canyon to The Meadows.

Now that's all well and good, though I'm pretty sure if your destination was Sedalia or other places west of there those numbers would change dramatically.

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I'm not really sure how anyone can predict within 2 tenths (.2) of a minute how much time it will take to use a road that hasn't been built yet, but whatever.

There's one side to the issue that I didn't hear any discussion about, though. That is the aesthetic loss to the residents of this county if we were to lose access to Happy Canyon Rd.

When I lived outside of Sedalia I worked construction in Aurora. Getting to Happy Canyon Rd at the end of the day on my commute home was like a breath of fresh air. It was a time to exhale the tension of the freeway and cruise down a beautiful road on the way home.

You can't replace that with a feeder road to the south, I don't care how much or how little extra time it takes.

You can't replace a beautiful county road loved by residents of this county for years and years with a new road going between apartments and box stores without losing something of intrinsic value to everyone that lives here. Of that I am sure.

I overheard a comment from a gentleman that made a very valid point; in the end this decision will be made by 3 people, the county commissioners, and that is very scary. They (the commissioners) haven't received a formal request from Castle Pines Village, but you can assume they will.

Are you listening, Jack Hilbert, Steven Boand, and Jill Repella? You're each being paid a good sum of money to represent all the residents of Douglas County, and if and when this whole thing comes to your attention there will be a lot of people watching you very, very closely.

Of that I am also sure.